NFL Playcallers: Previewing Schemes of 2026 NFL Offenses

This article goes through the 32 playcallers for the upcoming 2026 fantasy football season and breaks down the fantasy football impact of their offensive schemes. 

Uncover the next wave of breakout fantasy football sleepers and avoid trap picks by correctly gauging the playing time and usage opportunities of these various offensive systems.

Snap data is from Pro Football Reference.

Arizona Cardinals: Mike LaFleur

Mike LaFleur last called plays for the Jets in 2022, which he also did in 2021. Prior to that, LaFleur was the passing game coordinator or/and wide receivers coach for Kyle Shananan from 2017 to 2020.

Aside from it being an interesting and encouraging coaching tree fact that LaFleur was managed by Shanahan, it's not perfectly clear what LaFleur's big philosophy might be as an offensive coach. Those two Jets seasons under Robert Saleh were such a mess and the team's overall structure so collapsed that no particular vision was evident on LaFleur's part. The Zach Wilson offenses were so doomed that the LaFleur's strategies barely had any chance to materialize.

Wilson's struggles were too profound for LaFleur's schemes to have a shot, and the Jets were losing so regularly that we rarely saw LaFleur's offense in a neutral game script – some sort of emergency was almost always occurring. With that said, LaFleur's 2021 and 2022 Jets offenses were mostly of a three-WR base, featuring Garrett Wilson, Corey Davis and Elijah Moore extensively.

Despite his three-wide tendencies with the Jets, LaFleur will almost certainly call for more two-TE formations now that he's running the Cardinals. That's true just on the basis of personnel – Trey McBride will never leave the field, while backups Tip Reiman (blocker) and Elijah Higgins (pass catcher) both warrant more reps than the secondary tight ends LaFleur had with the Jets.

QUICK LINKS

Sync a League

Your path to victory starts here

Rankings

See the top players in your league

NFL Lineups

See the weekly starting lineups

An additional reason to expect more multi-TE sets from LaFleur in Arizona is the fact that he worked as the 'offensive coordinator' for Sean McVay the last three years. LaFleur was obviously a caretaker for McVay's vision rather than a truly autonomous architect of the Rams' recent offenses, but one would imagine that LaFleur would get more attached to tight ends given the multi-TE success the Rams had the last three years, especially Matthew Stafford's MVP-winning 2025 season, of course.

Even if LaFleur turns out a disappointing head coach hire for the Cardinals, his offense in Arizona will almost certainly look much different than the two he had with the Jets. The quarterback situation is concerning in Arizona, true, but Jacoby Brissett is much better than Wilson was and the Cardinals offensive line should be magnitudes better than what LaFleur had with the Jets.

After spending the second overall pick on Jeremiyah Love and signing Tyler Allgeier in free agency, the Cardinals will almost certainly go with a run-heavy offense in 2026. It's the best way for LaFleur to get viable returns out of Love and Allgeier, the duo of which makes up one of the most expensive backfields league-wide. The best way to structurally empower those runners is to keep the Arizona offense heavy with McBride and Reiman (or/and Higgins) on the field as much as possible.

Atlanta Falcons: Tommy Rees

New head coach Kevin Stefanski brings with him Tommy Rees, who called the Cleveland offense for Stefanski in 2024 and 2025. Rees was a collegiate offensive coordinator the four prior years, one with Alabama (2023) and three with Notre Dame (2020-2022).

One recurring theme in Rees' offenses is the tight end as a central component in the passing game. At Notre Dame the Irish made Michael Mayer the team-leading pass catcher under Rees, and in Rees' one season at Alabama CJ Dippre and Amari Niblack were respectively fifth and third in team receiving yardage. Ostensibly, Stefanski's reputation as a TE-heavy playcaller aligns with Rees' own approach.

Similarly, Rees' offense seems like a mostly good indication for the fantasy utility of Kyle Pitts, who is far from a traditional tight end yet has repeatedly proven his ability to produce as a big pass catcher. Even if Pitts is not as rugged of a blocker as the ideal tight end Rees or Stefanski might have in mind, Pitts' receiving ability seems like something for Rees to build around.

Rees' offense probably doesn't portend anything particularly for Bijan Robinson or Drake London – both players are of blue-chip talent levels that dictate central usage regardless of the scheme. Between Robinson, London and Pitts you probably have your three leading receivers in Atlanta, especially when the WR2 question is largely a punt between third-round rookie Zachariah Branch and 2022 first-round burnout Jahan Dotson.

Baltimore Ravens: Declan Doyle

Declan Doyle probably has as much hype as any playcaller in history who hadn't actually called plays yet, especially at an age so young (turns 31 in March). There is very little objective track record with Doyle, yet you'll find only effusive praise for Baltimore's new playcaller, who worked as 'offensive coordinator' under Ben Johnson last year after coaching tight ends in Denver in 2023 and 2024.

New Ravens coach Jesse Minter was clearly aware of the Legend of Doyle despite not working with him previously, so either Doyle has an incredible PR crew or we have a case where people start and don't stop talking about Doyle wherever he shows up, to the point that he somehow is already considered one of the top head coaching prospects in the football world.

While we might take it as a slight given that Doyle will be some version of good as Baltimore's new offensive coordinator, the specifics of his philosophy have not yet been demonstrated on the field. It's not even assured, for instance, that Doyle would have ran the 2025 Bears offense the same way Johnson directed if Doyle had complete authority.

What we do know is the Bears used tight end personnel at among the higher rates league-wide, with even TE3 Durham Smythe seeing upwards of 20 snaps a game. We also know Doyle was credited with assisting Johnson's playcalling with intel-based strategic insights, especially in terms of game planning and halftime adjustments.

Speaking to Chicago's 104.3 The Score, Bears tight end Cole Kmet lamented Baltimore snatching Doyle away from Chicago.

"Even though Declan doesn't call the play for us, the amount of work he did on the offensive side of the football was immense. Declan was very hands-on with all of us. Declan's the one addressing the offense at halftime, kind of going over the openers that are going to be coming up in the second half. Telling us what we need to do, what they're seeing, and how we can make adjustments." -Cole Kmet

Perhaps Chicago's two- and three-TE tendencies had something to do with Doyle's own philosophy, or perhaps it was just Chicago making pragmatic use out of its exceptional tight end depth. In Baltimore the tight end depth is not as clearly demonstrated, but you can see some of the same intent as in Chicago, especially in light of Baltimore signing Smythe in free agency. Smythe is a time-tested blocking specialist who is probably prepared to contribute upwards of 600 snaps in 2026 if necessary. If Mark Andrews can recapture his prior form and if the Ravens can otherwise get some viable contributions out of the Day 3 rookie duo of Matthew Hibner and Josh Cuevas, then the Ravens really might have the TE personnel to emulate many of the strategies used by Chicago in 2025.

Particularly given its dominant 2024 season, Doyle presumably won't look to fundamentally change the Ravens offense as much as he'll look to implement subtle additional optimizations. Jumbo personnel was an emphasis in Baltimore before Doyle and will likely remain a consistent theme under Doyle's direction.

Buffalo Bills: Joe Brady

It sure seems safe to say by now that Joe Brady was mistreated earlier in his NFL career, with Brady's firing by Matt Rhule in 2021 purely a cynical scapegoating for Rhule's own failures. Actually, it seemed safe to say that even at the time.

Now that Brady is one of the league's most accomplished playcallers and the architect of the most dominant iteration of the Josh Allen offense yet, the matter is well past the point of debate. Brady is one of the best offensive coordinators in the league and can hold serve against anyone else.

Brady's specific new insight as the Bills' offensive coordinator – a role in which he was preceded by Brian Daboll and Ken Dorsey – had to do with fully realizing the Buffalo run game, which was underdeveloped in Buffalo prior to Brady's arrival. Indeed, as much as Sean McVay is often credited with trailblazing the league's new 2TE/3TE trend, Brady was on the exact same bit in 2025 by featuring Jackson Hawes as a 500-snap blocking specialist in an offense that already had Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid at tight end.

Brady's ascent might not be the greatest sign for the fantasy value of the Bills wideouts – the current iteration of the Buffalo offense clearly concerns itself with the run-game infrastructure before anything else, and blocking has become a major emphasis at the wideout position that never applied in Buffalo before Brady took over. This is presumably why Khalil Shakir can't seem to crack 700 snaps in a season despite producing at a blistering pace as a slot receiver. Brady is quick to send Shakir to the sideline in exchange for beefing up the run game infrastructure, be it in the form of a tight end rep or even a blocking-specialist wide receiver like Tyrell Shavers.

Brady is objectively very good for the Bills run game, on the other hand, which is great for James Cook especially but also benefits the fantasy value of Allen (26 rushing touchdowns since 2024).

Carolina Panthers: Dave Canales

Dave Canales as a head coaching hire has yet to forge a definitive legacy good or bad. Canales as an offensive playcaller, on the other hand, is likely some version of good.

Carolina has made clear progress on offense since Canales' arrival, before which the Panthers offense appeared truly hopeless. Even now it might be more scrappy than talented, but that scrappiness is attributable to Canales specifically. There is good basis to suspect that Canales could engineer one of the league's best offenses if the talent level at his disposal were to improve.

What happens next is probably subject to the development of Bryce Young, whose brutal early-career struggles have largely faded from memory under Canales' direction. Just the same, even the improved version of Young has not been consistently viable – it very much seems like Canales has successfully hidden Young's limitations as opposed to Young's limitations actually improving. An actual improvement on Young's part would really empower Canales to take Carolina's offense to the next level.

Canales' offensive philosophy is one that makes an emphasis on the ground game, where the Panthers have consistently featured a power-heavy run looks to tenderize the defensive front seven and create shelter for Young. Perhaps Canales might entertain a more spread-out, air-heavy offense if his quarterback were different, but with Young at least the Panthers have remained committed to the goal of running with power.

Chicago Bears: Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson sure appears to be the real deal, now as a head coach after previously establishing himself as one of the league's top offensive coordinators in Detroit.

Johnson has a mind of his own for sure, though likeminded with Dan Campbell in committing to a ground-heavy offense that pushed back against the otherwise league-wide trend of increasingly favoring the pass at the expense of run-game infrastructure.

Johnson's commitment to run-game infrastructure is seen in his emphasis on tight end personnel. The Lions used both Sam LaPorta and Brock Wright extensively, the latter a blocking specialist, while last year the Bears regularly fielded Colston Loveland, Cole Kmet and even sometimes Durham Smythe on the same snap. Johnson shunned the three-wide paradigm at its peak and his success has likely played a role in multi-TE sets becoming more fashionable this offseason.

When successful, the Johnson offense maintains possession and converts first downs often enough that it requires two capable runners. Just as Johnson emphasizes multi-TE sets in a way that pushes back against the three-wide paradigm, Johnson makes it a point to demonstrate greater backfield depth than most other teams do. Perhaps a less successful version of Johnson would have allocated less work to his RB2s over the years – Jamaal Williams, David Montgomery and now Kyle Monangai – but when you run as well and often as Johnson's offenses have then you need more than one guy to carry the workload, even if the RB1 stays perfectly healthy.

Like Campbell, Johnson heavily correlates football success with the ability to control the line of scrimmage. More tight ends gives more means of warring in the trenches, and when you win in the trenches you can bend the rest of the field's dimensions to your favor by forcing defensive adjustments and tiring the defense into making mistakes.

Particularly in the era of two-high safety spamming, Johnson's approach of countering with big personnel is pragmatic in a league where three-wide worship had been so widely practiced out of lazy dogmatic assumption – "It's a Passing League now!" – and his lucid understanding of this matter bodes well for Johnson's chances of making future adjustments as the league continues to change and defenses inevitably attempt to adjust to the multi-TE trend Johnson helped put in motion.

Cincinnati Bengals: Zac Taylor

Zac Taylor somehow heads into his eighth season as Cincinnati's head coach in 2026, yet as a playcaller he doesn't really have an obvious point of view, to the point that it's probably fair to question how much insight he actually possesses as a playcaller.

Although he once worked under Sean McVay with the Rams (Assistant WR coach in 2017, QB coach in 2018), Taylor doesn't seem to have taken much from the McVay/Shanahan tree. Whereas McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Kevin O'Connell Klint Kubiak and Matt LaFleur all regularly make marks with clever, varied playcalling, Taylor's schemes seem bland in comparison. The dynamism just isn't there.

Predictability and staleness was also a problem with Zac's brother Press, who was a memorably bad offensive coordinator for the Jaguars. It's not clear what ideological disposition would lead someone to seemingly strive for rigidness the way the Taylor brothers have to this point, but they both do it.

Perhaps it dulls a playcaller's attention to detail when the passing success of Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins can occur so easily, stale playcalling or not. Indeed, at the very least it can be acknowledged that Taylor's scheme has been fruitful for fantasy football purposes – he lets Burrow sling it, and Cincinnati's relative lack of playaction designs means many easy checkdowns for Chase Brown, piling up PPR points in a hurry.

Just the same, talents like Burrow and Chase could probably be empowered even more if Taylor attempted to bring an element of deception or just basic dynamism to the Bengals offense, and to this point that hasn't happened.

In terms of formational tendencies, it's probably fair to say Taylor prefers three-wide looks over two-TE formations. It's not clear why – perhaps its out of predisposition to throwing the ball generally – but it further appears that Taylor prefers to throw the ball to wide receivers instead of tight end. The one mainstay in Taylor's tight end rotations has been Drew Sample, who even on passing downs functions more like a sixth lineman than a real tight end.

Cleveland Browns: Todd Monken

Todd Monken already called plays for the Browns in 2019. The results were not so good, of course – that Freddie Kitchens squad went 6-10 and everyone got fired – but Monken has generally seen a high level of success as a playcaller at both the collegiate level (Oklahoma State, Southern Mississippi, Georgia) and the NFL (Ravens, Buccaneers).

Although Monken adapted to the jumbo-heavy approach preferred by John Harbaugh while running the Baltimore offense over the last three years, it's probably safe to assume Monken would prefer to go more three-wide and pass-happy when left to his own discretion.

If there is one enduring theme across Monken's NFL offenses it's the presence of a productive slot receiver – the non-Ravens ones, anyway. Even in that brutal 2019 season Jarvis Landry was otherwise productive (83 catches for 1,174 yards and six touchdowns on 138 targets). Similarly, in Tampa Bay both Adam Humphries and Chris Godwin were productive at separate points.

Although the tight end position was invisible in Monken's 2019 Cleveland offense, that probably was more due to a complete void of talent at the position rather than Monken marginalizing the position. Cameron Brate was quite productive as a receiver for Monken in Tampa Bay, for instance. There's no reason to find Monken concerning for the obviously talented Harold Fannin.

Dallas Cowboys: Brian Schottenheimer

The 2025 season was the first for Brian Schottenheimer calling plays in Dallas, but he had 12 years of playcalling experience prior to 2020, his final season as the offensive coordinator in Seattle. Schottenheimer had previously coordinated the offenses of the Rams (2012-2014) and Jets (2006-2011).

Schottenheimer has coached across eras and has seen a number of trends come and go. Perhaps and presumably, his philosophy as a playcaller has adjusted in light of the various paradigm shifts that occurred over the past 25 years. Schottenheimer's first NFL job was as the quarterbacks coach for Washington in 2001.

At the very least, Schottenheimer's 2025 Dallas offense didn't bear much resemblance to his Seattle offenses. Be it on his own or following the instruction of head coach Pete Carroll, Schottenheimer called a more run-heavy offense in Seattle. Similarly, Schottenheimer's offenses with the Jets and Rams are difficult to read given that he deferred to Eric Mangini/Rex Ryan and Jeff Fisher, respectively. Those Jets and Rams offenses were hideous, for what's worth.

The 2025 Dallas offense looked nothing like any of the previously mentioned Schottenheimer OC stops. Last year the Cowboys offense was defined by its aggressive tempo and willingness to throw – two traits you won't find at all in his previous playcalling gigs.

If the Dallas offense continues its uptempo approach in 2026 then it bodes well for all position groups, because if you run enough volume of snaps then you can field more reps for all positions. Other offenses might commit to being one of TE heavy or three-wide heavy, but last year the Dallas offense was both TE heavy and three-wide heavy.

Luke Schoonmaker and Brevyn Spann-Ford combined for 692 snaps behind TE1 Jake Ferguson (783), and fullback Hunter Luepke formations didn't occur at the expense of the snap counts of Dallas' depth wideouts. In most other offenses the snap counts of Schoonmaker and Ford-Spann would heavily imply a relative low snap count for the WR3/WR4 in said offense, yet Ryan Flournoy, KaVontae Turpin and Jalen Tolbert combined for 1,318 snaps. Most offenses run a lot of multi-TE or a lot of three-wide, but Dallas did both in 2025.

Denver Broncos: Davis Webb

Davis Webb takes over the playcalling after receiving promotions from quarterbacks coach (2023-2024) and quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator (2025). Davis will not turn 32 until January.

It must not have been easy for head coach Sean Payton to hand over the reins after running his own offenses for nearly all of the past 25 years, but after losing Declan Doyle (Denver TE coach 2023-2024) to the Bears offensive coordinator role last year the Broncos might have viewed the promotion as necessary to keep Webb from getting poached the same way.

Just the same, this is still a Sean Payton offense, even if Payton isn't the one calling its plays. There's not much evidence that Webb has actual authority in the design of the offense. It's more like Payton is satisfied that he can trust Webb to follow his teachings.

The recent Payton offenses feature moderate and varied tight end personnel – generally not good for fantasy viability due to the amount of platooning involved. Adam Trautman has generally played on about 55 percent of the snaps when Nate Adkins and Lucas Krull are fully healthy, with Trautman/Adkins platooning as blocking specialists while Evan Engram (underneath) and Krull (seam) would rotate more as ostensible pass-catching threats. The pie gets cut thinner yet due to around just under 1/5 of the snaps including a fullback (Adam Prentice, previously Michael Burton).

While Payton's offenses will generally meet the league average or better in total wide receiver snaps, the platooning theme often appears there, too. Jaylen Waddle and Courtland Sutton will presumably prove exceptions to that general rule, as Sutton already has, and if so there might not be a whole lot left for the technical WR3, be it Pat Bryant, Troy Franklin or Marvin Mims.

Detroit Lions: Drew Petzing

Drew Petzing arrives from Arizona to replace John "Not Johnnie" Morton, whose one year as Detroit's offensive coordinator didn't go so great. Dan Campbell took over playcalling duties from Morton in-season out of necessity but presumably intends to give Petzing the playcaller responsibility in 2026.

Petzing's Arizona offenses generally utilized steady if not heavy tight end personnel, regularly featuring three different players in 2024. That was Tip Reiman's rookie season as a third-round pick out of Illinois, and as far as blocking specialist prospects go Reiman was pretty much blue chip. That year Reiman and TE3 Elijah Higgins combined for 823 snaps even with McBride playing 876 himself, meaning the Cardinals were averaging 1.65 tight end reps per snap.

The Lions have a similar arrangement with Sam LaPorta and blocking specialist Brock Wright, with the two respectively playing around 55 and 30 snaps per game. They probably don't have the Higgins analog, though, meaning they registered closer to the 'steady' part of the spectrum rather than the 'heavy' end that Petzing's 2024 offense did. The Lions averaged 1.32 tight end reps per snap in 2025.

We can probably expect the Lions' snap split at WR:TE to look similar in 2026. Whereas it made sense for Arizona to carve out reps for Higgins as the TE3, in Detroit's case there's no third tight end who warrants reps over WR3 Isaac TeSlaa, who could be close to a base formation feature for Detroit now that Kalif Raymond is off to Chicago.

Green Bay: Matt LaFleur

Matt LaFleur has probably been one of the better poachings from the McVay coaching staff, even if McVay-level success has eluded him to this point. 

A longtime student of the Shanahan tree, first under Gary Kubiak in Houston as an offensive assistant (2007-2008) then quarterbacks coach for Mike Shanahan (2010-2013) in Washington, LaFleur had the benefit of direct lessons from the founders of the school. He was trained alongside McVay, not by McVay. Fellow McVay staff poachings like Mike LaFleur, Zac Taylor and Zac Robinson were more so trained by McVay or Kyle Shanahan rather Kubiak or Mike Shanahan.

Though LaFleur's individual creativity is doubtlessly part of his success, you have to wonder if learning from the masters instead of the apprentices of the masters provided LaFleur something extra in his coaching development.

LaFleur's offenses probably feature a little more power running concepts than the Shanahans or especially McVay, who more so favor zone blocking, but LaFleur more importantly took with him the understanding of how to use the run game to dictate the dimensions of the field to the defense. Even if LaFleur also pursues the run game for the yardage it directly provides, he especially stands out for how he uses the run game to set up the big passing play in his play sequencing.

To play the long game like LaFleur prefers requires power running at least in the physical sense if not the scheme sense – physically strong runners and blockers to tenderize and stall the front seven. It might put LaFleur in a tough spot if he had to call the offense without Josh Jacobs for an extended period, because there's not much scalable raw power in the backfield after that.

LaFleur's curiosity perhaps led to some excessive personnel tinkering in previous years, platooning excessively at wide receiver for whatever imagined reason. LaFleur would probably do better to cease sending guys like Jayden Reed and Matthew Golden to the bench for non-entities like Malik Heath and Dontayvion Wicks over specialization quirks.

Particularly given their lack of tight end depth, LaFleur might show a little more of a three-wide tendency in 2026 than in some previous years. The Packers barely consider Luke Musgrave a tight end at all, and they haven't replaced 335-snap blocking specialist John FitzPatrick with anyone.

Houston Texans: Nick Caley

Among the NFL's influential coaches, almost all played college football to some extent. Even nerd curmudgeons like Chip Kelly and Bill Belichick played football in college.

Nick Caley did not. His pitch as a coaching prospect more so focuses on his formal schooling – 'He has three degrees!' – so in a way the Caley experiment is a case study on how much playing experience matters for a coaching prospect.

Now in his second year as Houston's offensive coordinator, Caley initially came up with the Patriots, where he was an offensive assistant for two years (2015-2016) before coaching tight ends and/or fullbacks for each of the next six years. He then joined the Rams as tight ends coach in 2023 before getting promoted to tight ends coach/passing game coordinator in 2024.

Calling plays for the Texans in 2025, apparently the first time in his career to do so at any level, Caley did not have especially good results. Prior offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik was fired over Houston's regression from 2023 to 2024 largely on criticisms of Houston's blitz pickup, and to Caley's credit C.J. Stroud did cut down his sack rate from 8.9 percent to 5.2 percent. What did they have to show for it, though? Stroud was a disaster in the playoffs, throwing two touchdowns to five interceptions while looking shook much of the time.

Whatever way it goes from here, Caley clearly intends to make heavy tight end personnel part of the equation. Even with guys like Dalton Schultz, Cade Stover and Brevin Jordan already logging many quality reps for Houston in recent years, they still signed time-tested blocking specialist Foster Moreau in free agency while reaching for Michigan blocker Marlin Klein with the 59th overall pick.

The Texans invested so much in blocking tight ends this offseason that it's arguably a concern for depth wideouts like Jaylin Noel and Tank Dell. The Texans have a simple choice: they can reduce the number of slot wideout reps from 2025, or they can openly admit they had no idea what to do with Klein and Moreau despite spending on them. Houston averaged roughly 1.11 tight end reps per snap in 2025. If that number doesn't push for or exceed 1.5 in 2026 then the money on Moreau and pick on Klein were overspent, though that outcome would be good for Noel or/and Dell.

Indianapolis Colts: Shane Steichen

Shane Steichen might or might not make it as the head coach for Indianapolis, but as an offensive coordinator and playcaller Steichen is pretty much beyond questioning at this point. There are not many as good or better.

Part of what makes Steichen so good is the fact that he is pragmatic rather than ideological. The offense he built for Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia (2021-2022) was not similar to the one he made for the Chargers in Justin Herbert's 36-touchdown rookie season (2020), nor was either quite the same as Steichen's 2025 offense for Daniel Jones. Each of those three quarterbacks can link the high points of their careers with Steichen's playcalling.

With the Eagles the Steichen offenses utilized steady but not heavy tight end personnel – about 1.43 reps per snap in 2021 and 1.34 reps per snap in 2022. With the Colts in 2025 Steichen appeared to lean more heavily into tight end usage than he did with the Eagles or especially the Chargers. Steichen's Chargers offense only averaged about 1.22 tight end reps per snap.

In 2025 the Colts called for 1.46 tight end reps per snap. It's possible Steichen's approach was informed by the quality of his 2025 tight end personnel – it's easy to get into two-TE sets when you have a potential star TE1 in Tyler Warren and one of the league's most time-tested blockers in Mo Alie-Cox.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Liam Coen

Liam Coen, like most of the league's best offensive architects, is much more pragmatic than he is ideological. His offensive approach can change from week to week, let alone team to team, because he chases results more than he chases notions. Some coaches believe in X or Y as a committed schematic approach, but Coen just wants the points however he can get them.

It would also probably be accurate to say Coen wants his offense to be good at everything, so he can call whatever kind of offense he wants on any given day. The 56th overall selection of blocking specialist tight end Nate Boerkircher would normally indicate an intention to run two-TE formations half of the time or more, but in Coen's case it only really means that he wanted to get better in that one specific situation.

Coen was a four-year starting quarterback at Massachusetts in college (2005-2008), then played two years of Arena League football before getting into coaching in 2010 (quarterbacks coach, Brown University). Between Brown, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine he would go on to coach quarterbacks or/and coordinate offenses until 2018, when Coen was added to Sean McVay's staff. Coen began at assistant wide receivers coach for two years before becoming assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020.

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops wisely poached Coen as his offensive coordinator in 2021, and Coen would go on to help lead Kentucky to a 10-3 record. McVay brought Coen back as offensive coordinator in 2022 following Minnesota hiring Kevin O'Connell as head coach, only for Coen to go back to Kentucky in 2023 before getting hired by the Buccaneers as offensive coordinator in 2024.

Coen's pragmatism can be seen in the evolution of his offenses over time. The Rams in 2022 were still extremely three-wide heavy, averaging just 1.07 tight end reps per snap. Then the 2024 Buccaneers offense averaged 1.25 tight end reps per snap before the 2025 Jaguars averaged an almost identical 1.26 tight end reps per snap.

Indeed, despite the 56th overall selection of Boerkircher there's little evidence that the Jaguars' usage of tight end personnel in 2026 will register any higher than league average. Coen has trended more toward three-wide offenses than two-TE offenses, and the Boerkircher selection likely indicates little more than an intention to improve their blocking outcomes in the ¼ or so snaps where they feature two or more tight ends.

Kansas City: Andy Reid

Andy Reid has been an NFL head coach for 27 seasons now, but he's pretty much been the same guy the entire time. Initially brought up under Mike Holmgren, Reid always had his own unique viewpoint and creativity.

Something like the philosphical opposite of the Harbaugh brothers, Reid has often been loath to run the ball and seemingly would prefer to pass if given the option. Whereas the Harbaughs run for its own sake, Reid pretty much exclusively runs the ball to set up the pass.

The only real change to Reid's personnel approach over the years is the fact that he subtracted the fullback position, a rep he formerly would feature on upwards of 1/3 of the snaps. That the Chiefs averaged an otherwise notable 1.45 tight end reps per snap in 2025 was not specifically at the expense of wide receiver route-running reps, especially when weighing Reid's pass-happy tendencies.

Los Angeles Chargers: Mike McDaniel

Mike McDaniel is plainly one of the best offensive coordinators in the league and one of its most creative minds.

McDaniel also has uniquely extensive training under some of the best offensive minds of the past several decades. Initially a coaching intern under Mike Shanahan in Denver (2005), McDaniel made a strong enough impression for Shanahan to vouch for McDaniel to fellow Shanahan protege Gary Kubiak in Houston, where McDaniel was an offensive assistant for three years.

By the time Miami hired McDaniel as their head coach in 2022 he had spent 13 years under the tutelage of the Shanahan coaching tree between Mike, Kyle and Kubiak.

Almost like a cross between the wacky experimentation of Andy Reid and the standard Shanahan teachings, McDaniel takes all the best insights of the Shanahan tree and puts a unique spin on it with novel play designs. Like Kyle Shanahan, McDaniel is committed to the run and leverages his success on the ground to create YAC opportunities for his pass catchers.

McDaniel's Miami offenses were built around the short passing game, but that was done to accommodate Tua Tagovailoa's profound limitations as a passer. With Justin Herbert we can expect McDaniel to reveal downfield tricks he never did with Miami.

Also like Kyle Shanahan, McDaniel is a firm believer in the fullback position, identifying Alec Ingold as a priority free agent target after working with Ingold in Miami. Given that the Chargers signed Ingold and plan to use jumbo personnel often at tight end, there's a chance the 2026 Chargers offense features fewer slot wideout reps than in the preceding years.

Los Angeles Rams: Sean McVay

Sean McVay is one of if not the most successful product of the Mike Shanahan School, regularly setting league trends in motion that others copycat but fail to replicate. McVay's unique concepts are not easily copied, and by the time the rest of the league catches up he's often moved on to something else. 

It wasn't long ago that the whole NFL was trying to copy McVay's three-wide success at the Rams' Super Bowl peak, and now following Matthew Stafford's MVP season you see much of the league trying to copy McVay's suddenly tight end-heavy offense.

The Rams averaged 1.72 tight end reps per snap in 2025, and there's a good chance the figure reaches even higher in 2026.

The Rams will likely keep five tight ends on their final roster. With such heavy tight end usage the slot receiver rep has all but disappeared from the Rams' balanced formations – outside of roughly 25 percent of the snaps you would need both receivers on the same side of the field to create a slot space. Otherwise the Rams will pretty much exclusively have a tight end of some sort in that space.

Las Vegas Raiders: Klint Kubiak

Klint Kubiak still has to prove himself in a head-coaching capacity, but as an offensive schemer and playcaller there's reason to believe he's already among the league's best. As the son of Gary Kubiak, more or less Mike Shanahan's right-hand man, the younger Kubiak has advanced schooling.

Although he's a scion of NFL royalty, Kubiak has more than put in his time to climb the ranks. Kubiak was an offensive assistant in his first nine years out of college before he was hired as the Vikings' quarterback coach in 2019, where his father was assistant head coach to Mike Zimmer. When Gary retired before the 2021 season, Klint was promoted to offensive coordinator.

In that 2021 season the Vikings averaged 25.0 points per game, which ranked 14th in the league. It was primarily a three-wide offense (1.18 tight end reps per snap) and otherwise regularly featured a fullback (0.33 reps per snap).

Kubiak has implemented more tight end personnel since then. When he coordinated the 2024 Saints offense it averaged 1.4 tight end reps per snap even if not counting Taysom Hill. With the 2025 Seahawks the average was 1.46 tight end reps per snap. In both the Saints and Seahawks examples Kubiak also regularly featured a fullback – almost exactly 0.25 reps per snap in both cases.

With the Raiders Kubiak will likely conduct a zone run-heavy offense with a clear emphasis on jumbo personnel, and so the slot receiver position might not have much room. Brock Bowers will easily lead the Raiders in slot snaps while Michael Mayer presumably takes more of the inline work. Even when Mayer is on the sidelines, Connor Heyward will play plenty at fullback, again preempting the slot receiver rep.

Miami Dolphins: Bobby Slowik

Bobby Slowik quickly became one of the NFL's next golden boy coaching prospects in 2023, yet after a down 2024 season he was tossed aside just as quickly.

From 2019 Slowik worked as an offensive assistant under Kyle Shanahan, eventually getting promoted to passing game coordinator in 2022. When DeMeco Ryans was hired as head coach in Houston, he brought Slowik with him.

That 2023 Slowik offense was one of the league's biggest surprises that year, with the rookie C.J. Stroud reaching peaks he and the Texans offense haven't reached since. The 2024 Slowik offense did regress slightly, but only by 0.3 points per game. Houston fired Slowik after that 2024 season.

After spending the 2025 season as passing game coordinator under Mike McDaniel, Slowik was retained as offensive coordinator by new Miami head coach Jeff Hafley.

Slowik's Houston offenses were not especially heavy on tight end personnel – 1.15 reps per snap in 2023 and 1.37 per snap in 2024 – but with Miami it will likely be an increased emphasis. The Dolphins have no wide receiver talent and everyone knows it, so particularly with Malik Willis' likely passing limitations they have no choice but to create cover with a run-heavy offense.

Greg Dulcich and third-round rookie blocking specialist Will Kacmarek are good bets to earn spots in the Miami base offense. Though they have no fullback on the roster, they might yet add one given that Slowik utilized the position consistently in Houston. Whatever the specifics, expect Slowik's 2026 offense to be bigger and more ground-heavy than his previous ones. If Miami does add a fullback it would probably pinch the snap count more for slot wideout reps -- presumably at the expense of Malik Washington or/and Kevin Coleman.

Minnesota Vikings: Kevin O'Connell

Kevin O'Connell might be feeling the heat a little bit in terms of his head-coaching job security, but as a pure offensive schemer he's likely at least average.

Initially brought up as Jay Gruden's quarterbacks coach (2017-2018) and offensive coordinator (2019), O'Connell became an especially hot coaching prospect after working two years as Sean McVay's offensive coordinator (2020-2021).

O'Connell's Minnesota offenses have generally featured steady but not excessive tight end personnel, averaging 1.32 tight end reps per snap in 2025. O'Connell also utilizes the fullback position, just not as often as the likes of Kyle Shanahan, Klint Kubiak or Mike McDaniel. Nonetheless, the fifth-round selection of Max Bredeson clarifies that the Vikings will again keep a fullback on the roster.

The more a fullback plays, the more generally difficult it becomes to cut out playing time or usage for a slot receiver. That dynamic should be less harsh in Minnesota's case than in the cases of San Francisco, Las Vegas or the Chargers. Also, Jauan Jennings is big and violent enough to meet some tight end functions from the slot. Basically, we should expect the Vikings to slightly trend toward a three-wide base in 2026.

New England Patriots: Josh McDaniels

Safe to say, Josh McDaniels is a much better offensive coordinator than he is a head coach. As the latter he was about as bad as it gets, but when you keep him in the lab working strictly on the offense, McDaniels probably registers above average league-wide.

The Patriots posted the league's second-highest point total in 2025, his first in New England since 2021. McDaniels has his own interpretations, but his schooling basically traces to the Bill Parcells coaching tree, making him one of the more successful playcallers to not come from the Shanahan or Holmgren trees.

The power run game is important to McDaniels, especially to open up downfield passing opportunities. The 2025 Patriots offense featured a steady serving of jumbo personnel, averaging 1.28 tight end reps per snap while allocating 237 snaps to the fullback. If you combine the fullback and tight end snap counts, the Patriots averaged 1.5 combined reps for tight ends and/or fullbacks per snap.

Expect New England to continue expressing a robust power run game to amplify A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs that much more as deep threats.

New Orleans Saints: Kellen Moore

Kellen Moore has been one of the league's most promising coaching prospects for years, and the Saints might soon reap the benefits of being the first team to give Moore a shot as head coach. Moore previously served four years as offensive coordinator in Dallas, followed by one year each for the Chargers and Eagles.

One of the best quarterbacks in college football history at Boise State, the fact that Moore lacked the physical tools to play NFL quarterback always raised the suspicion that his mind for the game must possess unique insights. He otherwise worked underneath past NFL playcallers like Jason Garrett, Mike McCarthy and Scott Linehan.

Last year was Moore's first with the Saints, yet the early indications are that he has own vision independent of his past teachers. More specifically, Moore appears more interested in jumbo tight end personnel than Garrett or McCarthy, who more so lean toward the three-wide default.

In 2025 the Saints averaged a relatively modest 1.29 tight end reps per snap, but that was probably partially informed by their constant trailing – you trend heavier when you run more, and you run less when you're losing. You can probably find more signal in the third-round selection of Oscar Delp and free-agent pickup of Noah Fant, who more than replace free-agent departure Foster Moreau.

It's crucial to note that, unlike McCarthy, Moore does not use a fullback, meaning New Orleans can field more tight end reps without excessively reducing the number of slot wide receiver reps. An offense using heavy tight end personnel and a fullback would make it harder to budget that slot rep to a wide receiver.

New York Giants: Matt Nagy

Matt Nagy ostensibly has playcalling freedom with the John Harbaugh Giants, but Harbaugh is the ideological opposite of Andy Reid, under whom Nagy has been the offensive coordinator in Kansas City the last three years. Nagy was once his own playcaller as head coach of the Bears (2018-2021), but Andy Reid called the plays in Kansas City and now Nagy will presumably need to defer to Harbaugh's discretion.

Still, Nagy is expected to call plays for the Giants within whatever parameters issued by Harbaugh. Given Harbaugh's prior inclinations – especially his longtime friendship with Greg Roman – we can probably suspect those parameters involve league-leading jumbo personnel. Heavy tight end and fullback personnel both should be the expectation.

Such heavy tight end and fullback usage correlates to a run-heavy offense. With two featured tight ends (Isaiah Likely and Theo Johnson) while consistently utilizing a 300-pound fullback, expect relatively few slot receiver snaps in the 2026 Giants offense.

New York Jets: Frank Reich

Frank Reich last coached in the NFL as head coach of the Panthers in 2023. He was head coach of the Colts the five prior years. Neither of his head-coaching gigs worked out – his one-year with the Panthers, Bryce Young's rookie year, was an especial disasterclass where he got fired after beginning the year with a 1-11 record.

The hope is that Reich proves to be a case where he was merely a better offensive coordinator than head coach – a common enough story. Without taking a position on the odds of such an outcome, it's in the meantime worth noting the past personnel tendencies of Reich's offenses.

Reich was among the earlier coaches to eschew the fullback position, running a three-wide single-back base with moderate tight end personnel. From 2018 to 2022, respectively, the Colts averaged 1.29, 1.40, 1.37, 1.33 and 1.20 tight end reps per snap. In that one Carolina season the Panthers averaged 1.11 tight end reps per snap. In both Indianapolis and Carolina, Reich's offense featured a clear three-wide, single-back base.

With that said, the personnel decisions of the Jets seems to indicate Reich will move closer to a two-tight end base in 2026. Mason Taylor remains a fine starting tight end prospect, and the first-round selection of fellow tight end Kenyon Sadiq would only otherwise make sense if it avoided a zero-sum collision with Taylor. It's not just that, though – the Jets will likely feature a fullback, Andrew Beck, whose $1.2625 million contract is fully guaranteed.

With more tight end emphasis than in his past offenses and the introduction of a fullback he never previously featured, we should expect Reich's 2026 offense to feature fewer wide receiver reps than with Indianapolis or Carolina, especially in the slot.

Philadelphia Eagles: Sean Mannion

Sean Mannion is among the latest recently former NFL quarterbacks to get fast-tracked into playcalling positions, poached from the Green Bay coaching staff after just one season as quarterback coach and one season as offensive assistant.

The 34-year-old will likely work within parameters set by head coach Nick Sirianni, a former offensive coordinator himself, but it will be Mannion designing much of the offense and calling all of the players. It's a massive jump in responsibility and pressure compared to Mannion's previous coaching jobs in Green Bay.

The assumption is Mannion's offense will draw from what he learned under Matt LaFleur in Green Bay, and LaFleur's outlook is primarily informed by the time he spent under Gary Kubiak and Mike Shanahan. Mannion also spent five of his NFL seasons playing for some combination of Kubiak, Klint Kubiak, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay and Kevin O'Connell. In short, Mannion has spent a lot of time around the Shanahan School of coaching.

The fact that the Eagles currently have no fullback on the roster implies Mannion will trend more toward the McVay/LaFleur interpretations of the Shanahan Doctrines. McVay and LaFleur do not use fullbacks, whereas O'Connell, Kubiak and especially Shanahan all do use the fullback. The inclusion of a fullback in an otherwise tight end-heavy offense generally places the fullback reps in a zero-sum equation against potential slot receiver reps. It's therefore reasonable to project that the Mannion offense will have a good number of slot receiver reps even if it features multiple tight ends upwards of half the time.

If the Eagles only feature something like 1.35 or fewer tight end reps per snap then it would almost necessarily make a three-wide loadout the base Philadelphia offense in 2026.

PIttsburgh Steelers: Mike McCarthy

Nobody ever loved jumbo personnel more than Arthur Smith, whose 2025 Pittsburgh offense averaged 1.64 tight end reps per snap, and that wasn't even counting the sixth-lineman snaps for Spencer Anderson! Mike McCarthy will probably change things up a bit.

With McCarthy calling plays in 2026, the Steelers will likely lighten their personnel, even if both Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington remain centrally involved. McCarthy pretty much lived in three-wide sets during his Green Bay years, a peak where you had Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings and James Jones driving the passing game. Similarly, when McCarthy last called the Dallas offense in 2024, the Cowboys averaged 1.15 tight end reps per snap – probably on the lower end by 2026 standards.

Still, it might be hasty to assume McCarthy will use a three-wide base in 2026. Something like splitting the difference between his most recent Dallas offense and the 2025 Steelers offense is probably a reasonable expectation. As previously mentioned, Freiermuth and Washington are players who are too good to spend much time on the bench. 

It pinches the slot receiver rep further when you account for the fullback position, where Hunter Luepke averaged about 0.28 reps per snap. The Steelers will likely use a fullback at a similar clip after drafting Riley Nowakowski, one of the finer fullback prospects in recent years. Don't expect Germie Bernard to play a full-time role as Pittsburgh's presumed slot receiver – he will more or less platoon that 11th rep with the fullback or/and second tight end.

Seattle Seahawks: Brian Fleury

Brian Fleury began his coaching career primarily coaching defensive backs and special teams, but after 14 years on that track he switched to the offensive side of the ball, when he spent two years as an offensive quality control coach under Kyle Shanahan (2020-2021). For the next three years he would coach tight ends for Shanahan before a promotion to run game coordinator in 2025.

That Fleury has learned under Shanahan for the last five years means Fleury should have the conceptual knowledge to maintain the prior offensive scheme of Klint Kubiak. As a first-time playcaller, it remains to be seen how well Fleury applies those concepts during live fire.

A zone-heavy, playaction-heavy offense with consistent jumbo tendencies should be the expectation. The Seahawks averaged 1.46 tight end reps and 0.25 fullback reps per snap in 2025 – more or less the same jumbo sum as in San Francisco, just with a little more tight end personnel and a little less fullback involvement than with the 49ers. With such an emphasis on jumbo personnel, the slot receiver position will likely remain marginalized in Seattle.

San Francisco 49ers: Kyle Shanahan

Kyle Shanahan needs no introduction at this point, having proven himself a worthy heir to his father Mike's reputation as one of the best playcallers of the 80s, 90s and 2000s.

Kyle has his own ideas, of course, and is consistently on the cutting edge of the NFL's most effective offensive scheming. Better than almost all other coaches, Shanahan can adapt his scheme and cater to the personnel he has on hand.

Shanahan runs well and runs often, both extracting big from-scrimmage production from his backfields and sequencing his looks to set up the pass. Shanahan's commitment to the run is seen his refusal to delete the fullback position – Kyle Juszczyk plays around 500 snaps annually for the 49ers, which is a huge number for a position that only barely exists in the NFL.

As much as Shanahan offenses are usually a good target for touchdown production, there might not be much room for a WR3 in an offense that consistently features a fullback. That's especially true when you have George Kittle drawing substantial from-scrimmage usage at the tight end rep.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Zac Robinson

Perhaps Zac Robinson will learn new tricks as his career progresses – let's hope he does – but to this point he probably doesn't deserve much benefit of the doubt as a playcaller.

Robinson pretty much went straight from the Bengals practice squad to the Sean McVay coaching staff in 2019 as an assistant quarterbacks coach. Funny enough, he was largely the replacement for Zac Taylor, who had just left for Cincinnati's head-coaching job after one year as the Rams' quarterback coach.

Just as few or none of McVay's insights stuck to Taylor, it seems like Robinson didn't take much from McVay, either.

Whereas McVay has a varied, dynamic understanding of the game Robinson more so seems stuck in a three-wide template, even if the personnel on hand is not suited for such a template. Such was the case in 2024, Robinson's first season as Atlanta's offensive coordinator, when he made the decision to all but delete Kyle Pitts from the offense to feature Ray-Ray McCloud instead, presumably because Robinson just couldn't conceive an offense without a stereotypical slot wideout in its base functions. Pitts is neither that nor a typical tight end in terms of inline blocking, which led Robinson to make the choice to put McCloud and Charlie Woerner on the field instead of Pitts. That's pretty much unforgivable.

Granted, Robinson showed a better grasp of how to utilize Pitts in 2025 and the McCloud experiment was put to an end, but it's still difficult to put into words how ill-conceived that 2024 loadout was for Atlanta.

Robinson gets his chance for a fresh start this year in Tampa Bay, where his three-WR tendencies should mesh better with the personnel than it did in Atlanta. Whereas the Falcons had minimal wide receiver depth, the Buccaneers are all but compelled to run a three-WR base with Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan around. Tampa's tight end personnel also likely suits Robinson better – Robinson prefers blocking-heavy inline tight end reps if he can't have a wide receiver instead, and Cade Otton is plenty credible there.

Perhaps Robinson simply didn't know how to use a player like Pitts in Atlanta, and perhaps the Buccaneers personnel is more in harmony with Robinson's best ideas. With a strong offensive line and a solid group of players including at quarterback, there shouldn't be much patience for failure. Incumbent offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard was fired after one completely forgivable season where Tampa finished 18th in points despite enduring a downpour of injuries on offense.

Tennessee Titans: Brian Daboll

Although Brian Daboll is technically something of a retread by now, his track record as a playcaller has been good even through the lowest points of his head-coaching tenure with the Giants.

Even if he was incomplete as a head coach, Daboll deserves some credit for the fact that very few coaches could coax productive stretches out of players like Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock. Daboll was also the architect of the offense that initially staged Josh Allen's breakout, many principles of which endure even in the updated offense ran by Joe Brady.

In short, Daboll is probably a good offensive coordinator and playcaller even if he lacked something as a head coach.

That first breakout Allen offense was defined by a three-wide base – Stefon Diggs and John Brown on the boundary with Cole Beasley in the slot. The Bills logged just 986 tight end reps that year, meaning they actually averaged less than one tight end rep per snap (0.906).

The Daboll offenses with the Giants featured much more tight end personnel. In 2025 they logged 1,656 on 1,150 snaps – about 1.44 tight end reps per snap.

Given that Tennessee has the promising Gunnar Helm penciled in as starter with former Giants blocking specialist Daniel Bellinger signed in free agency as a well-paid blocking specialist (three years, $24 million), we can probably assume the Titans' tight end rotation will look more like the one Daboll had with the Giants as opposed to with the Bills. 

There should still be plenty of slot receiver reps available in Tennessee – even Daboll's era of increased tight end usage probably registers as merely average in today's NFL – and the Titans wouldn't have signed Wan'Dale Robinson in free agency if they were moving to a two-TE base.

Washington Commanders: David Blough

David Blough was the assistant quarterbacks coach in Washington the last two years, a coaching journey that began immediately after he retired as a player following the 2023 season. He'll turn 31 on July 31.

Blough is a blank page at this point. Though he was the assistant quarterback coach under Kliff Kingsbury and at one point played for Kingsbury on the Cardinals, the fact that Kingsbury and the Commanders 'mutually agreed' to part ways implies Washington expects Blough to be different and ostensibly better than Kingsbury.

To go straight from assistant quarterback coach to offensive coordinator and playcaller seems like a rather aggressive promotion schedule. Perhaps there's a good reason for it.

Scheme-wise the main apparent difference between Blough and Kingsbury is that Blough intends to make Washington's personnel bigger and more varied, including more tight end reps and more snaps under center. 

Kingsbury was bizarrely invested in lining up players in the same spot every play – certain receivers only on the left or right, Zach Ertz always given a designated role as a pass-catching specialist in the slot. Kingsbury would rather make his tight ends block, thus featuring blocking-specialist John Bates over the more athletic former second-round pick Ben Sinnott, freeing up the slot rep (again, Ertz specifically) to take on fewer blocking responsibilities.

The expectation is Blough will keep Bates centrally involved as a blocking specialist and feature both free-agent pickup Chig Okonkwo and Sinnott as pass catchers. It makes sense – Bates is a rugged blocker and both Okonkwo and Sinnott are very athletic – but if Washington uses more tight end reps then it will necessarily occur at the expense of the slot rep. In other words, if Blough follows through on this goal of using more tight end personnel then it will leave fewer reps for a slot wideout.