Following a rash of new hires this offseason, nine of the NFL's 32 head coaches now have playing experience in the league. Mike Munchak, Jason Garrett, Leslie Frazier, Ron Rivera and Jim Harbaugh all became head coaches this year. In today's player-driven league, a coach with NFL experience brings instant credibility to the locker room. One general manager who has hired a former player as head coach put it this way, "I think having NFL playing experience may be a factor initially. Players know he played, so they give him some respect. But you have to win in order to maintain it. There have been a lot of coaches with playing experience who haven't been very successful." Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who played tight end in the league for nine years, sees it the same way. "It gives you some credibility that you played the game, but it only goes so far,” he told me. “Players want to know their coaches are giving them the best chance to win. I don’t care what kind of player you were, if you aren’t helping them, it’s not going to make a difference. It gives you some respect coming in, but you still have to be able to coach."