The surprising Tuesday news that the Carolina Panthers decided to fire head coach Ron Rivera ultimately came down to one thing. Owner David Tepper, who purchased the team in May, 2018, wanted his own guy. Rivera had a 76-63-1 regular-season record since he took the Panthers job in 2011, with a 3-4 postseason record and a loss to the Broncos in Super Bowl 50. Rivera won the NFL’s Coach of the Year award in 2013 and 2015, and it was more Carolina’s recent struggles that set Tepper looking for somebody else.
In 2018, the Panthers started the season with a 6-2 record, only to end the season with a 7-9 mark as the offense tanked around Cam Newton’s injuries. Newton’s health was a continuing factor in 2019 — he played in just two games and looked awful before he was place on injured reserve with a foot injury. The Panthers won their first four games with backup Kyle Allen, but have lost five of their last six.
Of course, Tepper isn’t the only team owner looking for a new coach. The Redskins already fired Jay Gruden, and interim head coach Bill Callahan isn’t likely to get that gig on a long-term basis. The Cowboys, Giants, Jaguars, Jets, Browns, Lions, and Falcons are among the likely candidates to add their names to the annual in- and off-season purge that generally claims about a quarter of the league’s head coaches. Here are a few names of prospective candidates who could (and should) get looks — not only to replace Rivera, but to take their best shots at other potential openings.
Greg Roman, Offensive Coordinator, Baltimore Ravens
Not only has Roman turned the Ravens into the NFL’s most difficult-to-stop offense, he once put Tyrod Taylor in position to have a Pro Bowl season as the Bills’ offensive coordinator in 2015, and he was of course the primary architect of the 49ers’ offense that was highly successful with both Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick as its quarterbacks. Roman is open-minded regarding both scheme and analytics, and given his success over the last decade as an offensive mind with new-era quarterbacks, his ascent would seem to be a given.
Brian Daboll, Offensive Coordinator, Buffalo Bills
Daboll would be an interesting fit for the Panthers if they decide to hang on to Newton (which they probably won’t) because he’s presided over an offense in which quarterback Josh Allen is equally valuable as a runner and a thrower. Daboll was also handed raw clay with Allen when the Bills made him the seventh overall pick in the 2018 draft, and Allen’s increasing efficiency is a testament to Daboll’s ability to develop such a quarterback — which will be a valuable skill for several NFL teams this offseason.
Robert Saleh, Defensive Coordinator, San Francisco 49ers
Like his NFL mentor Pete Carroll, who Saleh worked with in Seattle at the Seahawks’ defensive quality control coach from 2011 through 2013, Saleh is as much about motivation as scheme. San Francisco’s top-level defense doesn’t have a massive playbook, but Saleh understands that having his players buy in is incredibly important, and he’s able to do that. Saleh would need a strong offensive coordinator to make it work on his own.
Kevin Stefanski, Offensive Coordinator, Minnesota Vikings
While Assistant head coach/offensive advisor Gary Kubiak is the primary architect of Minnesota’s zone rushing attack, it’s Stefanski who has worked with Kirk Cousins to bring about a major uptick in efficiency through the second half of the 2019 season. Anytime you can get the best out of a limited quarterback like Cousins, you’re going to be considered for head coaching positions, and Stefanski has earned that consideration.
Teryl Austin, Senior Defensive Assistant/Secondary, Pittsburgh Steelers
The trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick is one of the primary reasons for Pittsburgh’s defensive turnaround, but those in the know like to credit Austin for the improvement in a secondary that appeared on its heels when the season began. Kown primarily for his time as the Ravens’ secondary coach from 2011 through 2013 and as the Lions’ defensive coordinator from 2014 through 2017, Austin has the ability implement his schemes credibly, and to handle strong personalities. He also has a connection with well-known quarterback whisperer Jim Caldwell (currently the Dolphins’ assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach), which might be an attractive addition.
Dennis Allen, Defensive Coordinator, New Orleans Saints
Allen was the Raiders’ head coach from 2012 through the first four games of the 2014 season before he was fired, but it’s unlikely that his 8-28 record will be held against him too much, given the level of dysfunction in that organization at that time. What Allen has done since is to turn the Saints’ defense from a year-to-year punchline to one of the NFL’s strongest, and that will go a long way to re-making his name at the head coaching level.
Lincoln Riley, Head Coach, Oklahoma Sooners
One of the most successful offensive minds at the collegiate level in recent years, Riley gets a lot of traction these days, and has been sought out by multiple NFL teams, in part because he has helped Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray craft Heisman-winning seasons, and he’s got Jalen Hurts on a similar track in 2019. Riley has said that he’s not interested in the NFL at this time, but you never know when these things will change. Like Roman, Riley will be particularly interesting to those teams with modern option concepts, and quarterbacks who fit those paradigms.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
