How will Blake Bortles affect the search for a new head coach?

Gus Bradley has finally been fired. It's been a long time coming and I can't say that anyone was surprised. What's equally as important, however, is Khan's statement that Caldwell has been "charged" with leading the search for a new head coach.

A general manager is bound to have an ego -- it's a necessity in such a competitive, high stakes environment. Caldwell is no exception. While he has shown a willingness to move on from underwhelming players (Zane Beadles, Ace Sanders, Josh Evans) he's been stubborn more often than not. A glaring example would be when he kept Chris Smith -- his 2014 fifth round draft pick -- over Tyrone Holmes, who is a sixth-round rookie. Clearly, he felt that Smith, the higher pick, would have more value than Holmes.

Perhaps the area where the general manager's ego is most apparent is the quarterback position. Essentially, the reason a team hires a new general manager is because they've whiffed at the quarterback position, more often than not, Once a general manager drafts someone he believes to be "the guy" the two are linked for the rest of their careers. Of course, there are exceptions, but more often than not, the good general managers stick around because they've hit on the quarterback. If Caldwell admits that he whiffed on Bortles, he's essentially admitting failure; we all know that historically, general manager who whiff on the quarterback are fired.

So how does this affect the head coaching search? Basically, Caldwell will be too stubborn and let his ego get in the way of hiring the next head coach. Instead of an honest assessment at the quarterback position, which, as Michael Lombardi puts it, isn't happening inside that building, Caldwell will look for a "yes man." A "yes man" is someone who agrees with everything that a superior says in order to remain employed. In essence, Caldwell is going to find a head coach that is on board with Bortles as next year's quarterback.

I believe this will dramatically reduce the crop of potential head coaches. I highly doubt that Josh McDaniels, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, or Todd Haley will want to coach with one hand tied behind their back. Now, we don't know for sure that Mike Smith is on board with Bortles, but we do know that Smith and Caldwell have a relationship that stretches back to Atlanta, so I'm inclined to believe that Smith would be willing to roll with Bortles.

I am okay with Caldwell in 2017 as long as he brings in good competition for Bortles. I also don't want Caldwell to force the new head coach to commit to him. He probably will though, given that he told CBS before the game against Houston that the team "needs to play better around Bortles." A large part of the hiring process would, in my opinion, be centered around whether the new HC is willing to stick with Bortles or find his own guy. Many coaches are squarely in the latter category.

That's why I'm not approaching this head coaching search with any expectations, per se. I figure Caldwell's going to hire a "yes man" and roll the dice with Bortles one more year. I hope Bortles turns it around, but there's no doubt he's going to play a big role in the hiring of our new head coach, for better or worse.

What do you think Caldwell is going to do? Will he force Blake onto the new head coach? Or will he cut his losses and start afresh -- thus widening the potential head coaching pool?