It didn’t take long after the Washington Commanders started winning games for the head coaching buzz around offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury to start.
That part wasn’t unexpected — the buzz around Kingsbury — the winning was the part no one anticipated. That Kingsbury could turn the Commanders’ surprise playoff season into another NFL head coaching opportunity seems like something now, if he wants, will probably happen.
And he wants it to happen.
“At some point,” Kingsbury told ESPN’s John Keim on January 2 when asked if he wanted to be a head coach again. “We’ll see how everything plays out, but I’m very happy here.”
It’s not like Kingsbury could, or would, say much right now anyways. He’s not allowed to talk to teams about a head coach opening until 3 days after the Commanders play in the NFC Wild Card Round — January 14 at the earliest.
There’s also the fact that Kingsbury’s focus should be entirely on the Commanders, who are 11-5 and have won more games in a regular season than any Washington team since 1991, when went 14-2 and won Super Bowl XXVI.
Kingsbury Already Tied to Several Teams
Kingsbury’s name has already been tied to several jobs — whether there’s still a head coach in place at those places or not.
One concrete location that might be interested in Kingsbury is with the Chicago Bears, where head coach Matt Eberflus was fired late in the season and quarterback and 2024 NFL draft No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams is in desperate need of help.
In that case, Kingsbury would be the man to turn to after he turned No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels into one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks as a rookie.
There’s also places with young quarterbacks and a struggling head coach still in place, like the New England Patriots and rookie quarterback Drake Maye or the New York Giants … and whoever they decide to pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
Few Had Faith Commanders Could Succeed in ’24
The Commanders had a projected over/under win total of 6.5 wins headed into the 2024 season — largely due in part to their first-year staff under new head coach Dan Quinn and Kingsbury, who went 28-37 in 4 seasons as the Arizona Cardinals head coach from 2019 to 2022.
In ESPN’s NFL coaching staff rankings released on Aug. 22, the Commanders were ranked 31st out of 32 teams — only ahead of the Las Vegas Raiders and first-year head coach Antonio Pierce.
“Quinn is a players’ coach, and he has a system he has run into the ground — he knows the ins and the outs of it, and he can get it on the field quickly and cleanly,” ESPN’s Ben Solak wrote. “The problem is every good offensive coordinator in the league knows how this defense works — four down, zone coverages, certain checks against certain formations — and can find success accordingly. Quinn’s ‘line up and play fast’ approach can work with a souped-up roster like the one enjoyed in Dallas, where stars such as Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland could line up and beat the guy across from them. In Washington, where the defensive roster is really thin? The Quinn shtick won’t work as easily.”
