It’s nothing more than speculation at the moment, but Green Bay Packers inside linebackers coach and assistant head coach Winston Moss is being rumored as a potential candidate at head coach or defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders.
Speculation regarding Moss comes on the heels of Oakland’s hire of former Packers director of football operations Reggie McKenzie as their new general manager. Pro Football Talk added fuel on the fire earlier today when they reported that McKenzie will be given the power to fire head coach Hue Jackson if he so pleases.
The majority of new GMs want their own hire at head coach, so the possibility exists that McKenzie could show Jackson the door. If he went that route, Moss would likely become one of McKenzie’s leading candidates to take the job. Most believe that McKenzie will keep Jackson, who led the Raiders to an 8-8 record in his first season, as the head coach, however.
But even if Jackson is retained, Moss could be a candidate for the Raiders’ looming defensive coordinator vacancy. Chuck Bresnahan, the incumbent at the position, is widely assumed to be done in Oakland after this season. At this point, a move to defensive coordinator looks like the most likely scenario for Moss to leave Green Bay for Oakland.
A veteran of 11 seasons in the NFL, Moss played four years in Oakland from 1991-94. The linebacker led the Raiders in tackles in ’93 and was a three-time defensive captain.
After retiring in 1997, Moss began his coaching career with the Seattle Seahawks as a defensive quality control assistant. Moss then went to New Orleans in that same capacity in 2000, and by ’01, had become the Saints’ linebackers coach. He coached five seasons in New Orleans with current Packers head coach Mike McCarthy from 2000-04.
When the Packers hired McCarthy in 2006, Moss was brought to Green Bay to be his linebackers coach. After just one season, McCarthy added assistant head coach to Moss’ title the next season. When defensive coordinator Dom Capers arrived in 2009 and hired Kevin Greene, Moss was re-focused as the inside linebackers coach.
——————Zach Kruse is a 23-year-old sports journalist with a passion for the Green Bay Packers. He currently lives in Wisconsin and is working on his journalism degree, while also covering prep sports for The Dunn Co. News.
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Winston Moss has been MM’s right-hand man since.. forever, and the one assistant coach that MM has protected from being pirated by other teams (a sneaky little thing, giving Moss the job title of “Inside LB coach/ Asst. Head Coach”)
See, because by making Moss an “Asst. Head Coach”, he has made it impossible for him to leave GB prematurely for anything but a head coaching job.. NFL rules allow for coaches to leave contracts with their current teams provided the job being offered to them is a upwardly mobile position. A position coach, for instance, an LB coach, could leave his current contract if another team offered him a position as a Coordinator, but he could not leave for a position that was a lateral move or a downgrade.
By naming Moss an “Assistant Head Coach”, Moss was pretty much locked into his contract unless he was offered a HC job.
Winston probably needs time as a coordinator first. He would be a strong candidate as a DC. He has worked with both Bates and Capers, which gives him extensive experience with all sorts of defensive fronts and two vastly different theologies. He’s seen Bates’ demanding Match/Press man coverages and Capers drop zone/ zone blitz packages as well.. He has a very broad spectrum of experience to draw from.
Should be interesting. There must be some reason why MM has protected Moss is this fashion, and some reason why Moss decided to accept the somewhat career-limiting title, too.
When and where did Moss work with Bates? It wasn’t in GB!
You’re right- I stand corrected.
Bates fled GB when he didn’t get the HC Job, which means that Moss never worked with him.. Massive oversight on my part.
That being said, he certainly was exposed to Bates scheme, as Bob Sanders was a Bates disciple that stayed on board and the Packers ran the same man-press scheme that Bates employed.
But, Again, you’re absolutely right- Moss did not work with Bates.
Moss can leave GB for Oakland if McKenzie and Hue offer him the Defensive Coordinator/Assistant Head Coach title. That would be considered a promotion, since he would be promoted to a Coordinator position and he would retain his Assist HC title as well. Just sayin.
Good call, Dk.
Leave our staff and players alone Reggie, Darn ya
Reggie, though I understand that you and Hue Jackson are close friends and share the same agent, please do give him the boot. The man is way too raw, and is no offensive genius by any stretch of the imagination. Raider Nation certainly welcomes any of your guys from Green Bay, or anyone else that you believe has the ability to get the job done as the Head Coach of the Oakland Raiders. It is the custom for a GM to bring his own people, after all. This is a business; make no mistake about it–and evaluation of talent comes first every single time. That is what it means to become a General Manager in the National Football League.
People are forgetting. This was only Hues 1st year as head coach and tumultuos one at that for the man. His legendary owner and GM died, his main offensive weapon DMC, was out half of the yearand his other game breaking weapons, like Ford, Moore and T Jones were hurt for many games as well. Plus his staring QB missed half the season also. Plus he was forced to deal with crappy azz DC Chuck B who wasn’t the DC he wanted on his staff. Not an easy first year for Hue, but despite all those things, I think he did as good as he could. The Raiders now have the best QB they have had since Gannon, they have a legit offense, they just need more discipline and they need an experienced DC who knows how to run a REAL defensive scheme. It will depend if they go 3-4 or 4-3 or not. They should look at LB coach Dean Pees, Steve Spagnolo, Jack Del Rio, Winston Moss, Trgovac or maybe Perry. They may even look at Dennis Thurman again from the Jets. They also need to add a couple of vet LB’s to push McClain and Curry and get them t play better and become better pros.
Interestingly enough, jeff Blumb, former PR director of the Packers, tweeted the other night that Adam Schefter had the wrong name when Schefter reported that Mckenzie may want to bring in Moss as head coach. I ased him who he thought the right name was, but alas, he didn’t answer.
Wonder if Blum meant to infer it was a different coach within the Packers organization, or a different coach all together.
Al, any idea if there is any precedent for a coach going from position coach directly to a HC position without being a co-ordinator?
It might be Trgovac or Perry as Oaklands new DC. Hiring Philbin to replace Hue as head coach would be a silly move. McCarthy is the play caller, not Philbin. Raiders need to keep Hue for at least another year and McKenzie and Hue need to rebuild that crappy Raider defense!
At DC, I would think that Perry would be the move out of the two.
Trgo has experience, but Perry is young and Dick LeBeau has volunteered previously that Perry is going to make an exceptional DC/HC someday.
Alas, McKenzie does indeed fire Hue Jackson. And yes, there have been some position coaches that have become head coaches. The most successful one I can think of right now is John Madden. He was the Raiders LBer Coach before he was promoted to HC. Any Coincidence that Winston Moss is being linked as Oakland’s next HC and he is a LBer Coach as well? Also, supposedly, Perry would be Moss’ DC and Clements could be his OC……