NFL - NEWS & NOTES

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why reasons K. Murray should play in the NFL and MLB...

 

Todd Gurley “good to go” for Rams on Saturday night...

The Rams expect to be at full strength for Saturday night’s game against the Cowboys.

Head coach Sean McVay said on Thursday that defensive lineman Ethan Westbrooks will be listed as questionable, but that “everybody is good to go” in the game from a health standpoint. That includes running back Todd Gurley, who missed the last two weeks of the regular season with a knee injury.

Gurley returned to practice this week and McVay said that the team likes what it saw.

“He looks like Todd,” McVay said, via Joe Curley of the Ventura County Star. “He looks like the explosive, great back that we’re used to seeing.”

McVay said earlier this week that he expected “a good balance” of Gurley and C.J. Anderson, who ran well during both of the games that Gurley missed in December. If Gurley’s return to health is matched by a return to form, those plans could change as Saturday’s game plays out.

UPDATE 4:25 p.m. ET: The Rams’ final injury report is out and Westbrooks is indeed the only player with an injury designation. (PFT)

 

Art Rooney II: Antonio Brown return “hard to envision” right now...

The prospect of the Steelers moving on without wide receiver Antonio Brown has been bandied about since the team benched him for Week 17 after missed practices and incidents with teammates over the final week of the regular season.

That chatter is not going to die down after an interview that Steelers president Art Rooney II gave to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday. Rooney said that it is “hard to envision” Brown being with the team for training camp right now while adding that there’s no reason to make any decisions right now.

He did add that salary cap ramifications related to trading Brown will not “box us into anything.”

“There’s not much we can do right now; we have time to make a decision,” Rooney said. “We’ll look at all the options. We’re not going to release him, that’s not on the table. But I will say all other options are on the table. Whether the situation can be reconciled and have him back on the team next year, we’re a long way away from thinking that can happen. We’re not closing the door on anything at this point.”

Giants co-owner John Mara put the possibility of a trade involving Odell Beckham on the table last offseason before the team wound up working out a long-term deal with the wideout. Whether that’s worked out as hoped or not, it is a sign that strong words at one point in the offseason can wind up being a prelude to things going the other way when push comes to shove.

It remains to be seen if such an outcome is in the cards in Pittsburgh, but, for now, the prospect of Brown wearing a different uniform feels more realistic than ever before. (PFT)

 

The Browns are interviewing Jim Bob Cooter for their offensive coordinator job, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.

Cooter, 34, became the Lions’ offensive coordinator in the middle of the 2015 season when Detroit parted ways with Joe Lombardi. Cooter stayed during the transition from Jim Caldwell to Matt Patricia, but the Lions fired him nine days ago.

The Lions had back-to-back 9-7 records in 2016 and 2017 as Matthew Stafford threw for 4,327 yards and 4,446 respectively. But Stafford threw for only 3,777 yards and 21 touchdowns this season as the Lions slipped to 6-10.

Detroit ranked 24th in total offense, including 20th in passing. (PFT)

 

Zac Taylor emerges as favorite for Bengals job...

The Bengals appear ready to choose Zac Taylor as their next head coach.

Taylor, the Rams’ quarterbacks coach, is the Bengals’ choice, according to multiple reports.

Officially, the Bengals cannot hire Taylor until the Rams’ postseason is over. As the Colts found out last year when they were spurned at the last minute by Josh McDaniels, an assistant coach who works for another team can’t be hired until his team is done playing, and a verbal agreement is unenforceable.

But from all indications, Taylor is the man. A 35-year-old former Nebraska quarterback, Taylor will draw immediate comparisons to his boss, Rams head coach Sean McVay, because of his age and his offensive approach. McVay is such a hot coach that several teams have attempted to hire the “next Sean McVay” this year.

Taylor has previously worked as the Rams’ wide receivers coach, the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and the offensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati. (PFT)
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PFT hasn't woke up yet, but this morning on Fox Sports Radio, they are saying its a done deal. As soon as I see or hear official confirmation, I will post it... and so can you, if you will.

 

Its Official!

Zac Taylor, Freddie Kitchens get head coach jobs with less than a year as coordinators...





The coaching turnover in the NFL this year has shown that teams are putting less emphasis on experience than they have in the past.

In the cases of Zac Taylor, who is expected to be named head coach of the Bengals, and Freddie Kitchens, who has been hired as head coach of the Browns, two coaches have become head coaches without ever being a head coach at any level before, and with less than one year as an NFL coordinator.

Taylor’s only coordinator experience was as an interim offensive coordinator in Miami during the 2015 season, after Joe Philbin was fired as head coach and Dan Campbell became interim head coach. The 35-year-old Taylor also has one year as offensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati. A year ago he was promoted from assistant wide receivers coach to quarterbacks coach of the Rams. That’s a thin résumé by NFL head coach standards.

But it’s a comparable résumé to that of the 44-year-old Kitchens, whose only experience as a coordinator is the second half of last season with the Browns, after head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were fired. Kitchens was in his first year as the Browns’ running backs coach when he was promoted, and he’d never been more than a position coach before, at any level.

New Packers head coach Matt LaFleur also has a résumé that looks light by NFL standards. He has been an offensive coordinator for one season for both the Rams and Titans, but only called the offensive plays once, in 2018. The 39-year-old LaFleur has never been a head coach.

And new Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury does have six years of head coaching experience at Texas Tech, but he’s never coached in the NFL at all. At age 39, he also has a résumé that doesn’t look much like the typical career path for an NFL head coach.

What all four of those coaches have in common is that they’re young and they’re regarded as having a good understanding of the quarterback position. That’s what NFL owners increasingly want.

 

I think that was the point of emphasis in the article...it can't be a done deal until the Rams season is a done deal. That could be this weekend, at which point you can expect the announcement the very next day....

 

This is some really bad reporting, imho...

Zac Taylor has been an NFL coach for 6 total seasons, 2 teams, 2 positions coached (QB and TE)
Freddie Kitchens was the OC for only half the season, but was assistant HC for the entire 2018 season, he also has been an NFL coach for 13 years, 3 teams, 3 positions coached (QB, RB, TE)

I simply think it is a very light take that their résumé's are comparable.

Why because in a single season Freddie was calling plays as the OC for 8 games, while Taylor called plays for the Dolphins for 5 games in 2015?

The Browns offense in the first 8 games of the season, they ranked 23rd.. In the second half of the season under Kitchens, they were 2nd in the NFL in offense.

(From Wikipedia)On November 30, 2015, he was promoted to the team's interim offensive coordinator, after the firing of the previous offensive coordinator, Bill Lazor. During the five games Taylor served as OC, the Dolphins went 2-3 and averaged 17 points per game,[8] a slight regress from their per-game average under Lazor, though Interim Coach Dan Campbell still had positive things to say of Taylor's performance.[9]

One last thing, you want a coach capable of staying around for a long time, that's why you hire young... Taylor's longest tenure was 4 years with Dolphins, Kitchens spent 11 years with the Cardinals... He is loyal when given opportunity.

I'm not saying Kitchens was over qualified to take over this gig...but they certainly don't have comparable résumés either...

We will see in a few years if either made the right choice, but from my seat, I am happy with both of these hires. One because I have seen Kitchens in action and believe in him and two because we get to face the Bengals twice a year and I think Taylor could be in over his head...As much as they want him to be Sean McVay, he isn't... He doesn't learn from osmosis just by sitting next to a genius each day for a season, on how to be a genius.

 

Zac Taylor gives off this weird "Patrick Swayze's brother" vibe. Like he worked for McVay and if you squint your eyes just right he may look like McVay -- but he obviously isn't McVay. Teams desperate to find the next whatever rarely find what they are looking for. Not many teams were happy with the results when they went looking for the next Bilichek. I appreciate that the Browns liked what they saw out of Kitchens and his relationship with Baker. I think giving that guy a chance makes sense. But the Zac Taylor hire seems so strange to me. I mean it's the Bengals so it's entirely possible they hired him because he cost $2 million less than anyone else and not because they thought they were getting a good coach...

 

I like the "if you Will" tagline, lol.

I think this locks Kyler Murray into the top half of the draft. I can't see him falling past pick #11 now with this being a pretty massive shake-up with how the Bengals will shape the coaching staff with Zac.

Dalton hasn't thrown more than 30 TDs in a season since 2013 and his contract makes it so that he can be the QB in 2019 while the Bengals groom their successor and can be traded or cut going into the 2020 off-season.

 

Taylor got back on the coaching radar for his work with Goff. I'll see if I can dig up the quote, but McVay credited a lot of Jared's growth to Zac working with him.


EDIT: Here is McVay on Taylor working with Goff -

 

On the contrary, if he really is a McVay clone, I think it locks Daniel Jones into the top half of the draft. He looks the part of a Jared Goff clone, but not as good, imho...even though I wasn't that high on Goff coming out either..

Kyler Murray is the opposite of Jared Goff, small mobile QB. I think McV..er.. Taylor will look at this QB class and fall in love with the similarities between Goff and Jones. Jones comes with a bonus of being more mobile than Goff...but he also loses in the accuracy department. Really it depends on how much power he has in the draft process. Mike Brown NEARLY ALWAYS follows the draft pundits big board and simply selects the best player from those boards. He might as well hire Mel Kiper to be "director of the draft". So, it might come down to who elevates themselves on the popular draft boards in April. THAT is probably who Mike Brown will choose at #11....If he doesn't flat out tell Taylor that he was brought here to make Andy Dalton better.

If Tayler has any input into the draft process though, I expect Daniel Jones to be the next starting QB of the Bengals.

 

Isn't that the point though Tim? It's sort of a running joke that if you have McVay's cell phone number you are getting a coaching interview. That statement doesn't actually mean anything but McVay said it and it *might* be complimentary -- Let's give him a job!

 

I guess if you are the Bengals, you hope he took a LOT of really good notes...as I highly doubt he has McVay's memory.

 

That's a reasonable line of thinking.

McVay inherited Goff and was a big fan of Mayfield so it could stand to reason that if Taylor were to ask for advice from McVay on which way to go at quarterback, Sean could point in Kyler's direction.

I still have a lot of work to do before I get to final rankings, but based on where Daniel Jones was at on my board last year before returning to school it feels like he is being grossly overvalued right now.

 

I get where everyone is coming from with the 'McVay clone' discussion, but it's worth looking at if Taylor did have a huge impact on Goff. If the Bengals are considering a rebuild to keep pace with the rest of the North it makes sense to get a head coach that will have a positive impact on the growth of a new franchise signal caller.

A lot of Zac's success will probably be determined by what coaches he brings in and how quickly he can change the culture in Cincy.

 

Look maybe they see something I don't. I just feel like some of these coaching hires feel weird this off season. Taylor is definitely among them and, well, it's not like he has a long history that we can actually see the tangible results of. The guys conducting the interviews will have a much better sense of who he is and what he is about then I could ever pretend to have. Maybe I am wrong (I vastly prefer there to be more good coaches and more good QB's so I would love to be wrong about this) but this feels like the sort of decision that leads to having the #1 overall pick when Lawrence is available in 2021 -- so maybe it's just playing the long con?

 

A couple more quick thoughts on Taylor before I start putting up film for CBs and Edge rushers...

He has a pretty significant impact on the development of Ryan Tannehill, a player still learning a lot of the nuance of quarterback, before being tasked with taking over the play-calling duties. He wouldn't be the first coach that struggled with initial play calls before going on to have success with it later and he did have the opportunity to grow in that role in Cincinnati with the Bearcats.

I was looking at Taylor as a possible head coach for both the Jets and the Bills prior to the close of the season because of the chance to work with and develop Allen and Darnold.

I think this hire has potential to be a solid one but there is going to be a lot of things that have to break Taylor's way when it comes to the staff he puts around him and how the players respond.

 

I don't disagree...but we all know how much that over value plays on draft day. Teams that need QBs, take QBs... I don't think this is an overly talented draft class, but inevitably, there will be 3-4 QBs taken in the first based on need.

The one thing that might subside that to the 3, instead of 4, is that I believe Joe Flacco and Nick Foles will be starting for new teams in 2019. Add in Tyrod Taylor and add in the possibilities of Ryan Tannehill and Teddy Bridgewater, and that could alleviate some of the pressure to find a first round QB in 2019.

Teams in need of a new QB in 2019:

Giants #5 (Eli is 37 and skills diminishing)
Jaguars #7
Broncos #10
Bengals #11
Dolphins #13
Redskins #15 (This depends on Alex Smith's diagnosis/return)

Along with teams looking to the near future in:
Steelers (How long will Ben (37 in March) play?) Mental skill is clearly diminishing
Raiders (depends on how they truly feel about Carr)
Chargers (How long will Rivers (37 now) play?) Still top of his game
Patriots (How long does Tom (42 in August) play?) Still top of his game
Saints (How long does Drew (40 in 4 days) play?) Skills might be slowing, but in reality his diminishing skills will just bring him back to earth and still be a top ten QB

Of the 6 teams above, I expect at least 3 of them to have shiny new first round QBs come April. Not that there are 3 QBs with a first round grade, but that has never stopped the NFL GMs from drafting them...

 

Exactly. Too often, us fans make judgements about things teams do based on that team's prior history. We treat that history as if its guaranteed that that team is bound to repeat it.