NFL: Coach Carousel: Panthers Breakthrough – Ex-Browns Coach in Green Bay?

The head coach’s merry-go-round is slowly getting underway, and the Chicago Bears have found their new head coach in addition to the Oakland Raiders. Elsewhere, the coordinator interplay gets moving – SPOX gives an overview.

Head coach Anthony Lynn, head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers team, is set on stability before the second season:”As the team announced, both offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and defensive coordinator Gus Bradley are returning to the team with new contracts.

According to NFL network insider Ian Rapoport, Bradley will receive a three-year contract – ex-Jaguars-head coach Bradley has worked for a coordinator post in Green Bay and Seattle, where Bradley has already worked as a defensive coordinator. Bradley’s Chargers Defense scored an average of 17 points per game in the Regular Season, the third-best score after Minnesota (15.8) and Jacksonville (16.8).

Kansas City had already lost their offensive coordinator shortly after the playoff out against Tennessee: Matt Nagy is the new head coach of the Chicago Bears. The search for a successor took place just as quickly.

Just 24 hours later, the team announced that head coach Andy Reid Running Backs coach Eric Bieniemy was promoted to offensive coordinator. Bieniemy has held this position for five years, having previously worked as a running backs coach in Minnesota,”I’ve known Eric for a long time, as a player and coach. He has done a great job with our running backs and has been involved in all aspects of our offense for the past five years,”Reid said in a statement.

It remains to be seen what impact this will have on play-calling responsibility. Reid had relinquished skills to Nagy over the course of the season, which gave Nagy an even more prominent stage as head coach candidate. Since it is Bieniemy’s first coordinator post, Reid is likely to take the sceptre back into his own hands, at least for the time being.

The Carolina Panthers announced a major upheaval: On Tuesday evening, the team announced that both offensive coordinator Mike Shula and quarterback coach Ken Dorsey had been dismissed. Cam Newton is supposed to get a new start with a new coaching staff. The next offensive coordinator should bring a “new perspective”,”it’s about growing. And this team has the potential to do so,”said Head Coach Ron Rivera.

Under Shula, Newton had his MVP season in 2015 when he played outstandingly, but at the same time the Panthers-Offense lacked consistency on the one hand and a clear identity on the other. Carolina changed here again and again, changing from a power run game to an attempted short pass game, which didn’t work this season.

The offense continued to have its best performances when it was built around the run game and Newton himself played a central role. However, the Base Run Game – the concepts in the running game without Newton as a runner – never really got going this season. This caused Carolina a lot of problems and put too much pressure on Newton’s shoulders.

However, the rumors about the favourite on Shula’s successor are causing frowning: reports from Charlotte and NFL network insider Ian Rapoport report that Norv Turner is the number one candidate.

Turner served as offensive coordinator in Minnesota until the middle of the 2016 season, his offense is built around deep dropbacks, downfield receivers and a pocket passing game. Newton’s strength as a passers-by is undoubtedly the long ball – but there would be justifiable reasons to believe that Newton would not play a major role as a runner in a Norv-Turner-Offense.

No surprise at the Baltimore Ravens: After Defensive Coordinator Dean Pees finished his career after week 17, the Ravens stay with an internal solution: linebacker coach Don Martindale is promoted to Defensive Coordinator. The 54-year-old has been in Baltimore since 2012 and had previously worked as a Defensive Coordinator in Denver. Martindale enjoys a very high standing among the players internally and has an aggressive approach.

Meanwhile, the search for a new defensive coordinator continues in Green Bay – last time names like Bradley and Vic Fangio were circulating. Both obviously stay in L. A. or Chicago, as reported by ESPN insider Adam Schefter, the Packers focus was on another candidate anyway: ex-Browns head coach Mike Pettine will take over as the new defensive coordinator.

For the Packers, this is already an unusually turbulent off-season by their own standards. In addition to defensive co-ordinator Dom Capers – whose defenses had major problems in critical moments such as Third and Fourth Down as well as in the Red Zone – Managing Director Ted Thompson also had to be replaced.

Pettine is a very strong coordinator, his defenses have consistently been among the best in the league. A first exciting question will be which front he wants to play: Pettine presumably goes away from the classic 3-4, either to a kind of hybrid front or even directly to a 4-3.