After spending last season with the San Francisco 49ers as their tight ends coach, Eric Mangini will switch sides of the ball, taking over as defensive coordinator.
Former Jets and Browns HC Eric Mangini, who spent last season as SF’s TE coach, expected to be hired as 49ers' DC, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 22, 2015
Mangini and the 49ers reached an agreement on a three-year deal Thursday to join new head coach Jim Tomsula’s staff. Mangini replaces departed defensive coordinator Vic Fangio who left the team after being passed over for head coach. Fangio is now the defensive coordinator with the Chicago Bears.
It’s ironic that Mangini makes the news Thursday on the same day the New England Patriots, the team he was a defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator with from 2000-2005, are in full damage control mode wallowing in their ball-deflating scandal, DeflateGate. In 2007, it was Mangini, then the head coach of the New York Jets, that blew the lid off SpyGate, costing the Patriots a first-round draft pick and New England head coach Bill Belichick a $500,000 fine.
Before joining the 49ers as tight ends coach, Mangini was an analyst for ESPN from 2011-12, head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 2009-10 and the Jets from 2006-08.
[related_post_two]
Broncos contact Wade Phillips as possible defensive coordinator
There’s a chance former Denver Broncos head coach Wade Phillips could rejoin the team as its defensive coordinator. Denver has been trying to put together an interview with Cincinatti Bengals defensive backs coach Vance Joseph, but has been denied permission to speak to him by the Bengals.
Phillips was on new Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak’s staff in Houston from 2011-13 and took over as interim head coach after Kubiak was fired 13 games into the 2013 season. Under Phillips the Texans’ defense flourished, especially after drafting J.J. Watt in the first round of the 2011 draft.
Phillips was the Broncos head coach from 1993-94, with a 32-32 record. Before that, Phillips was the Broncos from 1989-1992.
Phillips should have part of a staff intact if he gets hired. The Broncos are expected to keep linebackers coach Richard Smith, who was also on Kubiak’s staff in Houston.
[related_post_one]
