I was going to reserve judgment until after the draft and free agency, but I'll go on record now guessing it gets worse before it gets better -- at least in the short term. Ross made perhaps his biggest miscalculation to date in believing he could land Cowher, Gruden or Fisher. By striking out on all three, he's virtually assured a worse season next year. That's not to say Cowher, Gruden or Fisher are sure fire solutions. However, they are proven, could definitely assemble top notch staffs, and would have a good chance of turning in a decent season without hitting rock bottom first. In the long road, though, any one of these three might prove to be just a band-aid solution (and that's coming from a big time Fisher advocate).
Any of the three remaining candidates are quite probably going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to assembling a staff. Of the three, I think Bowles has the best chance for some success immediately (if you define "some success" by fielding a competitive team and finishing between 6-8 wins), simply because he will probably maintain some consistency and continuity. If either McCoy or Philbin blow things up, installing new offenses and bringing in a DC with a different system, then I would predict some regression and a top 5 draft pick in 2013.
