3 NFL teams that should avoid Jim Harbaugh like the coaching plague

Take the team away from Arthur Blank if he hires him

The Atlanta Falcons were the second team to fire their head coach this season. Only the Houston Texans beat them to the punch, as Cal McNair fired Bill O’Brien only one week before Arthur Blank parted ways with head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff after a disastrous 0-5 start. Blank is a well-respected owner, but he cannot mess up yet another head-coaching hire.

When Quinn was hired back in 2015, he was my seventh-favorite head-coaching candidate of that cycle. I saw him as a cliched carbon-copy of his mentor Pete Carroll. Over time, I was right because energy is not a transferable character trait and cliches do not win ball games. Even though Atlanta will likely go with an offensive mind to replace him, it better not be Harbaugh for any reason at all.

Atlanta would be better served retaining interim head coach Raheem Morris than hiring Harbaugh. If the Falcons want to go external to replace Quinn, three offensive coordinators in Eric Bieniemy of the Kansas City Chiefs, Arthur Smith of the Tennessee Titans and even Steve Sarkisian of the Alabama Crimson Tide and formerly of the Falcons would be infinitely preferable options here.

Blank must hire a head coach who can run the offense for the next decade or so. The Falcons need a guy who can get the most out of Matt Ryan‘s waning prime, as well as develop his eventual replacement in a few years. Because Harbaugh rarely sticks anywhere for very long, he is exactly what the Falcons do not need. If Blank hires him, take the franchise away from the Falcons owner.

If Harbaugh does leave Michigan for the NFL, what team to do you think he will end up with?

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