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Andrew Carter

NFC West Coaching Updates: Rams, Kubiak, Cardinals

March 26th, 2023 at 8:25pm CST by Ely Allen

The Rams announced that they’ve finalized their coaching staff for the 2023 season earlier this month, according to Rams staff writer Stu Jackson. We covered a number of the changes from 2022 already, but below are the ones we have yet to cover.

With the departure of Thomas Brown, who will be calling plays for the Panthers in 2023, head coach Sean McVay had an opening for a new assistant head coach. We heard last month that the team added Jimmy Lake to the staff, but we didn’t have details on his role. It turns out that he will be replacing Brown as the Rams assistant head coach.

On offense, the biggest change we have yet to cover is the addition of Ron Gould as the team’s new running backs coach. After allowing Ra’Shaad Samples to depart for a college position, the Rams went and poached Gould away from San Diego State a month after Gould was named the associate head coach and running backs coach for the Aztecs. He spent the last six years coaching running backs at Stanford. Additionally, two assistants received promotions this offseason. Jake Peetz, who was an offensive assistant last year has been given the new title of pass game specialist. Kenneth Black, last year’s coaching fellow in Los Angeles, will fill Peetz’s previous role of offensive assistant.

Los Angeles made two new additions to the defensive staff. They hired Joe Coniglio to coach outside linebackers in 2023. Coniglio played a similar role for Navy last season. The other addition is Andrew Carter, who will be the new assistant defensive line coach after the departure of Skyler Jones. Carter was a defensive quality control coach for the Broncos last year.

Additionally, the Rams’ defensive staff saw a rare swap occur. Chris Shula, who served last year as the team’s pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach, will spend 2023 as the inside linebackers coach/pass rush coordinator. Last year’s inside linebackers coach, Chris Beake, will now coach defensive backs.

Here are some other staff changes in the NFC West:

  • We heard last month that the 49ers added Klint Kubiak to their staff in an unnamed role. The team recently announced that Kubiak will serve as San Francisco’s offensive passing game specialist in 2023. The 49ers also announced the hires of Jacob Webster as defensive quality control coach and Max Molz as coaching operations assistant. Both are making their NFL-debuts with Webster coming from Wisconsin as a graduate assistant and Molz serving as the associate director of football operations at Missouri last year.
  • The Cardinals hired some personnel help for new general manager Monti Ossenfort earlier this week, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2. Arizona is bringing in Rob Kisiel to a pro personnel department executive position. Kisiel has been a pro scout for the Falcons for the last two seasons and previously served as director of pro personnel for the Texans.

AFC West Notes: Herock, Chiefs, Chargers

February 22nd, 2022 at 7:36pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Raiders are adding a familiar name to their front office. Shaun Herock is joining GM Dave Ziegler‘s staff as a personnel advisor, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). This will interestingly bring Herock back to the Raiders, an organization that has employed both he and his father (Ken Herock). This hire probably should not be too surprising, with Mark Davis calling Ken Herock the “ringleader” of the Raiders’ 2022 GM and HC searches (via The Athletic’s Vic Tafur; subscription required). Shaun finished the 2018 season as the Raiders’ interim GM, working atop Oakland’s front office after Reggie McKenzie‘s exit and before Mike Mayock‘s arrival. Herock worked with the Raiders from 2012-18 and spent the past two years as a Browns national scout. Prior to Herock’s Oakland years, he spent nearly two decades under Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson in Green Bay’s front office.

Here is the latest from the AFC West:

  • Josh McDaniels added another name to his staff as well. The Raiders are hiring Kennedy Polamalu as their running backs coach, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. Polamalu, 58, coached the Vikings’ running backs for the past five seasons. He also worked as the Browns and Jaguars’ running backs coach in the 2000s.
  • Donald D’Alesio will move from defensive assistant to safeties coach with the Chiefs, the team announced Tuesday. D’Alesio came to Kansas City in 2021 after a stint as Youngstown State’s defensive coordinator.
  • The Chargers are also dipping into the second-generation ranks. They hired Mike Hiestand as an offensive assistant. Mike is the son of former Bears offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, who took a job at Notre Dame this offseason. Mike Hiestand, 30, worked as an assistant in Denver for the past three seasons.
  • Nathaniel Hackett‘s first Broncos staff will include Andrew Carter as a defensive quality control coach. Carter spent the past two seasons as a Kansas graduate assistant and had agreed to become Tennessee-Martin’s defensive line coach this offseason. Carter, who also worked as a D-line coach at Hampton and Eastern Illinois, will instead head to Denver for his first NFL gig.