Whenever a veteran quarterback has to change play callers or offensive systems, we won’t know how harmonious the combination will be until the season begins. The quarterback and play caller will say all the right things and sing each other’s praises all offseason, but their relationship is delicate and not easily replicated.
We’ll see a significant number of quarterbacks with new play callers this season. Let’s look at each situation and whether there appears to be a seamless fit or adjustments will be needed.
Jalen Hurts
New Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion should give the unit the biggest makeover Hurts has experienced under coach Nick Sirianni. If that wasn’t already obvious when Mannion was hired, Jeff Stoutland’s departure cements the fact that there will be wholesale changes. Stoutland was the run game coordinator and had a unique protection system that will be overhauled.
Hurts is still an effective scrambler, but his ability as a designed runner has regressed in recent seasons. Without a consistent option game, an already simple Eagles system lost one of its main aspects.
Mannion comes from the Packers, who were one of the best gun-run teams in the league without involving Jordan Love as a runner. They did so with motion, creative backfield actions and varying mesh points on run concepts. A lot of the backfield actions looked inspired by the wing-T offense. The Packers ranked fourth in explosive rush rate from shotgun in the last two seasons.
Josh Jacobs gets free for a big gain early!
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The Packers also lined up under center over 10 percent more than the Eagles. The Eagles tried to incorporate more under-center concepts into their offense last season, so Mannion will presumably be tasked with adding a coherent under-center package.
If A.J. Brown is traded after June 1, first-round pick Makai Lemon will likely become the Eagles’ No. 2 receiver. Lemon specializes in winning in the middle of the field on short and intermediate routes. Since 2020, Hurts ranks 85th out of 88 eligible quarterbacks in percentage of throws between the numbers below 15 air yards. Love didn’t attack the middle of the field frequently in the Packers’ system, but he did more than Hurts.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Hurts can truly evolve his game going into his seventh season and if Mannion can give the Eagles offense a much-needed infusion of creativity.
Baker Mayfield
After losing Liam Coen, who has proven to be one of the league’s best play callers, the Buccaneers offense fell apart. Injuries were an issue, but they never looked like the well-oiled machine they were under Coen. They’ll try to recapture their form by going back to the Sean McVay tree, having hired former Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson this season.
With Mayfield, the Buccaneers have been a balanced offense using under-center concepts and play action. Robinson went under center at the second-lowest rate in the league in the last two seasons, opting for heavy pistol usage. He also called play action at by far the league’s lowest rate (9.8 percent). It’s even more baffling why the offense was called this way, given how strong the Falcons’ running game was: third in the rushing success rate in the last two seasons. Their running game also didn’t offer much variance. The Falcons were almost exclusively an outside-zone team, whereas the Buccaneers running game is at its best when it’s multiple.
Robinson may have been limited by Kirk Cousins’ lack of mobility coming off an Achilles injury and Michael Penix, but there is no question that Robinson must completely overhaul his formation variance, run game and passing game to get the best out of Mayfield and Tampa Bay’s offense.
If Robinson can’t create easy buttons for Mayfield, the quarterback could resort to some of his worst habits, such as overrelying on scrambling, which can lead to injuries given his physical style.
Justin Herbert
The most intriguing new pairing is in Los Angeles with Mike McDaniel calling plays for Justin Herbert. McDaniel specializes in run game creativity and making things as easy as possible for the quarterback. Tua Tagovailoa had exceptional anticipation and accuracy, which were essential to making the offense work, but his lack of physical talent was ultimately too much for McDaniel to overcome in Miami.
Herbert is one of the NFL’s most physically gifted quarterbacks and has done his best to keep the Chargers competitive despite the scheme and team injury issues. He has never played in an offense that asked him to be as precise with timing and footwork as McDaniel’s will. Every detail in the passing game is choreographed, and if executed correctly, Herbert’s first read will be open at a higher rate than it ever has in his career.
Of course, McDaniel will have to adjust to Herbert, too. He won’t need all the bells and whistles he did with Tagovailoa. When Sean McVay got Matthew Stafford, he dialed down the play action and got into more spread looks because it played to Stafford’s strengths. The Chargers offense will need to balance both worlds similarly.
One detail McDaniel discussed during his news conference last week was maximizing yardage when Herbert throws at 2.4 seconds or faster. He talked about changing his footwork and changing where his eyes are on these concepts. Changing his feet will allow Herbert to get rid of the ball faster and more accurately, which should lead to more yards-after-catch opportunities. Herbert’s quick throws last season included a lot of hitch and stick routes in which the receiver was stationary when catching the ball.
McDaniel will try to create space with formations and play action to get more routes on the move with quick timing for Herbert. That’ll mean asking less of the offensive line as far as holding on to blocks, and they can create better YAC opportunities for their playmakers.
McDaniel isn’t going to build the whole ship with quicker concepts when he has a quarterback as talented as Herbert, but we should see Herbert getting rid of the ball in 2.4 seconds or less, and the goal will be to create more space on those throws. Also, we could see some no-look passes, which Stafford made famous and Tagovailoa dabbled with a bit.
Tua Tagovailoa/Michael Penix
Tagovailoa fitting into Kevin Stefanski and Tommy Rees’ offense isn’t hard to picture. Play action and attacking the middle of the field are Tagovailoa’s specialties.
How Penix will fit is questionable. As mentioned, Robinson didn’t call play action for Penix, and Penix has never attacked the middle of the field going back to college. Penix, who partially tore his ACL last season, seems on track to play in Week 1, but he has a lot of ground to make up against Tagovailoa, who has a natural advantage with the new coaching staff. However, Tagovailoa was one of the NFL’s worst starting quarterbacks last season.
Both quarterbacks will likely have a chance to play this season. Ideally, Penix, who was drafted No. 8 in 2024, wins the job and lives up to his draft status, but current general manager Ian Cunningham didn’t draft him. Tagovailoa doesn’t offer much of a ceiling and Penix has to make huge strides to fit into Rees’ system. In short, Atlanta’s QB situation is less than ideal.
Cam Ward
There aren’t many play callers more fit to develop Ward than Brian Daboll. Ward is a playmaker who is used to spread systems. He can handle a lot of responsibility and options pre-snap.
As Daboll did with Josh Allen, he will install an offense that will put a lot on the quarterback’s shoulders but also give them answers at the line of scrimmage. He’ll use more shotgun spread concepts than the current offensive meta in the league (Kyle Shanahan/McVay outside-zone system).
Cam Ward will be working with an all-new coaching regime in his second NFL season. (Andrew Nelles / Imagn Images)
Ward had the seventh-highest average time to throw (2.92 seconds) last season. Daboll’s system will help Ward cut that time down with quicker concepts and more option routes. Slot receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who followed Daboll from the Giants to Tennessee, will get a ton of targets as a win-quick receiver. The goal will be to play a more controlled style on early downs but still allow Ward to use his playmaking abilities in long-yardage situations.
Daboll became too reliant on Jaxson Dart’s ability to run the ball, but that won’t be an issue while calling plays for Ward, who is more of a scrambler rather than an option runner. The question is, can Daboll develop a traditional running attack to help Ward?
Jaxson Dart
The Giants have had a strong offseason, hiring a proven winner in John Harbaugh, adding talent in the draft and signing useful players in free agency, including tight end Isaiah Likely. However, Todd Monken becoming the Browns’ head coach instead of joining Harbaugh’s staff as offensive coordinator was a huge loss. Harbaugh settled with Matt Nagy.
The biggest concern with Nagy isn’t his failure as a head coach a few years ago, but with the system he’s bringing to New York. Kansas City’s offensive system has grown stale. The Chiefs’ insistence on staying in shotgun and relying on pass-heavy scripts plays right into the defensive trend of playing light boxes and two-deep defenses. When they did run the ball, they just ran the same run/pass option (RPO) plays over and over.
Ideally, Nagy will run a more multiple offense for Dart and not just try to install the Chiefs offense in New York.
Malik Willis
Willis’ efficiency, accuracy and explosiveness were elite in his six-game sample of starts or games in which he came in for Jordan Love. Matt LaFleur and his staff did a great job of adjusting their offense to play to Willis’ strengths.
Dolphins offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik runs Shanahan’s offense. His cookie-cutter approach worked in his debut season as the Texans’ offensive coordinator, but his inability to adjust and evolve the offense ultimately doomed him.
Willis is one of the most dangerous runners in the league, but Slowik doesn’t have experience designing an option game. Also, his system often targets the middle of the field on play action, but Willis prefers to throw outside of the numbers.
A week ago, Slowik said the Dolphins are in the early stages of developing the scheme, suggesting he’s creating a playbook from the ground up rather than just installing Shanahan’s, which is a good sign.
Jayden Daniels, Lamar Jackson going to Ben Johnson-esque systems
Ravens head coach Jesse Minter hired Declan Doyle from Johnson’s Bears staff to run his offense.
Monken helped get the best out of Jackson and the Ravens offense by successfully blending an under-center run game with the shotgun option game Jackson ran since his time with Greg Roman. Doyle will likely put together a similar offense, but maybe turn the dial even more toward under-center concepts. Keeping Jackson healthy has to be a bigger focus.
Jackson has proven he can be efficient and explosive from under center; he was first in EPA per drop back on under-center play action in the last two seasons.
The Commanders hope Daniels can follow in Jackson’s footsteps. Daniels hasn’t shown that he can protect himself as a runner, going back to his time at LSU. Commanders coach Dan Quinn promoted David Blough, who played for Johnson, to offensive coordinator, believing he can put together a Johnson-influenced under-center package. Daniels doesn’t have much experience playing under center, so it’ll be an adjustment, but a necessary one to prolong his career.
Deshaun Watson/Shedeur Sanders
Watson and Sanders will compete to be the Browns’ starter. Monken’s offense with the Ravens was multiple and successfully blended a robust under-center package with a QB spread option package. Sanders has enough juice to be an effective scrambler, but he doesn’t have the size or speed to be used in the option game much. Watson has dealt with multiple injuries, the most recent an Achilles tendon tear. A healthy Watson would have been a perfect fit for Monken’s offense.
“There are more and more athletic quarterbacks; there’s more spread,” Monken said after getting hired with the Browns. “And the more spread you are and the more empty you are, it’s more fun if your guy is athletic.”
Watson, in his current state, and Sanders don’t fit that mold. Monken will adjust, but we won’t see the idealized version of Monken’s offense until he can find an athletic quarterback. We’ll likely see Monken’s offense look more like it did when he was the Buccaneers offensive coordinator, with a more robust menu of passing concepts, including a lot of digs, crossers and deep shots.
Jared Goff
Though Goff will be on his third offensive coordinator in three years, I can’t imagine the Lions’ passing game will change much with Drew Petzing. Petzing was brought in to revamp the running game, add some of the creativity the Lions lost after Johnson left and do a better job of marrying the run game and passing game, but I’d imagine the route structures and passing concepts will look familiar.
We won’t know for sure how the offense will look until the season, but it seems unlikely Petzing will have the green light to completely overhaul the Lions’ system.