Charlie Weis has long been rumored to be headed to Kansas City to take over the Chiefs offense.

Today those rumors became a reality, with ESPN’s Chris Mortenson reporting (via Twitter) that Weis has agreed on a deal with Kansas City to become their next offensive coordinator.

Weis was fired from his head coach position at Notre Dame back in November of last year, but given his extensive experience in the NFL as a coordinator, he had become a hot commodity as of late.

Weis will take charge of the playcalling duties from second year head coach Todd Haley, in a move that is sure to please fans of the team, who have been irritated with Haley having too much responsibility.

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When Chicago cleaned house on the offensive side of the ball recently, speculation was rampant that former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis would be one of the team’s top targets to replace fired offensive coordinator Ron Turner next season.

But the story has taken a different turn this morning, with the Bears reaching out to several collegiate offensive coordinators to potentially fill Turner’s post. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter), Chicago is currently speaking with USC offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates and University of Minnesota offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch about the position.

Both Bates and Fisch have experience working with quarterback Jay Cutler, with Bates serving as his offensive coordinator two seasons ago in Denver, and while it’s likely that only one of the two would come to Chicago, it is possible that the Bears could hire both in different roles.

Weis is apparently still in the running as well, and seems to be interested mainly because of the proximity to his home in South Bend, Indiana. He’s also reportedly talking with Kansas City about their opening at the same position, which makes sense given his relationship with general manager Scott Pioli and head coach Todd Haley.

After a season filled to the brim with miscues on both sides of the ball, Kansas City is seemingly set to completely overhaul their coaching staff underneath head coach Todd Haley with the additions of two former New England coordinators in Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis.

Multiple sources are reporting that Crennel will be the Chiefs new defensive coordinator, with an announcement potentially coming from the team this week. The current coordinator in Kansas City, Clancy Pendergast, has been under fire for most of the season and is not expected to be retained.  Crennel was most recently the head coach in Cleveland, before being fired at the end of the 2008 season. He has been out of football for the entirety of this year after undergoing hip surgery during the off-season.

Weis has been linked to the position with the Chiefs since his dismissal from the Notre Dame head coaching position in November of last year, along with several other potential job openings around the league. The connection between the two is expected to intensify though, especially after NFL.com analyst Jason LaCanfora reported this morning (via Twitter) that he believes Kansas City will be the eventual landing spot for Weis.

As always, we’ll keep you posted when more information becomes available.

After his less than surprising dismissal from his job at Notre Dame last month, Charlie Weis was seemingly a hot commodity around the NFL, with rumors flying all over the place putting him in jobs from Chicago to Kansas City and back again. As of late though, the opposite has been true, with Weis staying quiet on any potential landing spots and teams refusing to discuss the possibility of bringing him in next season.

All of that changed this morning, after WIVB-TV in Buffalo, NY reported that the Bills have contacted Weis in an effort to see what his interest would be in taking the team’s head coaching position this off-season. The team apparently initiated the contact discreetly through back-channel methods as opposed to calling Weis directly, so it remains to be seen if the interest in him is actually sincere.

That said, there is little doubt that Weis would listen intently to any offer the Bills have for him, as he is not likely to receive a head coaching opportunity elsewhere in the league any time soon after his disastrous run with the Irish in South Bend.

The interest in a coach like Weis with an excellent offensive pedigree would seemingly indicate that the powers that be in Buffalo are intent on focusing their efforts towards that side of the ball first, and could be enticed into bringing in a quarterback during the off-season that has worked with Weis before. The most likely candidate for that approach would be Cleveland quarterback Brady Quinn, who is a candidate for a trade or release in the off-season after several disappointing seasons with the Browns.

After spending most of this season behind center with the Las Vegas Locomotives in the United Football League, former Bills quarterback J.P. Losman is headed to the Bay Area to play for the Raiders.

Oakland lost its starter at the position last Sunday when quarterback Bruce Gradkowski went down with a major knee injury, and has been struggling to decide between bringing their former starter, JaMarcus Russell, off the bench or to start mediocre journeyman Charlie Frye instead. The move to get Losman in the fold alleviates that concern and gives them much more depth to finish off the season.

It’s not known whether Losman will be with the Raiders next season, but the writing is certainly beginning to show on the wall in Oakland for Russell, and his time as a starter in the league is finished for the time being. Given his overlarge contract and refusal thus far to reduce his cap number for next season, the Raiders could very weel choose to move forward with Losman and Gradkowski next year, and taking a flier on a quarterback prospect later on in the draft next spring.

The discussion surrounding a potential marriage between former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis and the Bears as their next offensive coordinator has been all the rage as of late, drawing a tremendous amount of attention across the board, in both the national and local media.

While it certainly won’t slow down the Weis circus, another potential candidate for the still filled position in Chicago came to light earlier this evening in the form of one Jeremy Bates, formerly the quarterbacks coach for the Denver Broncos and now the offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll at USC.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Bates could make the jump up to the NFL and become the next offensive coordinator in Chicago, if the Bears do indeed decide to fire Ron Turner, who is currently serving in that capacity with the team. Schefter cites a consistent willingness on the part of Carroll to let his assistants seek higher positions elsewhere and the excellent relationship between Bears QB Jay Cutler and Bates.

Obviously, it’s still pretty early in the game for all of these rumors, especially when you consider that Turner has not been fired and the team hasn’t given too much indication that it’s probable at this point. But that said, there seems to be at least two solid possibilities for Chicago to work with this off-season, should they decide to make a move to upgrade their offensive coaching staff, both of which would give their franchise QB a legitimate chance to become the leader they expected him to be when they traded away a multitude of picks and players for him last spring.

There’s still four weeks left in the NFL’s regular season, but it’s never too early to kick start the NFL Draft conversation. At least not for Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen that is.

Three seasons into his career with the Fighting Irish, Clausen has decided that the time has come for him to make the leap up to the next level, and he’s doing so mostly on the advice of his former head coach, Charlie Weis. Having groomed both Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe into top tier NFL quarterbacks with the Patriots, Weis knows a thing or two about the game, and apparently told Clausen he was ready to play on Sundays next season.

Clausen dominated the collegiate game this season, throwing for 3,722 yards, 28 touchdowns, and only four interceptions in an otherwise disappointing campaign for Notre Dame. And coming from a pro style offense in South Bend under Weis certainly won’t hurt his draft stock next April, with St. Louis, Cleveland, and Washington showing definite signs of interest in selecting Clausen at or near the top of round one.

In our latest mock, Clausen is slated to be taken #1 overall by Cleveland.

There have been a ton of rumors swirling around former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis as of late, very few of which actually have any substance, but are fun to discuss nonetheless.

The latest pitches a potential marriage between the Bears and Weis during the off-season, with Weis making a short jaunt down to Chicago from South Bend to be the new offensive coordinator in the Windy City, assuming the Bears dump their current coach in that position, Ron Turner.

Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times cites a source close to Weis that says he would definitely be interested in a position with the Bears, should Turner be relieved of his duties, and feels it would be the easiest transition for his family given the proximity between Chicago and South Bend. The closeness would also provide Weis an opportunity to silence the same critics that dogged his time with the Irish.

Having a franchise quarterback already in place in Jay Cutler is another positive factor for Weis, as he feels the challenge of getting Cutler back to the level of play he exhibited during his time in Denver.

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With a cool $18 million or so in his back pocket courtesy of his former employer, Charlie Weis is free to explore all of his options in the coming days, without anything to worry about. So it makes sense that he would take some time to look at each situation and then make a decision once the regular season is complete.

One of those options could very well be Tampa Bay, where head coach Raheem Morris is struggling to stay afloat in his first season, and will be desperate to bring in a legitimate offensive mind in the off-season to handle things on that side of the ball. While Weis had tremendously as a head coach, his skill as an offensive coordinator during his time in New England was second to none, and he could be just the ticket for the Bucs and their young but talented team.

Ted Fleming of the Tampa Bay Sports Examiner wrote up a nice piece on this topic earlier today, and made an excellent case for why the Bucs would be wise to bring Weis into the fold as soon as possible. The only thing missing would be an existing connection to the team, like the ones Weis already has in Kansas City, New York, Cleveland, and obviously New England. That said, Weis may feel the need to prove himself as being capable outside of Bill Belichick’s shadow and a successful stint in Tampa on his own would certainly accomplish that.

Either way, it’s doubtful that we’ll see an end to this story for some time, as no team is going to hire Weis at this point in the season. As always, we’ll keep you posted though, when more info becomes available.

6.05 pm – In his press conference earlier today, Haley stated pretty clearly that the Chiefs are not one of the six to have contacted Weis about a possible job as offensive coordinator (H/T to Arrowhead Pride).

While this doesn’t rule out a possible marriage between Weis and KC in the future, it does make things a bit more interesting as the Chiefs were definitely one of the most promising suitors. As always, we’ll keep you posted.

1:45 pm – This isn’t exactly an NFL story per se, but seeing as it has major ramifications for teams in need of a new offensive coordinator, I wanted to get a head start on the discussion.

Fox Sports is reporting that Charlie Weis has indeed been fired as the head coach of the storied program, and will not coach his team in a bowl game should the Irish be invited to one. Notre Dame officials have not yet made any public statements with regard to Weis and the team, but a source inside the coaching staff has confirmed the reports.

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Much has been made as of late of Charlie Weis’ future as the head coach at Notre Dame, and while he still has a hold on his job (however tenous that may be), it’s beginning to look more and more likely that his days in South Bend are numbered.

If he is in fact fired from his position, you can expect his name to come up in a hurry for numerous coaching positions around the NFL, in light of what he accomplished during his tenure earlier in the decade as the Patriots offensive coordinator. One of the jobs that would make sense is the offensive coordinator gig in Kansas City, where head coach Todd Haley has taken it upon himself to call the plays this season.

Weis already has a solid working relationship with both Haley and Chiefs GM Scott Pioli, as he has worked with each at some point in his coaching career. Haley and Weis share a similar offensive philosophy that relies heavily on the passing game. The move also makes some sense as Weis will want to take a position where he can potentially resurrect his career relatively quick, and the Chiefs could provide that with enough talent already in place to make a run next season.

Matt Conner at Arrowhead Pride posted an excellent breakdown earlier today of what Weis would bring to the table in Kansas City, and while it certainly won’t be an easy for Weis to turn around a Chiefs offense that has struggled immensely at times this season, he won’t be going at it alone as Haley will almost certainly continue to take an active interest in what’s happening on that side of the ball.

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The Bills in-season coaching search took another turn tonight, this time in the wrong direction, as former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher rebuffed Buffalo owner Ralph Wilson and his overtures to bring Cowher in for an interview with the club.

This comes on the heels of reports that indicated a push by the Bills to bring in former Denver head coach Mike Shanahan, along with several intriguing rumors surrounding Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis and a potential fit for him in Buffalo. For the time being, the Bills are remaining tight lipped on their search, but given all the leaks springing up across the board, there’s no doubt that something big is afoot in western New York.

Cowher has repeatedly declined offers to return to the NFL as a head coach, preferring instead to focus on his family and his position with CBS’ The NFL Today on Sunday afternoon. That said, those close to the coach have said that the desire to coach again still burns deep within Cowher, and it’s simply a matter of him wanting to find the best opportunity possible for himself and his family.

One such locale would be Carolina, as Panthers head coach John Fox certainly isn’t out of the woods as of yet in terms of retaining his job. If he is removed from the position, you can bet that the first person to be called will be Cowher, who holds strong ties to the area with his permanent home being located reasonably close to Charlotte in Raleigh, NC.

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