Who calls offensive plays for your team?

[NWilli]

My aim is to compile a list of all of the teams' offensive play callers.

I'm trying to get an idea of how many passing and rushing attempts each team will have over the course of the season, and the best way I can think of is by looking at offensive coaching tendencies. (It probably wouldn't hurt to evaluate defenses also; i think teams with bad defenses probably pass more often, as they're often behind. I don't know if that can be backed up with data. Either way, I'm not doing that for now.)

The purpose of this is to get better projections for players. It's easier, I think, to deal with just yards per carry (or yards per attempt) than that and rushing attempts. Also, it seems easier to allocate carries amongst players if we know how many carries the whole team will get. This applies for passing attempts too, although those attempts are easier to allocate amongst QB's than rushing attempts are amongst RB's.

If there is already a list of who calls offensive plays for each team, that would work too.

Below is a list of all NFL teams in alphabetical order. I'll edit it to add the name of the offensive coordinator or head coach (whichever is calling offensive plays) and any play-calling tendencies I can.

If you reply to this and can supply the name of your teams' offensive play caller, that would be great. If you can supply more information about him, such as his offense's total rank for previous years, or run and pass play percentages over his career, that would be better.

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Arizona:
Atlanta:
Baltimore:
Buffalo:
Carolina:
Chicago:
Cincinnati:
Cleveland:
Dallas:
Denver:

Detroit: Scott Linehan. He had some success as head coach of the 2006 Rams, but their offense stunk in both '07 and '08. He consistently ran the ball above 40% of the time, with a three year split of 42.5% rushes and 57.5% passes. (It should be noted that Steven Jackson was injured for four games in 2007 and 2008, and the number of total carries didn't really change. When SJax was healthy all through 2006, he ran the ball on 81% of their rushes. However, when he was the offensive coordinator in Miami in '05 he split the carries between Ricky Williams and then rookie Ronnie Brown 45%/55%.) He reportedly likes Best a lot. He also improved the 2005 Dolphins' offense, bringing them from 29th ranked in total yards in 2004 to 14th in 2005. Linehan was also very successful in Minnesota from 2002-04. Moss and Culpepper were awesome under him, with Moss accruing 106 receptions in 2002 and 111 (for 1632 yards!) in 2003. Culpepper threw for over 4700 yards and 39 touchdowns in 2004 . Credit for name: dream_017

Green Bay:
Houston:
Indianapolis:
Jacksonville:
Kansas City:
Miami:
Minnesota:
New England:
New Orleans:
NY Giants:

NY Jets: Brian Schottenheimer. Credit: bigh0rt.

Oakland:
Philadelphia:

Pittsburgh: Bruce Arians calls the plays. He's a former WR and QB coach (including Peyton's QB coach for 3 years), and has been known to "get a little greedy" in the passing game. In his time as offensive coordinator, the Steelers have shifted to throwing a lot more, and that trend continued last season (55% pass in 2009, 51% in 2008). I'd expect, especially with Big Ben missing the start of the season, that that trend will reverse a bit this season. Figure about 50-54% pass, depending upon how well the re-vamped OLine is doing. If the OLine does well on the run, look for the pressure to be on to run more, especially with the lead. If not, when Big Ben is in, expect the team to use the pass to hold possession instead of trying to run out the clock. Provided by Cooner.

San Diego:
San Francisco:

Seattle: Jeremy Bates. He called the plays for the 2008 Denver Broncos, who totaled 6,333 total yards and 370 points, good for 2nd and 16th best in the league, respectively. That team passed 620 times and rushed 387 times (61.6% pass/38.4% rush). Provided by NWilli.

St. Louis:
Tampa Bay:
Tennessee:

Washington: Kyle Shanahan. Credit: CBMGreatOne.

[NWilli]

Anyone? This will be a lot more doable if we can get a little participation!

[Cooner]

In Pittsburgh, Bruce Arians calls the plays. He's a former WR and QB coach (including Peyton's QB coach for 3 years), and has been known to "get a little greedy" in the passing game. In his time as offensive coordinator, the Steelers have shifted to throwing a lot more, and that trend continued last season (55% pass in 2009, 51% in 2008). I'd expect, especially with Big Ben missing the start of the season, that that trend will reverse a bit this season. Figure about 50-54% pass, depending upon how well the re-vamped OLine is doing. If the OLine does well on the run, look for the pressure to be on to run more, especially with the lead. If not, when Big Ben is in, expect the team to use the pass to hold possession instead of trying to run out the clock.

[dream_017]

Detroit Lions Offensive Coordinator - Scott Linehan


Here is a good spot to start with a list of coaches

[NWilli]

Updated it.

@dream_017: The problem with the wikipedia list you provided is that offensive coordinators are not always the ones calling plays; sometimes it's the head coach. It's very difficult (not to mention time consuming) to find who's doing what on wiki's pages.

[bigh0rt]

New York Jets, Brian Schottenheimer.

[CBMGreatOne]

Washington Redskins: Kyle Shanahan