Giardi: NFL Notebook - Patriots coach changes sides, and impressions from a week at the Senior Bowl

We have returned from the Senior Bowl. I thought, 'Hey, do a top 10 standouts from the week' to top the Notebook. Then I started combing through my notes from the practices and conversations with execs, coaches, and scouts and realized there was no way I could stop at 10. 

Not everyone listed below starred, but at least created some intrigue. However, before I get there, an interesting note about the coaching staff ...

The Pats are retaining Ben McAdoo for the upcoming season, one of the few holdovers from the previous regime (special teams coaches Jeremy Springer and Tom Quinn are the others). But the 47-year-old McAdoo will work on the defensive side of the ball - in a role yet to be determined - which as far I can have been able to ascertain, he's never done in his collegiate or professional career:

• Fairfield (2002)
  Offensive line coach & tight ends coach
• Pittsburgh (2003)
  Graduate assistant
• New Orleans Saints (2004)
  Offensive quality control coach
• San Francisco 49ers (2005)
  Assistant offensive line coach
• Green Bay Packers (2006–2011)
  Tight ends coach
• Green Bay Packers (2012–2013)
  Quarterbacks coach
• New York Giants (2014–2015)
  Offensive coordinator
• New York Giants (2016–2017)
  Head coach
• Jacksonville Jaguars (2020)
  Quarterbacks coach
• Dallas Cowboys (2021)
  Consultant
• Carolina Panthers (2022)
  Offensive coordinator
• New England Patriots (2024)
  Senior offensive assistant

Your guess is as good as mine at this point. Sometimes you see NFL teams use former offensive coaches on the defensive side to help them identify weaknesses and how offenses might attack them. 

Back to the Senior Bowl standouts...

Jaylin Noel (WR, Iowa State): Sturdy. Quick. Polished route runner. Good late hands. YAC guy. Returner. Get him in space, and he can make stuff happen. Had a lot of conversations this week in person or via text with folks who were there. His name rang out a bit. "A tough cover."

Billy Bowman (DB, Oklahoma): Safety who can do some work in the slot. He's not a huge dude, but he's a baller. I appreciate that he stuck his nose in there quite a bit, considering he's not 200 pounds. He had to climb the ladder on a few of these big-ass, tight ends and had plenty of success.

Jack Bech (WR, TCU): Physical dude. Powerful runner. Better straight-line speed than you think and is strong at the catch point. Natural catching the football. Puka Nacua's name has come up as sort of a power slot who would excel in a WCO. or one that employs some West Coast principles. I don't know if he's all that - it could be an overcorrection for all the folks who missed on Nacua - but make no mistake, he will help a team. Solid floor.

Grey Zabel (IOL, ND State): He's a top-50 guy. And if you told me there was a team at the back end of the first round that said, 'he can play for us right away' and grabbed him there after this week, I wouldn't be surprised. He's gonna start for someone at center or guard, probably in week one. And in a pinch, you could absolutely get by with him as a tackle for a game or two.  "He won the week. He's tough. Smart. Nimble. And nasty."

Darius Alexander (DT, Toledo): He really emerged to me on days two and three. He feels like a defensive tackle in the pros, but with his length (34-inch arms) and hand placement, he could also see some edge work against the run. Alexander's strong, so he's hard to move when working off the tackle, but his quickness and burst inside allow him to take advantage of some of the guards he lined up across.

Jalen Milroe (QB, Alabama): Much better on day 3. Throws the deep ball better than anyone here. It's the short stuff that is concerning/inconsistent. We discussed this on Greg's pod, but he might be an ideal day-three developmental type. He's toolsy. The problem is that he likely goes earlier. 

Walter Nolen (DT, Ole Miss): He's going in the first round. I've had strong feelings for him for some time. And you know what I really loved? Even though he's going round one, he practiced all week. That's not how everyone works. Shemar Stewart. Mike Green. Armand Membou. Those guys either showed up and showed out for a couple days and then went home, or in the Missouri kid's case, got' sick' conveniently after showing up in the top 20 of a couple of prominent mock drafts. 

Elijah Arroyo (TE, Miami): A move tight end, though he's got the size to do better as a blocker. He's smooth. He separates. It might go Warren, Loveland, Taylor, and then Arroyo. Again, a lot of time between now and the draft, but he had a great week. Didn't have a ton of collegiate production. I could see him being a KC Chief. It just seems to fit. Or the Dolphins (think Jonnu Smith this year).

Tim Smith (DT, Alabama): Not some crazy athlete or someone going on day one or two. But if you want a rotational, run-stopping piece, he could be your guy. He is thick. Powerful. He'll get into a gap and be hard to move.

Marcus Mboh (OL, Purdue): was a right tackle for the Boilermakers. His feet say left tackle, and his size says center, and he got some reps there as the week went on. He played best against some of the best (PSU/Ohio State). It was better on day two than on day three, though it was less physical. 

Anthony Belton (T, NC State): Pro-ready right tackle. Played LT for NC State. Better collegiately in the run game, but showed good feet working from both sides this week. I like him better than Caedan Wallace.

Damien Martinez (RB, Miami): For as physical a runner as he is, Martinez can get skinny in the hole and then explode. He is patient, but when he decides he's doing something, he does it. Runs low. I really like the player. We'll see about the interview/off-field stuff. 

Maxwell Hairston (CB, Kentucky): He is a ball hawk. PBUs galore this week and just tracks it well. No panic in his game. To me, that shows a level of football IQ, believing not only in the physical ability but the technique is there and understanding of what concepts are heading his way.

Femi Oladejo (DE, UCLA): Moved from Mike LB to the Edge, so his feet are excellent, and he's capable of being pretty good at everything. He's faster than I thought. He got a little daylight, and boom, he took it. "He's a football player. I know that sounds cliche or trite, but that dude loves the game, and the other guys looked to him all week. He's going to make someone very happy," one scout told me.

WHY DO THIS?

Pete Carroll is the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, in charge of revitalizing a franchise that hasn't been able to get much right recently. But why?

That is the question I have for Carroll. He's had a terrific career, winning a Super Bowl with the Seahawks (and should have won at least one more...) and two National Championships. The man is 73 years old. What does he need this aggravation for? And all the hours required?  

"Why would I want to do it again? It's because it's that chase and that pursuit of the passion that we want to find," he said at his introductory press conference. 

Carroll is the third HC for Vegas in three years (Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce). He inherits a roster with one marketable star (Maxx Crosby) and doesn't have a legit quarterback (can I interest you in Aidan O'Connell or Gardner Minshew?). 

"Our mission (is) to build this football team up around the quarterback position," Carroll said. "We happen to have the greatest of all time to help us and to see clearly, and we're going to lean on Tom (Brady) as much as we possibly can for his insights because nobody has the insights he has. He's that unique. But the quarterback position is one of the positions on the team, and we've got to make it all fit together well.

"I've had pretty good success with my quarterback in the past, going all the way back to college days, and they've all turned out to be really extraordinary members of our club. There's a way to embrace the challenge that the quarterback has from the rest of the football team as well. We need to support our guy, and we need to do what we can to make that work. It's really about making a great football team around the quarterback position."

There have been multiple reports that Brady is, in fact, very involved in the Raiders roster building and that he will have real input, especially when you consider Vegas hired former Michigan man John Spytek (and Tampa Bay assistant GM) as the GM.

"I got a chance to be around, in my opinion, the greatest player ever; it was a love of the game and a competitive desire that just didn't allow him to quit," said Spytek of Brady. "He was never out of a fight. He was willing to do things the ordinary football person wasn't willing to do.

"We're going to turn over every stone to find that leader for this team, too. There are just going to be certain requirements of the job. It doesn't necessarily take the strongest arm or the best thrower. It's the guys that will push their teammates to a place that's uncomfortable. That will give almost another to win; that's what the best ones do, and we're going to find one of those."

The draft doesn't have that no-doubt franchise guy, although owner Mark Davis is rumored to be infatuated with Shadeur Sanders. The Raiders have the 6th pick in round one, and it's conceivable one of the top two QBs (Cam Ward is the other) could be there. Does Brady fall in love with one of them and exert his influence? 

Or do the Raiders go the free-agency route? They have $92 million in cap space and could easily add another $6+ million by cutting Minshew. Is this a possible Aaron Rodgers destination, assuming he gets cut by the Jets? Sam Darnold? Kirk Cousins? Could we see a Carroll/Russell Wilson reunion (I'd find that amusing)? Regardless, the Raiders will be an interesting team to monitor this off-season, and Carroll's presence should give them a necessary shot in the arm.

"Y'all wondering about timelines and stuff like that. It took us a few years to get to the very top of the last couple of programs I was with," said Carroll. "We're starting right now going for it immediately. We don't have some timeline five or six years down the road. That's not what we're thinking. We're going to start right now. We've got to go after it and build this team as quickly as we can."

OH BOY

While Carroll won his press conference, Jacksonville's new guy didn't. Liam Coen has become a meme without having coached a single game or even run his first practice as the Jaguars' new boss. Is that unfair? You bet, but in the social media era, the poor dude got skewered like shishkabob on the 4th of July weekend.

Coen can put this quickly in the rearview mirror by rebuilding Trevor Lawrence and winning. The former might be challenging. Lawrence's body is starting to betray him - he started 10 games after playing through shoulder and ankle issues the year before - and he has yet to live up to that 'Can't-miss kid' billing he got coming out of Clemson (he really was awesome there). However, Coen helped sell himself to ownership because he had a 'plan' for getting the best out of the former first-overall pick.

“He’s earned that right," said Coen. "I cannot respect his toughness and mentality and work ethic more than I do already from afar. This will all be about Trevor.”

Coen will call plays, something he did quite well during his one season as Tampa Bay's offensive coordinator. He stressed with the Bucs and Baker Mayfield to attack the middle of the field. Mayfield ranked 7th in the league on throws between the hashes; Lawrence was 25th (42%). He attacked the middle two years ago at a 52% clip, so it's in there. Plus, it's not as if the Jags don't have pieces to have a good offense - Brian Thomas, Evan Engram, Travis Etienne, Christian Kirk (though he was injured and could be a cap casualty). 

“This league is still about scoring,” said Coen. “It’s about quarterback development and scoring points. It’s so much about Trevor. How do we make his job easier? He’s the future of our organization. He wants the responsibility, but we have to help him.”

CALL HIS BLUFF

Browns GM Andrew Berry held court with a select group of reporters at the Senior Bowl and told them Myles Garrett is not for sale, even for multiple first-round picks. On the surface, that makes sense. Garrett is a Defensive Player of the Year finalist, recording 14 sacks. That's the 7th straight season he's had double-digit sacks and the fourth in a row with at least 14 (a career-high 16 in 2021 and 2022). But there's more to it than that, and Berry should reconsider his stance.

Let's start with the fact that Garrett is 29 years old and is entering his 9th season in the league. I know he's a rare physical specimen, but that position takes its toll on the body, especially one who almost always has to fight through more than one blocker. 

Plus, the defensive end expressed some serious frustration late in the season. The Browns had the highest payroll in football but won just 3 games, and Garrett doesn't desire to be part of a rebuild. 

At the same time, it's reported that Garrett would like his contract to be altered, with the aim of becoming the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league.

When you consider the draft capital, the team surrendered to get DeShaun Watson - regrets, they have a few - what better way to restock the pool than by putting the team's best asset up for the highest bid, albeit quietly (so as not to inflame the situation)? Frankly, that makes more sense than sticking to the status quo, especially when the owner is unwilling to eat the cost of Watson's onerous contract.