Come to Think of It: NFL Assistant Coaching Changes Dominate Preseason

So they say that the NFL preseason is meaningless? Try telling that to players on the bubble. And, in a recent trend, to assistant offensive coaches who are being let go before a regular season pass is ever thrown.

The latest casualty is Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Turk Schonert, who was fired on Friday following a weak offensive performance in the preseason.

I don't know the stats, but all these early changes strike me as unprecedented—I can't recall a preseason where so many coaches were let go.

Maybe one change has opened the door to others, who knows?

Put aside, for a moment, whether the dismissals were warranted or not. I mean, the absence of T.O. may have had something to do with the Bills anemic showing. After all, Schonert installed the no-huddle offense due to Owens.

The point is, three coordinators in one week?—Before the darn season has even started?

In addition to Schonert, Kansas City fired Chan Gailey on Monday and Tampa Bay said sayonara to Jeff Jagodzinski on Thursday.

If a team is making decisions based on pre-season performance, allow me to remind them that the Detroit Lions had a great pre-season last year, only to go winless in the regular season.

You see, pre-season performance has no correlation with regular season results. Yet teams are firing coaches based on what is happening in these exhibition games?

The first thought that comes to mind is there must be more to it. There must have been underlying issues between these coaches and their head coach or the front office.

And, in the Bills case, though the timing of the move may be in question, it certainly isn't based solely on this year. The Bills offense finished 25th in total yards in the NFL last season, the sixth straight year the unit finished 25th or worse.

Can the firing of Dick Jauran be far behind?

Likewise, the dismissal of Gailey wasn't necessarily a surprise. Head coach Todd Haley served as Cardinals offensive coordinator last season, and he enjoyed being the playcaller and didn't appreciate Chan's style.

ESPN's John Clayton surmises that the rash of coaching changes may have more to do with teams going with younger, cheaper head coaches who have little knowledge of, and no alliance to, assistant coaches around the league.

As Clayton puts it, some coaches view assistants as "...more of a name than an acquaintance...and their philosophies obviously didn't mesh."

I feel that when that happens, they are quick to pull the trigger because they don't have extensive resumes to fall back on and therefore, can't afford to wait around. Plus, it's not like these guys are their buddies, so it's no skin off of their back.

These young coaches need immediate results.

In all, there were 11 head coaching changes this offseason. Except for Tom Cable and Mike Singletary, none of these coaches had been head coaches for their respective teams in 2008, so wanting to bring in your own guys is a natural reaction.

The epidemic of preseason assistant coaching changes is, however, a bit hard to keep track of, come to think of it.