Thursday, January 17, 2008

What's the dilly with Dungy?

Yesterday at around 2 PM Profootballtalk reported that Tony Dungy would be stepping down as Colts head coach, and that quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell would take his place. Within two hours the Colts were denying the story, yet Caldwell removed his name from consideration for the Falcons and Ravens head coaching jobs. Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and Eagles special teams coach John Harbaugh are the finalists for the Ravens job, so that isn't a huge development. But Caldwell, Garrett, and Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan are the finalists for the Falcons job, and Garrett also removed his name from consideration, so there much me something to this story for Caldwell to turn down a chance at a job 300 miles from Wake Forest, where he coached for eight years.

You can compare the Ravens, Redskins, Falcons, Dolphins, Seahawks, and even the Cowboys jobs right now, but the Colts job, in my opinion, is the most desirable job in the NFL right now. You've got Peyton Manning at a high level for at least another six seasons, an extremely capable general manager, a hands off owner, and reasonable expectations (as opposed to an unreachable standard in New England). The Steelers job is also among the most desirable, with a history of job security, but also a history of losing key players through free agency. The identity of the coach of the Colts next season is biggest off field story in the NFL right now.

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