The GM's, Coach's, Carousel

Too much control. He's used to being in charge of the whole effing show, and these days no one wants to put all of that into one person. It would help if he had more success with personnel over the last 3 years. But if he had done a better job there, he would still be with the Patriots.

 

Between Raheem Morris, Jimmy Lake and Jerry Gray, they definitely have the coaches for the back seven in the passing game.

The other news of the day is they hired former Chargers defensive line coach Jay Rodgers to take over as defensive line coach here.


And some of the lower level assistants got some love. The team's web site actually posted that senior defensive assistant Dave Huxtable, coaching operations chief of staff (translation: video director) Steve Scarnecchia, director of coaching operations Sarah Hogan and her assistant Donovan Ellison will all be back.

Not that anyone would really care about these four or that there would be any reason whatsoever why a team wouldn't keep those last three. But the team's official web site is historically AWFUL about not bothering to post the comings and goings among coaching staff or scouts or front office personnel. So personally, I thought it was pretty cool that writer Tori McElhaney would make a point of not just naming them, but giving a full write-up including their bios to announce that Sarah Hogan and Donovan Ellison will be back. That might be a first in the history of the team's web site.

So if by any chance you ever see this, Tori... you ROCK.

 

The Titans are hiring Ravens defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson as their new defensive coordinator, Jordan Schultz of Bleacher Report reports.

Wilson, 41, also drew interest from the Packers, Rams and Giants.

He just completed his first season as Baltimore’s secondary coach. Wilson previously was in Philadelphia, serving as the team’s defensive backs coach in 2021 before adding defensive passing game coordinator duties to his role in 2022 as the Eagles advanced to Super Bowl LVII.

Wilson began his coaching career as a quality control coach for the Rams in 2012 before being promoted to defensive backs coach in 2015. He served as the Jets’ defensive backs coach from 2017-20, adding passing game coordinator duties in 2019.

Titans General Manager Ran Carthon and Wilson worked together with the Rams.

The Ravens also have lost director of player personnel Joe Hortiz to the Chargers’ General Manager job and defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald to the Seahawks’ head coaching job this week.

NBC

 

Dan Quinn took the last open HC job with Washington.

 

Bill Belichick left standing in the rain, poor bastard.

 

So is Mike Vrable.

 

Thats actually more surprising than BB, Imo.

 

I'm going with the control aspect. He really ran everything with the Pats and some of the most recent drafts were pretty bad. I think an owner would want a solid GM in place and, maybe BB balked at that one.

 

O-Line Coach, Bill Callahan will be joining his son, Brian, with the Tennessee Titans.

This is bad news for Browns fans,

 

FUCK ME!!!!

This is the worst news I have seen about the Browns since they announced Deshaun Watson's contract. This is seriously a huge blow to the development of the offensive line. I'm not even sure who the second best O-line coach in the NFL is, but he was a lot further away from BC than the 3rd is to him..... One of the best coaches in the NFL period.

Then Titans definitely improved their coaching staff...and I like Mike Vrabel.

Edit: I wonder if Joe Thomas is getting bored in the booth yet? I bet he would make a great coach.

 

The Titans have found their offensive coordinator.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the team will hire Nick Holz to fill that position on Brian Callahan’s staff. Holz joins the Titans after working for the Jaguars.

Holz was hired as the passing game coordinator in Jacksonville last year and he spent the 2022 season as the offensive coordinator at UNLV. He spent 10 seasons on the Raiders staff before making the move back to the college ranks.

Callahan also worked for the Raiders in 2018, so this will not be the first time that the two coaches have worked together.

The Titans have also settled on Dennard Wilson as their defensive coordinator this week and they have come to terms with other staff members as they move toward their first season with Callahan at the helm

 

Patriots hire ex-Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt as new OC

First-year Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo has his offensive coordinator.

Alex Van Pelt is being hired for the vacant role in New England, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported Thursday, per a source. The team has since announced the news.

Van Pelt, who spent the past four years in Cleveland as the OC, will be tasked with turning around a Patriots offense that has struggled mightily the past two playoff-less seasons. New England finished in the bottom five in yards per game (276.2), passing yards per game (180.5) and scoring (19.3 PPG) in 2023, leading the team to go in a different direction by parting ways with legendary coach Bill Belichick and hiring Mayo.

Patriots quarterback Mac Jones lost his starting job by the end of 2023, and the hiring of Van Pelt could be a clue into how New England goes forward in a new era as it holds the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The 53-year-old coach spent the better part of the past two decades developing QBs and is a sensible hire whether the Patriots decide to stick with Jones or bring in a rookie. Given his latest experience, Van Pelt would be up for any challenge.

Van Pelt persevered through a 2023 season that saw the Browns deal with multiple injuries on the offensive side of the ball, including quarterback Deshaun Watson, running back Nick Chubb and both starting offensive tackles. The Browns earned a wild-card berth despite the adversity, but the team struggled on offense by the end of the season, losing to the upstart Houston Texans on Super Wild Card Weekend, 45-14.

NFL.com

 

Kliff Kingsbury could land with Washington after Raiders’ deal fell through

Former Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury withdrew his name from consideration for the Raiders’ offensive coordinator job after contract talks fell apart. That has Kingsbury back in play for the Commanders.

According to multiple reports, Kingsbury now is a favorite to become the Commanders’ offensive coordinator on Dan Quinn’s staff.

Kingsbury, 44, worked as a senior offensive analyst at USC last season after the Cardinals fired him. He was 28-37-1 in four seasons in Arizona.

The Commanders are expected to draft a quarterback with the No. 2 overall pick, with USC quarterback Caleb Williams among the top prospects.

Besides Williams, Kingsbury worked with Johnny Manziel when he was the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes when he was the head coach at Texas Tech and Kyler Murray while with the Cardinals.

PFT

 

Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore is reportedly bringing a longtime colleague with him to Philadelphia.

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that Doug Nussmeier will be the quarterbacks coach for the Eagles. Nussmeier held the same position with the Chargers when Moore was their offensive coordinator in 2023.

Nussmeier and Moore also held the same roles with the Cowboys from 2020-2022 and Nussmeier was the tight ends coach in Dallas for two seasons before moving to the quarterback role. He also has extensive college coaching experience and a stint as the Rams quarterbacks coach in 2006 and 2007 on his resume.

The Eagles have also hired defensive coordinator Vic Fangio recently and all of the new coaches will be working to correct the issues that led to the Eagles going 1-6 in their final seven games this season.

 

Raiders expected to hire former Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to be their next OC

Luke Getsy is going from the Windy City to Las Vegas.

The Raiders are expected to hire the former Bears offensive coordinator to be their next OC, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported Sunday, per sources informed of the situation.

Getsy, 39, gets a second chance at being an offensive coordinator with the Raiders. As the Chicago OC, Getsy's offense ranked 28th overall in total offense in 2022. However, this season the Bears' offense slightly improved to 20th in total offense but struggled in the passing game. He was fired on Jan. 10 after two seasons in Chicago.

Earlier in the week, the Raiders appeared to have found their OC in Kliff Kingsbury, but the former Cardinals head coach decided to withdraw from the position after contract talks broke down. Kingsbury recently interviewed for the Commanders' vacant OC job.

Getsy's coaching career began with the Green Bay Packers in 2014 as an offensive quality control coach. In 2016, he was promoted to wide receivers coach, where he worked with current Raiders star Davante Adams. For the 2018 season, Getsy decided to join the college football world as the offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. However, he only stayed for one season before returning to the Packers to be the quarterbacks coach. In 2020, he was promoted to offensive pass game coordinator and continued to be the QBs coach for Green Bay.

Getsy also had interest from the Patriots this coaching cycle, but in the end it was Las Vegas that decided to hire Getsy to work under first-year head coach Antonio Pierce. Las Vegas has found an experienced OC to lead the offense in 2024.

With Getsy joining the Raiders, Las Vegas has options on what its offense could look like for the upcoming season. The Raiders hold the No. 13 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, but they also could stick with Aidan O’Connell or trade for someone Getsy has worked with in Justin Fields.

Las Vegas has found its guy to run the offense, but who will be under center to start the 2024 season could be decided in the coming weeks or months.

NFL.com

 

Joe Whitt Jr. has been hired as the defensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders.

New Commanders head coach Dan Quinn hired Whitt for the defensive coordinator job today.

Whitt spent the last three seasons working with Quinn in Dallas, where Whitt’s title was the secondary coach and pass game coordinator. Whitt was viewed as a candidate to take over for Quinn as defensive coordinator in Dallas, but instead he has followed Quinn to Washington.

The 45-year-old Whitt has previously been a defensive assistant in Atlanta, Cleveland and Green Bay.
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Kingsbury has agreed to terms with the Commanders to be their offensive coordinator, according to multiple reports.

Kingsbury had initially agreed to become the Raiders’ OC but talks between the two sides broke down and the former Cardinals coach was back on the market.

After compiling a 28-37-1 record over four seasons with Arizona, Kingsbury spent last year as a senior offensive analyst for USC. He helped coach quarterback Caleb Williams, who is expected to be one of the first two picks in the upcoming draft.

With Dan Quinn now in the saddle as head coach, the Commanders have the No. 2 overall pick behind the Bears and are likely to be in the quarterback market.

With Kingsbury out, the Raiders have agreed to terms with former Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to be their OC.

PFT

 

The Commanders announced that they hired Kliff Kingsbury as their offensive coordinator on Monday, but they never made an announcement regarding Eric Bieniemy’s status after he spent the 2023 season running the offense.

PFT reported that the team was still working through that after the Kingsbury announcement, but the new coordinator’s arrival seemed to be just about all anyone needed to know and official confirmation came during head coach Dan Quinn’s first press conference with the team on Monday afternoon. Quinn said he wishes Bieniemy well in his next stop because he will not be remaining in Washington.

“I think he’s an excellent coach. I had a chance to visit with him today. We’ll continue that dialogue, but we’re not going to work together here,” Quinn said.

Bieniemy, who made a lateral move last year because he got the chance to call plays, interviewed for the Commanders’ head coaching job early in the process, but he has not be in the mix for any other coordinator jobs around the league so far this hiring cycle.

 

With a new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith, the Steelers are making some additional changes to their coaching staff.

According to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Frisman Jackson will not return as the team’s receivers coach.

Jackson had been with Pittsburgh for the last two seasons.

Dulac also notes that the futures of quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan and running backs coach Eddie Faulkner are currently unclear. Sullivan and Faulkner were co-offensive coordinators after the Steelers fired Matt Canada during the season.

Jackson was previously the Panthers’ receivers coach from 2020-2021 under former head coach Matt Rhule. He also served as the Titans receivers coach in 2017.

Jackson, 44, played 34 games for the Browns from 2002-2005. He caught 40 passes for 490 yards with a touchdown.

PFT

 

The Giants have found their next defensive coordinator.

According to multiple reports, New York is hiring Shane Bowen for the role.

Bowen, 37, was the Titans’ defensive coordinator under former head coach Mike Vrabel over the last three seasons. In 2023, Tennessee ranked No. 16 in points allowed and No. 18 in yards allowed.

Bowen was previously the Titan’s outside linebackers coach from 2018-2020. He was a defensive assistant for the Texans from 2016-2017.

The Giants announced they had mutually agreed to part ways with former coordinator Wink Martindale on Jan. 10.

PFT

 

Greg Roman agrees to deal to become Chargers offensive coordinator

Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman are back together.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Roman has agreed to a contract to become the offensive coordinator of the Chargers. Harbaugh was hired as the Chargers head coach last month and Roman worked as Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator with the 49ers from 2011 to 2014.

Roman went on to run the Bills offense for two years and then joined Harbaugh’s brother John’s staff with the Ravens. He was the tight ends coach for two years and the offensive coordinator for four seasons before parting ways with Baltimore after the 2022 season.

The Chargers have also secured a deal with Jesse Minter to be their defensive coordinator, so Harbaugh’s first staff in Los Angeles has filled key spots heading into the offseason.