It’s been a busy day of firings, interviews, retirements, and even arrests, but that doesn’t mean we won’t make time for some minor moves:
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Cleveland Browns
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Well it wouldn’t really be possible for Arthur Smith to be in higher demand right now. All six teams with head coach vacancies either already have or will request to interview the Titans offensive coordinator, sources told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Those six teams, of course, are the Chargers, Jets, Jaguars, Lions, Falcons, and Texans. The Jags and Texans are both in the same division as Smith. Teams can’t prevent an assistant from interviewing for a promotion to head coach, so Smith can make the rounds if he so chooses. Still only 38, Smith has seen his stock take a meteoric rise in league circles the past couple of seasons even though just two years ago he was a tight ends coach who had never called plays before.
Smith joined the Titans as a quality control coach in 2011, and was so highly regarded within the building that he was able to survive multiple head coach regimes. After Matt LaFleur was hired to be the Packers head coach after the 2018 season, Mike Vrabel promoted Smith to offensive coordinator, and the rest is history.
Ryan Tannehill has had a sudden resurgence to become one of the league’s most efficient quarterbacks under Smith’s tutelage, and the running game led by Derrick Henry has been unstoppable at times. Whether it’s this year or not, it seems like only a matter of time before Smith lands a head coaching gig and becomes the next young offensive mind to lead a team alongside the likes of Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, and LaFleur.
Assuming the Falcons bring back Matt Ryan next year, they’ll need to find a new clipboard holder for him. Veteran quarterback Matt Schaub is retiring following the 2020 season, Atlanta owner Arthur Blank revealed during his end of season media availability Monday.
It’s a relatively quiet end to a very interesting rollercoaster of a career. A Virginia product, Schaub began his career as a third-round pick of the Falcons all the way back in 2004. Taken in the same class as Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Philip Rivers, he only started two games during his three seasons in Atlanta due to the presence of Michael Vick. He showed flashes in limited action though, and it was enough for the Texans to trade two second-round picks for him before the 2007 season.
He went on to spend the next six and a half seasons as Houston’s quarterback, and had some real success there. He made the Pro Bowl twice in 2009 and 2012, and led the NFL in passing in 2009 with 4,770 yards. He suffered a handful of injuries with the Texans and his play fell off a cliff in the 2013 season, after which he was traded to the Raiders. He lost that starting job to a rookie Derek Carr.
Despite an accomplished run with the Texans, he would start just three games the rest of his career after leaving Houston. Two of those came with the Ravens in 2015 in place of an injured Joe Flacco. In 2016 he reunited with the Falcons, and spent the past five years backing up Ryan.
The last start of his career came last season in spot duty, when he threw for 460 yards in a loss to the Seahawks. He didn’t attempt a pass this season, and will now hang up his cleats at the age of 39. The only other quarterback on Atlanta’s roster is 2018 UDFA Kurt Benkert, and they’ll likely add one in the draft at the very least. All of us here at PFR wish Schaub nothing but the best in retirement.
The Raiders fired defensive coordinator Paul Guenther with a few games left in the season, and now that 2020 is over Jon Gruden needs to find a replacement. The day after Week 17, the search is already heating up.
Las Vegas is interested in Chargers DC Gus Bradley and has requested an interview with the former Jaguars head coach, a source told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link). With Los Angeles firing Anthony Lynn Monday, it appears unlikely Bradley will be back with the Chargers in 2021, so it’d be surprising if they blocked the interview. Rapoport calls him a “top candidate” for the job of turning around the Raiders’ lackluster defense.
Bradley’s defenses have played at a high level at times during his four years with the Chargers, but they also severely underperformed their talent this season. Of course he was also dealt some unlucky blows, like the significant injuries to guys like Derwin James, Chris Harris, Melvin Ingram, and Joey Bosa. Bradley had an uninspiring run as the Jags’ head coach from 2013-16, where he went 14-48. He initially received recognition for coordinating the Seahawks’ impressive defense from 2009-12.
If Bradley doesn’t end up with the gig, Rapoport identifies a couple of other potential candidates as well. That being Falcons interim head coach Raheem Morris and Rams linebackers coach Joe Barry. As Rapsheet notes, Morris could land a head coaching job this cycle.
Interestingly, Morris coached under Gruden in Tampa Bay, and then took over as the Bucs’ head coach in 2009 when Gruden was fired. Barry was also on Gruden’s Tampa Bay staff, and has been an assistant head coach/linebackers coach under Sean McVay the past four seasons.
Adam Gase is officially out the door, and the Jets’ coaching search will start to heat up as a result. It looks like the team may be targeting an offensive mind, and to that end New York has requested an interview with Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, a source told Tom Pelissero of NFL Network (Twitter link).
Teams can’t block assistants from interviewing for head coaching positions, so Daboll will be able to do it if he wants. We heard last week that Daboll is expected to be the hottest coordinator candidate out there. Considering the work he’s done with Josh Allen this season, it’s not hard to see why. Allen was a bit erratic his first two years in the league, but now in his third full season under Daboll’s tutelage he’s playing at a near MVP level.
Daboll broke into the league as an assistant with the Patriots in 2000, and after spending seven years on Bill Belichick’s staff he also had stints as an OC with the Browns, Dolphins, and Chiefs. He was back in New England from 2013-16 before spending a year under Nick Saban at Alabama.
Sean McDermott then recruited him to be his coordinator in Buffalo. Whether it’s Sam Darnold or a rookie the Jets will have a very young quarterback under center in Week 1 2021, and a young offensive mind (Daboll is still only 45) would seem to be a good fit.
Major shakeup out of Denver, as John Elway is giving up personnel control of the Broncos. In a surprising move, Elway will move to President of Football Operations, and will hire a GM who is in control of the roster, the team announced Monday.
“As part of a transition I’ve thought about for a long time, I have made the decision to step up into an elevated role and hire a general manager to lead our personnel and football staff. While I’ll continue to be President of Football Operations in 2021, the GM will have final say on the draft, free agency and our roster. This person will be empowered to make all football decisions, working in partnership with Vic,” Elway said in a statement.
Under the new structure, both the new GM and Vic Fangio will report to Elway. Obviously the legendary former quarterback isn’t going anywhere, bu he is giving up a huge amount of power, and this feels like a way for the organization to bring in a new front office head without having to deal with the ordeal of firing Elway.
Elway took over in Denver in 2011, and obviously had quite a bit of success his first handful of years after luring Peyton Manning to the Broncos. That culminated in a win in Super Bowl 50, but things went downhill quickly after Manning and head coach Gary Kubiak retired.
The team has now endured four losing seasons in a row, and they have an unsettled quarterback situation with Drew Lock looking iffy his first two years in the league. Elway’s hire of Vance Joseph to replace Kubiak didn’t work out, and he’s drawn a lot of criticism for failing to stabilize things under center ever since Manning left. His one big swing in the draft, taking Paxton Lynch out of Memphis in the first-round, was an abject disaster.
There are now a whopping seven GM vacancies across the league. Elway’s top deputy has been Matt Russell, and he had an opportunity to interview for the GM job but declined and elected to retire, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
Russell will stay on for the time being to help Elway with the GM search, Schefter says. Bears exec Champ Kelly, 49ers exec Adam Peters (who has been linked to several other openings), and Bucs exec John Spytek are all names to keep an eye on for this search, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network says (Twitter video link). Spytek previously was a national scout under Elway in Denver, Peters was with the Broncos from 2009-16, and Kelly was with the organization from 2007-14.
The Raiders just wrapped up a disappointing season that saw the team miss the playoffs again, and now they’re getting more bad news. Starting running back Josh Jacobs has been arrested for DUI, according to Kevin Bolinger of FOX 5 Vegas (Twitter link).
Las Vegas police confirmed that Jacobs was in a single car accident at the airport at 4:42 AM, and that police suspected impairment. He was then taken to the hospital to be checked out, so it sounds like he suffered at least some minor injuries. Jacobs has since been released from custody and has a court date set for March 8th. Obviously it’s very early in the process but if the details are confirmed, Jacobs could be looking at a short suspension for a personal conduct policy violation.
Lawyers for Jacobs quickly released a statement after the news broke, saying “No complaint has been filed against our client and there are no blood test results to support a suggestion of impairment. We intend to enter a not guilty plea on behalf of Mr. Jacobs if he is ever charged.”
The Raiders didn’t offer much, saying in a statement of their own “The Raiders are aware of the situation involving Josh Jacobs. The organization takes these matters seriously and we have no further comment at this time.”
The 24th overall pick of the 2019 draft, Jacobs made the Pro Bowl for his play this past season. He became the Raiders’ featured back as a rookie, starting all 13 games he played in and rushing for 1,150 and seven touchdowns. This past year he rushed for 1,065 yards and 12 touchdowns in 15 games.
His efficiency dipped in 2020, as he averaged only 3.9 yards per carry, down from 4.8 as a rookie. That wasn’t all his fault though, as Vegas’ offensive line wasn’t quite as sharp and Jacobs also played through significant injuries in the second half of the season. He was also more involved in the passing game, drawing 45 targets, up from 27 the year before. We’ll keep you posted as we hear more on this situation.
The Eagles’ disastrous 2020 campaign has come to an end, and to say they’ve got a pivotal offseason ahead of them would be a massive understatement. Obviously the team has to figure out their quarterback situation, but that’s far from the only issue that needs to be addressed.
They took one step forward on Monday as the team has adjusted the contracts of receiver Alshon Jeffery and defensive tackle Malik Jackson, sources told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Before these moves Philly had the worst cap situation in the league, with a projected $70MM deficit against the 2021 cap. The move reduced the base salaries for both to give some immediate flexibility, but the agreed upon arrangement will force the Eagles to either cut the players or negotiate new deals with them.
As Mike Garafolo of NFL Network tweeted, the expectation is that Philly will move on from both players, so they aren’t actually going to play 2021 at these reduced salaries and the restructure is more of a procedural move. It’s a win for the Eagles and also lets the players know their futures sooner so they can plan accordingly and hit free agency with everybody else instead of being left looking for a new team closer to the start of next season.
The Eagles signed Jackson to a three-year, $30MM pact in March of 2019, and it was immediately derailed when he suffered a foot injury in the first game of that season that knocked him out for the entire year. He returned to play in 15 games this year, but only played around half the defensive snaps and not at a high enough level to warrant his hefty salary. The 2012 fifth-round pick of the Broncos had a few really good years with the Jaguars and is still only 30, so there will be interest.
Jeffery is wrapping up a four-year stint in Philadelphia and will always have a large place in franchise history for his contributions to the 2017 team that won Super Bowl LII. Jeffery started all 16 games that year, racking up 789 yards and nine touchdowns. He had another very solid 2018 campaign but his play fell off a cliff last year as he dealt with injuries that limited him to ten games.
This past season he appeared in only seven contests due to injury, catching only six passes for 115 yards. The 2012 second-round pick from South Carolina turned into a star during his early career with the Bears, and is still only 30 as well, although he does have significant health question marks. It’ll be very interesting to see what his market looks like.
We just got word of one offensive coordinator vacancy as the Dolphins fired Chan Gailey, and now it looks like we’ve got another. Vikings offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak plans to retire, a source told Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com.
Kubiak joined Minnesota in an advisory role in 2019, then took over as offensive coordinator this season after Kevin Stefanski left to take the Browns’ head coaching job. Kubiak is an incredibly accomplished coach, winning three Super Bowls as an assistant with the Broncos and 49ers before winning another won as head coach of Denver in Super Bowl 50. He also was the Texans’ head coach from 2006-13, and the Ravens’ offensive coordinator in 2014 before getting hired by the Broncos.
The Vikings were a disappointment this season, but that was mostly because of their defense, so it’s unlikely that he’s being squeezed out and this is probably entirely his call.There were a lot of positives to take away from this Minnesota offense, like Dalvin Cook rushing for 1,557 yards and 16 touchdowns in 14 games or rookie wide receiver Justin Jefferson emerging to look like a star in the making.
Now at the age of 59, Kubiak has dealt with a couple of health scares in recent years, which was what caused him to step down as coach of the Broncos after a 9-7 2016 season. That initial retirement lasted only a couple of seasons though, so it’s entirely possible we haven’t seen the last of him on an NFL sideline even with this second retirement.
It’s unclear what the Vikings will do to replace him, but if they choose to promote from within like Mike Zimmer often likes to do, one logical candidate is Kubiak’s own son Klint Kubiak, who was the quarterbacks coach this past season.
Coaching searches around the league are only just getting started, and the only place where there’s a clear favorite right now is Jacksonville with Urban Meyer. By all accounts, the job appears to be his to lose if he wants it. But if the legendary college coach is going to make the jump to the NFL, he has a baseline amount of compensation he’s seeking.
Meyer is apparently asking for $12MM annually on any deal, a source told Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. That might sound like a lot for a coach but as Florio points out, it’s not that out of sync with the current market. He writes that Matt Rhule got nearly $9MM annually from the Panthers despite being relatively unproven.
In a subsequent tweet discussing his piece, Florio said that Pete Carroll is believed to make over $15MM per year from the Seahawks, that the Saints’ Sean Payton is somewhere around there, and that Bill Belichick is believed to get over $20MM annually from the Patriots.
With the Jags clinching the first overall pick in the draft a couple weeks ago, that job obviously became a lot more attractive. Meyer has reportedly begun lining up a staff for a potential jump, and it now seems more likely than not to happen. Assuming Jaguars owner Shad Khan is willing to meet his financial demands, it wouldn’t be surprising if something came together quickly here.