The searches to fill the final head coach roles are ramping up. Plus what to expect at the Senior Bowl and more in Albert Breer’s Friday news and notes.
We have a lot to get to …
• We’re coming down the stretch with just two head coach openings left—and both of those are at a critical point. So let’s break those down.
The Seattle Seahawks had their old defensive coordinator Dan Quinn in through Thursday, and Quinn stayed overnight until Friday. Seattle was going to interview Raheem Morris on Friday, but he’s since taken the Atlanta Falcons job. Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero is on the slate for Saturday. They had New York Giants OC Mike Kafka and Las Vegas Raiders DC Patrick Graham come in last week.
Quinn’s very highly thought of with the Seahawks brass, so they could certainly finalize things with him, but I’ve heard GM John Schneider wants to go through a full and complete process. So Seattle’s interest in Detroit Lions OC Ben Johnson (who they could interview next week) and Baltimore Ravens DC Mike Macdonald (who they can’t, because it’d be a first interview) likely causes them to wait until next week.
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Meanwhile, the Washington Commanders are going to ramp things up over the weekend by sending a contingent to Detroit to meet with Johnson and Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn on Monday, with Quinn set to travel to Washington on Monday night to meet with the Commanders on Tuesday.
• Next week is a big week in the league, because for at least 30 teams, it serves as the unofficial annual kickoff to next season with executives, scouts and coaches descending on Mobile for the Senior Bowl. Despite some league-fueled competition in recent years, the game remains the premier college all-star showcase for NFL teams, which is why it’s always so well-attended by league power brokers.
So why is it important? I figured we’d go to a few GMs and give them the floor on that.
“Certainly, for some of us, it’s the first time we get the chance to set our eyes on some of these players,” Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said, highlighting the in-person benefit. “Seeing them physically move around and compete, it’s such a big deal to see the competition live. And to meet them, in the beginning phase of getting to know these guys as people, I think is just a huge part of our process. Then, having it in Mobile and the professional way that they roll that thing out for us, and make it so easy, it’s a very, very important part of our process.”
Cleveland Browns GM Andrew Berry echoed that, saying, “It’s a great place to see top prospects in a controlled environment against the best competition. The week is also helpful because you have the opportunity to get to know the prospects as people for the first time.”
And Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles texted, “[Executive director] Jim [Nagy] and his staff have done a fantastic job identifying talent, as well as setting up an environment that allows players to shine and clubs to evaluate. The Senior Bowl adds significant value to the pre-draft process. It’s our first touchpoint outside of a college campus. We get to validate information we gathered in the fall. We also love seeing how players handle different match-ups as well as different positions. When you select a player you want to have conviction—the Senior Bowl has done that for us in the past and will in the future.”
• So as for the bigger names that’ll be there, it starts with the quarterbacks: Washington Huskies’ Michael Penix Jr, Oregon Ducks’ Bo Nix, South Carolina Gamecocks’ Spencer Rattler, Tulane Green Wave’s Michael Pratt and Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s Sam Hartman, all college football headliners.
After that, among the names that have become pretty recognizable in recent years, for those who follow college football at least, are Florida State Seminoles WR Johnny Wilson, Georgia Bulldogs WR Ladd McConkey, Penn State Nittany CB Kalen King, Georgia S Javon Bullard and Missouri Tigers RB Cody Schrader, along with a few potential first-round linemen, like Oregon State Beavers OT Taliese Fuaga and UCLA Bruins DE Laiatu Latu.
We’ll have a lot more from the ground in Alabama next week.
• A trend with the Raiders offensive coordinator search is emerging—former Bears OC Luke Getsy and USC Trojans assistant Kliff Kingsbury are in Friday, former Browns OC Alex Van Pelt was there Thursday, Pittsburgh Steelers assistant Mike Sullivan’s on the radar too, and all have been play-callers before.
That, of course, is not to say Antonio Pierce wouldn’t consider a guy who hadn’t done it before. But there’s a good pattern there that matches the one he set by leaning on Tom Coughlin and Marvin Lewis, and it’s to lean toward experienced hands. It makes sense given that Pierce, though he played in the league, has only been coaching in pro football for two years.
• The Bears have their offensive coordinator search done, with Shane Waldron aboard, and now some focus will shift to what they do with the defensive coordinator spot—former DC Alan Williams was dismissed in-season amid some controversy.
One thing I’ve been able to ascertain from the early stages of that search is that Matt Eberflus plans to be the play-caller again in 2024. That makes sense, since after Williams was fired, Eberflus took over, and a young developing group really started to flourish. Eberflus has long been among the NFL’s most respected defensive minds, but Bears ownership wanted more of a “walkaround” head coach when he was hired in 2022, so he delegated play calling to Williams, who came from the Indianapolis Colts with him.
• We’ll have more on this Monday, but the split between the Miami Dolphins and Vic Fangio, as Jevon Holland’s Instagram missive would indicate, wasn’t altogether clean. Fangio insisted on being the lone voice in the defensive room, something that chafed other coaches and, in time, led the venerable defensive play-caller losing some of his players.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Philadelphia Eagles wind up the beneficiary of all that. Philly had a strong interest in hiring Fangio full-time last year, after having him on as a consultant, but the timing didn’t work out—the Dolphins had come to terms with him at a rate topping $4.5 million per year before the Eagles lost DC Jonathan Gannon to the Arizona Cardinals. Even then, the Eagles explored what it might take to get him out of that.
Obviously, it didn’t happen then. So now it will.
• Dave Canales’s first order of business in Carolina will be figuring out a way to keep defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero. If Evero lands the Seattle job, well, then you tip your cap and wish him luck. If not, making sure Evero—who David Tepper paid handsomely to come to Carolina and work on Frank Reich’s staff last year—is locked in and on board will be important. I’d expect the Los Angeles Rams, Packers and Dolphins would all have a lot of interest in poaching him to fill their coordinator openings.
• Likewise, new Falcons coach Morris has an important first task in hiring an offensive coordinator. But that one may already be done. Rams pass-game coordinator Zac Robinson has already interviewed—well, almost everywhere—and is in high demand for good reason. While he’ll have options, he and Morris are tight, and it sounds like the plan from the jump has been for Robinson to go with Morris if he landed a head-coaching job.
• Deebo Samuel’s status for Sunday obviously bears watching, but for more reasons than you might think. One scout raised to me that where the Niners line Samuel up, often as an inside receiver, actually has a way of opening things up in the run game for San Francisco—whoever’s covering him can’t cheat in at all towards the box. So if Samuel can’t go, that’d be one thing to watch.
• Mark Andrews’s addition to the Ravens for Sunday is a massive one, and should really stress how the Kansas City Chiefs use their safeties to handle the Baltimore run game, and how they might use their linebackers to spy Lamar Jackson.
