The Dallas Cowboys announced they hired Brian Schottenheimer as their head coach late Friday evening, meaning the New Orleans Saints are now the only team that remains looking for a head coach. They ended up playing the long game, and chose to wait out the other teams to get their choice of the remaining candidates. While this is a decision that could go either way, many of the candidates they did interview still remain which is a somewhat good sign.
The other six teams and their head coaching hires are as follows:
- New England Patriots – Mike Vrabel
- Chicago Bears – Ben Johnson
- New York Jets – Aaron Glenn
- Jacksonville Jaguars – Liam Coen
- Las Vegas Raiders – Pete Carroll
- Dallas Cowboys – Brian Schottenheimer
One positive is Liam Coen moving on from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as this may end up making things a little bit easier in the NFC South if the Saints are going the competitive route again. Even if not, future competition comes into play when it comes to a younger coach like Coen, who is only 39 years old at the moment.
This leaves the Saints with the choice of Joe Brady, Mike McCarthy, Kliff Kingsbury, Anthony Weaver, Mike Kafka, or Darren Rizzi. Ultimately who knows which direction they will go, whether it is sticking with what they know most recently in Rizzi, or going in a different direction altogether.
Thankfully they basically get as much time as they need now to really make the right hire of the group, and while faith in that decision may be waning for fans, the group they have assembled so far has some very quality candidates. We will likely see in the coming days who will take over the helm of the Saints for (hopefully) the foreseeable future.
