The Bears apparently have themselves a new OL coach, former Wisconsin OL coach Bob Bostad. Would be interesting to have him there coaching Carimi and maybe another Wisconsin lineman in Konz or Zeitler, if the Bears go that route.
This part of the article is interesting.
I figure if you’re Bolstad you’re not making this announcement and leaving a shiny new job at Pitt unless you’re pretty confident that Tice plans to be back in Chicago. At least that’s what I’m hoping.
The Packers lose their OC Joe Philbin to Miami, where he will be the Dolphin’s new head coach. Even though he didn’t even do the playcalling, he has a solid reputation, is a good guy, and knows his way around high powered offenses. Another loss by the Packers could be a big gain for the Dolphins.
One intriguing thing to watch will be how hard the Fins go after Matt Flynn in free agency. Philbin should be pretty knowledgeable a out what Flynn is capable of, and whether he can cut it as a NFL QB.
Steelers OC Bruce Arians is retiring.
And that must be very bittersweet news for Philbin. On the one hand it’s some positive news during a very dark time for him, but on the other you know his family is wishing they could share this news with his son.
Well, rumors are spreading the the Bears have made a decision on their open GM spot finally. Supposedly it’s going to be Kansas City director of college scouting Phil Emery. This corresponds with a report that San Diego’s director of player personnel Jimmy Raye was informed he was no longer a candidate.
Not sure how I feel about this. Raye was my favorite option based on admittedly thin pretexts but he’s not been a particularly hot candidate prior to now anywhere and it’s possible that he’s badly overshadowed by AJ Smith out there. Emery seems to have the thinnest credentials at least recently with the middling Chiefs, and I’m especially troubled by the knowledge that he and Ruskell are reportedly close. Emery’s Bears connections aren’t a particularly strong point in his favor either, though he’s been gone a while and he may have been involved in some of the good picks before things went south. It’ll be particularly interesting to see what happens here, if in fact the Bears intend to somehow retain both Ruskell and Emery.
Some have speculated that this incoming GM could be a lame duck further tied to Lovie, and that a failure again next year could mean a clean slate across the board. That’s terrible logic, but I wouldn’t put it past them. If Emery, Lovie and Ruskell are of a kind this would probably make some sense.
I also wonder if the fact that Marc Ross and Jason Licht’s teams are still playing for the next 2 weeks played a role in this decision. Maybe the Bears decided to move on instead of waiting, choosing immediacy over what might be 2 better candidates. If Emery and these other guys were considered a push I could see that happening. Shortsighted move I’m afraid.
Eh, we’ll see. If it is in fact Emery, I’m taking one small piece of solace that it might improve the Bears chances of landing the free agent at the top of my wish list in Dwayne Bowe.
Well, apparently Mike Tice’s interview with the Raiders was cancelled. That’s one small measure of relief. They have denied reports that Emery is the new GM and have stated that they have second interviews scheduled with Emery and Jason Licht from New England. It’s unclear if the Pats will allow him to interview prior to the Super Bowl or not.
Couple of bits of actual news tonight.
The Indianapolis Colts hired Ravens DC Chuck Pagano as their new Head Coach.
The Oakland Raiders hired Denver DC Dennis Allen as their new Head Coach.
Both hires are interesting in that neither man has ever been a head coach at any level and both guys have only served one year as a defensive coordinator. Both are defensive coaches going to franchises that have lived on an offensive minded approach for recent memory. Each was hired by a brand new GM looking to make his mark and start anew. Presumably these guys lack of experience was viewed as an asset because they can be molded to the task at hand. The symmetry there is somewhat shocking.
Pagano may be bringing his 3-4 scheme to Indy which would be interesting given the presence of Freeney and Mathis who’s a free agent. Allen is a 4-3 guy going to Oakland who has a aging Richard Seymour. Needless to say both clubs are probably going to see some major roster changes defensively and will have some growing pains.
Looks like Greg Schiano (Rutgers head coach) is getting the Tampa Bay job. I hadn’t heard that even being rumored before today.
Rutgers for sure will miss him.
He’s got some NFL background, and certainly has turned around the Rutgers program quite impressively, but we all know the record of college head coaches coming up to the NFL is spotty at best.
In that he was an assistant with the Bears from 1996 to 1998. I know the Bucs almost got Chip Kelly of Oregon to come to coach them, but I understand that choice a lot better than I understand the Schiano hiring. Oregon has become one of the best teams in the country.
As a Rutgers fan, this is hugely disheartening. This year’s recruiting class has been arguably the best in the school’s history; less than a week before national signing day is a killer.
While it’s true that Rutgers has been far from a powerhouse, Schiano did take a dead program and injected plenty if life into it. He ran a clean program, and has been putting guys into the NFL steadily over the past 6 or 7 years. Other than Kenny Britt, they’ve been high character - Ray Rice, Anthony Davis, the McCourty twins, and others (I think that the Pats have 4 RU grads); whoever drafts Mohammed Sanu this year will benefit greatly.
Greatest knock on him is that he’s not the greatest game day coach, and if that carries through to the Bucs, his tenure there will likely be a short one, but long enough to secure him another college job.
Looking like Mike Sherman goes to Miami as OC and the Browns end up with Childress. Meh. Could be worse I guess.
Shurmur was QB coach when Childress was OC in Philly, which is an interesting dynamic I guess.
Hopefully they figure RG3 is closer to being McNabb than McCoy is…
The timing of accepting the Bucs job seems like a crummy thing to do. I’d have at least asked to get through signing day before going to Tampa. Seems like the decent thing to do.
“Thanks for signing up, kid. Gotta go!”
Doing it this way allows recruits who wanted him personally to go find another school.
Brad Childress is the Brown’s new OC.
I’m not sure if I like the hire but he sure as heck can’t do worse at play calling than Shurmur. Someone on a Brown’s forum speculated that in addition to Pat Shurmur being the worst of four head coaches in the AFC North, he might be the worst of four head coaches in the Brown’s organization. In fairness to Pat, he could potentially be a better head man than Chilly.
That poster said he might be the 4th best HC on the roster, but I’m not sure who he means. Chilly, Jauron, and… who?
Anyway, Mike Sherman probably would’ve been better about I was leery about his Tannehill connections.
Holmgren.
There are some initial reports that Chilly wont be calling plays. God help us.
Decent for the University. Wildly deceitful and despicable for the kids. Schiano did the best possible thing for an all around crummy situation.
Man, watching these coaching hires makes me feel a lot better about the Bears retaining Lovie and promoting Tice.
I can’t remember an offseason where the cupboards were this bare as it applies to coaches and coordinators.
Fire Reid though, amirite? Eagles fans…
Why did Hue Jackson get canned? He almost had the Raiders in the playoffs; what more did they expect?
Olson is kind of useless as a playcaller (the Bucs ranked 21, 19 and 28 in total offense during his tenure) but he’s very good at getting rookies up to speed. I suspect he’s there more for player development than gameday coaching.
The Buccaneers, Rutgers and Schiano kept his interview quiet so that recruiting efforts wouldn’t suffer if he didn’t take/get the job. Even his assistants didn’t know he was interviewing.
Kelly is known for a gimmick offense, which would be fun to watch in the NFL but probably not effective. That’s especially true considering the Bucs’ current offensive roster is best suited for a Norv Turner “run, run, throw deep” system.
I suspect Schiano got the job as much on his time at Miami as at Rutgers. He was the defensive coordinator for arguably the best team in college football history, and he’s known as a hardass. Raheem Morris had developed a reputation as a coddler.
I’m not thrilled by the hire- I wanted Marty Schottenheimer, as long as he didn’t come with Brian- but the fanbase was dead set against a retread.
I’m not really worried about TOJL’s note that he’s a bad game day coach; I imagine he’ll be mostly involved in the defense, which will surely be some version of the Tampa 2 with minimal scheming, and will hire someone with experience to run the offense.
Arians is going to be the Colts’ new offensive coordinator. I wish he could have gone to a more interesting team (to me) but it will be fun to see what he does.