The NFL coaching carousel continues to spin late in the week, but the end results of this round of job filling is starting to come into focus. The message from Texan fans to the team is very clear — we want DeMeco Ryans as the next Texans head coach. However, if we are to believe the oddsmakers, and if they are accurate on the betting favorites for all four remaining openings (Carolina hired Frank Reich on Thursday afternoon), then DeMeco Ryans will not be getting a head coaching job on this go round.
According to the odds at Bet Online, Ryans is among the top five candidates for each of the remaining four NFL head coach openings — his shortest odds are for the Texans’ job at 2 to 1, and his longest odds are for the Cardinals” job at 9 to 1. It would be mildly surprising for Ryans to get shut out completely, and I still think there is a great chance he comes here, but it goes to show you that nothing is guaranteed.
Here are the odds on all four job openings, as of Thursday morning, with predictions on each one:
Texans Next Head Coach
Jonathan Gannon 7/5
DeMeco Ryans 2/1
Shane Steichen 5/1
Mike Kafka 15/2
Sean Payton 10/1
Eric Bieniemy 20/1
Dan Quinn 22/1
Frank Reich 22/1
Ejiro Evero 25/1
Byron Leftwich 33/1
Leslie Frazier 33/1
Raheem Morris 33/1
Jim Caldwell 40/1
TEXANS PREDICTION: RYANS. Things are breaking just right for the Texans to end up with their former captain as the next head coach. It appears as though a few of the other teams with openings have honed in on their guy, and it’s not Ryans. I think he will be fantastic here.
Next Broncos Full Time Head Coach
Sean Payton 5/9
Dan Quinn 5/2
DeMeco Ryans 17/2
David Shaw 16/1
Eljiro Evero 16/1
Jim Caldwell 16/1
Shane Steichen 18/1
Frank Reich 22/1
Kellen Moore 25/1
Darrell Bevell 33/1
Jonathan Gannon 33/1
Raheem Morris 33/1
Eric Bieniemy 40/1
Leslie Frazier 40/1
Brian Flores 50/1
BRONCOS PREDICTION: SHAW. The Payton rumors seemed to pick up some steam earlier in the week, but now Shaw is in the mix, and it’s believed to be because of the involvement of minority owner (and former Shaw coworker at Stanford) Condaleeza Rice. Shaw was 14-28 in his last four seasons at Stanford, but they may be hellbent on making some weird “culture” play at head coach. Been there before, huh Texan fans?
Next Cardinals Head Coach
Brian Flores 27/20
Sean Payton 5/1
Vance Joseph 5/1
DeMeco Ryans 9/1
Dan Quinn 10/1
Frank Reich 12/1
Shane Bowen 12/1
Jonathan Gannon 16/1
Mike Kafka 16/1
Shane Steichen 16/1
Eric Bieniemy 25/1
Kellen Moore 28/1
Ken Dorsey 33/1
Raheem Morris 33/1
Aaron Glenn 40/1
Darrell Bevell 40/1
Leslie Frazier 40/1
Brian Johnson 50/1
CARDINALS PREDICTION: FLORES. When the Cardinals hired Monti Ossenfort, a longtime Patriots personnel guy, as their general manager. Flores, a former Patriot defensive coordinator, shot up the board. The league would probably like to see Flores get hired by somebody, considering he is suing the league for discriminatory hiring practices.
Next Colts Full-Time Head Coach
Jeff Saturday 3/2
Eric Bieniemy 15/4
DeMeco Ryans 13/2
Dan Quinn 15/2
Leslie Frazier 8/1
Raheem Morris 10/1
Mike Kafka 12/1
Sean Payton 16/1
Ejiro Evero 20/1
Shane Steichen 20/1
Aaron Glenn 22/1
Wink Martindale 25/1
Darrell Bevell 40/1
COLTS PREDICTION: QUINN. The gut punch here would be the Colts hiring Ryans. The comedy gold would be the Colts retaining interim head coach Jeff Saturday, and his 1-7 record down the stretch in 2022. I think it settles in here with a solid, experienced, very vanilla hire in Quinn. Vanilla is perfect for the city of Indianapolis.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
