AFC West rivals show love to Raiders’ new coach, GM

INDIANAPOLIS — Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid tipped his cap to the new man at the helm of the Raiders, his franchise’s longtime rival.

“He’s a heck of a football coach,” Reid said of Josh McDaniels on Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine. “Great offensive mind, very organized. I look forward to the challenge of playing against his team.”

Reid will match wits with McDaniels at least twice per year now that they are in the same division.

While he thought both the Broncos and Raiders were playing well down the stretch and didn’t necessarily need to make coaching changes, he believes both franchises did a good job adding more quality minds to the division.

“I think it’s great competition,” Reid said. “I thought those teams were getting better as the year went on. But again, they made changes and I’m glad that it looks like they brought in good coaches. I think it will be tremendous. That’s why we’re in this thing. We love the competition. I look forward to it.”

The Chargers were the other AFC West team to keep their coach and general manager tandem intact this offseason.

Their general manager, Tom Telesco, attended John Carroll University like Ziegler and McDaniels. He also believes the Raiders made great hires.

“Dave Ziegler is a really good guy. He’s going to be an excellent GM,” Telesco said. “And we’ve seen what Josh can do. So it’s great for the John Carroll Alumni Association.”

Denver hired Nathaniel Hackett as its new head coach.

Gotta be the hands

Everything from speed to strength to jumping ability and even hand size of the prospects is measured at the combine each year.

Scouts generally want to see a quarterback’s hand size come in at least 9.5 inches, but Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow only measured a 9 inches. The Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes despite his 9.25-inch hand measurement.

Reid joked that they were able to overlook that particular shortfall when selecting Mahomes as their franchise quarterback.

“That always comes up,” Reid said. “I try to look at whether a guy can throw the ball or not. Patrick did a pretty good job of it, so I didn’t really worry too much about all of that.”

Familiar faces

The Packers knew they would have to improve on the league’s worst special teams unit, a deficiency that may have cost them a playoff win, should they have any chance to achieve their ultimate goal of a Super Bowl championship next season.

So they turned to former Raiders’ interim head coach and special teams guru Rich Bisaccia to run the group after the Raiders let him go.

“Obviously, his success in this league speaks for itself,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said Tuesday. “He’s done it for a long time. … He’s coached offense, he’s coached defense, he’s coached special teams in this league. That experience is invaluable. He’s the first guy we’ve had in this role for awhile who has had as much success as he’s had.”

The Colts hired former Raiders defensive coordinator Gus Bradley to fill the same role in their organization.

“It’s a very similar base system to what we were running,” Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard said. “Same tree, little different flavor. Still the emphasis on effort, speed, fundamentals and taking the ball away. All those things we talked about in the past, we’ll do it with Gus.”

Bradley brought linebackers coach Richard Smith and defensive backs coach Ron Milus with him from Las Vegas.

“It was good to get two coaches with some real experience, both in the scheme and coaching in this league in Smith and Milus.”

So there’s a chance?

Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians believed Tom Brady when the legendary quarterback told him he planned to retire shortly after the Buccaneers were eliminated from the playoffs in January.

He was even more sure that decision was final after a recent conversation with Brady, despite Brady’s somewhat cryptic recent public reminder to never say never.

“He slammed (the door) shut when I talked to him,” Arians said. “I think, like a lot of these guys, he likes to have his name out there.”

Of course, Arians said he would welcome Brady back should he change his mind on retirement.

General manager Jason Licht went even further.

“With a Tom Brady, I personally never want to completely close the door,” he said. “Now I don’t have any information that suggests he is going to come back. I’m very good friends with him and we talk. We haven’t talked about that because I don’t want to apply any pressure in that regard right now. But he’s Tom Brady. If a Tom Brady wants to come back, we’d welcome him back.”

Still, the Buccaneers have to prepare for life without Brady. Licht said they are proceeding with that assumption in terms of salary cap and draft pick management.

“I’m not saying by any means we’re planning on (Brady’s return),” Licht said. “I just made a remark this morning that we’ll leave a light on for him.”

Licht wasn’t able to confirm the status of tight end Rob Grownkowski at this point of the offseason, either.

“We’ll be talking to Rob’s agent here,” he said. “I think Rob just wanted a little time to think about his future, but he’s another great player at his position. We’d be excited if he wants to come back.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.