Dan Mullen NFL Head Coach?
Yes it’s been a while. In case you haven’t noticed there just isn’t much football to talk about with all this COVID-19 happening. One thing I can write about is this notion of Dan Mullen getting an NFL job. I suppose it could happen. Rumors are Dan MuLLLen (one L for each loss to UGA) doesn’t like recruiting and wants to go to where the big boys play. I’m not surprised because he’s never been great at recruiting. The man is a good coach. That is not up for debate. He went in to Mississippi State and won consistently, which isn’t easy. In Gainesville he has gotten the team to respectability, but not the elite level.
College football is a different animal from pro football. Someone like Kirby Smart, his best attributes would be lost in the pro game. Dan Mullen would probably succeed at the next level because his worst trait (recruiting) wouldn’t matter. He could just coach the players and call the plays. I think he would be a failure as an NFL head coach because he doesn’t build great culture. He seems to rely on zingers, winning the offseason with smarmy comments, and is way too lax with bad behavior of his players.
For the sake of argument, let’s look at NFL head jobs that might be open after the 2020 season. The following jobs I can pretty easily say will not be open: Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders (weird to type), Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Bucs, Tennessee Titans, and Washington Football Team. That leaves nine other jobs to possibly be available in the offseason.
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Some of those are borderline. But let’s run through which would be available out of Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, LA Chargers, and New York Jets.
Dan Quinn might be on the hottest seat in Atlanta. Zac Taylor in Cincinnati also has a short leash. Vic Fangio would have to have a really bad season in Denver to get the boot after two seasons. Bill O’Brien would have to miss the playoffs. Anthony Lynn might get some leeway with replacing Phil Rivers, and I don’t know if Adam Gase is going to get fired after two seasons either.
The most slam dunk openings barring a minor miracle are the Detroit Lions and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars make the most sense for all the off the field reasons. Local coach down the road. Successful offensively. Built in buy in with whatever fan base you might have. They would have to take (another) quarterback though and it would feel like starting all over again.
Detroit also could pony up the dough to bring in Mullen, but would also need to get a new quarterback or get more WRs for Matt Stafford and they run the “no running game” offense they ran at Florida last year with Kyle Trask. I can’t see Stafford at his advanced age (which makes me feel very advanced in my age typing that) being a willing runner in the Mullen system. I suppose anything is possible.
Or maybe ol’ Danny Boy decides to keep cashing checks from Florida. Or maybe they even sign him to an extension (my dream scenario). Either way I suppose it’s possible Dan gets a pro job. But it’s still not very likely.
