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Reggie Howard

NFC Coaching Updates: Giants, Commanders, Eagles, Bucs, Seahawks

April 1st, 2023 at 10:26am CST by Ely Allen

The Giants announced the finalization of their 2023 staff early last month, according to Giants staff writer Michael Eisen. We’ve covered a couple of minor changes in previous posts, but there are a number of new updates in this announcement that have yet to be covered.

With the departure of Tony Sparano Jr., who left to coach the Colts‘ offensive line, New York has hired Chris Smith to fill the role of assistant offensive line coach. Smith has just finished a six-year career at Holy Cross, serving as offensive coordinator last year and offensive line coach, run game coordinator, and recruiting coordinator in previous years. The team also promoted two assistants. An offensive assistant with New York last year, Christian Jones will serve in 2023 as assistant quarterbacks coach. Angela Baker, the inaugural recipient of the Rosie Brown Minority Coaching Fellowship, will move from offensive quality control coach to offensive assistant.

Two staffers received promotions on the defensive side of the ball, as well. Last year’s assistant defensive backs coach Michael Treier was promoted to safeties coach for this year. And, after spending time as a football data & innovation research analyst, Ben Burress will rejoin the coaching staff in 2023 as a defensive assistant.

The Giants made a special teams addition, as well, hiring former Lions defensive quality control coach Stephen Thomas to fill a role as the team’s second assistant special teams coach.

Here are a few other coaching updates from around the league:

  • A strong candidate early in their search, the Commanders announced the hiring of Bobby Engram as their new wide receivers coach. The former Seahawks wideout has coaching stints at the 49ers and Ravens but mostly recently served as offensive coordinator at Wisconsin. Washington also hired Shane Toub as the team’s offensive quality control coach. Toub was a defensive quality control coach at Kansas last year after serving in the same position for the Bears previously. The team also hired former NFL cornerback Reggie Howard as a defensive quality control coach. Howard started coaching in 2015, about nine years after his playing career ended. This will be his first NFL coaching opportunity. Lastly, as the Commanders continue to try and fill their vacant offensive line coaching role, Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post provided the update that head coach Ron Rivera has informed John Matsko that they will not be hiring him for the job.
  • New Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai filled two position coaching roles last month. The team tweeted out that they would be hiring D. J. Eliot as their new linebackers coach. Eliot has been coaching at the college level since 1999, serving as defensive coordinator for Colorado, Kansas, and Temple, most recently. Eliot will receive his first NFL opportunity under Desai. Philadelphia also brought in Ronell Williams to serve as nickels coach, according to Courtney Cronin of ESPN. Williams previously served as a defensive quality control coach for the Bears.
  • The Buccaneers have added a new role to their staff, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN, hiring Jordan Somerville as their new assistant quarterbacks coach. Somerville coached running backs at New Mexico before serving last year as an offensive analyst at Oregon. This will be Somerville’s first NFL role.
  • The Seahawks made an addition to their defensive staff, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2, hiring Roy Anderson as secondary coach. Anderson comes over after three years as assistant defensive backs coach in Minnesota. With the addition of Anderson, Karl Scott, who served last year as defensive passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach, will now take the title of defensive passing game coordinator/senior assistant.

Chargers Slash Roster To 53

August 31st, 2019 at 3:48pm CST by Sam Robinson

In addition to the Chargers’ Russell Okung announcement, they finalized their 53-man roster.

Cardale Jones did not make the team, with Los Angeles going with Tyrod Taylor and rookie Easton Stick behind Philip Rivers. The XFL has openly mentioned Jones on multiple occasions, so the former Bills and Ohio State passer could be a high-profile candidate for the upstart league.

Here are the Bolts’ Saturday cuts:

Chargers Sign 19 UDFAs

April 27th, 2019 at 8:46pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

As teams officially announce their undrafted free agent classes, we’ll be posting them. The Chargers are the second team to announce, following the Steelers. Los Angeles inked a massive group, bringing in 19 players:

As the Chargers pointed out in their release, they’re annually one of the best teams at unearthing solid undrafted free agents. They’ve had an undrafted rookie make the team for 22 consecutive seasons, which is the longest streak in the NFL. In each of the last four seasons, they’ve had at least three undrafted rookies make the team.

One of their best undrafted finds in recent years, Tyrell Williams, just inked a huge four-year, $44MM deal with the Raiders. With their huge class this year, they opted for a lot of small school and FCS prospects. Tyler Newsome is an interesting signing since the Chargers had a terrible punting situation all of last year. They ended up releasing Drew Kaser in the middle of the year, and Newsome should have a good chance to make the team. Volson was the center for Easton Stick, who the Chargers just drafted in the fifth round, during their time at North Dakota State.