The Dallas Cowboys could go in a number of ways in their search for a new head coach — if and when that gets underway — the most appealing of which would arguably be to pluck a talented coordinator from a playoff team.

This has been a common approach for teams with coaching vacancies (the following is not meant to be a complete history of this):

— In 2015, the Atlanta Falcons hired Dan Quinn, who was the defensive coordinator for a Seattle Seahawks team that had reached back-to-back Super Bowls.

— In 2016, the Philadelphia Eagles hired Doug Pederson, who was the offensive coordinator of a Kansas City Chiefs team that had just lost in the AFC divisional round.

— In 2017, Kyle Shanahan became the San Francisco 49ers’ head coach after leading the Falcons’ offense en route to Super Bowl LI.

— In 2018, Frank Reich and Matt Patricia were hired by the Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions, respectively, after coordinating against each other in Super Bowl LII. Reich was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator and Patricia was the defensive coordinator for the Patriots.

— In 2019, Vic Fangio, who was defensive coordinator of a Chicago Bears playoff squad, was hired to be the Denver Broncos’ head coach and Brian Flores was hired by the Miami Dolphins after coaching the Patriots’ defense to a win in Super Bowl LIII.

The NFL is a copycat league, so teams love to poach a coordinator whose team is in the playoffs in hopes that he can lead his new team to similar success. It can be tricky pursuing coordinators on a playoff team because there are likely multiple teams pursuing the same candidates. Finding time to interview those candidates can be problematic as they try to get their current team ready for a playoff game.

With that in mind, let’s discuss some of the potential top candidates who are coordinators for current playoff teams.

Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator, Patriots

Because New England consistently makes the playoffs and vies for a Super Bowl, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is often the top assistant on most search lists.

McDaniels is a six-time Super Bowl champion who first started calling plays for the Patriots in 2006. He became the Broncos’ head coach in 2009 after helping lead a Tom Brady-less Patriots offense to an 11-5 record, but he found little success in Denver, going 8-8 in his first season before being fired after a 3-9 start in 2010. After a one-season stint with the then-St. Louis Rams as offensive coordinator, McDaniels returned to his old stomping grounds in New England and has won three Super Bowls since.

The Patriots have yet to win a Super Bowl without McDaniels on staff, though he was just a personnel and defensive assistant for the first two titles.

It should also be noted that McDaniels was announced as the new Colts head coach in 2018 before he backed out and returned to New England. So, if Dallas pursues McDaniels, it has to be done with the knowledge that he could potentially leave them waiting at the altar.

McDaniels has an interesting résumé because he’s proven capable of adapting his scheme to the team’s personnel in any given year to find success — just look at how he’s modulated the offense around Brady’s skill set as he’s aged — but there’s always a question as to how Bill Belichick disciples fare without the best coach in football history looking over their shoulders.

And, outside of the one season in 2008, McDaniels hasn’t really proven he can lead an offense to success without Brady as his quarterback.

But given his proven ability to modulate his scheme throughout the years, there’s reason to believe he could build an explosive offense around Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott & Co.

Don “Wink” Martindale, defensive coordinator, Ravens

One of the most interesting names on this list, Don “Wink” Martindale has quickly become regarded as one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL after leading the Baltimore Ravens to two straight top-five finishes in Defense DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average), according to Football Outsiders.

Martindale was promoted from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator before the 2018 season.

Additionally, reports have surfaced that Martindale would like to bring LSU passing game coordinator Joe Brady (an assistant with the New Orleans Saints in 2018) to run his team’s offense if hired, which provides a major boost to Martindale’s profile.

Brady removed LSU from the stone ages of smash-mouth football and built an explosive offense that mixes an outstanding running scheme and plethora of run-pass options with an extensive empty formation package (the quarterback is the only player in the backfield) to boot. Now, a lot of this is helped by the fact that LSU is dripping with pro-caliber talent, but the schemes are sound and help optimize the talent.

Martindale doesn’t have quite as extensive of a resume as the others on this list, which is why it was incredibly smart to tie his name to the hottest young coordinator in college football.

The @Ravens defense has been outstanding all season on 3rd Down and have a major test this week against the Saints. @MattBowen41 highlights their zone blitz and trap coverage schemes this weekend on @NFLMatchup!#RavensFlock #NOvsBAL pic.twitter.com/izO9c3Z7Cj — NFL Films (@NFLFilms) October 19, 2018

Although he doesn’t exactly look like the innovative type by appearance, “Wink” is one of the most forward-thinking defensive coaches in the league. Aggressiveness is the name of his game — he loves to take the fight to offenses in an effort to put them on their heels.

Simplistic sounds good in theory, but at some point a defense needs to have a Rolodex of answers and counters to an offensive scheme. Offensive coordinators and quarterbacks are simply too good for a defensive coordinator to rely on the execution of a simple scheme.

Martindale runs a variety of complex coverages, including trap coverages, intertwined with blitzes and varying alignments to keep offenses guessing. Speaking of blitzing, he loves to manufacture a pass rush using an array of blitzes. The Ravens were by far the most frequent blitzers in the NFL, doing so on 54.9% of snaps this season — 11.6% higher than the next team.

Shot 19 - The 2pt conversion. Cover 0 from #Ravens. Ball must come out quick to beat free defender, and that's who tips this pass at the LOS pic.twitter.com/XSAu9G949F — Fran Duffy (@fduffy3) December 20, 2016

The Ravens love to run Cover 0 (man coverage with no deep safeties) — they use it more than any other team — in an attempt to generate pressure on the quarterback and force either a sack or errant throw.

Cover-0 on 4th-and-8 in the 4th Q. pic.twitter.com/JIYqpXjTwW — All22Hype (@All22Hype) January 2, 2020

Martindale isn’t afraid to utilize Cover 0 in high-leverage situations either. Late in the fourth quarter of Baltimore’s Week 14 game in Buffalo, on a fourth-and-8 with the Bills in the red zone looking to win, he ran a Cover-0 blitz. It ended up working as the blitz rushed Josh Allen into a throw that was broken up by Marcus Peters.

Martindale is the defensive version of Bruce Arians’ famous quote, “No risk it, no biscuit.” The frequency with which he uses Cover 0 is the perfect illustration why.

Double team rate as an edge (x) by pass rush win rate as an edge (y) for the 2019 regular season.



PRWR = rate pass rusher beats blocker in 2.5 seconds.



ESPN metrics, NFL Next Gen Stats data. pic.twitter.com/zJagMBty3Y — Seth Walder (@SethWalder) December 30, 2019

Martindale’s blitzes also afford his best pass rushers frequent one-on-one opportunities, a privilege that Dallas’ top pass rushers were not afforded. Because of this, Ravens edge defender Matthew Judon put together a Pro Bowl season, accumulating 54 tackles, 9.5 sacks and 62 total pressures (16th among all edge defenders and 15 more pressures than he’s had in any other season), according to Pro Football Focus. He did all of this while getting double-teamed at one of the lowest rates among edge defenders (see above).

If Martindale can get that kind of season out of Judon, imagine what he could do with DeMarcus Lawrence.

The unfortunate reality is that it also takes some time to implement his schemes, as evidenced by Baltimore’s slow start on defense this season. Through the first seven weeks, the Ravens faced a slew of below-average offenses (Kansas City and Seattle being the notable exceptions) but gave up 22.3 points per game.

But once things started to click in the second half, the Ravens turned into arguably the NFL’s best defense, giving up just 14 points per game in the last nine contests. If Martindale gets hired, keep in mind that the defense may have a rocky start as players get more comfortable in his defense.

Some may be apprehensive about making Martindale the Cowboys’ new head coach because he runs a 3-4 base defense while Dallas has run a 4-3. But the differences between a 3-4 and 4-3 defense are often overstated. Also, given the proliferation of three-wide receiver sets, nickel (which uses four down linemen) has become the new base defense. NFL teams used nickel personnel more than 60% of the time in 2018, according to Football Outsiders.

Eric Bieniemy, offensive coordinator, Chiefs

Greg Roman, offensive coordinator, Ravens

Because we discussed why Eric Bieniemy and Greg Roman deserve consideration from Dallas last week, we are going to combine them here in the name of brevity.

Both Bieniemy and Roman come from innovative offenses that have helped their squads to playoff byes and the top two seeds in the AFC. Roman presides over the Ravens’ offense, which finished first in Offense DVOA on the back of a deadly running attack and potent play-action passing attack. Bieniemy is Andy Reid’s No. 2 in Kansas City, where their innovative and explosive offense finished third in Offense DVOA despite starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes missing multiple games.

Bieniemy hails from the ever-fruitful Reid coaching tree that is built upon a mix of West Coast and spread ideologies, although Reid’s coaching tree is heralded for the ability to fold in concepts from a variety of different philosophies. Roman first became noteworthy as an offensive coordinator on Jim Harbaugh’s 49ers staff in the early 2010s.

While both benefit from two of the most talented quarterbacks in football (Mahomes and Lamar Jackson), they each have proven capable of adapting their scheme around others.

Kansas City somehow manufactured effective offense with Matt Moore under center this year while Roman has had great success with quarterbacks such as Colin Kaepernick and Tyrod Taylor, both of whom lack Jackson’s MVP-caliber talent.

Roman and Bieniemy will receive a ton of interest from teams that have head coaching openings — and it’s actually already begun, as Bieniemy was scheduled to interview with three teams (Panthers, Giants and the Browns) while Roman interviewed with the Cleveland Browns on Thursday.

If the Cowboys are interested in either candidate, they’d better act quickly.

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