Buffalo and New York (assuming Bowles gets canned) have terrible ownership. They'd also be within the division, something I think Josh would like to avoid. Cardale Jones, EJ Manuel, Bryce Petty, Christian Hackenberg, nothing on either roster resembles a capable QB.
The Bears (if Fox is fired) don't have a franchise QB but a pretty decent D. They will also have some solid draft capital to work with, and if they re-sign Alshon Jeffery, the outline of a decent offense minus a QB. They'd be younger than either AFC East team, but I don't consider this a great opportunity.
LA, despite the sun and large market, doesn't seem like a great destination. I'm not a huge fan of Snead as GM, and they have $21M in dead money on the books this year from his past mistakes. They've mortgaged their immediate future for Goff, who doesn't really look that promising yet. Trumaine Johnson and Kenny Britt are both FAs. They will have about $45M in cap room to try and sign/replace those guys.
The Jaguars are...well, the Jaguars. They do have a ton of cap room, talent at all levels, and only a year left of the Blake Bortles experience but he's probably worth keeping based on his money and potential. Then again, you have a lethargic fan base combined with a clueless owner. The GM may or may not be good. But this is probably one of the few openings he should be looking at.
The Chargers, assuming McCoy is gone, would be the other. Philip Rivers, a ton of talented young players like Keenan Allen and Joey Bosa, and just plain luck. The Chargers have had absolutely awful injury luck, they have to be healthier. They've also lost a ton of games in fluky ways. They're due a quick turnaround just by the simple regression to means. Then again, we have no idea where the franchise will be in a year, and Josh has mentioned his family several times so that may matter more to him than other candidates.
The Bengals could be the most attractive from a roster perspective, assuming the rumours about Lewis being forced to "retire" are true. Dalton may not be a franchise QB, but he's more than capable of leading an NFL offense (Josh went with Kyle ****ing Orton remember). Then again, he has to work for one of the cheapest owners in the history of football.
So maybe 1 or 2 of the potential openings really seem worth pursuing. He should absolutely stay away from some of them though. Young coaches may get a second chance, but if he bombs this, I don't know if he'll get a third. If he fails again, he could be unfairly branded like Norv Turner or Wade Phillips, a brilliant coordinator who doesn't have the "it" to be a head coach. I don't believe that is true, but it doesn't matter what I believe, but what the league narrative of him is. So he can't just take the first opening that comes his way.
