As recently as a week ago, it felt like coaches were destined to be the clear winners of the offseason recruiting cycle. They acquired what is widely regarded as the best general manager prospect in the NFL, and all signs pointed to them acquiring the hottest head coaching candidate. A new era of hope and promise was about to begin in Washington.
Now everything has gone to hell and we are left wondering how on earth this happened.
The Commanders are the only team in the NFL without a coach, and seven other teams are already making plans to hire position coaches and draft. At this point in the process, the pool of prospects is shallow and Washington will have to settle for whatever talent they have left — as if whoever they hire is the person they wanted all along. Dress up. It’s a surprising turn of fortune that makes no functional sense.
This is a time when the job in Washington is one of the most attractive in the NFL. As long as the team has a top-three draft pick to shape its future, additional draft assets to fill out its roster, a ship with plenty of salary cap room, and incremental improvement, it can avoid slowing down in its development. There are owners/fans who accept it. In the end, one major error, and one that should never have happened in the first place, comes back.
The news that Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson would return to Detroit rather than take the head coaching job was absolutely shocking. That’s because he was widely expected to be announced as the next leader of the command.Washington was so patient with its coaching search after hiring GM Adam Peters that the team felt that way. had This is to sign a handshake agreement with Johnson after the playoffs. Obviously that wasn’t the case.
We can now look back at the entire recruiting cycle and understand how our commanders did their part. A number of teams conducted phone interviews with Johnson, but quickly went in a different direction and hired a head coach. carolina panthershad been enamored with Johnson for years, but didn’t wait for the Lions’ season to end before hiring Dave Canales. Something happened during a phone interview with Johnson that caused him to give up the pursuit, but apparently Washington didn’t get the same memo.
This is in line with what league insiders have been saying about Johnson for most of this year, speculating that he doesn’t actually want the head coaching job. While teams were reaching out to see if he would take over the organization, he is perfectly happy in Detroit, serving as Dan Campbell’s No. 2 and trying to lead the beleaguered Lions to greatness. Ta.
The argument that Johnson didn’t want to be a head coach didn’t happen overnight, and the story had been circulating for months before the end of the regular season. Therefore, when it comes to the commander, we have to consider that during this process he had one of three things happen:
- Johnson agreed to go to Washington, but changed his mind.
- The team chose to ignore all signs that he wasn’t going to leave Detroit.
- They had no idea what Johnson was going to do, but they held out hope anyway.
the very It is unlikely that Johnson reached a tentative agreement with his commanders and then backed away from it. He has a reputation around the league for being a straight shooter and not leading his team. In 2022, he even refused to interview with the team, immediately telling them he intended to stay. This leaves us with two scenarios, both of which are problems of Washington’s own making.
I’m sure Johnson was like that. perfection Commander’s Coach. He has found success in Detroit by taking talented but disparate players and turning them into offensive juggernauts. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft means Washington is certain to have either Caleb Williams or Drake Maye on the board as their quarterback of the future, and Maye in particular will be a great addition to Johnson’s offense. These hand meat gloves are perfect for this trend.
Still, just because something was perfect didn’t mean it needed to be forced, and it became increasingly clear that managers felt they could convince Johnson to leave Detroit. The mission ended in failure.
That’s unfortunate in itself, but it’s devastating when you consider that there is essentially no talent left to hire on the offensive side of the ball.of tennessee titans They hired Brian Callahan, the aforementioned Panthers acquired Canales, and announced that Bobby Slowik would be returning to the team. texans. The last best chance for an offensive-minded head coach is baltimore ravensis definitely a mid-major candidate who has the potential to be good, but has a more traditional approach to offense at a time when new ways of thinking are mainstream.
If the manager decides to hire a defensive coach, there are a few more options – Mike Vrabel, Aaron Glenn, or Steve Wilkes (once the season is over), but the importance of the situation the team is in right now. Considering their gender, these are all pretty questionable hires. This organization needed visionaries, especially a quarterback, and a support staff to build toward that vision. They could still get a good coach, but they won’t have the mandate that a coveted young offensive coach would have.
Without a doubt, they hired Adam Peters. 49ers Still, it was shining brightly. He’s definitely the right general manager to lead the organization into the future — but Peters, less than a month into the job, decided against locking up the coach when he had the chance and instead went for Johnson. He may have made his first big mistake by reaching out and praying that Johnson would coach him. He will come to Washington.
Whatever happens next will be mediocre. We won’t see the start of an exciting new era that many were hoping for, but instead we’ll see expectations measured. It didn’t have to be this way, but the team is in the situation it’s in right now because it didn’t really go well.
