Broncos Interview Brian Johnson For OC Job
The Broncos have interviewed Commanders assistant coach Brian Johnson for their offensive coordinator vacancy, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz.
Johnson, 38, currently holds the position of assistant head coach and offensive passing game coordinator in Washington. He was previously the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach (2021-2022), working closely with Jalen Hurts as he became a Pro Bowler. He then served as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator in 2023 and led his unit to the seventh-most yards and the eighth-most points in the league.
Though that was a strong performance, it still represented regression from Philadelphia’s third-ranked offense in 2022 under Shane Steichen, who was hired away by the Colts. The Eagles also only scored nine points in their wild card loss to the Buccaneers in the 2023 postseason. Nick Sirianni relieved Johnson of his duties and replaced him with Kellen Moore, whose offense finished with the exact same ranks as Johnson’s. Moore did find far more success in the playoffs in 2024, including 40- and 55-point showings in the NFC Championship and Super Bowl.
Johnson’s arrival in Washington certainly seemed to help Jayden Daniels get settled in the NFL. Though the Commanders leaned on their run game for much of the season, Daniels emerged as a pro-ready passer right away. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year and mounted four fourth-quarter comebacks and four game-winning drives, largely through the air.
Johnson’s success with Hurts and Daniels are likely a primary factor in the Broncos’ interest. Bo Nix did not show much progress in 2025 with similar statistics to his rookie campaign, so Denver may be interest in Johnson’s ability to kickstart Nix’s development.
Falcons To Hire Ian Cunningham As GM
The Falcons are hiring Bears executive Ian Cunningham to be their next general manager, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The team has since confirmed the news with an official announcement.
Cunningham, 40, has been Chicago’s assistant general manager for the last four years. He was a candidate for the newly created president of football operations job that went to Matt Ryan and quickly emerged as a favorite for the general manager job. He will replace Terry Fontenot, who was fired after five seasons on the job. Atlanta finished under .500 in every year of Fontenot’s tenure, which featured zero playoff berths. Falcons owner Arthur Blank fired Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris after the 2025 season with the hopes of quickly reshaping the franchise.
Hiring Cunningham is the third step in doing just that. Bringing Ryan aboard was the first, and installing Kevin Stefanski as Morris’ successor was the second. Now, the trio will head into the offseason looking to build around the Falcons’ core of exciting young players on both sides of the ball.
This marks a significant step for Cunningham, who was a finalist for the Commanders’ GM job in 2024 and the Cardinals’ position in 2023. While Adam Peters won out for the Washington gig, Cunningham is believed to have turned down an Arizona GM offer. Cunningham also emerged as a strong Jaguars GM candidate last year. Despite Ryan’s presence, the veteran exec accepted this Atlanta position and will work in helping the team turn things around.
Cunningham began his football career as an offensive lineman at the University of Virginia. He went undrafted in 2008 and signed with the Chiefs but did not make the 53-man roster. He immediately moved into a front office career as a personnel assistant with the Ravens. He contributed to Baltimore’s 2012 Super Bowl win and became an area scout the following year. His success in that role eventually attracted the attention of Howie Roseman and the Eagles, who hired him to be their director of college scouting in 2017.
Cunningham spent five years in Philadelphia with promotions to assistant director of player personnel in 2019 and director of player personnel in 2021. The Eagles consistently had strong rosters during his tenure, with three playoff berths and the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory in 2017. Though he left for Chicago in 2022, Cunningham’s fingerprints were also all over the teams that made the Super Bowl that season and won it in 2024.
In Chicago, Cunningham joined new general manager Ryan Poles and the two worked to rebuild a team that had not won a playoff game in more than a decade. After three years and a 15-36 record, their efforts finally paid off. After drafting quarterback Caleb Williams and hiring head coach Ben Johnson in back-to-back offseasons, the Bears went 11-6, won the NFC North, and beat the Packers in the wild-card round, their best finish since 2018. Their season ended the next week with an overtime loss to the Rams, but it was clear that Cunningham helped build another championship contender.
He will now attempt to do the same in Atlanta, this time as the general manager. The Falcons already have a number of pieces in place. On offense are quarterback Michael Penix Jr., running back Bijan Robinson, wide receiver Drake London, left tackle Jake Matthews, and right guard Chris Lindstrom, and the defense features edge rushers Jalon Walker and James Pearce, cornerback AJ Terrell, and safety Xavier Watts.
From there, Cunningham will work with Ryan and Stefanski to build around that young core, though he will not be able to get too aggressive right away. The Falcons are projected to have just $17.4MM in cap space entering the 2026 offseason, per OverTheCap, though Cunningham can obviously find ways to make more room. Atlanta will also be without its first-round pick in April’s draft having used it last year to trade up for Pearce.
Typically, when a team hires another team’s minority executive to be their general manager, the original team receives two third-round compensatory selections. But since Ryan is considered the Falcons’ primary football executive, the Bears will not be receiving any draft picks as a result of Cunningham’s hire, per Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. That also means Chicago could have blocked the move, but the NFC North club opted not to. Instead, the Bears will begin their own search to replace Cunningham as Poles’ top lieutenant.
Giants To Interview Chargers QBs Coach Shane Day For OC Job
The Giants have added Chargers quarterback coach Shane Day to their list of candidates for their offensive coordinator vacancy. He will interview for the job on Saturday, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz.
Day, 51, joined the Chargers in 2024 on Jim Harbaugh‘s new coaching staff. He would be staying in the family if he gets the job in New York under Jim’s brother, John Harbaugh. But unlike most of the recent hires to the Giants’ coaching staff, Day has no direct connection to John Harbaugh himself.
Instead, Day has held a variety of roles with six different NFL teams in the last two decades, as well as brief college stints at Michigan and Connecticut. He was the quarterbacks coach for the Bears (2010-2011), 49ers (2019-2020), and the Chargers (2021-2022, 2024-present). Across his career, he has worked with Jay Cutler, Jimmy Garoppolo, Justin Herbert, and C.J. Stroud, among others.
Day was particularly instrumental in developing Herbert. He arrived in Los Angeles in Herbert’s second year in the NFL, in which he became one of three players to eclipse 5,000 passing yards since 2020. Herbert put up another strong year in 2022, saw a dip in 2023, and rebounded in 2024 and 2025 working with Day once more.
The success of Day’s partnership with Herbert is likely one of the main reasons for the Giants’ interest in hiring Day. They will be hoping that 2025 first-round pick Jaxson Dart can take a leap in his first full season as a starter, and Day could be the coach to pull that out of him.
However, Day has never called plays for a college or pro team. He would have those responsibilities under Harbaugh in New York, so hiring him could be a bit of a gamble. It might be worth the risk, though, if Day can take Dart to the next level.
NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/29/26
Three teams signed players to reserve/futures contracts on Thursday. Here are the latest updates:
Denver Broncos
- OT Marques Cox, C Michael Deiter, G Nash Jones, DT Kristian Williams
Detroit Lions
- TE Thomas Gordon
Pittsburgh Steelers
- WR A.T. Perry
Steelers Planning Scott Tolzien OC Interview, Hire James Campen
While Mike McCarthy spent five years as the Cowboys’ head coach, the early makeup of his Steelers staff reminds more of his Packers setup. After hiring one-year Green Bay assistant Patrick Graham as DC, McCarthy has one of his former players in the running for Pittsburgh’s OC post.
The Steelers are planning to interview Saints assistant Scott Tolzien for their OC vacancy, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports. Tolzien is New Orleans’ QBs coach, but prior to that, he both played and coached under McCarthy.
Tolzien was one of Aaron Rodgers‘ backups in Green Bay from 2013-15. He then spent two years with the Colts and retired from playing in 2018. He went back to Wisconsin to start his coaching career as an analyst, which quickly led to a job on Mike McCarthy’s staff in Dallas in 2020. Tolzien was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2023 and oversaw a career-best performance from Dak Prescott, who finished in second place in MVP voting. The Cowboys struggled after Prescott’s season-ending injury in 2024, though Tolzien helped backup quarterback Cooper Rush compile a 4-4 record as a starter to close out the year.
McCarthy was fired after the season, and Tolzien reunited with former Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore in New Orleans. Tolzien took the quarterbacks coach job on Moore’s staff and worked with rookie quarterback Tyler Shough this past season. Shough took over the starting job midway through the year, worked through some first-year bumps, and led the Saints to a 4-1 record in their last five games.
The Steelers are still working through their list of offensive coordinator candidates, but they have made one key hire on that side of the ball. Longtime offensive line coach James Campen will be joining McCarthy’s staff, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Campen spent 15 years under McCarthy in Green Bay, including 12 years as the Packers’ offensive line coach. He also developed a close relationship with Aaron Rodgers during that time, which could be another factor in the veteran quarterback’s return to Pittsburgh in 2026.
Bills QB Josh Allen Undergoes Procedure On Foot
JANUARY 29: When speaking to the media today, Allen revealed (via Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic) his fifth metatarsal had been broken. Surgery did indeed take place on Monday of this week, Beane noted. A recovery timeline between eight and 10 weeks is now in store, per Wolfe’s colleague Ian Rapoport. As such, Allen should be fully recovered in time for all offseason activities.
JANUARY 22: The Bills’ press conference with owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane drew a lot of headlines on Wednesday, but one piece of information seems to have slipped under the radar.
Beane revealed (via NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe) that star quarterback Josh Allen may undergo a procedure on his foot this offseason. It is not expected to affect his availability for OTAs.
Allen’s foot injury popped up in Week 17 and sidelined him for multiple practices in Week 18. The issue continued to hamper Allen for the rest of the season, though he did not appear to be playing with any limitations in the playoffs.
The 2024 MVP has not missed a game due to injury since his rookie year. His only absences have been games at the end of the season with the Bills’ playoff qualification and seeding already set.
Allen’s procedure should not alarm anyone in Buffalo. Even if he were to miss any offseason training time as he recovers, it seems extremely unlikely to affect his availability beyond mandatory minicamp.
LSU OC Charlie Weis Jr. On Giants’ Radar
After missing out on Todd Monken, John Harbaugh may consider dipping into the college coaching ranks to fill his offensive coordinator vacancy.
LSU offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. is “garnering a lot of attention” for the job, per SNY’s Connor Hughes. The 32-year-old spent the last four seasons in the same role at Ole Miss and is currently set to follow Lane Kiffin to Baton Rouge for the 2026 season. Weis already turned down the Eagles’ interest in hiring him as their offensive coordinator, but the Giants may make a push of their own.
Weis is the son of former Notre Dame and Kansas coach Charlie Weis, who also held a number of assistant roles with the Giants, Patriots, Jets, and Chiefs. Weis worked under his father for the first four years of his coaching career before landing a job under Nick Saban in 2015. It was at Alabama that Weis began working under Kiffin, his longtime mentor. Weis spent the 2017 season with the Falcons before joining Kiffin as Florida Atlantic’s offensive coordinator. The duo continued to South Florida and Ole Miss before landing their latest jobs with LSU.
If Weis is willing to hear an offer from the Giants, they might want to make it a good one. Over the last four years, he has helped build the Rebels’ offense into one of the best in the country. In 2024, the unit ranked third in points and second in yards in the FBS, and despite losing quarterback Jaxson Dart it remained one of the NCAA’s best en route to a college Football Playoff appearance this past season.
Weis should not necessarily be considered a frontrunner at this point, Hughes notes. Nevertheless, his name continues to be mentioned as a logical fit with Dart and Co. in New York. It will be interesting to see if the Giants make a concerted effort in this case with Monken no longer on the market.
Via PFR’s Coordinator Search Tracker, here is an updated look at the team’s situation:
- Todd Monken, offensive coordinator (Ravens): Hire expected
- Robert Prince, wide receivers coach (Dolphins): Interviewed 1/23
- Willie Taggart, running backs coach (Ravens): Joining staff in different capacity
- Davis Webb, quarterbacks coach (Broncos): Interview requested
- Charlie Weis Jr., offensive coordinator (LSU): Mentioned as candidate
Adam La Rose contributed to this post.
Chargers Hire Chris O’Leary As DC
The Chargers have found their replacement for Jesse Minter. Western Michigan defensive coordinator Chris O’Leary has accepted the same position on Jim Harbaugh‘s staff, per a team announcement.
O’Leary, 34, previously worked under Harbaugh and Minter as the Chargers’ safeties coach in 2024. As Western Michigan’s defensive coordinator, he took the nation’s 107th-ranked defense and built them into a top-10 unit in just one season. After a year of play-calling experience, O’Leary will return to Los Angeles hoping to fill Minter’s shoes after he took a head coaching job with the Ravens.
O’Leary’s recent experience with the Chargers should make for an easy transition into his new role. He will run a similar scheme to Minter and is already familiar with the roster and coaching staff. The latter may not require much turnover with such a plug-and-play hire, though the team’s defensive assistants who did not get this promotion may get defensive coordinator offers from other teams.
Though O’Leary will be working under Harbaugh, his coaching lineage is closer to his predecessor’s. Minter and O’Leary have a long history together, starting at Indiana State. The two overlapped for three years (2010-2012) with Minter serving as the Sycamores’ defensive coordinator and O’Leary playing wide receiver. Minter became Georgia State’s defensive coordinator in 2013 and, two years later, gave O’Leary his first coaching job as a graduate assistant.
They parted ways in 2017 with Minter heading to Baltimore for his first stint with the Ravens and O’Leary joining Brian Kelly‘s staff at Notre Dame. After Marcus Freeman took over as the Fighting Irish’s defensive coordinator, O’Leary was promoted to safeties coach, where he worked closely with pass game coordinator Mike Mickens. (Mickens recently agreed to join Minter’s staff in Baltimore in the same role.)
Minter then brought O’Leary to Los Angeles. He worked closely with Derwin James, taking the already-versatile safety and moving him around the field more than ever before. The 2024 season represented somewhat of a resurgence for five-time Pro Bowler after a down year in 2023, at least by his usual standards. With more time closer to the line of scrimmage, James led all defensive backs with 5.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss, both career-highs. He also broke up seven passes and allowed just 5.2 yards per target. James stayed in a similar role in 2025 and had another strong season, earning Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro recognition for the second year in a row.
O’Leary will be looking to uphold the standard he helped established in 2024. The Chargers have been one of the best defenses in the league in the last two years, allowing just under 19 points and just over 300 yards per game. They have a number of key pending free agents and may not have enough cap room to retain them all, especially if they invest in their offensive line as expected. Minter had a knack for getting the most out of his players – youngsters and veterans alike – and O’Leary’s impressive year at Western Michigan suggests that he may have similar talents.
The only potential knock on O’Leary is his inexperience. 2024 was his first year in the NFL, and 2025 was his first as a play-caller, making 2026 a big leap for a third year in a row. He passed the first two tests with flying colors, so he certainly seems capable of running the Chargers’ defense, but there may still be some first-year jitters as O’Leary settles into the role.
Titans To Hire QBs Coach Shea Tierney, OL Coach Carmen Bricillo
New Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has started filling his staff, with multiple of his former Giants assistants set to join him in Tennessee.
Shea Tierney will be the Titans’ next quarterbacks coach, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. He held the same role in New York and spent the previous four years working under Daboll in Buffalo. Tierney was a Bills offensive assistant in 2018 and 2019 before a promotion to assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020. He worked closely with Josh Allen during that time and later coached several different passers in New York, including Jaxson Dart and Daniel Jones.
Tierney will be tasked with developing 2025 No. 1 pick Cam Ward, who had a rough rookie year with little talent around him. He led the league in sacks, sack yardage, and fumbles, and the Titans were a bottom-three team in nearly every offensive category.
Daboll will also be bringing former Giants offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo to Tennessee, according to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan. After rising through the college coaching ranks, he joined the Patriots as an offensive assistant in 2019. He was promoted to co-offensive line coach in 2020 and held the position on his own the following season. Bricillo then followed Josh McDaniels to Las Vegas and served as the Raiders’ offensive line coach for two years before joining Daboll in New York.
Bricillo is a well-respected coach around the league. John Harbaugh‘s decision not to retain him drew some criticism, especially with Harbaugh’s original target for his offensive line coach, George Warhop, set to join Todd Monken in Cleveland. In Tennessee, he will work with recent first-round picks Peter Skoronski and JC Latham, as well as veteran left tackle Dan Moore Jr.
For his new wide receivers coach, Daboll is making an outside hire. Greg Lewis will be leaving Baltimore for Tennesseee after three years on Todd Monken’s offensive staff in the same role, per NFL insider Jordan Schultz. Lewis played a key role in the development of Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers and also oversaw Rashod Bateman‘s breakout 2024 campaign. Before that, he spent six years in Kansas City, working with their running backs and receivers and earning two Super Bowl rings in the process. The Titans will be hoping Lewis can quickly develop young wide receivers Elic Ayomanor, Chimere Dike, and Xavier Restrepo into more reliable targets for Ward.
With Tierney, Bricillo, and Lewis in hand, Daboll seems to building a strong foundation for the Titans’ offense as the franchise enters the Robert Saleh era.
Chargers To Hire OL Coach Butch Barry
The Chargers are starting to fill out Mike McDaniel‘s offensive staff, starting with his offensive line coach.
Butch Barry, who spent the last three years as the Dolphins’ offensive line coach, will take up the same position in Los Angeles, per NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe. Barry previously worked with McDaniel as the 49ers’ assistant offensive line coach during McDaniel’s final season in San Francisco
In Miami, Barry worked closely with left tackle Patrick Paul and center Aaron Brewer in Miami, with both making noticeable improvements from 2024 to 2025, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Before that, he served as the Broncos’ offensive line coach in 2023 after a two-year stint in San Francisco.
Barry is replacing veteran offensive line coach Mike Devlin, who worked with the Jets’, Texans’ and Ravens’ offensive lines. Devlin worked under Greg Roman in Baltimore in 2022 and joined his staff in Los Angeles in 2024. The Chargers had one of the best tackle duos in the NFL in 2024, but when both Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt suffered season-ending injuries this past season, the rest of the O-line was badly exposed. The interior spots – primarily held by Zion Johnson, Bradley Bozeman, and Mekhi Becton – were already shaky, and losing the best bookends in the league proved too much to recover from. The Chargers allowed 60 sacks, the second-most of any team in 2025, and Justin Herbert suffered a few injuries as a result.
Barry will be tasked with improving the unit, which may prove difficult right away. The Chargers have not provided a timeline for Slater’s return, but the severity of his injury – a torn patellar tendon – could put his availability for 2026 in doubt. Alt’s timeline is similarly unclear, but his recovery from surgery to repair a high ankle sprain should not take as long. Alt can hold down the blind side until Slater gets back on the field, but Los Angeles will still need a right tackle during that period. They could also change out multiple interior offensive linemen – potentially all three – which will require Barry to identify and coach up replacements who fit in McDaniel’s scheme.