Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll will interview with the Chargers and Jets for their vacant head coaching positions on Sunday, league sources said, after coaching in the team's wild-card game on Saturday afternoon.
Daboll's work has been lauded around the league in recent years, with quarterback Josh Allen garnering MVP consideration and thriving under Daboll's tutelage. Daboll's offensive concepts, scheme and elite play-calling have made him one of the most attractive commodities on the coaching market, with Daboll having gained consideration for head coaching jobs in Cleveland and elsewhere in the past.
Daboll has strong ties to Chargers general manager Tom Telesco, with the men attended high school together. Daboll's work with Allen has the Chargers wondering what he could possibility do with rookie quarterback Justin Herbert, who's coming off an excellent season. The Jets and general manager Joe Douglas saw Daboll's work firsthand in the AFC East.
Daboll also has ties to new Houston general manager Nick Caserio from their time together in New England, and while Daboll was not immediately sought for an interview by the Texans under their previous search team – they had been using a search firm as well as outside associates to make suggestions to owner Cal McNair – with just McNair and Caserio guiding that search now, there is every expectation that Houston will reach out to Daboll.
The Texans are very high on current offensive coordinator Tim Kelly and aim to retain him in this new regime – as first reported here weeks ago – and interviewed him for the head coaching vacancy on Friday. Quarterback Deshaun Watson, who has been displeased with the way this search has been handled to this point, sources said, is a big proponent of Kelly's. Daboll would likely be comfortable with Kelly as part of his staff in Houston, sources said.
Caserio and McNair regrouped late in the week to reframe and alter the search with candidates like Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, who was scheduled to interview on Sunday, no longer part of the new search, sources said. The Texans had interest in some coveted college coaches as part of their former search, sources said, including Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald, but it remains to be seen if anything formal materializes now under the new construct. Three teams reached out to Fitzgerald this week as the coach gauges whether or not to fully embrace the prospect of the seriously considering the NFL. That decision is expected to come early next week.
