Wannstedt was before my time. I think it’s hard to argue he’s the worst, given his record of two playoff appearances and a divisional championship, but from what I’ve read, he was responsible for the long term immiseration of the franchise and running Ricky so damn hard he fled the country, so I suppose that puts him in the conversation.
Saban wasn’t a bad football coach he was just cowardly in how he handled his situation here and bailed to Alabama. Obviously, it was a good move for him, but you just wish he handled it all differently and didn’t lie throughout the season. I don’t remember much of him though because I was pretty young and just beginning to follow football.
I haven’t missed a game since the ’07 season when I was 15 years old, so that’s where my knowledge begins. I don’t see how Cam Cameron isn’t the worst of the bunch. That team was so, so, so bad. I’ll never forget screaming and losing my damn mind as Camarillo took that one to the house in overtime (from freaking Cleo Lemon of all people!) to avoid the winless campaign. Felt like winning the Super Bowl to me then. Cameron was an alright OC for Baltimore after he got canned here, but was in way over his head as a HC. Thank God Parcells fired him asap after taking over the reigns, although I'll never forgive the Parcells triumvirate for how they did ZT dirty.
Sparano wasn’t a terrible coach but he wasn’t great either. Ol’ Fist Pump (RIP) seemed like a decent guy and that ’08 campaign was spectacular—even if it was mostly due to a weak schedule and Pennington falling in our laps shortly before the season started. Ireland was a bad GM and Sparano was a Parcells disciple who did not have his finger on the pulse of the latest trends in the league. I loved Jake Long, but passing on Matt Ryan and settling for Chad Henne in the second round was a terrible mistake.
Joe Philbin is probably second worst for me. He just very clearly was not a leader of a group of alpha men in an NFL locker room. Not every coach has to be a screamer to be a motivator—look at Tony Dungy—but Philbin just didn’t have it. I feel like his teams were never prepared to start games, he wasn’t good at making halftime adjustments, he blew up a pretty good defense, stunted Tannehill’s development, couldn’t piece together a decent o-line despite that supposedly being his specialty. I think the only reason he got the job is because Aaron Rodgers vouched for him and he showed up to his interview with a big binder he fooled Ross with.
Gase probably gets my vote for third worst. We made the same mistake we did with Philbin—Philbin’s success in Green Bay was due to future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers, likewise with Gase in Denver and Manning. Gase was just such an arrogant prick who was inflexible and bled talent because he couldn’t work with anyone. I have to give him props for going to the Jets, coaching terribly for the past two seasons, then screwing up the Tank for Trevor with some meaningless late season wins. It was a lovely parting gift from him.
Just my two cents.
