The year of the young QB-guru head coach

The year of the young QB-guru head coach

Jason La Canfora

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-insider-notes-the-year-of-the-young-qb-guru-head-coach-latest-on-cba-talks-and-an-underrated-kicker-trade/

Try watching NFL games this season without hearing about the growing legion of quarterback-guru head coaches. I dare you.

The trend of another offseason is about to become the backdrop for another season, and the bond between these young coaches is stronger than ever. Sean McVay’s coaching tree with the Rams continues to sprout new roots, with Zac Taylor now running the Bengals and Matt LaFleur with the Packers. And while Kliff Kingsbury in Arizona has only tangential-at-best coaching links to that group, there are some lesser-known ties between him and some of these other rookie head coaches. They generally stay in touch – unless facing one another on the schedule – and will be comparing notes at least to some degree throughout their careers.

“There really is a camaraderie there,” Taylor explained, “but it’s really more because we all knew each other before we got to this level. Kliff and I played together in the CFL for three months and we used to go to the movies every day after practice. That’s where Kliff and I go back to.

“Matt LaFleur, I met at the combine when we were on the field coaching quarterbacks, and that’s where I met (Bears second-year coach) Matt Nagy, too. It was really just a quarterback grouping over last seven years; that’s how we got to know each other and some coordinators, and now head coaches. It just sort of happened that way.”

LaFleur and Taylor have been especially good sounding boards for each other in their rookie years since they don’t have to worry about playing. With the Bengals facing the Rams, Taylor hasn’t been able to call on McVay to the degree he would if they were not on the schedule (Cincy goes to L.A. in Week 8).

“It really goes back to us all knowing each other coming up, and it’s really cool to see LaFleur and I going through the same thing,” Taylor told me. “He’s one of my really close friends, so we do call each other. We’re in opposite conferences, and when you have a question about ‘How are you doing this?’ That’s an easy call to make, and you can be totally transparent, because there is no compromising.

“And with the Rams it’s a little bit different because we play them, you know. So after this season hopefully the Super Bowl would be the only opportunity to play them for a few years, so that would be nice to open the floodgates of communication with Sean a little bit. But right now, understandably, we keep it to outside of football conversations for the most part.”