Just curious, if Kitchens wasn't your A+, then who the fuck was?
I was all aboard swinging for the fences with this hire, feeling that it was necessary in order for our team to get where I wanted it to go. I felt that we needed to be at the forefront of offensive innovation in the NFL by utilizing many college spread concepts, especially with a quarterback uniquely adept at running such a scheme. I never was going to even entertain a "big picture" coach or a defensive coordinator to be our head coach.
I wanted someone who understood what needed to happen on offense to win games.
There are 8 teams remaining in the NFL playoffs. Here's who calls plays for them:
Kansas City Chiefs - Andy Reid
Indianapolis Colts - Frank Reich
New England Patriots - Josh McDaniels
Los Angeles Chargers - Ken Whisenhunt
Los Angeles Rams - Sean McVay
Philadelphia Eagles - Doug Pederson
New Orleans Saints - Sean Payton
Dallas Cowboys - Scott Linehan (Jason Garrett involved)
The four teams eliminated from the playoffs:
Baltimore Ravens - Marty Mornhinweg
Chicago Bears - Matt Nagy
Houston Texans - Bill O'Brien
Seattle Seahwawk - Brain Schottenheimer
Of the teams remaining in the playoffs,
5 of the 8 have head coaches who call the plays and are innovative on that side of the ball.
Of the teams that made the playoffs,
7 of the 12 have head coaches who call the plays.
Now, more than ever, this is where you need to go as the NFL continues to change.
Based on this, my most recent personal list was:
1) Lincoln Riley, 2) Freddie Kitchens, 3) Matt Campbell, 4) Josh McDaniels, 5) Kevin Stefanski, 6) John DeFilippo
As soon as Lincoln Riley was unavailable, I was hoping we'd keep Freddie Kitchens. So, Lincoln Riley was my A+. Freddie was right there, but I give it just a solid A.