Rumor: Todd Bowles Expected to Interview with Packers
The Packers may interview former Jets head coach Todd Bowles for their open head coach position, according to a recent report.
New York Daily News reporter Manish Mehta tweeted late Sunday that he expects Bowles to interview with the Packers.
Mehta also reported the Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals may also be interested in interviewing Bowles. The Jets fired Bowles after their season ended with a loss to the New England Patriots. After a 10-6 record in his first season, the Jets won 14 of their last 48 games across three seasons.
What this means for the Packers head coaching search
Green Bay continues to leave no stone unturned in their quest to find a head coach. Bowles is a coach the Packers saw up close in Week 16, too, when the Jets narrowly lost to Green Bay in overtime.
The Packers appear poised to interview Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald, and beat writer Tom Silverstein floated the idea on a podcast last week that Green Bay may use head coaching interviews as opportunities to evaluate candidates for coordinator jobs on a Fitzgerald-led staff.
Silverstein’s comments weren’t related to Bowles but rather Jim Caldwell, but the idea is worth monitoring as the interviews continue. Bowles was a successful defensive coordinator under Bruce Arians in Arizona for two years before joining the Jets as head coach.
Bowles will have his fair share of opportunities to coach in 2019. Not only does it look like he will be involved in NFL head coaching interviews, but his alma mater Temple is also looking for a head coach. Bowles was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame in 2001.
Todd Bowles got his start with Ron Wolf in Green Bay
Former Packers general manager Ron Wolf served as an advisor for the Jets in their search that led to the hiring of Todd Bowles in 2015.
After eight years as a safety with the Redskins and 49ers, Bowles did not begin his post-playing career in the NFL as a coach. His first job came with the Packers in 1995, when general manager Ron Wolf hired him in the player personnel department. Bowles spent two years in Green Bay, leaving the organization after Super Bowl XXXI.
His time with the Packers might have helped Bowles secure his first head coaching gig. The Jets hired Wolf as an advisor during their 2015 head coaching search, and the Hall of Fame general manager told Newsday that New York came away with the best available head coach on the market.
"Todd Bowles was an exceptional interview," Wolf said in February 2015. "It's one of those things where you go through the process and somebody just hits you, and Bowles did that. Well-prepared, a pro's pro, no-nonsense kind of guy and, in my opinion, the best guy we interviewed."
Bowles also comes highly recommended by legendary coach Bill Parcells. The pair worked together in New York, Dallas and again in Miami. Parcells, a longtime friend of Wolf’s, boasts perhaps the most impressive NFL coaching tree. Throughout Wolf’s tenure with the Packers, the pair would talk almost daily. Wolf no longer has a direct line of influence in Green Bay, but many in the Packers front office were mentored and worked under him.
