Odds on Next Coach for Colts, Cardinals, Broncos, Panthers and Texans

With five coaching vacancies in the NFL, it appears the merry-go-round to sign former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton will pick up immeasurably in the next few weeks or maybe even the next few days.

Every year it seems that it is easy to point to more than one situation where a coach has been fired and he had such a short time to restructure that it was impossible to totally rebuild the team.

Also, injuries stymie lots of coaches as they did Kliff Kingsbury in Arizona when quarterback Kyler Murray was shelved after having to go through reconstructive surgery on his ACL.

NFL Betting Sites offer odds on who will likely turn into the head coach at the five current vacancies.

Being an NFL head coach is such an “Indoor-Outdoor” as Prince sang in the 1980s with 131 head coaches being hired and fired since 2000.

Currently, the Indianapolis Colts, Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, and Carolina Panthers have either fired coaches on “Black Monday” or at different points during the season.

Broncos reportedly request interviews with Rams' Raheem Morris, 49ers' DeMeco Ryans, Cowboys' Dan Quinn. https://t.co/xyhhDrslJi pic.twitter.com/dMEpRvktsU

— theScore (@theScore) January 9, 2023

Who will be the Denver Broncos Head Coach?

The Broncos fired head coach Nathaniel Hackett after 15 games in his first season as Denver sat at 4-11. He was last the offensive coordinator in Green Bay as his coaching acumen sat alongside the dynamic Matt Lefleur and superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

The move from Seattle to Denver hasn’t worked out for Wilson as his 60.4 percent completion rating was the lowest number of passes in a season of this career.

He also threw for 3,118 yards which was the lowest since 2019 when he threw for a career-high 3,113 yards.

Trying to recreate Wilson will be the top criteria after you look at the mammoth contract Denver gave him which will spiral until he is near 40 years-old.

An offensive mind at coach also inherits an offensive attack that converted just 29 percent of its third downs in 2022.

I would hold off on wagering at this moment on the Broncos. New candidates will arise throughout the Playoffs and we will get more clarity.

For now, the #Cardinals are the favorite to land Sean Payton if he decides to leave Fox. #NFLRumors pic.twitter.com/SjiNCvdPAQ

— NFL Rumors (@nflrums) January 10, 2023

Who Will Be the Arizona Cardinals’ next head coach?

Kingsbury was the leader of a Cardinals team that seemed to have major issues in the second half of most all of his four seasons as he won the majority of games in the first seven weeks of each combined season.

Kliff finished with a 28-37-1 record as the Cardinals’ head coach in the last four seasons.

With Kyler Murray going down, the Cardinals slid to a 4-13 record as a backup QB list of Colt McCoy, Trace McSorley, and David Blough also took snaps this season.

The Arizona brass has to look on the offensive side of the ball as well. Realizing that the Cards are in the NFC West where healthy offensive corps are your challengers in San Francisco, Seattle, and the Los Angeles Rams.

Payton (+250) is a stellar heir to the Arizona Cardinals as he is a dynamic offensive coach who can put a healthy Murray in a position to push the Arizona Cardinals to a high level.

Prior to the AZ opening, Denver looked like the spot, but Payton fits with the Cardinals better due to a franchise QB, solid offensive weapons and still having draft picks.

Indianapolis Will Look to Quinn as Next Head Coach

In early November, Owner Jim Irsay fired head coach Frank Reich, who also had tons of coaching experience compared to Jeff Saturday, who left the ESPN set to take over the Colts.

Saturday was a Pro Bowler during six seasons of his 14-year career in Indianapolis. Keep in mind that being a player does not mean you essentially have coaching acumen. Conceivably, it means that a player must start as a position coach while going through the coordinator positions before becoming a head coach.

Irsay’s choice proved that he was clueless on the process that even a six-time Pro Bowler must take in moving to the head coaching position.

Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn (+600) looks like a solid choice as he was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2015 to 2020.

The biggest hire, in this case, will be to bring in an offensive coordinator whom Quinn trusts to fashion the offense as a leader and a consistent player. The Colts have started a different quarterback in each of the last five seasons.

Can Indy really hire anyone other than Harbaugh? Although Quinn is solid, I’m still leaning towards Jim here.

Panthers W-L last 2 seasons by coach

Matt Rhule 6-16
Steve Wilks 6-6 pic.twitter.com/cHnMs4blFp

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 9, 2023

Who Will Be the Next Carolina Panthers Head Coach?

The Carolina Panthers lost four out of their first five games in Matt Rhule’s third season and after back-to-back, 5-12 ledgers in his first two seasons, Panthers Owner Dave Tepper gave Rhule the hook after a 37-15 home loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

Rhule never had a plethora of playmakers that could lift this offense even into a middle producer as their 306.2 yards per game (29th/NFL) were one of the lower season totals in Panthers’ history.

What is interesting is the 37-23 win over the Detroit Lions in Week 15 where the Panthers set a team record with 570 total yards. The parallel between all of the five NFL head coaches who have lost their positions has been inconsistency at quarterback which took these teams down further than they were projected.

Backup quarterback PJ Walker came into six games and started five. Like Darnold, Walker also had trouble with his completion percentage. None of the three QBs was over 60 percent and the Panthers waived Mayfield who wound up with the struggling Los Angeles Rams after Matt Stafford was injured.

Carolina elevated Steve Wilks after the Matt Rhule firing and Wilks captured a 6-6 record as he had the Panthers in the chase for an NFC South title until their Week 17 loss to the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay.

Tepper should stay with Wilks (+525) as the Panthers’ head coach. The biggest key here is, like with many teams, in making sure that Carolina has a solid offensive coordinator whom Wilks will trust implicitly.

Who Will Be the Next Houston Texans Head Coach?

So, unfortunately, the Houston Texans unfairly gave Lovie Smith one season and that was all.

This was an atrocity with the lack of support that ownership gave Smith as he was asked to clear a new and positive path behind the soap opera that followed talented quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Smith ended 3-13-1 while David Culley was given one season (2021) and a 4-13 ledger last season.

The disrespect that Owner Cal McNair has shown two African-American head coaches speaks for itself. These two firings after Romeo Crennel took over with four games to go in 2020 and then resigned after he had dealt with the Texans for seven years.

The Texans are going to have to look to find a veteran quarterback as Davis Mills has 33 touchdown passes against 25 interceptions in 28 games in the past two seasons.

Mills also worked to orchestrate the 31st offense as Houston could only find an average of 283 yards per game. Flip over to the 30th defense in the NFL where the Texans allowed 379.5 yards per game, so a total overhaul of the team is in order.

Take Kingsbury (+400) as the favorite to become the next head coach in Houston.

There’s a lot of work to do in Houston, but Kingsbury should get this position partially because a candidate like Bieniemy won’t want to follow in the footsteps of the last two coaches who weren’t supported by the owner.