Bear Hands

So yeah....word is Payton may be signing with AZ today.

Bozeman is the only absolute certainty needing to be re-signed, regardless of the offensive scheme we're bringing in. The rest, I think we can figure it out with coaching identifying the fits that are out there. Would think Shaq on a discount would be dope, but we'll see. He'll be a decent/slightly above-avg LB on his 3rd contract, it's not going to be as much as his last one (by any means), but we'll have to see what type of defense we're building and if he fits.

Thanks dude

Rhule's staff was such a weird "experienced but not successful" hodgepodge of misfit toys. It was so bad. Hell, McAdoo ended up looking fine compared to some of them. I think Reich is going to have a much more diverse and promising approach to staff building. It's not a life raft to the guys drowning into retirement. He's got good connections.

Yeppp I'm digging going in this type of direction at DC while getting the real experienced staff as positional coaches for fundamentals coaching. We've got one of the youngest rosters. Would love to see a blend of up and comers with upside at coordinator with the experienced guys (who have that experience) as position coaches.

@Mr. Scot Check out Jason Michael. Mentioned him in another thread. Worked with Reich on that OG Chargers squad, was thrust into an OC role early for Ken Wiz at age 28 in TEN (crazy)...& had to work with Locker/Whitehurst/Mettenburger (yikes), and honestly, made then look fine, then coached Mariota's best season. Found his way back to the TE world on Reich's staff in Indy, and is now the Eagles TE coach. Only 37 with that type of experience is wild. Tight with Frank. Lots of road ahead, could be one to look out for as an OC.

Yeah, looking into it, I'm digging this Jason Michael guy. They go back to Reich's first years as a coach, is still really young, had to go through a Joe Brady moment in TEN, and is now part of one of the better staffs out there. I find him super interesting.

Brian Baker is already in Charlotte at UNCC and a Reich staffer. I could see him sliding in on defense positionally. I know the Fangio push is big and apparent, but I really wouldn't mind Marquan Manuel as DC. He also played here, knows Charlotte. Did great back when for Quinn in ATL and is in charge of the best DB room in the league in Philly. They had to deal with some injuries but were still #1. Unsure if he even knows Reich directly but it seems we vetted the top DC candidates, and wouldn't mind a Giants approach where it's not necessarily all buddy-buddy. More a meeting of the budding minds. Offense: Given he fired Marcus Brady, doubt he'd be the frontrunner for OC. I do like Duce Staley. Jason Michael is my darkhorse for OC. Reich worked with him in SD, he left with Ken for TN, and eventually made it onto Reich's Colts staff. Has OC experience--he was the one that faked out people and made Mettenberger and Whitehurst look respectable; then coached up Mariota's best season. He was only like 29/30 years old then so he has a TON of career ahead of him and sounds like he's got Reich's favorability. Where is he now? TE Coach for the Eagles.

long answer: no

Interesting factoid: We interviewed him last year for OC but chose McAdoo over him. Well, Rhule did haha

Banogu & Okereke would be 2 guys to watch. Okereke is a good starting LB.

yessir

Groh is a classic NFL nepo-baby but could be good. Hard to tell, didn't have the best cred when he was on Fisher's Rams but seems to have reworked his career a bit.

Quite interested to see who he's got lined up. The connections are abundant and it seems like he has league-wide respect outside of Irsay's distillery of disfunction.

@Mr. Scot Awesome post, thanks for the time Kevin Patullo for sure is a name to watch Mike Groh is also a potential OC. He was part of the highly curated Daboll staff that all came together without much history. He was Reich's WR coach in Philly & then Indy but got plucked away. And got that pedestrian NYG room playing really solidly this year (Slayton & Hodgins). In checking him out, it sounds like he's not just a colleague but vry tight with Frank so could see him on the squad. Tyler Boyles is another who's young and was Reich's handpicked assistant "to the" HC. His young 30-ish Y/O assistant will likely follow him methinks.

Names to watch on offense, staff wise: Mike Groh, Klayton Adams, & Tyler Boyles could certainly coming here. Maybe Parks Frazier. Those are the 4 in particular from his most recent staff I see closest to him. Definitely Groh & Frazier. It won't be a replica of the Indy staff circa 2021/22, but I imagine a few will surface on offense/his main dudes.

I respect the guy, he left the shadows of Rhule in the rearview and kept things afloat. Landed our crashing plane quite nicely.

VERY interested to see how he plans to deploy the offense. Is he going to craft it & play-call? Or is he going to find a younger guy to run with one built around his framework? And who would that be. His role in our offense & the OC hire becomes mission critical now. Hopefully he has some good dudes in mind.

If you look at it from a lessons learned perspective for all parties involved (Reich, Fitt, Tepper), I gotta think we draft. I mean, Reich tried it with Wentz & Ryan. We tried it with Teddy, Darnold & Baker. Time to draft.

This.

It does. I'm slightly on the optimistic side, not really feeling strongly on either end of the spectrum. Pissed-------------------------Derp----(around here)-----------------Pleased

And alrighty, already seeing who's all bent out of shape and who's over the moon. I think this hire will mostly garner a 5-6ish/10 on the optimism spectrum. Not this Not this More like this

Grow back the death beard