Ranking the Chicago Bears head coaching candidates being interviewed
Chicago Bears Coaching Candidate: Brian Daboll, OC – Buffalo Bills
And the winner is — Brian Daboll. Brian Daboll has been my top head coaching candidate for quite some time. I take that back, Jim Harbaugh is still my top guy, followed by a never going to happen Sean Payton. Daboll is everything we want out of a head coach here in Chicago and honestly, I don’t see why the Bears wouldn’t give him the keys to Halas Hall.
I’m not going to even bring up the post-season victory that the Bills had over the Patriots last night. Their 47-17 dominating performance over the New England Patriots yesterday was a thing of beauty. That hasn’t always been the case for Daboll though.
When we look at the difference between Brian Daboll and Byron Leftwich, the one thing that stands out the most is experience. Daboll has seen time coaching under Bill Belichick on both the defensive and offensive sides of the ball. He served as the wide receivers coach from 2002 to 2006 before following Eric Mangini to the Jets in 2007 as their QB coach. He then followed Mangini again to Cleveland where he landed his first offensive coordinator job.
The Browns’ offense struggled, but let’s be honest, their talent level was pretty bad. Daboll’s offenses ranked in the bottom three in yards and points both years. At quarterback, the team had Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Colt McCoy and Jake Delhomme at the end of his career. I thought Quinn had a shot to be good coming out of Notre Dame, but I was biased and didn’t pay as much attention to the analytics and film back then.
The Browns’ biggest weapons during those two years were special teams specialist Joshua Cribbs, wide receiver Braylon Edwards, Madden cover icon, Peyton Hillis and a 30-year-old Ben Watson at tight end. Yeah, hard to blame Daboll for failing there. Daboll saw a little more success with Miami in 2011. That team had a few guys worth noting such as a 27-year-old Brandon marshall and 26-year-old Reggie Bush. That said, Matt Moore was the quarterback.
Daboll got another shot after Miami when he went to coach under Romeo Crennel in Kansas City. The team went 2-14 and the offense was stagnant. Daboll had his old Browns players with him in Brady Quinn and Peyton Hillis. He had some better weapons in Kansas City though. At least they had a solid wide receiver in Dwayne Bowe. Matt Cassel was flinging the football as the starter with Quinn seeing an equal eight games.
The thing is, we cannot just ignore these failures. What we can do is say that Brian Daboll has an extensive branch that he has learned under. After the 2012 season, he went back to New England as an assistant coach and tight ends coach (2013-2016). He helped Alabama go 13-1 and win the National Football Championship over Georgia. Learning under Nick Saban is never a bad thing. This allowed him to take his current role as OC of the Buffalo Bills where he has helped groom and develop Josh Allen into an MVP-caliber quarterback.
As I mentioned, Brian Daboll and Byron Leftwich are my top two candidates as the interview process continues for our beloved Chicago Bears. If they hire anyone outside of my top two tiers, I’m not going to feel confident in this team as the 2022 NFL season approaches — no matter who takes over as GM.