Bears Interview Eddie George For HC Job
As GM Ryan Poles promised at the outset of the Bears’ current head coaching search, the club has been rather thorough in exploring its HC options (as seen in our head coaching search tracker). Chicago is now adding a surprising name to its long list of candidates, as Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reports that the team is scheduled to interview Eddie George for the position this morning.
Before today, the 51-year-old had only been mentioned in passing in PFR pages. Once one of the top running backs in the collegiate and professional ranks, George’s illustrious playing career ended in 2003, and while he was with the Bears during 2023 OTAs as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship (h/t ESPN’s Courtney Cronin), he has never drawn publicly-reported interest for a coaching job at the NFL level.
In 2021, George became the head coach of FCS program Tennessee State, and as Glazer observes, the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner and four-time Pro Bowler led the team to a conference co-championship in 2024 and was named the OVC-Big South Coach of the Year for his efforts. Still, it is a far cry from that position to an NFL head coaching position.
George, whose post-playing career includes an MBA from Northwestern University and a role in a Broadway production of (appropriately enough) Chicago, is clearly a dark horse for the Bears’ HC post. Nonetheless, he made enough of an impression in his current job – and perhaps during his time with the team in 2023 – to merit some level of consideration.
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has long been viewed as one of the most attractive HC candidates available in this year’s cycle – just as he was in each of the past two years – and since Detroit’s season surprisingly came to an end by virtue of last night’s divisional round loss to the Commanders, Johnson can now take in-person summits with interested clubs. The same is true of Detroit defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, who (like Johnson) interviewed virtually with the Bears on January 11.
We heard just yesterday that, if the Lions should be upset by Washington, there could be a flurry of head coaching activity as teams rush to conduct in-person sit-downs with Johnson and Glenn. A source tells Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune that Johnson could have his pick of the Bears’, Raiders’, or Jaguars’ jobs, and while recent buzz has suggested Johnson could be Las Vegas-bound, it appears that all three clubs are still in the mix.
Biggs adds that former Packers and Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, whose contract with Dallas was allowed to expire last week and who interviewed with Chicago one day later, has a “legitimate shot” at the Bears’ gig.
Commanders’ Sam Cosmi Suffers ACL Tear
2:45pm: Commanders head coach Dan Quinn has since confirmed (via Rapoport) Cosmi suffered a torn ACL. He will miss the rest of Washington’s playoff run in addition to considerable time next season as a result.
12:10pm: The Commanders pulled off a stunning upset of the NFC’s top-seeded Lions in last night’s divisional round contest, though the win came with a price. Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network (video link), Washington fears that starting right guard Sam Cosmi suffered a significant knee injury during the game, and Cosmi is likely to miss the remainder of the club’s postseason run as a result.
Cosmi, who will turn 26 next month, was selected by the Commanders in the second round of the 2021 draft. He would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency this offseason, but after he turned in a stellar 2023 campaign – Pro Football Focus ranked him as the fourth-best guard out of 79 qualifiers – Washington made sure to prevent the converted tackle from hitting the market.
Before the 2024 regular season got underway, the Commanders authorized a four-year, $74MM pact for Cosmi, a deal that keeps the Texas alum under club control through 2028. While only $26.6MM of the contract value was guaranteed at signing, the team clearly envisions him as a long-term O-line fixture.
PFF was not as high on Cosmi’s 2024 work as it was on his 2023 efforts, but his 67.8 overall grade still positioned him as the site’s 23rd-best guard out of 75 qualified players. His work in pass-blocking remained strong – he yielded just one sack and even fewer pressures than he did in 2023 – though his run-blocking suffered a bit in PFF’s estimation.
Nonetheless, his loss will be acutely felt as the Commanders seek to secure their first Super Bowl appearance since the 1991 season. Cosmi is arguably the best blocker on the club’s offensive front, and as good as rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels is, losing one of Daniels’ top protectors will sting.
Plus, any knee injury of a certain magnitude that a player sustains at this point in the calendar could affect that player’s availability for the following season. An upcoming MRI will reveal more, but for now, it appears certain that the Commanders will rely on Trent Scott to fill the RG void for the rest of the playoffs.
Bucs LB Lavonte David Likely To Retire? Team Likely To Part Ways With OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka
After the Buccaneers’ season came to an end in the wildcard round of the playoffs last week, linebacker Lavonte David expressed uncertainty about his playing future. The franchise icon also contemplated retirement last offseason before re-signing with the club on a one-year, $9MM accord, and according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, retirement seems to be the most likely outcome this time around.
David, who will turn 35 this week, was selected by the Bucs in the second round of the 2012 draft and has never played for another team. A pillar of reliability, availability, and consistency, the Nebraska product turned in the 11th 100-tackle season of his 13-year career in 2024, racking up 122 stops to go along with 5.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, and an interception. Over the course of his career, he earned First Team All-Pro acclaim (2013) and a Pro Bowl nod (2015), and he was a key part of the club’s Super Bowl-winning run in 2020 (it is likely that he would have more individual accolades if the league didn’t group rush linebackers and non-rush ‘backers together for those purposes).
On the other hand, his abilities in coverage, which long separated him from the majority of his fellow inside linebackers, regressed in a big way last season. That was underscored by the subpar coverage grade of 56.9 that Pro Football Focus assigned to him, which was easily the lowest mark of his career.
David’s strong work against the run helped make up for his coverage deficiencies, and all things considered, PFF ranked him as the 32nd-best LB in the league out of 82 qualified players. As such, he could surely still serve as at least an early-down defender if he chooses to continue his playing career, but with nearly $100MM in career earnings and a championship ring to his name, he has nothing left to prove.
“As a grown man, you’ve got other responsibilities and other priorities to take care of,” David said. “The love of football is still there, but it probably doesn’t burn like it did when I was younger.”
Per Stroud, the Bucs are likely to draft an inside linebacker in April. The team also hopes that 2023 fifth-rounder SirVocea Dennis – who sustained a season-ending injury in Week 4 – will make a full recovery and will be able to contribute in 2025.
In the same piece linked above, Stroud discusses the rest of Tampa Bay’s impending free agent class, and he notes that the team is likely to move on from former first-rounder Joe Tryon-Shoyinka. That is not particularly surprising, since the Bucs declined JTS’ fifth-year option last April, and the edge defender did nothing in his platform campaign to make them regret that decision.
In 15 games (11 starts), Tryon-Shoyinka tallied career-lows in sacks (two), total tackles (24), and tackles for loss (three). As Stroud writes, the club is seeking a major upgrade to bookend with 2023 draftee YaYa Diaby, and GM Jason Licht is likely to pursue a pass rusher in free agency or the early rounds of the upcoming draft.
Bills Could Adjust QB Josh Allen’s Contract In Offseason
Bills QB Josh Allen will square off against Ravens QB Lamar Jackson in a highly-anticipated divisional round matchup today. This offseason, Allen may receive a bump that puts his pay more in line with his Baltimore counterpart and his other peers in the top tier of the league’s signal-callers.
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network (video link), Buffalo could offer Allen a contractual adjustment in the coming months, which sounds as if it would take the form of a raise. The Bills restructured their franchise passer’s deal last March – a standard maneuver that converted salary to signing bonus for cap purposes – though Allen subsequently said he was not looking for an increase in pay.
That is despite the fact that the six-year, $258MM deal Allen signed in 2021 is looking more and more like a team-friendly accord. Not only is Allen under club control through 2028 – he is the only non-Patrick Mahomes passer to have signed for more than five years since the Chiefs icon’s pact was finalized – but his $43MM AAV currently ranks 14th in the league’s QB hierarchy, behind a number of less-accomplished players like Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love, among others. His $100MM in full guarantees is now outside the top-10.
On the other hand, Allen’s cap charge increases from just over $30MM in 2024 to over $43MM in 2025, and then it spikes to a perhaps untenable ~$64MM in 2026. Some sort of reworking could serve the dual purpose of smoothing out those cap hits while bringing Allen closer to the top of the market.
And he has certainly earned it. While it remains to be seen whether the Wyoming product will land the first MVP award of his career for his 2024 efforts, his consistently excellent play has transformed the Bills from one of the AFC’s doormats to a conference powerhouse.
Since Allen entered the league in 2018, he has piloted Buffalo to a 76-34 regular season record, and the team has reached at least the divisional round of the playoffs in each of the past five years. Like Jackson, his fellow 2018 draftee, the lone knock on Allen is the fact that his club has not yet secured a conference championship, a shortcoming that one of those players will be able to address next week.
In 2024, Allen compiled his lowest passing TDs (28) and passing yards (3,731) totals since 2020, but he led the league in QBR (77.5) and was eighth in traditional quarterback rating (101.4), largely because he was much more careful with the football. He threw just six interceptions – compared to 18 picks in 2023 – and fumbled just five times (the lowest mark of his career). He remained an invaluable asset in the running game, racking up 531 rushing yards (on a 5.2 yards-per-carry average) and 12 rushing scores. That production was in spite of the fact that Allen played through a fractured non-throwing hand for most of the season.
As Rapoport notes, Allen has a great relationship with the Bills, and a revised deal benefiting both parties makes plenty of sense.
Raiders To Interview Lance Newmark For GM Position
The Raiders will interview Commanders assistant general manager Lance Newmark for their GM post today, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It was reported just a few days ago that Newmark had a “leg up” on the competition for the Las Vegas job even though the club had not yet formally requested an interview as of the date of that report.
The timing of the interview could be telling. Newmark spent 26 years as a Lions scout/executive before leaving for Washington last year, and as Schefter notes, he has a strong relationship with Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn (both of whom have already interviewed virtually with the Raiders). Since the Lions lost to the Commanders in last night’s divisional round bout, both Johnson and Glenn are free to have sit-down interviews with any team, a development that could set off a chain reaction of coaching hires around the league.
The Bears and Jaguars reportedly remain in the Johnson sweepstakes, though there have been increased rumblings connecting the coveted OC to the Raiders. Schefter’s ESPN colleague, Jeremy Fowler, reiterates that the prospect of a Newmark-Johnson tandem in Las Vegas has been gaining traction in league circles. That is particularly true since Johnson has made plain his desire for “alignment” with whatever GM he works with, a desire that may have made Tom Telesco a one-and-done GM with the Raiders.
Newmark has already met with the Jets about their vacant GM post – he interviewed for the same position back in 2019 before Gang Green hired Joe Douglas – and while he lost out on the Lions’ most recent GM search to Brad Holmes, he remained in Detroit as the team’s senior director of player personnel before being poached by the new Washington regime. The success that the Lions have had over the past several seasons and the success that the Commanders have enjoyed this year have obviously boosted Newmark’s credentials.
Courtesy of our GM search tracker, here is the current status of the Raiders’ pursuits:
- Chad Alexander, assistant general manager (Chargers): Interviewed; to conduct second interview 1/20
- Brandon Brown, assistant general manager (Giants): Interviewed; to conduct second interview 1/20
- Lance Newmark, assistant general manager (Commanders): Potential frontrunner?; interviewed 1/19
- John Spytek, assistant general manager (Buccaneers): To interview
- Jon-Eric Sullivan, director of player personnel (Packers): Interview requested
- Sheldon White, director of pro scouting (Steelers): Interview requested
Steelers QB Russell Wilson Reiterates Desire To Re-Sign With Team
JANUARY 13: Wilson repeated his desire to land a new Steelers contract on Monday, although he noted (via Pryor) no talks have taken place with the team yet. Needless to say, how interested Pittsburgh is in entertaining another year (or more) of Wilson in the fold will make for one of the team’s most significant offseason storylines.
JANUARY 12: Back in March, mere days after the Steelers signed quarterback Russell Wilson to a one-year contract covering the 2024 campaign, there were already reports indicating that player and team were planning to discuss a multiyear accord in the 2025 offseason. After Wilson took over the QB1 role from Justin Fields in Week 7, the on-field results engendered more such reports, with multiple outlets reiterating that Pittsburgh intended to re-sign Wilson and keep him as the starter.
Wilson, 36, was likewise interested in extending the relationship, and Baker Mayfield’s three-year, $100MM contract with the Buccaneers was seen as a logical comparable for Wilson’s camp to shoot for in negotiations. However, the Steelers’ season ended in a tailspin, as the club lost the final four games of the regular season to cede control of the AFC North to the Ravens, and then they lost their wildcard-round matchup with Baltimore last night to bring their year to a close.
After posting quarterback ratings of at least 101.1 in five of his first seven games under center for the Steelers – a stretch in which the team went 6-1 – Wilson failed to record a rating above 94.5 during the next four games. And while his surface-level statistics in the playoff loss look strong – he connected on 20 of 29 pass attempts for 270 yards and two TDs – Pittsburgh mustered less than 60 yards of offense in the first half and were trailing 21-0 at halftime.
To be fair, the Steelers’ schedule over what became a five-game losing streak to end the season – Philadelphia, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Baltimore – was a challenging one. It is nonetheless reasonable to wonder if the team’s thoughts about Wilson’s future in Pittsburgh have changed over the last month.
For his part, Wilson remains steadfast in his desire to hammer out a new contract with the Steelers. In his postgame presser following the wildcard-round defeat, the veteran signal-caller confirmed that he intends to continue his playing career – “I’ve got so much more ball left in me,” he said – and made it plain that he hopes to stay put (X links via ESPN’s Brooke Pryror).
“It’s been one of the best years for me personally to be a Pittsburgh Steeler,” he said. “And obviously I hope I’m here and everything else.”
Wilson added, “it’s a special, special place. And I know God brought me here for a reason” (via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk).
As Florio observes, head coach Mike Tomlin declined to address the future of his team’s quarterback position after the game, merely indicating that Wilson’s performance “wasn’t good enough” while lauding the QB’s efforts in rallying the offense after the dismal first half.
Fields, who led the team to a 4-2 mark before being demoted in favor of Wilson, is also an impending free agent, but he is nearly 11 years younger than his senior colleague, and he has earned plenty of fans in the building. Indeed, Tomlin previously indicated that the decision to insert Wilson into the starting lineup over Fields was entirely his own, and that he went against the grain in making the call.
For a time, it appeared to be the right move. Now, though, the organization will have a number of difficult decisions to make regarding the most important position in sports.
Patriots Hire Mike Vrabel As Head Coach
To no surprise, the Patriots have named Mike Vrabel as their next head coach. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com was the first to report that the hire was imminent.
Just yesterday, we learned that New England and Vrabel were engaged in contract discussions, a clear sign that a deal was forthcoming. Now, just over a year after he was dismissed as head coach of the Titans, Vrabel is back in the HC ranks at the helm of the team with which he won three Super Bowls as a player.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Vrabel is the seventh person to become the head coach of a team that he once helped win a Super Bowl as a player. The sixth person on that list, Jerod Mayo, was fired by New England last week after just one season in the top job.
Mayo was owner Robert Kraft‘s hand-picked successor to Bill Belichick, and for a long time, it appeared that Mayo would be given at least another year in charge. After all, he inherited a team that was clearly in the early stages of a rebuild, and despite a few public missteps, it would have been easy to justify allowing him to return for 2025.
Last week, however, it was reported that those public “gaffes” — in conjunction with a locker room culture that may not have been as strong as some players portrayed it to be and an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Chargers in Week 17 — were conspiring to drive Mayo out of Foxborough. He was canned later that same day, shortly after the Pats’ regular season finale.
Speculatively, Vrabel’s availability may well have clinched Kraft’s decision to hand Mayo his walking papers. During his time as the Titans’ head coach, Vrabel established himself as one of the league’s better bench bosses, and he is highly-regarded for his game management and his ability to develop a strong culture predicated on accountability. The Titans posted a winning record in each of Vrabel’s first four seasons in Nashville, which included three playoff appearances and a trip to the AFC title game. He earned Coach of the Year honors following the 2021 campaign, but things took a turn for the worse over the 2022-23 seasons.
A seven-game losing streak to close out the 2022 season left Tennessee with a 7-10 record after a division title seemed to be in the cards, and the team slipped to a 6-11 mark in 2023. During that 2023 campaign, Ran Carthon‘s first as Titans GM following Jon Robinson‘s surprising firing, there was reportedly tension between Vrabel and Carthon (a situation that may have been exacerbated by the fact that the Titans hired Carthon instead of Ryan Cowden, who was Vrabel’s preferred Robinson successor).
Vrabel may have also wanted more input in personnel matters in Tennessee, a situation that will bear monitoring in New England. The Pats have already announced that they will retain executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and top front office executive Alonzo Highsmith, though as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com wrote this morning, the roles of those two men are to be determined. Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports reports that Cowden, who is currently serving as a personnel advisor for the Giants, will likely be added to the Patriots’ personnel department in a non-GM capacity, though he believes Wolf will retain final authority.
Another situation worth monitoring will be whom Vrabel chooses as his offensive coordinator. Josh McDaniels, a familiar face for Patriots fans, has been named as an obvious choice, and the defensive-minded Vrabel will need to get that hire right in order to maximize the potential of young quarterback Drake Maye. Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 draft, showed flashes as a rookie and is one of the reasons why the New England HC job was generally seen as a desirable one, and his continued development will be a top priority.
Indeed, as Reiss points out, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — one of the most respected offensive minds in the game — was New England’s second choice. If they had offered Johnson the job, and if Johnson had accepted, the Pats would have had an ideal coach-QB pairing, but unlike Vrabel, Johnson has never had to create his own team culture. Vrabel, on the other hand, does have that experience, and the Pats are banking on his ability to properly fill out his staff.
As our head coaching search tracker shows, Vrabel was connected to each of the six teams in need of a new HC this year, further underscoring the strength of his candidacy. Per Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Bears and Jets made “consistent and late pushes” to land him, and Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic believes New York had a real shot at him until the Patriots’ job became available. Meanwhile, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reports that, despite the Raiders‘ (and minority owner Tom Brady‘s) interest in Vrabel, Brady’s former teammate declined a Las Vegas interview because he knew he would be accepting the New England gig (video link).
Despite the Patriots’ 4-13 record in 2024, the presence of Maye, the hiring of Vrabel, and the prospect of the most salary cap space in the league will surely create plenty of excitement in New England in the coming months.
Bears Want To Interview Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman
Back in November, we heard that Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was generating HC buzz in NFL circles, and subsequent reporting indicated that Freeman could be a dark horse candidate for the Bears’ top job. Per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, Chicago indeed wants to interview Freeman (video link).
Part of Freeman’s appeal is that he has led the Fighting Irish to the CFP National Championship Game, which will be played on January 20. As Pelissero notes, it is unlikely that Freeman will want to take an NFL interview prior to that game, so Chicago – which reportedly pushed hard for Mike Vrabel before he accepted the Patriots’ head coaching gig today – could slow play the process if it truly wants a shot at Freeman.
Of course, it is eminently possible that Freeman does not want to leave South Bend at all. He recently agreed to a four-year extension with Notre Dame, a deal that will keep him in place for another six seasons. It is unclear what the buyout structure on his contract with the Fighting Irish looks like, but it sounds as if the Bears are at least entertaining the idea of buying him out.
Freeman, 39, has been Notre Dame’s HC since 2022, and he has led the team to an overall record of 33-8. The Bears actually selected him in the fifth round of the 2009 draft, though he never suited up for a regular season game at the NFL level.
Per Pelissero, Chicago has done extensive research on Freeman over the past several months as part of its wide-ranging search. Courtesy of our head coaching tracker, here is what that search looks like as of the time of this writing:
- Bill Belichick, head coach (North Carolina): Expressed interest
- Joe Brady, offensive coordinator (Bills): Interview requested
- Thomas Brown, interim head coach (Bears): Interview expected
- Matt Campbell, head coach (Iowa State): Interview expected
- Pete Carroll, former head coach (Seahawks): Interviewed 1/9
- Brian Flores, defensive coordinator (Vikings): Interview requested
- Marcus Freeman, head coach (Notre Dame): Team wants to interview
- Aaron Glenn, defensive coordinator (Lions): Interviewed 1/11
- Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator (Lions): Interviewed 1/11
- Mike Kafka, offensive coordinator (Giants): Interviewed 1/9
- Kliff Kingsbury, offensive coordinator (Commanders): Interview requested
- Mike McCarthy, head coach (Cowboys): Interview blocked
- Todd Monken, offensive coordinator (Ravens): Interview requested
- Drew Petzing, offensive coordinator (Cardinals): Interviewed 1/8
- Ron Rivera, former head coach (Commanders): To interview
- David Shaw, senior personnel executive (Broncos): Interview requested
Giants Likely To Retain DC Shane Bowen
Brian Daboll will remain in place as the Giants’ head coach in 2025, and both of his top lieutenants could stay with him. Despite rumors that offensive coordinator Mike Kafka could be dismissed if team ownership elected to retain Daboll, that has not happened yet. So unless Kafka lands a head coaching gig, it looks like he is on track to see out his thru-2025 contract with Big Blue.
Likewise, Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reports that defensive coordinator Shane Bowen appears likely to stay on Daboll’s staff for the 2025 campaign (video link). Bowen’s job security was called into question by the harsh evaluation that owner John Mara recently gave of his club’s defense, and the fact that the Patriots just hired Mike Vrabel as their head coach immediately created some speculation that Bowen could join him in Foxborough.
Bowen, 38, worked with Vrabel on the Texans’ defensive staff over the 2016-17 seasons, and when Vrabel took the Titans’ head coaching job in 2018, Bowen followed him to Tennessee to become the club’s linebackers coach. Bowen was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2021, a role he held for three seasons.
His first year on the job was his best, as the Titans finished 12th in total defense and sixth in scoring defense in 2021 en route to an AFC South title and an appearance in the divisional round of the playoffs. Thanks in part to injury troubles, Bowen’s unit was unable to replicate that performance over the next two seasons, and after Vrabel was dismissed last January, Bowen took an interview with the Giants (who had just parted ways with former DC Wink Martindale in the wake of highly-publicized friction between Martindale and Daboll).
Bowen’s first Giants defense finished in the bottom-10 in terms of yardage and just outside the bottom-10 in terms of points allowed, so he did not necessarily make a compelling case to stick around (to say nothing of the fact that he was not the Giants’ top choice to serve as Martindale’s successor in the first place). However, like the rest of New York’s top staffers, it appears he will be given a mulligan and will return in 2025, though Garafolo does leave open the possibility that the Giants could allow Bowen to leave the club and reunite with Vrabel if he wants to.
Jayden Daniels’ Presence Could Dissuade Commanders OC Kliff Kingsbury From Taking HC Job
Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is once again a prominent name in head coaching rumors, thanks in large part to the work he has done with Washington’s rookie phenom, Jayden Daniels. The presence of the young passer could compel Kingsbury to remain in the nation’s capital and to eschew possible HC opportunities.
When asked earlier this month if he was ready to field questions related to his head coaching candidacy, Kingsbury smiled and said, “it would take a lot to leave this kid” (via ESPN’s John Keim). Of course, the “kid” in question is Daniels, who was effusive in his praise for his OC.
“He’s meant a lot, obviously, for my development and my growth from the day I stepped foot here to this point now,” Daniels said. “Just to be able to see and get to learn the type of person Kliff is on and off the field, it’s only helped our relationship grow.”
Keim’s expansive piece is well-worth a read for Commanders fans in particular, and in it, Kingsbury offers a few candid remarks as to why his first head coaching job with the Cardinals went south. He also says that working under Washington HC Dan Quinn has driven home the lessons he learned from his struggles in the desert.
“I don’t think I set the foundation [in Arizona] the way I would do it after watching [Quinn] and how he set the foundation from day one,” Kingsbury said. “These are the standards, this is what we want, this is what we’re going to be. I definitely could have done a better job of that.”
Following his Arizona ouster, Kingsbury travelled for several months and realized that, despite the struggles he endured at the end of his Cardinals tenure, he wanted to return to football. He served as a senior offensive analyst at the college level for USC in 2023 before accepting the Commanders’ OC gig this past offseason.
As Keim observes, Kingsbury’s role allows him to focus on running an offense and building a relationship with players, which are the aspects of the coaching profession that he enjoys the most. And the success that he and the club have had in the first year of the Daniels era – Washington posted a 12-5 record and qualified for the postseason – have led some to wonder whether he would want to dive back into the head coaching ranks so soon.
Indeed, reports from earlier this month suggested that, while Kingsbury does want to be a head coach again at some point, he may not be in a rush to leave his current position. And subsequent reporting noted that HC-needy clubs were gauging just how much interest Kingsbury has in accepting a new top job in this year’s cycle.
The Bears and Saints nonetheless submitted interview requests for Kingsbury, who has reportedly received interest from at least two other clubs. Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Kingsbury will move forward with the Chicago and New Orleans interviews this week (video link).
The Chicago post in particular has been rumored as a logical one for Kingsbury, as his one season at USC doubled as Caleb Williams’ final year at the school, and the two built a solid relationship during that time. Naturally, one of the Bears’ top priorities moving forward will be coaxing high-end production out of Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft.
Even if the Bears, Saints, or some other team were to extend an offer, it is far from certain that Kingsbury would accept it. Like Lions OC Ben Johnson, whose performance over his time in Detroit has allowed him to be highly selective as to if and when he accepts an HC offer, Kingsbury is in a comfortable situation that has allowed him to rebuild his stock in a short amount of time. With Daniels looking every bit like the franchise passer Washington has sought for so long, the 45-year-old coach seemingly feels no pressure to leave his young protégé.