Who are the overrated NFL head coaches right now?

By: Jake Rajala

The dust of the beginning of the 2021 NFL season has settled down and three weeks of NFL action is nearly completed. It’s starting to become clear who the pretenders and contenders are in the NFL. There’s a lot of promise for the clear contenders in the league, while there’s a lot of uncertainty and dim looks for the pretenders in the league. For the pretenders in the league, questions surely loom. 

The biggest question marks will rest with the head coaches, also known as the leaders of the struggling organizations. With that being said, I’m going to outline the coaches that deserve the most scrutiny around the league. 

Robert Saleh

The New York Jets first-year head coach has put on a stingy defense in New York, but he hasn’t been able to have his defense stand out in takeaways or bail out their league’s worst offense. I never liked the popular hire of Robert Saleh, who didn’t forecast a ferocious defense last season and didn’t seem like the best fit for New York. 

Everybody is talking about Sam Darnold going 3-0 without Adam Gase, but nobody is talking about the Jets looking the same this season without Adam Gase. The Jets got absolutely embarrassed by the Denver Broncos in a 26-0 loss today. 

The lop-sided loss that New York encountered today marked the third defeat that New York has consumed this season. In back-to-back weeks, the prized Zach Wilson hasn’t just been awful, but Saleh’s new-look defense has been soft and blatantly unacceptable. If Saleh doesn’t put on a fighting chance for NY this season, he will be yet another former NFL defensive coordinator to run back to his previous prized program (Matt Patricia being the most recent). 

Bill Belichick 

Yes, Patriots HC Bill Belichick has “two hand fulls” of Super Bowl rings. Yet, the Patriots leader has started his team without former longtime Pats QB Tom Brady in the losing category for the second season in a row. 

The Pats, who were led out by the rookie QB Mac Jones, got controlled by the New Orleans Saints in a 28-13 loss, which places them at 1-2 on the season. The worst part of the Pats loss is that they had a very uncharacteristic loss. The Pats allowed a punt to be blocked and they also had numerous special teams penalties. Their big free-agent signing Jonnu Smith also had two terrible drops. The Pats need a strong and quick turnaround if they want to avoid starting 1-3 at the hands of the motivated, 44-year-old Tom Brady next week. 

Pete Carroll 

It’s evident that Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has succeeded in upsetting Russell Wilson in 2021. The Seahawks legendary QB was furious over the lack of support he’s garnered in his tenure as a Seahawk. Well, it’s becoming more obvious why the great Seattle QB was upset with his situation. The timid 1-2 Seahawks don’t have a competitive pass defense, rushing attack, and the pass protection isn’t quite what it should be for a team holding a generational talent at QB. 

Carroll, who is also the oldest NFL head coach, failed to bring Seattle back to the Super Bowl when the Legion of Boom (LOB) was intact and now it’s looking more and more like he will be unable to bring dangeruss back to the promised land with him in the building. The Seahawks now sit at fourth place in the juggernaut NFC West division with a 1-2 record. Pete Carroll’s team has more talent than the two other squads mentioned on this list, but he will need to find some juice and potentially players if he wants to keep Wilson happy and his team alive in this year’s playoff pursuit.