Bill

Lazor

Lazor has had three stints as an offensive coordinator in the NFL. None lasted more than two seasons and he was fired midway through his second year in Miami. Of his six offenses, only one finished above the league average in points or yards. Lazor has spent the past two years in Houston. While the Texans had to make a change following a wildly disappointing 2024 season on offense, going from Bobby Slowik to Lazor would be a particularly uninspiring move for the franchise.

Defensive Coordinator Sean Desai and ST coach Chris Tabor are also in the league’s protocols. With Matt Nagy now expected to wrangle the play-calling sheet from Lazor’s sidelined hands, Justin Fields’ outlook is admittedly worrisome despite his nine scrambles per game across his last three full starts.

Chicago’s offense has been abysmal for most of 2020. The Bears, who have the fifth worst offensive DVOA through Week 9, will give Lazor a shot to spark the offense Monday night against the Vikings. In two seasons as coordinator for the Bengals, Lazor’s offenses were 26th and 29th in yardage and never higher than 17th in scoring. To get this Nick Foles-led offense off the ground will be a Herculean task.

Lazor was out of the league in 2019 after serving as the Bengals OC in 2017 and 2018. He previously also worked with the Dolphins, Eagles, Seahawks, Redskins and Falcons. Lazor’s main job will obviously be improving Mitchell Trubisky’s generally-erratic play. It remains to be seen if he’ll call plays.

Washington is determined to bring in some fresh voices on both sides of the ball. In-house QBs coach Kevin O’Connell was promoted to OC on Tuesday, so Lazor would be a candidate to take O’Connell’s old gig while being a backbone for O’Connell. Lazor worked for the Skins from 2004-2007.

Zac Taylor is expected to hire a whole new staff once he accepts the team’s head-coaching job, which will happen as soon as the Rams wrap up their season. In addition to Lazor, the Bengals are also parting ways with RBs coach Kyle Caskey and TEs coach Jonathan Hayes. Lazor had been with the Bengals since 2016, beginning as the team’s QBs coach before taking over offensive coordinator duties from Ken Zampese in 2017.

Lazor, 41, just wrapped up his first season with the Eagles and was a big part of Nick Foles’ sophomore leap. Previously, Lazor was the offensive coordinator and QBs coach for the Virginia Cavaliers from 2010-2012. He began his NFL coaching career in 2003 under Dan Reeves in Atlanta before making stops with the Redskins and Seahawks. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen also mentioned ex-Redskins OC Kyle Shanahan as a candidate for the opening in Miami.

It’s not a surprise, as coach Joe Philbin didn’t even call plays during his days as the Packers’ offensive coordinator. Lazor has never called plays at the NFL level, but has learned under master play-caller Chip Kelly, and can’t possibly be any worse than ex-Dolphins OC Mike Sherman. Sherman dialed up plays seemingly at random, and was prone to abandoning the run. Lazor should work to establish the Dolphins’ ground game.

This goes completely against a report from ESPN’s Ed Werder on Tuesday that said Lazor was expected to be named the Lions’ offensive boss. Lazor interviewed for the Miami job last Wednesday. After the Dolphins lost out to the Giants for ex-Packers QBs coach Ben McAdoo on Tuesday, they turned their attention to Lazor. Lazor, 41, spent one season in Philadelphia and drew high praise for his work with Nick Foles. The Dolphins hope Lazor can get similar improvement out of Ryan Tannehill in his third season.

Lazor has drawn plaudits for his work with Nick Foles, but has never coordinated an NFL offense. Before joining Chip Kelly’s staff, he spent three seasons as the Virginia Cavaliers’ offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. He was a Redskins assistant from 2004-07, and served as the Seahawks’ QBs coach in 2008-09. In Detroit, Lazor’s main task would be sharpening Matthew Stafford’s shoddy mechanics. Stafford has thus far been unwilling to clean up his sloppy game.