Now that Bill Parcells is officially out of the running for the Saints' interim coaching job, who do you think is the best bet to replace the suspended Sean Payton on the sidelines in 2012: assistant head coach Joe Vitt (who's suspended for the first six games of the year), offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo or a mystery candidate not yet known to the public?
With so much unprecedented change and uncertainty, I think it's important that whomever is chosen needs to be able to provide a consistent voice and message. And though the job is to carry on what Payton has in place, I think it's also important that the interim coach be viewed by players as his own man, able to make his own decisions, so he's not just viewed as a puppet. I also think the Saints need to stay in-house because they have a great nucleus of talent. And anyone brought in from the outside would be seen as a hired gun with his own agenda of making himself look better to future suitors.
Vitt would be a strong candidate, but with him having to sit for six games, the message he'd incorporate all summer could get lost or feel disjointed after his absence. Spagnuolo has been a head coach and knows how to handle a lot of the ancillary things, like dealing with the media. However, since he's new to the program -- which almost would be the best reason to make him the head man, since he's foreign to everything -- it might not work. Spagnuolo also is charged with fixing a defense that could be a mess early with player suspensions. His task at hand could require too much work to oversee an entire team.
That's why Pete Carmichael and/or Aaron Kromer should get the nod. QB Drew Brees can handle a lot of the burden of running the offense and most of the pieces are in place. That would allow Carmichael or Kromer to deal with the overall organization of the team, as well as the week-to-week game planning of the offense.
Steve Spagnuolo has head coaching experience, he's untainted by the bounty scandal and he's the person I would tap to replace Sean Payton. Spagnuolo won't have to answer questions about the past -- he's oblivious to what went on there. He allows the Saints to turn the page in many ways.
The offensive coaches will have a hard enough time just trying to compensate for the loss of Payton in game planning and calling the plays. That's the lifeblood of the team and I'm not going to throw any more on their plate.
The Saints have excellent candidates to run their team from within. Offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael would be a natural fit, and enable the team to continue to be led from an offensive point of view. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo recently was the Rams' head coach, and knows the landscape of the job.
My pick would be Steve Spagnuolo. He has NFL head-coaching experience. His poor record in St. Louis is not indicative of the quality of job he did. Despite an incredible number of injuries, his teams fought hard. He also has already gone through the learning curve as a head coach.
The issue with Joe Vitt is you are going to build up momentum to the season opener ... and then have a sudden change at head man. That'd be three head coaches in less than a year. How do you maintain momentum? Add in possible player suspensions, and that's just too many disruptions to start the season.
My vote goes to Pete Carmichael. Perhaps the Saints don't want his focus being taken away from offensive game planning, but the bottom line is that they have a veteran quarterback who serves as a coach on the field. Drew Brees often picked many of the plays the Saints ran in games anyway (with Sean Payton's blessing, of course). They can also script the first 15 plays and audible at the line more often, taking some of the play-calling onus off Carmichael and allowing him to coach from the sideline (as opposed to the booth, like most other offensive coordinators). The 49ers used to script their first 15 plays with Joe Montana and Steve Young, and former Bills quarterback Jim Kelly used to call his own plays right at the line of scrimmage for large chunks of games.
The other option is to have Steve Spagnuolo essentially serve as assistant head coach, contributing to some of Carmichael's head-coaching duties. While head coach-by-committee might seem awkward, everything about this situation already blew past awkward long ago.
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- Jason Smith NFL.com
Parcells would've been the wrong guy anyway; Carmichael provides continuity
I'm actually glad the Bill Parcells thing didn't work out for the Saints, because they need continuity in a season that's going to be bizarre. Pete Carmichael's been the offensive coordinator since replacing Doug Marrone in 2009, so he's got a pretty good handle on how things are run. New Orleans' offense is pretty much clockwork by now, so he's the hire that will cause them to miss Sean Payton the least. Even if he's not a great head coach, or he's really just the head coach of the offense (and Steve Spagnuolo is the head coach of the defense), that's all that really matters.
Spagnuolo is too new to the team to suddenly take the reins, but he can coach the defense autonomously if you need him to, while you concentrate on the offense and, of course, the barrage of questions that will come all season long about Bountygate and the subsequent suspensions. You can't hide from it, but in a weird way it's going to foster closeness between the staff and players as they close ranks and play with a huge chip on their shoulder. "So we're Public Enemy No. 1? You think we're bad guys? Wait'll you see how many points we put up on everyone. Then you'll have to talk about us with respect, even though you don't want to." It worked for the Patriots to the tune of an undefeated regular season in 2007.
