Jason Whitlock of FOX Sports.com ranked the 10 current best and worst NFL head coaches. His list for top 10 worst had some intriguing names.
Top 10 Worst:
1. Eagles Andy Reid: Twice this season Reid has taken the game out of the hands of Donovan McNabb and tried to win at crunch time with his running game. Here’s a coach who loves to throw on damn near every down except when the game is on the line. I also blame Reid for the Eagles failing to trade a second-round draft pick for Tony Gonzalez. Other than the one season with Terrell Owens, McNabb has made a living throwing the ball to the James Thrashes of the world. It’s ridiculous. I’m convinced the Eagles don’t want to win it all.
6. Packers Mike McCarthy: With Brett Favre at the helm, the Packers were one play from the Super Bowl. With Favre run off to New York, the Packers are 4-5 and in jeopardy of missing the playoffs. You have to blame McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson for Favre’s absence. Aaron Rodgers has been pretty damn good. He’s not the problem. Apparently he’s not the answer either. McCarthy wanted to be the big hero for letting Favre go, well now McCarthy and Thompson look like fools.
7. 49ers Mike Singletary: The end of the “Monday Night Football” contest against the Cardinals is all the evidence you need to understand why I wanted Singletary to pass on the San Francisco job. Singletary has a chance to be a great NFL coach. Unfortunately, he took a head-coaching job before he was ready. Singletary can’t manage the clock. All the whining about the refs spotting the ball wrong or too quickly just points to Singletary’s inexperience and the folly of having Mike Martz as an unsupervised offensive coordinator.
10. Saints Sean Payton: Someone has to take the blame for New Orleans’ 4-5 record. I don’t have a real problem with Payton. It’s impossible to win in the Big Easy. There are just too many distractions in NO to build a successful football franchise.
Whether you like Whitlock or not (I can take or leave him), you have to appreciate how he didn’t just rank his top 10 worst head coaches because they were on the hot seat or list the ones that have terrible teams. As much as Singletary deserves a shot to be a head coach, he and Martz screwed the pooch on Monday night and deserve to be called out for it. And while criticizing Reid is nothing new for the media, Whitlock has some balls ranking him as the worst coach in the league, especially considering the Eagles could still viably make the playoffs this season.
I don’t know if it’s fair of Whitlock to say that Aaron Rodgers isn’t the answer though. Remember, it’s only his first year as a starter and he’s been phenomenal.
