Tag: Justin Rascati

The last time the Broncos played the Saints was the Kendall Hinton game

The last time the Broncos and Saints played was the Kendall Hinton COVID-19 game in 2020.

The Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints are set to face off for the 13th time this week. The last time these two teams met, New Orleans won 31-3 in Denver. It wasn’t an ordinary game.

All four of the Broncos’ quarterbacks that week were deemed ineligible to play against the Saints after they violated COVID-19 protocol. Denver wasn’t able to sign a street free agent in time for the game due to the league’s COVID-19 testing rules that season.

The Broncos asked the NFL if assistant coaches Rob Calabrese or Justin Rascati could suit up at QB, but the league would not allow it because of rules that aim to prevent teams from stashing players on the coaching staff. So Denver turned to practice squad wide receiver Kendall Hinton, who was one month removed from working in sales.

Hinton (6-0, 195 pounds) was beaten up by the Saints, going 1-of-9 passing for 13 yards with two interceptions, one sack and a passer rating of 0.0. Despite the loss, Hinton was praised by fans and pundits for gutting it out and taking on an impossible task.

The Broncos and Saints will face off for the first time since that infamous game on Thursday. Denver leads the all-time series against New Orleans 9-3, including five straight wins leading up to the Hinton game.

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Bengals’ Justin Rascati believes the offense runs through the OL

Interesting insight from a new Bengals coach.

With the recent shake-up in the coaching staff for the Cincinnati Bengals after former offensive coordinator Brian Callahan moved on to be the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, Justin Rascati was brought on staff to be the pass game coordinator.

A former quarterback at the college level, Rascati has been an offensive coach for a while now after spending time at the college and pro levels, but believes he learned a lot from being the offensive line coach with the Minnesota Vikings.

“I would say I wish I did this 10 years ago before I called plays,” Rascati said to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “Obviously, you want to build your system around your quarterback and what his skill set is. But I think it’s also important to kind of see it through the lens of the offensive line.

“I think it’s helped me tremendously from a run game standpoint to protection plan to really understanding more than scheme. More technique fundamentals. And what problem looks they may have and how to handle it. And how to really protect those guys because, in this league, games are won at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. You can quickly get exposed at this level with your protection plan if it’s not sound.”

While Rascati won’t have as big of an impact on what the offense looks like as many other coaches will, the way he views the offense is still a good voice to have in the room.

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Vikings lose assistant OL coach to Bengals

Minnesota Vikings assistant OL coach Justin Rascati was hired by the Cincinnati Bengals as passing game coordinator.

The Minnesota Vikings haven’t had a ton of coaching turnover this year but they did lose another assistant coach. The Cincinnati Bengals announced that Vikings assistant offensive line coach Justin Rascati will be the new passing game coordinator for the franchise.

Rascati spent the past two seasons with the Vikings serving as an assistant to offensive line coach Chris Kuper. Before that, he served on the Denver Broncos staff for three years.

The Vikings have now lost two assistants with the first being defensive line coach Chris Rumph. He left for the same position at Clemson back in December after being on a leave of absence since October.

Seeing assistants leave is common for just about every coaching staff, especially when it comes to promotions. Time will tell who the Vikings end up hiring to fill Rascati’s role.

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6 members of Vic Fangio’s old coaching staff have landed with NFL teams

Ed Donatell, Curtis Modkins and Chris Kuper are among the former members of Vic Fangio’s coaching staff who have landed new jobs.

By our unofficial count, the Denver Broncos parted ways with 14 members of Vic Fangio‘s coaching staff in addition to Fangio himself.

At the time of this writing, six of those coaches have landed gigs with other NFL teams.

Ed Donatell has accepted a defensive coordinator position with the Minnesota Vikings, assuming the same role he held in Denver.

Minnesota also hired ex-Broncos running backs coach Curtis Modkins (same role) and ex-Denver assistant offensive line coach Chris Kuper as their new OL coach. The Vikings also poached quality control coach Justin Rascati from the Broncos’ staff, giving him a promotion as an assistant OL coach.

Ex-Denver special teams coordinator Tom McMahon was hired by the Las Vegas Raiders as their new STC. Former Broncos assistant ST coach Chris Gould was hired by the Los Angeles Chargers to fill the same position he held in Denver.

Elsewhere in L.A., former Broncos assistant coach Chris Beake has joined the Los Angeles Rams as their new linebackers coach.

Perhaps the most notable former members of Fangio’s staff still available are offensive line coach Mike Munchak and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. Munchak and Shurmur both have head coach experience in the NFL.

As for Fangio, he is expected to take a year off from coaching.

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