Frank Lorenzo
Every year, there is changeover among NFL head coaches. Inevitably, some teams fail to live up to expectations and decide to make a change at the top. Other coaches have a little too much success and are lured away to better opportunities in more enticing markets. Still others are simply keeping the coaching seat warm until a long-term prospect comes along.
Things will be no different in 2015. Expect several teams to feature new head coaches at the start of next season, chief among them the Raiders and Jets, who are a combined 3-21 on the year.
Fellow basement-dwellers Jacksonville (2-10) may join Oakland and New York in the head-coach hunt, but there is more reason for optimism with Gus Bradley and his extremely young Jaguars squad. Don’t be surprised if the Jacksonville brass gives the defensive guru another kick at the can.
Meanwhile, the 49ers are two games above .500 and coach Jim Harbaugh has brought the team a great deal of success (as long as your definition of “success” isn’t exclusive to Super Bowl titles). But the grumblings about Harbaugh have been incessant all season and, with the Niners on the verge of missing the playoffs, it’s a toss-up whether the Harbaugh-era is coming to an end on San Fran.
Here are the odds for the top-ten coaches most likely to be elsewhere in 2015-16:
1. Tony Sparano – OAK 1/5
2. Rex Ryan – NYJ 2/9
3. Jim Harbaugh – SF 11/10
4. Ron Rivera – CAR 5/4
5. Mike Smith – ATL 5/4
6. Gus Bradley – JAC 5/3
7. Marc Trestman – CHI 7/4
8. Tom Coughlin – NYG 5/2
9. Lovie Smith – TB 7/2
10. Jay Gruden – WAS 7/2
(Photo credit: By Marianne O’Leary (Flickr: New York Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.)
