Quote:
Originally Posted by FRPLG
Hey, at the very least we dodged the Billick/Gruden(Jon)/Cowher bullet. That's a win in my book.
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We just ended that experiment with Shanahan.
I don't see Cowher and Gruden ever coming back, they're making money doing next-to-nothing compared to a head coach and they're comfortable and happy in their new jobs. Billick...I don't think there's a market open for him any more.
If they were candidates:
*Cowher has been out of the game a long time. You also have to consider he coached for a solid organization who supports their coaches long-term. Pittsburgh is a job that's tough to screw up, so his past level of success may not come anywhere else.
*Gruden, was in the right place at the right time a few times. He was good at taking a solid team and getting them over the hump, but we need someone who can rebuild us INTO a solid team. He doesn't have that on his resume. His first year with the Raiders was 8-8 and his debut in TB went 12-4. He would have to work a bit harder for that immediate success here. He was 38-26 in OAKLAND...and in the previous 10 years before he took over there, the Raiders finished under 7-9 only ONE time. They were still respectable then. Tampa Bay...Dungy built that team for him.
*Billlick impressively won the Super Bowl without a QB but he also had a dominant defense. Aside from a few good years in Baltimore, his coaching record is nothing special. Also, a young Randy Moss can make any OC look good. Out of the game since 2007, I think his time has passed.
So I'm saying, the big names are not the ones we needed to pursue. They won Super Bowls, but they were also in very different situations than where we are now. We just tried the "hire a SB-winning coach" route and it failed miserably.
I like the new approach.