Chip Kelly pulled a U-Turn this morning and accepted the Philadelphia Eagles offer to become their 21st Head Coach, leaving the former odds-on favorite in Gus Bradley on an airplane south to Jacksonville to interview for the still vacant job with the Jaguars. Right now, it would appear that Bradley faces competition from 49ers OC Greg Roman and fellow Seahawks' assistant Darrell Bevell for that job.
As for Bevell, with the Bears' decision to hire former-CFL scion Marc Trestman as their new Head Coach, it looks like the Seahawks' offensive coordinator's list of suitors is down to Arizona (weird) and Jacksonville. The Cardinals' job has been up in the air for several weeks now, and Arizona has interviewed their current defensive coordinator, Ray Horton, Steelers' OC Todd Haley, Bengals' OC Jay Gruden, and apparently also have an interview lined up with Colts OC Bruce Arians. I haven't seen any indication as to who the favorite of that group may be, but I would have to guess that it's Horton.
In addition to all this coaching carousel talk, Seattle stands to lose a central figure in their front office, VP of Football Operations, John Idzik, as he interviews with the Jets for their vacant GM position for a 2nd time today. Idzik, from what I understand, has been an integral piece of Seattle's rebuild and the man behind the salary cap management over the past few years. The Seahawks have been tight with their money, but this frugality has led Seattle to become one of the best-managed franchises in the NFL over the past two or three years, a stark contrast to teams like the Raiders and Ravens, for instance, who face the possibility of dropping key players because of cap overages.
According to the Seahawks' website, Idzik "oversees player negotiations, the team's compliance with the NFL salary cap, player personnel transactions, all football operations budgets, staff and team contracts, team travel and most aspects of the day-to-day football operations while also remaining active in player evaluations."
Albert Breer also pointed out yesterday that the final sentence up there is true, Idzik has a role in scouting players, and the Seahawks have sent him on the road with this function of late. This dual ability - a business management acumen plus an ability to evaluate talent - is what makes him so valuable to the Seahawks and attractive to the Jets. I don't know if it's warranted, but I'm almost more worried about losing Idzik than I am about losing Bevell or Bradley.