Head Coach Reid Adds Two to His Staff

Ron Dowhower comes from the Giant's organization, where he was the quarterbacks coach.  He has 17 years experience at the NFL level.  He spent much of his time as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, with a two-year stint as head coach.  "He's been a head coch, a coordinator, a quarterback coach.   He's kind of done it all and is very well-respected throughout the league for his knowledge," said Reid.  Dowhower was the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts for the 1986 and 1987 seasons.  He compiled a 5-24 record during that time.  His most noted time in the NFL was as the quarterbacks coach of the Washington Redskins from 1990 to 1992.  He was instrumented in developing Mark Rypien, who was named the Super Bowl MVP in the Super Bowl in 1991.

Brad Childress comes from the University of Wisconsin coaching staff.  He was the offensive coordinator there since 1992.   during his time there, the Badgers went to five bowl games, including the Rose Bowl victory over UCLA on January 1.  "Brad, obviously, is coming off a great season with Wisconsin being the Rose Bowl champions," Reid said.  "He's been the coordinator at Wisconsin, where they had one of the top rushing teams in the country and, prior to that, as the offensive coordinator at Northern arizona, whose passing game ranked among the leaders in Division I-AA."

Childress has a connection with both Reid and Dowhower.  While at Northern Arizona, both Reid and Childress were on the same staff in 1986.  Dowhower had Childress as his quarterbacks coach at Indianapolis.

As far as other positions on the staff, it looks like Reid will retain Harbaugh as the special teams coach; however, he has to look for a defensive coordinator.  Emmitt Thomas left the Eagles staff to join Ray Rhodes at Green Bay.  Mike Trgovac, the defensive line coach, made the change to Green Bay, too.  Possible replacements could be Fritz Shurmur or Dom Capers.