The Commanders’ head coaching interviews began in earnest today, as even though in-person meetings cannot begin until Monday, Adam Peters and company met with Dallas DC Dan Quinn and Rams DC Raheem Morris – both former NFL head coaches – via Zoom Thursday.
The beginning of the process, but much different than the GM search, which seemed like a one-horse race where four others got a chance to knock that horse off his throne.
“It's preliminary stuff, and then we'll find out who their main candidates are once we get to the in-person stuff,” Standig said. “Like, if you're gonna interview more than five or six people, how often does interviewing somebody over that number actually lead to that person getting that job, or at a minimum, getting a job somewhere? I don’t know if it’s for show or a bit excessive, but more a chance to say,’ well, we're scouring every corner of the league for help,’ when ultimately, it comes down to two or three people at most, and we kind of already predicted who those were in advance. In terms of the GM job, they had two finalists; I'm gonna guess a little more than that, but maybe not more than three or four.”
And so, yeah, do they already know the identities of at least some preferred finalists, and are doing due diligence to see if someone else knocks their socks off?
“I don't think it's crazy to believe; I mean, it's kind of felt that way with the GM situation, right?” Standig said. “I had been hearing at least for a couple weeks before it happened that Adam Peters was the one to beat, and whether that's a game of telephone or the truth, that's the part that's hard to gauge here. Ben Johnson is obviously the name that gets mentioned the most, but I would imagine they have to have significant alternate options, because he's gonna be a guy that a lot of teams want. Based on what we just saw with the GM search, it's not wrong to think that at all, but the question then becomes, who else is interested?”
That is, in part, because of a couple of significant names in becoming available.
“I think if Washington really is honed in on Ben Johnson, I think the last week or so has gone great for them – because when you have Bill Belichick and Jim Harbaugh and Mike Vrabel enter the discussion, now all of a sudden, somebody will be looking in those directions, and that takes away some things,” Standig said. “Like a month ago, it was Ben Johnson and then you figure out number two; now, he's not necessarily the number one guy for certain teams, and I think that could actually help Washington.”
So if it’s NOT Ben Johnson in DC, who is maybe an early leader in the clubhouse?
“At that point, I think it really is sort of a level playing field. We haven't heard yet if they're interested in Mike Vrabel, who was with the Patriots when Adam Peters was a scout, but I’m intrigued by Raheem Morris,” Standig said. “It feels like this is the year he finally gets another shot somewhere to be a head coach, and he’s clearly more of the ‘leader of men’ type hire – because if you still want offense, I mean, if it’s not Johnson, you’re down to Bobby Slowik, who is the next hot young guy but has a thin resume, and they haven’t requested interviews with anyone else. Maybe that changes with Peters on board, but it's mostly defensive guys, so if they don't get Johnson, based on their list, I guess I would assume it's more likely to be a defensive guy.”
There’s still time to add though, right?
“I think the current list is seven, and the fact that Peters has come on board since they came up with that list kind of makes me think there will be some other ones, at least you would think virtually,” Standig said. “Maybe Steve Wilks, the 49ers defensive coordinator, or Vrabel, who feels like he’s sort of a mix as an older guy who has had some kind of success but could be around for another couple of decades should things go well. Seven is a pretty good number, and like I said, at some point it feels like it becomes overkill, but at the same time, when you only have two offensive coordinators in that mix, I kind of think you would look to add somebody else.”