Eric Mangini made headlines in New York last week when he became the youngest head coach in the NFL at age 34. But the Jets aren’t the only team hiring an inexperienced coach to take over their team. The league had 10 coaching vacancies this off-season, and of the nine new coaches who have been hired, only Buffalo’s Dick Jauron and Kansas City’s Herm Edwards (who left the Jets to replace Dick Vermeil), had prior head coaching experience.

New York fans already know about Mangini and Edwards, but the other seven new coaches all have difficult tasks ahead of them.

The Buffalo Bills hired Dick Jauron Monday, bucking the trend of hiring assistants without head-coaching experience. Jauron was the league’s coach of the year when he led the Chicago Bears to a 13-3 record in 2001, but his career record is 36-50, including 1-4 as interim coach of the Lions this season. The Bills felt Jauron, who is known as a shrewd defensive strategist, was just the man to make the much needed revisions to their defense, which was great in 2004 but terrible in 2005.

In Detroit, Rod Marinelli promised to bring toughness to a team that routinely falls short of expectations. Marinelli, the defensive line coach in Tampa Bay for the last 10 years, will implement the “Cover 2” defense that mentor Tony Dungy favors. But the big questions in Detroit are all about the offense. The Lions have picked a quarterback and three receivers with three Top 10 picks in the last four drafts and still have one of the NFL’s sorriest passing games. Not surprisingly, Marinelli said his most crucial decision will be hiring an offensive coordinator.

The biggest misconception about new Green Bay Packers coach Mike Mc-Carthy is that his background is in the same West Coast offense that the Packers have run throughout Brett Favre’s career. In reality, McCarthy got his start as an assistant to Marty Schottenheimer in Kansas City, where he coached a conservative, run-first offense. Before that, McCarthy worked for Paul Hackett (the former Jets offensive coordinator who was often criticized for conservative play-calling) at the University of Pittsburgh.

McCarthy spent one year as Favre’s quarterback coach in Green Bay, and keeping Favre around seems to have been a consideration in hiring him. That isn’t necessarily a good thing for Packers fans, though. In the year McCarthy spent in Green Bay, 1999, the talented Packers finished just 8-8 and Favre threw 23 interceptions on a career-low 57.3 completion percentage.

Now that the Broncos’ season has ended, the Houston Texans can announce that they have hired Denver offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak as their new head coach. Kubiak was John Elway’s backup for nine years. After retiring as a player he became an assistant in Denver, where he has received much of the credit for helping Jake Plummer improve from a failure in Arizona to a game away from the Super Bowl in Denver. By hiring Kubiak, the Texans have made it clear they want someone to get quarterback David Carr playing like the no. 1 overall pick he is.

The Minnesota Vikings replaced Mike Tice with Brad Childress both because of the West Coast offense he ran in Philadelphia and because of the discipline he promised to bring to a team that was embarrassed when four of its players were charged with with indecent conduct after an infamous boat party. With Daunte Culpepper still on the mend from the knee injury that ended his 2005 season early, Childress could have difficulty implementing a new offense.

Backup Brad Johnson played well after Culpepper went down, and Johnson’s skills are well-suited to the short passing game Childress favors, whereas Culpepper’s primary strength is the long pass. A year ago it would have been unthinkable that Culpepper would have to fight for his job, but with Childress at the helm, it’s possible.

No franchise has more unresolved issues than the New Orleans Saints, who aren’t even sure if their hurricane-damaged stadium will be ready to house them in time for the 2006 opener. But in new coach Sean Payton they have a bright offensive mind who spent four seasons with the Giants before working under Bill Parcells in Dallas for the last three years.

Payton is known as a great tutor for young quarterbacks, and the Saints will almost certainly select a quarterback with the second pick in this year’s draft. Scouts are debating whether Texas’s Vince Young or USC’s Matt Leinart is the top quarterback prospect, but Leinart is a better fit for Payton’s style of offense. Almost all the quarterbacks Payton has tutored – Kerry Collins, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Bledsoe to name a few – are pocket passers like Leinart, not running threats like Young.

New St. Louis Rams head coach Scott Linehan uses an offensive philosophy similar to that of his predecessor, Mike Martz. Both love long passes and neither is afraid to take risks. Linehan is one of the few new head coaches who knows who his starting quarterback will be, though the Rams’ Marc Bulger has never played a full 16-game season, so Linehan will need to have a solid backup in place.

Even more important for Linehan, who spent 2005 as the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator, will be whether former Saints coach Jim Haslett, the Rams’ new defensive coordinator, can rebuild a defense that gave up 350 yards and 27 points per game this season.

The run on NFL assistants means many former head coaches who want back in the game will be forced to take jobs as assistants or sit out a year. Former head coaches like Martz, Tice, Steve Mariucci, and Mike Sherman still want to be on the sidelines, but next season they’re more likely to spend their Sundays in their living rooms.

Mr. Smith is a regular writer for FootballOutsiders.com.