Dan Pompei

Unusual and potentially awkward situations await the Seahawks. And to a lesser extent the Colts. And perhaps even the Cowboys.

Each team has an assistant coach who has been earmarked as the successor to the head coach, though in the case of the Cowboys nothing is official.

In Seattle, Mike Holmgren has announced he will retire after the 2008 season, and secondary coach Jim Mora has been named his successor.

Colts coach Tony Dungy has been on the fence about retiring after each of the last two seasons, so the Colts have protected themselves by naming quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell as the team's next head coach.

The Cowboys have not made any announcements about the future of Jason Garrett, but after Garrett walked away from opportunities with the Ravens and Falcons a few months ago to remain in Dallas it seemed fairly obvious that he was in line to succeed Wade Phillips.

So how do these teams balance the present with the future?

Really, there is no blueprint for doing it this way because it such a rare occurrence. Usually, a coach does not plan his departure — at least not publicly. The Bills had planned on having Elijah Pitts succeed Marv Levy in the late 90s, but Pitts passed away before the plan could be carried out.

The NFL is such a fluid business with so many moving parts that trying anticipate everything that could happen one year from now is a dangerous way to operate.

Holmgren's hand was forced because he had one year left on his contract after last season. He didn't want to go into 2008 as a "lame duck," so his choices were to extend the contract with the idea of coming back in 2009, retire immediately, or announce that 2008 would be his final season.

Mora was being pursued by the Redskins and made it clear his heart was in Seattle. Holmgren had already decided he was going to step down after 2008, so he suggested Mora be named his successor if that's what management desired.

By saying he would come back for only one more season, Holmgren risked losing some of his juice, both in the locker room and with regard to organizational issues. But he also gave himself a motivational advantage — everyone wants to win this for Mike.

The Colts didn’t want to lose Caldwell, a coach they identified as the ideal successor to Dungy. So when the Redskins went after Caldwell, the Colts enticed him to stay by making him their head coach in waiting. The only thing is no one knows how long he'll be waiting.

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In the meantime, Caldwell has become more involved in upper level decision making, as has Mora. It's important for the next head coach to have a voice in free agent acquisitions, contract extensions and the draft. But it's really up to each team's general manager to assure that the big picture isn't overlooked in the departing coach's quest to win now.

The head-coach-in-waiting concept is an interesting one, but probably is not the start of a trend.

"You have to be a winning program and one in which continuity is an important factor," Colts president Bill Polian said. "You have to have a coach coming toward the end of his tenure, which is rare in a winning coach. And you would have to have a guy on board who you are absolutely confident you want to be the next guy. For all those things to be present is rare."

One risk in having a head-coach-in-waiting is the two leaders could divide the team if they aren't working in lockstep. Two voices aren't necessarily better than one.

But that does not appear to be the case with any of these teams.

The key, it seems, is finding the right head-coach-in-waiting.

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