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Moving on from the players, I now want to look at the premiere offensive coordinators and play-calling head coaches in the league. To me what defines great coaches when it comes to that area is what they can do with what they have.
Everybody has to consider what they have at hand in terms of personnel and then game-plan according to the opposing defense. A lot of people can draw up all kinds of cool plays, but they also have to be able to teach those, adjust to who they face and string plays together. Here are my top five:
#1 Kyle Shanahan
At the top of the list right now has to be Kyle Shanahan. As an OC he made Matt Schaub a Pro Bowler in Houston, helped RG3 win Rookie of the Year in Washington and orchestrated a top ten scoring offense in NFL history with Matt Ryan earning MVP honors. Kyle has moved on to San Francisco and after two years of irrelevancy due to injury problems and a lack of offensive personnel, he has his team rolling with an 8-0 record.
Like I said already, nobody is better at keeping defenses off balance with all kinds of different run schemes of those zone looks. But it’s what he has built around that that makes this offense so tough to stop. All those bootlegs and waggles, tight-end screens, throwbacks to the running schemes and crossers he gets wide open off booting the other way forces defenses to defend the entire length and width of the field.
We have seen him just carve up opposing teams that use simple coverages, such as those cover-three based defenses, where he can manipulate responsibilities and creates open targets off deep crossers. He rotates his backs through and uses multiple receivers in ways that utilize their strengths.
The Niners only scored less than 20 points in that mudfest at Washington when nobody could do anything and they put a 50-burger on one of the best defenses out there in the Panthers. All that despite his quarterback playing mediocre for most of this strength and not having an established number one receiver, which he now has in Emmanuel Sanders, who has already made his presence felt.
#2 Sean Payton
Right behind him, we have one of the OGs when it comes to play-designer and game-planners. Sean Payton is best known for the way he can motivate his troops and how fired up he gets during games, but he deserves all the credit in the world for the preparation he puts into every game and what kind of a tough team he has built around him.
Drew Brees has been amazing throughout his career, but a lot that success has to go to his coach to some degree. Payton is the best at creating lay-ups to his number one receivers in the short to intermediate range, which is a big reason why Michael Thomas is on pace to break the NFL’s all-time records for reception in a season.
In addition to that. his team has finished fifth and sixth respectively in rushing offense these last two year and his screen game might be the best in the game as well. He doesn’t care if people know he is stealing either, like those goal-line screens with a receiving motioning into a bunch set and how he countered that with a fake and corner route off it to beat the Eagles with their own medicine last year in a genius move.
The Saints are now 7-1 despite being without the league’s all-time leading passer for most of it and Alvin Kamara missing a couple of games himself.
#3 Sean McVay
At number three there is another Sean, who was everybody’s darling less than a year ago as that new, young offensive coach. After being schooled by Bill Belichick (as so many do) in the Super Bowl when his team was held to only three points, and not looking quite the same this year, the Rams HC doesn’t seem to get the same recognition he used to, but he is still one of the more clever minds out there.
McVay comes from the Shanahan tree and has built his offense around the zone run game, with jet sweeps and a multitude of play-action concepts off it to keep defenses honest.
To me the reason why this offense is “only” eight with 26.8 points per game is due to the porous offensive line and a Todd Gurley who simply isn’t the same guy he was just a year ago. With the loss of Pro Bowler Rodger Saffold in free agency and a few injuries along the line, this group up front has struggled mightily.
Ahead of their bye week, that O-line was ranked only ahead of the then-winless Dolphins according to PFF. Gurley is only averaging 3.9 yards a carry without a single run over 40 yards. If not for a few cheap touchdowns at the goal-line he would be the biggest fantasy bust at less than 500 total yards.
Still the offense is somehow top ten in terms yards, points, first downs and completions of 25+ yards. That is largely due to creativity of the guy calling the shots, best displayed by that long touchdown to Cooper Kupp off a reverse flea-flicker in London.
#4 Josh McDaniels
The least discussed name among offensive play-callers probably is this guy up in New England. Josh McDaniels has done it for a long time despite one not so successful stop as head coach in Denver and almost taking over the gig in Indianapolis, before pulling himself out that job at the last moment.
Once again, Tom Brady has been unbelievable during his two decades in the league and I don’t think there is much of a discussion anymore if he is the GOAT, because he has simply accomplished more than anybody else, but a lot of the success especially, later on, has a lot to do with that Patriots system keeping him young. Not a lot of people run this type of system because it is hard to really define and even tougher to teach.
New England uses the highest amount of different personnel packages and can change their look upon every single snap. Last year they went back to being more of a power run game with James Develin clocking the second-highest percentage of snaps for a fullback behind only Kyle Juszczyk, but with him on IR and no elite run-blocking tight-end like Gronk, they have needed to go back to more spread looks.
They love to roll out empty sets and create mismatches with their backs in the passing game, set up easy YAC-opportunities for their receivers underneath and I can not even count the number of cheap first downs they have picked up on screens to James White and those other guys over the years.
I know the defense is the big story for the Pats this year, but with a somewhat declining Brady and no real threats on the outside, they are still somehow scoring 30 a game.
#5 Andy Reid
And then I want to give another guy love, who has done it for a long, long time. Andy Reid first became a head coach before this millennium even started. He coached some of the great Philadelphia offenses throughout the year, which made it to four straight NFC Championship Games, before doing the same in Kansas City with Alex Smith.
However, I don’t think he has ever had as much fun as he now has with Patrick Mahomes taking the calls. Until the reigning MVP went out three weeks ago, no team in the league even came close to the number of vertical concepts they ran. Reid can fall in love too much with the passing game and forget about his backs, but that combination of aggressive play-caller with maybe the most talented pure passers is absolutely lethal.
Even without his QB however, the offense has put up points – 24 versus the Packers and 26 against the Vikings with Matt Moore under center. The way he uses smokes and mirrors through motions and jet sweep fakes, use speedsters to deceive the defense and simply put the ball to his playmakers in space has been second to none throughout the years.
What sets those top four apart a little from Reid is that as incredible as he has been as a play-designer, his offenses have kind of stalled late in the year at times once D-coordinators got the hang of things and that those other guys excelling at game-planning for their respective opponents.
Next up: Frank Reich, Greg Roman and Jon Gruden
