December 16 2021

NFL Mailbag: City Meyer firing, Bears’ subsequent coach

There’s a lure I’ve fallen into with some soccer coaches that, admittedly, I might do higher to keep away from sooner or later.

City Meyer is nobody’s fool. He’ll go down because the second-most profitable faculty soccer coach of the final 30 or 40 years. He coached dozens of gamers who made it to the NFL, and I’ve even talked with him a bunch over the past couple of years about how arduous he’s studied the professional sport, working with the fellows he coached at Florida and Ohio State to be taught what works and what doesn’t on the sport’s highest stage.

And nonetheless, his match within the NFL went the best way so a lot of his detractors predicted. A part of that result’s arduous for me to reconcile—how somebody as sharp and achieved as Meyer, with entry to as a lot data as Meyer had, and the drive to win that Meyer has, might come undone for causes simply recognized by folks with no deeper data of the NFL than what they will get from an web connection and cable subscription. How these items occur to guys like Nick Saban and Chip Kelly, too, who have been extra profitable (and, sure, smarter) than the good majority of those that land head teaching jobs within the NFL.

That’s the place the lure is for me: assuming that the following man on this type of place isn’t going to step on the rake laying within the yard similar to the final man did.

There was Tuesday’s story from Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Occasions, revealing former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo’s allegation that Meyer had kicked him throughout warmups final summer time, setting off a profane change and main Lambo’s agent to contact the workforce’s authorized counsel the following day. (Meyer stated Lambo’s “characterization of me and this incident is totally inaccurate.”)

However earlier than that, there was the reporting of Tom Pelissero of NFL.com final week, which revealed greater than only a constructing in two-win turmoil. It confirmed a willingness of these inside the constructing to lob grenades into the work Meyer was doing, and to tear the Jaguars’ soccer operation right down to the studs, requiring a rebuild from the bottom up.

Amongst these folks have been assistants that I’m advised Meyer had shortly recognized as weak hyperlinks on his personal employees. It revealed not solely the strife inside his group but in addition the errors Meyer had already made. Going ahead with Meyer would require doubling-down on him—having to pay a few of his handpicked lieutenants to get misplaced whereas hiring new ones to switch them.

How the hell did we get there? Once more, I feel the reply might be straightforward. Meyer’s program is tough. He pushed everybody. He’s arduous on gamers. He’s a lot tougher on coaches. It’s an old-school means. And he and Saban, and Invoice Belichick, too, have confirmed over time that having that type of basis may be an extremely efficient technique to construct a soccer program.

Right here’s the catch—in the event you’re going to do it that means, you higher win shortly. Or on the very least, you higher present the gamers, and the assistants that you just haven’t labored with earlier than, that working in that sort of intense, edgy setting goes to profit their very own profession growth within the quick time period, and their funds in the long run.

Belichick has proven over and over and over that his program does that, so guys put their heads down and work, trusting that following him will result in the correct outcomes, each individually and collectively. And for lots of people, it has. Others, in fact, get weeded out alongside the best way, in an operation that naturally turned self-selecting over time.

A purpose a lot of Belichick’s assistants haven’t made it as head coaches over time is true there, too. Most put the identical calls for on gamers and coaches that Belichick would however with out the testimony to go along with the idea. Then, as soon as the losses begin to mount, folks get worn out working in a means that few in soccer, at any stage, are requested to work these days. Then, they go from worn out to checked out, which in the end can result in talking out—and as soon as they begin talking out, it’s over.

Issues went an analogous means for Saban, one of many best soccer coaches ever to stroll a sideline, in 2006. He picked the improper quarterback, misplaced greater than he had in ’05, had a tougher time getting gamers on board, wore everybody out and bailed. At Alabama, the place it took him about 20 video games to have the Tide rolling at a national-title stage, he’s had the promise of constantly getting guys to championship levels and into the primary spherical of the draft to maintain them captivated. Within the NFL, he couldn’t level to the trophy case the identical means.

So it went for Meyer—who usually talked at Ohio State about testimony over concept. He was promoting concept to these within the constructing, however the lack of outcomes on the sphere meant he had no testimony. At Ohio State, he went 12–0 in Yr 1. At Florida, he gained a nationwide title in Yr 2. Shortly, any room to query how he did issues evaporated. He gained at a historic clip, and his gamers have been being developed into high-end professional prospects, then getting wealthy.

In Jacksonville, he couldn’t create sufficient of that type of worth for folks earlier than folks uninterested in his methods. And when folks tire of your methods within the NFL, they don’t are likely to maintain it to themselves, regardless of how arduous you insist issues keep in-house.

That brings me again to the lure I fall into. I assumed that, with time on process, a sensible man like Meyer would modify and discover a technique to obtain, as a result of he at all times had achieved. What I underestimated was how deeply set in his methods he was, like Saban and Kelly have been in theirs. And why wouldn’t they be? Till they received to the NFL, it hadn’t failed them—so there was no want for any interval of self-reflection the best way there may’ve been for, say, Kliff Kingsbury after he was fired by his alma mater.

It’s why Meyer has been recognized prior to now to say the plan he and his folks have is infallible. Possibly, in the long run, it was that perception that received him.

On to your mail …

From brown (@hb4172): Why is nationwide media killing City? Coaches name out offensive and defensive strains after each sport!! And participant errors—Go hear Tomlin postgame, Titans coach strolling off the rostrum! Name that out. Why not name out Bevell? He calls performs. Or Baalke for lack of expertise?

Brown! Thanks for checking in—clearly, this e-mail got here in earlier than Meyer was ousted as Jaguars coach early Thursday morning, however I believed it could present a very good jumping-off level. I’ve seen City Meyer coach at an exceptionally excessive stage, and I’m an alum of a college he gained a nationwide title for. This wasn’t the boogeyman out to get Meyer, even when not every thing that was stated over the past week was fully truthful.

Meyer arrived in Jacksonville with the keys to Jaguars proprietor Shad Khan’s kingdom, and a capability to remake the workforce as he noticed match with price range to fill out his teaching employees, energy over the roster and the inexperienced gentle to form the assist employees and infrastructure in his personal picture.

When you could have that quantity of autonomy, you could have the ability to push the improper GM out, to rent and fireplace each assistant and to make sure that each participant transaction has your fingerprints on it. It’s, then, on you to choose the correct folks. And in the event you aren’t choosing each final particular person, it’s nonetheless your accountability to have the correct folks in place to choose the correct folks.

Now, that’s to not say I feel each inch of snow inside the avalanche that crashed down on Meyer fell justifiably. Clearly, there have been folks invested in seeing him fail—that occurs with nearly each coach that comes from faculty into the NFL (return and look what folks have been saying about Kingsbury earlier than this yr)—and people folks pounced. Yr 1 is usually bumpy in these types of rebuilds, but Meyer’s grace interval with a workforce that was 1–15 final yr and made the playoffs as soon as within the final 13 seasons was nonexistent.

However once more, it’s on Meyer to grasp his NFL circumstances, modify his program to them and work accordingly. He definitely hasn’t carried out that properly sufficient. And whereas possibly others would’ve gotten extra time to get the Titanic turned, the difficulty he bumped into now could be that notion shortly turns into actuality. No matter how every of final week’s allegations are seen, he needed to cope with what he needed to cope with, the microscope was skilled on him and people contained in the constructing, to make certain, felt emboldened to combat him by undermining him.

In the meantime, you had a workforce with promising younger gamers hanging within the steadiness, and Khan then needed to take into account two questions. One, had a chaotic state of affairs spun too far uncontrolled to be reeled again in? And two, have been issues such a multitude that it might begin to have an effect on the event of these younger gamers? Khan, it appears, answered these questions sure and sure.

From Taylor (@TimeIsAfterUs): Do you imagine the Colts will in the end make the playoffs, and in the event that they do, do you suppose they’ve what it takes to make an precise run at a championship?

Taylor, I feel, sure, they’ll make the playoffs. And I needed to vet this out to ensure. Proper now, I see the Patriots, Payments, Titans and Chiefs as more likely to get in. The AFC North champion brings the overall to 5 groups in. That leaves the Colts, Chargers, and North runners-up for the opposite two spots. Indy is 7–6. They play the Patriots and Cardinals the following two weeks. In the event that they cut up these two, and beat the Raiders and Jaguars after that, they’re at 10 wins.

This yr, within the AFC, I feel 10 wins will get you in.

With that established, I don’t suppose they will run off three or 4 wins in a row after they get to the match. They’re properly constructed. They’re robust on the line of scrimmage. I simply don’t know the way their go offense and go protection would maintain up in the event that they get right into a shootout, and usually you’re going to need to win alternative ways to get to the Tremendous Bowl.

From SigInSoMD (@SigSomd): Why is Justin Herbert the following celebrity QB?

Sig! I like Herbert. I don’t know whether or not he stands alone as the subsequent celebrity QB. However he’s proper there with younger vets like Joe Burrow and Kyler Murray, in addition to a few this yr’s rookies (Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Mac Jones), as guys on rookie offers the place you may see a really brilliant future for the league on the sport’s most necessary place.

There’s the plain components. Herbert’s a giant, agile athlete with as robust an arm as there’s within the league (that throw towards the Giants on Sunday was proof of it) and with a ton of untapped potential—he’s received the capability to fill out his body somewhat extra, and in addition got here into the NFL somewhat uncooked, partly as a result of he performed in a comparatively easy offense at Oregon.

After which, there’s the explanation you’d guess on somebody like Herbert, for a similar purpose Drew Brees did again within the spring, when he hung out with the Chargers quarterback at OTAs. Chargers coach Brandon Staley described that interplay to me simply after it occurred, and it was pretty much as good an illustration of how Herbert the particular person would be certain that Herbert the participant can be maximized.

“That was enjoyable for me, to listen to Drew Brees discuss what he noticed from him, simply how particular Justin is,” Staley recalled about that day again in June. “And it goes far past simply him throwing the soccer, which … it’s particular and that undoubtedly stood out to Drew. However simply the intangibles as properly. And I feel that on the coronary heart of all these particular quarterbacks that you just’re conscious of, it was massive relationships with their coaches.

“Once you consider Tom Brady, you concentrate on Josh [McDaniels] and Peyton Manning and Tom Moore. I imply, you concentrate on the good quarterbacks of our era, of John Elway and Mike Shanahan, Joe Montana, Steve Younger and Invoice Walsh. I imply, you retain interested by these guys and it’s simply … it’s relationships; it’s realizing each other, trusting each other, believing in each other.

“And that’s actually, the takeaway hopefully for Justin, as he talks to Drew, is that seeing that take form, with Drew and Sean [Payton] after which Pete Carmichael and Joe [Lombardi], that occurred over the course of a very long time. The place they began will not be the place they completed. They saved getting higher every yr. And that’s why it was capable of go so properly, they’d that final belief in each other. And we’re definitely working for that.”

Which is simply one more reason why the longer term for Herbert, and the Chargers, could be very brilliant.

From Usayd Koshul (@usaydkoshul): Who replaces Matt Nagy in the event you needed to guess and can Josh McDaniels draw critical curiosity in Chicago?

Usayd, you may begin to see the place that is going before you suppose. The firing of Meyer means groups now have a carrot to drag the plug on coaches on life assist 12 days from now—when the two-week window to interview different groups’ assistants just about opens. Each the Jaguars and Raiders are actually positioned to dive in, and so now this places different groups in a spot the place not firing a coach earlier than the common season ends might imply placing your self at a aggressive drawback.

Both means, whether or not it’s on Dec. 28 or Jan. 9, it does seem that the Bears can be trying. I feel the primary, and most evident, place for them to take a look at can be with quarterback-friendly candidates, for the advantage of Justin Fields. We went over just a few within the mailbag earlier this month. The moonshot can be attempting to leverage being in Sean Payton’s hometown, and having a former Sean Payton teammate, in Ryan Tempo, as GM to land the Saints’ Tremendous Bowl–profitable coach. Ohio State’s Ryan Day is one other apparent swing to take, due to his connection to Fields, and his offensive acumen. And Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is smart—they interviewed him again in 2018.

Is it potential they go one other route? Sure. It’s. One, they’d simply be transferring off a quarterback-centric rent, in Nagy, and two of their final three hires (Marc Trestman being the opposite) have been a results of the workforce taking that path. And two, proprietor George McCaskey could be very concerned within the league’s range efforts over the previous couple of years, and that has been a part of an effort not simply to get groups to have a look at numerous candidates but in addition to persuade them to run actually open processes that aren’t simply centered on predetermined sorts of candidates.

Keep tuned. With how the Jaguars’ state of affairs has performed out, there’ll be quite a lot of consideration on what the Bears do over the following couple of weeks.

From Murphy McHugh (@NotMurphyMcHugh): How can followers, particularly WFT followers, get the league to launch the Wilkinson Report publicly?

Murphy, I’d say the easiest way anybody can affect that’s to maintain speaking about it. The league and groups’ technique in these conditions has at all times simply been to get to Sunday, when most individuals get distracted by unfavorable tales like these by all of the shiny objects which might be on their televisions. In order for you that report back to see the sunshine of the day, the perfect factor you are able to do is maintain the dialog going.

From TDLiveSports (@TDLiveSports): Will Tyler Huntley be a scorching commodity in commerce talks this low season?

TD, I don’t suppose Tyler Huntley can be a beginning quarterback in 2022. And so I don’t suppose the Ravens are going to maneuver him, as a result of I don’t suppose you’ll see one other workforce prepared to dump a bunch of picks to get him—which suggests his future is more likely to signal the deal he’s tendered by Baltimore as an exclusive-rights free agent within the spring and play one other yr because the backup to Lamar Jackson earlier than getting to check restricted free company in ’23.

That stated, what Huntley has carried out in displaying he can play the place at a reliable, skilled stage is about himself as much as be within the league for years to come back. And there’s an opportunity that as extra athletic quarterbacks come into the league, his means to reflect their ability units, and match into methods constructed for them, will juice his worth as a backup. Which is to say that I feel Huntley’s made himself some cash this yr.

From LEO (@Leo18521467): When will the #nfl examine Aaron Rodgers utilizing over inflated footballs?

Leo, you guys simply gained’t depart properly sufficient alone.

From Aaron Bodzin (@abodz2000): Do you suppose Trubisky will get a shot at a beginning job subsequent yr? He was on a one yr contract in Buffalo.

Aaron, Mitchell Trubisky appeared nice in the summertime, and it’s truthful to marvel how a lot his failure in Chicago was him and the way a lot of it was his circumstances. I’m simply undecided the place, precisely, you’d slot him as a starter—much like the best way I’d see Jimmy Garoppolo popping out of San Francisco this yr, presuming the Niners transfer wholesale to Trey Lance as soon as this season is over.

For each these guys, I feel the longer term might be latching on with a workforce that’s planning to draft a younger quarterback, and being the for-now starter, whereas the rookie’s readying to play, like Andy Dalton was in Chicago this yr (and even Garoppolo himself was in San Francisco).

From Nick Palazzolo (@NickPalazzolo5): I feel Jim Caldwell received a uncooked deal in Detroit and will nonetheless be a Head Coach within the league. That being stated do you suppose he will get a shot this cycle, or someday sooner or later? Would like him as the following Bears Head Coach.

Nick, I’d agree that Caldwell received a uncooked deal in Detroit. However what occurred to him isn’t precisely unusual. In reality, it’s fairly much like what occurred to Mike Mularkey in Tennessee—who, like Caldwell, was blown out by a GM who wished to usher in his personal man. You simply don’t hear as a lot about what the Titans did, as a result of the rent of Mike Vrabel actually labored out.