Lincoln Riley should only leave Oklahoma for the perfect NFL job, and it might be open this offseason

Lincoln Riley is going to draw lots of interest from NFL teams this offseason. He doesn’t need to leave Oklahoma for his first professional opportunity.

Every NFL team in search of a head coach this offseason is going to give Lincoln Riley a lot of consideration. His offense at Oklahoma is the very definition of the schemes that are revolutionizing professional football at the moment. That doesn’t mean Riley should jump at the first job he’s offered.

Instead, Riley needs to be very careful about leaving the Sooners. Presiding over one of the top programs in college football isn’t a bad big. Jumping from Oklahoma to an NFL franchise facing a lengthy rebuild would be a poor career choice from the young offensive guru.

His stock is high enough that he should be able to engineer a move to a franchise that has a legitimate chance to be competitive right away. Fortunately for Riley, there are two teams with pretty talented rosters who might part ways with their head coaches at the end of the year. Both the Browns and Cowboys’ jobs should be really interesting to Riley.

The appeal of the Browns job is pretty obvious. Riley has a strong relationship with quarterback Baker Mayfield from their time together at Oklahoma. He could walk right into Cleveland and command respect from the entire locker room as a result.

Replacing Hue Jackson should also be appealing to the Browns’ next head man. He’s set the bar exceedingly low in terms of wins, losses and general competence out on the field. Riley would stand a great chance of coming in and looking like a genius in Cleveland. Assuming the Browns job does come open, it’s exactly the sort of opportunity Riley should strongly consider.

The other intriguing job that should come open this year is in Dallas. Somehow, Jason Garrett continues to evade the pink slip in Big D. Unless the Cowboys turn things around and make the playoffs this year, Jerry Jones may be forced to reluctantly fire him.

This job is actually one Riley should avoid. There isn’t enough young, dynamic offensive talent on the Cowboys roster to convince a coach of Riley’s caliber to make the leap. Monday’s acquisition of Amari Cooper gives Dak Prescott one starting caliber wide receiver to work with, but this offense is still pretty bland outside of Ezekiel Elliott. The aging offensive line also should give Riley a great deal of pause before committing his future to the Cowboys.

Just like a good quarterback, Riley’s going to need to exude some patience in the pocket this offseason. Jumping at just any NFL job will be a great way for him to derail his coaching career. Look for Riley to stick with the Sooners unless a truly exciting opportunity arises in the professional ranks.