The NFL has long stood for “Not For Long,” and that applies to just about every part of a team’s organization these days, including whoever the offensive play-caller is. Nearly half of the league, including the entire NFC South, has a new coach calling plays for their offense. I perused the list and highlighted a chunk of these new play-callers, which include familiar names, a new head coach, an old head coach, former college coaches and plenty of coaches from the Shanahan-McVay tree.
Seattle Seahawks
How will Ryan Grubb (and the rest of Seattle’s contingent of college coaches) and his mortar-based attack adjust to the NFL?
Grubb, an experienced and successful coach and play-caller at various levels of the college game, and his offense will translate well at the next level. That’s it, I answered the question, let’s move along.
In all seriousness, Grubb’s offense at the University Washington, which had plenty of input from then-head coach Kalen DeBoer, used wrinkles like varying tempos and formation tweaks — bunches, stacks, receivers in the backfield, motion, all the good stuff — to keep defenses off-balanced.
It was not gimmicky.
Grubb made it easier on his players, but the yards and points weren’t accumulated in a cheap and hacky way. The Huskies used plenty of tried-and-true offensive staples with sound rules in the route distribution and protection (Seahawks offensive line coach Scott Huff was Washington’s O-line coach and followed Grubb down the road and through traffic in Seattle). There was purpose with what Washington sought to accomplish on any play, which is notable considering the assortment of different concepts that it ran on a weekly basis.
The Huskies were aggressive, unlocking talented playmakers and trusting their talented offensive line and triggerman, Michael Penix Jr., to keep things clean as they attacked down the field. That chunk-play-first-and-always mindset will fit the modus operandi of Seahawks starting quarterback Geno Smith, who is never shy to stand tall in the pocket and test downfield windows that others wouldn’t dare. It will even fit the other player currently in the Seahawks quarterback room, Sam Howell, and his downfield mindset.
The Seahawks also have DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, three wide receivers who they have committed resources to (plus folk hero Jake Bobo). This helps picture what the offense might look like at least for this year.
ey in free agency and traded for Rondale Moore. Throw in Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier, Kyle Pitts and we’re all set, right?
A ton of interesting pieces! More interesting will be how it will all come together. I can picture the run game, and the Falcons already have the personnel to adapt to what Robinson, down to the three-down running backs, will likely prefer. London is an ideal wide receiver for this type of offense, part of the Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua receiver archetype that can play outside or as a power slot.
Mooney is best as a slot, too. And Moore has been best as a gadget player and really was more of a running back than anything last year in Arizona. Pitts has been used as an outside receiver often in his young career, and the Rams loved using Tyler Higbee as a lone receiver with three wide receivers on the other side to create match-up indicators for Stafford, so that’s a possible path. But, that spreads out the attack and gets Cousins away from his strength as a player. This isn’t an unsolvable issue. This offense has a high floor, even with Cousins coming off an Achilles injury. There is powder to have an explosive passing offense here, too, but how it blends together will determine how big of an explosion it is.
Philadelphia Eagles
How does Kellen Moore help fill the Jason Kelce-sized void in the middle?
Kelce was a weapon for the Eagles, even up to his last game of his career. Not only was he dangerous out in space on screens or as a puller, he was also one of the most intelligent players, at any position, in the entire NFL. Kelce was a true stabilizing force for the Eagles' offensive line, getting everyone pointed in the right direction and taking the mental load off the other linemen and even their quarterbacks.
I touched on this a few months ago, but Kelce’s work in the pre-snap process will be what Moore, offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, Jalen Hurts and new starting center Cam Jurgens will all have to get on the same page about. Every offensive unit has to figure out how its pre-snap process works. Variables like the cadence, who handles the defensive identification, how involved the quarterback is with the operation are all (hopefully) sorted out during the offseason months and training camp. In Moore’s previous stops as the play-caller for the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers, he relied on the center to set everything up. The quarterback was given veto power and full control to set the cadence, protection and final play-call. Essentially, Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert were given the license to be the true “field generals” that quarterbacks sometimes get labeled as.
How do the Eagles now balance what they’ve done in the past, which relied a good amount on Kelce, with Hurts’ developing maturation and a center starting in the NFL for the first time (although with experience at the position in college)?
Jurgens is athletic and talented. He has experience last year at right guard, with varying results, but that is not the position Jurgens was best suited for in the NFL, nor one that he was drafted to play. (Sidenote: I like Tyler Steen at right guard, especially with more schooling under Stoutland).
Moore will certainly have to adapt aspects of what he has been used to as a play-caller (a quarterback handling protections makes everybody’s life easier). Stoutland will be a great shoulder to lean on for everyone on this staff and roster, and Jurgens has experience playing in the league and at center in the past. But I would love to see Hurts continue to handle more of the pre-snap operation and take his game to a new level. He’s done it a bit more as his career has progressed (Shane Steichen put more on his plate as the 2022 season went along). It would be really fun to see Hurts and Jurgens develop as batterymates in Philadelphia and slow the game down even more for Hurts as a passer and quarterback.
