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This week's commercial comes from Jayhawker. Posted for copious amounts of Derrick Thomas, and a little blast of Christian Okoye there at the end.
So, let's meet the newest NFL head coaches:
Jacksonville Jaguars: Doug Marrone
As mentioned before, I've suspected this move for over a year now. What I didn't expect was the complimentary move of hiring Tom Coughlin to run football operations. Coughlin's track record at team building is strong, both in the early success of the Jaguars franchise as coach/GM combo, and with his Super Bowl winning Giants teams, in which he had significant input with GM Jerry Reese. Marrone made the 2016 Jaguars instantly play better in his interim role, though I still don't understand not giving him more than 2 games in 2016 to work with. That said, Marrone is a talented coach, and when looking at coaches expected to improve upon their first gigs, I'd prefer going with Marrone over McDaniels.
Denver Broncos: Vance Joseph
Joseph is an interesting hire, given that he only has 1 year of experience as a coordinator. It's not unlike the rise of Mike Tomlin, although Joseph's rise wasn't quite so fast (at 44 years old, he's the same age as Tomlin right now). A big part of the draw of Joseph is that he coached on Wade Phillips' defensive staff in Houston, and with Denver letting Phillips go, Joseph represents continuity. On the offensive side, he's pegged Mike McCoy as offensive coordinator, and Bill Musgrave as QB coach.
Buffalo Bills: Sean McDermott
Initially thought to be locked in to promoting running backs coach Anthony Lynn, the Bills made a sharp right turn and instead brought in Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott. McDermott spent the 2000s rising through the defensive coaching ranks in Philadelphia, and he was largely successful there - so much so that when the Eagles fired him in 2011, Carolina had him signed only two days later. McDermott is a flexible coach who would have done great things with the Bills defense that Rex Ryan inherited (and then dismantled). He should be able to do good things with the pieces that are still left. His career has been entirely on the defensive side, though, so what offense will look like is a big question.
Los Angeles Rams: Sean McVay
This f*cker is only 30 years old! Way to make the rest of us feel unaccomplished. That actually makes him the youngest head coach in NFL history. See that's what you need in LA., a coach young enough to Snapchat. His work in DC speaks for itself, as he helped make Kirk Cousins quietly one of the most productive QBs in the league for the past two years. He's the grandson of John McVay, who was the 49ers executive of football ops during the Bill Walsh and George Seifert eras, including all 5 Super Bowl wins. Helping McVay's chances is the fact that he hired Wade Phillips to run the defense, so he can focus on the offensive side, where all his limited experience is.
San Diego Los Angeles Chargers: Anthony Lynn
This is the hiring that I like the least. He's well respected, and has been given head coaching interviews steadily for the past couple of years, but he strikes me as one of those guys that will be well-liked but not so successful. Hey, like Gus Bradley. Hey, guess who he just hired to be his defensive coordinator. Gus Bradley. They've got the "player's coach" market cornered at least, but I wonder if there's a strong enough hand here to manage the team, especially with the disarray of being uprooted and moving to a town that still won't have its permanent stadium facility for another couple years.
San Francisco 49ers: ?
No hire yet. They're just interviewing everyone who could potentially be interested in the general manager spot. I have an interview with them next Wednesday. Also, in keeping with the ass-backwards way the team has been run of late, the plan seems to be to hire a coach and let the coach have input on who they hire as GM. Which means my dream of hiring a real football ops exec to run things is probably off the table. Oh well, at least one of my teams got it right. I think Jed is imagining hiring his own Belichick, who basically runs everything from the head coach's office, even if there have been a number of personnel execs technically above him on the org chart. There are still good coaches and good GM candidates to choose from, so the 49ers could potentially make the right hires even while doing so completely backwards. The only positive thing I can say here is that they're not rushing.
Other stuff:
* At the end of the latest Jaguars media advisory: "Thursday's 10:00 am press conference is scheduled to begin at 9:55 am". Coughlin Time is back:
* Johnny Manziel will be at the Super Bowl in Houston, selling autographs and selfie picture opportunities . $99 will get you an autograph, extra if you want him to write something other than his name. Professional pictures will go for $99, but if you just want to snap a selfie, that's only $50.
* The temporary facility that the Chargers will use in 2017 - the StubHub Center in Carson - holds only 30,000, and that's including an additional 3,000 seats added to its normal 27,000 capacity. That's not even enough to hold all the people that have un-Liked the team's Facebook page since the announcement.
* That said, the team's value is projected by Forbes to increase by over $1 billion from the move.
* The Senior Bowl has extended an invitation to Clemson QB Deshaun Watson to participate in the game. Watson is only a junior, but he graduated from Clemson in December, making him eligible. Watson's performance in the championship game has helped catapult his stock upward, but he remains a polarizing prospect due to inconsistency. Still, this year he took a big step away from the "run first" QB he was (fairly) critiqued as being in past seasons.
* Wade Phillips passed on the Washington job due to concerns over a lack of talent on defense . Hard to argue with, when his other option was the Rams and Aaron Donald.
This Week's Games Saturday
Seattle Seahawks at Atlanta Falcons, 4:35pm EST
Houston Texans at New England Patriots, 8:15pm EST
Sunday
Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys, 4:40pm EST
Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs, 1:05pm 8:20pm EST
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