Rob Grosso

NFC North Coaching Updates: Lions, Packers, Vikings

March 29th, 2023 at 9:28pm CST by Ely Allen

The Lions announced earlier this month that they have finalized their coaching staff for the 2023 season. Much of the staff remains identical to last year’s coaches who helped the Lions to some surprising success. Many of the minor changes that did occur, such as promotions and the additions of assistants, have already been covered on this site. There were a couple that still need to be announced.

On the offensive side, the Lions hired Jim Hostler as a senior offensive assistant. Hostler has served in Washington for the last three years and has an extensive history as a position coach in the NFL for several franchises, including a stint as offensive coordinator for the 49ers back in 2007. Hostler’s most recent experience was assisting with wide receivers for the Commanders, but there didn’t appear to be a place for him on Eric Bieniemy‘s new staff in Washington.

On the defensive side of the ball, Detroit has hired John Scott Jr. to take over as defensive line coach. With Todd Wash departing to rejoin Frank Reich in Carolina, the Lions went to the college ranks for their next defensive line coach. Scott will return to the NFL for the first time since serving as the assistant defensive line coach for the Jets in 2016. Since then, Scott has coached the defensive lines at Arkansas, South Carolina, and Penn State, adding the title of run game coordinator for the Nittany Lions in 2022.

Here are a few more coaching updates from around the NFC North:

The Packers made a couple additions to their coaching staff near the start of the month. Similar to Detroit, Green Bay also pulled from the college ranks, hiring recently dismissed Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester to a senior analyst position, according to Matthew Ehler of MLive.com. Lester has worked plenty with college quarterbacks but will be making his NFL debut in 2023. The team also hired two new quality control coaches, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. Rob Grosso joins as offensive quality control and Kyle Wilber will be special teams quality control. Grosso, a former defensive assistant who followed Vance Joseph from Denver to Arizona, was expected to once again follow Joesph back to Denver but will part ways with Joseph while switching from defense to offense. Wilber, a former NFL linebacker, recently finished a 10-year career in which he played for Packers assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia at both Dallas and Las Vegas.
The Vikings joined the Lions and Packers in dipping into the college ranks of coaching, hiring Michael Hutchings as assistant linebackers coach, according to Matt Zenitz of On3 Sports. Hutchings most recently served as outside linebackers coach at Western Kentucky and previously worked at USC and Oregon.

NFC Coaching Updates: Wilson, Seahawks, Cardinals

March 5th, 2023 at 5:15pm CST by Ely Allen

When Jonathan Gannon departed to become the new head coach in Arizona, the Eagles had several options to fill the newly vacant defensive coordinator position. In the end, Philadelphia decided to hire externally, bringing in Seahawks assistant head coach and defensive assistant Sean Desai. According to Ian Rapoport, one in-house assistant coach has decided to part ways with the franchise after being passed over for the promotion, a situation not uncommon with coordinator jobs.

Former Eagles passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson was mentioned early as a top candidate to replace his former boss. Wilson certainly deserved mention. With the title of passing game coordinator, Wilson coached a group that allowed the few passing yards in the league this season. This feat is made all the more impressive by the fact that opposing offenses were doing whatever they could to keep up with the league’s No. 2 scoring offense.

Had Wilson not been a favorite for the promotion in Philadelphia, he likely would’ve been a hot commodity around the league. He’s held back only by a lack of experience, perhaps why Desai, a former defensive coordinator, was granted with the coordinator position over him. It’s a bit late for Wilson to be hitting the open market as many jobs have been filled. As far as I can tell, the Bills are the only team with a vacant defensive coordinator position. Wilson shouldn’t have any issues finding a job, though, after his success in Philadelphia.

Here are a few other coaching updates from around the NFC:

The Seahawks have added a pass rush specialist coach to their staff, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2, hiring Brandon Jordan to the position. Jordan is widely regarded as a top pass rush coach in the game, long providing private training sessions with NFL pass rushers such as Jadeveon Clowney, Cameron Heyward, Chandler Jones, Von Miller, and T.J. Watt. He most recently held the same position at Michigan State, helping them go from 97th in the country with 12.0 sacks in 2020 to 6th in the nation with 43.0 sacks in 2021. This will be his first NFL opportunity.
With defensive coordinator Vance Joseph heading from Arizona to Denver, a defensive assistant is expected to follow Joseph from the Cardinals, according to Troy Renck of Insider Denver7. Renck reportedly fully expects Cardinals defensive quality control coach Rob Grosso to follow Joseph to Denver. Grosso had followed Joseph to Arizona after he was fired from his head coaching position in 2019. Grosso had served as assistant to the head coach in Denver working with outside linebackers and special teams. The Joseph disciple is expected to find his way back to Denver with his boss.

Staff Notes: Rams, Cards, Bengals, Pats

February 11th, 2019 at 7:48pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Rams will bring in Wade Phillips‘ son to be part of their offensive staff. Wes Phillips will move from the nation’s capital to Los Angeles, with Alex Marvez of Sirius XM Radio reporting (on Twitter) the former Redskins tight ends coach will take over that position with the Rams. This move was rumored prior to Super Bowl LIII, and it will come to fruition. The father-son tandem has not been on the same staff since Wade’s days as Cowboys head coach. Wes Phillips’ move west will likely coincide with Rams tight ends coach Shane Waldron focusing on his duties as passing game coordinator and Jedd Fisch shifting to quarterbacks coach.

Here is the latest from the coaching carousel:

Elsewhere in the NFC West, the Cardinals continued to add new assistants. Kliff Kingsbury‘s staff will include Charlie Bullen as assistant linebackers coach and Peter Badovinac, Bob McManamon of the Arizona Republic notes. Bullen spent the past seven seasons with the Dolphins, serving as a defensive assistant throughout the Joe Philbin and Adam Gase tenures. Bullen and new Cardinals DC Vance Joseph worked together in 2016. Badnovinac will follow Kingsbury from the college ranks, moving to Arizona after stays at Missouri State and Ohio State. Badnovinac accepted a graduate assistant position at Oklahoma recently but will begin his first NFL job instead. The Cardinals also hired Spencer Whipple and Rob Grosso as quality control coaches.
While the Rams are hiring their defensive coordinator’s son, the Patriots are expected to add the son of former executive Mike Lombardi. Mick Lombardi is expected to be one of Bill Belichick‘s new hires, according to ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss (on Twitter). The Patriots employed the younger Lombardi from 2011-12; he served as the Jets’ assistant quarterbacks coach the past two seasons. New England just lost assistant QBs coach Jerry Schuplinski to Miami.
Steve Wilks received interest from teams aside from the Browns but scheduled the Cleveland summit first because that was his top choice, according to McManaman. The one-and-done Cardinals coach is now the Browns‘ DC, coming to Cleveland after receiving a substantial buyout from his four-year Cards contract.
The Bengals looked to the local high school ranks for a staffer, hiring Cincinnati Moeller head coach Doug Rosfield to become the assistant to Zac Taylor, per Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Rosfield spent 11 total seasons at Moeller. In between those stays, he worked as the University of Cincinnati’s director of player development for three years.