Jay Gruden Rant (via nfl391)

1. Jay Gruden - yes, the other J. Gruden. Aka not his his brother. I don't think Chucky will return to coaching. He makes more money and works fewer days while at ESPN. And I don't think he's at the Dick Vermeil stage of wanting another shot at winning a Super Bowl. And if he does return it will be to a franchise that gives him the keys to the kingdom. Philly comes to mind.

Now if you watched the video above. Who DIDN'T want someone like that to yell at Matt Cassel Week 1 after we started the 3rd quarter off poorly?

Here's what I like and here's what I know.

Jay didn't enter coaching as quickly as Chucky because he was a better quarterback. He played and won in the Arena Football League. Even posted better numbers than Kurt Warner did a few times. He retired from Arena League to coach in the arena league. While he was the head coach of the Orlando team he un-retired to play QB and won a championship there. That's just balls right there.

He left the Arena League to help his brother w/ the Buccaneers. Like his brother he has a love for smart but underdog QBs and helped Brad Johnson overcome near retirement to win a Super Bowl. They had some better than expected luck with QBs like Bruce Gradowski.

In 2011, Marvin Lewis interviewed him for a job at the Cincinatti Bengals. Gruden assumed it would be QB coach, Lewis and the General Manager were so impressed with him that he won the OC job. Prior to the draft, he lobbied for them to take a shot at a QB that he and his brother loved - Andy Dalton. The Bengals refused to trade up into the 1st round for Dalton and said they would wait until the KANSAS CITY CHIEFS drafted to see if he was still available. Chiefs drafted Baldwin. Rest is history.

Of these 3 names. Here's why Gruden wins my vote.
Whoever Kansas City drafts , they will have skills more comparable to Andy Dalton than Andrew Luck or RGIII.
Dalton's development into becoming a Pro Bowl QB in his rookie season is owed to Gruden.
The Bengals looked like losers until Gruden was trusted with this team. They even won a playoff game. They'll likely win one this year. Heck they even kicked out the Steelers from the playoffs which hasn't been accomplished in some time.

Jay is a bit more quiet but a little more scary than Jon. Where he lacks ****-iness he strives in discipline and attention to detail.

Coach Speak: Five-step drop (via FoxSports)

2. I think Kyle Shanahan will be a name thrown out there. And he deserves love. He's the youngest person to ever become an OC in NFL history. Under Gary Kubiak he turned the Texans from offensive joke to juggernaut in his tenure. Now under his dad, he's the Redskins OC and has proven that RGIII is the next great SuperStar in the league.

My question isn't whether Shanahan will be ready to be a head coach. I think he's a head coach next year like it or not. The question is how much has his own touch changed the Texans (who run Kubiak's offense) or Redskins (who runs his dad's offense). It's hard to say what is Kyle's own touch whereas Gruden was given the keys to the car under Marvin Defense Lewis.

Note - My favorite part of Kyle is that we know how his family feels about Denver after they were pushed out for McDaniels. This team needs to understand punching the Broncos in the face. While at Houston you could see that Kyle enjoyed playing the Broncos.

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3. David Shaw , Stanford.

This guy might be my favorite coach out of all of the options. I hope he at least takes an interview in KC. He's a son of a b. Came to the Cardinal via Baltimore where he worked under John Harbaugh. He's worked under terrific coaches his entire life. Andy Reid. Jon Gruden.

My favorite part. Shaw was a three sport athlete at Stanford. He was a March Madness starting point guard. He ran on a PAC 10 championship relay team. And he was a wide receiver the year they went to the Rose Bowl. Oh and he graduated with a degree in Sociology a semester early. Think he isn't competitive?

The most impressive statement you can make about Shaw is that he took a Stanford team that had the right to lose this sseason ( it's widely talked about that Harbaugh knew he was going to the NFL and put together a half ass recruiting class in that year ). The team had no Luck. It's top 3 WRs were gone. And they make it to the Rose Bowl.


Bottom Line : KC needs a coach that understands the Quarterback postition. And that has to be the Head Coach. Not the OC. Not the QB coach. We've seen what Jim Zorn has done. We've seen Charlie Weis 1-and-done. We've seen Haley almost fist fight Matt Cassel. We can't wait another year to take this position seriously.

All three candidates have coached Quarterbacks at the NFL level. The time to start is now.