Who Is The Best Offensive Play-Caller in Football?

~12-minute read:

Among social media, there’s a lot of discussion about offensive and defensive play-callers. Fans have strong opinions on who the best play-callers are and who should be fired. There needs to be more discussion among the true media about who the best play-callers are. With the element of the scheme and the varying factors that affect play-calling, it isn’t as black and white as it would seem. Here we dive deep into the best ones and determine who is the best current play-caller. Use promo code TREYSCHNEIDER on Underdog Fantasy to match your deposit up to $100. Please gamble responsibly and leave your feedback on Twitter @FBIntellect.

The candidates for best offensive play-caller:

There are only two candidates for the best offensive mind, but here are a few honorable mentions. First is Sean Payton, one of the NFL’s best all-around game planners. Payton runs a modern-pro scheme that revolves around quick-short passes. He likes to throw in a healthy mixture of deep passes when the right QB is in, but it’s primarily a horizontal offense. In 2021, Jameis Winston had 60% of his throws go within nine yards. Payton thrives off knowing exactly when to call the proper play and using his players to the best of their abilities. He has a long resume of success and has continued to adapt to changes in the NFL.
The next honorable mention is Sean McVay, a guy who has changed the NFL in a way. After working in Washington, he adopted the wide-zone, Shanahan-style offense. He took this scheme and adapted it into his own version. In his system, you see a ton of 11 personnel, and he runs a lot of weak zone in the run game. The passing game consists of play-action deep shots and many deep-out routes. While McVay is extraordinarily good at running his specific sheme, he needs better in-game adaptation to hang with the top-tier coaches. When his scheme works, though, it is as hard to stop as anybody.
Brian Daboll is a very underrated guy and put his coaching skills on full display in 2023. He deserves a ton of credit for what he did as a first-year head coach in New York. The team didn’t spend a ton in free agency, had their highest-paid receiver flame out, and ended up winning with an average QB. The job Daboll did to set this culture in the right direction and to get them to play physically was remarkable. Daboll worked with Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, which shows in his coaching style. Schematically, he runs a pro-spread offense similar to Payton and takes advantage of play-action. It is a pass-heavy system that relies on attacking the defense’s weak spot. Very few coaches do as good of a job at situational playcalling and knowing your player’s strengths and weaknesses. He is already an elite play-caller and his coaching career is still getting started. The future looks very bright for Daboll and the Giants organization.
Someone who’s recently emerged as an elite play-caller is Nick Sirianni. He isn’t the offensive coordinator, but he is the leading offensive mind for the Eagles and has the final say on all the calls. Some may say his emergence as one of the best play-callers in the NFL can be chalked up to Shane Steichen’s impact. Something like this is hard to tell from the outside but it appears Sirianni is the main reason for their success this year. He runs a modern spread offense involving many RPOs and a good balance of run concepts. Like Frank Reich, Sirianni does an incredible job of mixing up the run concepts and is excellent at keeping the defense honest. Moreover, he can draw up some beautiful deep shots in the passing game, and he has a good feel for when to call them up. Alongside his impact on culture, Sirianni is one of the best head coaches in football and one of the league’s most likable guys.

Kyle Shanahan:

Stemming back to his father’s coaching days, Kyle Shanahan uses the family’s famous wide-zone offensive scheme. The fundamental philosophy of the passing game in this scheme was adopted from Bill Walsh’s west coast offense. As mentioned in ‘QB Positional Analysis,’ this scheme is also called a play-action scheme. That’s because the passing game revolves around play-action passes and misdirection. The purpose of this scheme is to put pressure on linebackers and DBs to guess between run and pass correctly. The element of the outside running game also puts pressure on LBs and DBs to shed blocks and pursue quickly. The catch to this scheme is that you need not only an O-line that can move block but a QB that can take advantage of play-action slots.

Over the years, one of the critical elements of the passing game has evolved into a more spread-syle offense. Jimmy Garoppolo, after the super bowl loss, showed an inability to make accurate impact throws consistently, and this caused Shanahan to lose trust in him. After losing faith, he implemented a more horizontal-style offense with more screens involved. This limited the upside of the scheme, but what we’ve seen from both Trey lance and Brock Purdy should change this. Both of them displayed the confidence and ability to hit deep shots out of play-action, which is enormous for this scheme to work to its best capabilities. To its core, this offense wants to have QB runs and plenty of play-action deep shots, and we finally get to see it again under Shanahan.

What Shanahan does so well is his usage of his famous “shanahanigans,” which is the crazy stuff he does with his best playmakers. His weapons on offense may as well be positionless, as he uses them in unique and creative ways to throw off defenses. Receiver Deebo Samuel and Halfback Christian McCaffrey have been interchangeable weapons under Shanahan. In 2022, McCaffrey was used out of the slot 86 times and 52 as a wideout, in addition to seven snaps at Tight-end. Samuel was used out of the backfield 111 times in addition to seven snaps at TE. FB Kyle Juszczyk is used in a wide plethora of ways. Additionally, they constantly get in different, unique formations that catch defenses off balance. As you can see, Shanahan is fantastic at using his players in unique roles.

The amount of cleverly designed and unique play calls is unreal. In the 2021 playoffs, he used Trent Williams in motion to get a head start on a move block. Why more coaches don’t do stuff like this is beyond me. He intelligently takes advantage of George Kittle as a blocker and uses him in ways O-lineman are used to block. Kittle has an elite burst, which allows him to get in position to make difficult blocks, and he has the best run-blocking at TE in the league. Shanahan realizes this and uses Kittle to the best of his abilities. He additionally has the best-designed leak routes with his TEs and FBs. All his passing concepts are well-designed to get the playmakers in space, which is why this scheme is so QB-friendly.

No other coach has better rhythm and balance of play calls than Shanahan. He knows every player’s responsibility and how to call plays to set up future plays. Pay attention to his play calls on second and long. Many people have claimed Shanahan to be a genius and a mastermind. One of his best players Christian McCaffrey, said, “I felt like a full rookie again” when he got to San Francisco. To say he feels like a rookie again after being in the league for about half a decade is a testament to how advanced Shanahan is. It is also worth pointing out how many low-round draft picks have succeeded in this scheme.

This wide-zone offense has gained massive popularity as many teams have tried to copy this scheme. Since Shanahans breakout year in Atlanta that led to Matt Ryan’s MVP, this scheme spread like wildfire. It easily takes advantage of the weaknesses of linebackers. In addition, it is a very QB-friendly scheme. It is nearly impossible to stop when running correctly with the right QB. Teams like the Rams, Browns, Titans, Falcons, Jets, Bengals, Dolphins, Packers, Vikings, and Bears have adopted a variation of this scheme.

Andy Reid:

Similar to Shanahan, Andy Reid is a master of creativity and innovation. What makes Reid a much different coach is how pass-oriented his offense is, while Shanahan is one of the most run-heavy coaches in the NFL. What’s most impressive about Reid is how long he’s been a dominant play-caller. He was already a fantastic one before acquiring Patrick Mahomes, but now his pass-game play-calling couldn’t be better.
Reid runs a modern spread offense which is quite pass-heavy. One of Reid’s philosophies is that carries don’t matter, but touches matter more. It means he doesn’t care how the running back gets the ball, just that he gets the ball, period. The premise of this offense is to get the playmakers open in space. You’ll see a lot of slip screens, tunnel screens, and rub-routes. There was a healthy mixture of deep passes before trading away Tyreek Hill, but Reid will still take his shots without him.
Unlike any other coach, Andy Reid has had a ton of influence on the rest of the league. Currently, six current or former head coaches directly came under Reid. The list goes much longer if you consider how many were influenced by him. The names of these coaches that came from Reid’s tree are no joke, either. John Harbough, Sean McDermott, and Doug Pederson are all high-level coaches and have talked about how Reid had a significant influence on them. To have a coaching tree as long and impressive as his is quite remarkable.
Reid is arguably the best screen caller in football. He has elite play designs in the screen game and knows the perfect time to call them. In addition, he is the best play-caller at adjusting to blitzes and calling hot reads. One of the reasons Mahomes has so much success when blitzed is that Reid always has a built-in quick hot read option if they show blitz. Furthermore, he is excellent at taking advantage of the numbers game. He is constantly changing his formation and motioning players to generate favorable advantages through the run game or the screen game. This was on display in the super bowl.
Among all the great things he does, Reid is a master of catching the defense off-balanced. In The AFC Championship game against Cleveland in 2021, Andy Reid was up five points with 1:33 remaining in the fourth. It was fourth and inches at midfield, but instead of trying to catch them offsides or run it, he did a sprint out right pass to Tyreek Hill, which won them the game. In this past super bowl, on third and one, he used Jerrick McKinnon as a fullback on a weakside zone run. Now no one would’ve expected that. These are just two crucial examples among a long list of impressive plays throughout his career.
He knows how to use his best players to their best abilities. Before trading Tyreek Hill, Reid was incredible at finding ways for him to defeat double teams. He constantly uses Travis Kelce in motion to create free releases and avoid double teams. If motioned, the pre-determined defender to press gets taken out of their pre-snap alignment. It also makes it more challenging to communicate and pass off the double team. After trading Tyreek Hill, he makes an adjustment to the offense to incorporate more short-intermediate throws.
The scheme now revolves around quick-hitting easy throws for Mahomes. Even when they had Tyreek Hill in 2021, Mahomes primarily targeted the short-intermediate field. This is because teams adjusted to their explosiveness by playing heavy quarters. Quarters coverage leaves the middle of the field vulnerable, and Reid realized this. They then adjusted to be a more horizontal offense. Because Mahomes can still kill you deep, this new adaptation makes this offense nearly impossible to stop.

Conclusion:

Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan are in their own elite tier, but the answer to the initial question isn’t clear-cut. As a play designer, Andy Reid is the clear-cut best when it comes to passes. On the other hand, Shanahan is the best designer as a run game play-caller. Shanahan excels off building a dominant run game and using play-action. He is the best when it comes to rhythm and having a good feel for the game. Reid draws up better passing plays which is a greater strength, and makes fewer in-game mistakes. Both are phenomenal game planners.
If I had to give a score out of 100, Shanahan would receive a 100 in the running aspect and a 92 in the passing element. For Reid, he’d receive an 89 in the running element and a 99 in the passing element. Because passing is more heavily weighted, the best play-caller would have to go to Andy Reid. What Reid did to adjust his offense when the rest of the league caught up to it is what puts him on top. It is by a slight margin, and Shanahan could be the better option depending on your style or preference. This opinion is just at this point in time and may change by next year. It was pretty interesting to break down the all-22 and see what these coaches do so well, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did while analyzing them.

Citations

“Behind the Playbook: The “Leak” Concept.” Broadway Sports Media, 26 Sept. 2020, broadwaysportsmedia.com/behind-the-playbook-the-leak-concept/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2023.

Posey, Kyle. “Christian McCaffrey Explains What Makes Kyle Shanahan Such an Impressive Coach.” Niners Nation, 9 Feb. 2023, www.ninersnation.com/2023/2/9/23592610/49ers-mccafrey-shanahan-genius. Accessed 13 Feb. 2023.

Madrid, Rich. “Breaking down the Shanahan Coaching Tree and Offense.” Niners Nation, 12 Sept. 2020, www.ninersnation.com/2020/9/12/21409930/breaking-down-the-shanahan-coaching-tree-and-offense. Accessed 11 Feb. 2023.