Jack Del Rio to Coach the Raiders, But What's Going to Happen with the 49ers?

Jack Del Rio – the guy grinning next to Gary Busey above – will be the next coach of the Oakland Raiders. Del Rio’s a California guy who turns 52 in April and is beloved by Oakland owner Mark Davis. Del Rio had a lengthy stint as coach of the Jaguars, then was fired, and spent the last two years as defensive coordinator of the Broncos.

Fifteen months ago he was rumored to possibly being headed to USC, but that never materialized, and the Trojans went with Steve Sarkisian.

Less than 48 hours after John Elway gutted the entire Denver coaching staff, Del Rio lands in Oakland, where he’ll have a promising defense to build on, a QB who had a good rookie year (Derek Carr), and the 4th pick in the 2015 NFL draft. Tough to offer any hot takes here besides the fact that I think this is an uninspiring choice. He’s been around for awhile, he’s made a lot of money, he’s won a few games. To me, it screams safe, average hire.

So after Rex Ryan picked the Bills, the rest of the coaching dominoes quickly began to fall: John Fox, after getting canned in Denver, seems to be headed to Chicago; the Jets picked Todd Bowles, and it appears as if the Falcons have a handshake deal with Dan Quinn, who can’t interview anywhere until the Seahawks are eliminated.

That leaves only one team without an NFL head coach: The San Francisco 49ers.

The team that shoved Jim Harbaugh out the door, the team with serious free agent questions, an aging core, a dynamic QB coming off a poor year, and perhaps worse of all, an overrated, power-hungry GM who clashed with one of the best coaches in football. I can’t believe people aren’t running through fire to line up for this one.