January 19th, 2024 at 9:22 PM ^
Vrabel instead?
January 20th, 2024 at 12:18 AM ^
Replying here so I don’t have to start a new Harbaugh thread. But it appears the Falcons are going to interview Jim a second time next week. Come on Hoodie, he was supposed to lock this up with his second interview today. Can he do anything without Brady?
January 20th, 2024 at 5:40 AM ^
Apparently in person interviews don't start until next week.
January 20th, 2024 at 8:04 AM ^
So much for Harbaugh only considering jobs he is courted for lol
I guess he’s just getting in line with all the other usual suspects for any job that will interview him
January 20th, 2024 at 9:18 AM ^
If you want to criticize Jim for looking at the NFL that is certainly fair, but you're trying to make a distinction without a difference. It's not like Jim just showed up un-announced to Atlanta like it was some type of a job fair.
January 20th, 2024 at 9:37 AM ^
They should totally have NFL head coach job fairs. Like in a slightly run down hotel convention center where they give away free Chargers pens and Falcons stress balls. Guys like Jim Harbaugh have preset interview times and breeze in, while other guys like Matt Patricia wander around awkwardly with their resume hoping to get a few minutes with a team.
January 20th, 2024 at 11:49 AM ^
Sounds like a sitcom.
January 20th, 2024 at 9:43 AM ^
What does this even mean? How do teams court coaches if not by inviting them to interviews?
Also, where did the idea come from that he would only consider jobs is "courted" for?
January 20th, 2024 at 12:23 PM ^
You'd do differently if highly soought after/in demand in your field? He's probably nixing the Cali jobs due to their insane taxes.
January 20th, 2024 at 12:44 PM ^
Your take on Harbaugh interviewing/being interested in other jobs is correct and reasonable. I hope that’s sarcasm about CA taxes though.
Is California state income tax higher than in most other states? Yes. On a level that Harbaugh (or anyone) shouldn’t take a job here? That’s ludicrous.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:26 PM ^
Ironically, Mike Vrabel is a bigger control freak than Jim Harbaugh. That's why he was run out of Nashville.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:14 PM ^
And he wasn't successful, just liked.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:36 PM ^
He was NFL coach of the year two years ago.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:42 PM ^
I'm sure that means a lot to fans and players.
January 20th, 2024 at 12:08 AM ^
He was pretty damn successful for not having a QB. I think they fired him because they want to tank for a QB and if they kept him around he'd win just enough games to prevent a high draft pick but never win a Super Bowl because they wouldn't be able to get him a good QB.
January 20th, 2024 at 8:30 AM ^
Don't really follow the Titans too closely but they had a rookie quarterback (Will Levis) starting most of the year and he was a high second round pick. I know they had a disappointing season, but I don't think they should have fired Vrabel. What's more is that they're probably going to have a worse coach coming out of this.
January 20th, 2024 at 11:39 AM ^
I think a big part of his lack of success was the QB situation. I think he'd be a good fit for the Chargers. The Titans were always a tough team to play under his watch and at least decent defensively. The Chargers had some good pieces on both sides of the ball but the defense let them down last season big time. If they tightened up on defense they would have been a playoff team.
January 20th, 2024 at 12:02 AM ^
Not sure this is really a fair representation of the local Titans/Vrabel situation (at least as I've been following it). It starts with the old GM Jon Robinson who made a series of perplexing moves including Henry's contract, Tannehill/QB Drafts, and most notably electing to not resign AJ Brown and "replace" him in the draft with Burks (did not work). He gets bounced and Ran Carthon was brought in last year. You get the whole "new GM wants his guy" deal with Carthon, which is further compounded by Amy Adams Strunk soliciting Vrabel's opinion and then choosing someone else (Carthon). Then, as a new GM is wont to do, he begins molding the team out from under Vrabel, notably trading away team leaders/captain like S Kevin Byard during the season.
By all accounts, including Strunk at the post Vrabel firing press conference, Carthon and Vrabel were cordial, they just weren't collaborative. At the point where she hired Carthon last year, it was either going to have to be a success, or she was going to be painted into a corner where her options were fire one of the more successful coaches in the league, or fire a GM she just hired.
January 20th, 2024 at 12:50 AM ^
Jon Robinson started out with a bang in drafting (especially 2016 and 2019 where he got tons of high-end starters and outright superstars).
However, outside of those two drafts, he managed to have one of the runs of drafting/trading/resigning guys in recent memory. His 2020-2022 drafts in particular were next-level awful and laid the groundwork for the lack of success seen today.
He then compounded his lack of competent drafting by trying to be the Patriots with regards to replacing guys when they were due to be re-signed to big deals.
All of this combined to make him a truly awful GM. The final straw will always be the AJ Brown saga (and replacing him with the always injured/terrible Treylon Burks). He was fired right away after Brown and the Eagles lit up the Titans. That said, Brown is a guy who is going to be this generation's Antonio Brown/T.O. when its all said and done, so I am less angry than other fans.
As for Vrabel, he too is a complete meathead control freak, but with none of the charm of Dan Campbell. He reminds me of a coach you bring in to get you over the hump - but hes not a rebuilding coach at all.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:26 PM ^
I approve of this message. Plus Herbert is good but not elite and you can’t get value for him. For your own good JH!
January 19th, 2024 at 9:46 PM ^
Herbert's elite. So is ours.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:31 PM ^
that is a seriously dumb headline.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:54 PM ^
I am bracing for the possibility of a future without Olivia Munn. Thoughts and prayers are needed.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:59 PM ^
🙏 🙏🙏
Pictures or it didn’t happen.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:51 PM ^
Hang in there brother, my future without 2000s Megan Fox has been bleak but fulfilling
January 19th, 2024 at 11:33 PM ^
There's always Olivia Wilde...
January 20th, 2024 at 11:43 AM ^
This is true. Also, If Jason Sudeikis can get a woman like Olivia Wilde I think that bodes well for all of us in all of our endeavors with the opposite sex.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:31 PM ^
Vrabel is an elite get, Belicheck probably has another 6 rings left in him, and Minter is wildly overrated. Am I missing anything?
January 19th, 2024 at 9:35 PM ^
Have to sacrifice Ben Johnson to the Commanders also.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:01 PM ^
Belicheck probably has another 6 rings left in him
Did he eat them?
January 19th, 2024 at 10:09 PM ^
No, this is perfect.
Go Blue!
January 19th, 2024 at 9:33 PM ^
This is an opinion piece, not a report. It basically just says Harbaugh is the guy everyone wants, but they need to be prepared in case he wants to return to Michigan. I'd like this a lot more if it said something about Harbaugh and the Chargers not clicking, or the Chargers liking someone else more than Harbaugh.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:59 PM ^
The fact that they flew Vrabel out and there hasn’t been a 2nd interview with Jim could mean something.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:31 PM ^
I don't think so. They still have first interviews scheduled (I know Ben Johnson's is Saturday). I don't believe they've had anyone in for a second interview yet.
January 20th, 2024 at 7:49 AM ^
Are the Chargers trying to break the record for number of interviews? I don’t get what they’re doing.
Most of the time NFL teams know who they want and only conduct enough interviews to satisfy the Rooney Rule. It’s typically a farce. I don’t know what you call this. 12 interviews and counting? Strange.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:45 PM ^
As a corporate law alumnus, I speak corporation, let me translate for you guys. Chargers’ management is prepared to make Harbaugh a lowball offer doesn’t come close to meeting his terms, and is hoping their fans will accept that the Chargers tried. Meantime the Chargers will pocket somewhere in the ball park of $5-10 million a year by hiring Vrabel, but more importantly the suits will be running the place.
January 19th, 2024 at 9:52 PM ^
Vrabel was making $9.5M in Tennessee. And wasn't the alleged Michigan offer for Harbaugh like $11.5M/yr? I can't imagine the price difference between those two is that extreme. Maybe if it was a first time HC like Ben Johnson or Bobby Slowik.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:10 PM ^
I thought they said Harbaugh would be like 15-20 mill. They're trying to pry him away. He did say no to the Broncos last year.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:38 PM ^
I don't think he's getting that much. Sean Payton got $18M ... and then it's McVay $14M, Tomlin $12.5M, and Andy Reid $12M.
If they give anything close to $20M to Harbaugh, I'd have to imagine there will be some pissed off owners (like when the Browns paid Watson and blew up the QB pay scale).
January 20th, 2024 at 9:59 AM ^
Did Harbaugh really turn down the Broncos? Is that the accepted view of what happened there?
January 20th, 2024 at 12:18 AM ^
Yeah I read that Harbaugh demanded $18M from NFL teams and figure the max Vrabel gets in any offer is $10M (the former Chargers guy was getting $4M). You could see the case for going even lower if this is a dollars/cents decision. It often is, I believe. Teams think you can pay less to get executives and admin that specialize in personnel and middle management rather than pay a premium for coaching. (You can find examples of that working out, but more often you win Super Bowls with premium coaching.)
January 19th, 2024 at 10:11 PM ^
Reverse leverage
January 19th, 2024 at 10:39 PM ^
I especially liked that two stories down on Google News is a story from the same outlet talking about the Chargers were possibly interviewing Harbaughs OC.
January 19th, 2024 at 10:57 PM ^
Jim is in D.C. this weekend for a right to life rally. I wonder if he’ll be meeting with the Commanders.
January 19th, 2024 at 11:28 PM ^
Wait a minute…….i thought Harbaugh to the Chargers was all but a done deal. At least that is what Schefter said. I thought for sure he knew what he was talking about this time.
January 20th, 2024 at 1:46 PM ^
Did Shefter say that? The last comment of his I heard was stating the fact that Harbaugh would be interviewing. I don’t recall him making any prognostications about Harbaugh and the NFL.
January 20th, 2024 at 12:00 AM ^
It sort of sounds like the ball is completely in Harbaugh’s court and that he may be leaning towards returning to Michigan. Of course it doesn’t say that, but that’s how I’m interpreting it, because I want it to be true.
January 20th, 2024 at 2:50 AM ^
Welcome to the club, LA.
Dicks.
January 20th, 2024 at 3:55 AM ^
It's fun to see how the Chargers feel that Harbaugh is jerking them around too.
It's just what he does.
January 20th, 2024 at 1:48 PM ^
I don’t blame the guy. He wants things a certain way and has earned the right to ask for it. If any team doesn’t like it or isn’t willing to give him what he’s asking for, then it’s their loss IMO.
Michigan should give him all the assurances he’s looking for and lock him up for the next 10 years.