Latest On Chargers’, Raiders’ Relocation Possibilities
The latest on the NFL’s return to Los Angeles and what it could mean for San Diego and Oakland, courtesy of the LA Daily News’ Vincent Bonsignore:
- Representatives from the Rams and Chargers will meet Monday to discuss the possibility of the Bolts joining the Rams in LA in time for the 2016 season. It’s unlikely either of the two owners (the Rams’ Stan Kroenke and the Chargers’ Dean Spanos) will attend the meeting. It will instead be a powwow between the teams’ staff members. Regardless, in order for the Chargers to play in LA next season, they’ll have to reach an agreement with the Rams in the next two weeks. That’s the likely scenario, sources tell Bonsignore, who reports that the Chargers are motivated to leave San Diego behind and team up with the Rams in LA as soon as possible.
- If the Chargers relocate, that would create the possibility of another franchise taking their place in San Diego. That franchise could be the Raiders, who Bonsignore doubts would face a significant relocation fee (if any) if they end up leaving Oakland for San Diego (Twitter link).
- Where would the Raiders play in San Diego? The club might be open to making use of a renovated Qualcomm Stadium, tweets Bonsignore.
Extra Points: Eagles, 49ers, Titans, Raiders
Though the hire has already been widely-reported, the Eagles still have to work out a contract with new head coach Doug Pederson, according to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Now that Kansas City (Pederson’s current club) has been eliminated from the postseason, McLane expects a deal to come together soon, with a possible press conference on Tuesday.
As the Eagles prepare to bring in a new head coach, they are also bracing to lose an assistant, as quarterbacks coach Ryan Day is expected to follow Chip Kelly to San Francisco, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). According to Rapoport, Day will either serve as QBs coach or offensive coordinator with the 49ers.
Let’s take a look at some more news from around the league:
- After removing the interim label from head coach Mike Mularkey‘s title earlier today, the Titans (with Mularkey’s input) have begun to make decisions on the rest of their staff. Per Alex Marvez of FOX Sports (Twitter link), Tennessee will retain defensive assistant Dick LeBeau, linebackers coach Lou Spanos, assistant offensive line coach Mike Sullivan, and assistant special teams coordinator Steve Hoffman. I’d guess that the fates of the remainder of the staff should be announced relatively shortly.
- The Chargers appear to be on the verge of a move to Los Angeles, and a source tells Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link) that it’s highly doubtful that NFL owners would block the Raiders if they seek to relocate to San Diego. Bonsignore also notes (link) that Chargers owner Dean Spanos signed an agreement waiving his rights to San Diego if his club moves to LA.
- The total outlay by the St. Louis stadium task force in its efforts to keep the Rams? $16.2MM, report David Hunn and Nicholas J.C. Pistor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
West Notes: Los Angeles, 49ers, Maclin
The Carson presentation drew laughs from the owners once Disney Chairman Robert Iger mentioned how he’d paid the owners plenty of money over the years. That comment, and a Jerry Jones joke following Iger’s exit from the room, helped escalate the downward-trending Carson initiative’s demise, according to Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times.
“He said he paid us. Last time I checked, that money is coming from Disney shareholders, not him,” Jones told his fellow owners during Tuesday’s relocation summit in Houston, per Farmer.
The owners voted 19-13 on whether their votes would be secret. After two votes, the Inglewood project received 21, three shy of the majority needed to relocate the Rams.
Roger Goodell then ushered Stan Kroenke, Dean Spanos and Mark Davis into a private room for an hour-long negotiation. Upon the trio’s return, Davis announced the Raiders were pulling out of the race, Farmer reports. The agreement that gives the Chargers a one-year window to decide on relocating to Inglewood had been discussed for more than six months.
Farmer also notes Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who had been vocal about his support for the Carson project and helped attach Iger to it, was silent most of the day.
Here is some more on Los Angeles and the latest on the Western-stationed franchises.
- With economists estimating the Chargers can expect three to five times more revenue in Los Angeles than in San Diego, a source tells Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune “at least 10 teams” would be lining up to take the joint-tenant deal in Inglewood if the Chargers wouldn’t. Acee also reports there’s talk of a bit more than the $100MM the NFL offered to help keep the Raiders and Chargers in their respective cities available to the Chargers if they were to make things work in San Diego. Spanos could leverage San Diego with the deal the Chargers would be in line to receive alongside the Rams if in fact San Diego is serious about keeping the franchise, Acee writes. But San Diego now will entertain the notion of bringing another team to the city.
- Patriots president Jonathan Kraft said Kroenke will be spending between $3 billion and $3.5 billion to relocate the Rams, factoring in the $550MM relocation fee and the Rams’ new stadium (via Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, on Twitter).
- Several members of the 49ers‘ staff from last season has reportedly packed up and moved their things out of the team’s facility, Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com reports (on Twitter). Chip Kelly met with defensive coordinator Eric Mangini, per Maiocco, but the future of the San Francisco coaching staff is highly uncertain at this point. Kelly will meet with running backs coach Tom Rathman next week, Maiocco tweets. The former 49ers fullback’s been on the 49ers’ staff since 2009 and had to instruct one of the most injury-ravaged units in the NFL this season.
- Former Eagles quarterbacks coach Ryan Day is under consideration for the job of 49ers offensive coordinator, ESPN reports (via Maiocco). A former New Hampshire player under Kelly, Day joined Kelly with the Eagles last season after being Boston College’s OC in 2013-14.
- Both Eagles defensive line coaches, Jerry Azzinaro and Mike Dawson, are the most likely coaches to follow Kelly from Philadelphia, Maiocco reports. Azzinaro’s been Kelly’s D-line coach for the past seven seasons, doing so at Oregon from 2009-12 and with the Eagles since 2013.
- Maiocco also reports (via Twitter) the 49ers could be considering Buccaneers tight ends coach Jon Embree for a spot on their staff if Dirk Koetter doesn’t retain him. The Colorado head coach in 2011-12, the 50-year-old Embree’s coached tight ends for the Chiefs, Washington, Browns and Bucs since 2006. He’s been with Tampa Bay since 2014.
- A mutual interest in acquiring players with length and size could help Kelly and GM Trent Baalke work well together with the 49ers, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Eric Branch notes.
- The Chiefs declared Jeremy Maclin active for today’s game against the Patriots, but their top wideout reportedly had trouble walking during the week of preparation, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (on Twitter). Maclin did not practice this week due to the high-ankle sprain he suffered last Saturday against the Texans.
Chargers Hire Ken Whisenhunt As OC
FRIDAY, 5:16pm: The Chargers have officially confirmed Whisenhunt’s return, and announced four other changes to Mike McCoy‘s coaching staff. They are as follows:
- Craig Aukerman (special teams coordinator)
- Nick Sirianni (WR coach)
- Giff Smith (DL coach)
- Shane Steichen (QB coach)
WEDNESDAY, 2:27pm: The Chargers may not know yet where they’ll be playing in 2016, but they now know who will be running the team’s offense. According to Michael Gehlken of the San Diego Union-Tribune, former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt is returning to the Chargers to assume the same role, replacing Frank Reich.
[RELATED: Chargers fire offensive coordinator Frank Reich]
Whisenhunt previously served as San Diego’s offensive coordinator during the 2013 season, Mike McCoy’s first as the team’s head coach. The Chargers finished that year with a modest 9-7 record, but won a playoff game, and featured an extremely productive offense. After ranking 24th in the NFL in offensive DVOA in 2012, the Chargers placed second under Whisenhunt in 2013, per Football Outsiders.
In 2014, Reich’s first year as offensive coordinator, San Diego fell from second in offensive DVOA to 11th. The team slipped to 15th in 2015, and also went from scoring nearly 25 points per game in 2013 to just 20 this season, despite the fact that Philip Rivers led the NFL in passing completions (437) and attempts (661). Reich was let go by the Chargers a day after the regular season ended.
Whisenhunt, meanwhile, spent most of the last two years in Tennessee as head coach of the Titans. However, after finishing 2-14 in his first year with the club, he led the team to a 1-6 mark this season before receiving his walking papers.
With the Chargers in need of a new offensive coordinator and Whisenhunt looking for a new job, a reunion made too much sense for the two sides to pass up the opportunity.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Dean Spanos, Stan Kroenke To Meet Next Week
4:37pm: As noted below, Spanos and Kroenke will indeed meet soon. That sit-down will happen next week, a league source tells Bonsignore (Twitter link).
2:14pm: The Chargers technically have until March 23 to decide whether or not they’ll join the Rams in Los Angeles for the 2016 season, but the team’s decision is expected well before then, writes Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. According to Vincent Bonsignore of InsideSoCal.com, the Chargers would like to decide within the next two or three weeks whether a deal can get done with the Rams, meaning there could be some sort of resolution around the time of Super Bowl 50.
[RELATED: Which teams voted no on Rams’ Inglewood proposal?]
While most NFL team owners expect the Chargers to ultimately make the move to Los Angeles, owner Dean Spanos reached out to San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer on Thursday, months after disengaging from stadium talks with the city, according to Acee. Spanos and Faulconer didn’t set a time or date for a subsequent meeting, but the mayor tells Acee that the tone of the call, which lasted about five minutes, was cordial.
“I said very clearly to him I would welcome the opportunity to get together at his earliest convenience,” Faulconer said on Friday. “I told him we can discuss a variety of different options on how to move forward.”
One league source suggests to Bonsignore that it makes sense for the Chargers to commit to San Diego for a year, rather than rushing into an L.A. deal with the Rams: “See where it gets you. Have a vote. Get finality.” In theory, that’s probably good advice, but Spanos and company may not want to fall behind the Rams and let Stan Kroenke‘s club get a leg up in L.A.
So even though San Diego remains a possibility for the Chargers, the team is expected to meet with the Rams soon, and according to Acee, multiple sources expect the Chargers to reach an agreement in principle with the Rams before seriously re-engaging the city of San Diego.
The possibility that Kroenke will play hardball with Spanos and the Chargers doesn’t look like a potential roadblock for the Los Angeles negotiations, according to Bonsignore, who writes that the Rams owner promised his fellow owners that he will “work fairly and honorably” with Spanos. NFL sources tell Bonsignore that the Chargers will essentially have 30 other partners in discussions with Kroenke, plus commissioner Roger Goodell, ensuring that they’ll avoid any pitfalls or surprises and will get a reasonable deal from the Rams.
As we wait to see which direction the Chargers go, let’s round up a few more items related to Los Angeles, the Rams, the Chargers, and the Raiders….
- Sam Farmer and Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times conducted an exclusive Q&A session with Kroenke discussing the Rams‘ relocation and the Inglewood project.
- Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com is unconvinced that the Raiders will end up anywhere expect in the Bay Area, writing that the NFL will be reluctant to approve a move to San Diego if the Chargers head to Los Angeles, since the league won’t want its L.A. project undermined. La Canfora also believes that Texans owner Bob McNair and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would work hard to keep the Raiders out of San Antonio. For what it’s worth, other reporters have suggested the league would be okay with three teams in Southern California.
- Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk also explores the Raiders‘ options, suggesting that San Antonio is likely more of a leverage play than a realistic landing spot for the franchise.
Coach Rumors: Giants, Jags, Titans, Marrone
As the divisional round of the NFL postseason inches closer, the coaching carousel continues to spin for many of the clubs that have been eliminated from Super Bowl contention. Here are the latest coaching-related updates from around the NFL:
- While there probably won’t be an official announcement until Friday at the earliest, sources expect the Giants to head into 2016 with Mike Sullivan at offensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo at defensive coordinator, and Joe Philbin coming aboard the assistant head coach and QBs coach, tweets Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News.
- The Jaguars are interviewing Lou Anarumo, who finished 2015 as the Dolphins’ interim defensive coordinator, for their defensive coordinator opening, Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union tweets. Jacksonville is taking its time identifying a replacement for Bob Babich, having interviewed Falcons secondary coach Marquand Manuel earlier this week.
- Doug Marrone completed his interview for the Titans‘ head coaching position today, and Terry McCormick of TitanInsider.com (Twitter link) hears that the former Bills head coach made a good impression.
- The Chargers have hired former Vikings offensive line coach Jeff Davidson for the same position in San Diego, the team announced today in a press release.
- In addition to confirming their previously-reported hiring of linebackers coach Jim Herrmann, the Colts have announced that they’ve fired offensive line coach Hal Hunter, per Mike Wells of ESPN.com.
Chargers On Verge Of L.A. Move?
Even though they technically have one year to hash things out, the Chargers already appear poised to move to Los Angeles. The NFL has been presented with the framework of a stadium deal that would join the Rams and Chargers in Inglewood, Alex Flanagan of NFL Network tweets. The Chargers are vetting it now and, barring anything unforeseen, the Bolts will in fact go to L.A. Vincent Bonsignore of the Daily News (on Twitter) hears that the Chargers received this framework on Tuesday night, after the league’s vote. 
[RELATED: Which Teams Voted Against Rams Proposal?]
On Tuesday night, the league voted to green light the Rams’ proposed move to a brand new site in Inglewood, California. The vote came with an interesting stipulation, however, The Chargers were granted until January 16, 2017 to join up with the Rams and make the move to Los Angeles. If they did not sign off on the move, then the league would have moved on to another team to be determined with the Raiders thought to have priority.
The decision stripped the Chargers of some leverage, but they did get some bargaining chips out of it. First, they were allotted $100MM to build a brand new stadium in San Diego, if they decided against L.A. Secondly, the Rams were barred from collecting on personal seat licenses or selling naming rights to their new stadium until until February 15, 2017, unless they bring a second team aboard before then. That gave the Rams extra incentive to get something done with the Chargers, and that appears to have happened tonight.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Which Teams Voted No On Rams’ Proposal?
On Tuesday night, 30 of the league’s owners voted in favor of the Rams‘ new project in Inglewood, California. Two owners, however, voted against the project. One might automatically think that the Chargers and Raiders were responsible for the two “no” votes, but other owners seem to think otherwise. Here’s more on that:
- There was a great deal of speculation that Bengals owner Mike Brown was one of two owners to vote nay on sending the Rams to Los Angeles. On Wednesday, Brown released a statement through his team’s website to refute those claims. “Stan Kroenke has put together an exceptional plan. The league to a man is excited about this prospect,” Brown said. “It’s a huge market..It’s a market that has changed dramatically since the NFL was last there. There’s no reason the NFL shouldn’t be successful there. Especially if we go about it the right way. The Stan Kroenke Plan for Inglewood is as well thought out and as aggressive in every way as the NFL could possibly wish.”
- Despite his claims, Mike Florio of PFT hears that other owners still believe that he cast a vote against the Rams move to L.A. During deliberations, Brown expressed caution about the project and explained that major revenues from the new stadium could jack up the league’s salary cap numbers. Brown is also generally against dramatic change, the source claimed.
- On Tuesday night, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter) asked Chargers owner Dean Spanos whether he voted against the Inglewood project. “I voted for myself. If that’s what you’re asking me, yeah,” Spanos said. There’s still some ambiguity in Spanos’ answer, but it seems that the Chargers cast one of the “no” votes for the Inglewood project. If the denial from Bengals owner Mike Brown is accurate, then it would appear that the Raiders and Mark Davis cast the other vote against the Rams’ new stadium.
Latest On Chargers, San Diego
The latest on the Bolts and the city of San Diego:
- San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer says Tuesday night’s ruling from the NFL is an opportunity for a fresh start in the stadium talks with the Chargers, as Bernie Wilson of the AP tweets. The NFL has given the Chargers a one-year window to sign on with the Rams for an L.A. move. If they do not pull the trigger on a move, they will remain in San Diego with a $100MM grant from the league to help build a new stadium.
- Faulconer says the Mission Valley proposal is still on the table but he will listen if the Chargers want to start over with another location (link).
- Faulconer and County Supervisor Ron Roberts say they won’t budge off of their offer for $350MM in public money towards a stadium, however (link).
- The Chargers believe that the framework presented to them to join the Rams in Los Angeles has workable components and would allow them to move in 2016, a source tells Jim Trotter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The Chargers, their attorneys, and their financial people are reviewing the framework, but overall they feel there could be a deal to be made for 2016 (link). On Tuesday night, Giants co-owner Steve Tisch said it’s “unlikely” that the Chargers will play in L.A. in 2016.
- If the Chargers are going to move this year, they need to decide before start of the league year on March 9th, Trotter tweets. Otherwise, the uncertainty over where the Chargers might play in 2016 could affect free agency.
Coach Rumors: Bengals, Titans, Philbin, Colts
The Browns struck a deal today to bring Hue Jackson aboard as their new coach, leaving five teams with active head coaching searches. Additionally, plenty more clubs are looking to hire assistants to fill out their staffs, so we’ve got plenty of coaching-related notes and rumors to round up this afternoon. Let’s dive in….
- According to Michael Silver of NFL Media (via Twitter), before Jackson agreed to join the Browns, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis approached his offensive coordinator with a last-ditch attempt to keep Jackson in Cincinnati. Silver notes that the proposal included a succession plan, which would mean Jackson eventually replacing Lewis as the Bengals’ coach, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from moving on.
- The Titans‘ interview with Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin will take place on Friday, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. Per Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (Twitter link), the club will interview Doug Marrone one day earlier, on Thursday.
- The Colts have reached out to former Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin to see if he’s interested in the team’s offensive line coach job, a source tells Andrew Abramson of the Palm Beach Post.
- Falcons secondary coach Marquand Manuel had a good meeting with Gus Bradley regarding the Jaguars‘ defensive coordinator opening, but Jacksonville has yet to make a decision on the position, tweets Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com.
- Alex Marvez of FOX Sports has several updates on assistant jobs around the NFL. Here’s the breakdown:
- The Colts have agreed to a deal with former Giants linebackers coach Jim Herrmann for the same position in Indianapolis (Twitter link).
- Former Dolphins head coach and current 49ers assistant Tony Sparano is interviewing today for the Vikings‘ offensive line coach opening and is a strong candidate to get the job (Twitter links).
- Former Vikings offensive line coach Jeff Davidson is interviewing for the same role with the Chargers (Twitter link).
- Former Dolphins defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle is expected to replace Vance Joseph as the Bengals‘ defensive backs coach (Twitter link).