Rams Coaching Interviews:It's official, McVay hired

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I wouldn't be excited by any of the coaches on that list, but I'd be okay with all but Tom Cable. Cable currently oversees the third worst OL in the NFL (barely edged out by us and Minnesota). When he was head coach in Oakland, he punched one of his assistants in the face. And Hue Jackson was the reason for that team's success imo.

It's making me nervous that I'm not overly excited either about any of the candidates on my list but even less so about the rest. I do want a hard-nosed/no nonsense head coach but punching an assistant in the face is a bit too much. At least Matt "Bluto" Patricia looks like he wouldn't take crap from anyone...sigh.
 

jrry32

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It's making me nervous that I'm not overly excited either about any of the candidates on my list but even less so about the rest. I do want a hard-nosed/no nonsense head coach but punching an assistant in the face is a bit too much. At least Matt "Bluto" Patricia looks like he wouldn't take crap from anyone...sigh.

Frankly, I'm less concerned about whether their disciplinarian or a player's coach. My concern is twofold:
1. Are they a well-regarded coach?
and
2. Can they bring in a well-regarded staff of assistants?

If you have those two things, it should work out.
 

Merlin

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It's cool that they're doing their due diligence and all, but they also need to hurry up. The first head coach hired gets first crack at the coordinators, and there's not going to be a very deep pool to choose from.

I do agree they need to hurry up, but my logic is probably being overridden by my impatience to have some damn hope. If they get the right guy he'll have some dudes lined up to come with him and might miss out on some of them, but then again if it's a guy who gets to the Super Bowl that's part of the drill.

What irks me a bit is how Elway says right out the gate he's got four finalists. Dude knows what he's doing. Demoff is just about out there interviewing McDonalds' managers and I pray he doesn't lose sight of what it is we need.

Frankly, I'm less concerned about whether their disciplinarian or a player's coach. My concern is twofold:
1. Are they a well-regarded coach?
and
2. Can they bring in a well-regarded staff of assistants?

If you have those two things, it should work out.

I want a head coach who is a bonafide expert on one side of the ball. A guy who we know can hold down the development of our QB, wideouts, and overall offense. Way this league is trending it is going to be easier to find a defensive mind than a creative offensive one and the best way to lock them up is hire them as head coach.

Fish was a vet HC with no real cutting edge background as a DC where he fielded top units. I want a guy who is ELITE among his peers, then show some patience as they grow him into the head coach they want.
 

den-the-coach

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. I want a guy who is ELITE among his peers, then show some patience as they grow him into the head coach they want.
635793250921433871-C04-SECOND-ITEM-SHANAHAN-0209062015-75586660.JPG
 

CGI_Ram

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OK, one more thing: Josh McDaniels?? Are you people serious?? He's a spoiled little child and has no business managing anything more than an offense.

I am okay with this opinion, because I don't know any better. But, I am also curious how some are so certainly against him.

I'm open to Josh McDaniels just like Bellichick didn't succeed at his first stop.

I just don't know enough about the guy as a leader.

But, his track record on offense is very good (without name receivers) and that organization just wins. If he's paying attention he can bring a lot of that with him. So, he's a serious consideration in my book.

It's cool that they're doing their due diligence and all, but they also need to hurry up. The first head coach hired gets first crack at the coordinators, and there's not going to be a very deep pool to choose from.

It does feel like we're either patient, or confident in our job as a top tier landing spot.

Either way; giddy up, Rams.
 

den-the-coach

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The 12 best NFL coaching candidates, and the one that teams are too scared to hire


Conventional wisdom is running amok in the NFL.

Decision makers use the same criteria, covet the same profiles, worry about the same optics and produce coaching searches every winter that are very much carbon copies of what everyone else is doing. It's an exercise in keeping up with the Joneses or covering one's backside and fearing the unknown. Everyone is looking for QB whisperers/offensive play callers, so we have to have ours, too!

I'm over it.

There is a reason there is so much futility in this league. And this is part of it. Relying on consultants more times than not results in "inside jobs" where nepotism or cronyism seeps in, and the coach who's hired invariably worked previously for (or grew up best friends with the son of) the consultant leading the charge. The idea of headhunters is beyond ridiculous -- if an owner can't put together a decent list of candidates, someone in his organization better be able to have enough of a grasp on the league to do so. And these copycat candidate lists often lack much vision, creativity or foresight.

So this year, as I present the dozen guys I believe are best positioned to constitute the coaching class of 2017, please allow me to stump for Dave Toub. Yes, Dave Toub. And the fact you have no idea who the hell he is, in and of itself, is indicative of the kind of tail-wagging that has been going on with these searches for far too long.

Toub is the stud special teams coach for Andy Reid in Kansas City. He's the guy who has been helping win games for the Kansas City Chiefs with big returns and fake punts and shifting field position and motivating men and outsmarting his opponents. And before that, he was the guy behind the perennially dominant special teams in Chicago (2004-12). Oh, and before that he led Reid's special teams units in Philly (2001-03), which were also generally top notch. He's the guy behind Devin Hesterand Robbie Gould and, lately, Chiefs dervish Tyreek Hill .

Many of his players over the years have told me Toub should be leading an entire team, not merely one unit. He's a leader of men. He commands respect. He gets the best out of players. He is arguably the best coach on Reid's esteemed staff in Kansas City, and Reid has been nothing but a developer of NFL coaches. He grows them. And Toub is one of his best, yet the fact that he coaches special teams works against him. That still remains true in spite of Hall of Famers like George Allen and Marv Levy were coaches who came through the special teams pipeline, not to mention Bobby Ross or Baltimore's John Harbaugh, another one of Reid's disciples.

"He's a combination of Harbaugh and John Madden," one of Toub's former colleagues said. "He is the real deal. This guy can coach. Period. He's a big guy, physically, who can take over a room when he has to. He gets people to buy in. These guys love playing for him. He comes from a great [coaching] family tree. Look at Andy Reid's assistants over the years. This guy is ready. All he needs is a chance."


A personnel exec who used to work with Toub, 54, said: "If Dave Toub can't get a job in this league, then I give up. Talk to other coaches in the league. They know who is for real and who is horseshit or the flavor of the month. This guy can coach a football team. He'd be the first guy I'd talk to, and it isn't even really close."

Toub has been involved in head coaching searches before, interviewing with the Miami Dolphins when they hired Joe Philbin (how did that work out for them?) and the Chicago Bears in 2013 (when they hired Marc Trestman -- yikes). He has been under consideration for many more, but general managers have been scared to pull the trigger. I spoke to two of them a year ago about Toub, a former all-WAC offensive lineman who was drafted in the ninth round by the Philadelphia Eagles but never made it on to an NFL roster. Both agreed he was a hell of a coach and an inspired thought to run a team and that he merited a chance, but then both essentially ruled it out in the end because they needed to develop a quarterback and were locked into going offense. Neither guy who was eventually hired, by the way, is what I would call especially safe even only one year in.

Another exec who knows him said: "Superb at what he does and by a million miles the best special teams coach in the league. He is an A-plus guy."

You can find a quarterback coach and offensive coordinator to work with the passers. It doesn't have to define the entire coaching search. I would actually assert that special teams coaches are ahead of the curve in that they already must address players from both sides of the ball, and in essence the entire team with regularity. They aren't dealing with merely those certain position groups. Besides the head coach, the special teams coach is the only guy on the staff entrusted with clock management and other in-game responsibilities. He also must adjust to losing more players than any other unit. A special teams coach comes in with no inherent bias to either side of the ball, and thus no sentimental ties or desires of offense over defense (or vice versa) in terms of roster composition with the GM.

I hope this hiring season that some of the GMs who invariably consider Toub actually give the Chiefs a call and ask to interview him. I hope they reflect on how Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin were two of the more outside-the-box hires of the past decade or so, and how well they have worked out. I hope they get beyond the norms and perceived constraints and branch out a little bit. If they do, I suspect they end up richly rewarded.

As for the other guys at the head of this year's class, I don't see anyone from the college ranks heading to the NFL, though Stanford's David Shaw is perennially at the top of that wish list (and the Los Angeles Rams and 49ers in particular might want to feel him out, just in case). Excluding guys like Shaw and Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh, who I simply don't see even thinking about leaving their current jobs, here are the dozen candidates who, along with Toub, should be getting heavy consideration next month as these searches begin in earnest:

Currently out of the league

Jon Gruden: A football savant, someone born to coach, and long coveted by pro and college programs. I truly believe he is ready to listen and listen intently, specifically, in Los Angeles. It's Hollywood or bust, I reckon. And the Rams and San Diego Chargersshould both be fully exploring this option immediately. Outside of L.A., Gruden is staying in the broadcast booth, and those who do aim to woo him should come correct.

Tom Coughlin: His résumé speaks for itself and I've been reporting for weeks on the mutual interest between him and the Jacksonville Jaguars . At age 70, he might not be best suited to a rebuilding team -- and the Jags are nothing if not perpetually rebuilding -- but that is his most likely destination at this point. He has a home there and deep ties from his first go-round leading the original expansion Jags. Their search will start with him and might end with him as well.

Ex-head coaches who are current coordinators

Josh McDaniels: He will absolutely kill it when he gets another shot ... and he is getting another shot in 2017 after a tough initial tenure as head coach of the Denver Broncos . McDaniels is as good of a play caller and schemer as there is, and I've been touting his return for years. The time is now. Look at what he did in the four games that Tom Brady was suspended this season. He has matured from the humbling stint with Denver, and is a better person and a better coach for it. Coaching is in his blood, and if you are looking for a young Jon Gruden (not that Gruden is old, at 52), McDaniels is your guy. I can't imagine there is a team out there with an opening that does not request to speak to him.

Todd Haley: His first shot coaching the Chiefs ended ugly, but he, too, has grown from that experience. He can run an offense and he can develop tight ends and receivers, and he did go to the playoffs in Kansas City with Matt Cassel as his starting QB. His work in Pittsburgh has been excellent, and he managed to forge a strong bond with Ben Roethlisberger in the aftermath of the QB's displeasure with the dismissal of his former coordinator, Bruce Arians. Jacksonville, Buffalo and San Francisco could make sense for him.

Mike Smith: His winning percentage in Atlanta was exceptional. He can coach. It's hard to argue against that. And the way he has led the Tampa Bay Buccaneersdefense this season, getting them out of the shadows of the collapsed former regime of Lovie Smith and getting better each week, has been truly special. Some believe he could be part of a Jacksonville package if Coughlin came in as a football czar and not the head coach, and either way, he will get opportunities to interview.

Jim Schwartz: His Eagles defense has looked like the best unit in the NFL at times, and while it has waxed and waned and slumped occasionally, Schwartz is a smart football mind. Like McDaniels, he is a Bill Belichick disciple who understands how to put a smart program in place and he is the rare man to take the Detroit Lions to the postseason.

Current coordinators without head coaching experience

Kyle Shanahan: He gets the best out of his personnel, he is a gifted offensive mind and he obviously comes from great coaching stock. He can shapeshift the identity of his offense from week to week, like McDaniels. Like some others on this list, this has been his calling for a long, long time. He has become more open and engaging with players and the media and the evolution of his relationship with Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan is indicative of that. The 49ers will look long and hard at him if Chip Kelly is gone, among others.

Teryl Austin: He has been an "It" coordinator for several years now and he has benefited from going through the interview process in years past. His Lions defense has had precious few standout players, yet it has managed to exceed expectations and keep teams out of the end zone. He has had an exodus of talent in recent years but has remained a stalwart. He needs to team himself with a top offensive coordinator candidate. Buffalo will look long and hard at him once Rex Ryan is let go.

Vance Joseph: He's young and he's gifted. He has transformed Miami's defense on the fly this season and has gotten Ndamukong Suh , who has chewed up and spit out far more experienced coaches, to buy in. He has also benched other key veterans and then brought them back with good results. He has adjusted his scheme to fit personnel along the way -- playing more zone, not trying to get too cute -- and some of the very scouts who were down on him early in the season are pushing hardest for him now. He walked into a difficult situation and is thriving and people are noticing.

Sean McVay: He is a few years from being as hotly coveted as guys like McDaniels and Shanahan are now, but he is very much in that same mold. He's going to be the youngest coach in the NFL at some point, it's just a matter of when. He has done great things with Kirk Cousins and players swear by him. They trust him intrinsically. He has everything you would want in a complete package and teams will ask to interview him next month. He's still a little raw, perhaps, but I would rather grab him now than risk never being able to hire him.


Russ Grimm: He's the only position coach on this list, but the job he has done with the Tennessee Titans offensive line is ridiculous. Few can mold boys into men like he can. He was groomed to be a head coach under my buddy Bill Cowher and he came damn close to being head coach in Pittsburgh, and in Chicago, at various times. He has been a coordinator and understands more than merely the run game, though his work with the Titans shows just how dominant his blocking schemes and ground approach can be. His hiatus from football after his firing in Arizona has him reinvigorated.

Others receiving votes
  • Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott rallied his unit back to form in the second half of season and has been a top candidate for a few years now.
  • New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia still has a wild and wooly look that isn't the CEO image most owners want. He's also the likely heir apparent to Belichick in New England if he sticks around there long enough.
  • Lions offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter could be held back by his name, believe it or not, in this crazy corporate league as I talk to more execs about him.
  • Houston Texans linebackers coach Mike Vrabel has been as good a position coach -- next to Grimm -- as there is and has the Belichick roots.
  • Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak will eventually get college offers and he had a decent stint previously as head coach of Titans.
The 12 best NFL coaching candidates, and the one that teams are too scared to hire
 

den-the-coach

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@FRO And his Man Dave Toub!
tempToubGallery-15--nfl_mezz_1280_1024.jpg



Dave Toub ready to become head coach, Chiefs’ Andy Reid says


Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt doesn’t want to lose his position coach, but he understands how it could happen.

As a number of NFL head coaches were handed pink slips after the regular season’s end, possible replacement lists were floated, and Chiefs special-teams coach Dave Toub has appeared on at least two.

The Star’s Terez A. Paylor confirmed that the Chargers have been granted permission to interview Toub as a replacement for Mike McCoy.

The Broncos are another team that might express interest.

“I kind of get nervous every year,” Colquitt said. “He’s a special-teams coach, but he’s an Xs and Os coach, too.”

Toub has been the Chiefs’ special-teams coach throughout Andy Reid’s four seasons. He had the same job with the Bears during 2004-12.

He interviewed for the Bears’ head-coaching job after the 2012 season. The Bears hired Marc Trestman. A year earlier, Toub was interviewed by the Dolphins for their head-coaching job.

“I thought he had a pretty good chance of getting that Chicago job,” Reid said. “He’d been there, done a great job … I thought he would have been perfect for that job.”

He’s been ideal for the Chiefs, Reid said. This season, the Chiefs’ special teams rank second in the NFL by a metric authored byfootballoutsiders.com that takes into account the success of field goals/extra points, kickoffs, kick returns, punts and punt returns.

The Chiefs have standouts in that phase — Tyreek Hill topped the NFL in punt-return average (15.2) and his 95-yard return against the Chargers on Sunday set a team record and was in the longest in the NFL this season.

Colquitt has been one of the NFL’s most consistent kickers throughout his 12-year career. Kicker Cairo Santos made a career-best 88.6 percent of his field goals (31 of 35), including walk-off kicks at Carolina and Denver for the first time in his career.

There have been coverage standouts such as D.J. Alexander and Daniel Sorensen, and remarkable plays like a fake punt that Albert Wilson carried 55 yards for a touchdown to help the Chiefs win at Atlanta.

Add it up, and special teams help explain how the Chiefs finished 12-4 and won the AFC West while being outgained through the air and on the ground this season.

Much of the credit goes to Toub, who is ready to become a head coach even though he hasn’t been a position coach since working with the Eagles’ defensive line during 2001-03. Before that, Toub served two seasons as Missouri’s defensive-line coach and nearly a decade as the program’s strength and conditioning coach.

“Special-teams coaches are a unique breed,” Reid said. “They don’t get enough credit for what they do and what they have to deal with. They deal with the media, the offense, the defense, they deal with the whole gamut.”

Which means special-teams coaches deal with the entire roster and contend with successes and failures on a weekly basis, like a head coach.

“They come out of a game, and not everything’s perfect,” Reid said. “They’re dealing with the whole roster. Within special teams there’s an offense and a defense. … I just think they are as close to anybody as ready to be a head coach.”

Two weeks ago, Toub said he doesn’t spend much time thinking about becoming a head coach, but he has noticed more of those who oversee special teams are being mentioned for top jobs.

“It’s something that if it happens, it happens,” Toub said. “I just like the fact that more and more special-teams coaches are being recognized as guys that could be head coaches. The awareness is getting better and I think someday somebody is going to pull the trigger on a guy.”

Perhaps the next Bill Belichick will be discovered. Before becoming a head coach with the Browns in 1991 and winning four Super Bowls with the Patriots, Belichick worked as a special-teams coach or assistant for four teams.

“You work with everybody, all the guys on the team,” Toub said. “You’re working situational football. It trains you to be a head coach in my opinion.”

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/article124318769.html

 

CGI_Ram

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If there is a culture problem with the Rams, I am not comfortable with a first time HC.

That doesn't mean a first timer would fail, but I think it makes the Rams job tougher and more demanding of experience.
 

dieterbrock

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Went to the Chiefs with Al Saunders as his offensive coordinator and went 44-36 and 13-3 in 2003 and that offense was very special, however, the DC Greg Robinson just could not get the team even mediocre otherwise they would have been even more dangerous. So he had a winning record without Martz so IMO, I think he would have done fine, but together the both of them were special.
He went to KC and ran Martz offense and even brought over Trent Green to run it.
So yeah, where would vermeil have been had he not been forced to bring in Martz?
Didn't look too good

Back on topic, the Rams may have their guy in mind but if he's on a playoff team there isn't much they can do about that. I would hate to think they hired a guy because they couldn't wait for "their guy" to be free
 

DCH

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For reals, man, who tucks a T-shirt into his running shorts? That's just bad form, and no self-respecting player would ever follow such a man.
 

Rmfnlt

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The 12 best NFL coaching candidates, and the one that teams are too scared to hire


Conventional wisdom is running amok in the NFL.

Decision makers use the same criteria, covet the same profiles, worry about the same optics and produce coaching searches every winter that are very much carbon copies of what everyone else is doing. It's an exercise in keeping up with the Joneses or covering one's backside and fearing the unknown. Everyone is looking for QB whisperers/offensive play callers, so we have to have ours, too!

I'm over it.

There is a reason there is so much futility in this league. And this is part of it. Relying on consultants more times than not results in "inside jobs" where nepotism or cronyism seeps in, and the coach who's hired invariably worked previously for (or grew up best friends with the son of) the consultant leading the charge. The idea of headhunters is beyond ridiculous -- if an owner can't put together a decent list of candidates, someone in his organization better be able to have enough of a grasp on the league to do so. And these copycat candidate lists often lack much vision, creativity or foresight.

So this year, as I present the dozen guys I believe are best positioned to constitute the coaching class of 2017, please allow me to stump for Dave Toub. Yes, Dave Toub. And the fact you have no idea who the hell he is, in and of itself, is indicative of the kind of tail-wagging that has been going on with these searches for far too long.

Toub is the stud special teams coach for Andy Reid in Kansas City. He's the guy who has been helping win games for the Kansas City Chiefs with big returns and fake punts and shifting field position and motivating men and outsmarting his opponents. And before that, he was the guy behind the perennially dominant special teams in Chicago (2004-12). Oh, and before that he led Reid's special teams units in Philly (2001-03), which were also generally top notch. He's the guy behind Devin Hesterand Robbie Gould and, lately, Chiefs dervish Tyreek Hill .

Many of his players over the years have told me Toub should be leading an entire team, not merely one unit. He's a leader of men. He commands respect. He gets the best out of players. He is arguably the best coach on Reid's esteemed staff in Kansas City, and Reid has been nothing but a developer of NFL coaches. He grows them. And Toub is one of his best, yet the fact that he coaches special teams works against him. That still remains true in spite of Hall of Famers like George Allen and Marv Levy were coaches who came through the special teams pipeline, not to mention Bobby Ross or Baltimore's John Harbaugh, another one of Reid's disciples.

"He's a combination of Harbaugh and John Madden," one of Toub's former colleagues said. "He is the real deal. This guy can coach. Period. He's a big guy, physically, who can take over a room when he has to. He gets people to buy in. These guys love playing for him. He comes from a great [coaching] family tree. Look at Andy Reid's assistants over the years. This guy is ready. All he needs is a chance."


A personnel exec who used to work with Toub, 54, said: "If Dave Toub can't get a job in this league, then I give up. Talk to other coaches in the league. They know who is for real and who is horseshit or the flavor of the month. This guy can coach a football team. He'd be the first guy I'd talk to, and it isn't even really close."

Toub has been involved in head coaching searches before, interviewing with the Miami Dolphins when they hired Joe Philbin (how did that work out for them?) and the Chicago Bears in 2013 (when they hired Marc Trestman -- yikes). He has been under consideration for many more, but general managers have been scared to pull the trigger. I spoke to two of them a year ago about Toub, a former all-WAC offensive lineman who was drafted in the ninth round by the Philadelphia Eagles but never made it on to an NFL roster. Both agreed he was a hell of a coach and an inspired thought to run a team and that he merited a chance, but then both essentially ruled it out in the end because they needed to develop a quarterback and were locked into going offense. Neither guy who was eventually hired, by the way, is what I would call especially safe even only one year in.

Another exec who knows him said: "Superb at what he does and by a million miles the best special teams coach in the league. He is an A-plus guy."

You can find a quarterback coach and offensive coordinator to work with the passers. It doesn't have to define the entire coaching search. I would actually assert that special teams coaches are ahead of the curve in that they already must address players from both sides of the ball, and in essence the entire team with regularity. They aren't dealing with merely those certain position groups. Besides the head coach, the special teams coach is the only guy on the staff entrusted with clock management and other in-game responsibilities. He also must adjust to losing more players than any other unit. A special teams coach comes in with no inherent bias to either side of the ball, and thus no sentimental ties or desires of offense over defense (or vice versa) in terms of roster composition with the GM.

I hope this hiring season that some of the GMs who invariably consider Toub actually give the Chiefs a call and ask to interview him. I hope they reflect on how Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin were two of the more outside-the-box hires of the past decade or so, and how well they have worked out. I hope they get beyond the norms and perceived constraints and branch out a little bit. If they do, I suspect they end up richly rewarded.

As for the other guys at the head of this year's class, I don't see anyone from the college ranks heading to the NFL, though Stanford's David Shaw is perennially at the top of that wish list (and the Los Angeles Rams and 49ers in particular might want to feel him out, just in case). Excluding guys like Shaw and Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh, who I simply don't see even thinking about leaving their current jobs, here are the dozen candidates who, along with Toub, should be getting heavy consideration next month as these searches begin in earnest:

Currently out of the league

Jon Gruden: A football savant, someone born to coach, and long coveted by pro and college programs. I truly believe he is ready to listen and listen intently, specifically, in Los Angeles. It's Hollywood or bust, I reckon. And the Rams and San Diego Chargersshould both be fully exploring this option immediately. Outside of L.A., Gruden is staying in the broadcast booth, and those who do aim to woo him should come correct.

Tom Coughlin: His résumé speaks for itself and I've been reporting for weeks on the mutual interest between him and the Jacksonville Jaguars . At age 70, he might not be best suited to a rebuilding team -- and the Jags are nothing if not perpetually rebuilding -- but that is his most likely destination at this point. He has a home there and deep ties from his first go-round leading the original expansion Jags. Their search will start with him and might end with him as well.

Ex-head coaches who are current coordinators

Josh McDaniels: He will absolutely kill it when he gets another shot ... and he is getting another shot in 2017 after a tough initial tenure as head coach of the Denver Broncos . McDaniels is as good of a play caller and schemer as there is, and I've been touting his return for years. The time is now. Look at what he did in the four games that Tom Brady was suspended this season. He has matured from the humbling stint with Denver, and is a better person and a better coach for it. Coaching is in his blood, and if you are looking for a young Jon Gruden (not that Gruden is old, at 52), McDaniels is your guy. I can't imagine there is a team out there with an opening that does not request to speak to him.

Todd Haley: His first shot coaching the Chiefs ended ugly, but he, too, has grown from that experience. He can run an offense and he can develop tight ends and receivers, and he did go to the playoffs in Kansas City with Matt Cassel as his starting QB. His work in Pittsburgh has been excellent, and he managed to forge a strong bond with Ben Roethlisberger in the aftermath of the QB's displeasure with the dismissal of his former coordinator, Bruce Arians. Jacksonville, Buffalo and San Francisco could make sense for him.

Mike Smith: His winning percentage in Atlanta was exceptional. He can coach. It's hard to argue against that. And the way he has led the Tampa Bay Buccaneersdefense this season, getting them out of the shadows of the collapsed former regime of Lovie Smith and getting better each week, has been truly special. Some believe he could be part of a Jacksonville package if Coughlin came in as a football czar and not the head coach, and either way, he will get opportunities to interview.

Jim Schwartz: His Eagles defense has looked like the best unit in the NFL at times, and while it has waxed and waned and slumped occasionally, Schwartz is a smart football mind. Like McDaniels, he is a Bill Belichick disciple who understands how to put a smart program in place and he is the rare man to take the Detroit Lions to the postseason.

Current coordinators without head coaching experience

Kyle Shanahan: He gets the best out of his personnel, he is a gifted offensive mind and he obviously comes from great coaching stock. He can shapeshift the identity of his offense from week to week, like McDaniels. Like some others on this list, this has been his calling for a long, long time. He has become more open and engaging with players and the media and the evolution of his relationship with Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan is indicative of that. The 49ers will look long and hard at him if Chip Kelly is gone, among others.

Teryl Austin: He has been an "It" coordinator for several years now and he has benefited from going through the interview process in years past. His Lions defense has had precious few standout players, yet it has managed to exceed expectations and keep teams out of the end zone. He has had an exodus of talent in recent years but has remained a stalwart. He needs to team himself with a top offensive coordinator candidate. Buffalo will look long and hard at him once Rex Ryan is let go.

Vance Joseph: He's young and he's gifted. He has transformed Miami's defense on the fly this season and has gotten Ndamukong Suh , who has chewed up and spit out far more experienced coaches, to buy in. He has also benched other key veterans and then brought them back with good results. He has adjusted his scheme to fit personnel along the way -- playing more zone, not trying to get too cute -- and some of the very scouts who were down on him early in the season are pushing hardest for him now. He walked into a difficult situation and is thriving and people are noticing.

Sean McVay: He is a few years from being as hotly coveted as guys like McDaniels and Shanahan are now, but he is very much in that same mold. He's going to be the youngest coach in the NFL at some point, it's just a matter of when. He has done great things with Kirk Cousins and players swear by him. They trust him intrinsically. He has everything you would want in a complete package and teams will ask to interview him next month. He's still a little raw, perhaps, but I would rather grab him now than risk never being able to hire him.


Russ Grimm: He's the only position coach on this list, but the job he has done with the Tennessee Titans offensive line is ridiculous. Few can mold boys into men like he can. He was groomed to be a head coach under my buddy Bill Cowher and he came damn close to being head coach in Pittsburgh, and in Chicago, at various times. He has been a coordinator and understands more than merely the run game, though his work with the Titans shows just how dominant his blocking schemes and ground approach can be. His hiatus from football after his firing in Arizona has him reinvigorated.

Others receiving votes
  • Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott rallied his unit back to form in the second half of season and has been a top candidate for a few years now.
  • New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia still has a wild and wooly look that isn't the CEO image most owners want. He's also the likely heir apparent to Belichick in New England if he sticks around there long enough.
  • Lions offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter could be held back by his name, believe it or not, in this crazy corporate league as I talk to more execs about him.
  • Houston Texans linebackers coach Mike Vrabel has been as good a position coach -- next to Grimm -- as there is and has the Belichick roots.
  • Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak will eventually get college offers and he had a decent stint previously as head coach of Titans.
The 12 best NFL coaching candidates, and the one that teams are too scared to hire
Thank you, Mrs. Toub!
 

den-the-coach

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Rams executive Kevin Demoff: 'This is not a rebuild'

By Alden Gonzalez

The Los Angeles Rams’ first year back in Southern California finished with a 4-12 record and went down as the franchise’s 10th consecutive losing season. They lost their last seven games, two of them on late meltdowns and five of them by lopsided scores. And all throughout, their offense was statistically the NFL’s worst by a wide margin. Now the search is underway for a new head coach and a new direction.

The man leading that search, chief operating officer Kevin Demoff, insists that the Rams are not in a rebuilding phase.

“I think this team has talent, still has a very young core at its heart, and we need to find our way,” Demoff said in a recent phone conversation. “But this is not a rebuild to me whatsoever. This is maximizing the talent we have. And we do have to go into the offseason and improve our personnel across the board. It’s what we said when we made the coaching change. It’s not just a coaching issue. We need to get better on the personnel side.”

In search of hope, Demoff looks at close, down-to-the-wire losses to three playoff teams — the Detroit Lions, New York Giants and Miami Dolphins — as an indication that the Rams may not be far from contention. And he points out the fact that the Rams were 6-2 in an eight-game stretch that included the last quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, a record matched by only seven other teams.

“Every year in the NFL you should be able to compete,” Demoff said. “And I think the hard part about the NFL is looking at teams who go from worst to first, how competitive they get quickly, and making that push.”

The Rams, who will spend the week interviewing coaches for teams who are either out of the playoffs or on a first-round bye, remain open-minded in their search. They are not yet ready to commit to someone who is either offensive- or defensive-minded. One way or the other, though, they must completely reconfigure the offensive staff and somehow improve a unit that has gained the NFL’s fewest yards each of the last two years.

So much of that will hinge on their quarterback, Jared Goff, who was drafted first overall in 2016 and played horrendously as a rookie.

Demoff believes coming back as a second-year player “will make an extraordinary amount of difference” for Goff. He brought up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Jameis Winston and the Tennessee Titans’ Marcus Mariota, two quarterbacks who made strides in their second year and nearly pushed their teams into the playoffs. He also brought up Derek Carr, who has improved his Total QBR each season — 38.2 in 2014, 49.2 in 2015, 62.8 in 2016 — and boosted the Oakland Raiders’ record right along with it.

The interview process is also a chance for the Rams to get outside perspectives that can help answer key questions, all of which center on losing 11 of their last 12 games.

Was it coaching, personnel, the move? All three?

Did we not draft well enough, or not develop well enough?

Are we simply not talented enough, or did we underachieve?

The Rams have reportedly requested interviews with at least 10 coaches, a list that includes Kyle Shanahan (Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator), Josh McDaniels (New England Patriots offensive coordinator), Sean McVay (Washington Redskins offensive coordinator), Harold Goodwin (Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator), Matt Patricia (Patriots defensive coordinator), Teryl Austin (Lions defensive coordinator), Vance Joseph (Dolphins defensive coordinator), Steve Wilks (Carolina Panthers assistant coach), Anthony Lynn (Buffalo Bills interim coach) and Doug Marrone (Jacksonville Jaguars interim coach). Wilks, who has spent a long time with Ron Rivera, interviewed on Tuesday.

Ideally, the Rams would have a new coach in place around the middle of January, at which point they’ll determine the fate of general manager Les Snead and then go about assembling a staff. Then it’s time to address the roster. They need to replenish depth throughout their defense. They need to inject talent at receiver. They need to reconfigure their offensive line. And they need to do it all without a first-round pick.

A lot of work is ahead, but Demoff believes the Rams can get back on track with one offseason.

“We need to improve scoring points, but we have a defense that’s competitive, we have a special teams that is competitive,” Demoff said. “It’s really about how quickly we can get the offense up to speed.”

Rams executive Kevin Demoff: 'This is not a rebuild'
 

Rmfnlt

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Was it coaching, personnel, the move? All three?

Did we not draft well enough, or not develop well enough?

Are we simply not talented enough, or did we underachieve?

THIS is what makes me nervous.

I hope it was coaching, lack of development and underachieving.

If not, Demoff is wrong: It IS a rebuilding!
 

Adi

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I would trade 2 draft picks for Asshole Face, no doubt in my mind . He is my clear number 1 choice because of what he did with Brees. Remember the chargers didn't want Brees and Payton made him into a first ballot hof and superbowl champ.Not to mention we need to find veterans not sure many more rookies would help our cause .
 

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http://www.profootballrumors.com/

Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels will interview with the Rams, Jaguars, and 49ers all on the same day, Ben Volin of The Boston Globe writes. McDaniels will huddle up with all three teams on Saturday in separate rooms at a hotel near Gilette Stadium. Those three teams will be permitted to interview McDaniels again in the week after the AFC title game, if the Pats make it to the Super Bowl.

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Los Angeles Rams
 

den-the-coach

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If not, Demoff is wrong: It IS a rebuilding!

They will never call it that and in some areas they are better off then they were five years ago, but I concur, it's a rebuild, however, it's just spin. No harm, no foul. Rebuilding has been removed from the football vernacular.