The GM's, Coach's, Carousel

Giants sign defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to contract extension



The Jets had requested permission to speak to Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham for their head coaching opening. It is unknown whether other teams were interested, but the team cut them off at the pass.

Graham signed a contract extension with the team and will not pursue any head coaching opportunities in 2021, Ralph Vacchiano of SNY reports.


In 2008, Washington tried to hire Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as its head coach. The Giants convinced him to stay with a three-year contract worth $2 million per season.

Graham, who directed a unit that finished 12th in yards allowed and ninth in points allowed in 2020, surely also got a nice raise out of the Jets’ interest.

Graham, 41, has spent the past two years as a defensive coordinator. He was with the Dolphins in 2019 before following Joe Judge to the Giants before this year.

Graham also is the Giants’ assistant head coach.

He began his NFL coaching career under Bill Belichick in 2009, and he was there seven years as an assistant. Graham was the Giants’ defensive line coach in 2016-17 and the Packers’ linebackers coach and run game coordinator in 2018.

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The Texans met with Nick Caserio in Houston earlier Tuesday, and it should come as no surprise that the team is expected to hire him as its next General Manager, John McClain of the Houston Chronicle reports.

The Texans still have other interviews scheduled, but it appears it’s Caserio’s job.

Houston tried to hire the Patriots’ director of player personnel in the summer of 2019 after firing Brian Gaine. The Texans, though, handled the potential hiring as clumsily as they possibly could.

The Patriots had a clause in Caserio’s contract that kept him from interviewing with other teams, and after they threatened tampering charges against the Texans, Houston backed down. The Texans initially went without a G.M. before giving then-head coach Bill O’Brien the additional duties.

The Texans fired O’Brien in October, and Caserio’s contract has expired.

Caserio and Texans executive vice president of football operations Jack Easterby worked together for six years in New England before the Texans hired Easterby in 2019.

Caserio has spent 20 seasons with the Patriots, the past 13 as director of player personnel.

NBC

 

Falcons will interview Todd Bowles for head-coaching job next week



A year after joining forces with Tom Brady in Tampa, Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles could be dealing with Brady twice per year. Again.

Per a league source, the Falcons will interview Bowles next week for their vacant head-coaching position.

Bowles served as head coach of the Jets from 2015 through 2018, generating a record of 24-40. He went 10-6 but missed the playoffs in his first year on the job.

Bowles rejoined Bruce Arians in Tampa for the past two seasons. The team’s defense has become an underrated strength of the team, given the amount of focus on the efforts to take the offense to the next level with the addition of players like Brady, tight end Rob Gronkowski, and receiver Antonio Brown.

NBC

 

In Texans G.M. hire, Jack Easterby wins big



Reactions are trickling in following the news that the Texans will make Patriots V.P. of player personnel Nick Caserio the team’s next General Manager. The common thread consists of two messages.

First, Easterby wins. As in executive V.P. of football operations Jack Easterby. Caserio is an Easterby guy, who presumably will defer to whatever authority Easterby will have.

Second, Easterby really wins. As reported by Mike Garafolo of NFL Media, the Korn Ferry search firm identified five candidates for the job: Texans director of player personnel Matt Bazirgan, Seahawks V.P. of player personnel Trent Kirchner, Steelers V.P. of football and business administration Omar Khan, Louis Riddick, and Ravens director of football research Scott Cohen. Korn Ferry did not include Caserio on its list of finalists.

But Caserio got the job, because that’s who Easterby wanted — and Easterby won the power struggle with Korn Ferry. (Korn Ferry presumably still gets paid its six-figure fee for creating a menu from which the Texans ultimately didn’t select.)

“Easterby is a wizard,” Garafolo declares.

Others in league circles would use other terms to describe Easterby. In the hiring of a G.M., however, Easterby got the guy he tried to get in 2019. Which, as one league source observed, allows Easterby to continue to pull the strings without the accountability that goes with being the G.M.

Next, the question becomes whether Easterby will get his preferred coach. Some wonder whether it will be Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who spurned the Colts three years ago and who has gotten less interest in recent hiring cycles.

The first question is whether McDaniels on Korn Ferry’s list. If not, McDaniels could be the man for the job.

NBC

 

Broncos line up interviews with handful of G.M candidates



The Denver Broncos have lined up interviews with several candidates for their newly vacate General Manager job after John Elway decided to cede that role to a new person.

Via Mike Klis of 9News, the Broncos have interviews scheduled with New Orleans Saints director of pro scouting Terry Fontenot and Chicago Bears assistant director of player personnel Champ Kelly. Additionally, they will interview Broncos college scouting director Brian Stark for the job as well.

Minnesota Vikings assistant G.M. and VP of player personnel George Paton will interview for the job, via Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, and New England Patriots assistant director of player personnel Dave Ziegler will also meet with the team for the position.

Fontenot interviewed with the Detroit Lions for their G.M. position on Tuesday and will meet with the Atlanta Falcons this week as well. Paton is also scheduled to interview with the Lions on Wednesday for their opening. Kelly is scheduled to interview with the Carolina Panthers for their position.

NBC

 

Chan Gailey resigns as Dolphins offensive coordinator



Dolphins head coach Brian Flores said on Tuesday that he expects to have his entire coaching staff back for the 2021 season.

Flores was wrong. The Dolphins announced on Wednesday that offensive coordinator Gailey has resigned from his position.

The announcement comes a couple of days after ESPN reported that Gailey had been fired. They quickly retracted that report, which was based on a tweet from someone impersonating ESPN reporter Adam Schefter, but the end result is still that the Dolphins will need a new offensive coordinator.

“I want to thank Chan for all of his hard work and dedication in what was a unique year,” Flores said in a statement. “He played an important role on the staff and in the development of our young roster. I wish him all the best.”

Gailey’s succesor will be called on to maximize the potential of 2020 first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa as the quarterback heads into his second NFL season.

NBC

 

The Texans finally got their man. And their man is getting his money.

Per multiple sources, Texans G.M. Nick Caserio received a six-year deal with a base value of $30 million. One source said it has a maximum value of $36 million.

It’s been speculated that multiple other candidates from the list of finalists compiled by the Korn Ferry search firm would have accepted a deal worth half that amount. Caserio, amazingly, wasn’t one of the finalists identified by Korn Ferry. Somehow, executive V.P. of football operations Jack Easterby persuaded owner Cal McNair to hire Caserio, who presumably won’t be a threat to Easterby’s power and influence and, possibly, employment.

So now that Caserio has the job, what happens? The Texans have a franchise quarterback but they need plenty of players. They need weapons for their franchise quarterback, and Caserio’s prior team hasn’t exactly been stellar in recent years when it comes to drafting and developing receivers.

The franchise quarterback remains dubious about the direction of the team. On Sunday, Deshaun Watson said this after a second-ending loss: “Man, it just starts with the energy and just the foundation of this program. There’s no real foundation in view. Everyone sees it. Everyone knows that.”

Although Watson has signed a long-term deal, if he doesn’t believe in the direction of the team, that’s a problem. His curious “some things never change” tweet has been deleted, without explanation.

So what does he really think? It’s not clear. Maybe we’ll get more hints after the Texans hire a head coach. We don’t know who it will be, but we do know that it won’t be Eric Bieniemy.

NBC

 

The Jets need a good coach, and they’ve talked to one of the more underrated coaches of the past generation.

The team has announced that former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis has been interviewed for the job. Lewis, currently the co-defensive coordinator at Arizona State, coached the Bengals from 2003 to 2018.

Lewis took the Bengals to the playoffs seven times, but he went 0-7 in the postseason — including a loss to the Jets. The Bengals under Lewis made the playoffs five straight years, from 2011 through 2015.

The 62-year-old Lewis routinely dealt with a Bengals organization that cut financial corners when it came to scouting and other non-football budgets, making it hard to be as successful as possible. The ability to get to the playoffs so frequently amid deep-rooted dysfunction makes his body of work more impressive than it otherwise would be.

Since Lewis left, the Bengals have gone 6-25-1.

He also has interviewed with the Lions and Texans. As noted by Brian Costello of the New York Post, Lewis is the first candidate to be interviewed for the Jets job with head-coaching experience.

NBC

 

The Carolina Panthers will interview a pair of internal candidates for their open General Manager position.

According to Joe Person of TheAthletic.com, the team will interview Director of Player Negotiations & Salary Cap Manager Samir Suleiman and Director of Player Personnel Pat Stewart for the vacancy.

Sueliman (pictured) and Stewart are the latest on the list of possible candidates to take over the position after Marty Hurney was fired in December. The team has been linked to over a dozen candidates for the job as the Panthers cast a wide net for possible hires. One possibility is off the list after Nick Caserio, who the team already interviewed, was hired by the Houston Texans.

Suleiman joined the Panthers last year, coming to the team from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Team owner David Tepper was a minority owner of the Steelers before purchasing the Panthers in July 2018.

Stewart would join Suleiman in Carolina four months later. He was hired by the team last May after previously serving as a national scout for the Philadelphia Eagles. Stewart had spent two seasons with the Eagles with his previous 10 years coming in various roles with the New England Patriots.

NBC

 

Jaguars meeting with Urban Meyer today



Urban Meyer is meeting with the Jaguars today about their head coaching vacancy.

No deal is imminent and the team isn’t done interviewing other head coaching candidates, NFL Network reports.

Meyer has been identified since before Doug Marrone was fired as a potential next head coach of the Jaguars. Although Meyer has no NFL experience at all, he’s one of the best college football coaches of all time. He won national championships at both Florida and Ohio State, and his winning percentage of .853 is the best in major college football of any coach whose career started after World War II.

If Meyer does take the Jaguars job, speculation will immediately turn to what Meyer would want to do with the first overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. Although Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence has been widely regarded as the clear first pick, Meyer may be the one coach who would consider Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. Meyer never coached Fields, but Meyer has remained close to the Ohio State program and has repeatedly praised Fields not just as a player on the field, but for his leadership and character.

Meyer retired from Ohio State two years ago, citing health reasons, but he previously retired from Florida, citing health reasons, and that didn’t keep him out of coaching for long. If Meyer thinks he can win in Jacksonville, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if he takes the job.

NBC

 

I'd love to see Urban get a gig in the NFL.

 

Champ Kelly, George Paton to interview with Broncos Friday



The Broncos will kick off their General Manager search with a pair of interviews on Friday.

Albert Breer of SI.com reports that Bears assistant director of player personnel Champ Kelly and Vikings assistant G.M. George Paton will meet with the team. They are part of a group of five candidates who have been identified as candidates to replace John Elway, who will remain with the organization as the president of football operations.

Paton has also interviewed with the Lions while Kelly has interviewed with the Panthers.

Mike Klis of KUSA reports that the other identified candidates — Patriots assistant director of player personnel Dave Ziegler, Broncos college scouting director Brian Stark, and Saints assistant G.M. of pro personnel Terry Fontenot — will interview with the team on Saturday.

NBC

 

Cowboys announce Mike Nolan, Jim Tomsula firings



Word on Friday was that the Cowboys fired defensive coordinator Mike Nolan and the team has now announced the move.

Nolan joined the staff after Mike McCarthy was hired as head coach early last year. He changed the scheme that the Cowboys had run in the past and the performance of the unit was terrible for much of the season.

The Cowboys also announced that they have fired defensive line coach Jim Tomsula.

“I am appreciative of my relationships with both Mike and Jim, and I am grateful for the contributions that both of them made to our team under difficult circumstances in 2020,” McCarthy said in a statement. “These are never easy decisions to make, and we wish them, and their families, the very best in the future.”

The Cowboys gave offensive coordinator Kellen Moore a new deal to keep him from taking the Boise State head coaching job, so the Nolan move will likely represent the biggest change to the coaching staff this offseason.

NBC

 

Report: Doug Pederson’s job in jeopardy



Eagles coach Doug Pederson’s job may not be safe.

Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Pederson’s status as Eagles head coach is not firm, as he and owner Jeffrey Lurie will be meeting soon and Pederson needs to convince Lurie that he has a vision for the future of the franchise.


The obvious, major issue in Philadelphia is quarterback Carson Wentz‘s disastrous season, but Mortensen reports that Lurie’s concerns extend well beyond Wentz.

Pederson won the Super Bowl with the Eagles in 2017 and got to the playoffs in 2018 and 2019. But the Eagles fell to 4-11-1 in 2020, and Pederson was harshly criticized all year, culminating in an ugly Week 17 loss in which Pederson was widely criticized for benching Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld. That loss raised questions about whether Pederson has lost the Eagles’ locker room, and Lurie may need Pederson to convince him that he can get the team turned around — or else Lurie will find someone else to do it.

NBC

 

Buzz builds for Jim Caldwell to Texans



The Texans currently have a mess on their hands. Their best way to clean it up could entail hiring Jim Caldwell to serve as the team’s next coach.

A buzz is building in league circles that Caldwell could be the next coach in Houston.

Last month, the Texans interviewed Caldwell, who previously coached the Colts and the Lions, before hiring G.M. Nick Caserio. With the team desperately needing a solution to the now obvious and well-documented discontent of quarterback Deshaun Watson, Caldwell could be the calming influence the team needs.

Would Caserio want Caldwell? Former Lions G.M. Bob Quinn, who worked with Caldwell in Detroit, fired Caldwell after a pair of 9-7 seasons. Some would say that the firing of Caldwell became a matter of “when” not “if” once Quinn got the job, given the reality that Quinn seemed to be determined to eventually hire Matt Patricia to coach the team.

Caldwell, 65, has a 62-50 record in the regular season, and a 2-4 mark in the playoffs. He has had no other interviews in the current cycle.

If the Texans would hire Caldwell in an effort to undo the damage done to the relationship with Deshaun Watson, why wouldn’t they simply interview and/or hire Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy? That approach would seem to be too much of a capitulation to Watson, who recommended Bieniemy for the job.

It’s nevertheless possible that Watson has mentally crossed the Rubicon regarding his time in Houston. Even without Watson, however, Caldwell could be the right man at the right time to stabilize a team that has descended into a state of dysfunction that the organization has never before seen.

NBC's Rumor Mill

 

Ex-Falcons HC Dan Quinn meeting with Cowboys for vacant DC job

The Dallas Cowboys are taking a step toward potentially landing their newest defensive coordinator.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday that Dan Quinn is on a flight to Dallas to meet with Cowboys brass, per a source informed of the situation.

The in-person meeting comes after Dallas spent several hours on Zoom with Quinn.

Rapoport added that Quinn is the Cowboys' top candidate for the DC gig on Mike McCarthy's staff.

Generally, if owner Jerry Jones has honed in on a target, he lands him. The in-person meeting could be the final step before the club adds Quinn to the staff.

The 50-year-old Quinn was fired by the Atlanta Falcons five games into the 2020 season with an 0-5 record. In five-plus seasons with Atlanta, Quinn compiled a 43-42 record, including a Super Bowl trip in 2016.

Before landing in Atlanta, Quinn succeeded Gus Bradley as defensive coordinator in Seattle, taking over the Legion of Boom in its prime. In two years as DC in Seattle, Quinn's defense ranked No. 1 in yards and points allowed both seasons.


Quinn's defenses in Atlanta, however, routinely struggled throughout his tenure. In the past two years, the Falcons actually improved on defense when Raheem Morris took control.

After a disastrous year under Mike Nolan resulted in his firing last week, the Cowboys are looking to turn the page quickly and could believe the well-liked Quinn is the man to spark a quick turnaround.

In addition to Quinn, the Cowboys have also interviewed Falcons secondary coach Joe Whitt and Panthers defensive passing game coordinator Jason Simmons.

NFL.com

 

I'd love to see Urban get a gig in the NFL.


I agree Will.......and he is a good fit for the Jags......Trevor Lawrence will be the icing on the Cake for Jacksonville.

 

****BREAKING****

Eagles fire Doug Pederson



Sunday brought a report that Eagles head coach Doug Pederson’s job was in jeopardy and the other shoe fell for the Super Bowl LII winner on Monday.

According to multiple reports, Pederson has been fired by Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie.

Pederson was hired by the Eagles in 2016 and took them to a Super Bowl title the next year. They returned to the playoffs after going 9-7 in each of the next two seasons, but slumped to 4-11-1 this year. Quarterback Carson Wentz‘s regression contributed to that slide and Pederson’s decision to play Nate Sudfeld in the fourth quarter of a Week 17 loss to Washington was met with derision by people inside and outside the organization.

Pederson’s record was 42-37-1 in the regular season and 4-2 in the postseason. There are six other head coaching vacancies around the league right now and Pederson’s work before this season could earn him looks from one or more of those teams.

NBC

 

Don't know what to think. Doug has been worse with his play calling but I wonder if the GM side of this situation wasn't the real issue, especially with his coaches let go. The Wentz situation is now something to look at. Was it done to keep Wentz? Was it done just because they had different plans for the future?