Pete Carroll did the Seahawks shuffle when he took over as coach, engineering 284 roster moves in his first 12 months. During this dizzying transformation, he lost his players in a big way at midseason (dropping six of eight games), got them back in a bigger way at season’s end (rescuing the postseason) and turned them strangely historical — coming up with the NFL’s first losing team (7–9) to collect a division title and win a playoff game (41–36 over New Orleans).

It seems patently unfair to say this is a critical season for Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt. After all, Whisenhunt led the moribund Arizona franchise to the Super Bowl just three seasons ago.

But NFL fans have short memories, and Whisenhunt’s botched handling of the quarterback situation last year has some folks wondering if that Super Bowl run had more to do with quarterback Kurt Warner than the Cardinals’ coach.

The year was 1979 when Eddie DeBartolo Jr., after two disastrous years as owner of the San Francisco 49ers, hired an innovative offensive coach from just down the road at Stanford in hopes of reviving his franchise. Bill Walsh installed what came to be known as the “West Coast Offense,” and in 1981 he led the 49ers to their first Super Bowl victory, a win that marked the start of an NFL dynasty in San Francisco. Fast-forward to 2011, and the 49ers are hoping that history will repeat.