Coaching changes have paid off big for several teams this season.
From impressive turnarounds for Jacksonville and the New York Giants to big signings for Minnesota and Miami, a record five of the 10 teams that hired new coaches for the 2022 season made the playoffs.
Doug Pederson led the Jaguars in a worst first flip in the AFC South, Brian Daboll helped the Giants go from last place to a wild card spot, Kevin O’Connell took Minnesota from a losing record to 13 wins and the NFC North title, Mike McDaniel got Miami to first playoff appearance since 2016 and Todd Bowles helped Tampa Bay repeat as division champions for the first time in franchise history.
This broke the previous record of four coaches who reached the postseason in their first season with a team set in 1997 by Jim Fassel (Giants), Pete Carroll (Patriots), Bobby Ross (Lions) and Steve Mariucci (49ers). .
There were a record 10 coaching changes last season, and not all of the newcomers were successful, with Denver firing Nathaniel Hackett last month and Houston firing Lovie Smith on Sunday night.
Chicago’s Matt Eberflus finished with the worst record in the NFL, Josh McDaniels turned a 10-win playoff team in Las Vegas into a 6-11 team and the Saints posted double-digit losses in their first year for the first time since 2005. Dennis Allen.
The most impressive turnaround came in Jacksonville, where Pederson helped the Jaguars become the first team since the 2008 Dolphins to win the division in a season after posting the league’s worst record.
Daboll’s work helped the Giants go from 4-13 to 9-7-1 despite a flawed roster marred by a staggering $54.8 million in dead salary cap money to reach the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Bowles struggled a bit more as Tampa Bay won just eight games and became the fourth division champion in NFL history with a losing record. Two of the previous three — the 2010 Seahawks (7-9) and 2014 Panthers (7-8-10) — won a playoff game, while Washington (7-9) lost to the Bucs in the 2020 playoffs.
The Texans are once again searching for a new coach after rare seasons of one-year coaching tenures. Houston fired David Culley after his first season in 2021 and Smith this season.
The only other team since the merger to do that was the 49ers, who had three coaches in a row last year or less in 1976-78 with Monte Clark, Ken Meyer, Pete McCulley and did it again in 2015-16 with Jim. Tomsula and Chip Kelly.
REMATCH WEEKEND
All six games on the wild-card weekend are rematches from the regular season, including three games between division foes, with Baltimore playing Cincinnati, Miami hosting Buffalo and San Francisco hosting Seattle.
Two of those three games ended in regular season splits with the Ravens and Bengals and the Dolphins and Bills splitting their two games.
The 49ers swept the Seahawks, but they know how little that matters after losing to the Rams in the NFC title game last season after two regular season wins.
In the Super Bowl era, teams that have swept opponents in the regular season are 14-10 in playoff rematches, including 13-6 when the game is at home like Saturday for the 49ers.
In other rematches, the Chargers look to avenge a Week 3 loss to Jacksonville, the Giants look to do the same after a Week 16 loss to the Vikings and the Cowboys look to do so after a Week 1 loss to Tampa. Bay.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the fifth time since the merger that every game in the opening round of the playoffs is a rematch from the regular season. It happened on four wild card game weekends in 2009, 2004, 1994 and 1992.
BROWSING
The Niners entered the postseason quite well, winning their last 10 games of the regular season with Jimmy Garoppolo starting the first five games and Brock Purdy the last five.
The last team to have two QBs with consecutive five-game winning streaks were the perfect Dolphins in 1972 with Bob Gries and Earl Morrall.
San Francisco is the 13th team in the Super Bowl era to finish the regular season on a winning streak of at least 10 games.
The results of the previous 12 have not been very impressive, with only three winning the Super Bowl with the 1972 Dolphins, 1976 Raiders and 2003 Patriots extending the streak into the postseason.
Two others reached the Super Bowl before losing to the 1967 Raiders and 2007 Patriots, who fell in the final game.
Five of the teams lost their first playoff game: 2019 Ravens, 2012 Broncos, 2009 Chargers, 2006 Chargers and 1993 Oilers.
Kansas City won a wild-card game in 2015 before losing in the divisional round, and Pittsburgh won a divisional-round game in 2004 before losing in the AFC title game.
HAPPY DRILLING
Nyheim Hines’ emotional TD return for Buffalo on Sunday was also historic.
Hines became the first Bills player to return a kickoff for a TD since Terrence McGee did it against Miami and later added another in the game to become the first player with two kick return TDs in a game since Leon Washington did for Seattle in 2010. .
Hines was also the last player to have two punt-return touchdowns in the same game in 2019 for the Colts, becoming the first player to have a game with at least two kickoff-return touchdowns and one with at least two punts. -return touchdowns in his career.
Those returns gave the NFL nine combined punt and kick return TDs—second fewest in the Super Bowl era to seven in the nine-game, strike-shortened 1982 season.
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