Sizing Up the New Head Coaches

Matt Rhule, Carolina Panthers

The Carolina Panthers are in the midst of an offseason best defined as a changing of the guard. Ron Rivera is wearing new colors, Panther-legend Luke Kuechly will now spend his Sundays on the couch, and David Tepper brought in two of the hottest names in college football to right the ship: Matt Rhule and Joe Brady. Rhule revived Temple and Baylor despite short tenures at both universities, and that success earned him John Gruden-money at the professional level. Rhule is more of a charismatic leader of men than a schematic play designer. Insert: Joe Brady. LSU’s former passing game coordinator has no play calling experience, but is credited with orchestrating the Tigers’ record-setting 2019 offense, led by Joe Burrow of course. Bringing in Rhule was a sexy acquisition, and hiring the 30 year old Brady certainly fits the McVay-Shanahan-Kingsbury trend.

How might this offense look? With Cam gone, Carolina is rolling the dice with Teddy Bridgewater. In limited action last season, ‘Teddy Two Gloves’ sparked a five game win streak for the Saints while filling in for an injured Drew Brees. While his stats weren’t eye-popping, he took care of the football and the Saints’ offense hardly skipped a beat. This’ll be the first time Bridgewater has been handed the keys to a franchise since his early days in Minnesota, and now he’ll have boosted confidence knowing the playbook will cater to his strengths as a quarterback. It’s also worth noting that Joe Brady and Bridgewater are already familiar with one another, both having spent their 2018 season in New Orleans. Rhule’s RPO-heavy style at Baylor could theoretically pair up well with Brady’s spread offense at LSU. With so much unknown, at least we can be certain that the Panther’s 2020 offense will revolve around Christian McCaffrey. And with young speedy wideouts like D.J. Moore, Curtis Samuel, and Robby Anderson, one can see how the Carolina offense might get things going.

Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns

In early January, the Browns hosted their annual ‘New Head Coach Introductory Press Conference’ - and this time, Paul DePodesta got his wish. Cleveland’s Chief Strategy Officer has been lobbying to hire Kevin Stefanski for two years now, having interviewed the former OC last offseason before Jimmy Haslam and John Dorsey opted for Freddie Kitchens. The bad news is the Browns are welcoming their 12th head coach since 1999, but the good news is that at least someone else is seemingly making the decisions now. Here’s a fun point of reference: the Browns’ division rival, Pittsburgh Steelers, have employed just three head coaches since 1969. Yup, you read that correctly.

Let’s move on to Stefanski. The UPenn grad has put together an impressive football resume at the young age of 37. Interestingly enough, he has spent his entire professional football career within the Vikings’ organization, coaching numerous position groups before taking over play-calling duties in 2018 once Minnesota moved on from John DeFilippo. In his first full season as the Vikings’ Offensive Coordinator, Stefanski orchestrated an efficient scoring attack that relied heavily upon the run game. In fact, the Vikings were one of three teams in the NFL last season that ran the ball more times than they threw it (476 vs 466). How much of that was Stefanski’s design versus that of Gary Kubiak? Hard to tell. But behind that powerful ground game, Kirk Cousins pieced together his best season to date. Dalvin Cook’s productivity in Stefanski’s zone-rushing attack opened up the play-action for Cousins, and from there he was able to break down defenses with the stellar wide receiver duo of Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs. Having addressed the uncertainty of Stefanski’s involvement with Kubiak, it’s worth noting that the Browns look like a perfect fit on paper. Adopt a zone-running scheme with Nick Cubb leading the way, and get Baker Mayfield outside the pocket on bootlegs off the play action. Much like Cousins, Mayfield is an excellent play action passer and neither of the two have any shortage of wide receiver talent. The Browns will enter 2020 as a premier fantasy offense from a talent perspective, and Stefanski’s ideology could be just what the doctor ordered.

Joe Judge, New York Giants

New Yorkers have become depressingly familiar with head coaching turnover, owner frustration, and general franchise mismanagement (I’m looking at you, Knicks fans). Dolan aside, perhaps no other New York executive has taken more heat than Dave Gettleman. Gettleman was highly scrutinized last offseason when he gutted the roster of premier talent, before passing on Dwayne Haskins in lieu of Daniel Jones in the 2019 NFL Draft. Granted, passing on Haskins may have been the right call - but few agreed with the pick at the time. The G-Men then embarked on a miserable season, made memorable solely by the farewell tour of Eli Manning. When Gettleman fired Pat Shurmer after Week 17, at least Giants fans could find salvation in the fact that next season would provide a clean slate.

I bet they weren’t expecting Joe Judge and Jason Garrett though. The truth is, we don’t know much about Joe Judge as a head coach. He comes from the Bill Belichick and Nick Saban coaching tree (major flex), and he commanded the room during his introductory interview. We know he comes from a Special Teams background, but even avid football fans might not have been aware of Judge’s existence until January. Jason Garrett on the other hand, is a different story. The former Cowboys Head Coach somehow spent his entire tenure in Dallas on the hot seat. What you might not know about Garrett, is that he hasn’t called plays for Dallas since the 2012 season - which makes this hire especially peculiar. When Garrett called plays, the Cowboys were almost always a top ten offense in the league with a clear preference to operate through the air. But these were also the days of prime Tony Romo, Miles Austin, Dez Bryant, and Jason Witten - so let’s not read too much into it. Jason Garrett himself said recently that his approach to play calling has evolved - after all, it’s been almost a decade. With the game having changed so much, there’s little we can do to predict how Judge and Garrett will impact your fantasy players in the Big Apple. For what it’s worth, I won’t be moving Barkely, Engram, Tate, or Shephard down on draft boards just because we’re not sure what the coaching changes will bring. Besides, how could it get much worse?

Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys

Assuming he doesn't mind Jerry Jones breathing down his neck throughout the duration of his tenure, Mike McCarthy is stepping into an opportune situation in Dallas. Why? Because the pieces are there. All he has to do is press the right buttons. Kellen Moore is returning as Offensive Coordinator, although we’re unsure who’ll be calling plays in 2020. McCarthy's preference to man the wheel is well-documented, but it’s not like Moore was a scrub last season. In fact, the Cowboys led the league in total yards and in yards per play. They were also 5th in rushing, and 2nd in passing. So while the play calling duties have yet to be assigned, it’s hard to envision a scenario in which this offense makes a drastic change. At least from a fantasy perspective, I think we can expect more of the same in 2020. Lots of Zeke, and another big fantasy season from Dak with the addition of CeeDee Lamb to an already stellar WR corps. The Cowboys are simply chock-full of talent on offense.

Ron Rivera, The Washington Football Team

When Ron Rivera accepted the head coaching job in D.C., he signed up to tackle the NFL’s most daunting organizational challenge. Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen have deprived the D.C. fan base of hope for seasons on end, which is especially cruel considering the franchise hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005. Since then, season ticket holders have been sued, the head coaching position has been a revolving door, and ex-players continue to defame the culture within the organization. With Bruce Allen out of the picture, Dan Snyder has handed the keys over to Ron Rivera - hoping his high character leadership will put D.C. back on the map. 

With Rivera focusing on defense, Scott Turner was brought in to serve as his offensive coordinator. The two worked alongside one another in Carolina prior to Rivera’s dismissal, at which point Turner took over as offensive coordinator for the remainder of the season. In his limited experience as an OC, Turner led a pass-heavy offense. Then again, Carolina went 0-4 in that stretch with a few blowouts, so it’s very possible Turner’s play calling was dictated by game script. What we did learn is that Turner likes to incorporate a lot of motion in his offense, which forces the defense to make difficult match-up decisions on the spot, whilst also helping the quarterback identify what form of coverage is taking place. So while Dwayne Haskins will have the challenge of learning an entirely new offense, he should be more comfortable in a system that caters to his play style. From a fantasy perspective, the Washington offense will remain bland behind names like Terry McLaurin and Derrius Guice. But if Rivera can improve the play of his offensive line, Turner’s system should improve Haskin’s decision-making on the field.