Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase may have options in his head-coaching job search.
Scheelhaase, who is considered a strong candidate for the Browns’ head-coaching job, is also a candidate for the Bills job.
The Bills have requested an interview with Scheelhaase, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
If both teams are interested, the Bills would seem to be the better job for Scheelhaase, a former Illinois quarterback who has developed a reputation as a good coach of quarterbacks and would surely would love the opportunity to work with Josh Allen.
The 35-year-old Scheelhaase became an assistant coach at Illinois after playing there, and later became offensive coordinator at Iowa State before spending the last two years with the Rams. He’s now viewed as one of the best young coaches in football, and a good prospect to be a head coach. Perhaps a coach viewed as a top prospect by more than one team.
Browns Clips
The Browns haven’t settled on a head coach for the 2026 season, so it’s unclear if Shedeur Sanders will remain the team’s starting quarterback after a seven-game audition for the role to close out his rookie year.
Whether Sanders gets that shot or not, he’ll always be able to tell people that he was a Pro Bowler. According to multiple reports, Sanders, who was a fifth-round pick last April, has been named to the AFC roster for the Pro Bowl Games as a replacement.
Josh Allen, Drake Maye and Justin Herbert were the original AFC quarterbacks selected for the roster. Maye will be in the Super Bowl and the other two players dealt with injuries in the final weeks of their seasons, so Sanders may not be the only replacement added to the squad.
Sanders was 120-of-212 for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions in eight overall appearances.
Grant Udinski will not be the next Browns head coach.
According to multiple reports, Udinski has withdrawn from consideration from Cleveland’s vacancy after agreeing to a new deal to remain Jacksonville’s offensive coordinator.
However, Udinski will still be able to pursue the Bills’ head coaching vacancy.
Udinski, 30, had interviewed with the Browns twice and was reportedly considered a finalist for the position.
Cleveland’s known remaining candidates include the team’s defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, former Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Commanders run game coordinator Anthony Lynn, and Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase.
The Browns’ brass is reportedly in Los Angeles on Monday to interview Scheelhaase in person after the Rams fell in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.
Cleveland fired head coach Kevin Stefanski after six seasons earlier this month. Stefanski has since been named Falcons head coach.
Before the AFC Championship Game got underway on Sunday, there was a report that Broncos quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator Davis Webb was expected to have a second interview with the Raiders for their head coaching job this week.
That report also indicated that the Bills have interest in interviewing Webb, but the timing of a conversation was contingent on the result of their game against the Patriots. The Bills did not fire Sean McDermott until last week, which meant they did not have a virtual first-round interview with Webb and would have to wait to speak with him until after the Super Bowl if Denver beat New England.
The Patriots won 10-7 on Sunday and that means Webb is now free to interview with any interested teams and could be hired at any time. Per multiple reports, Webb is expected to speak with both the Bills and the Raiders on Monday.
The same is true for Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur, and offensive pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase in the wake of their loss to the Seahawks. Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has also interviewed for head coaching vacancies and he can have second meetings this week, but no team can hire him until after Super Bowl LX.
The Cardinals and Browns join the Bills and Raiders as teams still looking for head coaches.
When the Bills fired coach Sean McDermott, he informed his staff that he plans to keep coaching.
If he does, it’s looking like it won’t happen in 2026.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, it’s “likely” that McDermott will take a year off.
There had been no groundswell from the teams that have vacancies, once McDermott entered the fray. Neither the Dolphins nor the Titans pressed pause on their impending hires for a shot at McDermott. And there were no reports of a Harbaugh-style land rush for McDermott.
McDermott, in nine seasons with the Bills, went to the playoffs eight times — including seven in a row. Even if the assessment of Bills owner Terry Pegula regarding the reason for the team hitting the “proverbial playoff wall” was accurate (i.e., that it was coaching and not talent), plenty of the teams looking for coaches have hit the “proverbial can’t-get-to-the-playoffs” wall.
The Cardinals, Raiders, Browns, Titans, and Dolphins are all teams that should love to make it to the playoffs every year, without getting to a Super Bowl.
Of course, McDermott has had access to one of the best quarterbacks in the game. That said, McDermott’s first playoff trip in Buffalo, which ended an 18-year drought for the franchise, happened with Tyrod Taylor at quarterback.
It’s still better for McDermott to wait than to take a bad job. And, like every year, most of the jobs are open not because the team is a juggernaut.
The Browns have added another name to their list of head coaching candidates.
They announced that they interviewed Commanders running backs coach/run game coordinator Anthony Lynn on Saturday. Lynn also interviewed for the Bills’ head coaching job this weekend.
Lynn has been on Dan Quinn’s staff in Washington for the last two seasons. He had a similar role on the 49ers’ staff in 2022 and 2023 and spent the 2021 season as the Lions’ offensive coordinator.
Prior to those jobs, Lynn went 33-31 over four seasons as the Chargers’ head coach. They went to the playoffs once in that run and won in Baltimore before losing to the Patriots in January 2019.
The Browns have held second interviews with Jim Schwartz, Todd Monken and Grant Udinski. They are expected to speak to Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase this week and interviewing him and Lynn will satisfy the Rooney Rule requirements needed for the Browns to hire their next head coach.
As a wise man once said, “The Browns is the Browns.”
Even after the departure of chief strategy officer Paul DiPodesta (whose strategies rarely bore fruit in the form of on-field success), the Browns remain obsessed with data. To a fault.
But, no, they’re not dysfunctional. They just function differently from the other 31 teams.
Appearing on Friday’s edition of The Rich Eisen Show, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network explained that the Browns continue to put an excessive focus on transforming the subjective into the objective.
“The Browns’ search process, which they have run a number of times, is unlike any other in the NFL,” Pelissero told Eisen. “And it plays to certain types of candidates. They are a data-driven operation in Cleveland. And so they spend an extraordinary amount of time gathering data on their coaching candidates. You’re talking about taking a personality test. You’re talking about writing an essay. You’re talking about completing homework assignments going into both the first and the second rounds of interviews. It plays toward the types of candidates that they have in the mix. Which is very, very smart people in a lot of cases that just often happen to be tall, thin guys who came from Ivy League schools, though that’s certainly not a requirement. That’s the type of candidate generally that is going to fit into a data-driven environment.”
Eisen was flabbergasted. “There’s a written test? Really? Like they want you to write an essay. ‘This is why I want to be the coach of the Cleveland Browns’?”
“Questionnaires, a multi-part essay, and a personality test,” Pelissero said. “And then additional homework assignments if you get through the first round to get into the second round.”
It was implied that former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel opted to withdraw from consideration based on this uniquely cumbersome process. (That said, he went to Yale.) Jesse Minter also withdrew, but he was on the brink of getting the job in Baltimore.
The ultimate question is whether the process leads to the right coach, whose job will ultimately have less to do with crunching numbers and more to do with making real connections with professional athletes. Teaching them. Motivating them. Pushing them to collectively achieve more than the sum of the individual parts would otherwise suggest.
Yes, there’s a place for analytics and data. But it can’t hijack the process. And it can’t impose a burden on candidates that dramatically exceeds the usual process. When that happens, coaches with options will opt to go elsewhere.
Look at Minter. If the Browns job was viewed as highly desirable, he would have chased it in lieu of taking the job in Baltimore. Which means that, in the end, the Browns will hire someone that no one else currently wants to hire.
Which is more than enough reason for them to reconsider one of the various failed strategies that DiPodesta devised.
Former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel will interview for the Bills’ head-coaching job. Unless he won’t.
Per multiple reports, McDaniel canceled Friday’s interview with Buffalo, which is seeking a replacement for nine-year head coach Sean McDermott.
Given McDaniel’s propensity for verbosity, and Wednesday’s never-ending press conference featuring Bills owner Terry Pegula and G.M. Brandon Beane, maybe it’s a good thing. Once the three of them started talking, who knows when they would have stopped?
McDaniel recently opted not to go through with a second interview for the Browns’ head-coaching job. It was later reported that the Chargers plan to make him their new offensive coordinator.
Why would McDaniel not go through with a head-coaching interview? Such situations are both rare and ripe for all sorts of speculation. If it’s as simple as he doesn’t view a given job as an ideal spot for his next shot (which could be his last one) at a team of his own, it’s one thing to pass on the perennially dysfunctional Browns. But the Bills? With Josh Allen?
Maybe, after digesting Wednesday’s press conference and the widespread reaction to it, McDaniel realizes it’s a no-win situation, since the primary expectation will be to win enough games to get to the postseason — and to win more than one game once he gets there.
In Cleveland, there’s nowhere to go but up, but there’s no clear reason to think an ascension will happen under current ownership. In Buffalo, there’s nowhere to go but down, and there’s every reason to think that will happen under current ownership.
Again, dysfunction flows from the top. McDaniel already worked for one of those teams. For his next head-coaching job, it becomes critical to find a stable organization in which the owner stays out of the way (i.e., not Cleveland) and doesn’t make rushed, illogical decisions in the heat of the moment (i.e., not Buffalo).
The Browns will be continuing their second round of interviews on Friday.
According to multiple reports, they will be meeting with Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski. He is the third candidate to meet with the Browns a second time.
Their own defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken are the others who have interviewed twice. Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase is expected to have a second meeting with the team after the NFC Championship Game and the Browns still need to satisfy the Rooney Rule requirements before they can move forward with a hire.
Udinski, who just wrapped up his first season running the offense in Jacksonville, is set for an interview with the Bills on Sunday.
Another day, another serious candidate for the Browns’ head-coaching job opts not to proceed with a second interview.
Earlier this week, former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel canceled his second interview with the Browns. Now, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has canceled his second interview.
Here’s the full tweet from Cabot: “Jesse Minter is not interviewing for the Browns HC job today as scheduled, likely because he feels like he has other HC opportunities that are more certain.”
Of the jobs still open, Minter has been interviewed by the Cardinals, Raiders, and Ravens. Some believe he’ll become the next head coach of the Ravens.
The 42-year-old Minter has spent the past two years in L.A. He spent the two prior years as Michigan’s defensive coordinator. He has four years of NFL experience, from 2017 through 2020 with the Ravens, serving as defensive backs coach in his final season there.
