The GM's, Coach's, Carousel

It's almost like interviewing coaching candidates before anyone else is a good thing. It's almost like teams that know they're getting rid of their head coach should start doing that, rather than holding onto them through the end of the year on the basis of some arcane sense of honor.

Right, Chicago?

 

Panthers are keeping Matt Rhule for 2022



Matt Rhule will return to the Panthers for a third season, per multiple local and national reports.

Rhule, 46, has won only five games in each of his first two seasons with one game remaining this season. The 10-22 record seemingly had him on the hot seat and has prompted chants of “Fire Rhule!” at recent home games.


The Panthers, though, will give Rhule another year to prove he can do in the NFL what he did in college at Temple and Baylor. Owner David Tepper signed Rhule to a seven-year deal before the 2020 season.

Rhule reportedly will begin the search for a new offensive coordinator next week, after the team fired offensive coordinator Joe Brady on Dec. 5. Senior offensive assistant Jeff Nixon took over Brady’s role with help from the rest of the offensive coaching staff.

The Panthers rank 30th in total offense, including 29th in passing, and are 29th in points scored. The have swung and missed at the most important position in Rhule’s two seasons.

Carolina signed Teddy Bridgewater to a three-year, $63 million deal in March 2020. He lasted one year. The Panthers replaced Bridgewater with Sam Darnold, trading a 2021 sixth-rounder and a second- and fourth-rounder in 2022. When Darnold went on injured reserve with a shoulder injury in November, the Panthers brought Cam Newton home.

The Panthers, who inquired about Deshaun Watson at the trade deadline, surely will have a different starting quarterback next season.

They have not made the playoffs or had a winning season since 2017.

PFT

 

We have our first...



Vic Fangio is out after three seasons as the Broncos’ head coach.

Fangio was fired this morning, the team announced.


The 63-year-old Fangio, who had never been a head coach before the Broncos hired him, finished up a 7-10 season with Saturday’s loss to the Chiefs. Prior to that he went 5-11 in 2020 and 7-9 in 2019.

The Broncos have now had five consecutive losing seasons and are in desperate need of a coach who can turn things around. Complicating matters is the uncertainty of the ownership situation, which will surely give pause to any top head-coaching candidate the Broncos pursue.

Fangio will likely have offers to become a defensive coordinator again, but he has likely completed his last stint as a head coach.

PFT

 

Buzz builds of Jim Harbaugh to Raiders



Four years ago, the worst-kept secret in the NFL was that the Raiders will hire Jon Gruden to be the team’s head coach. In the upcoming interview/hiring cycle, the worst-kept secret in the NFL could become that the Raiders will hire Jim Harbaugh as the permanent replacement for Gruden.

For now, buzz is building in league circles that team owner Mark Davis wants, and will get, the former 49ers and current Michigan coach. The man who took a 6-10 team to the NFC Championship in his first year and who nearly won a Super Bowl in his second. The man who went 44-19-1 in four seasons as an NFL head coach.


Plenty of NFL teams can, and have, done a lot worse than Jim Harbaugh. The Raiders, who with a win tonight will have only their second playoff appearance since 2002, are one of those teams.

Of course, if the Raiders win tonight, the case for interim coach Rich Bisaccia could get stronger. If they win a playoff game or two, Davis may feel like he has to keep Bisaccia.

For now, Davis has delayed his search process (as far as anyone knows). He could have been (and perhaps should have been) interviewing candidates by Zoom. That would have allowed him to move more quickly when the time comes to make a hire. (That said, he possibly has interviewed one or more candidates who aren’t currently employed by other NFL teams, including Harbaugh himself. Possibly.)

He’ll undoubtedly comply with the letter of the Rooney Rule. Every team finds a way to do that. Whether the spirit is honored remains a separate question, one that is impossible to guarantee. Especially since many owners decide who they want before they even embark on the search. Rarely does the search change a decision made before the search begins.

For the Raiders, a sense is creeping through the league that Davis wants Jim Harbaugh. It would enhance the team’s chances of becoming a consistent contender, and it would amount to a hearty middle finger to the Raiders’ former Bay Area rivals.

And, yes, the 49ers and Raiders play in the 2022 regular season.

PFT

 

Lions, Anthony Lynn are expected to part ways after season finale



Lions head coach Dan Campbell is expected back for a second season and it looks like one of the top priorities on his to-do list is going to be hiring a new offensive coordinator.

Campbell hired Anthony Lynn to fill that role after he was hired early last year, but the fit did not prove to be a good one. Campbell took over offensive play-calling duties from Lynn during the season and NFL Media reports that the team is expected to relieve Lynn of his duties once their season finale against the Packers is in the books.


Lynn spent the last four seasons as the Chargers head coach and went 33-31 during his run with the AFC West team. They went 1-1 in their lone playoff appearance under Lynn.

Campbell said this week that he is undecided about how to handle play-calling in 2022 and the eventual replacement for Lynn will likely have a lot of bearing on the ultimate decision.

PFT

 

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert expected to step down following 2022 NFL Draft

It's looking like the end of an era in more ways than one in Pittsburgh.

Kevin Colbert -- who has run personnel for the Steelers since 2000, winning two Super Bowls while becoming one the most respected executives in the NFL -- is expecting the 2021 season to be his last one as general manager, according to sources.

Colbert's contract runs through the 2022 NFL Draft, and he has told people he intends to stay on the job through then, sources say. But while he has not been definitive in conversations with those close to him, Colbert has acknowledged that it is likely his last season and the expectation is he'll retire sooner rather than later after the draft.

With quarterback Ben Roethlisberger acknowledging that Sunday will likely be his final regular-season game, the Steelers look to have their most significant turnover in decades at key spots. The organization has been a model of stability and success, with Roethlisberger, Colbert and coach Mike Tomlin, who has yet to have a losing season, forming the triumvirate.

Now, Pittsburgh will reload with a new QB and a new GM. They do have at least two key in-house potential candidates in VP of football and business administration Omar Khan and pro scouting coordinator Brandon Hunt.

Colbert has won two Super Bowls with the Steelers, been to three, and compiled a record of 225-124-3. He addressed his future in an interview with NFL.com prior to the season, saying he'll talk about it with those close to him and evaluate all options when the time comes, while explaining that's why he's spent the last several seasons on a series of one-year deals.

When Ozzie Newsome stepped away as GM of the Baltimore Ravens in 2019 and gave way to Eric DeCosta, he stayed on in an advisory role. In similar fashion, it is conceivable that Colbert could stay on in Pittsburgh in the short term.

NFL.com

 

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer could be coaching his final game for Minnesota today

The Vikings head into Sunday's finale against the Bears with the very real possibility that Mike Zimmer is coaching Minnesota for the final time.

Owners Zygi and Mark Wilf have kept their plans close to the vest, sources say. All signs point to the Wilfs moving on from Zimmer after eight seasons, but they hadn't communicated any decision to Zimmer or other team officials as of Saturday. Several sources with knowledge of the coaching landscape say the belief is the team will move on, as well.

Zimmer is 71-56-1 as the Vikings' head coach -- third behind only Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bud Grant and Dennis Green in team history in wins and win percentage (.559). But Minnesota has missed the playoffs five times in eight seasons, including the past two. While Zimmer has taken the team deep into the playoffs, reaching the NFC championship game following the 2017 season on the "Minneapolis Miracle", there are questions about whether the team has reached its ceiling under existing leadership and is in need of a reboot.

The finality of the situation does seem to have reached Zimmer. He addressed it this week during an interview with longtime team broadcaster Paul Allen.

"Regardless of anything that goes on after the season, I can stand proud," Zimmer said in the interview. "When I walk into a stadium like Lambeau (Field) or I walk into U.S. Bank Stadium and I say to myself, 'A billion people would love to be sitting here right now and doing this job.'"

For a veteran team that appeared playoff-ready based on the personnel, it has been a roller-coaster season. The Vikings started 1-3 and have had 14 one-score games. There have been heart-stopping finishes that too often went the other way.

The Vikings' playoff hopes slipped away with losses the past two weeks to the Rams and Packers without their full offensive arsenal because of COVID-19. Running back Dalvin Cook tested positive and missed the Rams game, and quarterback Kirk Cousins did the same and missed the game against the Packers, leaving backup Sean Mannion in charge of a 37-10 debacle on national TV. Meanwhile, Zimmer's defense has stumbled badly, entering Week 18 ranked 31st in yards allowed and 25th in scoring.


Other important decisions await this offseason, including on Cousins, who has had another strong year statistically -- he enters Sunday with 30 touchdowns, just seven interceptions and a 101.3 passer rating -- but has been to the playoffs just once in four seasons as Minnesota's QB. He's fully guaranteed $35 million in the last year of his contract in 2022 with a more than $45 million salary cap number, which the Vikings could lower by extending him again.

NFL.com

 

Mike Zimmer is a millionaire if gets fired he'll be ok

 

Bears fire Matt Nagy



The Bears are making a coaching change.

The team confirmed that they fired head coach Matt Nagy on Monday morning. There’s no word on this point about whether General Manager Ryan Pace is also out.


Nagy did not have a losing record in his first three seasons with Chicago and made the playoffs twice, but he entered this season on the hot seat and a 6-11 record this season pushed him out the door. Nagy was 34-31 in the regular season during his time with the Bears and he went 0-2 in his two trips to the postseason.

The next Bears coach will inherit 2021 first-round pick Justin Fields at quarterback, although the jury’s very much out on him after he missed the final three weeks of the season due to injury and illness. He made 10 starts before that point and the Bears were 2-8 in those games.

 

Dolphins fire Brian Flores



After three seasons, Brian Flores is out as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

Flores was fired this morning.


The move comes as a surprise, as Flores appeared to have righted the ship after a shaky start. But Dolphins owner Stephen Ross apparently felt that the team’s step backward this season was unacceptable.

Now big questions are looming about the future of the franchise and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, and whether the next coach’s job will be to get Tagovailoa playing better — or to move on from him. The Dolphins have shown interest in trading for Deshaun Watson, when and if the lawsuits that many female massage therapists have brought against Watson are resolved in a way that makes acquiring him feasible.

We don’t know who the Dolphins’ quarterback of the future is, but we do know that Flores is no longer their coach.

 

Yes, “just good enough” is no longer good enough for the Wilfs.

In a statement announcing the firing of coach Mike Zimmer and G.M. Rick Spielman, team owners Zygi and Mark Wilf made it clear that the search process will happen internally, and that they’re committed to taking things to the next level.


“We appreciate Rick and Mike’s commitment to the team’s on-field success, their passion for making a positive impact in our community and their dedication to players, coaches and staff,” the Wilfs said in a statement issued on Monday. “While these decisions are not easy, we believe it is time for new leadership to elevate our team so we can consistently contend for championships. We wish both Rick and Mike and their families only the best.

“Our comprehensive search for a new general manager and head coach will begin immediately and will be led internally. We are determined to have sustained success and bring Vikings fans the Super Bowl championships they expect and deserve.”

The Wilfs have built a great stadium and an excellent practice facility. They’re willing to spend money on players. Now, they just need to find the right people to bring it all together.

And if they’re going to continue to not live and work in Minnesota, it would be helpful to have someone in charge of the football operations who brings to the office every day the same accountability that the regular presence of ownership would.

 

this one surprised me...

 

Agreed. Surprised me as well. Winning record (barely) and success over the Patriots.

In my opinion, he wont be unemployed very long.

 

Dave Gettleman announces retirement as Giants GM



Giants General Manager Dave Gettleman is calling it a career.

Gettleman, who had a largely unsuccessful four-season tenure running the Giants, announced his retirement today.


“It was a privilege to serve as the general manager of the New York Giants the last four years and to have spent so many years of my career with this franchise,” Gettleman said in a statement. “We obviously have not had the on-the-field success I expected, and that is disappointing. However, I have many fond memories here, including two Super Bowl victories, and I wish the team and organization only the best moving forward. There are many good people here who pour their souls into this organization. I am proud to have worked alongside them.”

Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch released a statement thanking Gettleman and noting that in his previous tenure with the Giants from 1998 to 2012, he played a part in putting together the personnel that helped the team win two Super Bowls.

But there’s little doubt that Gettleman failed as GM. Using the second overall pick in the draft on a running back, Saquon Barkley, was a bad move, and Gettleman’s chosen franchise quarterback, Daniel Jones, has not delivered. The Giants do have two first-round picks this year, their own and the Bears, which is one nice gift Gettleman is leaving his successor. But the next GM has a mess to clean up.

PFT

 

F that guy..

 

It's been our motto in Cleveland for over 50 years.

 

A pair of Titans executives have landed on the list of potential General Managers for the Giants.

Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports that the Giants have requested interviews with Titans vice president of player personnel Ryan Cowden and director of player personnel Monti Ossenfort. They join Bills assistant G.M. Joe Schoen, Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles, and Giants assistant G.M. Kevin Abrams as identified candidates to take over after Dave Gettleman’s retirement on Monday.


Cowden has spent the last six seasons with the Titans and worked for the Panthers for 16 years before moving to the Tennessee front office. Schoen also worked for the Panthers earlier in his career.

Ossenfort was a candidate for the Panthers G.M. opening last year. He also worked in the Patriots personnel department when Giants head coach Joe Judge was the team’s special teams coordinator.

PFT

 

Broncos want to interview Eric Bieniemy, Nathaniel Hackett



The Broncos were across the field from Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy on Saturday and they’d like to be across the table at an interview with him in the near future.

According to multiple reports, the team has requested an interview with Bieniemy for their head coaching vacancy. Reports also have Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett on the list of requests made by Broncos General Manager George Paton.


Bieniemy has interviewed with multiple teams during the last couple of hiring cycles, but has not landed his first head coaching job. The Broncos are the first team that he’s been linked with this year.

Hackett is set to interview with the Jaguars this week and could add the Broncos to the list because the Packers are on a bye. Bieniemy and other assistants from teams playing Wild Card weekend can’t interview until after their teams have played their first postseason game.

PFT

 

I remember people protesting to keep Urban Meyer after he covered up stalking / abuse for his friend / hired coach. Unless you're telling me that those people have no affiliation with Cleveland or Browns fans whatsoever, I have a feeling this statement needs amending.

 

What is wrong with you? You compulsively interject Urban Meyer into every conversation without reason. Do you realize how crazy that is?