JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The new coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars will be... Rob Chudzinski.
OK. I have no idea if that's right, but that's my guess.
I got a chance to research all the candidates that we believe are coming in for interviews and Chudzinski is my frontrunner.
If for nothing else, Gene Smith has a penchant for bringing in names that would be a big time point getter in Words with Friends (Prosinski, Posluszny to name a couple).
Seriously, I think Chudzinski has the best resume and would add the most excitement out of the offensive coordinators making the leap to head coach.
He's been a success everywhere including Cleveland for crying out loud. He made Derek Anderson and Braylon Edwards into Pro Bowlers a few years back. This past season, he turned one of the worst offenses into a dynamic one in Carolina -- yeah I know he had Cam Newton to work with all season.
There's word that Carolina did a good amount of work on Blaine Gabbert last year heading into the draft so Chudzinski may like the Jags rookie qb.
One guy that should be rooting hard for Carolina's offensive coordinator is Marcedes Lewis. Chudzinski has a history with tight ends at Miami (Franks, Shockey, Winslow) and in the NFL. Winslow made his only Pro Bowl when the two were paired in Cleveland. Wait Marcedes, there's more. Chudzinski, a former tight end himself at Miami, also presided over Antonio Gates two best seasons in San Diego.
I've got a hunch that the man nicknamed "Chud" could be the guy, but who really knows right?
A couple of other things. All the candidates mentioned so far are between the ages of 39 and 43 with the exception of Mike Mularkey - he's 50. The Jags have a young football team and might relate more to a younger coach.
Mularkey has had success but why didn't he get a job last year? He interviewed with Tennessee and Cleveland.
The most interesting name to hear is Mike McCoy because his offenses haven't really wowed people. Don't get me wrong, he was good in Carolina for a lot of years and good last year in Denver and he's working with Tebow (that's supposed to be funny).
Obviously, there's a lot more that goes into picking a coach than previous stats and the Jags have a lot more information at their disposal than I do.
Bill O'Brien is on the fast track when it comes to the NFL and let's just say the Patriots offense is pretty good. The Jags want a detail oriented guy and if you work with Bill Belichick then that has to be part of your makeup.
Brian Schottenheimer is the most peculiar name on the list. I mean people want him out in New York after running a very average offense with a lot more weapons than the Jags have right now. Schottenheimer has the pedigree of course, but I think this would be the most criticized pick of the bunch - even if he did go to Florida.
Mel Tucker is the interim head coach and I think a guy that a lot of folks are rooting for to get the gig. I just don't see it happening.
The Jags are going offense here and unless Tucker wows the brass with a name he'll bring in to run the offense I doubt he gets it. It's more of a timing thing with Tucker because he has a lot of the qualities the Jags are looking for in their next head coach.
In a fair world, Tucker gets the job. In a perfect sports world, the Jags hire an offensive minded guy and Tucker stays on as defensive coordinator.
There are a couple of other names that have come up like Joe DeCamillis and Tom Clements. I have two trivial reasons for making them unlikely candidates. DeCamillis has been a special teams guy his entire career and Clements is now 58 years old which doesn't fit the guys they appear to be interviewing.
Remember, these are just my thoughts as we enter a wild few weeks of interviews, speculation and finally one of the most important decisions in franchise history.
