Tag: chuck pagano

Commanders hire veteran NFL assistant John Pagano as senior defensive assistant

The Commanders add a highly respected defensive assistant to Dan Quinn’s staff.

Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn continues to add to his coaching staff. On Monday evening, Brent Allbright of KOA 850 AM in Denver reported that veteran NFL assistant John Pagano was heading to Washington.

When someone asked Allbright what role Pagano would serve, he said “probably” senior defensive assistant.

Pagano, 56, is the brother of former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano. He began his coaching career in college in 1989, with his first NFL opportunity coming in 1996.

Here is a look at Pagano’s list of coaching stops:

  • New Orleans Saints (1996-97): Defensive assistant
  • Indianapolis Colts (1998-01): Defensive assistant
  • San Diego Chargers (2002): Defensive assistant & defensive quality control coach
  • San Diego Chargers (2003): Assistant linebackers coach
  • San Diego Chargers (2004): Outside linebackers coach
  • San Diego Chargers (2005-11): Linebackers coach
  • San Diego Chargers (2012-16): Defensive coordinator
  • Oakland Raiders (2017-18): Assistant head coach & defensive coordinator
  • Houston Texans (2018-19): Senior defensive assistant & outside linebackers coach
  • Denver Broncos (2020-21): Outside linebackers coach

Pagano has a wealth of experience coaching multiple positions and as a two-time defensive coordinator. Per Allbright and Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Pagano had multiple opportunities but chose Washington and Quinn.

Chuck Pagano on Michael Pittman Jr. : ‘Ballard, you better pay the man’

Chuck Pagano makes the case for Michael Pittman Jr. to be paid.

Former Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano is loudly banging the table for Michael Pittman Jr. to be paid.

After watching the Jonathan Taylor tug-of-war with the Colts this offseason, many around the league wondered whether the next most likely man to be paid — Pittman — would also end up struggling to land a deal with the team.

But Pittman has essentially put many of those questions (including whether or not he was a top receiver) to bed this season with some record-breaking performances.

His stellar play has turned heads and gotten the attention of former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano. Pagno is advocating on his behalf and recently told a local Indy news station that Pittman “deserves a bag.”

(Warning: NSFW language.)

A second-round pick in 2020, Pittman is in the final year of his rookie contract. The market for wideouts is an expensive one, and Pittman has continued to prove he’s the catalyst of the offense.

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Former NFL HC: Panthers will be fast, aggressive under DC Ejiro Evero

Former Colts HC Chuck Pagano recently gave his outlook on how the Panthers defense will function under Ejiro Evero.

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How will the Carolina Panthers defense function under new coordinator Ejiro Evero? A former NFL head coach just provided us with his forecast.

Chuck Pagano recently gave The 33rd Team a preview of what he believes Evero is bringing to Charlotte. The ex-Indianapolis Colts head coach, who preceded Frank Reich at the position, looked to the rising star’s roots.

He writes:

He’s a 3-4 guy, a Vic Fangio disciple. They two worked together with the San Francisco 49ers when Fangio was the defensive coordinator and Evero was a defensive assistant. A lot of Evero’s fronts start in the 3-4; a lot of the coverage out of that base defense; and a lot of coverage out of that sub-defense are things we’ll see in Carolina.

He’ll probably have the guys line up in a base 3-4 — so three defensive linemen, two outside linebackers and two inside linebackers. In the secondary, it’ll be two safeties and two corners with base personnel not in that much.

Carolina’s move to a 3-4 front will be their first such shift since 2019, Ron Rivera’s last season with the organization.

To help accommodate the transition, the front office has retooled its personnel with a few notable additions such as defensive linemen Shy Tuttle and DeShawn Williams. Plus, some familiar names—Brian Burns, Derrick Brown and Jaycee Horn—already have the skill sets to quickly adapt to the change.

Pagano adds that Evero’s weapons, as well as his approach, will lead to a pretty entertaining unit:

The Panthers are going to play fast. They’re going to be aggressive and technically sound. There will be a lot more zone coverage than man coverage, but he won’t be afraid to get after opposing teams when he has to.

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Former NFL coach Chuck Pagano doesn’t see 49ers defense falling off at all

Former NFL head coach Chuck Pagano doesn’t envision any significant steps back for the 49ers defense this year.

The 49ers defensive personnel won’t undergo many dramatic changes this season, but there are two key factors that could alter the unit that finished No. 1 in scoring defense and total defense last season. They added defensive lineman Javon Hargrave in free agency, which provides a massive lift on the interior. They’ll also be working under new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.

Former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano doesn’t envision much of a drop off for the 49ers’ defense in 2023. And while Wilks is their biggest question mark on that side, he drew a strong review from Pagano who still likes that unit for San Francisco.

“This defense is stacked, then you add Hargrave to the mix,” Pagano said via the 33rd Team. “So to me, the biggest thing for them now is going to be the transition from DeMeco Ryans – who gets his shot in Houston, he’ll do wonderful there – he did an amazing job running that defense in San Fran the last couple years. So this transition, how quick can they adjust to Steve Wilks – who did a phenomenal job in Carolina as the interim (head coach). A lot of people thought he deserved a chance there after Arizona – having his opportunity there. But Steve’s a great coach, he’s a great teacher, he’s a great communicator. And he’ll put those guys in the best position possible to sustain this level of play.”

It’s fair to question exactly what how the 49ers’ defense will respond to a new defensive coordinator. Those same question marks existed when Robert Saleh took a head coaching job with the Jets and Ryans took over as the DC. The defense responded by actually getting better over Ryans’ two seasons at the helm.

Now they’re hoping the same will happen under Wilks, who won’t have to make many changes given the lack of turnover in personnel. There’ll be a new Sam linebacker and a new nickel cornerback, but beyond that this will largely be the same group of players that was dominant last year, with the addition of Hargrave who might’ve been the best available free agent.

Wilks will have to answer some questions as the DC, but Pagano’s ringing endorsement combined with the talent on that side of the ball makes it hard to believe San Francisco’s defense is due for any significant drop off in 2023.

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Former Colts HC has Dolphins defense among the league’s best

With acquisitions like Jalen Ramsey and Vic Fangio, they should be much improved.

The 2023 Miami Dolphins didn’t exactly have the best defensive season in team history. In fact, they allowed 399 points, the sixth most since the team was founded in 1966.

While a lot of that can be contributed to the slew of injuries that took out or slowed down impact players like Xavien Howard, Nik Needham, Brandon Jones, Emmanuel Ogbah and Byron Jones, the defensive scheme coached by Josh Boyer just wasn’t cutting it.

That’s why Miami opted to make a change this offseason, firing Boyer and bringing on an experienced defensive coordinator in Vic Fangio. On top of that, the Dolphins addressed the defensive side of the roster as well, adding Jalen Ramsey, David Long, DeShon Elliott and Malik Reed.

In the draft, they even selected South Carolina cornerback Cam Smith with their first pick despite the position not being their biggest need.

With all of this in mind, it’s not hard to see why former Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano, speaking with The 33rd Team, has the Dolphins’ defensive unit ranked as the fifth-best in the NFL.

One of the interesting points that Pagano made was his reference to Miami’s hiring of defensive backs coach Renaldo Hill. While the move has been mostly an afterthought with all of the splash news coming out with the team in the last year, having another coach with defensive coordinator experience to help one of the most talented secondaries in football can only help.

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Chuck Pagano: Giants’ Wink Martindale wants to dictate game tempo

Chuck Pagano discusses the aggressive approach of Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, noting that he wants to dictate game tempo.

The NFL assistant coach fraternity is a tight-knit one. Many of them have worked alongside one another as well as across the field as rivals.

Chuck Pagano, a long-time defensive assistant and former head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, is one of those football lifers. He’s known New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale for many years and chimed in on his friend/rival’s coaching philosophy.

“Wink Martindale gets off the bus bringing seven, eight, nine guys,” Pagano said during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. “He’s of the mindset that he’s always gonna dictate the tempo of a football game.”

Pagano was the defensive backs coach for the Oakland Raiders while Martindale served as the linebackers coach there in 2005-2006.

Both have held the position of defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens.

Pagano’s comments are music to the ears of Giant fans, who are clamoring for the days where they possessed a dominant defense with a devastating pass rush.

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8 notable NFL coaches who missed games during the season since 2005

Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury is part of these eight NFL coaches who had to miss games during an NFL season.

Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury will not make the trip to Cleveland to help his 5-0 squad extend their winning streak against the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium Sunday.

Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, former Denver Broncos coach from 2017-18, will take his place.

The criterion is coaches who missed a game or more and came back at some point during the regular season. Instances where a coach resigned due to the game not being fun anymore (Bum Phillips, 1985) or for what were determined to be health reasons (Bobby Ross, 2000) are outside the realm as they did not come back for that given season.

Akiem Hicks on Bears hiring Sean Desai: ‘Couldn’t have made a better choice’

A key veteran defensive player has come out in support of the Bears hiring Sean Desai as their new defensive coordinator last month.

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A key veteran defensive player has come out in support of the Chicago Bears hiring Sean Desai as their new defensive coordinator last month.

Defensive end and team captain Akiem Hicks spent Monday night answering questions from fans on Twitter and was asked if he believed the defense could become a top unit in the league once again. Hicks answered the question indirectly and praised his new defensive coordinator, who he believes can get them back to that point.

“Couldn’t have made a better choice for DC,” Hicks said in his tweet. “I’ve watched him grow as a coach every year since I’ve been in Chicago. I think it’s his time. He has a system that already worked here with pretty much same personnel.”

Hicks has spent the last five years working with Desai ever since he signed with Chicago as a free agent in 2016. A former quality control coach, Desai worked his way up the staff and become the team’s safeties coach in 2019 and 2020, before taking over for the now-retired Chuck Pagano. Former players such as outside linebacker Sam Acho and guard Kyle Long praised the move when it became official. 

The former Pro Bowler’s support isn’t necessarily surprising, but one might wonder what he would have thought if his former position coach was offered the job. Jay Rodgers, the Bears former defensive line coach who now coaches outside linebackers with the Los Angeles Chargers, was a candidate to replace Pagano as well. He and Desai were considered the two internal finalists, but Rodgers joined former Bears coach Brandon Staley in Los Angeles prior to the Bears hiring of Desai.

Many expect Desai to bring back the schemes of former defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who became the head coach of the Denver Broncos two years ago after spending four seasons leading the Bears defense and was Desai’s mentor. Hicks referenced Fangio’s system working well in Chicago in his tweet.

Hicks, like the defense as a whole, will look to bounce back after an uneven year. He finished the season with 49 tackles and three and a half sacks in 15 games in 2020. But if Hicks is correct about Desai, he may find himself having a resurgent season in 2021, along with the rest of the unit.

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Report: The Bears are losing RB coach Charles London to the Falcons

The Chicago Bears are looking at replacing more than one member of Matt Nagy’s coaching staff this offseason.

The Chicago Bears are looking at replacing more than one member of Matt Nagy’s coaching staff this offseason. While the Bears are currently searching for Chuck Pagano’s replacement at defensive coordinator, Chicago is due to lose a couple of offensive coaches.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Atlanta Falcons are expected to hire Bears running backs coach Charles London. London would join new head coach Arthur Smith’s coaching staff as quarterbacks coach.

London isn’t the only coach the Falcons are taking from the Bears. Passing coordinator Dave Ragone is expected to join Atlanta as their new offensive coordinator, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

There have also been rumblings of defensive line coach Jay Rodgers leaving Chicago for the Los Angeles Chargers, where he would reunite with former Bears outside linebackers coach and new Chargers head coach Brandon Staley.

That would leave the Bears with four openings on staff, including defensive coordinator. Chicago has interviewed several candidates already, including Indianapolis Colts defensive backs coach Jonathan Gannon, former New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator James Bettcher and Bears legend Mike Singletary.

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Report: Bears DL coach Jay Rodgers expected to depart for Chargers

With the Bears in the midst of a search for a new defensive coordinator, they’ll also be in the hunt for a new defensive line coach.

With the Chicago Bears in the midst of a search for a new defensive coordinator to replace a retired Chuck Pagano, it sounds like they’ll also be in the hunt for a new defensive line coach.

According to the Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs, defensive line coach Jay Rodgers is expected to reunite with former Bears outside linebackers coach Brandon Staley, who was hired as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Biggs didn’t specify the specific role, but it could be defensive coordinator.

Rodgers has overseen some impressive defensive line units and has been integral in the development of the likes of Eddie Goldman, Bilal Nichols, Roy Robertson-Harris and Nick Williams, among others.

It was previously reported that passing game coordinator Dave Ragone could be headed to the Atlanta Falcons, where he’s a favorite to land the offensive coordinator role under new head coach Arthur Smith.

Also according to Biggs, Bears running backs coach Charles London could also be headed to the Falcons.

The Bears are currently searching for a defensive coordinator to succeed Pagano, and they’ve already conducted some interviews. According to The Athletic, Chicago has interviewed former Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants defensive coordinator James Bettcher, Indianapolis Colts defensive backs coach Jonathan Gannon and Bears legend Mike Singletary for defensive coordinator this week.

Rodgers, along with safeties coach Sean Desai, was once thought to be a favorite in-house candidate to land the defensive coordinator position, but that doesn’t sound likely now.

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