Ben Johnson was hired as the Bears’ new head coach within 48 hours of Detroit losing to the Commanders in the NFC Championship Game – and Washington DC Joe Whitt Jr. had a virtual interview with the Jets, who ended up hiring Detroit DC Aaron Glenn on Wednesday, even quicker, apparently meeting with Woody Johnson’s crew on Sunday.
Both Detroit coordinators, both Washington coordinators, and a few others who were involved in the playoffs have been interviewing or brought up as candidates this cycle, and for up to 13 of those 14 postseason teams, the fan bases are sometimes left wondering if their coaches were distracted by job opportunities and not fulfilling the one they had.
If you’re in that camp…count Austin Ekeler as someone who is with you on changing things up.
“I feel like I can’t even speak on that right now – that’s like me talking free agency while we’re still out here trying to win games,” Ekeler told G&D when they asked him about Kliff Kingsbury and Anthony Lynn garnering candidate interest. “For me, it’s like, hey, that's great, I'm hoping you guys have some opportunities, and maybe you’ll take one, but right now, help us win this dang game. That’s where I need your focus. If they wanna go pursue that, they would probably make a great fit for somebody, but right now, let’s focus here.”
Kingsbury has been linked to the Bears (who of course hired Johnson) and Saints, Whitt has interviewed, and Lynn, a former head coach with the Chargers, has come up in discussions about the Cowboys’ job this week.
As Ekeler said, it’s great for them, but how much does that potentially hurt the Commanders? And should things be changed to discourage coaching searches until February, a plan Kingsbury has self-imposed when it comes to his own future?
“That makes sense, right? Like, if someone's interviewing for a job and they're like, ‘oh, I'll take it,’ and it's like, ‘well, we actually want to interview other people, but this guy is willing so should we take him?’” Ekeler said. “They don’t have to compete as much now, and I feel like it makes it an environment that is not as fair for people who are still in the tournament, because you can't expect those guys to be able to even have a chance to go and interview because they got to focus on their team, which they should be. So, I think it should be something a little bit more like a free agency-type thing where it’s, here's the date, and after that conversations can open. You still have maybe some preliminary talks of who's interested, that type of thing, but maybe no official interviews.”
Grant agreed that might be a good thing, and let’s be honest here: teams hiring coaches have no stake in what’s still happening, and sometimes, coaches like Kingsbury could get lost in the shuffle.
But on the other side, would, for example, Dallas really care if a pursuit of Kingsbury or Lynn was detrimental to a division rival? And could that go for assistants too, considering, as another example, Dan Quinn hired Lynn away from San Francisco four days after the Niners lost last year's Super Bowl?
“I can see that being a thing,” Ekeler laughed. “Coaching in the NFL is kind of handled really by ownership in that side, like there's no union or anything like that, so it's kind of the wild west over there. They don't have to say how much they're paying people or anything like that, so it's a whole topic of discussion that we as players don't have to get involved in, because it's just probably even more of a mess. Hopefully they get it figured out over there.”