The silent market for Kansas City Chiefs coach Dave Toub

One year ago, Dave Toub had multiple head coaching interviews. A year later, he’s not on the radar for some unknown reason. Why the silence?

Coming into the NFL’s offseason, the Kansas City Chiefs had two head coaches in waiting: offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and special teams coordinator Dave Toub. If that sounds presumptuous, it’s not, since multiple NFL analysts were saying as much in their own potential head coaching projections.

It’s also par for the course in a league where nearly one quarter of all head coaches are members of Andy Reid’s family (coaching) tree.

Nagy was the ascending young talent on Reid’s staff, a promising head coach being trained by one of the best game planners in the business. Nagy had replaced former offensive coordinator Doug Pederson, who went on to become the Philadelphia Eagles head coach, and the right hand of Reid is always a prime spot for the taking. As long as the Chiefs looked good enough, Nagy was always going to find a future headset.

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The same has been said about Toub for quite some time. He’s regarded as the single best special teams coach in the game today, as his units are always ranked among the very best in the NFL, year after year. Putting a special teams coach in charge of an entire roster is a major leap, but it’s been done before (a la John Harbaugh) and Toub is that well-respected in the business.

Just last year, Toub had two head coaching interviews, both within the AFC West, with the San Diego Chargers (before they moved) and the Denver Broncos. Anthony Lynn and Vance Joseph were the ultimate picks, respectively, but two head coaching interviews in a year before the Chiefs had another playoff appearance and a solid special teams year should have kept Toub on the radar for other franchises.

So what happened?

Somehow Toub fell completely off the radar for teams interested in a new head coach this offseason. Despite another impressive year of coaching up new talent and adding another year of experience under Andy Reid, Toub failed to generate a single interview in an offseason where there were numerous openings.

It’s insane to think that Toub doesn’t get a single bite in a year where so many interviews were granted. His former team, the Chicago Bears, know well his coaching prowess and they instead went with Nagy without also reaching out to Toub. New(er) general managers like John Dorsey and Chris Ballard are both well acquainted with Toub as well, but the Colts, under Ballard, also never turned his direction (as they’ve clearly landed on Josh McDaniels of the New England Patriots). As for Dorsey’s Browns, they’re riding into 2018 with Hue Jackson on the hot seat.

It’s possible that Dorsey taps Toub on the shoulder for next year if/when Jackson is shown the door. Then again, Todd Haley was just brought in as offensive coordinator and that plan of succession makes much more sense for the sake of continuity around what will likely be a first round quarterback taken in April by Cleveland.

So where does that leave Toub? At the very least, the Chiefs special teams guru will be waiting another year. If you’re a Chiefs fan, that’s good news that the team won’t have to replace such a strong leader, but for the qualified man left waiting, it has to be hard to watch the carousel spin without getting invited.

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