Taking inventory: QB, RB, WR, O-line, and another defensive backfield coach remain open

[_sturt_]

Offense

• Joseph (CHI) interviewed for the QB coach opening, and seems likely since Schotty was one of his first bosses in SEA, and he just finished working for Eberflus.
• Foster (NO) interviewed for the RB coach opening.
• Montgomery (DET) interviewed for the OC opening, but plausibly may have been simultaneously getting consideration as RB coach.
• Or, here's another interesting facet to Montgomery, his first NFL job was three years of coaching Hines Ward and Antonio Brown in Pittsburgh. And yes, he's been a QB coach. And yes, he's been an FBS head coach. So,
• Keep Chad Morton on the radar for RB coach. Like Joseph, but even more so, he's had strong connections with both the HC and the DC.
• No one has been mentioned yet for the WR coach opening to my knowledge.
• No one has been mentioned yet for the O-line coach opening to my knowledge, but some seem to believe that will be handled by the OC, while it also remains a possibility that long-time Schotty colleague Solari stays on.

It would make sense that they purposely have waited to move forward with most of the offensive position coaches, wanting to solidify who was going to be OC first, and maybe, no probably, also involve him in some interviews as well.

Defense

• A passing game coordinator (Curtis) has been named, so you presume he's either going to coach safeties or DBs, not both, and that they're looking for that other guy. No one has been mentioned to my knowledge

Me, my one enduring hope is that there's an Assistant Head Coach on the horizon who doubles as one of these position coaches, but importantly to me with us having a rookie head coach, a guy who adds a second former NFL head coach to the room.

 

[_sturt_]

New discovery, plausibly worthy of note...

Also, notice that both the O-line guys who our new OC worked with are currently out of the NFL, and thus, available.

Also also... notice that their head coach has always been a well-regarded QB coach. Just sayin.

 

[_sturt_]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-hired-to-analyze-league-trends-game-planning

https://sports.yahoo.com/cowboys-hi...que-new-role-on-coaching-staff-152949111.html

So, here's a thought.

At what point did it become important to have this Consultant/Analyst/Coordinator-of-Coordinators role, and why did it cease to be important once Kellen was gone, McCarthy started playcalling and Schotty became OC...?

My reason for adding it to this thread... is it more likely or less likely that we should anticipate a similar hire in this hiring cycle?

51%+ of me figures it was either the Joneses idea that McCarthy decided to torpedo, or it was McCarthy's idea that the Joneses told him they didn't consider a merited expense any more. Of course, it also could have been that both parties were enthusiastic about the idea at first, and then mutually agreed wasn't necessary. Who knows. But I have to admit as an outsider, it actually seemed to me to make a lot of sense to have someone on the coaching staff helping advise the HC and his coordinators on each individual opponent. I suppose that's usually been something assigned to someone under McClay's team of scouts, but I like the idea of someone on the coaching staff with coaching credentials being that guy.

Related, but different.

Since the OC himself seemingly will be regarded as the run game coordinator... should we anticipate maybe that the QB or WR position coach will also get a "passing game coordinator" title/responsibility?

(Just spitballin, and didn't think it made sense to create a whole new thread.)

 

[_sturt_]

It costs me nothing to say so, but theoretically speaking, if given 2:1 odds, I'd happily take the $100 bet that Sanjay Lal will successfully be poached from LAC, as he'll follow ARE's path to a new WR/Asst HC job in DAL. Okay, maybe just $50, but still. This has seemed like it should happen all this time, and suspiciously the WR opening hasn't been discussed at all so far (... though, now that I post this, watch for breaking news that I'm wrong within the hour ... it happens).




Loree misses that the two spent significant time in SEA as well.

 

[_sturt_]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennan_Carroll

This guy is one example of someone who may fit the "fun" script Nick's suggesting. Was Schotty's run game coordinator in SEA while sharing O-line duties.

 

[noshame]

Oh yeah, keep solari, that way.I know we'll have the top pick in the twenty twenty six draft.

 

[_sturt_]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennan_Carroll

This guy is one example of someone who may fit the "fun" script Nick's suggesting. Was Schotty's run game coordinator in SEA while sharing O-line duties.

Doh!

Well, I was right about the guy getting an NFL gig, anyways... but silly me, didn't think twice about that last name...

 

[gtb1943]

OL coach to me is the critical position coach this year. We might have young talent that an excellent coach could make into good starters or at the least good backups.

 

[_sturt_]

OL coach to me is the critical position coach this year. We might have young talent that an excellent coach could make into good starters or at the least good backups.

Doubtful you're going to get an OL coach who isn't better described as "assistant OL coach." Your OC is likely your ex-officio OL coach no matter what, imo. It's the reason (again imo), we're not going to see Solari come back... whoever is hired into the position is going to be expected to be an extension of Adams, and thus, Adams' ideas about how things should be coached.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, of course. But I'm just sayin... don't look for some well-established OL guy who has his own principles that he coaches from, unless he is also someone that comes from the same coaching tree as Adams himself.

 

[_sturt_]

Also, notice that both the O-line guys who our new OC worked with are currently out of the NFL, and thus, available.

Also also... notice that their head coach has always been a well-regarded QB coach.

So, with college recruiting mostly done now, perhaps that could be the starting gun for some of the college options to get more serious--arguably, plausibly, they have someone in mind that was recruiting for their school, and they just were gracious enough to allow the guy and his school the time so as not to cripple their efforts.


O-Line coach
One name to keep in-mind would be the guy who was the OL coach with Schotty when he spent time at Georgia in 2015. Rob Sale is currently OC at Florida. He also had a cup of coffee as the Giants' OL coach under Joe Judge for one season.

If not? If not, the best guess here is that attention should turn back to guys with whom Adams cut his NFL teeth... Chris Strausser (just let go from HOU) used to be his boss, and Kevin Mawae (out of football last year or two), the former pro bowl Titans guard, took Adams's assistant OL slot before Adams left for ARZ. So there should be some natural continuity/familiarity there, either way.



QB coach
Yeah, Frank Reich could be someone that Adams would take special interest in, having coached under him. As I've said before, I'm hard to convince they'd hire anyone for that slot out of the FBS ranks for a veteran QB like Zak to work with. I'm with those who think they interviewed Ken Dorsey more for the QB job than for the OC... but if they liked him all that much, surely he'd already have been hired. Same goes for Kerry Joseph who was the first to interview, and perhaps should have been the odds-on favorite, having spent time both with Schotty in SEA and with Flusy in CHI. Then again, they just hired the guy to be RB coach who was the first to interview and seemingly was getting passed over... maybe shouldn't be so quick to disregard either.

Pretty much anyone in the league for 2024 who meets the criteria of...

(a) being somewhat older than Dak,
(b) has any NFL QB coach track record, and
(c) has logged any time working on a staff with either Schotty or Adams

...seems to be already committed for the 2025 season.

That leaves me to circle back to the college options who meet some or all of those check boxes.

What I find are these names that should be somewhat familiar:

- Pat Shurmur (Colorado)... no connection, but significant NFL experience

- Schotty's former boss in IND (and former CLE head coach) Rob Chudzinski, currently at Boston College, but since Chudzinksi was an OC who came up as a TE coach, probably not

- Mike Shula (South Carolina)... no connection, but significant NFL experience

- Hue Jackson (Georgia State) who happens to have got his start under Marty in his last year with the Commanders... if that counts as a connection, who knows

- Tim Lester (Iowa) who you've almost certainly never heard of, but did spend one season on the offensive staff in Green Bay... but also, no connection

(Pep Hamilton literally just got named this week to be the new OC for Maryland, so I'm mentioning him, but that one would seem to be extra unlikely.)

 

[_sturt_]

I'm presuming NFL is going to frown on anything else going down and being announced between now and Sunday night, and besides, not a lot of work is likely to get done as long as there are parties to attend in New Orleans.

But perhaps by Tuesday we're going to learn from some insiders, at least, who the favorites are to fill the remaining positions.

Just from where I sit, I'm growing more intrigued by Hue Jackson coming here to lead the QB room. Jackson's an example of a hot-shot coordinator getting perhaps a too-quick opportunity to be head coach, but there's been some years since that time, and his reputation was mostly built on being a quarterback-whisperer. Turns out, if you're in Cleveland at the wrong time, there's just not a lot of QB talent to have ever worked any magic with anyways. But that would obviously be an out-of-left-field kind of move. The safer money would seem to be placed on Ken Dorsey, who of course interviewed for the OC slot, and has always been well regarded as a solid QB coach--likely the kind of position he's going to have to be satisfied with in the NFL having been bounced out of the OC chair twice in such rapid fashion. I do think Adams almost certainly would have trial ballooned the idea of his old boss, Frank Reich, getting an interview (one assumes the two liked working with each other). But whether there would be actual mutual interest between Reich and the Joneses? I'm a skeptic. I doubt out of the shoot that, even if they both had mutual regard, that the Joneses would be willing to compensate Reich at a level Reich would think his reputation/history deserves. (Less compelling, more interesting, is the idea of a man who has both a substantial Bills history and a substantial Eagles history being given the keys to a piece of Cowboys success/regress.)

At O-line, as much significance as some fans have put on it, I think that's overblown at this point... whoever is officially the OL position coach is either going to be some young buck college coach who looks heavily to his OC for mentorship, or is going to be someone Adams has coached with previously (Chris Strausser or Kevin Mawae most likely), and thus, likely shares a lot of the same convictions about how to coach the position anyways.

WR coach is almost certainly, imo, going to be former long-time Cowboys assistant Kyle Valero. I personally prefer the thought, and forgive me if I'm a broken record, that Sanjay Lal would be given an Assistant Coach title in order to gain the leverage to get him back on staff here as, also, the WR coach. But logic suggests that would have already happened if it were going to happen. And so, the one thing that couldn't have happened but that makes sense is... you bring back a guy who was an Asst WR coach here forever, and give him his first big chair promotion.

 

[_sturt_]

I'm presuming NFL is going to frown on anything else going down and being announced between now and Sunday night, and besides, not a lot of work is likely to get done as long as there are parties to attend in New Orleans.

But perhaps by Tuesday we're going to learn from some insiders, at least, who the favorites are to fill the remaining positions.

Youse guys can thank me.

All it took was me posting this yesterday, and well... playing reverse psychology games with the football gods does work, I'm here to tell ya.