Billick reminds me of Gruden -- both struggled in developing a competent QB...

I could be wrong

Chan Gailey = Mike Martz

Mike Smith wasn't a head coach but he did have one year of experience coaching the LB's at Baltimore and 4 years of success as the Jags d-coordinator.

Haley has been calling the plays for one year. Haley maybe a great coach, but he seems like a big question mark at this point in his career to me. Plus he had problems with Kurt Warner, so he must not be easy to get along with.

What problems has he had with Kurt Warner?

Elaborate

Haley coordinated the passing game in Dallas with Parcells, and he's been calling the Arizona offense for TWO seasons.

When did he have problems with Kurt Warner?

I think if you hire Gailey as head coach and hire a good defensive coordinator that the chances of success would be better than hiring Haley. Haley has only been calling plays for a year if Larry Fitzgerald wasn't catching everything thrown to him, Haley wouldn't have even been mentioned. The bonus is that if Gailey is not successful that you haven't invested as much in him and hopefully you could move to a more qualified head coach sooner, maybe even promote the d coordinator that you hired to complement Gailey to head coach.

I was trying to figure out that, myself... :D

He had a sideline spat with Warner about a fumble.

Haley has been OC for 2 years but Whisenhunt called the plays the first year.

Way to reach there sport.

And so what if he only called plays for one year? The guy clearly is a great playcaller. Wisenhunt didn't get half out of the offense that Haley did.

Haley would be an interesting gamble. He has the potential to be one of a long list of Parcells tree coaches who get under the players' skins, but knows how to get the best out of them. Then again, he is also abrasive enough that he could maybe lose his players if they aren't winning right away, especially with a young, impressionable team. But I keep steering back to the idea that while his approach seems to work 50% of the time in the NFL, for some weird reason it always seems to work for Parcells-tree coaches. Weird.

I don't know that he has a ton of experience with playcalling with Whisenhunt probably serving as at least an advisor most of the time he was in Arizona, but that doesn't really matter to me. In the end, a head coach can get away with lack of playcalling experience if Pioli hires a strong coordinator on both sides of the ball (which I am confident he will). What matters most is if Haley can get the most out of his players. His style is unorthodox, but it works.

It's a gamble, but it's one I'd be willing to take.

Gailey hasn't done anything merit the job. He certainly doesn't have a history of success as an HC. Not everyone can be a retread. If Gailey's only qualification over Haley is that he has HC experience, that's pretty weak.

One thing that makes me comfortable with Haley is how Bill Parcells has been singing this guys praises for a few years. Parcells loves this guy, and that counts for something.

Pioli may like a hard-ass like Haley to weed out the guys who don't fit in long term. Listening to Tony G's comments, it seems that Herm ran a looser ship that we thought. And by the way, that was one big reason Herm had no chance at staying -- being an over the top players' coach. Whoever the new coach is, there are going to be a lot of players who hate him after the Edwards regime.

The point of this post was not that Gailey is the guy, but that Haley is weak coaching candidate from a historical perspective. I don't think Gailey is a great head coaching candidate, but I do think he did something with nothing. He made an offense that was one of the worst I have ever seen into something that was decent.

With Haley, no one on this board would think he is great if not for some great plays by Whisenhunt's players. Does Larry Fitz catching a ball over two defenders make him a better coach???? Did he pick Larry Fitz in the draft??? If not, then what makes Haley such a great coach that we should commit to him long term?? The cards would have been out of the playoffs without Larry F. making those plays and no one would know who Haley is.

Also another negative for Haley is that one of the teams weakest point is on the front seven defensively. What expertise does he bring to the team that can solve those problems?