NFL Head Coach Carousel: Jim Harbaugh Losing Steam?

One week remains in the NFL regular season, and the head coach carousel has begun to spin.  What are the latest updates?

Michigan pursuit and personality are cooling teams on Harbaugh

A couple weeks ago, when word first broke, there wasn’t a hotter name among teams looking for a new head coach than Jim Harbaugh.  His success in San Francisco and earlier at Stanford spoke for itself.  However, as the regular season draws to a close teams have had a chance to do more research on him.

Word is that despite his terrific track record, he has a tendency of not lasting long at any of his jobs because of his personality, which can often rub people the wrong way.  Couple that with the relentless pursuit of the University of Michigan, who are offering $8 million per year to make him their coach and it’s begun to diminish his buzz around the league.

Joe Philbin return takes Miami Dolphins out of running

At least one of the teams that was expected to pursue him, or another new head coach in 2015 is now off the market.  Thanks to a late run of big wins down the stretch that could result in their first winning seasons since 2008, the Miami Dolphins have elected to retain head coach Joe Philbin for another year.  It isn’t clear how this will sit with the players, who seemed somewhat rebellious at times during the season.  One will have to trust that Philbin either already did or can get through to them in what will be a year filled with high expectations.

Marc Trestman is out but Chicago Bears remain a mystery

One of the big NFL fish on the board are the Chicago Bears.  Virtually everybody knows they plan to fire head coach Marc Trestman at the end of the season as his team has regressed to a 5-10 mark after narrowly missing the playoffs last year.  Beyond that?  It’s really hard to say.

Head coach isn’t the only position in the Chicago organization that could be up for grabs.  GM Phil Emery is also on the hot seat and no head coach decision can be made until his fate is decided first.  Then there is the Jay Cutler dilemma.  Does the team keep him or trade him and how will his presence impact the coaching search?  This makes the Bears arguably the biggest mystery of the 2015 off-season.