Best fits for Giants’, Raiders’, Bears’ and Broncos’ jobs
Numerous mail. Numerous completely different subjects. Let’s dive in …
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From Jim Diee (@JimDiee): Who’s the very best match for the Giants’ GM job?
Jim, there’s motive to be inspired: The checklist they’ve acquired is actually good. Payments assistant GM Joe Schoen was in New Jersey for a second interview on Tuesday, Chiefs government director of participant personnel Ryan Poles was there on Wednesday and 49ers assistant GM Adam Peters will probably be on Thursday. And my perception is that every of these guys would have an opportunity to rent a coach to pair with, and all three have background with succesful candidates.
With Schoen, Payments offensive coordinator Brian Daboll can be a reputation to think about. And to me, the connections to Peters and Poles are much more attention-grabbing. The previous got here up with Brian Flores within the Patriots’ scouting division, the 2 having spent 4 years collectively as grunts on that finish of Invoice Belichick’s operation. The latter performed at Boston School proper after Flores did (Poles was a BC lineman from 2003 to ’07, Flores a linebacker there from 1999 to ’02) at, yup, John Mara’s alma mater.
To me, Flores can be a very attention-grabbing match there, with the bonus being that he’s a Brooklyn native. And there’s so much to love in Daboll, too. So like I stated, for all they’ve accomplished mistaken, I like the place their course of is taking them now.
From DAC (@CareFREE_DC): Odds Harbaugh is subsequent Raiders HC?
DAC, one of the best ways I can clarify how unpredictable this example is can be to take you all the way in which again to Dec. 2014, when it was clear that Jim Harbaugh was leaving the 49ers, however unclear the place he’d go subsequent. And on the time, there have been whispers that he didn’t need any a part of going again to varsity soccer—which left the crew throughout the Bay in Oakland in place to land him.
But, there he was on the finish of that month, in a maize and blue tie at a lectern in Ann Arbor, asserting his return to his alma mater.
Backside line, I’ve discovered that in these conditions, it’s finest to not guess on Harbaugh. Simply as many predicted he’d land with the Raiders the yr earlier than, there was motive to consider the yr earlier than that he’d wind up in Cleveland, with the Browns’ providing a pair of third-round picks for his rights, solely for Harbaugh himself to tug the plug. Which, after all, is to say that forecasting the place he goes subsequent can be like attempting to forecast an earthquake.
There are some information right here that reveal hints, although. One, he left openings on his employees vacant for almost two weeks following Michigan’s loss to Georgia within the Orange Bowl, which raised eyebrows within the business with obtainable assistant coaches being devoured up throughout the nation. That silence ended on Friday, when Harbaugh introduced in ex-Notre Dame assistant Mike Elston to educate the Michigan line of defense.
Conversely, the Raiders’ choice to maneuver on from GM Mike Mayock so rapidly after the season ended might be learn, certainly, as proprietor Mark Davis’s clearing the decks to supply Harbaugh no matter form of construction he’d like. And I occur to suppose that half is half true. I do suppose Davis gave his soccer operation a clear slate with intention to entice the correct coach to come back, I’m simply unsure it’s one particular coach. Extra so, I’d suppose it’s to offer the crew the very best likelihood at touchdown a high-profile coach, interval, Harbaugh being simply one of many potentialities.
Now, there’s mutual curiosity right here. Davis remembers nearly touchdown Harbaugh in 2015, and Harbaugh’s acquired an affinity for the Raiders going again to spending his first two years as a coach with the group, below Invoice Callahan. So, positive, there are explanation why this one is sensible. And in addition explanation why it won’t occur.
I additionally wouldn’t dismiss the crew’s aggression in getting Patriots director of participant personnel Dave Ziegler in for an interview. They’re additionally interviewing Bears exec Champ Kelly, who labored with Zielger in Denver, and may conceivably be a high lieutenant for Ziegler in Vegas, as may present Raiders exec, and ex-Patriots scout, DuJuan Daniels. And that would result in the Raiders’ touchdown a high-profile New England–related coach.
From Brandon Beam (@BrandonBeam971): AB, what’s the dream state of affairs for the Bears of their search for a HC/GM combo platter?
Beam! I feel in an ideal world, perhaps it will be Harbaugh or Ohio State’s Ryan Day, and a GM to match with them. Extra possible, at this level, can be an skilled “chief of males” kind—at the very least that’s the archetype they’ve drilled down on discovering as their search has moved into its second week.
The identify that’s constantly give you the Bears is Payments defensive coordinator, and former Vikings coach, Leslie Frazier. He’s acquired expertise and the management traits they’re wanting for, with apparent ties to the franchise from his days as a Bears defensive again within the ’80s, and he’s additionally acquired connections with Invoice Polian, who has a robust voice within the search, having been employed to seek the advice of. Polian and Frazier received a Tremendous Bowl collectively in Indianapolis. (It’s price noting that Jim Caldwell has connections to Polian too.)
Who would Frazier’s GM be? I feel that may be broad open. Nevertheless it’s price at the very least contemplating that Browns VP of participant personnel Glenn Cook dinner was introduced into the league by Polian in 2011, so there very properly is likely to be a match there.
And the wild card, Beam, can be Brian Flores. His availability, I consider, modified the dynamic in a few of these searches, and he’s already interviewed with the Bears.
From Cork Screw (@corkscrew49): Denver HC/OC/QB plan A?
Cork Screw, right here’s Plan A: Dan Quinn as head coach, Luke Getsy as offensive coordinator, Aaron Rodgers as quarterback. Is it far-fetched? Perhaps it’s. I picked the Packers to win the Tremendous Bowl, and I feel if that occurs the chances are Rodgers would keep put in Inexperienced Bay. However I additionally suppose it’s fairly simple to have a look at the place the Broncos are, and we’ve been over this earlier than, and see the place they’d be capable of supply Rodgers quite a lot of what they had been in a position to supply to Peyton Manning all the way in which again in 2012.
The opposite factor that I feel has been attention-grabbing about Denver’s strategy to the interview course of is that you just’re seeing some newer names. Getsy’s is one. The Broncos had been the primary crew to place in for Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell and Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan (neither calls performs) as properly, and are interviewing Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo Wednesday.
And to be clear, I feel Broncos GM George Paton is genuinely interested by these guys as head teaching candidates. However … this definitely might be like Tennessee in 2018, when the Titans interviewed Matt LaFleur for their head-coaching job, with the concept if he didn’t win the job, he may go away the Rams for the chance to name performs. Which is what he wound up doing, taking the O.C. job after Tennessee picked Mike Vrabel as head coach.
From yossarian (@DreedleGeneral): If DeMeco Ryans leaves the 49ers for an HC Job, may they get Fangio again? Various query, may the 49ers make Lynch the president to maintain Peters as a GM?
Dreedle, I wouldn’t rule out the thought of Vic Fangio going again to the Niners. Fangio left after Harbaugh’s late 2014 departure from San Francisco, and Adam Gase really tried to get him on board with going again to the Niners with him in 2016 (Gase wound up touchdown the job in Miami as a substitute). So the group has nice background with Fangio, and it wouldn’t be a stunner to see Shanahan faucet into that, if he was O.Okay. with a scheme change.
As for Adam Peters’s potential departure, I’d simply say that if Peters will get the possibility to run the present some place else, and particularly with a historic franchise just like the Giants, my guess is the Niners, and Lynch, would congratulate him and want him the very best. Even in case you shuffle titles and give a man extra money, what most guys in Peters’s place aspire to do is run their very own present. And the Niners wouldn’t be capable of supply him that.
(Plus, the Niners have a crew president already.)
From LaRockStar (@LaRocque_Star): Why does it seem to be the nationwide media has a detrimental really feel in the case of Mac?
La Rock, my take is that individuals have, rightly, stated good issues in regards to the Patriots for so lengthy, that even gentle criticism has come off as greater than that to followers of the crew. And so when folks say that Mac Jones has an opportunity to be actually good, however perhaps not nice, that’s digested as a shot. Is it actually?
Nicely, to me, it’s based on the place Jones is and the place he’s been. The knock on Alabama gamers coming into the draft has ceaselessly been the identical—quite a lot of instances, they’re beat up and maxed out. Beat up, as a result of it’s a demanding program, practices there are intense and the crew’s taking part in type is bodily. And maxed out, as a result of they’re exceedingly well-coached, and there’s at all times an opportunity Nick Saban acquired all the things out of a man that he has.
You add that to Jones’s bodily limitations, and it’s honest to ask these types of questions. His rep coming into the NFL was that he was as prepared for the league as a quarterback might be—due to his personal soccer acumen, and skill to course of and see the sphere quick, and this system he was coming from. That’s confirmed true. And so how a lot room is there for him to develop? We’ll see.
And that’s not an insult, the identical method the comp I used final yr for him (Chad Pennington) wasn’t an insult both. Pennington was a very good participant, however fell in need of being nice. That’s how scouts noticed Jones popping out. I don’t suppose that sufficient has modified since to consider that received’t be the case. However that doesn’t imply there’s not so much to love about Jones. I feel he’s acquired likelihood to be the Patriots’ quarterback for a very long time to come back.
From Dan (@DSheehan77): What makes Jonathan Gannon a well-liked interview candidate?
Dan, Gannon is a type of guys that the general public doesn’t know as a lot about, however soccer folks have lengthy thought very extremely of him—form of the identical method his former staff-mate Kevin Stefanski was seen as he ascended by way of the ranks in Minnesota, or Arthur Smith was developing in Tennessee. Gannon’s soccer pedigree may be very strong, and although he simply turned a coordinator for the primary time, he was on the precipice of it for a few years.
Then, there are these connections. Minnesota’s interviewing him, and the Vikings know what he can do, on condition that he was there from 2014 to ’17. The Broncos are one other crew that put in for him, and their GM, George Paton, is from Minnesota too. And the Texans are run by GM Nick Caserio, who has Northeast Ohio connections to Gannon—Gannon has lengthy been on Josh McDaniels’s potential employees lists (that’s really how Gannon wound up in Indy), and clearly McDaniels and Caserio go method again.
Is there an old-boys-network component to all of that? Certain. However I additionally suppose it says one thing that the groups contemplating taking a shot on him perhaps a yr or two earlier than most would contemplate it are run by individuals who know him properly. To me, that’s a really actual constructive.
From Chris (@burns_13): Patriots and linebackers. How do they get higher subsequent yr with maybe Jamie Collins, Dont’a Hightower and Ja’Whaun Bentley gone?
Chris, the free-agent crop at linebacker this yr is actually skinny, headed by ageing vets and second-chance guys who most likely would equate the Patriots’ spinning their wheels on the place. So if Hightower, Kyle Van Noy and Collins are gone, New England has its work minimize out for it in looking for the pace it wants so as to add there.
The excellent news is there are some good Day 2–kind off-ball linebackers within the draft and—absent somebody like Nakobe Dean slipping to the Patriots at No. 21—that ought to give the Patriots choices, even when it’s somewhat tough to undergo free company with out actually addressing that spot.
It’s additionally price mentioning that the Patriots aren’t flush with cap area like they had been a yr in the past, notably in the event that they wind up tagging J.C. Jackson.
From Kris Hudson (@KrisHudsonCRE): AB, what is the lead metropolis for NFL growth, if and when it occurs? My guess is Austin. I haven’t got a canine on this struggle. Thx.
Kris, I wouldn’t maintain my breath on home growth if I had been you. I simply don’t suppose house owners are going to need to cut up up their fortune two or 4 extra methods with out a metropolis that basically provides to the NFL’s skill to generate income. So I feel the following time the NFL expands, if that day ever comes, my guess can be it’s someplace exterior the U.S.
From Mike Liddle (@mliddle17): Will this yr’s offense coordinator decide decide the destiny of Matt Rhule in Carolina past this yr?
Mike, I feel it’s honest to say that. Rhule’s destiny, to me, rides on his skill to get the quarterback proper. And if the willpower a yr from now’s that Rhule’s program has taken the Yr 3 soar it did at Temple and Baylor, then that’ll imply the quarterback spot is fastened, which is able to necessitate the offensive coordinator doing job.
If he lands, say, Deshaun Watson, and Watson seems to be nice, then the coordinator will get credit score for it. If he lands Watson, and Watson doesn’t play properly, my guess is proprietor David Tepper can be wanting for a brand new coach to repair that. Equally, if he will get somebody like Jimmy Garoppolo, and Garoppolo is lights out, which means the coordinator rent labored. If he finally ends up with Garoppolo, and Garoppolo flames out like Sam Darnold did, then it will be curtains.
Fairly easy.
From Wendell Ferreira (@wendellfp): If Nathaniel Hackett will get a HC job, who may the Packers contemplate as the brand new OC?
Wendell, I feel ideally it will be Getsy. The difficulty comes if each Hackett and Getsy wind up elsewhere, which isn’t possible, however is feasible. The excellent news is LaFleur has a pleasant group of promising younger offensive assistants, with run-game coordinator/line coach Adam Stenavich, receivers coach Jason Vrable and tight ends coach Justin Outten all extremely considered internally.
My guess, in that state of affairs, would most likely have Stenavich taking up extra duty, with both Vrable or Outten getting a pass-game coordinator title.
From Tom Marshall (@aredzonauk): Regardless of his late season failings, is Kliff Kingsbury secure for 2022?
Tom, I feel Kingsbury goes to be O.Okay. The Cardinals did have a personnel assembly set for Tuesday that wound up being canceled, which raised some concern. Additionally, VP of professional scouting Adrian Wilson has a rising voice within the group, and it’s at all times price contemplating when there’s somebody new on the desk for these types of debate.
However my sense is issues have calmed down contained in the constructing.
And I don’t actually suppose the Cardinals ought to pull the plug now. Kingsbury’s taken the worst crew within the NFL three years in the past to the playoffs, with enchancment yearly, and strong quarterback growth. And firing Kingsbury would imply a sophisticated teaching search they’d be diving into late—with a singular quarterback, who occurs to be an important match for their present coach, however won’t be for everybody.
So yeah, I’d keep on with Kliff.
From Not who you suppose I’m (@DonRidenour): Doubts on a second contract for Kyler?
Don, it feels to me like, if Kingsbury’s going right into a fourth yr, the Cardinals would press pause on negotiating a brand new contract with Murray, with the plain danger being that his worth goes up.
From Matt Ramas (@matt_ramas): With how the Cowboys’ season ended this weekend, how possible is it that Mike McCarthy will get changed by Kellen Moore as HC?
Matt, I do suppose they’ll keep on with McCarthy. But when they don’t? My guess is Quinn can be the man.
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