After parting ways with the Panthers early this year, former NFL linebacker Chase Blackburn has joined the Titans as the team’s assistant special teams coach. After playing ten years in the NFL for the Giants and Panthers, Blackburn transitioned into the coaching world working his way up to the role of the Panthers’ special teams coordinator, a position he held for four seasons.
Panthers’ head coach Matt Rhule initially retained Blackburn from former head coach Ron Rivera‘s staff, but fired him this January. He finds second life with fellow former NFL linebacker and current Titans’ head coach Mike Vrabel. Additionally, after season-long tryouts, the Titans have promoted Clint McMillan (defensive line assistant) and Kylan Butler (offensive assistant) to full time positions.
Here are a few other coaching updates from around the AFC:
- The Jets announced a series of assistant coach hirings including Ben Wilkerson and Dan Shamash. Wilkerson moves from one New York team to another, taking the same position as assistant offensive line coach on head coach Robert Saleh‘s staff. Shamash is a New York native that returns to the tri-state area after five seasons as the Chargers’ assistant tight ends coach to become the Jets’ situational football/game management coordinator. He’s worked with Saleh before in Jacksonville.
- Elsewhere in New York, the Bills announced that they’ve added Mike Shula as a senior offensive assistant. The former college head coach and NFL offensive coordinator spent the past two seasons in Denver as the Broncos’ quarterbacks coach. They also announced the promotion of Eric Washington. The Bills’ defensive line coach of the past two seasons will have the title of senior defensive assistant added to his billing.
- The Steelers announced the hiring of their new assistant line coach earlier this month. Isaac Williams joins the NFL coaching ranks after years in college football. Williams has been the offensive line coach at North Carolina Central University (2021), Morgan State (2018-20), and Northern Colorado (2016-17).
- Las Vegas has hired former college coaching assistant Frederick Walker as a new offensive assistant assigned to work with quarterbacks, according to Myles Simmons of NBC Sports. Walker most recently worked as the quarterbacks coach for the UMass Minutemen. His time in the college ranks saw him working with Giants’ quarterback Daniel Jones at Duke University as well as Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott during his time at Mississippi State. He’ll work underneath new head coach Josh McDaniels and offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi to assist Derek Carr and company on their road back to consecutive playoff seasons.
- After being passed up by Matt Groh for the director of player personnel promotion, Eliot Wolf was announced as the Patriots’ new director of scouting on Friday, a promotion from his previous title of front office consultant. According to Wilson, the team also announced that Camren Williams would be named college scouting director.
OK, Here we go again with the job titles:
1). What are the duties of the situational football/game management coordinator?
Isn’t THAT the JOB of the HEAD COACH?
2). What are the duties of the senior offensive assistant?
3). What are the duties of the senior defensive assistant?
4). What are the duties of the offensive assistant assigned to work with quarterbacks as opposed to the assistant quarterbacks coach and why is there a need for so many quarterback oriented coaching positions when most teams only carry 3 quarterbacks anyway?
5). What are the duties of the front office consultant and how is that position situated in relation to other front office positions?
An understanding that I believe is missing here is that jobs in football still function very much like jobs in the regular world. Coaches and staff are going to seek opportunities for advancement and teams are going to want them to get them that without them leaving for another franchise. The easiest way to do that is to tack on additional titles or slightly alter the name of a position so they can call it a promotion and justify the raise. Most of the time it doesn’t really entail any additional responsibilities. That isn’t always true, though, as there are certainly many coaches in the NFL who, if they assign you the role of situational football/game management coordinator, they’ll expect you to come with statistics for strategy and keep them informed in-game so they have one less thing to worry about.
Senior offensive/defensive assistants would likely have the same role as regular offensive/defensive assistants with the “senior” being a nod to their experience (and potentially rank) and, again, likely a way to tack on a little more money. Offensive/defensive assistants usually are assigned to a specific position group and have a plethora of responsibilities ranging from film breakdown to meeting attendance to playbook printing and editing to just general errands. They’re usually crucial in practice for drills that require splitting up position groups or that require multiple coaches. While there are fewer players in the QB room, they often require a lot more homework. Other position groups have to really drill down and study only one, maybe two, of an opposing defenses position groups (secondary, linebackers, or defensive line). The QB has to study all three in great depth. That requires more film breakdown, more playbook study, etc. Not to mention the starting quarterback is not the only one being coached. The development of young QBs is crucial and somebody has to ensure that the scout team QB in practice knows what they’re doing and is emulating the opponent’s quarterback in a meaningful way. Having extra hands around to help make a QB’s off the field job a little easier is never considered a bad idea.
Front office consultant is, again, a way to pay someone good money. As mentioned in the article linked in the above bullet, many thought of Eliot Wolf as the eventual director of player personnel. So “front office consultant” is likely just a fancy way of saying “we want to give you this important job that is currently occupied, but we’re at the very least going to put you on payroll and keep you on our staff, please don’t go somewhere else.”
I imagine some of these answers are unsatisfactory, but coaches are people just like us. They desire advancement and recognition and nominal title changes are essentially the way to do that.