It is really amazing to sit back and look at all of the big-name HC candidates that have been available over the past couple of years:
Johnson
MacDonald
Vrabel
McDaniel
Stefanski
Harbaugh
Tomlin
Flores
None of these guys is/would have been a slam dunk hire, and some of them were never coming...
I think they do if DET was still sniffing around Blough in your scenario. An even more interesting situation would have been if there was simultaneous outside interest in both Pritchard and Blough while both were on staff...which one would've gotten the nod?
Great point, although I don't think the "fly to his house and don't take no for an answer" approach would have worked. I am in the camp that McDaniel provided information to either make it known that he wasn't coming to WAS or that he was going to take some time to make a decision.
This franchise has a rich history of hiring from within. Remember when they hired Jim Zorn as OC and then promoted him to HC days later? What could go wrong?
This is the same sort of thinking that has warmed me to the idea of cutting bait with Quinn now. Quinn's uncertain status causes 2 distinct problems:
1. It limits the number of quality candidates who might otherwise be interested in the job: who wants to hitch their wagon to a falling star if...
Precisely. The job of the ownership is to get the best possible people in place at all levels of the organization. If the ownership sees Harbaugh as a definitive, substantial upgrade to Quinn and there is a great chance of getting him, they would be extremely remiss in not doing so.