Hypothetical Next Coach of the Green Bay Packers

[Joemailman]

Eric Bieniemy. Pat Mahomes' OC this year, and before that RB coach for Chiefs and Vikings (at start of Peterson's career). He would understand what a weapon he has in Aaron Jones.

http://www.espn.com/blog/kansas-city...ve-coordinator

Reid, who believed the Chiefs would lose then-offensive coordinator Matt Nagy at the end of the season, began grooming Bieniemy last season to eventually become the coordinator.

Part of that grooming was getting Bieniemy to expand his scope from just the running backs, the running game and the backs’ involvement in the passing game. Bieniemy had some experience with that, though it didn’t go particularly well.

He was the offensive coordinator at Colorado in 2011 and 2012, but the Buffaloes won a total of just four games.

“The thing I started focusing on is just seeing the bigger picture, understanding what the quarterbacks are looking at, how they’re seeing it, what their progression is, just basically taking the big picture of everything," Bieniemy said. "Just basically taking notes from a different perspective has helped. It helped a huge amount."


Being Reid’s offensive coordinator with the Chiefs has been a golden ticket. The coordinator before Nagy, Doug Pederson, is in his third season as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and now a Super Bowl winner.

Bieniemy’s football background is different. Pederson and Nagy each played quarterback and were quarterback coaches for Reid before becoming coordinators.

Bieniemy, 49, is also older than Pederson was when he became a head coach (47) or than Nagy is now (40). But if the Chiefs continue to win and score points at a league-leading rate, and Mahomes continues with his MVP-level play, Bieniemy could well be Reid’s next coordinator to move on as a head coach.

“He has a great appreciation for being able to run the football and being able to take somebody’s will from them by running the football," Childress said. “The biggest growth he’ll have is he’ll have to decide what he wants to hang his hat on as far as throwing the football. But he’ll be smart enough to know what he’s got as far as talent and smart enough to know what will work."

[pbmax]

I don't think I want Bieniemy precisely because his exposure to the passing game is so limited as a coach.

He'd have to wow my in an interview with his concepts and my calendar invite to the interview team hasn't arrived.

Harbaugh has a similar problem. His offensive revolution stopped abruptly in Kaepernick Year 3 I believe. I don't know that he has the chops. However, Harbaugh can probably get a passing game coordinator with those chops.

[Cheesehead Craig]

Have been and still on the Bieniemy train here.

Harbaugh is not leaving Michigan. Plus, Jimmy can't adapt his scheme. He banks on one thing and if you take it away, he's got nothing. Kaep-led offense did one thing really well, but teams adjusted and then was stopped. At Michigan, if you can stop the run, you beat him. He's had a track record of not having a good passing attack, which shows me that he simply can't get that coaching talent to come to him. Big pass on that in today's pass-happy NFL.

[run pMc]

None of those coaches thrill me. Don't trust Bienemy's chops yet, certainly not as a HC. McDaniels seems like a greasy jerk and he's sticking around for the NE job post-hoody. DeFillippo has all these weapons and Zimmer's defense and they're .500 and not very innovative IMO. The Harbaughs aren't offensive minded coaches either, and going mostly on their names at this point. Switching from McCarthy to either Harbaugh would be treading water at best.
College coaches don't have great track records as NFL HC, and most of the really successful ones are very well paid and treated like royalty...so unless it's a career goal it's unlikely to happen. The NFL track records of Nick Saban, Chip Kelly and Bobby Petrino don't foster confidence.

[The Shadow]

Out-of-the-Box choice to consider : Vic Fangio + one of the young offensive minds from the current innovative teams as OC.

[pbmax]

Out-of-the-Box choice to consider : Vic Fangio + one of the young offensive minds from the current innovative teams as OC.

I love his rep, but his Defenses always succeed when their front 4 is pretty dominant. Packers have drafted that only one time in my memory, 2009-10.

Earlier in 1990s, they signed three FAs to do it and an waiver guy to do it (Reggie, et al.)

[mraynrand]

I love his rep, but his Defenses always succeed when their front 4 is pretty dominant.

Tom Coughlin smiled

[call_me_ishmael]

What about somebody like Tony Romo? I doubt he'd be interested since he has a super cozy gig but I'd make the call and see if he wanted to coach his hometown team.

What about Matt Hasselbeck? I think he wants to get into coaching.

[call_me_ishmael]

Does any of this make McDaniels a lock for the Green Bay job? Not in the slightest. In fact, some who know him well suggested Sunday night that McDaniels still has a lot to learn about the Packers’ structure, which has undergone a revamping that has left CEO Mark Murphy far more involved in the decision-making than ever before. While Murphy has always been the chief decider in the franchise, league sources told Yahoo Sports he has become more involved with some of the granular details in roster-building and contracts and to some extent, even personnel building. With that deepened involvement, he will stand as the direct boss to both the head coach and general manager Brian Gutekunst.

That significantly undermines any idea Gutekunst will be picking the next head coach on his own. If anything, he’ll have a role in the search and analysis, but the ultimate decision will be Murphy’s. And those close to McDaniels have said he has already been advised to stay away from teams with that kind of structure, where the head coach and general manager are on different platforms and reporting directly into some element of ownership that is deeply involved in operations.

Yikes. Power structure already scaring candidates away. Murphy - what is you doin'??

[denverYooper]

I do not want McDaniels.

[mraynrand]

What about somebody like Tony Romo? I doubt he'd be interested since he has a super cozy gig but I'd make the call and see if he wanted to coach his hometown team.

What about Matt Hasselbeck? I think he wants to get into coaching.

Maybe in 5-10 years, if these guys really want to coach. You have to earn it - you have to be able to show you can put in the hours and withstand the grind. Figurehead coaches are a huge risk - you might get a gem, but you also might get a guy who doesn't know what it takes, isn't willing to put in the hours, or just get a guy who needs years of experience that he would have been better served getting at a lower level on the way up.

[denverYooper]

Out-of-the-Box choice to consider : Vic Fangio + one of the young offensive minds from the current innovative teams as OC.

I like your thinking on hiring a defense-oriented HC.

Most opinion now seems to revolve around an offense-minded HC "fixing" the Packers offense. I get it, a lot of people love the idea of Rodgers being re-tuned to a new offensive system, but that will happen anyway.

[Fosco33]

I think we go from Reid tree (Bieniemy / Kc) or young offensive ‘guru’ like a zac taylor / LAR.

[Fritz]

Have been and still on the Bieniemy train here.

Harbaugh is not leaving Michigan. Plus, Jimmy can't adapt his scheme. He banks on one thing and if you take it away, he's got nothing. Kaep-led offense did one thing really well, but teams adjusted and then was stopped. At Michigan, if you can stop the run, you beat him. He's had a track record of not having a good passing attack, which shows me that he simply can't get that coaching talent to come to him. Big pass on that in today's pass-happy NFL.

You nailed it on Harbaugh. He still thinks his teams can just out-tough everyone else, and while that works against Indiana or Maryland, it doesn't work in the real games. Bringing him in would be akin to the decade in which the Packers flirted with George Perles from Michigan State. A one-trick pony.

Don't do it, Murphy. Please don't.

[Carolina_Packer]

Does Dan Devine have any offspring that would be good coaching candidates?

I know Joe Lombardi now works for the Saints.

Let's go full circle.