Coach Notes: Giants, Texans, Bills, Titans
There aren’t many offensive or defensive coordinator jobs still available, as our tracker shows, but teams continue to tweak their coaching staffs in preparation for the 2016 season, interviewing and hiring position coaches and other assistants. Here are a few of Thursday’s updates on that front:
- First-time head coach Ben McAdoo appears to be considering an assistant with head coaching experience for his staff. Per Josina Anderson of ESPN.com (via Twitter), the Giants interviewed former Niners head coach Mike Singletary today for their linebackers coach job.
- On the other side of the ball, the Giants interviewed Packers assistant Mike Solari on Wednesday for their offensive line coach position, tweets Alex Marvez of FOX Sports. According to Marvez, Solari is a “strong candidate” to be added to McAdoo’s staff.
- As expected, the Texans have hired former Ravens and Texans defensive lineman Anthony Weaver as their defensive line coach, tweets John McClain of the Houston Chronicle. Weaver, who last played for Houston in 2008, will replace Paul Pasqualoni.
- According to Marvez (via Twitter), the Bills are making Pat Meyer their assistant offensive line coach.
- Marvez also reports (via Twitter) that the Titans have promoted Nick Eason from defensive line assistant to defensive line coach.
- The Bengals announced three coaching moves today (via Twitter), re-assigning Robert Livingston as assistant defensive backs coach and adding Robert Couch and Dan Pitcher to their offensive staff.
Jaguars Promote Todd Wash To DC
The Jaguars conducted an extensive search for their new defensive coordinator, interviewing multiple outside candidates, but ultimately the team decided to stay in-house to fill the position. According to Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union (Twitter links), Jacksonville has promoted defensive line coach Todd Wash to DC, and will hold a press conference on Friday to announce the decision.
[RELATED: PFR’s 2016 offensive/defensive coordinator tracker]
Wash, who came to the Jaguars in 2013 from the Seahawks, along with head coach Gus Bradley, has served as the defensive line coach for the team since then, and also had run game coordinator added to his title for the 2015 season.
Before making the decision to hire Wash to replace former defensive coordinator Bob Babich, the Jaguars looked into several outside options, bringing in Falcons secondary coach Marquand Manuel, Dolphins interim defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, and Cowboys secondary coach Jerome Henderson for interviews.
The Jaguars also reportedly interviewed Jim Schwartz, and were one of at least three teams that had interest in him, along with the Browns and the Eagles. Schwartz landed in Philadelphia, and it’s not clear if he might have been Jacksonville’s pick if he hadn’t been hired by another team first.
In any case, Wash will take over a unit that finished 25th in the NFL in 2015 in yards allowed per game (375.0), and ranked 26th in terms of DVOA, per Football Outsiders. The new defensive coordinator will have the benefit of getting back Dante Fowler, the club’s 2015 first-round pick, whose rookie season was lost due to a torn ACL.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
49ers Sign CFL WR Eric Rogers
THURSDAY, 2:55pm: The 49ers have officially signed Rogers to a two-year contract, the team confirmed today in a press release.
WEDNESDAY, 2:48pm: After auditioning for half the teams in the NFL over the last several weeks, standout Canadian Football League wide receiver Eric Rogers has made his decision. Rogers has agreed to sign with the 49ers, reports Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets that the Calgary Stampeders let Rogers out of his CFL contract early so that he could sign with San Francisco.
According to Schefter, the Niners are giving Rogers the most lucrative deal for a CFL player since the Dolphins signed Cameron Wake back in 2009. It’s a two-year contract with a $125K signing bonus, $75K in other bonuses, and a minimum base salary that includes a $100K guarantee, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Schefter adds (via Twitter) that the wideout, who turns 25 next month, visited 16 teams and had 13 contract offers to sort through.
Rogers, who played his college ball at Cal Lutheran, signed with the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2013, but didn’t earn a regular-season roster spot. After joining the Portland Thunder of the Arena Football League, Rogers headed to the CFL in 2014 and had his breakout season with Calgary in 2015. In 17 games for the Stampeders this past season, Rogers racked up 87 receptions for 1,448 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Rogers’ return to the NFL will see him playing under new 49ers head coach Chip Kelly, whose fast-paced offense should provide a challenge for the CFL star. San Francisco receiver Torrey Smith joked last week when Kelly’s hiring was reported that he “might have to start running right now to get in shape” (Twitter link).
The Colts, Chargers, Giants, Titans, Patriots, Jets, Ravens, Steelers, Texans, Eagles, Vikings, Bears, Browns, and Washington were among the teams to give Rogers a look during his whirlwind NFL tour.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Chiefs Promote Brad Childress, Matt Nagy To OC
THURSDAY, 2:50pm: The Chiefs have confirmed that Childress and Nagy will serve as co-ofensive coordinators, making the announcement today in a press release.
MONDAY, 6:17pm: Nagy will share the offensive-coordinating responsibilities with Childress, a source told ESPN.com’s Adam Teicher. The ESPN.com Chiefs reporter doesn’t know yet how those duties will be allocated. The 37-year-old Nagy’s been a full-time coach on a Reid staff since 2010, when he joined the Eagles as an offensive assistant.
3:44pm: With Doug Pederson officially off to Philadelphia as the Eagles’ new head coach, the Chiefs are promoting from within, and will install assistant coach Brad Childress as their new offensive coordinator, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter).
[RELATED: Eagles hire Doug Pederson as head coach]
Childress, who began his coaching career back in 1978 at the University of Illinois, served as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator from 2003 to 2005 before becoming head coach of the Vikings. Childress returned to an offensive coordinator role for the Browns in 2012, and has been a part of Kansas City’s staff since 2013.
The Chiefs’ official website, which refers to Childress as the club’s spread game analyst and special projects coach, suggests that the veteran coach has played “a critical role in helping the club prepare for its upcoming opponents,” and has proved to be “a vital asset and a creative mind for the franchise.”
Andy Reid indicated on Sunday that Pederson’s replacement would be an in-house candidate, and Childress always seemed to be the most logical internal choice. However, there was some speculation that he might end up in Philadelphia as Pederson’s offensive coordinator.
Peter King of TheMMQB.com suggested this morning that quarterbacks coach Matt Nagy looked like another candidate for a promotion to OC, and Rapoport tweeted today that running backs coach Eric Bieniemy was a “name to watch” for the job, calling him one of the most highly respected position coaches in the league.
Instead, it’ll be Childress, who will take over an offense that performed surprisingly well this season after the loss of Jamaal Charles. Although the Chiefs ranked 30th in passing yards per game (203.4) and 27th in overall yards per contest (331.2), they placed within the top 10 in rushing yards per game (127.8) and points per game (25.3).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Browns Notes: Front Office, Manziel, Gordon
New Browns front office duo Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta spoke to reporters today at an afternoon press conference, and while the session wasn’t exactly filled with headline-worthy nuggets, Brown and DePodesta made a few comments worth passing along. Here’s a round-up:
- The Browns are looking to fill a crucial spot in their front office, but that position won’t get a general manager title, according to Brown (Twitter link via Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal). The new addition to the front office will be the vice president of player personnel, and Cleveland intends to make a hire within about a week.
- Brown is confident that the team can attract top candidates for that VP of player personnel role, even though Brown will retain final say over the 53-man roster. However, he acknowledges that teams are reluctant to let their top personnel guys go at this time of year, with the draft coming up (Twitter links via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com).
- The Browns are in no hurry to make a decision on quarterback Johnny Manziel, but Brown says he’ll defer to Hue Jackson if the new head coach decides he doesn’t want Manziel (Twitter link via Jeff Schudel of The News-Herald).
- As for Josh Gordon, the Browns also won’t rush into any decision on the suspended wide receiver. If Gordon is reinstated, the team will sit down with him and see how he’s doing, Brown said today (Twitter link via Ulrich).
- Brown has met with left tackle Joe Thomas and indicated that he’ll “be a big piece of what we do moving forward” (Twitter link via Cabot). Thomas suggested at season’s end that he may ask to be traded if he wasn’t fond of the new head coaching hire and the franchise’s offseason direction.
- DePodesta downplayed the idea that the Browns will be employing any sort of radical analytics, suggesting that his approach is more about a mindset than an algorithm, and the ultimate goal is to make the best possible decision (Twitter links via Ulrich).
Vikings To Interview Pat Shurmur
12:58pm: Goessling’s tweet identifying the Ravens and Panthers as potential suitors for Shurmur has been deleted, and his story on the topic simply says that two unidentified teams – in addition to the Rams and Vikings – may have interest in Shurmur. So it’s not clear whether or not Baltimore and Carolina are, in fact, those two teams.
12:48pm: With Frank Reich and John DeFilippo having been hired as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach respectively, it appears former OC Pat Shurmur won’t be retained by new head coach Doug Pederson. Shurmur is drawing interest from other teams though. In addition to receiving an interview request from the Rams for their passing-game coordinator job, Shurmur has generated interest from the Vikings, Ravens, and Panthers, tweets Ben Goessling of ESPN.com.
[RELATED: Eagles hire Frank Reich to replace Pat Shurmur as offensive coordinator]
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), the Vikings are set to interview Shurmur this week, which is interesting, since the only current opening on Minnesota’s staff is at running backs coach. Since getting his first NFL coaching job in 1999, Shurmur has never coached running backs, so it’s not clear if that’s the role the Vikings have in mind for him, or if the team would plan to create a new position. The interview will take place on Friday, per Goessling (Twitter link).
Shurmur, who served as the Eagles’ interim head coach in Week 17 after Chip Kelly‘s dismissal, was the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015. Previously, he spent time as the Browns’ head coach (2011-12), the Rams’ offensive coordinator (2009-10), and the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach (2002-08) after initially coaching tight ends and offensive linemen in Philadelphia.
Although the Eagles struggled as a team in 2015, Shurmur’s offense ranked a respectable 12th in yards per game (364.4), landing in the top half of the NFL in terms of both passing and rushing yardage. However, for the third straight year under Kelly and Shurmur, Philadelphia finished last in the league in time of possession due to the fast-paced nature of the offense.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
NFC Notes: E. Rogers, Lions, Cousins, Morstead
Standout CFL receiver Eric Rogers is signing with the 49ers, but it was a visit to the Eagles that helped convince him to choose San Francisco. As he explains to Scott Mitchell of the Calgary Sun, Rogers was impressed at a December workout with the Eagles that head coach Chip Kelly took the time to attend and to meet with him despite Philadelphia having a game to play a couple days later. Kelly’s enthusiasm for the Calgary Stampeders star didn’t dim at all when he became the Niners’ new head coach.
“When he got hired by the Niners, he called me two or three hours after it got announced that they were going to hire him,” Rogers said. “He basically told me, ‘I guess I had to come to Cali to sign you since you’re a Cali boy.’ So he still had that kind of recruitment in him like he was at Oregon. He was like, ‘You’re the first player I called and I want you to be the first player I sign at my new job.'”
As we look forward to seeing if Rogers can earn a roster spot and make an impact for the 49ers this season, let’s check in on a few more items from out of the NFC….
- During an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, new Lions general manager Bob Quinn said that he approached the decision of whether or not to retain head coach Jim Caldwell with an open mind (link via Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com). “We had a series of meetings,” Quinn said. “It wasn’t just one day or one hour. It was over a couple of days and a dozen hours. Really, get to know you sessions. My philosophy and his philosophy meshed.”
- With Kirk Cousins in line for a new contract, Washington will aim to build its roster around the quarterback, and will have to build its salary cap strategy around his new deal, writes Master Tesfatsion of the Washington Post. Former agent Joel Corry tells Tesfatsion that he doesn’t expect Cousins to agree to a team-friendly long-term deal like the ones signed by Colin Kaepernick and Andy Dalton.
- Mike Triplett of ESPN.com doesn’t expect the Saints to cut Thomas Morstead this offseason, but says the team will have to consider it, since the veteran punter – who has a $4.45MM cap hit in 2016 – may be a luxury the team can’t afford. I suggested as much back in September in my preview of New Orleans’ cap outlook for ’16.
- Former Falcons tackle Lamar Holmes continued to work out for NFL teams this week, auditioning on Wednesday for the Cowboys, per Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Holmes spent most of the 2015 season on the PUP list before being cut by Atlanta with an injury settlement.
Eagles Hire John DeFilippo As QBs Coach
THURSDAY, 10:24am: The Eagles have officially confirmed the hiring of DeFilippo as their quarterbacks coach. The announcement comes on the heels of the club naming 15 assistants, including new offensive coordinator Frank Reich, to Pederson’s staff on Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY, 9:05am: The Eagles don’t have an offensive coordinator in place yet, but they’re planning to bring the Browns’ former offensive coordinator to their staff in another role, per Mike Garafolo and Peter Schrager of FOX Sports (Twitter link). The FOX duo reports that Philadelphia is hiring John DeFilippo as its new quarterbacks coach.
[RELATED: Browns part ways with OC John DeFilippo]
It has been a busy few weeks for DeFilippo since the 2015 regular season ended. After serving as the Browns’ offensive coordinator in 2015, his hold on his job became tenuous when the club fired head coach Mike Pettine. As the Browns went through the head coaching search process and ultimately hired Hue Jackson, DeFilippo spoke to the 49ers about their head coach or offensive coordinator position, and also interviewed with the Rams for a spot on their staff.
While DeFilippo didn’t land in San Francisco or Los Angeles, and was let go by the Browns, he’ll end up in an interesting role in Philadelphia. The Eagles’ hiring of Doug Pederson as their new head coach received mixed reviews, but Pederson is putting together an impressive staff, with Jim Schwartz set to run the defense, and DeFilippo potentially paired with Frank Reich on the offensive side of the ball.
A Monday report indicated that Reich, the Chargers’ former offensive coordinator, was expected to secure the same position in Philadelphia, and he still appears to be on track for that job. He’ll have a formal interview within the next 24 hours, and it “would be an upset” if he’s not hired by the Eagles, tweets Adam Caplan of ESPN.com.
DeFilippo, who previously served as a quarterbacks coach for the Raiders and Jets, coaxed a respectable 236.4 passing yards per game out of the Browns this year, despite having to work with three different – and hardly elite – starting quarterbacks, in Josh McCown, Johnny Manziel, and Austin Davis. Reich, meanwhile, was let go by the Chargers due to the team’s ineffective running game, but he did just fine with the team’s aerial attack — Philip Rivers led the NFL in completions, racking up nearly 4,800 yards passing to go along with 29 touchdowns.
Of course, it remains to be seen who DeFilippo, and potentially Reich, will be working with at the quarterback position in Philadelphia in 2016. Sam Bradford is the incumbent starter, but he’ll be eligible for free agency this winter, and it’s not clear if the club intends to franchise him or extend him before he hits the open market.
Former Eagles wide receiver Greg Lewis is also under consideration for a role on Pederson’s coaching staff, though nothing is finalized yet, a source tells Caplan (Twitter link).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Jermaine Kearse Not Interested In Taking Hometown Discount
Seahawks wide receiver Jermaine Kearse was born in Lakewood, Washington, and played his college ball at the University of Washington, so it makes sense that he’d want to continue playing for his local NFL team as he becomes eligible for free agency this winter. Still, while he has expressed a desire to re-sign with Seattle, Kearse isn’t interested in taking a hometown discount to remain with the team, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com details.
“I love my hometown, but I’ve put in too much hard work to give a discount,” Kearse said in a text message to Schefter. “My number one priority is to take care of my family’s future, so I will consider all opportunities.”
Having been an undrafted free agent back in 2012, Kearse was on a minimum-salary contract for the first three years of his career before getting a bump to $2.356MM in 2015 as a restricted free agent. As such, it’s hard to blame him for wanting to make the most of what might be his best opportunity to secure a multi-year deal that features a chunk of guaranteed money.
Kearse, who turns 26 next month, established new career highs this past season with 49 receptions, 685 yards, and five touchdowns. Those aren’t eye-popping stats, but they should earn him a raise. As Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap recently tweeted, players with similar numbers generally land three-year contracts with salaries in the range of $3.25MM-$3.75MM annually.
With left tackle Russell Okung also eligible for free agency and several core players already locked up to pricey contracts, the Seahawks will likely be careful not to overpay for Kearse or anyone else this offseason. The team’s top 11 highest-paid players currently account for more than $101MM on the 2016 cap.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Schefter On NFL Head Coaching Searches
While the Browns liked Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin and Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, the team recognized the importance of upgrading its offense, which was one reason Hue Jackson was the choice as Cleveland’s new head coach, writes Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. According to Schefter, the Browns believe that by hiring Jackson they not only strengthened their own organization, but weakened a division rival, in the Bengals.
Schefter has some details on the rest of the head coaching decisions as well, so let’s dive in and round up the highlights….
- The Giants “seriously entertained” the possibility of hiring Mike Smith as their head coach and keeping Ben McAdoo at offensive coordinator, says Schefter. However, when the Eagles expressed legit interest in McAdoo, the Giants knew they couldn’t risk losing him.
- As for those Eagles, they were determined to be more patient this time around than when they hired Chip Kelly, but two of their top candidates – Adam Gase and McAdoo – were hired by other teams while Philadelphia was being patient. Since the club was already familiar with Doug Pederson, it was “completely comfortable” turning to him despite the fact that his initial interview was ordinary, according to Schefter.
- The 49ers viewed Kelly, Mike Shanahan, Tom Coughlin, and Anthony Lynn as viable candidates, and felt they would have been in good shape no matter which direction they went in. The fact that Kelly is the only one of the group without a Super Bowl ring was a factor in San Francisco’s choice, since the club feels he’ll be hungry to get that championship.
- The Buccaneers took a week to hire Dirk Koetter even though most people expected him to be the choice all along, leading to some whispers that the Glazers “attempted a big swing” before officially promoting Koetter, says Schefter.
- Despite a final push from Ray Horton last Saturday, the Titans‘ owners never wanted to get away from Mike Mularkey, who was their top choice all along.
- As for the Dolphins, they entered their coaching search planning to be aggressive, and Gase’s desire to land a head coaching job – after being passed over last year – matched up well with that aggressiveness from the team, making him the first new coach hired this month.