It took a little longer than expected after the Indianapolis Colts had to try again, but every NFL head-coaching vacancy is now filled.

The theme of this season’s new coaching hires was no retreads. Five of the seven new coaches haven’t been head coaches in the NFL before. Pat Shurmur was an NFL head coach before and didn’t do well with the Cleveland Browns, but that can be excused because nobody does well with the Browns. Jon Gruden finally came out of the booth and has a Super Bowl ring, so that’s not your typical uninspired retread hire either.

Call it the Sean McVay effect. The Los Angeles Rams took a shot on a young first-time head coach and it worked out gloriously. The Rams won the NFC West and McVay won coach of the year. That might cause teams to take more chances in the hiring process for the foreseeable future. Also, Doug Pederson was a first-time head coach when the Philadelphia Eagles hired him two years ago, and that worked out pretty well.

Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden was the highest profile hire of this year’s coaching carousel. (AP) More

None of this year’s hires seem bad (though it’s hard to say many, except one, seem great), but let’s grade the seven coaching hires that took place this offseason.

Arizona Cardinals: Steve Wilks

Wilks might be the toughest hire to get a read on. He was defensive coordinator for only one season with the Carolina Panthers, though he did a good job with that unit. He had 12 seasons as an assistant and is highly regarded around the league. He spent the last three seasons as Ron Rivera’s assistant head coach, and Rivera is one of the best coaches in the game.

Wilks’ hire of Mike McCoy as his offensive coordinator is curious, considering McCoy was fired during last season by the Denver Broncos. It’s not like we know a lot about most of the new coaches, but Wilks is a bit of a mystery. Grade: C

Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy

Nagy also has just one season as an offensive coordinator. He does have things in common with the two most successful recent coaching hires. He comes from the noted Andy Reid coaching tree and had a short stint as Chiefs offensive coordinator, like Pederson. He is fairly young (39 years old) and brought creative wrinkles to the Chiefs offense, so in those ways he fits the McVay mold. His hire of former Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich as offensive coordinator showed that Nagy will bring new ideas to the job.

Nagy is still pretty raw, in terms of experience, so he’s a mystery too. But the track record of Reid’s assistants gives him a little bit of a bump. Grade: B-minus

Detroit Lions: Matt Patricia

The Bill Belichick tree hasn’t been too successful, but Patricia will try to turn that around. There hasn’t been a successful head coach to come out of New England since Belichick got there. Patricia is well versed in the Patriot Way, having been there since 2004. It’s also the only NFL team he has ever been with. Ideally you’d like to see a new head coach draw on ideas from multiple successful coaches, but if you’re going to be an assistant for just one coach, Belichick is a good one.

It has been said often that Patricia is a rocket scientist, and clearly he’s a sharp guy. We’ll know soon enough if his success running the Patriots defense was due to Belichick or he has his own chops. Watching the Patriots defense get out-coached in Super Bowl LII won’t create extra optimism among Detroit fans, but we’ll see. Grade: C

Indianapolis Colts: Frank Reich

As long as Reich is Colts coach, he and Josh McDaniels will be tied together. McDaniels turned down the job, and less than a week later Indianapolis had settled on the Eagles’ offensive coordinator and longtime Buffalo Bills backup quarterback. It might end up being a net win.

If McDaniels wasn’t committed to the Colts job, they’re better off without him. Reich didn’t call plays for the Eagles, but Pederson didn’t call plays for the Chiefs and turned out OK. Reich deserves a share of credit for how well the Eagles offense improved through last season, before and after Carson Wentz’s injury. If Reich takes some of the aggressive ideas from Pederson and uses them with the Colts, Indianapolis might look back on McDaniels’ decision as the best thing that happened to them. Given the challenge after McDaniels left them out to dry, the Colts did well to grab Reich. Grade: B

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