In one of the least surprising moves of the offseason NFL coaching carousel, the Kansas City Chiefs announced former offensive coordinator Matt Nagy would return to the role.
Nagy replaces Eric Bieniemy, who has left for the OC job in Washington that comes with play-calling responsibilities, while some other notable coordinators are settling into new positions in teams that decided they needed to make some drastic changes.
Nagy was the obvious internal candidate to take Bieniemy's place on the sideline after Andy Reid had brought him back onto the Chiefs staff in 2022 as a senior assistant and quarterbacks coach.
He previously served as OC in Kansas City in 2016 and 2017, improving the NFL's 20th-ranked offense in 2016 to a top-five unit in 2017.
That led the Chicago Bears to hire him as head coach in 2018, but his four-season stint at Soldier Field will be remembered for the franchise's quarterback struggles, which he was unable to solve.
Reid ceded play-calling duties to Nagy in December 2017, after which the team went 4-1 down the stretch with an average of almost 29 points, so it will be interesting to see if the veteran head coach does it again next season.
Leaving the NFL champions for a similar role on the Commanders' staff may seem like a sideways move at best for Bieniemy, but he will get to call the plays in Washington and will surely be among the first in line to take over the top job if things don't pan out for HC Ron Rivera.
The Commanders courted Sean Payton earlier this year, so Rivera - nicknamed 'Riverboat Ron' for his aggressive decision-making - knew he needed to make a bold appointment to boost his own credibility.
It's fair to say he has done that with the luring of arguably the most consistently impressive OC in the NFL these past five years.
The Chiefs' offense finished No.1 in the league for yards in three of Bieniemy's five years at the helm and never ranked outside the top-six while his unit also totted up the most points in the NFL regular season twice.
He will have his work cut out reviving a Commanders offense that ranked 24th in yards and 20th in points scored this past year.
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Not long after the Philadelphia Eagles - +350 to retain the NFC title - returned from their NFL Championship defeat in Glendale, work began on trying to fill their offensive and defensive coordinator roles.
Within 48 hours of their defeat to the Chiefs, Eagles OC Shane Steichen was being hired as the Indianapolis Colts head coach and DC Jonathan Gannon was making plans to stay in Arizona with the Cardinals as Kliff Kingsbury's replacement.
Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman don't intend to rush into any key staff decisions but want to have those vacancies filled by the time the NFL Combine comes around.
Arizona's appointment of Gannon represents another sharp change of direction at the top after their experiment to recruit an offensive innovator from the college ranks in Kingsbury backfired badly.
He may only be 40 years old, but Gannon has accumulated experience from a range of NFL roles, rising up the ranks from defensive backs coach and scout. His first year as defensive coordinator under Sirianni saw the unit improve from 20th to 18th in points allowed and 19th to 10th in yards allowed.
But the 2022 campaign was a breakthrough year as Philadelphia's defence emerged as one of the most intimidating in the league, helping the Eagles claim the NFC's No.1 playoff seed with a 14-3 record in the regular season.
Gannon's unit led the league in sacks, recording 15 more than the next-best team, ranked second in yards allowed and first in pass defence DVOA.
Gannon goes from working with a roster filled with Pro Bowl-calibre talent and reliable veterans to overseeing a unit that ranked 31st in scoring defence and 24th in overall DVOA last season.
The reaction to Steichen's appointment has been very positive as Colts fans could not be sure what owner Jim Irsay had in mind after last season's controversial call to hand inexperienced Jeff Saturday the headphones and clipboard.
Steichen was the Chargers' offensive coordinator in 2020 when Justin Herbert became a rookie phenomenon. And, after helping Jalen Hurts take some great strides in the past two years, he seems like the perfect choice to mentor a high draft-pick passer.
Indianapolis seem eager to start over with a young rookie quarterback in 2023 — possibly Bryce Young, -175 to be the first name called in April's draft, if you take Irsay's comments about the Alabama star at face value.
Early in the hiring cycle, the Panthers picked Frank Reich, the starting quarterback for the franchise's first NFL game in 1995, to be their sixth head coach.
Now the former Philadelphia Eagles OC and Colts head coach has assembled his senior coaching staff with 36-year-old Thomas Brown, the Los Angeles Rams' assistant head coach/tight ends coach last year, brought in to coach the offense and Ejiro Evero landing his second defensive coordinator position after a year with the Denver Broncos.
Both look like great appointments from the outset as Evero gained plenty of plaudits for the way his defence kept Denver in games last year when the offense ground to a halt.
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