Daily Dawg Tags: Fare thee well, Chris Tabor
By Thomas Moore
The Cleveland Browns are in the market for a special teams coordinator after the news broke the Chris Tabor is leaving for the Chicago Bears.
The Cleveland Browns lost one on Wednesday when special teams coordinator Chris Tabor left for a similar position with the Chicago Bears.
The move was first reported by The Chicago Tribune.
While it seems like Tabor has been in charge of the Browns special teams since Don Cockroft was handling both punting and placekicking duties, in reality he only joined the Browns staff in 2011. He was the ultimate survivor as he remained on staff with the Browns through two owners, five general managers and four head coaches – all in just six years.
According to Tabor’s bio at clevelandbrowns.com, the Browns have been among the league’s top 10 in several categories on Tabor’s watch, including punt return average, kickoff return average allowed, total kick return yards, punt return touchdowns and total return yards allowed.
The Browns also snapped up at least one Special Teams Player of the Week award in the AFC every season from 2011 through 2016.
The return to Chicago is a homecoming for Tabor, who was the Bears assistant special teams coach from 2008 through 2010. He joins new the staff of new Bears head coach Matt Nagy.
There has been no official announcement from the Browns nor the Bears of the move, but it seems pretty likely that it will happen. Tabor’s departure leaves the fate of special teams assistant Shawn Mennenga and special teams quality control coach Stan Watson in Cleveland up in the air. Mennenga has been with Tabor from the start with the Browns, so he could be on his way to Chicago as well.
So the Browns can now add hiring a special teams coordinator to their to-do list for the offseason, right up their with the search for an offensive coordinator who will allegedly relieve head coach Hue Jackson of the burden of calling the plays.
Cleveland Browns news:
Browns add Eliot Wolff to the rebuilt front office
The rebuilding of the Cleveland Browns front office rolled along Wednesday as the team hired Eliot Wolf as assistant general manager. The Browns also confirmed the hiring of Alonzo Highsmith as vice president of football operations.
Browns interview Sean Ryan for offensive coordinator job (cleveland.com)
"The Browns facility is hustling and bustling with activity this week: Hue Jackson is interviewing Texans quarterbacks coach Sean Ryan today for the offensive coordinator job, a league source told cleveland.com. Jackson will talk to other candidates, and would be willing to turn over the playcalling duties to someone who’s done it before."
Browns QBs and the draft: One evaluation puts Mason Rudolph at top (ESPN)
"This will be one of the most interesting Cleveland Browns offseasons in years. The team has a new front office, $110 million or so in salary-cap space and the first and fourth picks in the NFL draft. In the draft, the emphasis will be on the quarterbacks. The Browns have DeShone Kizer and uncertainty at the position. We’ll regularly run down developments, chatter and thoughts on the position as the draft approaches, starting today with five items to consider."
NFL news:
Eagles-Jaguars among London games in 2018 (philly.com)
"The Eagles will play the Jaguars in London during the 2018 regular season, NFL sources said. The official announcement, slated to come later Thursday morning, shouldn’t come as a surprise. NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood told ESPN back in October that he was trying to get the final six teams that hadn’t yet played overseas to London next season. The Eagles were among that group."
Alex Smith selected as Chiefs MVP (Kansas City Star)
"Eight months after his team surrendered two first-round picks and a third to take a player at the same position, Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith was recognized for a career season by winning the Derrick Thomas Team MVP Award."
Tampa Bay’s O.J. Howard had a rough rookie year (Tampa Bay Times)
"By most accounts, Bucs tight end O.J. Howard had a promising rookie season. He caught six touchdown passes, which set a Bucs rookie record and was one short of the NFL high among rookies at any position. Pro Football Focus, in handing out grades to all 32 first-round picks for their 2017 seasons, gave Howard the lowest grade out of all 32."