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Early this week, Jay Gruden became the the eighth head coach fired by owner Dan Snyder since he purchased the Washington Redskins. At 0-5, it wasn’t exactly a surprise with perhaps the biggest surprise being that Snyder didn’t ‘pull the trigger’ earlier in the season. Assistant head coach/offensive line coach Bill Callahan will take over as interim head coach for the rest of the season.
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With that, the speculation will turn to the next full time coach of the Redskins. Not long after the Gruden firing was announced, ESPN quoted an ‘unnamed source’ in the know who indicated that Snyder already has a list of his three top candidates: current Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
BetOnline.ag has posted betting odds on the Washington Redskins’ next head coach listing over 50 possible candidates. We’ve already looked two of these candidates--Eric Bieniemy’s price has dropped a bit since early this week but at +500 he’s still the favorite. Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin’s price hasn’t moved all week and is still at +1400. Now we’ll look at the final name on Snyder’s head coaching ‘wish list’:
WASHINGTON REDSKINS HEAD COACH IN WEEK 1 OF 2020 REGULAR SEASON
TODD BOWLES +600
Bowles is currently the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator and has done impressive work in a short time on the job. With offensive guru Bruce Arians coming in as head coach to mentor quarterback Jameis Winston the most significant progress made by Tampa Bay has been on the defensive side of the ball. Heading into the Week 6 games, Tampa Bay had the #2 rushing defense in the NFL allowing just 69.8 yards per game. The secondary is still a ‘work in progress’ with the Bucs currently ranked last in this category allowing 323.6 yards per contest. They also have the #29 scoring defense giving up 29.6 PPG.
The improvements in Tampa Bay’s defensive front have not been lost on the rest of the NFL. His name was being tossed around for a possible top head coaching candidate after this season so Snyder’s interest in Bowles is not surprising. Bowles previous head coaching job didn’t go especially well though it wasn’t entirely his fault. Bowles was the head coach of the New York Jets from 2015 through 2018 before being fired. The performance on the field wasn’t there to be sure—the Jets went 10-6 in his first year at the helm before nosediving. New York went 14-34 in the next three seasons leaving Bowles with a 24-40 record as their head coach. He also butted heads with former Jets’ general manager Mike Macaggnan and that likely hastened his departure. Karma came around for Macaggnan, however, and he lost his gig after coming out on the wrong end of a battle of wills with first year head coach Adam Gase.
It’s evident that NFL executives see Bowles’ struggles in New York as being largely beyond his control. It’s not often that a recently fired head coach remains such a hot property as a potential replacement. Bowles gets high marks for helping to change the ‘culture’ of the Tampa Bay defense and that is sorely needed in Washington as well.
There are two likely scenarios regarding Todd Bowles’ interest in the Redskins head coaching vacancy. If he’s interested in quickly returning to the head coaching ranks, obviously, this is an excellent option. Even being discussed as a candidate raises his stock and could lead to a better position becoming available in the offseason. He’d definitely have to be ‘up for a challenge’ in rebuilding the Redskins into a competitive team.
The other likely scenario—he’s been in a situation where he had to fight the GM (and to some extent ownership) to get anything done. He’d certainly be hesitant to jump right back into one with owner Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen wielding the power over personnel decisions in Washington. He might also have no interest in such a complete rebuilding project as the Redskins. Bowles is good friends with Tampa Bay head coach Arians—he served as his defensive coordinator in Arizona before joining him with the Bucs—and he could decide that for the time being he’d rather stay where he is.
