Before Mike Munchak was the Tennessee Titans Head Coach, he was an elite offensive line coach, and before that he was a Hall of Fame player who spent his entire career with the franchise.
Over the past 8 seasons, he has been a part of some of the most well-coached offensive lines in the NFL and for only the third time in a decade, he is looking for a job.
After the Denver Broncos blew up their coaching staff this season, Mike Munchak looks like he is going to test the waters somewhere else.
Mike Klis is reporting that even though there is a slight chance that he is back in Denver, he will most likely be somewhere else soon.
Sources: Mike Munchak unlikely to return as Broncos OL coach. He has opportunities elsewhere and there's slight opportunity he returns back with Broncos. But new head coach Nathaniel Hackett looking at other OL coaches with more experience in his system. #9sports
— Mike Klis (@mikeklis) February 1, 2022
How good is he and would he come back to the Tennessee Titans?
First and foremost, Munchak isn’t just a familiar name. Justis Mosqueda wrote an article a few years back and it looked at tackles for loss allowed, sacks allowed- long story short it broke down the best offensive line coaches in the NFL.
Munchak was 3rd out of 34 on that list and the work he has with Garrett Bolles and the offensive line in Denver has only reinforced his claim as one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL.
The problem is that the Titans already have an offensive line coach, and they like Keith Carter. There are still two ways to make this work where the Tennessee Titans can keep their current offensive line coach and still add Mike Munchak.
Titans fans should be dreaming of “Plan A” which would basically be a do-over of 2021, but this time they promote Keith Carter to be the OC (like Taylor Lewan and others advocated for) and hire Mike Munchak to replace him. You kill three birds with one stone here because you add an elite position coach, keep the OL coach you like who understands what the team does well, and you get to fire Todd Downing.
“Plan B” is more realistic. In that scenario, the Titans would keep the offensive staff exactly like it is, but they would hire Mike Munchak as an offensive advisor like they did with Jim Schwartz this season.
This, unfortunately, means that Todd Downing would still be employed by the Titans, but maybe Carter could have input as a “run-game coordinator” and Munchak could help with the offensive line while evaluating the job that Carter and Downing are doing.
You can never have enough talent on a roster and the same goes with a coaching staff as long as there is a clear objective and a clear chain of command.
There shouldn’t be any bad blood between Mike Munchak and the ownership because Amy Adams Strunk wasn’t in charge when Munchak was fired. Mike Vrabel should have respect for Munchak based on his resume as a player and his experience against Titans’ offensive lines when Vrabel was playing.
Finally, fans have never disliked Munchak because of the work he did as a player and as an offensive line coach. At worst, Tennessee Titans fans thought that he just wasn’t a fit as a Head Coach and I don’t think that he would argue against that.
Imagine a Munchak-coached offensive line blocking for Derrick Henry, especially if it is in a ZBS offense run by Keith Carter instead of Todd Downing. That would be a massive upgrade to this offense.