The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coaches’ carousel
With NFL regular season complete, 49ers, Chargers dismiss bosses after last-place finishes and Kubiak steps down from Broncos for health reasons.
Eighteen years after Gary Kubiak tried to talk John Elway out of retiring, the roles were reversed. The result was the same. “He put up his hand and said, ‘Remember when you did that to me?’ ” Elway recounted. “I said, ‘Yeah, OK.’ ”
With that, Kubiak, 55, left the NFL pressure cooker over season-long health concerns, stepping down from his dream job Monday with two years left on his contract, a grateful family and a Super Bowl 50 ring.
Kubiak went 24-11 in three seasons, but a 9-7 finish this season kept the Broncos out of the playoffs.
In 1999, Elway’s knees were shot after leading Denver to back-to-back Lombardi Trophies, so when Mike Shanahan dispatched his offensive coordinator to try to change his quarterback’s mind, Elway told Kubiak not to waste his breath but to have a seat and drink some beers with him instead.
Their paths crossed again two years ago when Elway, now the Broncos GM, lured Kubiak back to Denver a little more than a year after Kubiak had suffered a ministroke and collapsed at halftime of a game while coaching the Texans.
Kubiak had another health scare in October when he suffered a migraine and had to take a week off work. He lightened his load for a while. Kubiak said that was just one episode in a season-long grind that convinced him it’s time to move on.
“I’m doing great, I’m OK,” he said at a news conference where he choked up several times. “But coaching is a very demanding business, a tough business and I’ve struggled big-time this year. I’m going to find something else to do.”
And Elway will find another coach, his third in his six seasons as GM.
49ers: Team CEO Jed York apologized for a 2-14 record that he called embarrassing, and repeatedly said the organization needed a “clean slate” in order to re-establish a “championship culture.” But one thing that won’t change after the firing of coach Chip Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke on Sunday: York will be the person leading the search for new leadership. “I own this football team,” York said. “You don’t dismiss owners.”
Chargers: After a second straight last-place finish in the AFC West, the team fired coach Mike McCoy an hour after losing 37-27 to the Chiefs on Sunday. McCoy was 27-37 in four seasons. John Spanos, the president of football operations, said “our team’s disappointing performance has not matched this team’s potential and has fallen short of the demanding standards that we seek to impose throughout our organization.”
Texans: Coach Bill O’Brien said he doesn’t know who will start at quarterback for Saturday’s wild-card playoff game against the visiting Raiders. Tom Savage started Houston’s last two games after Brock Osweiler was benched. But Savage’s status for this week is in question after he suffered a concussion in the second quarter of a loss to Tennessee on Sunday, and Osweiler played well off the bench. “We gave the players a day off (Monday) so I haven’t even seen the quarterbacks. So I’ll have more for you on that (Tuesday),” O’Brien said.
Packers: Quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw 15 touchdown passes and no interceptions in Green Bay’s final six games — all wins as the Packers (10-6) clinched the NFC North title. “He is definitely playing with a killer instinct,” said coach Ben McAdoo, whose Giants play at Green Bay on Sunday. “Aaron is playing out of his mind right now. He is on fire. He is taking care of the ball. He is moving very well in and out of the pocket, making all the throws. I don’t have any Kryptonite.”
Raiders: Oakland signed quarterback Garrett Gilbert to the practice squad ahead of Saturday’s playoff game. Starter Derek Carr is sidelined with a broken leg and backup Matt McGloin is questionable with an injured left shoulder. That leaves rookie Connor Cook as the only healthy QB under contract.
Panthers: Defensive tackle Kawann Short said he would “probably” sign a franchise tag offer if the team extended him one this offseason. Short, who just wrapped up his fourth NFL season, will become an unrestricted free agent on March 9. Short wound up playing the 2016 season under the final year of his rookie contract. The franchise tag for defensive tackles last season was $13.6 million and is expected to increase slightly next season.
Vikings: Adrian Peterson declared himself fit to play several more seasons in the NFL, even if that’s not in Minnesota. Peterson, 31, finished with only 72 yards on 37 rushes over three games, a torn meniscus in his right knee responsible for an abbreviated 10th season with the Vikings that might well have been his last. Carrying an $18 million salary cap hit on his contract for 2017, Peterson said he’d consider a reduced salary to return, which would probably be the only way for that to happen.
Bills: Quarterback Tyrod Taylor is unhappy with the Bills’ decision to bench him to close the season and questioned whether he’s played his final game for Buffalo. Unless he hears otherwise, Taylor said he can only assume the benching reflects the Bills having lost confidence in him. “That’s fair to say. That’s what it showed,” Taylor said Monday, when Bills players gathered to clear out their lockers. “Did I believe that was fair? No, I didn’t.”
Jets: Wide receiver Brandon Marshall finished with just 59 catches — the second-lowest total of his 11-year career — this season. Marshall, who turns 33 in March, knows his future with the Jets is uncertain since he is due $7.5 million next season and the team can save the entire amount on the salary cap if it cuts him.
“I’m still extremely confident that I’m an elite receiver,” he said.
Bengals: Wide receiver A.J. Green expects his injured right hamstring to be fully recovered in a few weeks, but he’s not going to play in the Pro Bowl. Green severely strained the hamstring on Nov. 20 and didn’t play the rest of the season, even though he said he felt he was ready. Despite missing essentially the last seven games, he finished the season leading the team with 66 catches for 964 yards. He came up 36 yards shy of his sixth straight 1,000yard season.