Stock watch: Ex-Patriots assistant gets boost in Detroit Lions coaching search

Detroit Free Press

Dave Birkett
 
| Detroit Free Press

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The Detroit Lions have interviewed three internal candidates for their general manager job, but things are naturally moving a little slower on the coaching side. With most of this year’s top coaching candidates currently employed by other NFL teams, the Lions will have to wait until the regular season ends to meet with their top choices. Until then, the only thing to do is measure their progress on the field. Here is a look at who helped and who hurt their chances in Week 14 of replacing Matt Patricia as head coach.

Stock up

Buffalo Bills OC Brian Daboll: It would be easy to brush off Daboll as a candidate because of his New England ties – he worked 11 seasons there in two stops – but it is impossible to ignore the job he has done with the Bills and quarterback Josh Allen. Buffalo (10-3) is on the verge of winning its first division title since 1995 and Allen has matured into one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the NFL. Both the Bills’ coaching staff (defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier will draw head coaching interest, too) and front office (assistant GM Joe Schoen) could get raided this offseason.

2021 roster: Who should stay, who should go under next Lions GM ]

Tennessee Titans OC Arthur Smith: The Titans have scored 30 or more points in four straight games and put up a whopping 249 yards rushing on the Jacksonville Jaguars. OK, so maybe that’s not a huge feat. Even the Lions ran for 180 against the Jaguars. But Smith continues to look like one of this hiring cycles top candidates, and he’ll get a chance to impress Lions brass up close when the Lions travel to Tennessee on Sunday. 

Kansas City Chiefs QB coach Mike Kafka: Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy should finally get a job this offseason, but he is not the only head coaching candidate on Kansas City’s staff. Kafka, the former Northwestern quarterback, might need another year or two seasoning, but his name is starting to generate buzz. He has the pedigree as an ex-quarterback who has apprenticed under Andy Reid, and he may have an ally in future GM Mike Borgonzi, Kansas City’s director of football operations. The Chiefs are a juggernaut and Kafka’s profile is rising.

No coaching candidate knows Detroit Lions misery like Robert Saleh ]

Stock down

Ex-Ohio State coach Urban Meyer: Meyer might return to coaching eventually, but listening to his comments on “The Herd” last week, it sure does not sound like he’s looking for a job in 2021, or with the Lions. “It’d have to be the perfect, perfect situation,” Meyer said. “It’d have to be something that I was confident that the health issues I could overcome, and at least prevent. So, I don’t know. At this point, I think I’m done, but I’ve learned a long time ago, I left a job once where I really planned on being there, then you get a phone call from a better opportunity. So, I think I’m done, but I would never say I’m never done.”

What is best for both Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions may not be easy ]

Carolina Panthers OC Joe Brady: Brady is fascinating; he reminds of Sean McVay, the excellent Los Angeles Rams coach who was hired at 30 years old and took the Rams to the Super Bowl in his second season. Brady is 31, had success at LSU and worked for Sean Payton before that. He should make a fine leader one day, but it’s not easy for teams to hire a coach from a losing situation, and the Panthers fell to 4-9 with a loss Sunday to the lowly Denver Broncos. When McVay was hired, he was coming off an 8-7-1 season as OC in Washington.

New York Giants OC Jason Garrett: Garrett made his first appearance in stock watch last week, when Fox analyst Jimmie Johnson recirculated his name for public consumption. But the Giants, battling for first place in the NFC East, nearly were shut out Sunday in a 26-7 loss to the struggling Arizona Cardinals. No one thinks the Giants (5-8) are very good, but they allowed eight sacks and had 159 net yards of offense. Not great optics for a team interested in hiring Garrett as head coach.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. 

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