Ranking the 32 Offensive Play Callers in the NFL

[hawkfan68]

If the Seahawks and Darrell Bevell part ways, I think Mike McCoy would be a great OC for the Seahawks. That is if SD fires McCoy and he's not offered a HC job elsewhere.

 

[theENGLISHseahawk]

If the Seahawks and Darrell Bevell part ways, I think Mike McCoy would be a great OC for the Seahawks. That is if SD fires McCoy and he's not offered a HC job elsewhere.

Did you see the Chargers last season and in the early part of this season??!?!

 

[hawkfan68]

If the Seahawks and Darrell Bevell part ways, I think Mike McCoy would be a great OC for the Seahawks. That is if SD fires McCoy and he's not offered a HC job elsewhere.

Did you see the Chargers last season and in the early part of this season??!?!

The Chargers are averaging 29.4 pts per game on offense. They are also averaging 365 yards per game. They have a scoring efficiency percentage of 47.5 which is the 4th best in the NFL. All of these are better than what the Seahawk offense is doing. So yeah, I'd think that Mike McCoy would be a decent replacement should Bevell and the Seahawks part ways - that could mean he leaves voluntarily or involuntarily.

 

[Siouxhawk]

I'd take our offense over the Chargers' any day.

 

[West TX Hawk]

If the Seahawks and Darrell Bevell part ways, I think Mike McCoy would be a great OC for the Seahawks. That is if SD fires McCoy and he's not offered a HC job elsewhere.

Did you see the Chargers last season and in the early part of this season??!?!

The Chargers are averaging 29.4 pts per game on offense. They are also averaging 365 yards per game. They have a scoring efficiency percentage of 47.5 which is the 4th best in the NFL. All of these are better than what the Seahawk offense is doing. So yeah, I'd think that Mike McCoy would be a decent replacement should Bevell and the Seahawks part ways - that could mean he leaves voluntarily or involuntarily.

Agreed! McCoy would be a fine choice. And Keenan Allen, Stevie Johnson and Danny Woodhead are all injured yet McCoy still has the Chargers with the 2nd best scoring offense in the league. That's indicative of someone who knows how to maximize the most of his available players' strengths, despite decimating injuries to his core receivers.

 

[Fade]

The results this weekend, shows I was pretty damn accurate with my 32 rankings.

The lowest ranked non rookie play caller Greg Olson was fired, and is being replaced by Nathaniel Hackett. He was an OC for Buffalo for one yr, and has had a lot of jobs for being such a young coach. I will just slot him in at 29 for now.

Some may have questioned Bill Musgrave's ranking at 18, but it was justified by the 600+ yds of offense his unit put up over the weekend.

it is a fluid list, and will be tweaked every few weeks throughout the season.

 

[Ozzy]

I agree. You have two "A"'s in your passing game in Baldwins quickness and Graham's catch radius and size. You decide to throw a fade to a 5'10 receiver who might be your 4th best option. Brock said it yesterday, Pete even alluded to it being the wrong idea and multiple people see the same thing. I don't think Bevell is horrible but his situational play calling is just weird. I think the pro Bevell camp gets defensive because he really can and does do some great things. What keeps him out of the upper range is that when he misfires he misfires is ridiculous fashion. Slant pass to your special teams gunner? Then blame him for execution? This is the kind of stuff that the best oc's don't miss on. No one calls a perfect game but you can put your strengths and best personnel in the best opportunity to succeed and Bevell just flat out doesn't.

 

[Siouxhawk]

I agree. You have two "A"'s in your passing game in Baldwins quickness and Graham's catch radius and size. You decide to throw a fade to a 5'10 receiver who might be your 4th best option. Brock said it yesterday, Pete even alluded to it being the wrong idea and multiple people see the same thing. I don't think Bevell is horrible but his situational play calling is just weird. I think the pro Bevell camp gets defensive because he really can and does do some great things. What keeps him out of the upper range is that when he misfires he misfires is ridiculous fashion. Slant pass to your special teams gunner? Then blame him for execution? This is the kind of stuff that the best oc's don't miss on. No one calls a perfect game but you can put your strengths and best personnel in the best opportunity to succeed and Bevell just flat out doesn't.

No matter how we lined up, Jimmy was going to be triple teamed. And the play was inches from working. Also, Bev never blamed Lockett. That would be your interpretation of blame. He simply was answering with the truth.

 

[RichNhansom]

I agree. You have two "A"'s in your passing game in Baldwins quickness and Graham's catch radius and size. You decide to throw a fade to a 5'10 receiver who might be your 4th best option. Brock said it yesterday, Pete even alluded to it being the wrong idea and multiple people see the same thing. I don't think Bevell is horrible but his situational play calling is just weird. I think the pro Bevell camp gets defensive because he really can and does do some great things. What keeps him out of the upper range is that when he misfires he misfires is ridiculous fashion. Slant pass to your special teams gunner? Then blame him for execution? This is the kind of stuff that the best oc's don't miss on. No one calls a perfect game but you can put your strengths and best personnel in the best opportunity to succeed and Bevell just flat out doesn't.

First off Kearse is 6'2" and he was one on one with a short (5'9" is what I heard) inexperienced CB.

This is being discussed on several threads also.

The play call was designed to get that exact match up and it worked perfect.

The problem happens when the defense shows blitz and at the last second shift. The DB is playing off the line giving Kearse inside leverage and Wilson makes the protection call but didn't feel he had enough time to audible to a slant. Had he been able to audible it is likely an easy TD.

The play call was excellent. Unfortunately the officials had let the clock run to burn any chance we had at getting closer or more than one shot from 10 yards out.

If you have to place blame it is on Wilson for the pass that was uncatcheable. If that ball is in play Kearse likely comes down with it and then the officials either call him out or throw another flag to take it away from us. At least that is what I suspect after everything else that occured in that game.

 

[Ozzy]

I agree. You have two "A"'s in your passing game in Baldwins quickness and Graham's catch radius and size. You decide to throw a fade to a 5'10 receiver who might be your 4th best option. Brock said it yesterday, Pete even alluded to it being the wrong idea and multiple people see the same thing. I don't think Bevell is horrible but his situational play calling is just weird. I think the pro Bevell camp gets defensive because he really can and does do some great things. What keeps him out of the upper range is that when he misfires he misfires is ridiculous fashion. Slant pass to your special teams gunner? Then blame him for execution? This is the kind of stuff that the best oc's don't miss on. No one calls a perfect game but you can put your strengths and best personnel in the best opportunity to succeed and Bevell just flat out doesn't.

No matter how we lined up, Jimmy was going to be triple teamed. And the play was inches from working. Also, Bev never blamed Lockett. That would be your interpretation of blame. He simply was answering with the truth.

He wasn't triple teamed, did you watch the play? I think you're reading into it what you want to in your quest to always defend Bevell. Brock who played in the NFL was completely baffled by the call and he's right.

In regards to Lockette counting on your 6th receiver aka gunner at a crucial goal line catch was stupid. Flat out stupid. I haven't seen one non Seahawk fan defend the personnel grouping on that play, not one. That is my problem with Bevell. I don't think he is terrible, I just don't think he is never wrong as you and others seem to see it. He's an average OC. If he was much better he would be getting looks from other teams and the more tape he produces the less interested other teams become.

 

[Siouxhawk]

I agree. You have two "A"'s in your passing game in Baldwins quickness and Graham's catch radius and size. You decide to throw a fade to a 5'10 receiver who might be your 4th best option. Brock said it yesterday, Pete even alluded to it being the wrong idea and multiple people see the same thing. I don't think Bevell is horrible but his situational play calling is just weird. I think the pro Bevell camp gets defensive because he really can and does do some great things. What keeps him out of the upper range is that when he misfires he misfires is ridiculous fashion. Slant pass to your special teams gunner? Then blame him for execution? This is the kind of stuff that the best oc's don't miss on. No one calls a perfect game but you can put your strengths and best personnel in the best opportunity to succeed and Bevell just flat out doesn't.

No matter how we lined up, Jimmy was going to be triple teamed. And the play was inches from working. Also, Bev never blamed Lockett. That would be your interpretation of blame. He simply was answering with the truth.

He wasn't triple teamed, did you watch the play? I think you're reading into it what you want to in your quest to always defend Bevell. Brock who played in the NFL was completely baffled by the call and he's right.

In regards to Lockette counting on your 6th receiver aka gunner at a crucial goal line catch was stupid. Flat out stupid. I haven't seen one non Seahawk fan defend the personnel grouping on that play, not one. That is my problem with Bevell. I don't think he is terrible, I just don't think he is never wrong as you and others seem to see it. He's an average OC. If he was much better he would be getting looks from other teams and the more tape he produces the less interested other teams become.

Yes, he was triple bracketed. We have a thread in the other section devoted to that play.

As for Lockette, as the gunner, he was probably best suited for the explosiveness that play demanded. Also, hadn't he snared a few big catches in the second half already, establishing a good rapport with Russ?

And no, I don't use the interest of outside teams as my yardstick for rating Bevell. Many things go into that that you and I are not privy to. But if you want to trust the wisdom of the Cleveland Browns or Miami Dolphins, feel free. I prefer to think that Bev likes working for the greatest organization and head coach in football.

 

[NINEster]

Whenever the Hawks are in crunch time, they ALWAYS deliver a drive. Maybe not the game winning TD scoring drive but they almost ALWAYS move the ball.

I think outside of that Cowboy game two years ago, I don't think I've ever seen the Seahawk offense fail to deliver a respectable drive in those times.

Best drives of the Super Bowl against Patriots were those two.

Now you all want to put it on WILSON......haha.

But I have to believe it's on Bevell.

It's like he has trick plays ready to go when it's do or die. Bill Walsh had it for "The Catch". Bruce Arians had it for the game winner against the Packers in the playoffs.

I also see how many passes open up real fast for Wilson to throw to a relatively open guy. It's pretty damn impressive.

Bevell is top 5....top 10 at WORST.

He was in Seattle before Wilson, and he was there for Favre's 2009 campaign.

I'm jealous because if SF had Bevell we would have won a Super Bowl already.

He's good.

 

[SeaChat]

I think that the whole rating system presented at the opening of this thread, is flawed, if you consider that a Offensive Coordinators rating, if it were at all fair and unbiased, would need to be based upon the overall seasonal performance of the Offensive Line, carrying out the plays he sends in, and not all that other nonsense, like how many yards rushing, how many yards passing and so on.

Meaning in my list, if I were to create one, It would score the OC based on how many games the team they were calling for, won them, and if their team made it to the playoffs, and little extra boost for every game that they defeated in their playoff games and again if they made it on to the Super Bowl field.

Now go back over the last 5 years and see who you find setting right up near the top of the NFL OC rankings, I think his first name starts with a D and his last name starts with a B, for all of you that are having a hard time guessing.

What really counts at the end of the day is what I outlined above. The Seahawks have been winning the greater majority of their games, as importantly in their division, for the past five years. They have been in the playoffs and have advanced to the Super Bowl on two of those occasions and won one of them, They and have come up only one game short in the remaining 3 seasons, of being in the Super Bowl on the other three years.

The offenses ability to carry out the calls sent into them by the OC has a whole bunch of influence on how people will view and rate the OC. I think when you take all of the teams performance into consideration it also says a bunch about the team.

It's really hard to set back in your recliner watching a football game, and not try to predict what play the OC might send in next, hell its a lot of fun, and when he does send in the same play you were thinking of and it's a success, you and the OC are friggin geniuses. Let that same play go south and we'll find some poor offensive player to blame for it's failure.

The other side of that coin is when the OC calls in a play that doesn't match up with what you were thinking, and its a success we tend to tell ourselves he was just lucky, they would have probably done better if they had run the play you were thinking of. Or worse yet, the play bombs entirely, then the OC is a friggin moron, you know a real DB lol.

I have watched Seahawk games in hotel rooms, with other people watching the game in rooms around me and have heard some of these folks screaming at Darrell Bevell, I mean screaming at the top of their lungs, as though he could actually hear them, 3000 miles away, telling him what he is doing wrong, what they would do different and how much they hated him and wished he would do anything except be the OC of the Seahawks.

I look at the big picture, it's been exactly 40 years this year that I've been watching and rooting for my Seahawks, and the last 5 years that Pete and Darrell have been there have been the greatest seasons of my life. I keep shaking my head and thinking "are you kidding me", when I hear guys and gals too, slam either one of them or both of them for the way they are managing the team.

It will certainly appear that I'm drunk on Seahawk Kool-Aid after reading this post, because I think this team that we have right now, may very well prove, by seasons end, to be the greatest Seahawk team ever assembled in the history of the franchise. We have so much great talent and potential on both sides of the ball, I'm feeling like the lone cowboy out here sometimes when I say that Darrell Bevell is a friggin genius.

He has consistently called plays that do work and, agreed he has some called some plays that left me scratching my head and wondering what the hell he was thinking, but one thing is for sure, when that does happen, the other team is scratching their heads and doing the same damn thing because they never saw it coming and if it turned out to be a successful play, you really need to give it up to Darrell and admit when he's genius to offset all the insults you hurl his way when the play goes south on us.

I mean really folks, get out of your armchair dream world and try to put yourself in his position for a game for real. Being responsible for the play calling of the Seattle Seahawks against some of the greatest defenses in NFL history?

If you seriously think you could walk out there on the field and handle that job, you really shouldn't be wasting your life in a recliner, or like most of us, you need to put your game controller down and take a break from Madden NFL whatever version, and do a reality check. I wonder sometimes if people have even an inkling of what the thought process behind the play calling must be.

You have to have a mind like a super computer only ten times faster to have any chance of keeping up with the pace of an NFL game. How many yards do you need, what are the odds of any 1000 play calls of succeeding, what are the odds of the players you are working with being able to carry it out, if it doesn't work where is it going to leave you on the field, what are the chances of a turn over, and you have about 10 seconds to pull something out of your ass that will work, because if it doesn't, your team might loose and you'll have to listen to millions of Darrell Bevell haters screaming their heads off and withstand all the profanity and insults that are included in every one of their summaries, verbal and written in response to it

Then let one of your plays succeed and you don't hear a word of praise for your genius, instead you hear all the praise being expressed to all the players who played any role at all in carrying out the play. I'll never understand that one in a million years. If you want to hurl insults at Darrell every time a play goes to chit, then you should heap praises on him for everyone that goes right.

Fact is that Seattle Seahawks offensive lines success is dependent upon Darrell Bevell's play calling and the offenses ability to carry those plays out flawlessly as is humanly possible. When they are successful, we need to heap praises on the whole unit. No one man can go out there an win a game, I know Russell thinks he can sometimes, I think, lol, but even he needs a little help. Point being they call it a team sport for a reason, and the more unified and on the same page the teammates are the more likely they are to succeed, and the OC is part of that team.

If you want to blame Darrell Bevell for all of the troubles the Seahawks offense has had out there, you make about as much sense as I would if I blamed Russell Wilson, or Jimmy Graham, or Doug Baldwin, or one of our rookie linemen as single handedly being to blame for those troubles, which we all know is total BS.

Why then, if we rational enough to see that with our individual offensive players, can't we also see that with trying to hang Darrell Bevell for all the troubles that our offense might have in a game. Darrell is just another teammate on our offense. His play called in at any given point in the game can only succeed if every other player on the offensive line does their part.

If you really want to be fair, go back through each series of play and see who was really responsible for the successful carrying out of any play, and which players failed to do their job and caused the play to not be successful . It might change your perspective on Bevell and on the game. But the Zebra's will mostly likely always suck, they are just really good at it.

As to your list, how you can take OCs from teams, who are nowhere in the runnings in their own division, and place them where you have them in your ranking, makes me question two things, are you the one who is making this list up? Or is this something some statistitions within the league are amassing? I guess three questions, if it is being done within the league, how much does it cost to get your OC rated higher, it sure doesn't appear to be based upon any other kind of logic, to me anyhow.

 

[Hawks46]

The Saints have had a top 5 offense offense (ypg) every year since Sean Payton arrived in New Orleans, and they have only finished outside of the top 10 in scoring once. I am not sure what qualifies you to be #1 overall, but with results like that, I am dumfounded as to how Hue, Kyle, and Josh are ahead of him.

Josh is ahead of him because he can take a backup with almost no real game reps (Garrapalo) and play to his strengths and make him look really good, like Brady's heir. Then he can make a 3rd stringer look passable.

 

[Fade]

The Saints have had a top 5 offense offense (ypg) every year since Sean Payton arrived in New Orleans, and they have only finished outside of the top 10 in scoring once. I am not sure what qualifies you to be #1 overall, but with results like that, I am dumfounded as to how Hue, Kyle, and Josh are ahead of him.

Josh is ahead of him because he can take a backup with almost no real game reps (Garrapalo) and play to his strengths and make him look really good, like Brady's heir. Then he can make a 3rd stringer look passable.

Yup.

 

[theENGLISHseahawk]

How good did the third stringer look in a shut out home loss to the Bills?

And let's be realistic here with Garoppolo. He was a second round pick who has had two and a half years to prepare for his opportunity and to learn behind arguably the greatest QB to ever play the game, with one of the greatest Head Coaches for guidance.

People are talking like he's a one-armed UDFA.

 

[mistaowen]

How good did the third stringer look in a shut out home loss to the Bills?

And let's be realistic here with Garoppolo. He was a second round pick who has had two and a half years to prepare for his opportunity and to learn behind arguably the greatest QB to ever play the game, with one of the greatest Head Coaches for guidance.

People are talking like he's a one-armed UDFA.

The NFL needs more one armed quarterbacks.

 

[Fade]

Updated OP due to the Norv Turner resignation.

 

[Ozzy]

I agree. You have two "A"'s in your passing game in Baldwins quickness and Graham's catch radius and size. You decide to throw a fade to a 5'10 receiver who might be your 4th best option. Brock said it yesterday, Pete even alluded to it being the wrong idea and multiple people see the same thing. I don't think Bevell is horrible but his situational play calling is just weird. I think the pro Bevell camp gets defensive because he really can and does do some great things. What keeps him out of the upper range is that when he misfires he misfires is ridiculous fashion. Slant pass to your special teams gunner? Then blame him for execution? This is the kind of stuff that the best oc's don't miss on. No one calls a perfect game but you can put your strengths and best personnel in the best opportunity to succeed and Bevell just flat out doesn't.

First off Kearse is 6'2" and he was one on one with a short (5'9" is what I heard) inexperienced CB.

This is being discussed on several threads also.

The play call was designed to get that exact match up and it worked perfect.

The problem happens when the defense shows blitz and at the last second shift. The DB is playing off the line giving Kearse inside leverage and Wilson makes the protection call but didn't feel he had enough time to audible to a slant. Had he been able to audible it is likely an easy TD.

The play call was excellent. Unfortunately the officials had let the clock run to burn any chance we had at getting closer or more than one shot from 10 yards out.

If you have to place blame it is on Wilson for the pass that was uncatcheable. If that ball is in play Kearse likely comes down with it and then the officials either call him out or throw another flag to take it away from us. At least that is what I suspect after everything else that occured in that game.

I'll disagree on triple bracket and I've been following the threads, listened to Brock's chalk talk and everything else. I will say the blame is mostly on Wilson and just flat out running out of time. Should of been a slant there and we lost the chess match for sure.

I still haven't see anything to refute my stance that Bevell is fantastic at times and well below average at times. Really strange to me that people either think he is absolutely terrible or the best OC in football.

 

[Ozzy]

Actually the play call wasn't designed to get that exact matchup. It was designed to get Graham and Baldwin as the primary targets(which is good on Bevell) with zone beater routes. Kearse was the third option which he always should be in that moment.