The NFL coaching carousel always creates a number of new offensive coordinators around the league. While we gave special attention to three such coaches who Fantasy owners have questions about, we’ve also done a lot of research on five other coordinators who will call plays for new teams in 2017.
Mike McCoy
There’s no way to properly classify McCoy as a play caller. He has been a part of every kind of scheme and system known around the NFL. What he’s best known for is his ability to adapt -- he’s the guy who curated an offense for Tim Tebow and then reshaped it a few months later for Peyton Manning.
He’ll fit the Broncos offense to the Broncos’ players, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any tendencies to note.
Running backs have always been a focal point of McCoy’s offenses -- earning plenty of carries and catches in Denver. Chargers running backs also were always involved, even if McCoy wasn’t calling the plays in San Diego. That should keep expectations moderately strong for C.J. Anderson, Devontae Booker and Kapri Bibbs, even though all three worked in a running back-friendly offense the past few years.
Reuniting with Demaryius Thomas will be big for McCoy, as will working with Emmanuel Sanders. That duo is better than any twosome McCoy had in San Diego, and the hope is that they’ll perform more consistently now than with the passive Kubiak-led Broncos offense.
As for tight ends, McCoy’s reliance on them really blossomed once he worked with Manning. Obviously he had some good ones to work with in San Diego and he used them as such. Given the tight ends on the Broncos roster now, don’t bank on Virgil Green, A.J. Derby or Jeff Heuerman to become the next Julius Thomas.
Rick Dennison
The basic gist of the offense Rick Dennison will run in Buffalo was summed up perfectly by Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas.
“If you get the running going, then you get the big plays,” the five-time 1,000-yard receiver told CBS Sports.
That, in a nutshell, is the Gary Kubiak version of the West Coast offense. And it’s not a surprise at all that Dennison will bring that offense to Buffalo since he’s been Kubiak’s wingman since the 1990s.
Dennison, however, rarely called plays for the Broncos/Texans/Ravens/Broncos. His job was to help collaborate on a game plan, not execute it. And the game plan has typically involved establishing the run.
This is good news for LeSean McCoy, who has West Coast offense experience and is familiar with new Bills run game coordinator Juan Castillo. He’ll continue to be the focal point of the Bills offense, working behind one of the league’s better lines. He’ll go over 2,000 career carries in 2017, typically the mark for when running backs start to break down, so anyone who drafts McCoy should also take backup Mike Gillislee.
As for the pass game, Sammy Watkins will have a nice shot to get 1,000 yards provided he stays healthy. The Bills quarterback situation also has to be figured out. And if there’s a sleeper, it’s tight end Charles Clay. Tight ends have typically had solid red-zone roles in this scheme.
Marty Mornhinweg
Mornhinweg took over for Marc Trestman after five Ravens games last season and proceeded to change ... well, not much. Flacco attempted over 40 passes per game with both coordinators and saw his numbers barely improve under Mornhinweg. The run game also never really got going.
Mornhinweg, a Mike Holmgren disciple and West Coast offense playcaller, is expected to reformat the Ravens playbook to something more familiar to him. He also landed run game guru Greg Roman to help the Baltimore offense become more of a running threat after ranking 30th in rush attempts in 2016. The Ravens official website suggested the team “would like to add a dynamic playmaking running back to the mix.” That would drop the upside of Kenneth Dixon and Terrance West.
The other element Mornhinweg is known for is the deep ball. Joe Flacco is capable of dropping back and firing lobs, but it’ll take a consistent receiver with speed to make them connect. Mike Wallace figures to stay with the team and Breshad Perriman is a third-year breakout candidate. Both could see plenty of playing time with Steve Smith retiring, but Mornhinweg’s play-calling track record with receivers doesn’t guarantee much of anything in the way of stats.
Nate Hackett
Hackett gets his second chance at calling plays in the NFL with the Jaguars, something he did for the last nine games of 2016. One reason for it: Blake Bortles felt more comfortable in nine games with Hackett than anyone else in his three years in Jacksonville.
A general overview of Hackett’s pro play-calling career suggests a pass-first, spread-the-ball around approach. In two years with Buffalo and in nine games last year with Jacksonville, his running backs averaged 25.2 carries per game and a very high 28.5 percent share of all receptions. His tight ends caught 20.8 percent of the passes, a high total, leaving receivers with a noticeably low 50.8 percent of the catches.
This should be good news for Blake Bortles, his running backs and tight end. But the reality is that the Jaguars offensive line needs help, the running backs have underwhelmed in Jacksonville since Maurice Jones-Drew’s heyday and Bortles himself has never been efficient. With the Jaguars defense very much on the rise, this team is going to be an interesting one to dissect. Outside of Allen Robinson and breakout candidate Marqise Lee, there isn’t a safe pick for Fantasy purposes at this point.
Todd Downing
A disciple of current Cowboys playcaller Scott Linehan, Downing has spent the last eight seasons as a quarterback coach or assistant, the last two with Derek Carr. He has no pro or college experience calling plays, so there’s no track record to analyze, but his history with quarterbacks along with his experience as a semi-pro quarterback will probably reveal a passing lean to his play-calling.
Does that mean the Raiders will pass more than the 58 percent of the time they did in 2016? Not according to Downing, who told reporters in February he planned on being balanced while making “subtle” changes to the system he’ll inherit from former playcaller Bill Musgrave. Hopefully he’ll be a little more aggressive when it comes to closing games out.
Downing isn’t about to take the ball out of Carr’s hands -- his promotion about keeping Carr happy, keeping division rivals from hiring him and keeping continuity in the offense. It’s a positive for the Raiders, though it probably also means things won’t change too much.
John Morton
The Jets’ fifth offensive coordinator in seven years is ... who?!
John Morton has worked with the likes of Jon Gruden, Jim Harbaugh (twice), Pete Carroll and Sean Payton. Clearly, the guy should know a lot about offense. But he’s been in the play-caller’s seat just twice, both in college, and not at all since 2009.
For what it’s worth, those play-calling stints resulted in some serious rushing-skewed numbers. On average Morton’s offenses ran the ball 54 percent of the time. At the University of San Diego (2005) and at USC (2009), Morton’s offenses gave backs an average of 30.5 carries and five grabs per game (24.7 percent of all receptions). It’s not atypical for a college offense to be run-based, but it would be very, very startling to see an NFL offense be even close to these ranges.
It’s believed Morton will install the West Coast offense with the Jets, which typically favors running backs catching passes out of the backfield and tight ends contributing. Matt Forte and Bilal Powell seem like benefactors, but the Jets haven’t had a legitimate Fantasy tight end since Dustin Keller.
They also don’t have a legitimate quarterback as of early February. This is a problem.
Let’s summarize: The Jets don’t have a good quarterback, don’t have clarity at receiver, have two running backs including one who’s clearly toward the end of his career, an offensive line that needs some serious rebuilding and a first-time NFL offensive coordinator. Oh, and their head coach could hit the road if he doesn’t deliver a big season.
It’s enough to recommend Fantasy owners avoid all Jets, and that probably would be the case no matter who they hired as their playcaller.