Everybody's doing it.
Adam Gase of the Dolphins. Dirk Koetter of the Buccaneers. Hue Jackson of the Browns. Doug Pederson of the Eagles. Presumably Chip Kelly of the 49ers. And possibly Ben McAdoo of the New York Giants. We're talking, of course, about calling plays as a head coach. The only new hire who has said he definitely will not call plays is Mike Mularkey of the Titans, and that's not a surprise given that he did not call plays after taking over for the fired Ken Whisenhunt on an interim basis during the 2015 season.
Prior to the 2015 season, ESPN compiled a list of the 10 head coaches expected to call plays. That list included Kelly (then with the Eagles), Whisenhunt, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, Washington's Jay Gruden, Bill O'Brien of the Texans, Sean Payton of the Saints, Andy Reid of the Chiefs (he wound up sharing duties with Pederson), Rex Ryan of the Bills, and Mike Zimmer of the Vikings. Whisenhunt was fired a few games into the year, so he was knocked off the list. Packers head coach Mike McCarthy took play-calling duties back from Tom Clements late in the season. Jets coach Todd Bowles wound up having more play-calling input along with defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers than initially expected as well. How did those coaches' respective units fare this season?
| Coaches Calling Plays | ||||
| COACH | SIDE | YDS | PTS | DVOA |
| Chip Kelly | O | 12 | 13 | 26 |
| Bruce Arians | O | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Jay Gruden | O | 17 | 10 | 12 |
| Bill O'Brien | O | 19 | 21 | 24 |
| Sean Payton | O | 2 | 8 | 7 |
| Andy Reid | O | 27 | 9 | 6 |
| Gary Kubiak | O | 16 | 19 | 25 |
| Rex Ryan | D | 19 | 15 | 24 |
| Mike Zimmer | D | 13 | 5 | 14 |
| Todd Bowles | D | 4 | 9 | 5 |
| Ken Whisenhunt (as of Wk 8) | O | 31 | 32 | 32 |
| Mike McCarthy (after Wk 14) | O | 24 | 21 | 31 |
| Average | O/D | 15.4 | 13.7 | 17.5 |
As you can see, it was a pretty mixed bag this season. Some coaches did extremely well on their side of the ball (Arians, Payton, Bowles, the only three to rank in the top 10 in yards, points, and Football Outsiders' DVOA, which adjusts performance for down, distance, and opponent), and others did not (Whisenhunt, Kubiak, Ryan, O'Brien, McCarthy). Of the group of 12 coaches, seven of their teams made the playoffs (Arians, Gruden, O'Brien, Reid, Kubiak, Zimmer, and McCarthy), though only six called played all year. Meanwhile, two were relieved of their jobs, largely due to their team's performance on their respective side of the ball (Kelly and Whisenhunt).
We don't know yet what the future holds for Gase, Koetter, Jackson, Pederson, Kelly, and/or McAdoo, but it's certainly interesting that all of them are coachings that have an offensive lean. More head coaches were responsible for calling offensive plays last year than defensive plays, and that difference looks like it'll be even more extreme in 2016.
