Here is some speculation that Schwartz could end-up with the 49ers.
Supposedly the Browns passed on a number of HC candidates (or the candidates withdrew) because they insisted the new HC keep Schwartz on as DC.
Sean Mannion is the new OC of the Eagles. Guy is just 33 years old.
And he’s only coached for two years.
He was a career backup QB in the NFL, with the Rams, Vikings, and Seahawks; he last played in a regular-season game in 2021, but he was on the Vikings’ and Seahawks’ practice squads in 2022 and 2023, before retiring as a player after the '23 season.
He joined the Packers as an assistant quarterback/passing game coach in 2024, shortly after he retired as a player, and was elevated to quarterback coach for 2025 when Tom Clements retired.
amazes me how those who were mediocre QB themselves are now able to teach other QB how to be better–those who can’t do, teach? Haven’t said that, I do respect Dan Orlosky for his game/qb technique analysis
I suspect that part of is that “mediocre” NFL quarterbacks are only mediocre in comparison to the starters. They were probably the best quarterbacks ever at their high schools, and one of the better (if not best) quarterbacks ever at their colleges, just to be able to be good enough to even be a backup in the NFL.
A lot of those guys, realizing that they are not likely to ever be a long-term starter in the NFL, likely spend their time as a backup studying the game, and studying how the coaches operate, recognizing that coaching is going to be their best path to continue to be a part of the sport.
And, I also suspect that good quarterback coaches who weren’t star QBs at the NFL level have excellent minds/brains for the sport, but didn’t necessarily have the physical gifts to translate that knowledge to play on the field.
Pretty much that. Of all the high school athletes who ever play, only a vanishingly small number ever make an NFL roster, much less as a QB. Even a ‘mediocre’ NFL QBs is vastly better than 1 in a million at the position compared to the rest of humanity. Of those, some fraction are going to be good at explaining things to other people (not a trivial skill itself).
Yeah, you need a crazy amount of athletic talent to excel at the QB position in the NFL. You do not need that to be a coach in the NFL.
Not a coaching move, but part of the carousel this time of year is also for general managers:
The Vikings fired GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah today, after a disappointing season for a team which had won 14 games the previous year.
They didn’t do particularly well in drafting during Adofo-Mensah’s tenure, and there were rumors of tension and unrest in the front office.
The timing is curious: it took ownership almost four weeks after the end of the season to decide to fire him, and they don’t plan to even start a search for a new GM until after the draft (which is at the end of April). Unless they are planning to promote from within the organization (in which case, why not do that now?), I have a difficult time imagining that they can attract an excellent candidate to the job if they aren’t even going to hire that person until after the draft and free agency: the new GM would have had no say in the Vikes’ most important personnel decisions for 2026.
They plan to do a draft without a GM? That sounds like insanity to me.
What are the odds they fail to submit a pick in time and other teams jump ahead of them like in 2003, I wonder. (They had the 7th pick but didn’t end up picking until 9th because the Jags and Panthers jumped ahead of them when their clock expired.)
The article notes:
Brzezinski has been in administrative roles for the Vikings since 1999, but has not ever been a GM or director of player personnel.
So, yeah, this feels weird, and unlikely to turn out well.
Will it turn out worse than using a first round pick on JJ McCarthy?
I don’t get it either. You shouldn’t fire a guy without a good idea who will replace him. And even worse taking so long as to not let him do one of the most important parts of his job in his first year.
The Packers formally announced today that they have signed head coach Matt LaFleur, GM Brian Gutekunst, and director of football operations Russ Ball, to multi-year contract extensions.
None of this is really news; it was announced a couple of weeks ago that they had come to terms with LaFleur, and the others were assumed to be happening, as well. Exact details of the extensions weren’t revealed in this official press release.
The reasons why any of this was in question were twofold:
- The Packers, who were 9-3-1 in early December, ended the year with five straight losses, including giving up a big lead in the wild-card game against the Bears. Injuries to key players undoubtedly took a toll, but even so, it was a bad finish to what had been a promising season, and the second straight year in which they were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round.
- Packers president* Ed Policy took over the position this past July, after the retirement of longtime president Mark Murphy. There were some questions as to whether Policy might choose to shake things up, especially as LaFleur would have been on the last year of his old deal in '26, and Policy had stated that he did not want to have a “lame duck” coach.
*- Being publicly-owned, the Packers don’t have a “majority owner,” unlike other teams; the role of team president is their closest analog, and the president serves that function for the team at league owner meetings.
In a huge bummer for Seattle fans, it’s expected that OC Klint Kubiak is going to either be the new HC for either Arizona or Las Vegas.
Most likely Las Vegas.
We have to believe the Raiders have the edge over Arizona.
After all, Las Vegas has the No. 1 pick that will almost certainly turn into Fernando Mendoza, and they have excellent foundational pieces on offense in Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty.
As I said earlier:
I expected this when I’d heard earlier that another potential candidate for the Las Vegas job dropped out of consideration.
Las Vegas reportedly lost out on another head coaching candidate Thursday when NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Denver Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb planned to withdraw from the Raiders’ search.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Thursday that one candidate told him the Raiders’ head coaching position was “probably (Kubiak’s) job to lose.”
It sucks because he has only been in Seattle for one year.
I can’t blame him though. It’s not like you get an opportunity like this all the time. His first OC job was back in 2021 in Minnesota, and I expect this is the first time anyone has courted him for the HC position. And if he stays in Seattle, and there is any kind of decline offensively for whatever reason (say Darnold gets hurt early in the year and they have to fall back to Drew Lock or Jalen Milroe for the rest of the season) teams might lose interest.
Total insanity.
What quality GM candidate is going to be ok with taking responsibility for the result of a draft they had absolutely no part of and in also having to deal with either the limited (putting it mildly) cap space they currently have or the aftermath of any cap clearing deals the Vikings make before even getting hired?
Unless, of course, their future GM is already in the building. This is very much a case where they’re probably going to have to promote from within, whether they want to or not.
“Hey buddy, we really screwed up our team badly. Can you come fix it? Thanks!”
Great pitch to snag a potential GM.
The only other real options would seem to be:
- A guy who has GM or player personnel experience, but is currently unemployed – which would suggest that he isn’t a great candidate, if he doesn’t currently have a seat somewhere.
- A guy who’s a tier below the GM at some other team, and who is so ambitious to get the GM title that he’s willing to take on a situation like this.
- A “caretaker” GM to fill the role for 2026, with the anticipation that the team will do a complete housecleaning after the season – which is a terrible message to send to fans, as well as the current team and staff.
Any new GM assumes the existing baggage, no matter when they get hired. You can be a pessimist and look at this as joining too late to help with the current year. But the optimistic view is that the new hire will have 10 months to figure out a plan for the 2027 draft and free agency, versus someone who gets hired in January of next year.
The new hire is basically getting a freebie - if the draft works out, he reaps the benefits, and if it doesn’t then it wasn’t his fault.
In a sane world, yes, but in the NFL, anybody in the building who is not the owner can be blamed for anything at any time. Owners have an interesting way of forgetting context when the losses start piling up and fans starting voicing their displeasure after a couple bad seasons
It’s a dicey position to be in. The team does likely get worse, but then your job, even if you aren’t blamed, is even harder the next year as you have more than usual to clean up. And if the team has somehow done ok, you don’t get any credit for that, either.
A freebie year it may be but also a whole year where your resume and reputation aren’t really improved, either.
Broncos defensive pass game coordinator / assistant head coach Jim Leonhard joins the Bills as their defensive coordinator.
Leonhard played as a defensive back in the NFL for ten seasons, four of them with Buffalo. The Packers had apparently expressed some interest in Leonhard (who was born and raised in Wisconsin, and both played and coached for the University of Wisconsin), but were apparently unwilling to wait for him to become available for an in-person interview – this disappointed me a lot, as I think that Leonhard is a very strong defensive coach, as well as a local guy.