The Steve Bisciotti era in Baltimore has included two first-time HCs — Brian Billick, John Harbaugh — but the owner is not against a retread. Bisciotti specified there will not necessarily be a success baseline from that retread’s first coaching run in order for him to land the job as Harbaugh’s successor.
“The one thing that I know that I will probably take it on the chin is if our final candidate is an ex-coach who has a losing record,” Bisciotti said, via ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley, “and you all are going to have to understand that we are going to be able to judge that failure with his circumstances and marry that up and not disqualify them.
“It’d be very easy for me to try and avoid those ex-head coaches because they have losing records, but I’m telling you, we are keen to their circumstances, and we won’t let their first shot at a job influence us negatively for this one.”
Bisciotti also pointed to the next Baltimore HC receiving plenty of time in the role, pointing to at least “five or six” years. Though, that will largely depend on the Ravens’ performance as Lamar Jackson‘s prime goes on. The Ravens’ search includes eight second-chance HC options thus far. Bisciotti will have input, but he specified (via Ravens.com’s Ryan Mink) Eric DeCosta, EVP Ozzie Newsome and president Sashi Brown are running the search.
Here is the latest from the coaching ranks:
- The Eagles have been connected to big names for their OC post, being tied to Kliff Kingsbury, Kevin Stefanski, Mike McDaniel and Brian Daboll early in the process. A college option has also emerged on Philly’s radar. The Eagles have “poked around” on LSU OC Charlie Weis Jr., per the New York Daily News’ Pat Leonard. Weis, who is following Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss, coached Jaxson Dart at with the Rebels and played a central role in an 11-1 season, overseeing Division II transfer Trinidad Chambliss. Just 32, the second-generation college coach has been a college OC since he was 25. Weis served as Florida Atlantic’s OC beginning in 2018 before moving to South Florida and then Ole Miss. Unlike Kiffin, Weis stayed on during the Rebels’ run to the CFP semifinals. The Eagles are planning to give their next OC full autonomy of the offense, per The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson, with Nick Sirianni long being a CEO HC.
- Staying on the college level, Oklahoma announced Thursday that Jason Witten is joining its staff as tight ends coach. Witten, 43, had been the coach at Liberty Christian High School in Texas but was on the Cowboys’ radar for a job last year. Witten came up as a dark-horse HC candidate in Dallas last year but later said he did not discuss that role. Though, this Oklahoma gig — Witten’s first at the college level — could be a springboard to a future NFL position.
- Seahawks running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu took a leave of absence recently and will not return to the team. Polamalu is now off the Seattle staff ahead of the team’s divisional-round game, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets. Polamalu took the leave in mid-December. Assistant offensive line coach Justin Outten and offensive assistant Michael Byrne have held Polamalu’s duties since the staffer’s exit. Polamalu, 63, has been with the Seahawks for two seasons. He has been in coaching since 1992, first arriving in the NFL in 2004.
- After Andy Reid‘s worst season since his 2012 Eagles finale, the Chiefs are tinkering with their staff. They are moving on from wide receivers coach Connor Embree, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport notes. Embree climbed from the quality control level to wideouts coach in 2023. Even as the Chiefs claimed a second straight Super Bowl title that season, the year began a downturn for Kansas City receivers. Experiments with Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore failed before another uneven passing season in 2024 commenced. After a 6-11 2025 slate, the Chiefs will look for another wideouts instructor.
I know we are known for making yards on the ground with Hurts and Saquon but honestly the offensive has been down bad this year. Not throwing the ball as much hurts the team and it’s clearly affected AJ Brown.
We rank bottom 10 in passing yards per game and total yards per game.
Saquon is 28 and as we known running backs tend to drop off really badly as they get older.
AJ is likely gone but I feel like we need to make a good OC hiring and invest a little more in WR and get back to Hurts throwing closer to 4000 yards a season than 3000. That’ll prolong Barkleys career and make him less banged up as the season goes on. We have the line to support the QB just need a couple better receiving options. I don’t even think it needs to be an expensive number 1 option just a couple good depth pieces, 1 in FA and 1 in the draft in the first couple rounds
Well, the passing yards are directly related to Hurts as a player. If the run game is not flowing, he’s not going to get his yards. It’s not all on Patullo, even if he did a lackluster job on his end. That’s just the style that they play.
I actually think that Kingsbury makes a lot of sense here with Hurts and Barkley. Philadelphia has more than enough talent to compensate for some of Kingsbury’s traditional weaknesses in the red zone, in my mind, and a GM willing to find players to improve areas of deficiency.
Another question is how much Hurts will be willing to run. Kingsbury demands mobility, for sure, but doesn’t design runs as much. Daboll brings an RPO offense that also could suit Hurts, but it’s going to depend on him being a willing runner and even more willing to get hit. McDaniel doesn’t necessarily need a runner, and probably fits more of Hurts wanted to do last year by sitting back and distributing, but Hurts also wasn’t hitting enough of the throws that that offense would want him to make.
My feeling is that Hurts would prefer to throw more, but his legs are still his best asset at this current moment, so the Eagles really can’t install an offense that wants to pass first before it runs. The run game being so dismal this past year had a big impact on the passing game, so getting it established is the best way for the type of offense that they have to get going again.