Carroll’s a 72 year old man. He’s got a 170-120-1 record in the NFL, including years he spent in New England and New York, he’s got a Super Bowl ring, not to mention the BCS title; he doesn’t have anything else left to prove here. Despite him saying he intended to return to coaching just days ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was voluntary.
The official statement is that it is voluntary. I mean, he’s not gone, just stepping back to be an advisor. I’m not sure if he’d do that if they fired him.
Rumor is that they’re eyeing Dan Quinn, he was a protege of Carroll and used to be DC in Seattle. He left to be HC in Atlanta for a while and is currently in Dallas.
I wouldn’t hate that.
What’s the story with Joe Barry? I sometimes read the comments section on interesting Facebook posts, and have recently been seeing random comments that the Packers need to fire him, in posts about completely unrelated things. There’s obviously a lot of head coaches and coordinators over the years that the fan base wanted fired, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen the phenomenon of trying to get a coach fired via random Facebook comments. Did someone start some kind of campaign to see if that would work? Is the reason that’s being done because he’s hated by the fan base but has some support by upper management?
The Packers defense, despite having a bunch of of talent, has not played anywhere near expectations. The plan going in to the season was for the defense to keep the team in games while the offense figured out how the NFL worked. Instead, we got a 27th ranked defense (by DVOA). And a lot of it, by the eyeballs, can be attributed to the scheme being played. The Packers seemed to insist on running a soft zone, giving up short passes but preventing the long ones. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work in the modern NFL. A short slant or drag in the right location can go for twenty yards or more pretty quickly, and doesn’t even need to when the offense only needs two yards for a first down. But that’s been the defense for the last three years, and there’s been no adjustment. Just over and over and over again.
He’s just not a good defensive coordinator. It’s been three years, and the defense is still bad. A cynical fan would point out Barry was the defensive coordinator for the 0-16 Detroit Lions that gave up the third-most points per game, ever. In every area but sports and C-suites, that kind of performance would mean you never work in that position again.
The social media commentary, however, is just fans venting. Similar things have been said about Matt LaFleur, Jordan Love, Jaire Alexander, Rashan Gary, David Bakhtiari, and Quay Walker (though those have a bit of merit after his inability to control his temper last season). He has some support, but it appears tenuous. Matt LaFleur, the head coach, has made very mildly supportive comments regarding the defense performance and playcalling, and there are rumors he’s actively been involved in defensive playcalling the last few weeks.
Is that first name pronounced kway?
Back when I played Cities Skylines, I remember while putting a bunch of quays in my city I was looking up YouTube videos to try and figure out how they worked. I was confused because in all the videos they kept talking about “keys.”
Yep. Though it’s always been “kay” in my headcanon.
He seems like maybe the most vital 72 year old that I’ve ever seen. I did not have this on my radar at all.
Of course it sounds like a choice based on the statement and him sticking around in a reduced role, but he doesn’t look anything like a guy ready to call it a career. The odds of him getting a compelling job offer from another team at this age might be a long shot, so he’s perhaps simply settling for the best option he has. In either case, color me surprised. Dude basically saved that organization by helping shuttle Wilson out of town.
Quinn wasn’t exactly a smashing success in Atlanta. Much like Vrabel, the continuity makes sense especially if Carroll is sticking around. However, Quinn seems mostly like a great DC, mediocre-to-bad HC. Basically, skinny Wade Phillips.
Not the NFL, but holy shit.
If he and Belichick go at the same time, plus Carroll, this is an all-time changing of the guard.
Lions fan here. One of the more humorous asides of that glorious 2008 season was when then-Detroit News reporter Rob Parker asked then-Lions coach Rod Marinelli (who also happens to be Joe Barry’s father-in-law) if he wished his daughter had married a better defensive coordinator at a press conference.
Of course, Parker is a jerk and rightfully the News fired him shortly thereafter for that and other reasons, but it still was fun. Not as fun as the time one of our defensive coaches got drunk and went through a Wendy’s drive thru while naked, but still fun.
The Boston Globe is reporting that Belichick is OUT, with an official announcement coming later today.
Schefty. End of an era.
Official announcement coming.
See post directly above yours 
Popular OC candidate for the Bears. Don’t know a ton about him. Definitely not the spiciest option.
He was one of Sean McVay’s coaches over at the Rams (ever since McVay first took over in LA), first as a TE coach and then passing game coordinator before finally becoming the QB coach. He was brought to Seattle as an OC in the hopes that they could adopt some of the improvements that had occurred in LA under McVay.
Waldron’s first year was the last year that Russell Wilson was on the team and it was a disaster with Russ getting hurt and missing games for the first time in his career and Geno Smith trying to take over for a while, then Wilson returning too early and playing like garbage as a result. His second year was the year that Geno had his surprise comeback and the Seattle offense was hugely improved overall. This past year Seattle regressed a bit, and offensively the passing game has still been impressive but the running game has been really bad despite having two extremely good running backs. (On local sports radio, the bad running game has been attributed to fewer attempts at running and inconsistent run blocking when they do run.)
In my eyes he’s a decent OC, I certainly wouldn’t call him a failure, and he’d be a good addition to a team that needs one. Personally I think he has a lot to do with Geno Smith going from being a mostly-forgotten backup that people considered an old bust to one of the better QBs in the league (not elite but better than average, somewhere between good and great). If Chicago was to draft a new QB, having Shane Waldron might be a good plan.
Looks like the Patriots are going with Jerod Mayo to replace Belichick.
Not shocking.
The interesting question will be how they handle personnel decisions. It’s doubtful they’ll want (or that Mayo will want) to have him in charge of every major decision in the building
Also makes the question of Vrabel very interesting. He’s going to have a job. And probably pretty soon.
Apparently it was already in his contract that he would take over for Belichick:
More on that from The Athletic:
The Patriots were able to hire Mayo so quickly because of language in Mayo’s contract that was unknown before Thursday evening and because of stipulations in the league’s anti-tampering policy and Rooney Rule.
When the Patriots re-worked Mayo’s contract last year to entice Mayo to turn down head coaching interviews elsewhere, they established in writing that Mayo would be the successor to Belichick. They then communicated that with the NFL.
A condition in the Rooney Rule and anti-tampering policy allows teams to bypass the typical interview process if they establish in writing a succession plan and communicate that with the league before the start of the season. Three teams have made use of this provision before
So the Patriots knew all along that they wanted Mayo to succeed Belichick. And they didn’t deviate from that plan even with big names like Harbaugh and Vrabel on the market.
Is it a violation of the Rooney Rule if they hire a minority without interviewing anyone else?
There are two different exceptions to the Rooney Rule that apply here.
If the hire is a member of an ethnic minority group (used to apply only to Black Americans), they can be hired directly. Note the definition the NFL uses can lead to some oddities. Brian Daboll, as a Canadian, counts as a minority head coach (though the Giants did follow the spirit of the rule and interviewed broadly).
Also, if an assistant coach has language in their contract giving them the job in case of the HC job opening up, they don’t have to go through the requirements.
In this case, Mayo satisfies both/either exception