The 2013 NFL coaching carousel is nearly complete. With Thursday night's news that the Arizona Cardinals hired Bruce Arians, all head coaching spots are now filled. Eight new coaches will be standing on the sidelines next season, the league's biggest turnover since 2009.
The league hired 11 head coaches prior to that 2009 season. How do those hires look four years later? Let's take a look.
Denver Broncos - Josh McDaniels
McDaniels was hot off the Bill Belichick tree, and the Broncos gave him full personnel control hoping for Mike Shanahan 2.0. Unfortunately, the McDaniels era was largely a disaster. He gutted the roster willy-nilly, traded up in the draft for the Tim Tebow circus, alienated new franchise stars Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall, and was generally just a really unpleasant man.
McDaniels lasted just one and a half seasons as the Broncos sank from 8-8 to 4-12. He has since crawled back into Belichick's warm embrace. Meanwhile, Denver brought in Jon Fox and signed Peyton Manning to quickly right the franchise's ship.
Cleveland Browns - Eric Mangini
Cleveland is where coaching careers go to die, and "The Mangenius" wasn't much more successful than his predecessors or successor. He led the team to two 5-11 seasons and was quietly let go amid front-office turnover. The Browns are now on their third coach in just nine years. Mangini hasn't coached since then, taking work as an ESPN pundit.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Raheem Morris
Morris has been working with the Bucs since 2002 as a quality coach and defensive backs assistant, so most people saw his promotion to head coach a long time coming. Unfortunately, like most of the 2009 coaching hires, it was a short honeymoon. Morris led his team to a surprising 10-6 in 2010, but it all fell apart from there. They lost eight straight games to close out the 2011 season as the team openly quit on Morris. He was quickly let go after that disastrous season. Morris is now the secondary coordinator in Washington.
Kansas City Chiefs - Todd Haley
The Haley/Scott Pioli marriage was doomed from the start -- there was way too much ego for one team to handle. Haley actually wasn't too terrible, leading the team to a playoff berth in 2010, but he was let go midway through the 2011 season after two and a half tumultuous years in Kansas City. Haley is now the Steelers' OC, and the less said about the Chiefs' 2012 season, the better.
Indianapolis Colts - Jim Caldwell
Caldwell was tapped as the successor to Tony Dungy. He was successful as long as Peyton Manning was running the ship but, when Manning was forced to sit out the 2011 season, Caldwell was quickly exposed as an empty vessel with the personality of a doorknob. His lasting legacy in Indy will be helping the Colts get Andrew Luck.
New York Jets - Rex Ryan
One of the few 2009 coaching hires still with his original team, Ryan's tenure started off great, sending the Jets to two straight conference championship appearances. Things started to go south in 2010 when Mark Sanchez regressed, and completely imploded in 2012. The Tebow circus and uninspiring coordinator hires have not helped Ryan's case. He will be on thin ice in the 2013 season.
Detroit Lions - Jim Schwartz
Ryan and Schwartz are the only guys on this list still coaching their original teams and, like Ryan, he's also on thin ice. The Lions took a huge step backward in 2012 and have dealt with off-field distractions for several years now. It's not the 0-16 dumpster fire that Schwartz inherited four years ago, but he needs to show tangible progress next year to keep his job.
San Francisco 49ers - Mike Singletary
(via Soundeffekts)
Oakland Raiders - Tom Cable
It wouldn't be a coaching carousel post without a Raiders mention. Cable was hired as an interim in 2008 after Al Davis gave Lane Kiffin the "you'll never work in this town again" treatment. Like most Oakland coaches of the 21st century, he was given little to work with on the roster and repeatedly clashed with co-workers. Cable was let go after two full seasons, which can be considered a resounding success in Oakland. He is currently the O-line coordinator in Seattle
St. Louis Rams - Steve Spagnuolo
The former Giants coordinator was a hot commodity after his defense abused Tom Brady on the way to a Super Bowl upset. Unfortunately, he couldn't squeeze blood out of a stone, and had some truly pitiable offenses in St. Louis. A 7-9 record in 2010 was the high point of his tenure, as he finished 1-15 and 2-14 in his other two years. Spags is now the Saints' defensive coordinator. If that defense is any indication, maybe he's not the mastermind we all thought he was back in 2008.
Seattle Seahawks - Jim Mora Jr.
Mora was announced as the successor to Mike Holmgren back in 2008, treating Seahawks fans to a 4-12 lame duck year.
Mora's tenure wasn't any better, "leading" Seattle to a 5-11 record, calling out players to the media and alienating just about everyone along the way. When GM Tim Ruskell was let go midseason, Mora's fate was sealed, and he joined the dubious "one and done" club. After a brief stint in the FOX broadcast booth, Mora is now the head coach of UCLA.
If there's anything to take away from this, it's that the shiny new coach of today can easily become tomorrow's punchline.
Hopefully, the 2013 coaching class will turn out better -- it surely can't be worse, can it? If your favorite team hired a new guy, go ahead and be excited and hopeful, but also know it can go as horribly wrong as many of the guys on this list. A new coach isn't an automatic franchise fix, no matter how many awesome interviews he gives. Just ask 49ers fans.