How the Commanders Found Their New Head Coach in Dan Quinn
We’re on our way to Las Vegas, and The MMQB Lead will give you what you need to know for the week ahead. As for everything else going on in the NFL? That’s what the Super Bowl bye week takeaways are for …
Dan Quinn won the job in Washington. Now that he is officially the Commanders head coach, that may seem like an unnecessary thing to write. But after the week the organization had, it’s worth saying—because the team’s search was done with open minds and clean intentions. Once the Commanders got Quinn on the phone to offer him the job, it didn’t take long for the coach to bolster their feelings on the match.
“I’m so f---ing pumped,” he told them. “I wanted to do this so bad.”
Quinn has decades of coaching experience.
Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports
And so three years after the Atlanta Falcons fired Quinn, and following consecutive offseasons where he pulled his own name from coaching searches to return to Dallas, the Commanders’ thorough, winding process is complete, four weeks after it started.
Things have changed since Josh Harris took over last summer in place of disgraced ex-owner Dan Snyder. But one thing that stayed the same: There always seems to be a lot of intrigue with this particular franchise. The team’s latest coaching search, which followed an expedited search for a new head of football ops (landing on new GM Adam Peters) was certainly interesting. Here are the details …
• Peters was hired Jan. 12, when Washington was just getting its coaching search off the ground. But because of the rules governing the two bye teams, the Commanders had to get moving on Baltimore Ravens assistants Mike Macdonald and Anthony Weaver, so Peters missed their first cracks at the job—those interviews were on Jan. 11.
• That left Quinn, Detroit Lions coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, Houston Texans OC Bobby Slowik, Los Angeles Rams DC Raheem Morris, and internal candidate Eric Bieniemy for the first round of interviews. Those were done over Zoom into the weekend of the division playoffs. Harris, Peters, Martin Mayhew, and consultants Bob Myers and Rick Spielman were part of those (with Myers and Harris in for the first hour of them, and the other three there throughout).
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• While those interviews were going on, the five graded each of the candidates in a number of categories: leadership, intelligence, communication, ability to build a staff, honesty and integrity, and consistency of personality.
• Quinn, it seemed, scored highly in every category and was different in that he’d been a head coach before. (Morris was the only other candidate who could say that.) In the first interview, Quinn took the group through the 360-degree review he did of his time as Falcons head coach; he told Washington he’d even hired people to do a deep dive into what he’d done right and wrong. Quinn explained how he’d taken the information he got back to heart and worked on it, showing real self-awareness and humility.
• After the group compared notes, and without a set number of people they planned to invite back as finalists, the five decided they liked all seven external candidates enough to invite them back for second interviews. After some schedule shifting and moving, the team met with Morris and Slowik in Miami before the conference title games and, eventually, had Weaver and Macdonald set for Monday in Baltimore. Quinn was set for Tuesday morning in D.C., while Glenn and the group were set to fly to Detroit to interview Glenn and Johnson that afternoon, to best accommodate the coaches who were working the conference title games.
• The format for the second interviews was also a little different. They’d start with Peters, Spielman and Mayhew, then hit a break, then go two hours with Myers and Harris joining in, before finishing up with Peters getting one-on-one time with the candidate.
• Morris arrived in Florida for his second interview with the Commanders on Jan. 23—knocking that one out of the park—then flew to Atlanta and Carolina for second interviews with the Falcons and Panthers. Just as he got home to Los Angeles, the Falcons offered him their job. Morris’s camp relayed that to Peters, who wound up telling them that, at that point, he wanted to stay true to the process, with five interviews left. Morris took the Atlanta job.
• Over the weekend, Peters went back through his background work. His former Niners colleagues Kyle Shanahan, John Lynch, Paraag Marathe and Jed York had been generous with their time in vetting candidates, and Shanahan and York had seen Quinn up close at opposite ends of the spectrum: York watched Quinn in his first NFL job, as the San Francisco 49ers’ DL coach from 2001–04, and Shanahan worked for him when Quinn was head coach in Atlanta. What struck Peters was the consistency in what everyone said.
• And the polling that Peters, Spielman, and Mayhew did canvassing NFL contacts, from Dallas and Atlanta, and all those people in San Francisco who’d worked for Quinn with the Falcons, was just as consistent. But he wasn’t the only candidate who’d hit for that sort of average, which is why the group went into last week with an open mind—and a still wide-open search. As such, perception that Johnson was the heavy favorite rankled them, especially when it made some candidates leery about staying in the race.
• Quinn’s interview at the Four Seasons in Georgetown kicked off at 7:30 a.m., and Peters, Spielman and Mayhew saw a coach shot of a cannon—feeling Quinn’s passion for his work, his excitement about the Commanders job in particular, and how the mutual connections between the football folks in the room created a natural chemistry. When Peters and Quinn went one-on-one, the GM marked down that this was someone he’d want to work with.
• Washington’s party of five then boarded for Detroit, and found out over the in-flight WiFi on X (formerly known as Twitter) that Johnson had pulled out of their search. Minutes later, a text that the Lions OC sent at 12:45 p.m. to inform the team of his decision came through. So after landing in Michigan, the group had one interview to do at a Detroit-area hotel rather than two. Glenn acquitted himself nicely, and Washington once again had more to think about.
• Spielman, Mayhew and Peters flew from Detroit to Mobile, Ala., for Senior Bowl practices with two candidates in mind: Macdonald and Quinn. They debriefed and resolved to sleep on it. On Wednesday, Macdonald arrived in Seattle for a second interview (that turned out to be more of a coronation) and simplified things for the Commanders.
• On Wednesday night, Peters, who got his start in New England, called former Patriots coach Bill Belichick to touch base. After that call, he reached out to Quinn to offer him the job.
And so now Washington moves forward with Quinn and Peters, new ownership, a new structure, the second pick in the 2024 draft and a lot of work to do.
The Los Angeles Chargers got their man. And really, after digging around their pursuit for Jim Harbaugh, it’s pretty impressive that they were able to run a real search, and get all the benefits of the search, while still winding up with the guy that made most sense from the minute they pulled the plug on Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco on Dec. 15.
Indeed, Harbaugh was introduced, and ushered back into the power blues, Thursday.
By now, of course, you know how this story started (with an embarrassing Thursday night loss in Las Vegas) and how it ended (with Shawshank references and plans for a team RV at a coach’s news conference). But a lot went into how the Chargers landed the quarterback who played two seasons and started 17 games for them back at the turn of the century. So here, as we could best ascertain it, is how all that went down.
• It’d been 11 years since the Chargers went through this level of change. They last fired a coach in-season in 1998, a year before Harbaugh arrived as a player. Los Angeles wanted to take advantage of the extra time, and it first allowed the team to assemble a diverse eight-person search committee (with Dean, A.G. and John Spanos, and long-time lead negotiator Ed McGuire leading it) and strategize. They then decided to take a different approach than they had in the past: Instead of hiring a GM first and having that GM help find a coach, the Chargers would leave that part open-ended, with the condition that coach and GM were linked.
• From there, the group went through the NFL’s DEI training and dove into research on candidates. Harbaugh’s name came up—and it was obvious to everyone that if he were willing to leave Michigan, he was worth pursuing. The group also went through what questions they’d ask, who would ask them, as well as who’d be on the list. It was there that the committee also decided, given the new league rules, to do shorter interviews in the first round over Zoom, so they could go through a longer list of candidates.
• While Harbaugh was high on the list, the Chargers tried to prepare for everything, even the potential that someone like Mike Tomlin could come available (given some of the noise that had been out there during the season).
• The Chargers landed on 15 names and interviewed all of them, with the new rules allowing for four of them to come in and meet with the team in-person (Harbaugh, Mike Vrabel, David Shaw and Leslie Frazier). With that group, there were three categories they’d be assessed on—the result of reference calls, body of work and the interview. Nine GM candidates went through the same process (those, by rule, could happen in-person).
• The first round of interviews ran through the first two weeks of the playoffs, with the Zooms going for about two hours apiece. Once Michigan won the national title, the Chargers, knowing Harbaugh hired NFL agent Don Yee to explore a return to the pros, quickly mobilized. The sides agreed to meet at a hotel convenient for Harbaugh in Los Angeles, nearly an hour’s drive from team headquarters in Orange County.
• Harbaugh’s first interview was Jan. 15, smack in the middle of the team’s run of 15. The team came in armed with all that reference work, with two themes coming from that. First, it was that Harbaugh really lived The Team, The Team, The Team credo he’d borrowed from his old coach Bo Schembechler, with his drive to win so palpable that it’d raise everyone’s level and rub off on an entire organization. Second, there was the loyalty so many of the players the Chargers talked to had for Harbaugh. (“We knew he had our back” was a common refrain.)
• In the interview, the Spanoses, McGuire and Harbaugh were reminiscing, and Harbaugh recalled the story of coaching in the Las Vegas All-American Classic, while he was at the University of San Diego. John Spanos was there as a young scout and was wowed by how well-run Harbaugh’s practice was. “Coach, that was awesome,” Spanos told Harbaugh at the time. “We got a lot out of this.” He said it was only the second time that a coach, a GM or owner had come up to him and said something like that. The first was Raiders icon Al Davis. Harbaugh told Spanos he reminded him of a young Al Davis. “That meant so much to me,” Harbaugh told the committee, wowed by his recall of the moment.
• That moment also reflected the easy connection that everyone was making with a coach who so many others found quirky or different. The rapport everyone had was enough to make both sides wanting more, even as Harbaugh went off to meet with the Falcons.
Harbaugh brings a new relevance to the Chargers.
Kirby Lee/USA Today network
• The first round of interviews wrapped up Jan. 20, and the committee then reconvened to reset. But by that point, it wasn’t hard to tell where things were going next: Harbaugh was who Los Angeles wanted, and Harbaugh felt the fit too with a family-run organization with which he shared a natural connection. “If we can get this done,” said one committee member at the time, “let’s get this done.”
• The Chargers invited Harbaugh and his wife Sarah back to Los Angeles for the second interview. Sarah was a late scratch, having to stay back home in Ann Arbor, and after some flight delays, the Michigan coach arrived in Southern California late on the night of Jan. 22. The next day, Harbaugh and the committee met at the team’s temporary facility in Costa Mesa, which would give the coach the chance to check out where he’d spend the next few months before a new, state-of-the-art headquarters opens in El Segundo.
• During the second interview, they went through, in finer detail, staffing, how they’d set up the program, and what Harbaugh would need in facilities and resources. After they finished up, the group went out to dinner at A Crystal Cove, a steakhouse in Newport Beach, near the team’s soon-to-be-closed temporary facility. There, the connections made deepened—with Harbaugh and VP of cultural programs and development James Collins swapping stories from Harbaugh’s time as a player, when Collins was a Chargers trainer.
• On the morning of Jan. 24, everyone knew what time it was. There was no This is it moment. Instead, negotiations between Harbaugh, Yee, and the team picked up. The Spanoses, as they had all along, updated Justin Herbert that it looked like he had himself a new coach. And soon enough, assumptions made by outsiders for a month became reality.
At the news conference a week later, Harbaugh detailed how his life priorities (faith, family, football) aligned so easily with the Spanoses, even nearly a quarter-century after he played for them. Harbaugh explained how he planned to bring his trademark smashmouth style to Los Angeles: “Don’t let the powder blues fool you.” He raised Shawshank and the RV. But the best moment for the coach was when he said how hungry he was for a Lombardi Trophy, and Dean Spanos responded, “I’m starving.”
Liam Coen’s return to Tampa Bay is a good tell on how hard the Buccaneers plan to swing to keep Baker Mayfield in Florida. A big part of Coen’s place in the search for Dave Canales’s replacement came on the recommendation of Mayfield.
The two, of course, were only together for five games. But in those five games with the Rams in 2022, Coen and Mayfield had to navigate a fire drill situation together. Mayfield, you’ll remember, was claimed by the Rams (who’d lost Matthew Stafford for the season and had backup John Wolford banged up) on Tuesday, Dec. 6. Two days later, the Rams started Wolford but turned to Mayfield after the game’s opening drive. He led a furious comeback win.
Mayfield became the Rams’ starter for the last month of the season, playing well enough to earn a shot to be a full-time starter in the league again, obviously, with Tampa Bay—then ran with that shot to the point where, after throwing 4,000 yards and making the playoffs, the Bucs may need to give him the franchise tag, which projects to around $35 million, to make sure they’ll keep him.
Mayfield proved the Bucs could win after emerging from Tom Brady’s shadow.
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
That the Buccaneers listened to what Mayfield told them on Coen (he said that the Kentucky offensive coordinator was a great dude, his offensive terminology was really close and his schematics were very adaptable to Canales) is a pretty good sign that Tampa plans to go the distance to get Mayfield done.
There was also a nice story from the interview process that helped Coen nail down the job.
Scouting assistant Emmett Clifford had mentioned to the higher-ups that he actually (very) briefly played for Coen. In 2018, Coen left his job as Maine’s OC to become Holy Cross’s OC. Four weeks later, his first NFL opportunity came along, and Coen had to jump at it, leaving for the Rams. At the time, Clifford was a Holy Cross quarterback.
So after Coen arrived in Tampa Bay, the prospective OC was with assistant GM Mike Greenberg and director of player personnel Mike Biehl outside of GM Jason Licht’s office, waiting for the interview to start. Assistant GM John Spytek saw Coen, went back to grab Clifford and walked him down. Coen smiled when he saw Clifford, immediately recognizing him and giving him a hug—vividly remembering someone he’d barely coached.
To the Bucs, it was a good sign that Coen really was, as a coach, all about his players. And, again, that he’s now in Tampa seems to be a pretty good indicator one of those players next season will indeed be Mayfield.
The Raiders’ coordinator situation was interesting. As of Friday, first-year coach Antonio Pierce had an offensive coordinator. On Saturday morning, he didn’t. It was perhaps because of the rubble of the last three years in Las Vegas—with the team paying out contracts for Josh McDaniels, Jon Gruden and fired front-office folks, and perhaps feeling a little leery about doing deals for assistants that could only add to the debt.
In simple terms, Las Vegas’s unwillingness to go to a third year on Kliff Kingsbury’s contract opened the door for other teams to swoop in—which the Commanders did right away, agreeing to terms with the former Cardinals and Texas Tech head coach Sunday.
As we detailed in Friday’s tip sheet, Kingsbury made all the sense in the world for Pierce’s first staff in Vegas because of the problems his schematics create for defenses, the accessibility the offense creates for kids coming out of college, and the experience the 44-year-old brings to the table. All of which is why I won’t be the guy to tell people that this is some sort of twisted win for the Raiders.
But I do think Luke Getsy is a very solid hire. In his two years calling the Bears offense, he retrofitted what he did to bring Justin Fields in, weathered injuries to Fields (one that forced undrafted free-agent Tyson Bagent onto the field), helped to fix the offensive line and got plenty out of players like DJ Moore and Cole Kmet. Getsy’s respected by his peers, and his experience working with quarterbacks at opposite ends of their careers (Fields and Aaron Rodgers) should serve him well in helping the Raiders address the position in 2024.
So no, this wasn’t ideal. But the end result isn’t bad.
While there, the exodus from college football that’s going down is very real. That Kingsbury is bolting from USC for the Commanders is, well, pretty logical. Career-wise, it’s a clear step up. But there are others that are funkier. Boston College’s Jeff Hafley left a Power 5 head coaching job to be the Packers defensive coordinator. UCLA’s Chip Kelly was sniffing around offensive coordinator jobs.
Those three, for sure, weren’t the only ones considering lateral moves, or even steps back, to get into the NFL. And all such efforts seem to come with the same implicit message from coaches to the powers-that-be in college football: You’ve screwed this up beyond belief.
In simple terms, the NCAA had a couple decades to get this right. I was a college senior when Maurice Clarett arrived at Ohio State as an early enrollee from the Buckeyes’ 2002 recruiting class. A year later, after winning a national title, he was shot for the cover of ESPN The Magazine with the headline “One and Done?” The cover fronted a story explaining how Clarett was frustrated with his inability to cash in on his historic freshman season.
He was buddies with then high-school senior LeBron James, who was declared ineligible that year for accepting $845 worth of jerseys (he was later reinstated). Clarett voiced his confusion over why James could just go pro whenever he wanted and football players had to wait for three years after graduating high school. Clarett and USC’s Mike Williams wound up challenging the three-year rule in court and losing.
That was over 20 years ago.
Anyone with a simple ability to reason knew then a day would come when college football players would be paid for fueling the massive revenue in their sport. The NCAA could’ve done something about it. But instead it sat on its hands, collected checks, did nothing to create a win/win system and, then, when the courts got involved, the organization’s president, Mark Emmert, conveniently retired, leaving everyone else holding the bag.
So don’t blame Kingsbury or Hafley or Kelly. The NCAA’s inaction has more or less created a Wild West scenario where a college coach’s job has become more about chasing recruits, poaching other team’s players, convincing your own players not to leave, and managing the whims of the big-money boosters who’ve come to wield enormous power in this untamed landscape than it is about coaching. Juxtapose that with coaching in the NFL, where the hours are long but defined, and your time is spent on football and …
Well, this all should make a ton of sense.
Good luck, Charlie Baker.
Macdonald’s a really good hire for the Seahawks. This really goes back to what Seattle was looking for after it moved on from Pete Carroll four weeks ago—someone who would bring fresh ideas to a proud organization, but also build, rather than deconstruct, the unique culture and atmosphere that the Seahawks have thrived in over the last 14 years.
In diving into that, we can get the obvious out of the way first. Seattle did indeed just go from having the oldest coach in the NFL to having the youngest. Macdonald, 36, is legitimately half the age of Carroll, 72. In fact, when Macdonald was born in the summer of 1987, Carroll was headed into his 15th season coaching (and his third as the Vikings defensive backs coach).
So it might sound weird that a millennial would be the natural successor to a coach who graduated college during the Vietnam War, but that really is what Macdonald is.
That starts with Carroll being young at heart, and with how Carroll could, almost without exception, connect with and get the most out of players. He had a clear vision for everyone that came into that place—from Richard Sherman to Earl Thomas to Kam Chancellor to Marshawn Lynch—and it showed in the way all those pieces fit together. Macdonald, similarly, engenders loyalty and gets the most of his players.
Like Carroll, Macdonald also has a well-defined system, and he was able to hone his approach both in the NFL and major college football. He’s probably a little more cerebral in how he applies all of that (he’s been known by staff mates for playing the percentages a lot), and a little less energetic (which, again, is pretty funny considering the age gap). But overall, there’s enough carryover here where the Seahawks won’t be reinventing the wheel.
Which, given all their success under Carroll, they shouldn’t be.
The new Panthers’ structure is a pretty good indicator on where football is headed. We’ve detailed this out a couple times over the last couple weeks. What Carolina is doing in setting their football operation up the way they have is the team more or less saying that the traditional role of general manager isn’t the all-encompassing one it used to be.
San Francisco set up its shop that way, as Marathe is paired with Lynch. Ditto for the Lions (Mike Disner-Brad Holmes) and the Rams (Tony Pastoors-Les Snead). And all three have had great success. The Titans did something similar in evolving through 2023 and coming to the decision that both GM Ran Carthon and newly promoted president of football ops Chad Brinker will report to the owner.
So Brandt Tilis comes over from the Kansas City Chiefs with just a slight bump in title—from VP of football ops to EVP of football ops—but a significant change in role. He’ll partner with GM Dan Morgan rather than work for him.
In the end, the idea here is for these teams to be able to cover the full gamut of what goes into building a winning program. It’s also a nod to the growing importance of analytics and cap management and sports science, with the empowerment of people from that side of the football operation.
I also think, somewhere in there, it’s why guys like Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel (who would have probably gotten the Charger job if Harbaugh hadn’t taken it) weren’t as attractive to certain teams through this cycle. Some owners are, well, obsessed with setting a certain structure, and that goes ahead of picking people. And the idea of a powerful head coach coming in could, in theory, upset those plans.
I have my issues with that part of it, for sure. But I wouldn’t argue on this being where things with a lot of teams are going.
I still think it’s hilarious reading some of the things Roger Goodell and others in football said 10 years ago about gambling—especially right now, when I’m wheels up to Las Vegas for a Super Bowl. And just for fun, we’ve got some history for you here, in what’s been said over the years by the suits on Park Ave.
• In 2012, the NFL vehemently opposed the legalization of sports gambling in New Jersey. In a deposition linked to the case, Goodell was asked what threats exist to the integrity of pro football in America. His answer: “Gambling would be No. 1 on my list.”
• In January 2014, at the Super Bowl, Goodell affirmed that position, saying, “As you know, we fought legalized gambling, sports gambling, for a long time, most recently here in New Jersey, and I would see our position in the same vein going forward.” When pressed on why the league was fine, then, running its own fantasy operation, he said, “We don’t put fantasy football in that category at all.”
• In 2017, after the Raiders announced their intention to move to Las Vegas, Goodell said, “We are not changing our position as it relates to legalized sports gambling. We still don’t think it is a positive thing. We want to make sure that the integrity of our game is the primary concern and we do everything possible to protect that.”
So what changed? One of the 32 teams got nearly $1 billion in public funding, and the dam broke on sports gambling, with state after state legalizing. That, in turn, opened the revenue-generated spigot to the point where one billionaire, David Tepper, timed his purchase of a team (correctly) to get ahead of what he believed would happen to team valuations once the gaming money started coming in. And now? Now, we have sports books in stadiums and a stadium with the name of a casino on it.
Viva Las Vegas.
Senior Bowl is complete, and we can start with the fact that the top quarterbacks in Mobile failed to make a move. My early calls on the class have revealed a couple tiers. The consensus top tier coming out of season, I’d say, was comprised of USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and LSU’s Jayden Daniels. The next tier, again, at this early juncture, seems to have Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Oregon’s Bo Nix in its ranks.
As usual, the very best in the class sat out the all-star circuit. McCarthy, who came out of the season a bit nicked up, took the advice that he should get heathy, ready and rested for the climb, leaving just Penix and Nix to compete. The result? Penix was OK, Nix wasn’t as good, and the gap between the first and second tiers in the 2024 class may have widened a bit. That, of course, increases the shot that Williams, Maye and Daniels go 1-2-3, and also juices the value of the picks the Bears, Commanders and Patriots hold.
So there are two players that didn’t help themselves much in Mobile. Here are a few guys who did:
Toledo CB Quinyon Mitchell: It’d be hard to find many who’d disagree with the fact that the two-time first-team All-MAC corner was the week’s biggest winner. He flashed his quickness and speed in battling Michigan’s Roman Wilson, among others, in drills, showing he could hold his own against big-school talent. And at this point, you may be looking at a mid-first-round pick.
Missouri DL Darius Robinson: Probably a fringe first-rounder, Robinson’s a big, powerful inside/outside player who showed what he did on tape—that he can consistently win at the point of attack. He projects to be a base end who kicks down to defensive tackle on passing downs, which gives him a lot of value in certain schemes.
Michigan WR Roman Wilson: I happened to be on the scene (and I mean really on the scene) for maybe his best moment—a falling away catch on Mitchell near the sideline in one-on-ones. Those two had their battles, and Wilson solidified his standing as a Day 2 pick.
Oregon State OT Taliese Fuaga: The Beavers’ right tackle showed up to try to gain ground on Notre Dame’s Joe Alt and Penn State’s Olu Fashanu, and it sure seemed like he did just that. While there are questions of whether or not he can play on the left side in the pros (he didn’t in college), Fuaga might be working his way into the top 10.
Oregon C Jackson Powers-Johnson: He fought through a hamstring injury, and looked overpowering at times. His flexibility to play guard doesn’t hurt, either.
Florida State DT Braden Fiske: His quick first step and explosiveness impressed during the week, and then he showed selflessness in doing something no one has in the history of the game—switching teams to help alleviate a numbers problem.
Utah S Cole Bishop: A tall, long safety, Bishop showed his ability to cover tight ends in Mobile, which is an important piece of the equation in today’s game at that position. And NFL folks already know how heady and physical he is.
UConn G Christian Haynes: The fast-rising prospect had a viral moment when he got the best of LSU’s Jordan Jefferson, to the point where Jefferson pulled Haynes’ helmet off and threw it to the ground. Hayne is another prospect that showed position flexibility, playing some center too, and showing he’s the sort of athlete that can take a step up in level of competition.
And then, just to wrap up where we started, if there was one quarterback who helped himself, it was probably South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler.
Next up for all these kids is the combine in three (!!!) weeks.
Since this is a supersized version of the takeaways, we’ll try to fire through the quick-hitters as fast as we can. Let’s go …
• Anthony Weaver’s hire in Miami is another example that everyone wants the Ravens defensive scheme. At least four teams—Seattle (Macdonald), Baltimore (Zach Orr), Miami and the Chargers (Jesse Minter)—will run it in 2024.
• Somehow, though, the guy who taught it to Macdonald, Orr, Minter and Weaver hasn’t found work as a coordinator yet. Yup, Wink Martindate’s still out there.
• Klint Kubiak’s reset and rise, back to where he’s lined up to be Dennis Allen’s new OC in New Orleans, has been interesting. He was the Vikings OC during Mike Zimmer’s last year in 2021. He was the Broncos pass-game coordinator under Nathaniel Hackett in ’22. And this season, he served as Shanahan’s pass-game coordinator with the Niners. Kubiak’s always been well thought of. But also … everyone’s looking for the Shanahan fairy dust.
• I don’t think Getsy’s hire in Las Vegas does much to move the needle on Justin Fields’s potential trade market.
• Along those lines, get ready for Caleb Williams Fever in the District of Columbia. He’s from there (and went to Gonzaga College High in Washington, D.C.), the Commanders just hired one of the coaches he was closest to at USC, and the team holds the second pick … just one spot away from where they need to go to get him.
• The Jaguars asking FanDuel for $20 million back that one of their employees stole, then spent on the site is objectively hilarious.
• One piece of fallout from the Johnson situation: the Lions may lose his heir apparent as a result. Their pass-game coordinator, Tanner Engstrand, is up for the OC job in Seattle, after interviewing for coordinator jobs in Tampa Bay and New England, too. Had Johnson left, the Lions presumably would’ve kept him simply by promoting him.
• Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb’s candidacy for that job is interesting too. NFL teams have had their eyes on Grubb, who arrived in Tuscaloosa a couple weeks ago with Kalen DeBoer. Nick Saban tried to hire him last year, and my guess is this is just the start when it comes to pro football interest in Grubb.
• What the Patriots are doing with their offensive staff isn’t going to get anyone overly excited. But I do think it’s pretty logical. Bringing someone (Alex Van Pelt) who can be a unifying force aboard as play-caller after the year they just had is smart. Back-stopping him with Ben McAdoo, who’ll be another resource for first-year coach Jerod Mayo, makes sense, too. And chances are, Mayo won’t have to replace either of those coaches after a single season.
• And to finish up, good on Belichick for taking out the full-page ad in Sunday’s Boston Globe. ICYMI, here it is—and here’s to hoping we haven’t seen the last of Belichick on an NFL sideline.
