Usually it takes a few years of being a coaching candidate for coordinators to finally get a head coaching job. I think Chud will get some interviews this year but he'll have another year or two before someone gives him a head coaching job. That's fine though, by then one of the positional coaches with some creativity and leadership can get promoted and use much of the same playbook and first half scripting concepts that Chud uses.
As great as the offense has been though, in the first half of the season, Chud's playcalling was more about gauging Cam's talent level than it was about winning. He focused so much on hitting home run plays and making us an explosive offense, when sometimes a methodical drive was what we needed. Once teams saw how good Cam was and how bad our run defense was, gameplans revolved around keeping Newton off the field. If we ran the ball more, we would have kept our defense off the field, and we lost so many games down the stretch in large part because of how injuries decimated our defensive depth. Players were getting tired because they were on the field more than they would have been if we had a proper defensive rotation. Frankly, I am perfectly fine with how pass-happy we were early. Clearly, we wouldn't have gotten far if we did make the playoffs, and developing Cam was far more important for the success of the franchise.
Also, Cam's growth is mainly due to Cam himself and Mike Shula, not so much Chud, which is one reason it wouldn't be the end of the world if he somehow left this year. The main thing is holding onto Shula as QB coach and making sure he doesn't get an O-coord offer somewhere.
If we'd had a healthy Otah instead of Byron 'the human penalty flag' Bell we'd have been able to run the ball a lot better.
I don't disagree that Bell was a huge liability in the O-line (the other 4 all had stretches where they were off for a a few weeks, but largely played well all season. Bell was a disaster, constantly getting beat by pass rushers, getting flagged all the time for false starts and holding, and also being one of the worst run blockers in the NFL). That said, I am pretty happy with our run game overall. #3 in yards, and #1 in ypc. Can't ask for much more than that. Cam, DeAngelo, and Stewart all have over 5 ypc.
I hope that teams think he needs another season or two to prove his worth but it looks like theres going to be a lot of open spots so I guess we'll see. Only reason I'm not too worried about Chud leaving is because Norv Turner looks like he could be on the way out in San Diego. We have his son on our staff already and he has coached with most of our staff (including Rivera being his DC). It's not a definite but I could see it happening.
I wouldn't mind Norv either. Clearly a great O-coord, and a bit more decisive with personnel (sometimes to his detriment, but usually not).
Let's just hope we don't lose Chud but I don't see the playoffs being a stretch next year either way. You can tell how much our D has improved just by taking the rookies out of the lineup at DT (which might be another big question going into the offseason).
Honestly, we're definitely going to be the trendy/sexy wild card pick next year. Ross Tucker put us at #11 in his power rankings on the Football Today podcast, and honestly I think we end up being a serious threat next year as long as we're healthy and make serious improvements in special teams, both for coverage and returns.
And the defensive improvements isn't really because of Fua and McClain being out. Don't get me wrong, Neblett, Kearse, Shirley, Hardy, and Applewhite have all done a great job in the DT rotation (and Keiser at DE, since the other 3 DEs are on the field so much), but part of it is also the opponents we're playing. We're getting the opportunity to put 8 in the box, and that has helped in our passing game because we were getting torn up in crossing routes, and slot WRs and TEs finding a home in between the LB zones and the safeties. The corners outside of Gamble aren't that bad either, they just get burned one miss tackles by speedsters that end up getting taken to the house. Gamble of course has been amazing this year. Statistically the #2 corner behind Revis.