Darrell Bevell has declined an invitation to interview for the Commanders’ offensive coordinator job, but we know they have interviewed a few candidates both internally (QB coach Ken Zampese interviewed Wednesday) and externally (Pat Shurmur and Charles London).
With the Commanders floating the idea that Sam Howell is going to be QB1 in 2023, Grant & Danny debated on Wednesday’s show whether an external hire or a promotion like Zampese is the best route for the team going forward.
London, the Falcons’ QB coach, has never been a coordinator or called plays, but he seems to be Grant Paulsen’s preferred candidate of the three mentioned above, because as he said: “you can’t get that experience of calling plays or being a coordinator until you actually get to do it.”
“You either go an old retread or an unproven wunderkind, and that would be more exciting option to me,” Danny Rouhier replied.
Here’s the problem, though, in Grant’s words:
“(London) has a tough hill to climb, because he doesn’t have any ins with to this regime, and do you really want to come here if you can’t bring in some of your own people on offense or make changes on the staff?”
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Danny made a funny corollary there about the Commanders, saying, “we’re looking for a prom date but our tux doesn’t fit and our shoes are mismatched,” and doubled down on a guy like London – who could be the next hotshot, perhaps – being the most exciting action.
And, as Grant noted, there is also one really big issue with hiring Zampese or another current offensive staffer:
"I wonder if fans could talk themselves into that being okay, especially after the Commanders fired Scott Turner, who was Zampese's boss," Paulsen said. "You've already said the offense wasn't good enough, and if you look at it, Wentz underperformed and Heinicke was worse this year...and their coach was Ken Zampese. So what is Zampese hanging his hat on?"
Whatever your preference, take a listen to what Grant & Danny had to say about the situation above.
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