Tag: Dave Toub

The top 10 head-coaching candidates Jets should consider to replace Adam Gase

Jets Wire unveils its list of the top 10 candidates to replace Adam Gase.

With Adam Gase’s tenure as Jets head coach over, it’s time to take a look at who could replace him.

Fortunately for Joe Douglas and New York, the cupboard is full of candidates who can turn the Jets around. From bright college coaches to innovative offensive minds and some candidates with impressive defensive backgrounds, Douglas will have plenty of intriguing candidates to choose from this offseason.

Now that the Jets and Gase have officially parted ways, Jets Wire will take a look at who could replace Gase from a variety of angles. To start, here are Jets Wire’s top 10 candidates to replace him, a should-be, ranked wish list if the Jets had their pick of the litter.

Chiefs’ Dave Toub in favor of extending new practice squad, IR rules beyond 2020

Toub thinks the NFL should seriously consider keeping roster rules that were put in place to mitigate challenges related to COVID-19.

The Kansas City Chiefs could be short a few of their special teams contributors in Week 15 against the New Orleans Saints. Dorian O’Daniel is on injured reserve, Marcus Kemp was recently released and Darwin Thompson missed Thursday’s practice with an illness. There are also injuries along the offensive line to consider.

Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub is rightfully concerned about his unit because of this.

“Well, I’m always concerned,” Toub told reporters on Thursday. “I mean, it’s always a stressful situation, but nothing that doesn’t come with the job you know that every week, but this week a little bit more, maybe possibly so, but it’s still early in the week. We still have Friday, and these guys could come back so we’re waiting to see what happens there.”

The silver lining with any depth-related issue this season has been the NFL’s rules related to practice squad elevations and injured reserve return designations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL implemented new ways to elevate players to the practice squad as both a standard elevation and a COVID-19 replacement. They also allow for short-term IR stays and allowing teams to return an unlimited number of players from injured reserve.

After seeing the new systems in action for nearly a full season, Toub hopes the NFL seriously considers keeping it in place, even after COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror.

“With the new practice squad rules and the new COVID rules, it’s a lot easier to bring guys up,” Toub continued. “You have that flexibility, there’s a lot more flexibility in the roster and it’s really, really helped this year. That’s something that I hope that they really look at going forward when COVID is all done and over with, that is something they might want to keep, the way they have the flexibility with the practice squad the way it is now. Because we’re able to pull up a guy immediately if a guy is out and that’s a huge thing and also get guys back in instead of being put on IR for the whole season, you have a three-week IR, so that’s another plus. So, all those things are helpful.”

The NFL recently held a virtual meeting of its owners, but these items weren’t yet on the agenda. We’ll likely have more clarity on how the NFL views these rules and their success or failures over the summer after the season has ended. Both the practice squad and injured reserve rules could be extended to the 2021 season, with little clarity about where we’ll be in our fight against COVID-19 when training camps open.

For now, the Chiefs will continue to take advantage of these new roster rules, elevating players and returning them from injury when possible. Look for the entire team to be a strong proponent of keeping both rules in place moving forward.

“This week is no different than any other week,” Toub concluded. “We’re going to have to shuffle it up a little bit and have some different guys out there.”

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Chiefs expect special teams ace Dorian O’Daniel to miss time with high ankle sprain

O’Daniel had been playing at a Pro Bowl level according to Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub.

Kansas City Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub confirmed on Thursday that the team expects to be without LB Dorian O’Daniel for some time after he suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 12 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He’s already been ruled out by the team for the Week 13 game against the Broncos.

O’Daniel hasn’t quite blossomed into the player that many hoped he could be on the defense, but he has been one of the most relied upon special teams players in Kansas City over the past three seasons. This year, in particular, O’Daniel is the second leading player in snaps on special teams to only Anthony Sherman. He has 292 total snaps with over 67% of the special teams snaps this year.

The team has come to rely on O’Daniel in each phase of special teams. Toub even believes he’s been one of the top NFL players in his particular role this season.

“He’s a four-phase starter, he’s on every phase,” Toub explained on Thursday. “He was playing on a Pro Bowl level this year. He’s our leading tackler, he’s doing great with blocking, so we’re going to miss him until he comes back. He’s got a high ankle sprain, so it’s going to take a minute. The good thing is we have a lot of players that we can replace him with, and we feel good going forward. We will be happy when he comes back.”

O’Daniel suffered the ankle injury on a fourth-and-6 punt by the Bucs in the first quarter of the game. The Chiefs shifted things around on special teams once O’Daniel left the game. On punt coverage, it was LB Damien Wilson who replaced him in the specific alignment. Wilson was already in on those plays and Deon Yelder was the new player added in when O’Daniel went out.

“We have something in our mind of who’s going to fill his role but I’m not going to talk about it right now,” Toub said.

It’s unclear if the team will continue to use Yelder and Wilson or have a different plan of action for Sunday night’s tilt with the Denver Broncos. Toub is holding things close to the vest, which could suggest a practice squad elevation or that a new player is made active and inserted into the special teams lineup.

When the Chiefs played the Broncos in Week 7, special teams were a big part of the game for Kansas City. Byron Pringle had a 102-yard kick return touchdown and Harrison Butker was 3-for-3 on field-goal attempts.

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Chiefs’ Dave Toub expects Tommy Townsend to bounce back after his ‘worst game’

Townsend didn’t have a good game against the Buccaneers in Week 12.

Kansas City Chiefs rookie punter Tommy Townsend has been rock solid this season. Expectations were high when he was brought on to replace 15-year veteran Dustin Colquitt and he hasn’t disappointed. Yet, in Week 12 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Townsend didn’t have a good game.

He recorded his second-lowest yards per punt average of his professional career. He had one punt returned, though, only for two yards. The worst thing was that he was surrendering good field position to Tom Brady when he had a chance to pin them back deep.

Chiefs ST coordinator Dave Toub didn’t hold his tongue when talking about his rookie punter on Thursday. He called this the worst game of Townsend’s career and expects him to do better moving forward.

“Tommy was off to a really, really good start,” Toub said. “He probably had — he’s coming off his worst game last week. We had four punts. They were effective punts, but not great punts. [Do] you know what I mean? They hit the ground, rolled, really good for us. But at the end of the day, a little bit better, we need better punts there. He’s coming off his worst game, I’m looking for him to bounce back this week. He had a couple of pooch punts that the angle was a wrong angle, too much of angle. It seemed like we were trying to kick it away from Antonio Brown, but we really weren’t. We were just trying to get it down there in the corner of the field. So those things we need to work on. He’ll bounce back this week and have a good week.”

On the season thus far, Townsend has 33 total punts with 17 of those landing inside of the 20-yard line. His long punt is 67 yards and According to PFF, only 27.3% of his punts have been deemed returnable. Toub doesn’t believe this has anything to do with Townsend hitting the dreaded “rookie wall.”

“I find that hard to believe with him,” Toub said. “Basically because we don’t punt that much. It’s not like we’re out there hitting a lot of punts. 2-4 punts a game, I mean, I don’t think that’s an issue really. It could happen, but I don’t think that’s something that we’d even talk about really.”

Townsend is due for a bounceback game against the Broncos in Week 13. Back in Week 7, when the Chiefs first faced Denver, Townsend had three punts totaling 133 yards. One punt was returned for no yards during that game. He won’t have the favor of working with the tin Denver air, but he will have the comfort of playing in front of a home crowd.

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Chiefs’ Dave Toub explains decision to sign P Johnny Townsend

A benefit of a 16-man practice squad is being prepared for any potential absence.

The Kansas City Chiefs recently added punter Johnny Townsend, the brother of the team’s current punter Tommy Townsend, to the practice squad.

It was a head-scratching move for many fans as the Chiefs already have the younger Townsend brother as their punter and holder. Teams don’t typically have multiple specialists, even on the practice squad, without a recurrent injury or something of the like. When special teams coordinator Dave Toub spoke with the media on Thursday, he explained the decision in detail, citing the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 as a driving factor.

“Well, Johnny (Townsend), you know he’s a good punter coming out a few years back, Raiders drafted him,” Toub said. “We liked him coming out…. he was on the street and he was available as somebody that can come in and it was a really good idea by (Brett) Veach to bring a guy in just in case the COVID thing hits us. Hits one of our guys, that we have a guy that’s in the building tested, that we can just plug in there and plug and play. He’s a guy that can come in and punt for us, be a holder. If (Harrison) Butker went down with COVID, if he was out, then we would probably kick with Tommy (Townsend) and then Johnny would be the holder. They’re interchangeable parts, one guy can do a lot of things and that’s why we have him here. It’s a pretty good idea by Veach.”

Johnny is basically an insurance policy in the times of COVID-19. It gives the Chiefs flexibility if Tommy or Butker were placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Even in the event of an injury, it leaves the Chiefs prepared. Typically, with an injury, you’d have the time to get a player in the building and up to speed ahead of a game. That’s not something that would happen this year due to the COVID-19 screening period.

Toub also made it very clear, this isn’t about any sort of struggles going on with Butker and PATs.

“We would just work him in practice,” Toub explained. “He’s a practice squad player that we would work in practice, in case of emergency guy, strictly. We would never – I don’t think there would ever be a situation where he would come in for Tommy (Townsend) unless we needed it, unless we had to have it. But it’s a good luxury to have a guy like that that we can plugin and I’ll tell you, he’s a really good fit too. There’s no pressure.”

It’s a bit of a unique situation having two players who are brothers that play the same position. Toub isn’t concerned about the dynamic at all.

“I mean obviously, he’s going to support his brother, support Tommy (Townsend) in every way,” Toub said. “It’s a really good situation for us. I’m not sure that there’s ever been brothers at one position like that, at the same position as a punter/kicker on the same team, so it’s kind of a unique deal as well.”

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Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill could return punts in Week 11 vs. Raiders

Hill could return to a familiar role for the Chiefs in Week 11.

Kansas City Chiefs fans could see a familiar look when the team lines up to return punts against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 11.

Mecole Hardman’s status for Week 11 is in question, as he remains on the reserve/COVID-19 list. That means the Chiefs will likely turn to a new punt returner. When asked about the players he might turn to in Hardman’s absence, Chiefs ST coordinator Dave Toub listed WR Tyreek Hill at the top of the list.

“Tyreek (Hill) is obviously a pretty good option for us,” Toub told reporters. “We would use that option if we needed it. Like I’ve said before, we have other guys. You know Demarcus (Robinson), he can do it. (Rashad) Fenton can play it. We have a number of guys who can do it. Pringle could play. So you never know which way we would go there, but obviously, Tyreek would probably be the No. 1 option.”

Hill started off his career in Kansas City as a punt returner and worked his way up to the role that you see him in today. He hasn’t really played much punt returner over the past two seasons, with just two returns for no yards in each of the past two years. In each of his first three seasons in the NFL, Hill returned a total of 84 punts for 1,009 yards and four touchdowns.

Hill was considered among one of the most explosive return specialists in the league during that span. In fact, Hill’s first career punt return touchdown came against the Raiders on “Thursday Night Football” in Week 14 of the 2016 NFL season. He returned the punt for 78 yards in the second quarter to give the Chiefs a 21-3 lead in the game.

Now, we could see Hill return to this familiar role, while also balancing his role on the offense. There is a lot of confidence among the coaching staff that he’ll be able to manage both if necessary.

“I know this, Tyreek has done it in the past,” Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy said. “He knows the challenges that he’ll be facing and I’m actually kind of excited. What better opportunity for him to steal another moment of getting the ball and doing what he does. Hell, I’m gonna get my popcorn as well.”

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Chiefs WR Byron Pringle to see more opportunities in kick return rotation

Dave Toub spoke about Byron Pringle’s big day against the Denver Broncos and whether he’d see more kick returns.

Kansas City Chiefs WR Byron Pringle appears to have earned himself more playing time on special teams with a breakout performance against the Denver Broncos in Week 7. Pringle’s 102-yard touchdown return earned him AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

“Just overall what a day he had with the 102-yard return too,” Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub said on Thursday. “I mean the way he hit that thing, he hit it with a lot of courage and confidence and a lot of praise should go out to the guys that were blocking for him too. They did a great job blocking, there was a lot of big blocks on that play and it all came together.”

Pringle had another great play on special teams, downing a punt at the one-yard line, which hasn’t been talked about much.

“Yeah, that was a great play,” Toub said. “What a day he had on special teams, I mean that kickoff return was something else, but yeah that play was a big play, too. It was a great punt by Tommy (Townsend). That ball could’ve easily hit the ground and shot forward. He’s been working on it, and it’s good to see us get a good bounce there and really Pringle needed to be Johnny on the spot because that thing could’ve rolled into the endzone. He was right there, the returner tried to block him, he beat the block, made a huge play right there for us and in the back for our defense.”

Pringle explained that was something that he’d been working on after missing a similar play in Super Bowl LIV.

As for the opportunity to returns kick, the Chiefs have been using a sort of rotation approach at the position lately. They’re doing so with Mecole Hardman taking more repetitions on offense with Sammy Watkins sidelined due to injury. Along with Pringle, DB Rashad Fenton has a kick return package and so does Demarcus Robinson, though, we haven’t seen that one yet. Each player brings a bit of a different flavor as Toub explained. He felt that rotating players in there could give the team an advantage.

“When you’re a kickoff team or if you don’t know anything about a guy, there’s that unknown,” Toub explained. “Sometimes you put a guy back there and they say let’s see what this guy can do, let’s test him and sometimes that happens and that could’ve happened with Pringle I’m sure. We might not get kicks to us maybe this game, they may try to kick a touchback with Pringle back there. You put a new guy back there and sometimes they want to test you and sometimes we do.”

Pringle certainly gave the Chiefs an advantage in Week 7 and it’s possible this could be something we see on a weekly basis in Kansas City. Toub was asked if Pringle would see more opportunities within the rotation moving forward and didn’t hesitate to answer.

“There’s no question,” Toub said. “I think the way he hit it, he’s got a skill there. We knew he had the skill there, but once you get one under your belt, then you’re hungry for your next one and the guys want to block for them. It’s kind of a snowball effect, no pun intended but we want to get it going again.”

That enthusiasm from Toub sounded a bit more like Pringle will be the starter moving forward rather than a part of the rotation.

The next step for Pringle: Earning more playing time within the offense.

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Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo explains Willie Gay Jr.’s lack of playing time

Why hasn’t the rookie linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs seen more playing time?

When the Kansas City Chiefs added Willie Gay Jr. with the No. 63 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, fans expected that he’d add an infusion of athleticism to linebacker corp right away. His 4.46-second 40-yard dash and 39.5-inch vertical jump at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine made him one of the most athletic linebackers in the entire class.

The narrative surrounding Gay’s potential role within the K.C. defense was quickly defused when we learned he’d be working behind Damien Wilson at the SAM and BUCK linebacker positions. So far through two games, Gay Jr. has played just six defensive snaps due to brief injury absences by Wilson and Anthony Hitchens. Meanwhile, several Chiefs rookies like L’Jarius Sneed, Mike Danna and Tershawn Wharton have been getting a bounty of snaps for the defense.

On Friday, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was asked about what Gay has to do to see more snaps.

“About Willie, we always have hopes of playing as many guys as we can,” Spagnuolo said. “Matt House does a great job with Willie, Matt and Britt (Reid). I think he’s progressed really well. You know, you have guys in there that are a little more experienced. The position that he plays, there are some adjustments that you have to go through. He’ll find his way in there. We’re hopeful to continue to add on plays and reps in practice and then find his way into the game.”

It doesn’t sound like Spagnuolo is anticipating a natural increase in defensive snaps for Gay anytime soon. He’ll have to earn it with what he’s able to show on the practice field. Otherwise, he’ll have to wait for an injury to see time on defense.

There was some thought that he could see a bigger role after Dorian O’Daniel had a day off from practice on Friday due to a knee injury. O’Daniel is someone who could spy Ravens QB Lamar Jackson in Week 3. O’Daniel was back at practice on Saturday according to The Athletic’s Nate Taylor. If O’Daniel were unable to go on Monday, it just doesn’t sound like Gay has the trust of the defensive coaching staff to take on that specific role.

Right now, it feels like Gay’s best chance at seeing the field and make an impact seems to be on special teams. Through two weeks he has 34 snaps on special teams and last week he had a punt deflection.

“Yeah, his job out there on that left end spot is to rush the slot first, make sure it’s not a fake and then rush the punter,” Chiefs ST coordinator Dave Toub told reporters on Friday. “The slot tried to cut him, so he knew he wasn’t going to go out for a pass, so he turned it into a rush immediately. When he rushed, he did a nice job of getting his hand on the ball. Now, he didn’t block it, it was more of a deflection. When the ball goes past the line of scrimmage, it’s a deflected punt, it’s still a live punt. I wish he would’ve gotten a little more of the ball and it would’ve stayed on the other side and considered a block. The effort was great, he caused a bad punt, they had a bad net on the play. It definitely was a positive play and good for him. He keeps getting better and better each week. Every week, every practice, he gets better and better.”

If you look at players like Ben Niemann and Dorian O’Daniel, who are both getting increased playing time in the defense, they have something in common. They both started with primary roles on special teams before seeing time on defense. That seems to be where the Chiefs get their linebackers developed and ready to play. If Gay can continue to make plays on special teams, he’ll be that much closer to finally seeing playing time on the defensive side of the ball.

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Chiefs ST coordinator Dave Toub shares thoughts on new punter Tommy Townsend

Special teams coordinator Dave Toub fielded questions Thursday about the team’s new punter during his training camp press conference.

The Kansas City Chiefs are entering the upcoming season with a new punter for the first time since 2005. A position firmly held by fan-favorite Dustin Colquitt, up until the 38-year-old was waived this past offseason.

The Chiefs have since turned the punting duties over to 23-year old undrafted rookie Tommy Townsend. Special teams coordinator Dave Toub fielded questions Thursday about the team’s new punter during his training camp press conference.

“We originally saw Tommy at the combine, and I felt like he was the best punter at the combine. We had a draftable grade on him,” said Toub. “Obviously he wasn’t drafted, so he was a guy that we went after real strong, and those guys did a great job of being able to get him in our building. I’m really happy with his performance so far. He’s done a great job. He’s really consistent. He really bombs the ball. He gets the ball off quick, he’s athletic. He’s everything you’re looking for.”

Townsend played collegiately starting at the University of Tennessee before transferring to the University of Florida. He recorded a career-long 71-yard punt during his college tenure and has been infamous for pulling off fake punts during games. It’s a skill that could add an extra wrinkle to Toub’s game plan, but for now, he seems focused on getting the rookie settled with the basics in camp.

“We don’t have less time at all, we have the same amount of time that we’ve always had.” said Toub ”In fact, the ramp-up period was really good because the ramp-up period allowed us to put in what we would normally do during the OTAs and those things. So, that was good time for us. Being able to teach fundamentals for those young guys is critical. Now, we’re getting into more of the team and the scheme stuff of it and now they put all those fundamentals together and we get to see what kind of football players these guys are. Like I said, it’s unfortunate for those guys that there’s no preseason games, but we have to do the best we can in the team periods that we have to evaluate these guys in and make decisions. Now, the other guys are going to have a leg up. The guys that we’ve had before that are game-proven, those guys are going to have a leg up, and that’s just the way it is.”

Colquitt was tremendous in the Kansas City community, regularly nominated for the Walter Payton Man of The Year award. His consistency on the field and off the field, whenever his number was called, is another trademark that Townsend will be expected to pick up this season and during the course of his career.

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Rookie DB L’Jarius Sneed’s versatility coveted by Chiefs coaching staff

It sounds like Kansas City Chiefs rookie DB L’Jarius Sneed will have a chance to do a lot of different things for the team.

The Kansas City Chiefs once again waited until Day 3 of the NFL draft to address the defensive secondary, but that doesn’t seem to worry defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

In fact, there’s a lot of excitement across the coaching staff over versatile defensive back L’Jarius Sneed. While Sneed played safety during the 2019 season at Louisiana Tech, he prefers playing cornerback. He has experience playing both outside and in the slot for the Bulldogs. Spagnuolo came away impressed with everything he saw from Sneed on tape.

“L’Jarius Sneed, I was very impressed with his tape with regard to all of the things that he did,” Spagnuolo told reporters on Tuesday. “He played corner and he’s a big corner, he played some nickel, he covered the slot receivers and they actually played him at safety. I thought he did really good at all of them. We see him as a corner right now and we’ll see where that progresses to. I think anybody that can come in with that kind of flexibility is a good thing.”

The Chiefs have committed to playing Sneed at the cornerback spot initially, but the more you can do, the more valuable you are in the NFL. Sneed’s ability to play multiple spots helps the team in terms of depth, but it also allows for a bit of deception in their coverage shells.

Sneed won’t just be participating on the defensive side of the ball. Special teams coach Dave Toub envisions Sneed, along with most of the other draft picks in Kansas City as four-phase special teams players.

“. . .We evaluate each one of them, Clyde [Edwards-Helaire], Willie [Gay Jr.], [L’Jarius] Sneed, [BoPete] Keyes, we had special teams grades on each one of those players,” Toub explained. “What we do, we work with [Brett] Veach and if we have two players that are close, we’ll take the guy that has the higher special teams grade than the other. All of these guys had good special teams grades. I’m really excited about every one of them. They’ve all got speed, they’ve all got good height.”

Sneed had the fastest 40-yard dash time among Chiefs’ draft picks with a 4.38 at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. He should be able to come in and compete for a spot on the punt and kick coverage units immediately.

Both Spagnuolo and Toub clearly covet the versatility in Sneed’s game. His athleticism, size and ability to be position flexible should help him see the field early in his career.

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