New Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich, shortly after his hiring last week, said that assembling his staff will be a “methodical” process. Well, it can also be a delayed one.
Mike Kaye of The Charlotte Observer, who’s currently down in Mobile, Ala. for this year’s Senior Bowl, tweeted on Friday afternoon that many NFL people down at the event feel like there’s a league-wide hold on the coaching carousel. And that logjam is thanks to four teams—the two in the Super Bowl and the two still without a head coach.
Sense I get from speaking with NFL folks in Mobile is that 4 teams are holding up a ton of movement on the coaching carousel.
Super Bowl teams (namely the Eagles) have a lot of potential assistants who could hop to bigger jobs. AZ and Indy taking a while has frozen options too
— Mike Kaye (@mike_e_kaye) February 3, 2023
As far as the Panthers could be concerned, their interests are likely hung up with the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles and the leader-less Indianapolis Colts—where Reich served as a Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator and a head coach. So, obviously, he’ll have his feelers out for various assistants from the two teams.
But until the Eagles get through Super Bowl LVII and the Colts finally decide on who they’re keeping around for 2023, there might not be much traction coming from either avenue.
Some names to keep an eye on in Philadelphia include quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo and tight ends coach Jason Michael—any of which could contend for the offensive coordinator position. And in Indianapolis, Carolina could look at defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, running backs coach Scottie Montgomery and interim offensive coordinator Parks Frazier—whose wedding was officiated by none other than Reich himself.
