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Coaching Rumors: Judge, Lions, Fins, Eagles

February 9th, 2018 at 3:44pm CST by Sam Robinson

Other teams besides the Colts were interested in adding Patriots special teams coach Joe Judge, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com reports, but Judge and the Pats are finalizing a deal that will keep him in New England. The 36-year-old assistant will be the team’s special teams coordinator for a fourth season. The sides are ironing out minor details, but Reiss reports the deal to retain Judge is imminent, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reported earlier this week. Judge was a possible defection candidate if McDaniels had followed through on taking the Colts’ HC job.

Here’s the latest from the coaching circuit as we head into the offseason’s first official weekend.

Staying with special teams, the Lions are not going to overhaul their ST staff as they did their defensive coaching contingent. ST coordinator Joe Marciano and assistant ST coach Devin Fitzimmons will return next season, Alex Marvez of the Sporting News reports. An NFL special teams coach since 1986, Marciano has been with the Lions since 2015.
Detroit continued to configure its defensive staff on Thursday, hiring Bo Davis to instruct its defensive linemen, the team announced. Davis will join the Lions after spending most of the past two decades on Nick Saban‘s staffs at LSU, the Dolphins and Alabama. However, Davis’ Crimson Tide tenure — one that included coaching current Lions lineman A’Shawn Robinson, ended in 2016 when he resigned from Alabama due to NCAA violations. Davis, however, resurfaced at Texas-San Antonio last season and coached first-round defensive end hopeful Marcus Davenport.
The Eagles have lost their quarterbacks coach, but they are prepared to fill the void internally. Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer expects the team to move receivers coach Mike Groh to quarterbacks coach and assistant quarterbacks coach Press Taylor to WRs coach (Twitter link).
Former Dolphins safety Renaldo Hill will now work with the team as a coach, being hired as Miami’s assistant defensive backs coach. The team notes this is the 10th former Dolphins player to serve as a Fins coach. Hill, who played 10 NFL seasons and spent three seasons (2006-08) in Miami, has coached at Wyoming and the University of Pittsburgh since 2012. This will be his first NFL coaching gig.
Prior to hiring Tom Bradley to be their new defensive backs coach, the Steelers interviewed South Florida DBs coach Blue Adams, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets. Mike Tomlin coached Adams while he was an assistant at the University of Cincinnati.
Despite the Texans blocking the Broncos from interviewing Wes Welker, the Broncos will see their six-year strength and conditioning coach depart for Houston. Luke Richesson will become the Texans’ strength coach, 9News’ Mike Klis reports, with the team set to give him a bigger role than he had in Denver.

Zach Links contributed to this report.

Coaching Rumors: Joseph, Eagles, Colts

December 31st, 2017 at 11:25am CST by Rory Parks

This offseason’s coaching carousel is expected to be one of the more exciting ones in recent history given all of the jobs that will become available, though that excitement is not limited to the head coaching gigs. It’s been a busy morning already, but let’s take a look at a few more head coach and coordinator rumors:

Broncos head coach Vance Joseph is facing increasingly longer odds of being retained for a second season, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets.
Former Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak, who is currently serving as a senior personnel executive for the team, has interest in returning to the sidelines as an offensive coordinator. However, Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post reports that the Broncos are looking to keep Kubiak around and expand his role to include more front office responsibility and perhaps some coaching responsibilities as well.
The Eagles may lose their defensive coordinator this offseason, and ESPN’s Adam Caplan reports that Philadelphia could also lose several top position coaches (Twitter links). Caplan says Eagles QB coach John DeFilippo and WR coach Mike Groh could be targeted by other clubs, though Philadelphia could still block either man from accepting coordinator jobs elsewhere.
Colts GM Chris Ballard has strong ties to several members of the Chiefs‘ coaching staff — special teams coach Dave Toub and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy — and Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports that both men will get consideration for Indianapolis’ head coaching job. La Canfora points out, however, that Colts owner Jim Irsay may prefer to make a “splashier” hire if possible.
The Bengals have reached out to external candidates for their (expected) head coaching opening, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter). This will be an open search for Cincinnati, which generally prefers to promote from within.
Saints head coach Sean Payton said that Darryl Tapp, who played in the league for 11 years (including four games with the Bucs this season), is now serving as a coaching intern for New Orleans. It would appear, then, that Tapp’s playing days are over and he is shifting his sights to the next stage of his career.

Coaching Notes: Groh, Peete, Koetter

January 23rd, 2017 at 3:07pm CST by Rory Parks

Most of the league’s head coaching and coordinator vacancies have been filled, but teams are still making important coaching decisions. Let’s round up a few of the latest coaching-related notes:

The Eagles hired Mike Groh as their wide receivers coach, as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Caplan (via Twitter). Groh served as the Rams’ wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator in 2016, and he also worked as the Bears’ wide receivers coach from 2013-2015. Alshon Jeffery‘s best seasons came with Groh as his position coach, and in his one season with the Rams, Groh oversaw Kenny Britt‘s first 1,000-yard season (both Britt and Jeffery are eligible for unrestricted free agency this year, and Philadelphia needs wide receiver help in a big way). The 45-year-old Groh has an extensive college coaching resume, working as the quarterbacks coach for Louisville, the wide receivers coach for Alabama, and the wide receivers coach, quarterbacks coach, and offensive coordinator for Virginia.
Skip Peete will remain the Rams‘ running backs coach, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter). Peete was hired as the team’s running backs coach last year after serving in that same capacity for the Raiders, Cowboys, and Bears.
We heard on Friday that Jim Tomsula interviewed for the Saints‘ open defensive line coach job earlier this week, though ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets that Tomsula will interview with New Orleans during this week’s Senior Bowl. Whether it will simply be a second interview or whether the two sides have actually met at all at this point is unclear. Before his disastrous stint as the 49ers’ head coach, Tomsula was a successful D-line coach with the franchise from 2007-14.
Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter is likely to retain his offensive play-calling duties, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. Koetter said at his season-ending news conference that he was considering giving up his role as play-caller, but he appears to have thought better of it.

NFC Coaching Notes: McVay, Vikings, Eagles

January 16th, 2017 at 3:46pm CST by Sam Robinson

Sean McVay becoming the first 30-year-old ever hired to coach an NFL team will come with the expected responsibility of calling plays. The new Rams coach will take on that task presumably since he made himself an attractive candidate by doing so in Washington.

“There is not a chance I would let anyone call the plays, at least at first,” McVay told Peter King of TheMMQB.com. “It’s something I really want to do and feel comfortable doing.”

King described the Redskins’ setup as McVay calling the plays but Jay Gruden having final say over the game plan. In Los Angeles, McVay will take on both responsibilities for an offense coming off a season during which it averaged just 262.7 yards per game — more than 40 fewer than every other team. The McVay-led Washington attack finished third at 403.4 per game.

Here’s more from the NFC coaching circuit.

The Vikings hired UCLA offensive coordinator Kennedy Polamalu as their running backs coach, Alex Marvez of the Sporting News tweets. The 53-year-old uncle of Troy Polamalu, Kennedy served as OC for both USC and UCLA during this decade but previously worked as an NFL running backs instructor. He coached the Browns’ and Jaguars’ backs from 2004-09. Minnesota also interviewed running backs coaches Marcel Shipp and Skip Peete for this position, Adam Caplan of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). Caplan adds previous Vikings RBs coach Kevin Stefanski will likely transition to another coaching position with the team next season. A Vikings coach since 2006, Stefanski served as the team’s tight ends coach during the 2013 and ’14 seasons.
Former Rams wide receivers coach Mike Groh is expected to interview with the Eagles to coach their wideouts, Tim McManus of ESPN.com reports. The 45-year-old Groh also served as Los Angeles’ passing-game coordinator. The son of former Jets coach Al Groh, Mike Groh spent the previous three seasons instructing the Bears’ wide receivers.
Former 49ers special teams coach Derius Swinton is expected to log another interview this week, doing so with the Saints. After meeting with the Broncos, Swinton will likely meet with the Saints this week, Nick Underhill of The Advocate reports. Just 31, Swinton served as an assistant special teams coach for the Rams, Chiefs, Broncos and Bears from 2009-15 prior to taking over San Francisco’s specialty units.

NFC Coaching Notes: Panthers, Rams, Redskins, Lions

January 13th, 2017 at 12:43pm CST by Ben Levine

The Panthers have officially named Steve Wilks as their new defensive coordinator. Following the loss of former defensive coordinator Sean McDermott earlier this week, it was reported that the team was planning on promoting their assistant head coach/secondary coach to the open position. Wilks joined the Panthers organization in 2012.

The new defensive coordinator held a press conference earlier today, where he revealed that he’d be retaining his entire defensive coaching staff (via Joe Person of The Charlotte Observer on Twitter). The team still needs to hire a secondary coach following the promotion of Wilks.

Let’s take a look at some more coaching notes from the NFC…

The Rams are expected to keep special teams coach John Fassel, reports Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News (via Twitter). Fassel has been with the organization since 2012, and he served as the Rams’ interim head coach following the firing of Jeff Fisher.
The Redskins may have lost offensive coordinator Sean McVay, but they’re not planning on losing anyone else on their offensive staff. The Redskins are expected to retain all of their offensive assistant coaches, reports ESPN.com’s John Keim. Following the Rams‘ hiring of Wade Phillips as their defensive coordinator, there were rumors that tight ends coach Wes Phillips may leave to join McVay and his dad in Los Angeles. However, Keim notes that the Rams would have to request an interview with anyone on the Redskins coaching staff.
The decision to retain head coach Jim Caldwell was made before the Lions clinched a playoff berth, general manager Bob Quinn told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I really believe in his approach to managing the team, how he practices the team, how he maintains the health of the team,” Quinn said. “So, listen, winning nine games is good. It’s not good enough. But I felt really comfortable with the way things went this year. I’m looking forward to 2017 with Jim.”
The Eagles are interested in interviewing Rams passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach Mike Groh for their wide receivers coach vacancy, reports ESPN.com’s Adam Caplan (via Twitter). The former quarterback coached the Bears wideouts for three seasons before joining the Rams last year.

Rams To Retain Rob Boras As OC

January 25th, 2016 at 1:47pm CST by Luke Adams

JANUARY 25: The Rams have hired former Bears assistant Mike Groh as their wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator, according to Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Thomas notes that the addition means that Boras will return as the club’s offensive coordinator for 2016.

JANUARY 15: The Rams are expected to name Rob Boras their full-time offensive coordinator, though the move is not yet official, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. According to Rapoport, in addition to weighing their OC options, the Rams are interviewing potential passing-game coordinators.

Boras took over as the Rams’ interim offensive coordinator with about a month left in the season, when the team parted ways with Frank Cignetti. Boras received consideration for the job before Cingetti was promoted last winter, but ultimately lost the competition — however, he received a new assistant head coach title at the time, and was in charge of the running game in addition to coaching the team’s tight ends.

Although the Rams finished with the league’s worst offense in terms of yards per game (297.6), the club showed marginal improvement during the last four games of the year under Boras. Additionally, buoyed by standout rookie Todd Gurley, the team averaged 122.3 rushing yards per contest, which was good for seventh in the NFL. So there’s some hope that the club could increase its offensive production if it gets its quarterback position stabilized.

While Boras appears to be the frontrunner for the offensive coordinator job in Los Angeles, the Rams also sat down with Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo earlier this week. It’s not clear yet whether DeFilippo will remain in Cleveland or explore taking a position with the Rams or another club.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Coach Rumors: Ragone, Titans, Manusky, Giants

January 22nd, 2016 at 5:59pm CST by Sam Robinson

While the 49ers have been making the most news today in forming their new coaching staff under Chip Kelly, here is the latest from around the league, starting in Chicago.

The Bears hired former Texans quarterback and Titans quarterback coach Dave Ragone as their new quarterback coach, Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Bears wide receiver coach Mike Groh was also considered for the job, Rich Campbell of Chicago Tribune tweets. The 36-year-old Ragone worked with new Bears offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, Chicago’s previous QBs coach who was promoted last week, with the Titans. Ragone coached the Titans’ quarterbacks in 2013 and instructed their wideouts during the previous two seasons. He spent this past season as an offensive quality control coach in Washington. Prior to that, he began his coaching career guiding Josh McCown with the Hartford Colonels of the now-defunct United Football League.
Longtime offensive line coach Russ Grimm will head to Nashville to become the Titans‘ offensive line coach, Alex Marvez of Fox Sports tweets. Grimm hasn’t coached since 2012, which was his final year of a six-season stay with the Cardinals. The 56-year-old Grimm, a Hall of Fame Washington guard, began his coaching career as Washington’s tight ends coach in 1992, a year after retiring before beginning as the team’s line coach in 1997. Grimm crossed paths with Titans HC Mike Mularkey during his time in Pittsburgh (2001-06), where Mularkey served as the offensive coordinator from 2001-03.
New Browns DC Ray Horton planned to hire ex-Browns defensive lineman Nick Eason for his defensive staff, according to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reports (on Twitter), but the Titans promoting him from assistant defensive line coach to defensive line coach convinced him to stay in Tennessee.
The Giants hired former Eagles outside linebackers coach Bill McGovern to be their linebackers coach, Adam Caplan of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). McGovern spent 23 years coaching at various colleges in the northeast before teaching the outside backers with the Eagles under Kelly the past three seasons.
Washington hired another former player and longtime coach to preside over its outside linebackers, adding Greg Manusky to its staff, Andrew Walker reports on the team’s website. Manusky began his career in Washington, but only coached there in 2001. The 49-year-old former linebacker served as defensive coordinator for the Colts from 2012-15 before being fired earlier this month. He was previously the DC for the 49ers and Chargers for a combined five seasons.
Former Panthers and Bears safety Chris Harris will serve as the Chargers‘ assistant defensive backs coach, Darin Gantt of Pro Football Talk reports. Harris worked as a quality control coach with the Bears in 2013-14 and played for the Panthers toward the end of current Chargers HC Mike McCoy‘s lengthy stay in Charlotte. Harris replaces Greg Williams, whom the Colts recently hired as their DBs coach.

North Notes: Allen, Gordon, Bears, Packers

January 20th, 2016 at 1:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Asked today during a press conference if he has confidence that cornerback Cortez Allen can be an impact player going forward, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin admitted that he’s not convinced of that, per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). Since signing a four-year, $24.6MM extension about a year and a half ago, Allen has struggled significantly — he was benched in 2014 and missed nearly all of the 2015 season with a knee injury.

While it’s possible that Tomlin’s comment was a motivational tactic for Allen heading into 2016, it seems more likely that the club simply plans on moving on from the cornerback. Releasing him this winter would only save $1.7MM against the cap, but the club could increase those savings for 2016 to $4.4MM by designating Allen as a post-June 1 cut and pushing some of his dead money to 2017.

As we wait to see what the Steelers plan on doing with Allen, let’s check in on a few more items from out of the NFL’s North divisions….

Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon, who has filed for reinstatement from his year-long suspension, believes he has a “good chance” of having that application approved, says Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link). According to Cole, Gordon has been working out in California and keeping his distant from bad influences as he looks to return to the NFL for the 2016 season.
With Dowell Loggains ascending to the Bears‘ offensive coordinator job to replace Adam Gase, the club will need to name a new quarterbacks coach. According to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, wide receivers coach Mike Groh is an in-house candidate for that role. Biggs also identifies former Louisville quarterback Dave Ragone as a potential option for Loggains’ staff, though Ragone may still be under contract with Washington.
Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com has the details on which Packers players cashed in on per-game roster bonuses this season.
The Packers brought in wide receivers Kadron Boone and Jimmy Jean for workouts, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter).

North Notes: Packers, Allen, Bears, Teddy

January 30th, 2015 at 8:32pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Less than two weeks after a pair of special teams blunders contributed to the Packers’ NFC Championship Game loss, Green Bay has fired special teams coach Shawn Slocum, the team announced. Slocum, who’d been with the Packers since 2006, had led an ST unit that had been below-average in recent seasons, finishing 18th, 19th, and 22nd in Football Outsiders’ special teams DVOA in ’12, ’13, and ’14, respectively. As Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com notes, Slocum is just the second coordinator to be fired by head coach Mike McCarthy, the first being DC Bob Sanders, who was let go after the 2008 season.

Here’s more from the North divisions:

The Bears are likely to employ a 3-4 defense in 2015 under new coordinator Vic Fangio, and veteran defensive end (or linebacker, perhaps?) Jared Allen has a few concerns about the transition. “It’s not that I can’t do it,” Allen told Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune (link via Kevin Patra of NFL.com). “For me, it is a question of what kind of system are we going to run? How do I fit in the system? How do we achieve our goals? These things will play out.” Both his 2015 base salary and roster bonus (which total $12.5MM) are guaranteed, so Allen, who admits he’d rather play end in a 4-3 look, will be on Chicago’s roster.
Chicago’s coaching staff will see some continuity at the receiver position, as the Bears announced Mike Groh will remain in his role as WR coach. Groh, the son of longtime NFL/NCAA coach Al Groh, served under ex-head coach Marc Trestman from 2013-14, and helped Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery put together outstanding seasons.
The Vikings nabbed quarterback Teddy Bridgewater with the 32nd pick in last year’s draft, and according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the Lousiville product was reportedly happy he didn’t last elsewhere. A source tells Cabot that Bridgewater didn’t want to be selected by the QB-needy Browns because he knew that some in the Cleveland organization preferred Johnny Manziel. This jibes with what we’ve heard in the past, including reports that offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan left the Browns due to disputes over the selection of Manziel.