Lame-duck Marty loses another
Lame-duck Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer looks like he'll lose another assistant today if Wade Phillips is named head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, as multiple reports indicate.
Schottenheimer declined the offer of a contract extension following the Chargers premature exit from the playoffs. Instead, Schottenheimer will coach out the final year of his contract and, presumably, leave the team.
The thought had been that Phillips, a coach in Buffalo when Chargers GM AJ Smith was positioned there, would be the favorite to replace Marty for 2008. Instead, the field looks wide open. Established head coaches like Bill Cowher and John Gruden could be available next January and they look a lot more attractive from where we sit than Phillips, who has been in the NFL for 30 years.
But today, the Chargers most likely find themselves on the back end of the coaching job market needing to find a coordinator for one of the game's best defenses juxtaposed against the reality that the head coach won't be around after one season with the probability the new coach will want to hire his own staff.
For as much as that is unattractive, a guy like Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, he with head coaching aspirations, looks like the ideal candidate to solve the Chargers current and future problems. The Chargers would likely need to offer Rivera an "assistant head coach, defensive coordinator" title to make it work. That would be one huge step toward establishing a foundation of continuity for the future and give current free agents (both coming and going) something to buy into.