Being a head coach in the NFL is not easy at all. Teams have to get used to a new system. Some players may not respect younger head coaches versus grizzled veterans with a long head coaching resume. Plus, first-time head coaches can’t exactly lean on personal experience since they are new at their job. That doesn’t stop people from getting excited about the young coach who is going to change the league through their style and scheme. Fans still have endless optimism when it comes to coaching changes. This could be the guy who helps their team win a Super Bowl. He just needed a chance. Well, if we go by Week 1, the first time head coaches are in for a long season.
Only one of the first-timers won their coaching debut in Week 1 and that was Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers. That means these new coaches started 1-0 as a group — even if the game was beyond ugly. The rest of the first week didn’t go as planned.
Brian Flores and the Miami Dolphins were absolutely worked by the Baltimore Ravens to the tune of 59-10. That defeat was as ugly as that score looks. Not to be outdone — or whatever the opposite of outdone may be when it comes to playing very poorly — Freddie Kitchens coached the Browns to 18 flags and a 43-13 loss to the Titans in Cleveland. Zac Taylor kept the Bengals close in Seattle but then decided to punt with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter of a 21-20 game.
Vic Fangio is by far the oldest of the group. He’s coached some of the best defensive units in the league in his illustrious career. He also must have learned about expected value from Mike Tomlin on Sunday Night Football. He saw that Tomlin kicked a field goal in the three-score-game to make sure it was still a three-score-game. Fangio did the same in a two-score-game. If you can take three points and still be down the same amount of scores, you have to do it. The Broncos lost to the Raiders on Monday Night Football in a game that didn’t feel close. At least Kliff Kingsbury didn’t lose. He didn’t win either, but that’s better than most of his contemporaries.
The final record for first-time head coaches Week 1 of the 2019 NFL season was 1-4-1. But, wait, there’s more! Adam Gase and Bruce Arians are not first-time head coaches, but they are with new teams. If we factor them into the mix, then coaches who just joined their teams in the 2019 season ended up with a miserable 1-6-1 record. That’s not good.
