The (NFL) world according to Jim:
• Does it seem as if Brandon Staley has the winning lottery ticket?
Those of us who are anxiously awaiting those Mega Millions and Powerball numbers this week – you can’t fool me; you’re watching them as closely as I am – can’t really relate. We realize you can’t strike it rich right away. (Or, often, at all.)
But Staley, the new coach of the Chargers, may have done just that. He is 38, and he has been an NFL assistant coach for four years. For perspective: He made the jump from Division III John Carroll University, where he’d been defensive coordinator and secondary coach, to the Chicago Bears in 2017.
• He spent two years as outside linebackers coach in Chicago, one year in the same role in Denver, and then a season with the Rams in which his defense was No. 1 in the NFL. (For the moment, let’s forget last Saturday in Green Bay. When Aaron Donald was fully healthy, the Rams defense was dominant.)
• Maybe it’s a reach on the Chargers’ part. Then again, maybe it was a reach on Sean McVay’s part to hire Staley to replace Wade Phillips last January. Or maybe Staley just has that elusive something that works, on the practice field and sideline and in the coordinator’s booth.
• He will be officially introduced as Chargers coach Thursday, via videoconference. But maybe some hints are forthcoming from his last introduction to SoCal, when McVay announced his hiring last February.
“When you talk football – I’d like to think that I love football as much as anybody – you’re sitting there and you’re thinking, ‘This guy might be sicker than I am’,” McVay said, laughing. “… When Brandon came in, there was a clear-cut vision for all of our players and how he saw the ability to accentuate their skillsets within the framework of a sound foundation schematically, how we want to operate.”
• And then there was this from McVay in that February presser, which offers kind of a window into the hiring process:
“It’s a small network of coaches. When you talk to people (where) you really value their input and they’re not going to say things about people unless they genuinely believe it, you hear the word of mouth references. There’s some similar people that I really hold in high regard when they give you an opinion on somebody … Vic (Fangio, Denver’s head coach) is a coach that I really respect and hold in high regard. When you listen to the things he says about Brandon Staley, when you listen to the people that I’ve come in close contact with that have been around him, when you look at the background, it’s impressive. You can feel the passion.”
• The NFL is like most businesses. At the start it’s who you know that gets you ahead, and eventually it’s the credibility of those you’ve worked for that can further your career.
Staley, who told The Athletic’s Robert Mays he’d been studying Fangio’s defenses going back to when he was a JC coordinator and Fangio was at Stanford, made that jump from Division III to the NFL because (a) Fangio, then the Bears’ defensive coordinator, had an opening for an outside linebackers coach, and (b) Dave Ragone, Chicago’s quarterback coach at the time, had played high school ball in Cleveland with John Carroll head coach Tom Arth. Calls were made, Staley got the interview early in 2017, got hired, and jumped on the carousel.
And now he’ll be his mentor’s AFC West rival. The NFL is a small world.
• As Staley pointed out early on: “That’s the exciting thing as a coach, they don’t call you coach without players.”
With the Rams he had Donald and Jalen Ramsey heading his unit. He’s going to take over a Chargers team that has Joey Bosa and Derwin James, plus second-year linebacker Kenneth Murray, as well as an offense teeming with weapons: Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Austin Ekeler, etc. This was, most observers agreed, the most intriguing coaching opening in the NFL and the one with the best chance of immediate success.
But that’s the thing about a winning lottery ticket. You still have to cash it in.
• The NFL hiring trend this offseason seems to be toward first-time head coaches and particularly coordinators: Staley, Robert Saleh (49ers DC to Jets) and Arthur Smith (Titans OC to Atlanta). Detroit is expected to hire New Orleans’ Dan Campbell, who isn’t a coordinator but is Sean Payton’s assistant head coach and was an interim head coach in Miami in 2015.
The only thing close to a recycled former head coach at this point is Urban Meyer in Jacksonville, and it won’t be a surprise if that hire blows up in the Jaguars’ faces. A college guy who has been out of coaching for two years, with a history of health issues, in a situation where he’ll no longer have massive structural advantages … what could possibly go wrong?
• So yes, ex-Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett is still out there. So are two offensive coordinators still active in the playoffs, Brian Daboll (Bills) and Eric Bieniemy (Chiefs), one of whom will be available after next Sunday. And two teams have vacancies left: Philadelphia and Houston.
I understand availability is often a factor in these decisions. But if Bieniemy is again the last guy standing in this game of musical chairs … well, maybe it’s time to put some teeth in the Rooney Rule.
@Jim_Alexander on Twitter
This post first appeared on ocregister.com
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