The coaches this year walked into some weird situations, and several of them inherited teams with a good talent base to build on. Andy Reid has a hugely unfair advantage here, because he took over a Chiefs team that was very talented but terribly coached last year (sorry, Romeo). The same could be said for the Chargers, Bears, perhaps even the Cardinals.

 

That narrows it down to the Eagles, Jags, Bills and Browns. Gus did more than he should have been able to with a roster totally bereft of talented players or capable depth, but the man was still 4-12. Doug Marrone getting the Bills to 6-10 with a roster that's not all that much better, and yearlong injury problems at QB, was about as impressive, if we're being objective about it. Chud got screwed by the Browns, period. They stuck him with a Larry, Moe and Curly as his options at quarterback, then traded away his only competent running back and fired him because, apparently, when you gut a team's roster, that team tends to be terrible.

 

Which kind of narrows it down to Chip Kelly. There was talent left over in Philly yeah, but not to the extent that there was in KC. Add in that Kelly installed his own read option and a 3-4 defense that looked very different from the wide 9 scheme that Reid favored in Philly, and required very different personnel, and the talent base isn't as huge of an advantage. What really wins it for Kelly is how he adapted his read option to fit the players he has. You'd have expected to see Michael Vick break out in the read option, but instead Kelly tweaked it so that Nick Foles, who's as mobile as a statue, could run it. Any coach can install their own scheme, but Kelly modified his so that Nick Foles and Riley Cooper could be key parts of it, and that's impressive enough to, along with the 10-6 record, make him the best new coach imo.

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