Jen Welter, who made NFL history when the Arizona Cardinals hired her in 2015 as an assistant coaching intern for training camp and the preseason, has been named the head coach of Team Australia for the 2017 IFAF Women’s World Championship.
Gridiron Australia made the announcement Monday that Welter, believed to be the first female coach of any kind in the NFL, will helm the Australian Outback’s first women’s national team at the tackle football competition, which is held every four years.
Welter was a member of the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the IFAF Women’s World Championship in 2010 and 2013.
“In 2010, I had the opportunity to represent Team USA in the inaugural Women’s World Championship. … We committed to not only winning a gold medal but also to being International Ambassadors for the game of American Football,” Welter said in statement released by Gridiron Australia. “I am honoured to uphold this promise by assuming the Head Coaching role of Team Australia. … Additionally, I hope other teams will follow suit and continue to open doors and expand the roles of women in football and sport as a whole.”
Welter worked with the Cardinals’ inside linebackers during the 2015 training camp and preseason but has not coached in the NFL since, although it put her on the map as a pioneer for women in sports and made her the face of women’s football.
Welter previously became the first female coach in a men’s professional football league when she was hired by the Texas Revolution of the Champions Indoor Football league to coach linebackers and special teams in February 2015.
In February 2014, she became the first female to play a nonkicking position in a men’s professional football league when she played running back and special teams for the Revolution.
Welter played professional football for more than 14 years as a linebacker, mostly with the Dallas Diamonds of the Women’s Football Alliance, which she rejoined after her stint in the NFL. She helped lead them to four championships.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers will add a quarterback to their roster this offseason. In fact, odds are that they’ll bring in more than one new quarterback in what could be a complete makeover at the position.
But just because the Niners will be adding a quarterback or three in the weeks to come doesn’t necessarily mean they will be adding the quarterback they seek to lead the franchise for the next decade or so.
After hiring coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, one of the 49ers’ top priorities has been how they will go about finding a solution for the long term at the game’s most important position. With Colin Kaepernick likely to opt out of his contract in early March and the three other quarterbacks on the roster set to become free agents, there will be changes, that much is certain.
What isn’t certain is where Shanahan and Lynch will be able to find their man. As is always the case, franchise quarterbacks don’t grow on trees and teams aren’t in a hurry to let the ones that are qualified walk away. In fact, Shanahan has said he believes there’s only about seven surefire answers in the world.
“It’s too important of a position to make an impulsive move,” coach Kyle Shanahan said concerning the 49ers’ search for quarterback help. Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images
“You’re always looking for one of those seven throwers on the planet, whatever that number is,” Shanahan said. “But I’m guessing there’s only around seven, so you’d better not be set on that and say, ‘Hey, I need one of those seven guys.’ I hope we get one of those guys, but if you don’t, you’ve got to find other ways to win.”
As Shanahan, Lynch and the rest of the football operation scour the pro and college ranks for their guy, they’re being realistic about the landscape. Yes, names such as Washington’s Kirk Cousins and New England’s Jimmy Garoppolo will be discussed internally, though there’s no guarantee either would be available regardless of the means of acquisition. And neither is exactly a sure thing, even if the Niners could bring one on board. Per usual, the free-agent market isn’t going to be flush with options, either, though someone like Schaub makes sense as a bridge to the future.
The early read on this year’s NFL draft also doesn’t seem to offer any of those top-line prospects like an Andrew Luck, making the upside of top prospects such as North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer a major projection at best.
Which is why Shanahan told KNBR radio late last week that the Niners aren’t going to rush into a long-term relationship with any quarterback without being certain they have the right guy.
“It’s too important of a position to make an impulsive move,” Shanahan told the radio station. “When you make a decision on a quarterback, you don’t want that to be just a short-term fix. You want to make a commitment to somebody. And in order to do that, you better make sure you’re on the same page with everyone else, you’ve put the time in, you’ve talked to people who have been with these guys. There’s a lot that goes into it.”
With all that does go into it, Shanahan & Co. are in the process of trying to play catch-up. While Shanahan was running Atlanta’s offense in the Super Bowl, he was missing valuable time that would be otherwise spent watching tape of potential free agents, trade targets and draft possibilities. Since Shanahan was officially hired on Feb. 9, he and the Niners have been bunkered down in an effort to get up to speed.
Lynch and the personnel department have been cycling through every position for the draft. Shanahan said he has started his work by focusing on the current Niners roster as well as players already in the league. Shanahan has also been finalizing his coaching staff and working to teach his scheme to the coaches and scouts.
If, at the end of their evaluations, the Niners don’t see a quarterback worth a high draft pick, major free-agent dollars and/or a boatload of trade capital in this offseason cycle, perhaps they’ll wait until 2018 to make their bold splash.
Because Shanahan and Lynch got matching six-year deals, they know they will be given the time to put things together in their vision and making the mistake of blowing a pick as valuable as No. 2 overall on a quarterback simply because of need is the easiest way to make an already tough rebuild even more difficult.
“Everybody wishes and hopes you can take that quarterback who is going to be there and be that franchise guy for the next 15 years,” Shanahan said. “But that’s just what you hope for. You don’t draft people based off of what you hope. You’ve got to draft people based on what you truly believe is the right answer. Knowing no one has all the right answers, there’s nothing that’s going to guarantee you’re going to be right.
“You’ve got to think very clearly. What I mean by that is you can’t just hope for stuff and wish things to happen. You’ve got to look at each situation differently. You’ve got to see what’s available. If there is a quarterback there that we believe can match that criteria and we believe he can be a franchise quarterback for us, then, of course, you don’t hesitate on that. But if you don’t see that and there’s other good players — if there’s a pass-rusher, if there’s a linebacker, if there’s an O-lineman — whatever it is, you need to get the best player possible who you think will help your team the next 10 years.”
TEMPE, Ariz. — There’s not a day that goes by that Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim doesn’t think about his team’s quarterback — both in the current and future forms.
Keim knows that, sooner rather than later, he’ll have to find a long-term replacement for quarterback Carson Palmer, who’ll start next season at 37 years old and finish it at 38. Palmer, who announced earlier this month that he will return for the 2017 season, hasn’t indicated one way or another what he plans to do in 2018. And therein lies Keim’s focus.
“I’ve said this many times: To put this organization in a position to have success for a long time, there’s no doubt that we have to identify a franchise quarterback,” Keim said on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
Coach Bruce Arians said after last season that one of the Cardinals’ priorities this offseason is to find Palmer’s successor so the franchise won’t be left in the position it was after Kurt Warner retired following the 2009 season. Then, the franchise went through a carousel of quarterbacks while it tried to find a long-term solution. It didn’t, and the team suffered, going 18-30 with six quarterbacks from 2010 to 2012.
Cardinals general manager Steve Keim, left, with team president Michael Bidwill, said that not a day goes by when he doesn’t think about his quarterback situation. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
Arizona has seen what stability at quarterback can do to a team.
From 2007 to 2009, with Warner starting the majority of the games, the Cardinals went 27-21 and played in Super Bowl XLIII. From 2013 to 2016, with Carson Palmer as the team’s starting QB, Arizona has gone 41-22-1, making the playoffs in 2014 and 2015, when it advanced to the NFC Championship Game. The Cardinals know — maybe all too well — how stability can be a cornerstone for success.
But, as Keim also said, finding that type of quarterback is easier said than done.
“There are probably seven great quarterbacks, 10 you can win with in the NFL, and then everybody else is playing musical chairs,” Keim said. “We have to challenge ourselves as evaluators, as coaches, as an organization to find the next guy.
“The way I’ve evaluated players for 19 years, when you look at players at that position, for me, the great ones, I feel like you know. The other ones, I feel like it’s a projection, and you’re hoping they can pan out.”
Therein lies another issue for Keim.
The Cardinals own the 13th pick in the first round of this year’s draft, typically prime real estate for a franchise to find a quarterback of the future. But Keim said unless a team is convinced a quarterback is, without a doubt, capable of being a franchise quarterback, there’s a hesitation to draft one in the first round.
“Now, all of a sudden, if you miss on him — which looking at statistics, there’s a great chance of missing on a quarterback — it sets the organization back two, three, four years because you have to give that place a chance to succeed, and it’s going to take time, and while that’s taking time, you’re losing football games.”
“We were extremely fortunate to be able to do what we did with Carson Palmer to put us in this position,” Keim said. “Yet, at the same time, to have success the next five, 10 years, we have to identify that next guy.”
And that is what keeps Keim’s mind wandering toward the quarterback — both Palmer and his replacement — on a daily basis.
The wrong decision by Keim could erase the years of progress Palmer led in rebuilding the Cardinals into a playoff contender. The Cardinals’ upward trajectory could be altered.
“There isn’t a day,” Keim said, “that I don’t think about it.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If last season proved anything to the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s that they need a boost at running back.
Other than some unexpected big plays from Spencer Ware early in the season, the Chiefs were deficient at the position. They averaged just 109 rushing yards per game and, worse yet, just 4.2 yards per carry. The latter number was their worst since 2011, when Jamaal Charles missed most of the season with a knee injury (sound familiar?) and their leading rusher was Jackie Battle.
• 2017 NFL draft order » • Mel Kiper Jr.: Mock 2.0 » • Todd McShay’s Top 32 • McShay: Top prospects by position • Todd McShay: Mock 2.0 » • Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board » • Mel Kiper Jr.: Top 10 by position » • Pro day schedule for prospects » • Underclassmen who have declared » • NFL draft player rankings »
Between Ware and Charcandrick West, the Chiefs didn’t have the speed to get the job done out of the backfield the way they needed. That’s one reason they went to Tyreek Hill so frequently out of the backfield late in the season.
Charles could solve the problem, of course. But there’s no guarantee he’ll either be playing for the Chiefs next season or would be the same player he was before his latest knee injury.
If that’s what the Chiefs are counting on, it’s a huge gamble. Even if Charles plays next season and plays well, it wouldn’t hurt the Chiefs to think about a better life after he’s gone. Charles turns 31 in December.
That’s why the Chiefs should consider Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey with their first-round draft pick, which is 27th overall. McCaffrey might not be an every-down back next season, or ever. He’s only about 200 pounds.
But Charles played much of his Chiefs career at around 200 pounds. So maybe McCaffrey could be more of the backfield solution than it appears.
Even if not, the Chiefs don’t need him to carry the full load. Ware and West are capable players, if not big-play producers. But they would need McCaffrey’s help and, at least on a part-time basis, he certainly looks capable of providing it. He catches the ball well, a necessity for a back in Andy Reid’s offense, and is capable of delivering some big plays, even if he’s not as fast as Charles was or Hill is.
Running back is the biggest need for the Chiefs on offense. Unless they know that Charles will play for them in 2017 and play well, it would be a shame if they don’t address it with a player with McCaffrey’s potential.
Round 1: April 27, 8 p.m. ET