Teryl Austin, Senior Defensive Assistant/Secondary, Pittsburgh Steelers

The trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick is one of the primary reasons for Pittsburgh’s defensive turnaround, but those in the know like to credit Austin for the improvement in a secondary that appeared on its heels when the season began. Kown primarily for his time as the Ravens’ secondary coach from 2011 through 2013 and as the Lions’ defensive coordinator from 2014 through 2017, Austin has the ability implement his schemes credibly, and to handle strong personalities. He also has a connection with well-known quarterback whisperer Jim Caldwell (currently the Dolphins’ assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach), which might be an attractive addition.

Dennis Allen, Defensive Coordinator, New Orleans Saints

Allen was the Raiders’ head coach from 2012 through the first four games of the 2014 season before he was fired, but it’s unlikely that his 8-28 record will be held against him too much, given the level of dysfunction in that organization at that time. What Allen has done since is to turn the Saints’ defense from a year-to-year punchline to one of the NFL’s strongest, and that will go a long way to re-making his name at the head coaching level.

Lincoln Riley, Head Coach, Oklahoma Sooners

One of the most successful offensive minds at the collegiate level in recent years, Riley gets a lot of traction these days, and has been sought out by multiple NFL teams, in part because he has helped Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray craft Heisman-winning seasons, and he’s got Jalen Hurts on a similar track in 2019. Riley has said that he’s not interested in the NFL at this time, but you never know when these things will change. Like Roman, Riley will be particularly interesting to those teams with modern option concepts, and quarterbacks who fit those paradigms.

Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”