Musgrave set to interview with Minnesota, Cleveland
Bill Musgrave and Matt Ryan (Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com)
FLOWERY BRANCH – Bill Musgrave, the Falcons assistant head coach/quarterbacks, has been granted permission by Falcons coach Mike Smith to interview with the Minnesota Vikings and the Cleveland Browns for their offensive coordinator positions.
Musgrave was promoted to assistant head coach last offseason when the Houston Texans attempted to hire him away.
Also, ESPN has reported that the St. Louis Rams also wants to interview Musgrave, who joined the Falcons in 2006 and has been instrumental in the development of quarterback Matt Ryan.
Minnesota will not likely be enticing to Musgrave because they don’t have an established quarterback on the roster.
Cleveland is likely to put in the West Coast office under new coach Pat Shurmur and has a young quarterback to develop in Colt McCoy. Musgrave played in the West Coast offense for the San Francisco 49ers from 1991-1994.
Bill Musgrave
St. Louis came within one win of reaching the playoffs last season with rookie quarterback Sam Bradford.
Because of the promotion last season, the Falcons could have denied Musgrave permission to interview. But while Smith wants to keep his staff together, he didn’t want to stand in Musgrave’s way and risk losing his loyalty.
“Well, I’m very appreciative of Mike Smith and his loyalty that he showers upon all of us on the staff,” Musgrave said last February after getting his promotion. “We have a fantastic staff of men that I work with. I’m very thankful for being a part of the Atlanta Falcons, I know that.”
Smith on Sunday said he wanted to keep his staff together.
“We hope we can have continuity on our coaching staff,” Smith said. “I think our coaching staff is one of the best, if not the best in the NFL. I think that you want to have continuity with your players; you want to have continuity with your staff. I think our staff has done a great job this year preparing our team each and every week, even though there were a couple of games that we didn’t play our best.”
In addition to Houston, the Chicago Bears and the University of Virginia made overtures to Musgrave last offseason.
–D. Orlando Ledbetter
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61 comments Add your comment
ctfalconsfan
January 19th, 2011
1:41 pm
Recent Reader – please see my above comments regarding how we were 8th in OFF n 08′ BUT 16TH THIS SEASON. WE ARE REGRESSING!!!
Our offense struggled to stay in the field against GB and therefore put all the pressure on our weak spot, our defense.
I’d rather go 10-6 or 11-5 and play as a WC in the Championship game than be 13-3 in regular season and 0-1 in play-offs. Terrible, just terrible..
Singletary
January 19th, 2011
1:45 pm
VAFalcon — I’m a VA Falcon too. And you are completely correct. Do NOT lose Musgrave. MM can walk.
two picks
January 19th, 2011
2:41 pm
ctfalconsfan – what game did you watch? The Falcons moved the ball well in the first half, just a pick in the end zone and a pick before half cost us at least a chance for 6 points. We go into half at 21-20 it’s a different game.
That said, the defense did not get a stop. Owens was a frequent target and needs to be replaced. Once the Pack were up 21 their defense just tee’d off on Ryan.
My take upgrade at D-line and D-backs are in order. If ‘Spoon is going to be a playmaker, let him make plays.
Also we need a speed wideout and speedy back as I don’t believe Norwood can stay healthy.
jay
January 19th, 2011
3:12 pm
@NEVER WILL WIN A SB = FALCLOWNS
ur a so called falcon fan…ur really a saints fan…duck
ctfalconsfan
January 19th, 2011
3:34 pm
two picks, come on!!
Ryan didn’t throw his first pick from the goal line or anything, so you can’t ASSUME we would have scored…
We moved the ball in the first half for a total of 7 offensive points? Take away the 2nd INT and we are still being out scored 21-7.. (The Weems score made it closer.)
Honestly without Weems TD and GB going into a soft zone in the 2nd half up by 75 points we wouldn’t have scored our scored TD..
Also don’t forget our first TD was on a short field.
Come to think of it the score was actually closer than the game we played..
Agree we need to upgrade our Defense, we said that the last two years and TD draft Jerry and Weatherspoon. YES I know..
Our offense needs to do a better job scoring TD’s if we want to be a top tier team, that’s all I’m saying..
Once "Recent" Reader
January 19th, 2011
5:26 pm
cfalconsfan . …we were 8th last season in O? What stat are you using. In total YPG we were 16th last year and 16th this year. 340 YPG in 2009 and 341 YPG in 2010. We were 13th in scoring last year at 22.7 and 5th this year at 25.9. So I may be missing some more specific area on O you are talking about. But overall we DID NOT GO down. Again real improvement in 1st and 3rd downs made, 3rd down compl.% and time of possession. Now we may have dropped from 8th to 16th in either rushing or passing . . .gotta check that. But overall #s = Improvement.
Once "Recent" Reader
January 19th, 2011
5:30 pm
Just double checked, passing yards and rushing yards were very similar between 2009 and 2010. Which would make sense since this team has had a very consistent balance of run/pass. The passing and rushing yardage totals between the two years are very,very similar . . .just a few yards variance. So again CFalconsFan, I’m sure you got your 8th to 16th stat for O somewhere, just don’t understand what formula was used to get theat placement. Was it some type of formula like the QB Rating with various factors put in? It definitely does not seem to be straight numbers.
CONservative Johnson
January 19th, 2011
6:32 pm
YES! Musgrave is gone. Now if/when Mularkey leaves, we don’t do something foolish and hire him as the OC . . .
CONservative Johnson
January 19th, 2011
6:33 pm
That ^ by the way is according to Mortensen of ESPN . . .
Tyler
January 19th, 2011
7:49 pm
now who should the Falcons hire as their QB coach?
Chris Palmer? Tom Clemments as QB/OC in waiting?
No hope now
January 22nd, 2011
10:18 am
@ once recent reader Your mistaken my friend. THIS OFFENSE IS GETTING WORSE PERIOD. Where do you see improvement?? We’re tanking every year in offense since 08 and this “process” started. I think your getting confused with the defense. THE DEFENSE IS GETTING BETTER. Offensively we were 8th in total yards in 08. Last two seasons in 09 and 10′ WE’RE 16TH with 6 pro bowlers on that side of the ball. HOW IS THAT IMPROVEMENT?? In the real world that is called underachievement or regressing. This offense is getting stale under murlarkey and its too late because Musgrave is now gone………we’re stuck with him.