NFL insider notes: Divisional round teams provide clues to potential head coaching hires in 2022 and beyond

A longtime NFL assistant coach, scout and director of personnel told me long ago that there are always lessons to be learned about team building and coaching evaluations from the last eight clubs. remaining in the league.

There are clues to the trends of success to be drawn from how the rosters were constructed, the overarching philosophies these teams espouse, and how their coaching staffs were constructed. There are reasons why teams reach the divisional round and beyond, and smart owners and team presidents – especially those doing coaching and/or general manager research – will mine those data points. to help direct them to the right people.

At a time when a quarterback in the league is looking for a new head coach and with three teams looking for a general manager, now seemed like the right time to lead the exercise myself. And there are certainly some conclusions to draw and some family trees to focus on. Of course, not every trainer who has worked under the guidance of a head coach – or under certain coaching principles – will be as successful as the best, or even nearly as successful in most places, but there are certainly some trends that stand out to me as we assess the final eight teams remaining in the NFL.

For example, half of the teams have a head coach who is part of the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay family tree. Shanahan, coach of the 49ers, was the offensive coordinator in Washington when his father, Mike, was the head coach. And on that staff were assistants like McVay, who brought the Rams back to the playoffs, and Matt LaFleur, who has won more regular-season games in the past three years since taking over as coach. -leader in Green Bay than anyone. And, shortly after taking over the Rams, McVay hired Zac Taylor from the University of Cincinnati to join his new staff; Taylor’s Bengals just erased a 30-year playoff drought last week.

Pretty impressive, and the sort of thing that tends to resonate with homeowners at this time of year. When you look at the remaining NFL coaches who are on the younger side — say, under 60 — there are only six left standing, and only four offensive coaches remaining: the four mentioned above. Mike Vrabel (Tennessee) and Sean McDermott (Buffalo) come from the defensive end of the ball, while Andy Reid (Chiefs) is 63 and Bruce Arians (Tampa) is 69 and both are much closer to the end of their career only from the start. .

With that in mind, I wonder if, among the group of young offensive assistants making the rounds, Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, 42, ends up getting one of those jobs after spending the last three years with TheFlower. (Hackett has worked in Jacksonville before, been interviewed there before, and some in the industry believe the Jaguars could block the process to hire a coach who is still involved in the playoffs and therefore cannot lead a second head coach interview this week.)

Taylor’s offensive coordinator Brian Callahan is starting to get his first interview requests for head coaching jobs, and if something doesn’t happen this cycle, you can expect him to be among the hottest names this time next year. The buzz will only get stronger. Teams have been sniffing Shanahan’s chief running game guru, Mike McDaniel, for a few years now, and the Dolphins have him on their interview list. Others will probably follow.

When you look at the defensive coordinators still alive in the playoffs, there’s a certain trend that’s hard to miss as well, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The tentacles of Reid’s coaching tree have spread wide on offense and defense. (McDermott grew as a coach under Reid with the Eagles, eventually becoming his defensive coordinator, while Bills’ defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier first coached Reid’s initial staff in Philly in 1999 in NFL. as defensive backs coach.)

The Arians staff in Tampa is getting a lot of attention among those looking for a head coach, and rightly so. It should be noted that Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles was with Reid in 2012, his senior year in Philadelphia. There’s a growing sense that 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans is a head coach in the making; he played under Reid in the coach’s final season in Philadelphia. And, of course, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a long history with Reid dating back to his early days with the Eagles.

The Reid and Shanahan/McVay effect is everywhere as we head into the final weekends of the season. And with not a single team to hire a new coach, but more teams firing them every week… well, something has to give here very soon, and the path to many of those hires could be through those two particular forests.

Personally, you can’t convince me that Frazier and Bowles shouldn’t be head coaches right now; both have already done the work at this level and are leaders and teachers. (I tend to favor a defensive or special teams head coach model; years of watching football with Bill Cowher won me over.) I think it’s ridiculous that the teams coach Chiefs specials Dave Toub continues to be overlooked for opportunities. I find it odd that more teams haven’t explored the hiring of Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, and the movie that Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll released last weekend at the expense of Bill Belichick should be more than enough to cement his NFL status. head coach somewhere.

But you never know.

Many owners looking for head coaches have found themselves in this position time and time again, with nothing but losses to show for it. How these processes are unfolding is already baffling many around the NFL. If you need to talk to more than 20 people to find your match, you’re probably wrong and haven’t done enough research beforehand. The fact that no one has been hired yet is disconcerting on some levels.

This may indicate that the level of interest is highest among those who cannot yet be officially hired. And if so, we know where they’re looking. Most points connect to the same places.