The Kevin Sheehan Show - Chip Kelly As OC?

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Kevin today with follow-up thoughts on the hiring of Dan Quinn as the Commanders' new head coach and the possibility that Chip Kelly could become the team's new Offensive Coordinator. Jay Gruden jumped on as well with his reaction to the Quinn hiring.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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I appreciate it. Subscribe to the podcast. That helps us also follow us on Apple and Spotify as well. So how are we feeling today, 24 hours after Dan, Quinn became the new head coach here in Washington. Have we calmed down a little bit some of you? I don't think so based on social media reaction, based on some of the calls to the radio show today. I mean, some of you are not only out on Dan Quinn, but because Dan Quinn was hired, you are now out on Adam Peters. Man, what a run Adam Peters had. Two and a half full weeks for some of you before you are now looking for

two years down the road who the next GM will be, I guess. I have some thoughts 24 hours after the fact. They're not much different from yesterday, but upon reflection, I kind of put together six takeaways from not just the Dan Quinn News, but the news of the week, really. Remember, we started this week off thinking that we would be here on Friday with Ben Johnson

already introduced as the new head coach. I will tell you that I am not any more upset than I was yesterday, which was zero upset. I was not emotionally distressed like some of you, and I'm not emotionally dismayed today. But I did summarize just a few thoughts on the Dan Quinn hiring. I did want to mention that as of the recording of this podcast, there is no official news on coordinator hires, on staff editions for Quinn. But, man, there was some news yesterday and last evening in particular. The big report being from Jeremy Fowler at ESPN that Chip Kelly is a candidate for the commander's OC position.

That was followed up by Jonathan Jones from CBS, who he said there was a source with one team who interviewed Dan Quinn. who said that Quinn mentioned Chip Kelly as a potential offensive coordinator. Now, if Quinn sent some of you off the bridge into the river, Kelly apparently is doing the same thing. Hey, they're not hiring Chip Kelly to be the head coach. If they were to hire Chip Kelly, it would be to be the offensive coordinator or some sort of offensive, you know, position. Chip Kelly, the head coach in the NFL, not great, not terrible.

He was 10 and 6 year 1 in Philadelphia, 10 and 6 in year 2 in Philadelphia, had a top three offense basically based on every advanced measure, every traditional measure, those first two years in Philadelphia. Third year wasn't great. The year in San Francisco as a head coach in 2016 was a disaster. I do agree with those of you who would say Chip Kelly is more of a college coach than an NFL coach, head coach, but make no mistake, if you were to ask anybody in football about Chip Kelly's offensive prowess, many would refer to it as genius. So Chip Kelly is a prospect for the OC position that doesn't alarm me at all. Anyway, there's other news related to the OC search.

This might be some disappointing news. Adam Schuster reporting. this afternoon that the Saints are working on a deal with 49ers passing game specialist Clint Kubiak. Clint Kubiak and Brian Greasy with the 49ers were on, I think, some short lists, speculative lists of potential OCs for Dan Quinn here in Washington, in part because of the Adam Peters connection to the 49ers and because of Dan Quinn's connection to Kyle Shanahan. But if Clint Kubiak heads to New Orleans, that would leave Brian Greasy on that staff as a possibility. I like Clint Kubiak. I actually thought last night thinking about this that Kubiak would be a good choice and would

probably be a target for this group. Kubiak was an offensive coordinator in Minnesota for just one season following his father who took over for Stefanski when he got the job in Cleveland. And then Gary Kubiak came back and was the offensive coordinator for one season during COVID, the COVID 2020 season. And then he retired and his son took over. And Minnesota was very good offensively in Clint Kubiak's one season. But it looks like he might be getting the New Orleans job. We'll see that would leave Brian Greasy, Chip Kelly, Brian Schottenheimer, Frank Reich, a lot of other names that we have mentioned as

well. So we will certainly keep track of that. But as of this recording, no news on that. Now, with respect to the defensive coordinator, there was news yesterday. And the news was that Joe Witt, Jr. was likely going to become the defensive coordinator for Dan Quinn here in D.C. Joe Witt Jr. was his secondary coach and past game coordinator in Dallas. Now, those are reports. Kime had. you know, that this was a possibility. Others did as well, but it's nothing official at this point as it relates to coordinator hires. But that is big, obviously right now, and that is paramount for Dan Quinn and Adam Peters and company to get a staff filled out. By the way, I would encourage all of you to listen to my conversation with Charlie Casserly on the radio show today. Charlie talked

a lot about, you know, interviews and the discussion of putting together a staff and how that comes to be. He was excellent. It was good to catch up with Charlie. You can find that at the Team 980.com or by downloading the Odyssey app and listening to it on that. Two pieces of sound for you coming up. Something Dan Quinn said late this season during one of his press conferences in Dallas about a candidate for head coach in Washington at the time. You will hear that coming up. Also, Mike Garifolo from the NFL network, he had some news related to the Ben Johnson saga.

I'm going to play that for you as well. So here's a list of some takeaways. upon some reflection on the news yesterday. Number one is this. We can talk specifically about the Dan Quinn hired. Do you like it? Don't you like it? What did you like about him as a coordinator in Seattle?

What did you like about him as a head coach? What didn't you like about him as a head coach in Atlanta? You know, I have some people telling me that the loss in the Super Bowl to New England is a disqualifier. The loss to Green Bay a few weeks ago in the postseason is a disqualifier. It's not for me. The Dallas Green Bay game a few weeks ago was a concern. I'm not going to lie to you. I came in here the next day, or it was the next day, right?

Because the game was on a Sunday saying, wow, Dan Quinn is a candidate here in Washington. Maybe not after that performance. But he's got a much larger resume. than just two games. But takeaway number one is, while we can talk about Dan Quinn and how it came about, this is not about yesterday.

This is about what they've done so far since Josh Harris had a chance as the owner of this football team to start making football decisions. I know some of you think he could have made him last summer or during the season. It was never going to be that. were going to sit back, they were going to observe, and it was going to start when the season

ended with the firing of Ron Rivera, and then the hiring of a general manager, and then a head coach. And I will repeat what I said yesterday, because for me, it's a big part of the way I feel right now, not just benefit of doubt guy, but that in three weeks, essentially, they have hired the number one GM candidate in this hiring cycle. This GM candidate was pitched by this group and then chose this group, which would have never happened in the past. They got the number one GM candidate in Adam Peters. And then yesterday, they ended up getting one of their top choices as a head coach. That's not a bad three-week run. I don't know why everybody thinks. they deserve to get the number one GM and the number one coaching candidate in this coaching

hiring cycle. I don't know why you just assume they should be getting the best of the best or the perceived top-level candidates. I think the last three weeks have gone well. I think they've been successful. There's more to go. The hiring of a staff, the key hire of an offensive coordinator, free agency, draft, games to be played for a couple of years.

But I like this start. That's takeaway number one. Takeaway number two is, for emphasis, he was one of their top choices. Do not believe this narrative that's been perpetuated by a lot of people, a lot of credible people, that he was an afterthought, that they had to settle for Dan Quinn,

that he was choice number five or six. that's not true. Based on all of my sources, based on Adam Schaefter's reporting, based on a lot of other people who know and are in the know, they loved Dan Quinn from the jump, from the jump. Now, why did they wait? That's an obvious question. Tommy and I talked about this yesterday.

They waited because they are more of a, deliberative group in their decision-making process. They wanted to cross all the T's and dot all the eyes, and they wanted to wait for face-to-face interviews with some of the other candidates. Even if Ben Johnson didn't interview well, which you'll hear Mike Garifolo talk about in the initial interview, they wanted to sit down face-to-face with Ben Johnson, the top offensive coordinator candidate in this cycle. They wanted to sit down with McDonald, with Aaron Glenn, with Anthony Weaver as well, face-to-face.

They couldn't do that until this week. But do not accept that Dan Quinn was somehow the seventh guy on their list, and they were desperate. And this was a desperation hire. This was not Ron Rivera and Dan Snyder and everybody in that organization, when they weren't able to pull off the trade for Russell Wilson, and Jimmy Garoppolo was going to have surgery, and they were desperate, and they went and got Carson Wentz, and they overpaid desperately for Carson Wentz. That's not what happened yesterday. I have multiple people going back two weeks now who have told me, from the beginning, they were super impressed with Dan Quinn, and he was right at the top or

near the top of their list. It's just incorrect to talk about this hiring as an afterthought we had to settle for situation. It's not true. Thought number three upon further reflection on the hiring of Dan Quinn. I think he's a solid hire. Just specific to Dan Quinn, I think he's a solid hire. He is a known leader. That's what they wanted.

I wanted them to get who they wanted. the kind of coach that they wanted. They wanted a leader. They told us that. Quinn is known for being a great leader more than anything else. Another thing that Charlie Casserly told me in my conversation with Charlie this morning on radio. He knows Dan Quinn. He likes the hire because Dan Quinn is a tremendous leader.

This is what they were looking for. If this is what they were looking for, I don't think they were going to get it with Ben Johnson, upon further review. Dan Quinn is a leader. Players, coaches view him as a big voice and as a big leader in an organization. Now, what kind of coach is he? He's a decent coach.

Worst case. Worse case. He's been an outstanding defensive coordinator. I want him to call plays. I don't want him to turn over play-calling responsibilities. to his defensive coordinator, I want him to do what he does best, design the defensive game plan, and call the defensive plays. We'll find out when he's introduced if that's what is going to happen here.

It happened on and off in Atlanta. He took it on initially, then delegated it, then took it back, then delegated it, and then took it back again. And ultimately decided that that's what he likes doing, and he's good at it. I think Quinn's a solid hire. Would I have preferred an offensive guy? Yes, for the reasons we've discussed many times.

But I think Quinn is a solid hire. I think this is not Jim Zorn. This is not, I mean, all due respect to Jay Gruden, when he was hired as a hot offensive coordinator hire, Dan Quinn's been a head coach, and he coached a team to a Super Bowl. He coached a team as a Super Bowl runner up back to the postseason and got close to the NFC championship game again.

Yes, he needs an offensive coordinator and a good one. I agree with that. Number four, I just once again need to emphasize how ridiculous it is comparing Dan Quinn to Ron Rivera. It's just lazy. Ron Rivera is similar to Dan Quinn as a defensive guy, as a former head coach in the NFC South that took a team to a Super Bowl, as a well-respected, well-liked guy with a comparable resume,

although again, Rivera's was better than Quinn's in terms of overall record. After that, there isn't much that's similar. and the reason being is that Ron Rivera came to work for Dan Snyder. He came to work not as a head coach, but as a combined head coach and general manager. And it turned him into, as he referred to, more of a CEO delegating head coach. That's not what Dan Quinn's coming to do here. Would Ron Rivera have been a better coach had he just been hired by a general manager here to be a coach without Dan Snyder in the organization?

Yeah, probably. He would have been. And that's the big difference. Dan Quinn's coming to a functional organization with now a typical structure. Owner, general manager, head coach, and he's going to be asked to coach the football team. Next takeaway is this, man, the biggest hire, maybe even bigger than Dan Quinn yesterday, although leadership is huge, but man, they got to get the OC right. They have got to get offensive coordinator right. I do not have a problem in considering Chip Kelly.

Sorry, as a coordinator, no problem at all. As a head coach, a bit of a problem. In some ways, if Chip Kelly came back as an offensive coordinator, do you think anybody's really going to give him a head coaching opportunity again? He's kind of proven to be more of a head coach on the college level, Maybe a veteran offensive coordinator is a better fit because you won't lose him to a head coaching opportunity. Maybe Dan Quinn was a veteran defensive coordinator and got another swing at it. But he had more success than Chip Kelly had as a head coach.

The OC hires going to be massive, especially considering what they're going to do at number two overall. And then lastly on this kind of upon further review list, something that I didn't emphasize enough yesterday that I jotted down after the show yesterday. And it's this. I wish they had interviewed Mike Vrable. I'm curious as to why Vrable didn't get many interviews. And there's certainly a story possible there that we don't know. But Vrable for me, I wish they had pursued Jim Harbaugh. I wish they had given Belichick an interview. But Vrable specifically at 48 years old, I just have been a big fan from afar. I think he is one of those coaches that proves how good he is as a coach because consistently he's done a lot more with a lot less. Mike Tomlin's another

one of those guys. He's been a phenomenal in-game strategist. He's been an innovator as an in-game strategist. I just wish they had interviewed Mike Vrable. I understand Carthons' relationship with Adam Peters, Carthon, the head of football ops in Tennessee, and there was a falling out, I guess, between him and Vrable and Vrable and the owner. But that wouldn't have stopped me from interviewing Vrable at the very least. You know, this is not going to be something that I'm going to say I told you so about if Rabel ends up getting a job next year with somebody else and goes on to have great success and Quinn doesn't.

I'm just curious as to why Rabel didn't get an interview and I wish he had of. I wanted you to hear Dan Quinn. So this was just after the season ended a few weeks ago. After they beat Washington to clinch the NFC East. and they were getting ready for the playoff game against Green Bay. Dan Quinn was asked by somebody, you'll hear the question about what he thought of Rahim Morris, who had coached for him as his defensive coordinator in Atlanta. You'll hear the question posed.

I'm just going to mention it just in case the audio isn't crystal clear. But the guy asked Dan Quinn, essentially, what do you think of Rahim Morris as a head coaching candidate? Kyle Shanahan said that if he were the owner of a team, that Rahim Morris would be the absolute first hire. And the commanders, who they had just beaten, are interviewing Rahim Morris, or at that point had requested an interview with Rahim Morris. Here's what Dan Quinn said. You'll hear the question specific to what this person asked, and then you'll hear Quinn's answer. Your 4-O-C., Kyle Sandhane had said that if he was an owner, Rahim Mores, would be his first choice as a head coach. Can you speak to, and the commander's one of the former talked to him, you speak to who he is as a coach?

You wouldn't think he would have another opportunity to him? Yep, I couldn't agree with him more, and I've known Rahim for more than half my adult. life. And so he is a remarkable person. He's a fantastic coach and teacher, but he is one of the very best connectors. And if you were wanting somebody to connect a team in an organization, he'd be somebody that you'd want to call upon to do that. I'm certain he'll get his chance to do that, and I think he'll crush it. But he's got such a unique way about him. It's part of the reason he was working on defense in Atlanta. We made him the receiver coach, you know, and not many people can cross that to do that. But I knew he was rare.

enough to do it and then go back to defense eventually knowing that would also be the case. So he is a very unique and exceptional coach. So I now consider him a friend, but somebody that I'm super proud of too. So it sounds like if Dan Quinn had been the GM here instead of the head coach, he would have hired Rahim Morris instead of Dan Quinn. Genuine words, though, from Dan Quinn about Rahim Morris. Raheem Morris, one of the clearly most well-liked people in the league over the last 15 years. And he is the new head coach in Atlanta.

And guess what? Washington plays Atlanta next year at home. So you will have a Dan Quinn, Rahim Morris matchup at FedEx Field. You'll also obviously have two games against the Cowboys. They are not playing the 49ers next year. So no Kyle Shanahan, Dan Quinn matchup. One other piece of sound I wanted to play for you. This was Mike Garifolo from the NFL Network talking on Seattle radio about the Ben Johnson saga and why he's not a head coach somewhere.

What happened with Johnson? He was such a hot name. What happened in that process, do you think? I don't think he interviewed particularly well. and listen, I've heard some rumbling before. All right, let's back up. So Johnson withdrew, and he withdrew as Washington was flying to go see him, which did not go over well at all with the Washington organization at all.

But I believe he withdrew from two coaching searches that he wouldn't have gotten the job anyway. So that's the old you're not fired, I quit, or I'm not fired, I quit. or I'm not fired, I quit, one of those deals. So, yeah, I don't think he's really bold people over in the interview process at all. And I've heard that his personality is, you know, he's very smart, very bright, great play caller. But I've heard that his personality is kind of, I don't know, not the most gregarious guy, not a Mike McDonald type guy or even a Dan Quinn type guy. So I think that came across the interview process.

My belief, my belief is that he came into this. Adam Peters had Ben Johnson as his got. And Adam Peters was not the only one making a decision there in Washington, which is not to say that he's undermined. But Rick Spielham was involved. Josh Harris, obviously the owner of the organization. Bob Myers involved as well. So it was four people who came to a collective decision,

and it was not going to be Ben Johnson. Mike Garifolo, NFL Network, saying that Johnson didn't interview particularly well, saying that while smart, bright, a great play caller, he's heard that the personality is kind of, well, not the most gregarious, not a Mike McDonald type of guy, not even a Dan Quinn type of guy, and that came across in the interview process. This is kind of what we talked about earlier this week when the news broke that Ben Johnson was staying. I had somebody tell me that he is a guy that basically goes in on Mondays, closes his door, and comes out on Wednesdays with a game plan that's killer.

But he doesn't like all the other stuff. He doesn't view himself as a Dan Campbell or Aaron Glenn type. And maybe there's just a level of self-awareness for Ben Johnson that he's not that guy, not yet anyway, not naturally anyway. And that may be the reason he didn't interview particularly well. Garofalo is saying Johnson, you know, withdrew as Washington was coming to see him, did not go over well at all with the Washington organization. Yeah, I can only imagine.

I hope that from Ben Johnson's standpoint, he did the right thing when they got there and went up to them and said, hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to let you know so late. I probably should have done it earlier. But at the same time, as I've said, this guy was pretty busy up until, you know, Sunday night at about 10 o'clock. You know, one of the things that Garifolo said, he said, my belief is that he came into this, Adam Peters, had Ben Johnson as. this guy and Adam Peters was not the only one making the decision there in Washington, which is not to say he was undermined, but Spielman, Harris, Myers, you know, they came to a collective decision. Okay. This was discussed by Josh Harris and Adam Peters at their introductory press conference, that this was going to be a collaborative effort to find a

head coach. It wasn't just going to be on Peters. But I think Peters is significant. influential because the person they hire is going to have to be able to have that aligned vision and work with Peters well. They're not going to hire somebody that they like that Peters doesn't like. They're not going to hire somebody that, you know, they don't think will work well with a first time general manager. They're all going to be in, I think, agreement when they make the hire, which is what they were, I believe, with the hiring of Dan Quinn. All right. Jay Gruden coming up. I did want to mention that the Terps have a big game tomorrow for you Turp fans. Michigan State, East Lansing on the road four years ago was that Anthony Cowan down the stretch, one three after another, as Maryland overcame a seven-point deficit and won one of the most memorable games they've ever had in the Big Ten. They lost to Michigan State on, Sunday, a week ago Sunday, at home by two. Again, they had a chance to win.

They played exceptional defense. They're going to have to do the same thing tomorrow. And transition defense will be number one on the list. When you play a Tomizzo team, you have got to get back on defense and make them run half-court offense. Maryland's half-court defense is exceptional. Big spot for the Terps tomorrow. Really big spot.

If somehow they got one tomorrow on the road, It would be their third road win in the Big Ten more than anybody else in the Big Ten has. And they'd be six and five. They'd be in the top four or five in the conference. And they'd be set up for a potential run to the NCAA tournament over the next three to four weeks. All right. Jay Gruden next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show with Jay Gruden is presented by our good friends at MyBooky.

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Jay's nice enough from a vacation that he's on to jump on with us. I won't keep you as long as I typically do, but thanks so much for making time for us. We will talk championship games. Get your reaction to those two games last Sunday and maybe a quick thought on the Super Bowl. but of course the news here is that Washington's finally got a head coach. He is Dan Quinn. What do you think? Well, Dan's a good coach.

You know, he took Atlanta to the Super Bowl. He's done good things with the Dallas defense, obviously, and well respected around the league. So it's a good hire. Now it's the most important thing moving forward is who he gets to his offensive coordinator, especially team coach, and obviously what they do with that number two pick

is going to be critical for the franchise Louisville. You went up against him, I think, at least once here when you were in Washington. What can you remember about preparing for a Dan Quinn coach team? He utilizes his defensive players pretty well. He moves them around a lot. This guy's coverage is pretty. He's not really overly complicated, but he gets a lot out of his players.

He maximizes the use of their defense alignment with all the stunts and all the twists and all the things that they do the movement packages that he has. He has a couple good blips that are difficult. He's not overly complicated in the back end. He lets the players play. But now he was very fortunate to have some pretty good. players at the Marcus Lawrence. Two corners they had, Bland,

and New England, I forgot his name, but Gilmore. You have to get to good players out there and utilize them very well. So, let me just tell you what I'm sensing right now from your first few answers, and maybe I'm way off, but I'm sensing that you're not exactly blown away with the hire. Well, I think that everybody thought it would be Ben Johnson, and obviously that didn't work out.

I just thought moving forward, I thought an offensive-minded coach would be a bit better just because of the second pick of draft would be a young quarterback and make it grow together. Now you worry about if you get an offensive coordinator and you have a good year, that offensive coordinator is going to leave and become a head coach. You have to get a new offense coordinator next year, the year after that. If the quarterback is really, really good, that's what's going to happen. But I think Van Quint's a good choice, really. I think, you know, if you can't get Ben Johnson don't need to force the issue to hire a young offense coordinator and it's not proven himself quite yet. But getting an established guy who's coached before as a head

coach in the league and well respected around the league and I think is a good choice. Was his reputation when you were coaching what everybody says it is, which is, you know, a really good leader, strong leader, good guy, players coach, etc. Yeah, for sure. That's his reputation. I think players have fun playing for him. They play hard for him. And that's the most important thing is your coach has to bring out the best in the players.

and the players got to want to play, and they've got to play hard for you. And I think Dan will get the most out of his guys now. Now it's the matter of finding the right people. They have a lot of holes in the fill on both sides of the ball, a lot. And they got to do exceptional job in the free agency and exceptional job in the draft. It doesn't have a chance to move forward.

Yeah. By the way, the one game, I don't know how, I forget how many times you guys played the Falcons, how many times you guys went head-to-head as head coaches. I do remember the play in overtime. in the Georgia Dome when Ryan Grant fell down and the guy picked off the pass and returned for a touchdown. That was painful because it was a really good football game, if I recall, other than the fact that I think that the dude Freeman had like 200 yards against our defense.

But do you remember that game? I do remember that game. Yeah, I remember Ryan Grant falling down. I was unfortunate. But yeah, it was a good game. Anytime you have a play like that, You can remember that vividly. It sticks in your brain for a long time. I referred to it for a long time because I was such a Kirk guy and such a Kirk Cousins fan as the Ryan Grant fell down play because everybody blamed Kirk for the pick six. And I'm like, the dude fell down. He just fell down out of his break.

But that was a good football game. Do you have any preference? Do you have any thoughts on what they should do offensive coordinator-wise? Have you been following it? You know, I do not. I don't know the young upcoming quarterback coaches in the league right now or if they're going to go to an old veteran guy maybe.

So I don't know who's out there who Dan Quinn is friends with. There's a lot of good choices, young and veteran type guys that you go to. so it's a matter of who he feels comfortable with working with. Let me throw one a couple of names. That's also the coordinator is going to have a lot of say. Yeah. And the truth is, is he didn't have success as a head coach without Kyle Shanahan or the next year without Steve Sarkesian.

But Kyle in particular was obviously the year that they went to the Super Bowl and had Matt Ryan as an MVP. Let me throw a few names out at you. Chip Kelly's being discussed as a potential offensive coordinator here. What do you think of Chip Kelly? Well, Chip's a good coach. I don't know why he would leave UCLA. That's what I thought.

It would be a massive take cut, wouldn't it? It would make any sense. I think he loves California. I don't know. But yeah, he'd be a good choice. I mean, he does get big things with quarterbacks and offenses, I guess. That's exactly, that was my first reaction when the report came out last night that Chip Kelly is a potential candidate for the OC job.

He's got a good gig at UCLA. And I've always felt like as great as he is as an offensive guy, he just, he just, just is more of a college coach than an NFL coach? Yeah, that's where he made his, that's where he's had all of success. He wasn't very successful in the NFL level. Not even their offense was wearing that good. So, you know, I think, I mean, he knows football, obviously. It doesn't matter who they take at number two, right?

I mean, get a nice veteran offensive coordinator. He'll take a great quarterback at number two. He'll make the offensive coordinator look very, very good. And then the offensive coordinator, if he does look very good, leave after a year, go be head coach. It's so true. They've got to get number two right. If they get number two right, it'll make everybody look good.

What about, do you know the Kubiak, young Kubiak, Clint Kubiak. Do you know anything about him out in San Francisco? No, I think he was in Minnesota for a while, right? Yeah, he was. And obviously, you know, he's got that Denver Bronco, Mike Shanahan system with the outside zones and the playoffs, playoffs off of it. So, yeah, he'd be a good fit, I guess. What about Daryl Bevel?

What do you think of Daryl Bevel? Daryl Bevel, you know, he's had a lot of experience calling plays, that's for sure. Hadn't had a whole lot of success other than with Seattle and Ruffelston there for some time. But, you know, Jack's really struggle a little bit. Like I said, all those guys that you name, they all can call plays. They can all get on a chalkboard draw up good pass plays and run plays and run teams and play passes and all that stuff. but you can't do it unless you have that trigger man, and that trigger man is going to make all the coordinators

that good that you named. What specifically makes an offensive coordinator a good one? Finding your identity and sticking with it. I think that's why Ben Johnson did such a good job, even though they kind of bit him in the ass a little bit there at the end when they try to run the ball with a minute to go and have to use the time out there. But he did a great job all year of stick it to his identity

and running behind that powerful line and working a play passes off of it, you know, not being overly creative. being a smash-mouth guy, and that's what they pre-stall off-season, that's what Dan Campbell wanted and bench off and stuff to it. So you've got to stick to your identity. Then you've got to find players that match the identity you want to have. You know, you can't just say, hey, we're going to run the ball,

and not get a tight end that can block and not get, you know, powerful offensive line and the back that can stick his face in there and run between the tackle. You've got to commit to the identity that you want to have and stick with it. You were involved in personnel. And you've talked a lot about over the years how important it is to be, you know, collaborative with the general manager, that both of those areas of the building have to be in sync. Do you have any idea whether or not Dan Quinn, you know, has a good eye for personnel?

I have no idea. Okay. I've never, I don't know what his role was at Atlanta. And I don't know. I'm sure he didn't have that big of a role in Dallas, you know, with the head coach and Jerry Jones out there. but obviously he's got an idea what he needs to have defensively. You know, offensively, I don't know what kind of judge he has as far as looking at talent.

You said about Quinn as a defensive mind, and I'm paraphrasing here maybe, that, you know, things are pretty basic, and not that that was a criticism at all. I think we understand what he was in Seattle with a lot of cover one, et cetera. You knew what you were going to get. Has he changed in Dallas as a defensive coordinator at all? Has he become a little bit more versatile? He's going more of a split-safety guy in Dallas, more so than a lot of single high, because he had a pretty good front.

He moves his front a lot. You know, when he play a split-safety look, and it eliminates a lot of the big plays the opposing offense has, but now your risk can give up some gashes in the running game. In order to combat that, you've got to move your front a little bit. That's what he does a good job of. Unfortunately, they played small ball at Dallas, and I think he'll probably adjust.

I'll be going to want to do that again. They got gutted by the front of him. Buffalo and I'm obviously the last thing they lost. Green Bay. He'll make adjustments there, which will help to get bigger people, I'm sure. But he does a good job of not giving up big plays and moving his people around quite a bit, make it difficult to block. His defenses in Dallas, the last three years, have created the most takeaways in the league. They were number one in 21, number 12 this year, but the aggregate of the three years, most takeaways by any defense in the NFL over the last three years.

How much of that is coordinator? If it's some, I mean, the players got to buy into the fact of, you know, what you want to do defensively, and then you've got to have good players. Gilmore, they had Bland, they had Micah Parsons, they had Marcus Lawrence, they had digs before he got hurt, he was a turnover machine. They had good players that could capitalize on the plays that were there. It's very important to have the players to get it, and that players have to buy into the scheme that you run them.

But they had, you know, four or five really good players on defense, for me, I mean, gold star players, you know. They don't have that right now. In Washington, they've got to find those guys. They've got to find dynamic pass rushers. They've got to find corners of their ballhawks and safetys that can get after it, you know. So, you have a lot of work to do, but, you know,

I think Dan has a good style of defense. He understands coveragees, obviously. You understand blitz packages. and he understands how important it is for the guys to play hard and finish plays. We'll finish up with Jay Gruden here in a moment, ask him about last week's championship games and get a first take from Jay on the Super Bowl matchup. But if you're into Premier High Line exotic vehicles, there's a new dealership in town.

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All right, Jay's nice enough to give this. some time today on vacation. He is weighed in on Dan Quinn. That hiring, let's go back to Sunday's championship games. Why did Kansas City beat Baltimore? Patrick Mahomes is really good. Their defense, technically has done an unbelievable job of that defense as well,

and they frustrated Lamar, obviously, and Lamar got out of character. The Ravens got out of character. They became a little bit too past happy for my liking when they can, their strength of their football team. was running the ball. They got away from that a little bit. It became one-dimensional and it fit right into Kansas City fans with Spagnolia's pressure packages and mixture of coverages. And then obviously Patrick Mahomes makes, you know, seven or eight plays a game that no other quarterback in the league can make.

He was an unbelievable player. And Travis Kelsey, you know, he's emerged at the right time. And they're just, you know, they have special players with Keith positions and Spagnilly does a great job of that defense. I mean, you've heard it before as a play caller as an officer. offensive coordinator, head coach, play caller when people say after the fact, I mean, how did you only run the football the number of times that Baltimore ran the football? Todd Munkin gave his running backs six carries. They were the number one rush offense all season long. Why do you think that happened? I don't know. That's something that, you know, they had a couple three-in-outs, which stops drives and stops your opportunity for plays, I guess. Kansas City did a good job of maintaining possession of the ball.

I think there was a little bit of a panic set in. They needed to get some big plays. And I think at the time, Monkin thought he could get some plays down the field, and they just didn't happen. Then they got some stacks and were back behind the sticks a little bit and forced to throw it. And they were out of sorts. They were out of character.

They never really got in a good rhythm offensively. It never had to be... Baltimore strength all year was they had a lot of 10, 12, 14 play drive. They just couldn't get that going against Kansas City's front for whatever reason. You know, sometimes when that criticism comes a coach's way afterwards, you know, the coach will say something like, well, we did try to run the ball and we were five carries for minus seven yards. We couldn't get an inch. So there are times, right, where it's like you throw up your arms and you're like, that's just not going to work today. We've got to try something else.

Or do you stick with it and say it'll come? it's just going to take some time. Oh, you're right. When you try it around the ball, you don't have any success four or five times in a row. And you're like, well, hell of this, man, we've got to get the ball. We've got to get the ball moving. We've got to create a spark some other way. And unfortunately, they couldn't figure out a way to get a spark.

You had a couple good pass plays. Obviously, I play that Play Flores was a special play by Lamar's Day. But other than that, they couldn't really do anything offensively. It's frustrating and it's hard. And it's just, you know, you would expect Lamar to make a couple plays with his legs. it would change the course of the game and the momentum of the game. Like you did it was a day, that one time you'd expect a couple more, but this couldn't happen.

It could have you a great job. How did the Lions blow a 17-point lead and lose the game in San Francisco? A turnover didn't help, and I think they got to kick that field goal to go up 17 and force Brock Pretty to throw the ball and catch up. And that's been the issue for San Francisco and Kyle Shanahan's off fences in the past. their ability to play from behind. When they become one-dimensional, they struggle. And I think they had a chance to do that.

Instead, they go for the fourth down, and they don't get it, and then they had a big play to IUC, and then the next drive there's a fumble by Jemir Gibbs, and all of a sudden it's a tie ball game, and then, you know, all hell breaks loose. The momentum is just totally shifted, and they could never really get it back. So you disagreed with Campbell's decision on all of the fourth down go-for-its?

You would have kicked the field goal to go up 27-10, it sounds like. 24, 24, at 27, 24, do you kick the field goal? I personally would have, but Dan has done a great job all year of playing that way and that style of football for into change in the biggest game of the year would be a little bit odd, but I think the first one to go up 17 was the one that I think was for sure a field goal that should have been kicked. Three possessions, the difference in 17-point lead and the 14-point lead is huge.

Three possessions instead of two. So, you know, I just think that one was one they should have kicked for sure. And I still think the one to tie the game was a kick they should have kicked too because now I think the worst case scenario is if you don't kick it and you don't get the fourth down and they go down to score and now you're down 10. It's almost impossible to come back as opposed if you kick it and they score early down 70.

You saw the chance to win the game, go through whatever you've got to do. So unfortunately, the worst case scenario happened in both situations. San Francisco took over and took the ball and went down a sport. We'll preview the Super Bowl and pick it next week, but real quickly, what are your early thoughts on the matchup, San Francisco and Kansas City? I think two best teams, really. I thought Baltimore was the best team. I missed on that one. But Kansas City's proven time and time again that in big games, their big-time players show up. Kelsey and Mahomes, and those guys are great. Their defense is playing excellent. I can't wait to watch it. And then obviously Brock Purdy is what he's done this year as far as being the last pick in the

the draft is phenomenal and the players they have around them. It's going to be a great game. But, you know, I'll make my pick next week when I see the injury port and see what's going on and, you know, get a feel for it. It'll be a great game. Fun one to watch. San Francisco up to two and a half now in a lot of spots. Interesting.

Thanks for doing this. I appreciate it. All right. No problem, Kevin. Jay Gruden, everybody. That's it for the day. What a week, huh? Next week, I'm sure, we'll bring more action and offensive coordinator to

get hired, a staff to be put together. And then we can focus on free agency, followed by the 2024 NFL draft, which will be an important one for our team. All right, have a great weekend back on Monday.