Week 14 – Start and Sits
November 27, 2024
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Nathaniel Hackett
DENVER BRONCOS
Total Years of Experience: 20 years
Coaching Style: West Coast
Coaching Tree: Matt LeFluer, Doug Marrone
Previous Experience:
Nathaniel Hackett is a first time Head Coach, but an experienced Offensive Coordinator. He spent his most recent years under Matt LeFluer as the OC for the Green Bay Packers. During that time the Packers finished 6th in offensive scoring in 2021, 1st in 2020, and 15th in 2019.
Hackett had also spent time as the OC in Jacksonville when Blake Bortles was the man under center turning in another top 5 offense in 2017. He was brought over to JAX under HC Doug Marone when they left Buffalo where Hackett was also the OC for 2 seasons.
Hackett will obviously bring a much needed offensive surge to this Broncos team and based on his history with #1 WRs I’d expect the biggest beneficiary to be Courtland Sutton. History shows Hackett can be relied upon in the WR market turning in previous fantasy winners with the likes of DeVante Adams and Allen Robinson.
Hackett is also notorious for fielding a running back by committee as every year but one the RB1 on each of his teams averaged 176 carries on 7 seasons worth of data. The lone wolf is 2017 where Leonard Fournette ran the ball 268 times.
Matt Eberflus
CHICAGO BEARS
Total Years of Experience: 30 years
Coaching Style: Defensive HC, 4-3
Coaching Tree: Frank Reich, Eric Mangini, Jason Garrett
Previous Experience:
Matt Eberfuls has been a career defensive coach, most recently the DC for the Indianapolis Colts. Last year their defense finished 9th overall, 10th in 2020, 18th in 2019, and 10th in 2018.
Eberflus spent most of his career as a Linebackers Coach for the Cowboys while under Jason Garrett. There he turned both Sean Lee and DeMarcus Ware into all pro household names, his most recent achievement was turning an underrated Darius Leonard into one of the best LBs in the league.
As a defensive minded coach we won’t have many fantasy takeaways from Eberflus, please see resume for their new Offensive Coordinator Luke Getsy.
Lovie Smith
HOUSTON TEXANS
Total Years of Experience: 42 years / 11 as HC
Coaching Style: Defensive HC, 4-3
Coaching Tree: Tony Dungy, Mike Martz
Previous Experience:
There is not much new to say about Lovie Smith that hasn’t been said already. He has been in the league since 1996 and has had NFL Head Coaching gigs before, not all of them have been successful with an overall 89-87 NFL record. He has turned in a few top 5 defensive finishes, but has not done so since 2012 when he was the HC of the Chicago Bears.
Smith was promoted to HC after spending last season as the Texans DC where they ranked 27th in the NFL.
Lovie Smith will not control the offense as PepHamilton will take on all offensive responsibilities, see his resume below.
Doug Pederson
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS
Total Years of Experience: 13 years / 5 as HC
Coaching Style: Run Heavy Zone Blocking
Coaching Tree: Andy Reid
Previous Experience:
Doug Pederson spent the 2021 season without a job after his final seasons as the HC for the Philadelphia Eagles finishing with a 42-37 record. He does have a Super Bowl win on his resume when he took the 2017 Eagles to a 13-3 record with a top 3 offensive finish.
Pederson spent 8 years studying under Andy Reid both with the Eagles and Chiefs and during that time he produced 5 top 10 NFL offenses with most of the focus on the run game and the offensive line schemes. Doug Pederson will be calling the plays for the Jaguars in 2022.
Pederson is known to help many positions across all of the offense. He has produced amazing RBs in his past with the likes of LeSean McCoy and Jamaal Charles. Travis Etienne and James Robinson should produce for Pederson’s offense based on Pederson’s history, however, Etienne fits his style much better with his agility and ability to catch the ball.
He has also become known to be one of the better QB coaches in the NFL as he has had experience with Donovan McNabb, Mike Vick, Alex Smith, and Carson Wentz. This bodes well for Trevor Lawrence who will need a push after a slow start to his career because of the lack of coaching he received his rookie season.
Mike McDaniel
MIAMI DOLPHINS
Total Years of Experience: 18 years
Coaching Style: Wide Zone RPO
Coaching Tree: Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan
Previous Experience:
To say McDaniel is an offensive mastermind is an understatement. He has spent since 2015 coaching under Kyle Shanahan and since 2019 the 49ers have finished top 10 in rushing yards and rushing TDs. He also spent 3 seasons as an offensive assistant under Mike Shanahan learning the zone run which he has refined to today.
Mike McDaniel and the Dolphins skill position players are a match made in heaven. McDaniel will be able to run his Zone RPO effortlessly with Tua, Hill, and Waddle as all 3 fit the scheme to a T. McDaniel has a history of being a great run game coordinator so the RB position will obviously be fantasy relevant. It is to be determined who the lead back will be, however, the tradition for McDaniel is to have a committee. He was obviously a big enough Mostert fan to bring him along over to Miami so I’d expect he will be used very similarly when healthy. It may be difficult to predict who will get touches each week and how much Hill and Waddle will eat into the RB work, but once we see a RB average 10 touches by week 5 or so that’ll be the RB to go after.
Kevin O’Connell
MINNESOTA VIKINGS
Total Years of Experience: 7 years
Coaching Style: 11 Personnel / Zone Run
Coaching Tree: Sean McVay, Jay Gruden
Previous Experience:
Kevin O’Connell is a first year Head Coach who has risen through the ranks very quickly. He is established within the McVay circle of trust which has taken the NFL by storm. Last year the Rams finished 7th in offensive points and 9th in offensive yards. They ran 11 personnel (3 WR, 1 RB, 1 TE) 86% of the time last year so it’s safe to say he will bring that offensive style to the Vikings.
O’Connell also spent some time as QB coach and served as an OC while coaching for the Redskins. Those were lackluster years as their offense failed to break the top half of offenses in the NFL.
As mentioned above the 11 personnel will be one of the most telling changes to this Minnesota offense. This will mean we should see a lot more of K.J. Osborn, Bisi Johnson, and Jalen Nailor than originally thought. We could see Irv Smith be the receiver to line up in the slot in 11 personnel.
The zone run scheme that O’Connell will run won’t be much of a change from what Dalvin Cook is used to. The other positive for Cook is that it looks like O’Connell would likely use a 1 RB system from what his time in Washington with Adrian Peterson would suggest. This is also reflected in his RB usage last year where in most games one RB got the bulk of the carries.
Dennis Allen
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
Total Years of Experience: 21 years / 3 as HC
Coaching Style: Defensive HC, Multiple 4-3
Coaching Tree: Sean Payton, Jim Mora
Previous Experience:
Dennis Allen has been the DC for the Saints the last 7 years and will continue to build the team around the D. When he became the DC the Saints were last in the league in points against and ever since he took over they have finished top half in the league and top 5 each of the last 2 seasons.
While serving as Head Coach for the Raiders from 2012 to 2014 he did not have any success as he finished with an 8-28 record before being fired mid season.
There are no different takeaways with the promotion of Dennis Allen to HC as not only has he already been in the organization, the OC Pete Carmichael is returning for his 17th season with the Saints.
Brian Daboll
NEW YORK GIANTS
Total Years of Experience: 22 years
Coaching Style: 11 Personnel / Zone Run
Coaching Tree: Sean McDermott, Bill Belichick
Previous Experience:
Brian Daboll may have been one of the highest sought after Head Coaching candidates in the past 5 years. He brings experience from all over the AFC East with how well the Bills have done in the past 2 seasons finishing top 3 in both years, and being a part of 4 Super Bowl wins on the Patriots.
He has spent 9 seasons as an OC across 4 teams, the TE coach for Rob Gronkowski, QB coach for Brett Favre one year with the Jets, and the WR coach for Troy Brown, David Givens, and Deion Branch during the early superbowl run. He was also the OC the year Peyton Hillis became a household name. Daboll is a huge win for the Giants and Fantasy Football.
As mentioned above the 11 personnel will be one of the most telling changes to this Minnesota offense. This will mean we should see a lot more of K.J. Osborn, Bisi Johnson, and Jalen Nailor than originally thought. We could see Irv Smith be the receiver to line up in the slot in 11 personnel.
The zone run scheme that O’Connell will run won’t be much of a change from what Dalvin Cook is used to. The other positive for Cook is that it looks like O’Connell would likely use a 1 RB system from what his time in Washington with Adrian Peterson would suggest. This is also reflected in his RB usage last year where in most games one RB got the bulk of the carries.
