Pelissero: Defensive NFL coaches now in high demand
It's oversimplifying to call it The Seattle Effect, but there's a common thread in the five NFL head coaches hired over the past week.
Todd Bowles (New York Jets), Rex Ryan (Buffalo), Jack Del Rio (Oakland), Jim Tomsula (San Francisco) and John Fox (Chicago) all have defensive backgrounds in a league with a reputation for enhancing offense – and perhaps more predicated than ever on finding ways to stop it.
With the Atlanta and Denver jobs still open, 16 of 30 current head coaches came up primarily on the defensive side of the ball. The Falcons likely will make it 17 soon, with defensive coordinators Dan Quinn (Seattle) and Teryl Austin (Atlanta) the presumed front-runners.
"You've got to have a quarterback," one NFL executive mused Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity for competitive reasons. "But if you have a good defense, it's amazing the difference it makes in success in the postseason."
Just look at the Seahawks, who have up-and-comer Russell Wilson at the most important position but rode the Legion of Boom to last year's Super Bowl, then throttled a record-setting Denver Broncos offense led by Peyton Manning to seal the franchise's first championship.
Seattle had the NFL's No. 1 defense again this season and can wrap up another Super Bowl trip by beating Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in Sunday's NFC title game. The AFC title will be decided by a matchup of quarterbacks Tom Brady of New England and Andrew Luck of Indianapolis, as well as which defense does a better job getting them off their game.
"It's not just Seattle. Just look through the history," the executive said. "Pittsburgh, they had a very good defense when (Ben) Roethlisberger was young. Arizona still had a really good record (this year), but they were down to their eighth quarterback. That defense kept them in games.
"You're going to win games in this league with defense as much as the offense."
Thirteen current head coaches have offensive backgrounds. Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh is a former special teams coach.
Told the numbers Friday, one NFL personnel director raised the point it's harder to play defense with the way the rules are evolving. The theory goes that if the definition of a team is a finesse passing offense, an offensive head coach may have a softer team overall.
It also could be as simple as the candidate pool. The best offensive coach available, Jim Harbaugh, left the San Francisco 49ers for the University of Michigan. Doug Marrone has gotten a lukewarm response since opting out in Buffalo. Marc Trestman flamed out in Chicago.
Adam Gase, the Broncos' offensive coordinator the past two years, has popped up in a handful of searches. Frank Reich, Josh McDaniels, Darrell Bevell, Hue Jackson, Pep Hamilton, Tom Cable and Pat Shurmur, among others, have been interviewed as well.
Smart organizations don't start by saying they want an offensive or defensive coach. They seek the best candidate. Bowles, Ryan and Fox were certain to be at or near the top of this heap this year, just like offensive minds Ken Whisenhunt, Jay Gruden and probably Bill O'Brien were last year (along with defensive coaches Mike Zimmer and Lovie Smith).
Every team has its own set of criteria. And it's easy to think some owners can be easily enticed by the idea of a cutting-edge, high-powered offense. Looking at the hires right now, though, it sure seems like some of them have been paying attention to the defending champs.
Of the four teams playing this weekend, only one has an offensive head coach: the Packers' Mike McCarthy.
Ohio State QB Jones makes right long-term call on NFL
No matter how Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones arrived at or announced his decision to stay in school, it was the right one – the only one for a player with three career starts.
"A lot of guys (show) the skill set their first time they step on the field, and then it all kind of levels out," an AFC scout who spent time at Ohio State this year told Paste BN Sports. "Obviously, (Jones is) big. He's got a big arm. He's athletic.
"But everybody's trying to speculate, 'Well, he'll go in this round, he'll go in that round.' You have no idea until you get a chance to meet with the kid. I couldn't even give you a fair assessment of where it'd be. But it'd be a lot higher than I'd be comfortable with."
The argument that Jones is better off collecting a paycheck as a backup in the NFL because he won't start over Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett makes no sense, unless Jones feels the upside for his career is a few hundred thousand dollars in a signing bonus as a mid-round draft pick.
Production is a critical part of the criteria for an NFL quarterback prospect. Some teams will review every snap over the previous two seasons, and it wouldn't take long on Jones, who won a national title after Miller and Barrett went down but has all of 94 college passing attempts.
Physically, Jones reminds some NFL scouts of famed No. 1 bust JaMarcus Russell. He's a big man at 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds and has the rocket arm to match. But Jones doesn't have much of a track record to show he can process and read defenses before an NFL-speed rush arrives – a timing mechanism in the QB's head that must be repped over and over in live situations.
By going back to Ohio State for another year, Jones skips the instant payday but gives himself a better chance to earn more down the line. And who knows how it'll play out in the fall? Jones has the prototypical pocket-QB body. The smaller Barrett may be the better passer. Miller's the best athlete of the crew, which could mean his NFL future is somewhere else, like running back.
"Will Braxton stay or will he jump? He's the one who's really the damaged goods with the shoulder," the scout said. "When (Jones) had his opportunity to perform, he did excel. (But) it's three games – such a small sample size. Let's let this thing play out."
Quick hits
• The video of Tomsula's awkward interview with CSN Bay Area was making the rounds in the NFL community even before it hit the blogosphere Friday afternoon. This wasn't the best start for a regime that will face skepticism from go after Harbaugh's departure. But if the 49ers were looking for a guy with polish, Tomsula was the wrong choice anyway. They knew what they were getting, and Tomsula knew what he was getting into. Step 1: Put the right people around QB Colin Kaepernick to get him back on course.
• It all depends what happens this weekend, but could it get any more symbolic for Luck than beating Manning, Brady and Rodgers in order on the way to a title? From the day Luck entered the NFL, there was a counterintuitive pushback against a quarterback who profiled as a Hall of Famer coming out of Stanford. Still in his third season, Luck is every bit the player he was supposed to be and already carving out the place he was supposed to among the NFL's elite. Win or lose Sunday, that won't change.
• The Seahawks remained 7- to 7½-point favorites over the Packers as of Friday afternoon – notable in part because seven consecutive NFC title games have been decided by seven points or fewer, the longest streak in conference championship game history. That Rodgers practiced every day (albeit in limited fashion) on the strained left calf that limited his mobility last week apparently didn't matter. The Patriots are 6½- to 7-point favorites over the Colts.