NFL insider predicts Arthur Smith lands head coach job

The NFL head coaching cycle is going to be as entertaining as the quarterback carousel is every offseason, and an old Falcons friend could find himself in the middle of it.

Not only is Deion Sanders being floated as the next head coach of America’s Team, but the Falcons’ biggest rival, the Saints, is also hiring a new head coach. There’s a lot to pay attention to this offseason, including Arthur Smith, who is back on the market.

Smith has drawn interest from a couple of teams, and NFL insider Dan Graziano of ESPN predicts that he will replace Robert Saleh in New York as the Jets next head coach.

“I could certainly see the Jets ending up with Aaron Glenn or Brian Flores, but I’ve already predicted those guys to land elsewhere. Smith was a candidate of interest to Jets owner Woody Johnson back in 2021, when the team hired Saleh. But at the time, Johnson was serving as ambassador to the United Kingdom and was not directly involved in the search. The Jets also considered bringing in Smith and adding him to their offensive staff last year before the Steelers hired him as their coordinator,” Graziano wrote.

Woody Johnson is consistently unpredictable, which makes it easier to anticipate his moves, and this makes a ton of sense for several reasons. Johnson feels like he missed out on Smith not once but twice. These billionaires don’t like to lose, and they hate losing twice. The Jets owner has a history of doing these sorts of things.

“In the past, Johnson has been known to lock in a bit on his personal favorites. Remember, he lost out to the Dolphins on Adam Gase in 2016, then hired Gase three years later after the Dolphins fired him,” Graziano pointed out.

While I don’t think it would be a great hire, the former Falcons head coach certainly did a lot with some pretty poor quarterback play in Pittsburgh. Of course, the Steelers could just run it back with their current staff. Mike Tomlin isn’t one to make hasty decisions, and it’s fair to wonder if Smith is desperate enough to take the first job offer available to work with Woody Johnson and the Jets.

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