It’s early, but to me, Ben Johnson, Bobby Slowik and Shane Waldron look like the offensive coordinators teams will want to interview for head coaching jobs at the end of the season. They seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes to breaking down defenses, and that’s what teams are looking for nowadays.
Shane Steichen, Mike McDaniel and Kevin O’Connell have been three of the better coaching hires in recent years. That’s what teams are looking for. Key is finding the right quarterback, but it’s also crucial to find the right coach to pair with him.
Johnson (picture) got a bunch of interviews last year, and it looks like the Lions will again have one of the top half-dozen offenses. I think that will get him a head coaching job in 2024.
I may be jumping the gun here, but as well as Houston has played in the first month of the season (with a rookie quarterback) I think Slowik is a coordinator that teams are now starting to think about.
And Waldron to me looks like he’s on the verge of becoming a top-10 play caller. He helped put together a successful offense in Seattle last year, and that team has been able to win the last three weeks while playing without its offensive tackles.
Below see my stab at ranking the 32 play callers. It’s a combination of head coaches (if they’re the main offensive guy) and offensive coordinators. For some teams, I’m listing a combination of the two. It’s a general attempt to rank them by who’s doing the best job with the personnel they have.
In working on this list, I’d tried to keep a big picture view. That is, Sean Payton, Doug Pederson, Josh McDaniels and the Daboll-Kafka combo in New York have been taking their lumps recently, but they’ve all been good in the past. And while I like what I’ve seen from Drew Petzing and Dave Canales in the first month of the season, I want to see more before moving them up too aggressively.
Three who’ve dropped the most since I last did this exercise: Zac Taylor, Arthur Smith and Frank Reich, all dropping into the bottom 10.
| OFFENSIVE PLAY CALLERS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rk | Team | |
| 1. | San Francisco | Kyle Shanahan |
| 2. | Kansas City | Andy Reid |
| 3. | LA Rams | Sean McVay |
| 4. | Miami | Mike McDaniel |
| 5. | Indianapolis | Shane Steichen |
| 6. | Denver | Sean Payton |
| 7. | Detroit | Ben Johnson (OC) |
| 8. | Minnesota | Kevin O'Connell |
| 9. | Philadelphia | Nick Sirianni / Brian Johnson |
| 10. | Houston | Bobby Slowik (OC) |
| 11. | Jacksonville | Doug Pederson |
| 12. | Seattle | Shane Waldron (OC) |
| 13. | Baltimore | Todd Monken (OC) |
| 14. | Las Vegas | Josh McDaniels |
| 15. | Arizona | Drew Petzing (OC) |
| 16. | Cleveland | Kevin Stefanski |
| 17. | NY Giants | Brian Daboll / Mike Kafka |
| 18. | Dallas | Mike McCarthy |
| 19. | Buffalo | Ken Dorsey (OC) |
| 20. | Green Bay | Matt LaFleur |
| 21. | Tampa Bay | Dave Canales (OC) |
| 22. | Washington | Eric Bieniemy (OC) |
| 23. | LA Chargers | Kellen Moore (OC) |
| 24. | Cincinnati | Zac Taylor |
| 25. | Tennessee | Tim Kelly (OC) |
| 26. | New England | Bill O'Brien (OC) |
| 27. | NY Jets | Nathaniel Hackett (OC) |
| 28. | Atlanta | Arthur Smith |
| 29. | New Orleans | Pete Carmichael (OC) |
| 30. | Chicago | Luke Getsy (OC) |
| 31. | Carolina | Frank Reich |
| 32. | Pittsburgh | Matt Canada (OC) |
—Ian Allan