there's no reason for a high profile coach like Cowher or Gruden to come in if they can't have their choice at GM. almost silly not to.
if you hire the GM first, then you likely go after a young up-and-coming coordinator to be your coach.

 

Not sure where you heard Gruden would want full autonomy. It was my understanding that Gruden would have even been fine with Ireland as the GM once upon a time.

 

Boy, those two would clash!! It is assumed since Gruden made a power move with the Bucs that got McKay ousted and allowed him to bring in Bruce Allen.

 

I don't think it's a very good assumption to be honest.

 

I would really like DeCosta, but from what I gather he isn't looking to leave Baltimore.

 

The Ozzie Newsome GM tree hasn't exactly been a well of success, either. Prior to DeCosta, the hot GM kids on the block were Phil Savage and George Kokinis. At some point, you have to be careful not to fall into the Bill Belichik trap.

 

I don't know that Gruden would want or need full autonomy, but he certainly would want to work with someone he has confidence in. I don't know that Ireland fits that bill. The problem is that no matter how you look at Ireland's body of work, you can't separate the Parcells choices from the Ireland choices...good or bad. Because of that, how much confidence would Gruden have in Ireland ?? It's impossible to tell.

I'm just guessing here, but if Ross goes with a name brand coach (Fisher, Gruden, Cowher), they pick and choose as they see fit. If Ireland were to stay with any of those guys, he would likely have to relinquish personnel authority to them, which I can't honestly say I disagree with. If Ross goes with a fresh face or current chic coordinator, then Ireland has a chance to stay on, mainly again because even Ross probably can't separate the Parcells decisions from Ireland's... Of course this assumes that Ireland is still in Ross' back pocket when that time comes...

 

Speaking of the Bill Belichick "trap"...

I think Nick Caserio should be talked about way more than he currently is. Michael Lombardi has talked about how coaches that coach with Belichick don't really "know him"...which corroborates what I'd been thinking due to all these coaches you see spinning off the Belichick tree having no success. They're not privy to whatever magic it is that makes Belichick's organization so successful.

However, the guys that spin out of the Patriots' front office, different story. Scott Pioli goes to Kansas City, by Year 2 he's 11-5 and now in Year 3 he's 3-3 and with some weakness in both the Chargers and Raiders at the top of that division, the Chiefs have to be thinking they're actually competing to repeat as division champs, despite their early bad start. Thomas Dimitroff, same thing, has had a lot of success in Atlanta, and even though their early results this year has been held against them, they're now playing better, are 4-3, one game out of 1st place in their division, and fully involved in the playoff hunt.

What's interesting is...you look at coaches who are associated with Belichick and what they did...then you look at front office people associate with Belichick and what they did. It seems like the coaches keep trying to get away with investing cheaply in the quarterback position, whereas the front office people get to where they're setting up and immediately invest premium assets in the QB position, very first thing they do. Pioli traded I believe it was a 1st round equivalent, plus a huge contract, for Matt Cassel...and Dimitroff without hesitation drafted Matt Ryan.

If that trend holds then I would think the first thing Nick Caserio would do would be make sure he's found a premium quarterback.