HEADLINES

Month: September 2024

Bears Request Reggie McKenzie Interview

January 16th, 2022 at 2:39pm CST by Zachary Links

The Bears have requested an interview with Dolphins senior personnel executive Reggie McKenzie for their GM vacancy (Twitter link via Albert Breer of The MMQB). This marks McKenzie’s first GM interview since he was fired by the Raiders in December 2018.

After several years as an NFL linebacker, McKenzie for the Packers’ front office from 1994 through 2012. After that, he was hired as the Raiders’ GM, inheriting a team with an awful cap situation and depleted draft capital. McKenzie was not perfect, but he did manage to turn that club into a playoff team. Then, prior to the 2018 season, new head coach Jon Gruden wrestled away much of his control, shaking up the roster by trading superstar Khalil Mack to the Bears and shedding other veterans.

McKenzie made some of his best moves in the 2014 draft and did hit on some of his bigger free agency deals, leading the Raiders to a 12-4 2016 with a playoff appearance to snap their long-standing drought. McKenzie earned executive of the year acclaim for his role in that 2016 turnaround. He’s spent the last two years in the Dolphins’ front office where the jury is still out on Chris Grier‘s performance.

Here’s the full rundown of the Bears’ search, via PFR’s tracker:

Giants Eyeing Brian Flores, Brian Daboll

January 16th, 2022 at 1:34pm CST by Zachary Links

The Giants’ short list of head coaching candidates includes former Dolphins HC Brian Flores and Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, according to sources who spoke with Ralph Vacchiano of SNY. Of course, the eventual successor to Dave Gettleman is expected to lead the search, as John Mara recently said that the GM will have “the flexibility to bring in the head coach that he wants.”

[RELATED: Latest On Giants’ Firing Of Joe Judge] 

Both Daboll and Flores have been discussed internally for a while, according to Vacchiano. It also helps that “several” of the Giants’ nine GM candidates also hold them in high regard.

As of this writing, the Giants are considering current assistant GM Kevin Abrams, 49ers director of player personnel Ran Carthon, Titans exec Ryan Cowden, Cardinals exec Quentin Harris, Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz, Titans director of player personnel Monti Ossenfort, 49ers AGM Adam Peters, Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles, Cardinals exec Adrian Wilson, and Bills AGM Joe Schoen.

It’s safe to assume that Schoen has Daboll on the list while Abrams — a longtime member of the Giants’ front office — surely helped to shape the team’s view of both Daboll and Flores. Still, according to one report, Abrams is no longer viewed as a frontrunner. Apparently, the momentum lies with out-of-house candidates like Hortiz, who has serious momentum following his interview, according to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post.

Flores, 40, is already in the mix for the Texans and Bears jobs. Vacchiano hears that the Brooklyn native is looking for a team that will commit to his vision. That’s worth keeping in mind here, given the Giants’ quick hook for their last few coaches.

Daboll, 46, was in consideration last time around, before the Giants ultimately hired Joe Judge. Judge even expressed interest in making Daboll his OC, but the Bills blocked his request. The Giants ultimately went with Jason Garrett, who was fired in November.

Seahawks To Retain HC Pete Carroll, GM John Schneider; Latest On QB Russell Wilson

January 16th, 2022 at 12:16pm CST by Rory Parks

Surviving Black Monday does not necessarily mean that a head coach or GM will keep his job (just ask Joe Judge). However, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider will officially be retained for 2022. Per ESPN’s Chris Mortensen (Twitter link), Carroll and Schneider recently met with owner Jody Allen, and Allen was apparently convinced that retaining her team’s top power brokers was the best course of action.

In fact, it sounds like Carroll’s and Schneider’s status was never really in doubt. Mortensen added that the meeting was the usual end-of-season review with a look ahead to 2022, and that there was no discussion about job security.

That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. It was reported in December that Allen had become “very involved” in the Seahawks’ operation — which was a significant departure from her usual approach and that of her predecessor, the late Paul Allen — and that led to plenty of speculation that a major shakeup could be on the way. But from 2012-20, the ‘Hawks failed to post double-digit wins just once under Carroll and Schneider, and Seattle captured its first Lombardi Trophy during that span, coming just a whisper short of another. The club’s disappointing 2021 campaign, which saw quarterback Russell Wilson miss game action for the first time in his career, does not undo all of those accomplishments.

Now, all eyes will turn towards Wilson. The 33-year-old passer also had a little something to do with the Seahawks’ productive run in the 2010s, but trade chatter and rumors about his desire to leave Seattle have swirled for about a year now. Last week, we heard that the ‘Hawks plan to retain Wilson, and Mortensen’s above-referenced tweet said that “all systems are go” with respect to the QB, though the team wouldn’t say anything different at this point and risk losing leverage in trade talks.

Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reported this morning that Wilson wants to at least “explore his options.” He has not demanded a trade, and he may not make such a demand, but he wants to see if another club might offer him opportunities that the Seahawks cannot. Last February, of course, his agent told the club that Wilson would waive his no-trade clause if he were to be dealt to the Cowboys, Bears, Raiders, and Saints, and in December, a report surfaced indicating that Wilson would approve a trade to the Broncos, Giants, or Saints.

Interestingly, when Carroll left his meeting with Allen, he appeared to acknowledge that a Wilson trade was a possibility. “Whatever is there, we got to exhaust every opportunity for our club and right from the owner, she wants us to take a look at every single opportunity to better the franchise,” he said. “That’s what we do. It’s going to take us some time to put it all together and we have a lot of difficult decisions to make this year.”

Carroll followed that statement, however, by saying, “I love this team. We’ve got the nucleus of a championship right here and we’re going to try to keep that together.”

In other words, Wilson’s future with the Seahawks will, as expected, be one of the top storylines of the offseason.

Eagles DE Josh Sweat Had Life-Threatening Medical Situation

January 16th, 2022 at 11:12am CST by Rory Parks

Eagles defensive end Josh Sweat will miss the club’s wildcard game against the Bucs this afternoon. Per a team statement, Sweat was dealing with a life-threatening medical situation earlier this week, and while he is on the mend and was hoping to play, he has not yet recovered quite enough to return to game action.

The statement reads as follows:

“On Tuesday night, Josh Sweat was admitted to the hospital. He underwent an emergency procedure due to the severity. The doctors addressed a life-threatening situation. In the following days, Josh and our medical team did everything possible to help him return. He improved every day but it was determined by the doctors today that he was not quite ready. The fact that Josh came so close to playing is a credit to his toughness and our medical staff.”

It’s unclear exactly what the emergency was, but Adam Schefter of ESPN.com notes that head coach Nick Sirianni said during the week that Sweat was dealing with an abdominal issue (Twitter link). Obviously, Sweat’s health is the most important thing here, but his presence will be sorely missed against Tampa Bay’s stout offensive front, and it will make it even more difficult for the underdog Eagles to pull off the upset.

Philadelphia handed Sweat a lucrative extension back in September, and he rewarded the club with a season that saw him post career-highs in starts (13), tackles (45), and sacks (7.5). He finished as Pro Football Focus’ 23rd-best edge defender out of 113 qualifiers.

If the Eagles are able to advance to the divisional round, it sounds like Sweat would have a good chance of suiting up.

Steelers Unlikely To Acquire Veteran QB

January 16th, 2022 at 10:13am CST by Rory Parks

Longtime Steelers GM Kevin Colbert will soon be stepping down, but not until after the 2022 draft. So he will be tasked with setting the team’s course at quarterback in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era, and his modus operandi would suggest that a major splash is not in the cards.

Indeed, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com hears from sources close to Colbert that Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins will be retained and will be given the chance to compete for the starting quarterback job. Rudolph is under contract through 2022, and while Haskins is eligible for restricted free agency, he has apparently made a favorable impression on head coach Mike Tomlin and can likely be brought back with a minimal commitment.

Beyond those two, acquiring a player like Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, or any other veteran QB who might be available on the trade market should not be expected. In his 22 years atop the Steelers’ personnel department, Colbert has only traded a first-round pick for a player one time, when he acquired Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Dolphins in September 2019.

Instead, adding a collegiate passer in the first round of the draft and allowing him to compete with Rudolph and Haskins is likely to be how Colbert elects to move forward. Pittsburgh QB Kenny Pickett has been mocked to the Steelers by a number of outlets, and the fact that the pro team shares a facility with the university makes it easier for Colbert & Co. to evaluate the Heisman candidate.

Rapoport says Pittsburgh is interested in Pickett, but with his stock seemingly on the rise, and with the Steelers not picking any higher than No. 19 depending on how far they advance in the playoffs, they might not have a shot at the local kid absent a trade-up. And Colbert has only traded up in the first round three times in his tenure.

Broncos To Be Sold

January 16th, 2022 at 9:27am CST by Rory Parks

In July, when the lawsuit filed by two of Pat Bowlen‘s daughters challenging the validity of the Pat Bowlen Trust was dismissed, the sale of the Broncos became a real possibility. Since then, most of the reporting on the matter has indicated that the club would indeed be sold out of the Bowlen family, and we recently heard that the transaction could be completed by this spring.

So when team attorney Dan Reilly recently said that the trustees of the Pat Bowlen Trust would be moving forward with the “ownership transition process” (via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk), it was simply a confirmation of the prevailing belief that the Broncos would soon be sold. Team president Joe Ellis also said that he would soon turn his attention to “transitioning ownership.”

Those comments were made in the wake of a court order regarding the right of first refusal agreement that Bowlen had entered into with Edgar Kaiser when the former purchased the team from the latter in 1984. As Mike Klis of 9News.com tweets, a Denver court has determined that the agreement is no longer valid or enforceable in any respect, and that it has terminated in its entirety. As such, the last real obstacle to a sale has been removed.

As expected, franchise icons Peyton Manning and John Elway will be involved in the process, as part of separate bidding groups (Twitter link via Troy Renck of Denver 7). Manning is said to be eyeing both a minority ownership stake as well as a role in the management of the team, and Elway — who served as the club’s GM from 2011-20 before being transitioned to a different role upon the hiring of George Paton last year — is reportedly interested in staying with the franchise in some capacity, whether as a part owner or something else.

However, Renck is clear that this will not be a popularity contest. The top bid must be accepted regardless of who makes it, and it has been reported that the sale will net around $4B or so. Per Ellis, the formal announcement regarding ownership will come shortly after the team announces its next head coach. The impending sale is not expected to be a deterrent for any HC candidate.

Raiders’ HC Hire To Impact Derek Carr’s Status; Latest On GM Mike Mayock

January 16th, 2022 at 8:15am CST by Rory Parks

The Raiders’ season is over after a gut-wrenching, mistake-filled, sometimes controversial seven-point loss to the Bengals in last night’s wildcard game. The contest ended with a Derek Carr interception on a fourth-and-goal throw that came up several yards short of the endzone, and it’s fair to wonder whether that was Carr’s last pass in silver-and-black.

Team owner Mark Davis was clear that he was not going to begin thinking about 2022 and beyond until the Raiders’ 2021 campaign had come to an end, but now that it has, he has some catching up to do in terms of his search for a permanent head coach (and, perhaps, for a new general manager). No club in need of a new HC or GM has actually hired one just yet, but interviews have gotten underway, and Davis plans for his search to be thorough and legitimate.

Ian Rapoport of NFL.com says that Carr’s future in Las Vegas will be tied to the club’s head coach hire, and he classifies the Raiders’ QB decision as a “mutual” one. The implication is that the head coach and Carr — who stated this summer that he would rather quit football than play for another team — will both have a say in the matter.

Carr has certainly earned that right. While interim head coach Rich Bisaccia has received much-deserved credit for keeping the team together in the wake of the Jon Gruden fiasco, the Henry Ruggs tragedy, and other assorted on-field and off-field difficulties, Rapoport points out that Carr was also instrumental in rallying the troops through the turmoil and closing the regular season on a four-game winning streak. And while Carr’s name has frequently popped up in trade rumors due to his generally strong-but-not-elite play, he has finished in the top-10 in QB rating in two of the past three seasons.

On the other hand, his two turnovers in last night’s playoff loss — including a fumble and the game-ending interception that for some reason was thrown short of the goal line — was emblematic of a season in which he threw for a career-high 14 picks and fumbled a career-high 13 times. In his eight-year career, he has totaled double-digit fumbles five times and has twice led the league in that category. His 57-70 record also leaves much to be desired.

Carr, who will turn 31 in March, has one season remaining on the five-year, $125MM extension he signed in 2017. That $25MM AAV is now a middle-class figure for QBs, and in Rapoport’s estimation, Carr will be in line for a top-of-the-market extension. Rapoport reiterates that GM Mike Mayock‘s job is not necessarily safe, and whoever ends up as the Raiders’ general manager will obviously have a significant say in Carr’s contract and his status with the team as well. If Las Vegas and Carr agree to seek a trade, RapSheet names the Saints, Texans, and Colts as potential landing spots.

For what it’s worth, Carr said in last night’s postgame presser that Bisaccia is the “right guy” for the HC job, and Dan Graziano of ESPN.com suggests that the glowing way in which Raiders players talk about Bisaccia is different than the usual player-speak (Twitter link). Though Bisaccia may not be the favorite, he has given Davis something to seriously consider despite the early playoff exit.

Bears Interview Titans’ Monti Ossenfort

January 15th, 2022 at 11:15pm CST by Ely Allen

Today the Chicago Bears announced that they interviewed Monti Ossenfort for the their open general manager position. While not previously mentioned as a candidate for Chicago, Ossenfort has interviewed with the Giants and will interview with the Vikings tomorrow.

Ossenfort has been the director of player personnel in Tennessee for the past two years. Prior to the Titans, he spent 17 seasons in the Patriots’ organization, acting as the director of college scouting in his last six years in New England.

As far as we’ve seen, Ossenfort is the fifth candidate to interview for the open general manager position and Chicago has several other targets who have yet to interview. Follow the updates on all three open general manager positions on our 2022 NFL General Manager Search Tracker.

Coaching Searches Starting To Come Into Focus

January 15th, 2022 at 11:02pm CST by Ely Allen

As the playoffs begin, some teams are narrowing in on their preferred targets. Some teams don’t need to worry about the playoffs because their candidate isn’t participating, while others may just be waiting until their candidate’s season is over.

Jason La Canfora, of CBS Sports, reported that former Dolphins’ head coach Brian Flores is considered the favorite to get the Texans’ open head coaching position. He suggests that firing David Culley may have been a reaction to Flores’s surprising availability. Both firings came as a shock to NFL media, so it’s not outrageous to assume that the Texans saw Flores get cut loose and decided to make a bold move of their own.

Flores and Texans’ general manager Nick Caserio worked together as scouts in the Patriots’ system. Flores won eight of his final nine games in Miami this year, showing a promising potential. Not to mention that Flores was a factor in Deshaun Watson waiving his no-trade clause for the Dolphins earlier this year, before that deal fell through. The Texans have other candidates, but Flores has interviewed with the Bears and will continue to be a target for other teams, so Houston will likely want to secure their target sooner, rather than later.

Tom Pelissero, of NFL Network, reported that Cowboys’ defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is looking like the favorite to replace Vic Fangio in Denver. This situation is a little more fraught. The connections aren’t quite clear. Obviously Quinn’s resume speaks for itself as he made it to the Super Bowl with Atlanta and has helped develop an impressive, young Cowboys’ defense, but the Broncos just fired a defensive-minded coach in Fangio and it’s a bit surprising to see them double-down on that philosophy.

There’s also the issue that, unlike Flores, Quinn isn’t currently available. He hasn’t even interviewed with any teams. Even when he does, it seems those teams may be in competition with his current employer. La Canfora put out a report that Dallas holds Quinn in such high regard that they might be willing to move on from current head coach Mike McCarthy in order to secure Quinn as his successor.

There’s plenty of moves to be had and plenty of time for it all to play out. Be sure to follow all our updates on the 2022 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker.

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