Head Coaching Tracker

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Rusty Trombagent
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Moriarty wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2025 5:08 pm
Rusty Trombagent wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2025 4:37 pm

I'll never for the life of me understand this take. Who fucking cares how much he asks for? These are billionaires and if he can get the money he should! He's walking into a situation where everyone is impatient as hell (GM's, fans, owners, media) and most coaches are getting fired before they even change their drivers license. I cannot roll my eyes back into my head hard enough for the "it's arrogant to ask for more money" take.
Yeah, you missed the whole point.

HE SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO GET IT BECAUSE HE SHOULD BE TOLD "NO!"




If the CEO of Mars, Inc was retiring and a replacement choice was identified and he requested a 1M annual salary would you give it to him? Sure.
What if he wanted 10M?
100M?
500M?
1B?


No?!?!?!?!?!?
You mean there's established precedents, other people available, a limit to how much value they can bring, a possibility they won't do a good job, an expectation that they prove themselves first?

But the Mars family are billionaires!
Being a CEO is stressful!
Owners demand results!
Eye rolls!
Hysteria!
Exclamation points!
Every single new hire should be able to reset the market!
They should be paid any amount they ask for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Legitimately confused by what an absurd apples to oranges argument this is. You're ignoring that other candy bar brands are desperate to hire this CEO, and instead leaning on some weird phantom "precedent?" Ben getting a lot of money is ultimately great for all head coaches. A rising tide lifts all boats, brother.

I guess lets just agree to disagree on this one.
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Rusty Trombagent wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2025 4:37 pm I'll never for the life of me understand this take. Who fucking cares how much he asks for? These are billionaires and if he can get the money he should! He's walking into a situation where everyone is impatient as hell (GM's, fans, owners, media) and most coaches are getting fired before they even change their drivers license. I cannot roll my eyes back into my head hard enough for the "it's arrogant to ask for more money" take.
The Bears spent a lot in recent years revamping Halas Hall, which I imagine also increased their running costs for the facility. They are already spending on the new stadium plans and should soon be committing a couple of billion to it's construction.

They're currently having to pay Eberflus the remaining 2 years of his 5-year contract. How long was Waldron's contract? What about the rest of Eberlus's coaching staff? There will be offsets for those that secure new employment, but there will still be money owed.

If they hire a new coach to an even longer contract, it's been touted that Johnson wants 6 years for example, and he doesn't pan out then that's a lot more money for him and his staff on top of the cost of hiring their replacements.

I don't know the ins and outs of the team's finances, none of us do, but there have to be some limits to their spending and certainly to their cashflow. As you say it's not our concern, but that could be factor in what they have available to spend on the new coaching staff. Ultimately the team is a business and has to be run as such regardless of the owners' wealth.
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Rusty Trombagent
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HisRoyalSweetness wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:04 pm
Rusty Trombagent wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2025 4:37 pm I'll never for the life of me understand this take. Who fucking cares how much he asks for? These are billionaires and if he can get the money he should! He's walking into a situation where everyone is impatient as hell (GM's, fans, owners, media) and most coaches are getting fired before they even change their drivers license. I cannot roll my eyes back into my head hard enough for the "it's arrogant to ask for more money" take.
The Bears spent a lot in recent years revamping Halas Hall, which I imagine also increased their running costs for the facility. They are already spending on the new stadium plans and should soon be committing a couple of billion to it's construction.

They're currently having to pay Eberflus the remaining 2 years of his 5-year contract. How long was Waldron's contract? What about the rest of Eberlus's coaching staff? There will be offsets for those that secure new employment, but there will still be money owed.

If they hire a new coach to an even longer contract, it's been touted that Johnson wants 6 years for example, and he doesn't pan out then that's a lot more money for him and his staff on top of the cost of hiring their replacements.

I don't know the ins and outs of the team's finances, none of us do, but there have to be some limits to their spending and certainly to their cashflow. As you say it's not our concern, but that could be factor in what they have available to spend on the new coaching staff. Ultimately the team is a business and has to be run as such regardless of the owners' wealth.
What's your point? That maybe the bears can't afford what is rumored that he wants?

What does that have to do with my point, that he should ask for whatever he can get from all the teams that are competing for him?
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dplank wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2025 5:15 pm It’s a competitive hire Moriarty. You must acknowledge the reality that we are in competition with owners who simply have no fucks to give. We can’t hold to some “yet to exist standard” while other teams operate more aggressively. Should the Dodgers have paid Ohtani nearly a billion dollars? They won a World Series and he was a big part of it, the owners clearly don’t care about the money, so…yea.

The standard does exist.

The top 5 HC contracts in the NFL are:
Andy Reid, 20M
Sean Payton 18M
Mike Tomlin 16M
Jim Harbaugh 16M
Sean McVay 15M

Not only are none of them on their first contract, all of them have won national championships.
Expecting* to walk in the door and be paid like a proven winner is ridiculous.

* Reportedly. Let's not lose sight of the fact that this is purely hypothetical "if it's true" stuff, and I've gone out of my way to say so constantly.


Ohtani isn't a useful comparison, for many reasons, including:

[*] According to estimates, unless they do a lot more high end winning over the remaining 9 years, his contract probably won't pay for itself. If you have owners who value winning more than profitability, that's super for their fan bases. But you can't expect ownership to feel that way. (And it's extremely shitty for the sport, if an owner can "psycho spend" their way into championships, instead of winning with superior decisions. That sort of Steinbrenner Yankees bullshit is a huge part of the reason sports gravitated to caps in the first place. Who wants to follow a sport that consists of the richest guy buying whatever he wants? That's part of the Regular Life that people are looking to escape from. I quit on baseball forever when they failed to institute a cap, for exactly this reason.)
[*] Ohtani was an established, known commodity, he's a player not a coach, and baseball is far, far, far more a game of individuals than football is. Barring injury, they knew very well what to expect from him.
[*] Ben Johnson isn't clearly the best HC prospect available. Or even a clearly great one. Or even a clearly good one. He's a huge unknown roll of the dice. He might end up being great. He might also go the way of hot coordinators like Dave Wannstedt and Matt Nagy. Even if head coaches had a negotiated identical, fixed salary for all 32 jobs, he's still wouldn't be my first choice. Going crazy with his ask only makes his desirability go down from there.
[*] Giving no fucks when they started throwing 9 figures at a somewhat known quantity like Jon Gruden didn't elevate the Raiders to greatness. It just added to their list of embarrassments and set them back more.



You can't be afraid to pay the going rate.
But there's no reason you need to blow it out of the water.
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Otis Day
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I assume we may be talking Raiders here. The Raiders brass/owner is ignorant. They have no problem blowing shit out of the water. Stupid is as stupid does, the Raiders don't give a shit and their recent history tells us that.
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Otis Day wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 3:41 pm I assume we may be talking Raiders here. The Raiders brass/owner is ignorant. They have no problem blowing shit out of the water. Stupid is as stupid does, the Raiders don't give a shit and their recent history tells us that.
Agreed.
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Who has a clear set of goals
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Of winning some more Super Bowls

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If we believe Ben Johnson is the best candidate for the job.....

And if his asking price is 15M......

And if another team is willing to pay that (therefore establishing his market value whether you agree with it or not, it's established).....

Can you give me a reason why we as fans should give a shit about the cost to the McCaskeys? I genuinely don't get it. This all sounds to me like people who say shit like "You shouldn't pay Joe Smith $5,000,000 to hit a damn baseball" type of stuff. Market speaks on FA players, and market speaks on coaches. Pay market price or settle for your second or third choice. As fans, we should expect our owners to be on par with other owners and do their best to set the team up for success. We should be upset if our owners hoard their money and don't spend on the guy who they think is the best fit due to money. I'm not saying we need to be an outlier, I'm saying we need to hold serve with other owners.
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Who cares what they pay the coach. It doesn’t affect the cap.
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I dunno, I think the money is moot. People are touting Johnson as a guy who could have interviewed in prior seasons but famously declined to because he felt he wasn't ready. If that is true, and he thinks his chances of success are lower at one team over another, I can't imagine he will make the pay be the deciding factor. If you are making $100k a year at a job where you like everything about it and living comfortably on that and a headhunter reaches out offering $110k at another company but you have no idea how your boss, coworkers, or the culture will be like, is it worth the risk? Having worked at a high stress job with shitty management, it definitely wouldn't for me.

Likewise, if Johnson really wants to make his mark on the NFL world, it would arguably be easier to do that quicker here than at the Raiders and I can't see him being swayed if the there's a few million less in it for him, should it come to that (I don't think it will).
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Xee wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 11:23 pm I dunno, I think the money is moot. People are touting Johnson as a guy who could have interviewed in prior seasons but famously declined to because he felt he wasn't ready. If that is true, and he thinks his chances of success are lower at one team over another, I can't imagine he will make the pay be the deciding factor. If you are making $100k a year at a job where you like everything about it and living comfortably on that and a headhunter reaches out offering $110k at another company but you have no idea how your boss, coworkers, or the culture will be like, is it worth the risk? Having worked at a high stress job with shitty management, it definitely wouldn't for me.

Likewise, if Johnson really wants to make his mark on the NFL world, it would arguably be easier to do that quicker here than at the Raiders and I can't see him being swayed if the there's a few million less in it for him, should it come to that (I don't think it will).
They were trying/asking to trade for tomlin. Who makes $16 million a season.

The money isn’t an issue.
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southdakbearfan wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2025 9:21 pm
They were trying/asking to trade for tomlin. Who makes $16 million a season.

The money isn’t an issue.
It certainly doesn't appear so.
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dplank wrote:I agree with Rich here
RichH55 wrote: Dplank is correct
:shocked:
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With some interest in Marcus Freeman, I thought it would be interesting to see how the salaries of top college coaches compare to their NFL counterparts. Kirby Smart of Georgia is #1 at $13.2M. Freeman just received a raise to $9M. Andy Reid makes $20M, another guy makes $18M, two coaches receive $16M:

https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/sa ... ball/coach
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Rusty Trombagent wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2025 4:37 pm
Moriarty wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2025 3:14 pm

The rumored 15M simply isn't acceptable.

Yes, there's no coaching cap, yes, it's not our money, yes, they can afford it.
But if it's true, it indicates a ridiculous arrogance and lack of awareness about the established market, his (extremely brief) resume, and his leverage, which is very likely to be problematic in other ways.
I'll never for the life of me understand this take. Who fucking cares how much he asks for? These are billionaires and if he can get the money he should! He's walking into a situation where everyone is impatient as hell (GM's, fans, owners, media) and most coaches are getting fired before they even change their drivers license. I cannot roll my eyes back into my head hard enough for the "it's arrogant to ask for more money" take.
Especially if somebody is stupid enough to pay it. Nothing wrong with asking for it if you think you can get it.

That being said, if this dude is all about the money, then he can pound sand. It's incredibly hypocritical to be talking about "wanting to get to the second contract" via success and then going to a shit organization because they offered you the most $$$.
LG - Trey Smith: 5 yr/$110M || OC - Drew Dalman: 5 yr/$80M
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wab wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 2:42 pm
I love it, i am extremely Liam Cohen-curious. He's got the weirdest resume.
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It is expected for Mike Vrabel to offer Josh McDaniels the OC job in NE. Aaron Glenn is interviewing the Jets today and he is the frontrunner for the job. The Saints are conducting a series of interviews later in the week. Deion is negotiating a contract extension with the University of Colorado and the Cowboys have not announced an interview with him but are believed talking to him.
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Why does it feel like the cowboys are going to be stuck holding the bag?
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wab wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:16 pm Why does it feel like the cowboys are going to be stuck holding the bag?
McCarthy ... oh wait. Maybe Kellen Moore?

The Raiders now have to pivot after theri full court press with Johnson failed. They have interviewed the following guys:
Aaron Glenn
Pete Carroll
Vance Joseph
Todd Monken
Ron Rivera
Robert Salah
Steve Spaguolo

Only Monken is an offensive guy.

The Jags were also left on the outside looking in. They have interviewed:
Joe Brady
Liam Cohen (thought to be the favorite)
Brian Flores
Aaron Glenn
Patrick Graham, Raiders DC
Todd Monken
Kellen Moore
Robert Salah
Steve Spaguolo

With Ben Johnson getting the Bears job, Mike McCarthy is now out in the cold. He is thought to be getting a serious look with the Saints, as is Aaron Glenn.
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wab wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:16 pm Why does it feel like the cowboys are going to be stuck holding the bag?
They're gonna try and land Deion Sanders, and have Kellen Moore as a fallback if they can't.
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dplank wrote:I agree with Rich here
RichH55 wrote: Dplank is correct
:shocked:
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In other HC news, the Vikes have extended Kevin O'Connell with an undisclosed contract. They are working on an extension for their GM. O'Connell is 34-17 as Vikes HC.
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I think Carroll goes to the Raiders and Cohen goes to the Jags.

Jets probably get Glenn.

McCarthy to the Saints feels right unless they are sold on Kafka.

Cowboys sure seem to be leaning Coach Prime.
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or maybe martyball junior for the cowboys. woof.

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It seems exceedingly odd to hire an OC before the head coach, but Jerry does things his way, I guess. Were they worried about him getting poached?
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Rusty Trombagent
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i misread that at first too. that hired as OC tweet is from last year. He was interviewed for head coach today.
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Rusty Trombagent wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 8:38 pm i misread that at first too. that hired as OC tweet is from last year. He was interviewed for head coach today.
Ah, yup - I totally skipped the timestamp.
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Eric Washington's been interviewed for Green Bay's DL coach position.

With a new coaching staff bringing new schemes to Chicago there should be little concern about him providing the hated Packers any useful insights.
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I think this is a good hire for them.

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Pats - Vrable
Bears - Johnson
Jets - Glenn

Jags - ?
Saints - McCarthy?
Raiders - Carroll?
Cowboys - ?
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The Lions DL coach is becoming DC for the Pats. Their OL coach is favored to become the Bears OC and he's looking at other guys to bring along.Their DC is taking the Jets HC job. Their coaching staff could be decimated.
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