Former Indianapolis Colts players shared remarks about the current coaching landscape in the NFL.
The Urban Meyer experience with the Jacksonville Jaguars couldn’t be off to a worse start. The team is currently 2-11, there has been off-field controversy, reports of internal dysfunction, and many think Meyer will not even make it to a second year.
As this situation disastrously unfolds, it serves as a reminder of the many qualified coaches that don’t currently hold an NFL head coaching position. One specifically, Jim Caldwell.
Caldwell had two head coaching stints in the NFL, one with the Indianapolis Colts and one with the Detroit Lions. In addition to that experience, he has an extensive coaching history that includes being a college head coach and numerous assistant roles in both college and the NFL.
Caldwell’s current unemployment juxtaposed with the fiasco of Meyer in Jacksonville had some former Colts players criticizing the state of the NFL.
#Agreed. https://t.co/ytIBtNbi3y
— ROBERT MATHIS QBH8r (@RobertMathis98) December 14, 2021
Former Colts believe Jim Caldwell should be a head coach
Robert Mathis and Dan Orlovsky played under Caldwell during his time in Indianapolis and they agree that Jim Caldwell should be a coach in the NFL. Many others also share this opinion.
Caldwell has an NFL head coaching record of 62-50. He got his start as an NFL head coach in 2009 with Indy after Tony Dungy retired. Under his leadership, the Colts went 14-2 in his first season and 10-6 in his second, winning back-to-back division championships.
His third season was the year that Peyton Manning missed with the neck injury and Indianapolis finished 2-14. Caldwell was fired after the season ended.
In 2014, he got another opportunity, taking over the Lions. In his four seasons, Detroit went 11-5, 7-9, 9-7, and 9-7 with two playoff births. Despite bringing some uncharacteristic success to the Lions, Caldwell was fired the first day after his fourth season in Detroit.
Since then, Caldwell has not been offered another head coaching opportunity and as Mathis and Orlovsky put it, it is most certainly a joke.
Caldwell has been involved with winning throughout his entire coaching career and has steered clear of controversy. There aren’t any merit-based reasons for why he currently isn’t a head coach in the NFL.
The Meyer situation aside, Caldwell not receiving interest is a bad look, but once what’s occurring in Jacksonville is taken into account, it looks even worse.
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