Not sure what you're referring to by 'failing.' You mean the three 8-8 seasons? First of all, I don't consider them necessarily to be coaching failures as he kept a fairly bad team in post-season contention each year.
I think he took over a 1-7 team, got them to 8-8, and then started the process we've since seen of rebuilding a roster that was in obvious need of repair with no extra draft picks and no cap space. In fact, negative cap space relative to recent years when you look at the new CBA and the (bogus) Austin penalty. I think he botched his first DC hire, and the truly bad defenses we had in 2011 and 2012 cost us a realistic shot at the playoffs.
I also think he's made some mistakes in play calling and had a lot to learn on game days, if that helps. It has not been a straight upward trend. But, overall, he's systematically rebuild the secondary, the OL, the coaching staff and, now, the DL and LB corps. He's got a handle on the cap and one of the youngest good teams in football. He's got a tall order in lining up Tony's eventual replacement next, but we have cap space and the roster to do that now where we did not in 2010. And I think all of this has been so obviously building for so long now that it still surprises me that people were arguing with me and calling me a ridiculous homer for insisting that it was happening as recently as last offseason.
That writing has been on the wall in 3 inch headlines as Jimmy would probably say since the halfway point of the 2010 season.
