Rapoport: Expect Brandon Staley to get some interviews

There isn’t much you have to do to connect the dots. The LA Rams have the NFL’s best defense and that coincides with the arrival of Brandon Staley as the defensive coordinator. I personally prefer to focus on personnel and talent before coaching, and the Rams have some of the best defensive talent in the NFL and had plenty of success with Wade Phillips too, but Staley has put the stamp on his resume that he needed to draw interest as a head coach.

On Thursday morning, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport repeated that there is buzz on Staley as a head coaching interview and said that he “would expect him to get some interviews.”

Staley will be 38 next year but that is not relevant in a league where there are now many examples of under-40 coaches having success. That includes Sean McVay, but also Kevin Stefanski with the Browns and Brian Flores with the Dolphins as recently as 2020.

There are current openings with the Falcons, Texans and Lions, but three more will probably become available and you could draw conclusions that involve Staley with any of them. As I wrote two weeks ago, the Bears and Broncos would be two potential “surprise” openings that would have a direct connection to Staley and defensive stars that may be attractive to him.

There is also a chance that Staley is happy where he is now and wants to continue to learn more with the Rams before moving on or that no teams will see him as the right fit for their current situation. The rumors connecting him to teams until then seem like they won’t go away any time soon.