Ranking the 7 NFL Head Coaching Hires

Jim Tomsula, San Francisco 49ers

This is the obvious bottom-of-the-barrel head coach hiring for the offseason. It’s unsexy, safe in all the wrong ways, and paints the picture of a franchise that is more concerned with its image and maintaining polite conversation at the dinner table than winning.

Jim Harbaugh -- for all of his hollering on the sidelines, fiery attitude, and spats with general manager Trent Baalke -- worked miracles with the 49ers. In his four seasons with the team, he assembled a 44-19-1 record (.695 win percentage), the fifth-best in all of NFL history. The only coaches with better win percentages than him? Guy Chamberlin (pre-merger), John Madden, Vince Lombardi, and George Allen.

For goodness sakes, Harbaugh’s teams averaged 14th in the league in Adjusted Net Expected Points (NEP), and 7th in Adjusted Defensive NEP, after they averaged just 25th and 18th for the five years prior to him. I wrote up Harbaugh’s inimitable legacy with the team here.

By letting Harbaugh walk to Michigan, the 49ers gave up. They took one of the best team-builders, motivators, and strategists in the league and kicked him to the curb. Jim Tomsula is a company man who has served his time as the team’s defensive line coach for eight seasons; he’ll be a “yes man” for Baalke and ownership. This move not only didn’t help, but will actively set San Francisco back for years.