Zulgad: Could Josh McCown be in line for an NFL head coaching job this offseason?
The former quarterback and current Vikings assistant could draw interest from teams that are impressed by his role in Sam Darnold's career renaissance and see him as coach who can develop their QB.
Brian Flores’ success with the Vikings defense this season has made him one of the first names mentioned when it comes to potential NFL head coaching candidates. Flores, in his second season as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator, has a defense that is ranked fourth in points allowed per game (17.0) and first against the run (74.4 yards). Flores’ ability to disguise schemes and confuse quarterbacks is something that will intrigue teams, if his ongoing lawsuit against the NFL doesn’t serve as a roadblock.
But Flores shouldn’t be the only assistant on Kevin O’Connell’s coaching staff who will draw interest. Although he has seemingly gone to great lengths to maintain a low profile, Josh McCown’s name already is popping up on potential head coaching lists.
O’Connell has deservedly received much of the praise for Sam Darnold’s career renaissance, but McCown also has played an important role. McCown, 45, was hired as the Vikings’ quarterbacks coach in late February after being jettisoned by the dysfunctional Carolina Panthers last November as part of a shakeup that saw head coach Frank Reich lose his job.
O’Connell and McCown are both former quarterbacks, although the latter played 18 seasons in the NFL, and the former played in only two games over what amounted to four seasons. But O’Connell felt McCown could help get the most out of Darnold and help to develop whichever quarterback the Vikings selected in the first round. That ended up being J.J. McCarthy, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason.
“The best thing Josh does is he communicates in a way that is so full of information and knowledge, having been a guy that played as long as he did,” O'Connell told ESPN’s Kevin Seifert last spring. “He really worked through a lot of aspects of the position as a player. But he's got an unbelievable aspect of teaching, how he communicates things, how he can demonstrate things, how he can allow a player to kind of get it and understand that that next rep is either going to solidify that or it's going to provide another opportunity to coach. Josh has absolutely been awesome from Day 1.”
The McCown-Darnold relationship was an interesting one because they had been teammates with the New York Jets in 2018. Darnold, the third-overall pick in that draft, was the hot shot rookie and McCown was the 39-year-old veteran who had seen it all. Although Darnold took McCown’s job, the two became good friends. Unfortunately for Darnold, things didn’t work out with the Jets or in his next stop in Carolina.