Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Rams Huddle › Why your team's hunt for an offensive coordinator isn't going so well
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January 20, 2015 at 8:46 pm #16968znModerator
Why your team’s hunt for an offensive coordinator isn’t going so well
LA Confora
January 20, 2015
When it comes to offensive coordinators, NFL teams are running out of names, and running out of ideas. And some teams may be running out of time.
I can’t recall another year when the Senior Bowl practices have started and a quarter of the league still does not have its offensive coordinator in place. And many teams haven’t yet even interviewed the guy they are going to hire.
The head coaching searches dragged out this year, at least in part due to the success certain top candidates were having in the postseason, and that certainly contributed to this stagnation on the coordinator market, but it’s hardly the only culprit. As I write this, the Raiders are giving strong consideration to making Bill Musgrave their offensive coordinator – hardly a dynamic, progressive, inspiring hire. And the Jets are having deep second-thoughts about Chan Gailey, who’s hardly a dynamic, progressive, inspiring potential hire. And the Browns are mulling guys like Charlie Weis and Matt Cavanaugh (who recently failed fairly ingloriously in the college ranks), who most assumed would not be getting NFL paychecks anytime soon, if ever. And the 49ers are giving serious consideration to Lane Kiffin(!) who had a spectacular flameout in the Bay Area with Oakland and brings plenty of baggage with him. And the Ravens, Rams, Jags, Bears still need an offensive coordinator, too.
Hell, the Falcons were so scared off by the lack of elite candidates and the possibility of losing out on one that they convinced Kyle Shanahan, who was highly coveted, to agree to become their coordinator a good two weeks before they could even offer the head coaching job to Dan Quinn, who will be coaching Seattle’s defense in the Super Bowl. And kudos to them for pulling it off, because as bad as this picture looks right now, two weeks from now it’ll be even worse. There just aren’t enough guys out there.
Seems to me like the endless churn in the NFL, having 6-8 regime changes every year, has outpaced the ability to adequately staff these coaching rosters. Some other factors are at play as well. With offense booming in the NFL and chicks digging the long ball, and owners liking the scoring hike and the rating hike that have come with it, the trend for the better part of this decade was hiring offensive-minded head coaches and quarterback gurus. So, that began to deplete the ranks of the up-and-coming young guys.
Teams also are very willing to block young position coaches under contract from taking coordinator jobs. It has become increasingly commonplace, and that has led to this plight as well. We’ve seen far fewer college coaches jumping to the pros in recent years, also, which usually brings new talent with them that they bring over, who then rise up the ranks as potential coordinators and head coaches. And with the kind of money being thrown around in the (allegedly) amateur game, there isn’t any reason anymore for a rising college head coach to give it a whirl as an NFL coordinator anymore to prove his worth as an eventual pro head coach. That doesn’t exist or happen anymore.
So in a copycat league with the trend being all-offense for so long, and with some teams being proprietary with their young assistants, we’re left with a year of retreads making the rounds. (It also explains why all of the head coaching hires, all except for Denver, in fact — where John Elway was always going to try to hire his longtime friend Gary Kubiak — were on the defensive side of the ball. If we can’t come up with enough worthy offensive coordinator candidates then forget about it as offensive-minded head coaches).
And with so many clubs making coordinator changes this year, and some teams, like Denver, blowing up their staffs weeks into the offseason, we’ve got a glut of openings, only a few standout names who multiple teams are vying to hire on their offensive staffs (e.g. Adam Gase, Marc Trestman) and a bunch of teams talking to guys who I frankly didn’t think would be interviewing for these jobs again.
Marc Trestman may not be a head coach, but he can coach up some offense, and I have a hard time thinking he doesn’t land one of these gigs if he wants it (he’ll also be selective about where he goes). If you can pry Alex Van Pelt out of Green Bay, you should do it. Rob Chudzinski will end up with something, and he’s a worthy candidate as well.
But expect plenty of fanbases to be up in arms about who ends up in charge of their quarterbacks and offense for the 2015 season. There just aren’t enough bonafides out there to fill this void, and skeptics will abound as some of these staffs are assembled and some coaches are recycled who you probably thought you’d seen the last of.
January 20, 2015 at 9:24 pm #16969wvParticipantEnh. To me, that reads a lot like the articles that
say this is a weak QB class. Well, who the hell
knows if its a weak QB class? And who the hell
knows how many great OC’s are out there
just waiting for a chance.w
vJanuary 21, 2015 at 12:41 pm #17056bnwBlockedHire Martz now.
The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.
Sprinkles are for winners.
January 21, 2015 at 2:36 pm #17064DakParticipantHire Martz now.
Not going to happen in STL, but these teams with openings could do worse than Martz. I guess since he’s not even getting interviews, that tells you how far away Martz is from getting back into the NFL again.
January 21, 2015 at 5:24 pm #17079wvParticipantBrowns pass on Rams-affiliated coordinator candidates
By Nick Wagoner[espn.go.com]
EARTH CITY, Mo. — Another offensive coordinator job went off the board Wednesday morning when the Cleveland Browns decided to go with former Raiders quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo to fill their vacancy.
That news came a day after it was revealed that the Browns had showed interest in a pair of intriguing candidates with ties to the St. Louis Rams. Cleveland spoke to current Rams quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti and former Rams head coach Mike Martz about the job on Tuesday at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. In their own way, both of those conversations came as a bit of a surprise.
Cignetti has been the Rams quarterbacks coach since 2012 when Jeff Fisher came on as head coach. Cignetti has coordinator experience at the college level, doing the job at Fresno State, North Carolina, Cal, Rutgers and Pittsburgh. He has never done it at the NFL level, however.
Martz has been out of the league since after the 2011 season following stints as offensive coordinator in San Francisco, Detroit and Chicago after his departure from St. Louis. He was the Rams head coach from 2000 to 2005, compiling a 56-36 record that would probably be a welcome sight around St. Louis these days.
In the past 24 hours, the Browns (DeFilippo), Jacksonville Jaguars (Greg Olson), Oakland Raiders (Bill Musgrave), Baltimore Ravens (Marc Trestman) and New York Jets (Chan Gailey) have filled their offensive coordinator jobs. Neither Cignetti nor Martz has been tied to the open job in St. Louis to this point.
It’s unlikely Martz would be an option for the Rams though it would be a lot of fun for fans and media. Cignetti is an in-house candidate who could be considered though most signs point to tight ends coach Rob Boras being the strongest possibility of those on the current staff.
January 21, 2015 at 5:27 pm #17080DakParticipantI take it back. Martz has received an interview.
January 29, 2015 at 1:05 am #17627znModeratorReport: Eagles assistant doesn’t want 49ers coordinator job
Darin Gantt
The 49ers chose tranquility and control over Jim Harbaugh and his coaching staff.
And now, it looks like they’re having a hard time finding people willing to join new coach Jim Tomsula’s staff.
Via Geoff Mosher of CSNPhilly.com, Tomsula and Eagles receivers coach Bob Bicknell talked about the vacant 49ers offensive coordinator job, but Bicknell wants to stay with the Eagles.
The 49ers were also denied a chance to talk to Colts assistant Rob Chudzinski, and .they could be scrambling to fill a staff.
Moving quarterbacks coach Geep Chryst into that job might be the most sensible option they have with other reported additions to the staff.
But very little about the 49ers can be described as sensible the last several months, so that may not matter.
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