Coaching changes make for nervous offseasons

Even veteran stars such as Jason Taylor have a reason to fret over their job status when a new coach comes in. Bill Frakes/SI

Preparing to play in the Super Bowl sounds stressful enough, but if you ask me, the players on the Giants and Patriots have it easy. Try being a member of, say, the Atlanta Falcons or Miami Dolphins, two teams that didn't come close to making the playoffs and surely will undergo wholesale roster changes as they welcome their third new coach in as many years.

At least most of the Pats and Giants know they will have jobs next season. Why make wholesale roster changes on a team that reaches the Super Bowl? But the great majority of Falcons and Dolphins (and to a lesser degree the players under new regimes in Baltimore and Washington) don't have any such luxury as their very livelihood hangs in the balance.

Miami has hired Tony Sparano following the dismissal of one-and-done Cam Cameron, himself hired only a year ago to replace the well-traveled Nick Saban, who retreated back to the college game. Atlanta has yet to name a head coach after Bobby Petrino waved the white flag on his way to Arkansas. He was on the job even less than a year after being hired to replace Jim Mora.

What is it like to go through one regime change, let alone having a third head coach in three years? For the team's best 10 to 15 players, it represents a minor annoyance from their comfort zone regarding style and scheme and the possibility that they may be dealt elsewhere in a trade. For everybody else on the roster, a small hole has formed in the pit of their stomach and will continue to grow until they retain some level of job security by making the roster in September. Even then they will not feel safe.

Change is the only constant in the NFL. I should know. My first three years in the league my head coach was dismissed at the end of the season. Steve Spurrier replaced Marty Schottenheimer in Washington after 2001. Bill Parcells was the new sheriff in town in Dallas after Jerry Jones dismissed Dave Campo after 2002. Finally, the Bills hired Mike Mularkey to replace Gregg Williams at the end of 2003.

In every instance, I was eventually let go. It wasn't always immediate, but it always ended the same way. "Thanks, Ross, for everything you've done," they would say, "but we are going to go in another direction." Another direction is code language in the NFL for going with their guys, players that they brought into the fold. Why stick with a player brought in by the old coach when they can bring in a similar player of their own choosing?

This is not the rambling of a bitter player disappointed by getting released three times in my first five years in the league. This is a realistic look at what many of the 120-odd men on the rosters of the Falcons and Dolphins can expect over the next year or two. Truth be told, I don't blame those head coaches who gave me the ax. It is human nature to want to acquire someone that you are already familiar with or will have extreme loyalty to you because of the fact that you have given them a spot on your roster.

The players in Miami and Atlanta are well aware that they may reach the same fate that I did over the next year and a half. Parcells' track record indicates that many of the guys on the Dolphins roster might want to hold off on buying a residence in Miami. Fewer than 10 percent of the Dallas Cowboys who were on the roster for 2002 survived the Parcells cleansing. Offensive line stalwarts Flozell Adams and Andre Gurode, defensive playmakers Roy Williams and Greg Ellis, and special-teams standout Keith Davis are the only players who still wear the star on their helmets.

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