Many teams hired new offensive coordinators this offseason. The hires most people will talk about are the coaches who will call plays this season. However, three teams made excellent offensive coordinator hires even though their head coaches will call the plays in 2023. 

Each of these teams needed something different, and each head coach has a different personality, but they did a remarkable job with their hires. Some will help their coaches get back to their roots, and others will bring a much-needed new perspective. 

>> READ: Active Coaches Headed for Hall of Fame

Home Run OC Hires

Brian Schottenheimer, Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is someone who is fundamentally sound at running the ball. At his core, that’s who he was with the Green Bay Packers, even though they had great numbers through the air with Aaron Rodgers under center. 

That’s who McCarthy is, and when I watched him last year with the Cowboys, I saw some frustration. He’s frustrated that things weren’t how he’s used to or what he wants philosophically last season. It doesn’t mean what they did last year was bad; it just wasn’t what McCarthy wanted. 

McCarthy sited wanting to run the ball more this season when the team parted ways with former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

So, he hired Brian Schottenheimer, which is a terrific hire. Schottenheimer’s been with nine teams in the league and was the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator from 2018-2020. 

In 2018, the Seahawks led the league in rushing, and Russell Wilson finished with a career-high 110.9 passer rating. 

He’s a guy who doesn’t have that ego. He’s not searching for the head job or climbing over some to get someplace. Schottenheimer really is a terrific assistant and offensive coordinator. That’s exactly what McCarthy needs.

He needs someone like Schottenheimer to come in and help him glue the offense together. That way, they won’t have a separate approach to things — philosophically — when rushing and throwing the football. Schottenheimer’s role will be to get everyone on the same page and teach things the way McCarthy wants. 

Remember, Schottenheimer has vast experience in different ways of doing things, and I’m sure that’ll come into play in discussing things with McCarthy. That’s a healthy thing for McCarthy to have another opinion on how to do some things. You’ve got to have that.

This will free up McCarthy on gamedays, too. Most coaches who call plays but have an offensive coordinator have the coordinator put the game plan together. Once satisfied, the head coach goes out there to teach it and practice it. There are a lot of hours involved. 

With Schottenheimer, McCarthy might not have to be as involved with the day-to-day stuff as he thought. That’s a big relief for him. 

Joe Lombardi, Broncos

When looking at the Denver Broncos, I’m really excited they hired Sean Payton this offseason. They’ll make remarkable progress there. Payton brought in some of his assistants from the past, including Joe Lombardi. 

Lombardi, now Denver’s offensive coordinator, was Payton’s quarterbacks coach twice with the New Orleans Saints. Lombardi knows Payton and how he likes to do things on offense. 

So he’s a guy just like we talked about with Schottenheimer, that when they’re game planning, they’ll sit in there with offensive coaches, and they’ll start putting things up with the running and passing game. Then, Payton will come in and make some adjustments.

Then they’ll finalize it, go out there with the players and practice it. Payton needs that help. It can be overwhelming trying to call plays and install them yourself. This is a great opportunity for Lombardi to help facilitate what’s happening with Payton revitalizing the Broncos and Wilson. 

Lombardi can help make the process of installing the new offense cleaner and quicker than it normally would be with a new franchise. This is a great, obvious hire. It’ll free up Payton to be the head coach. This pairing just makes so much sense. 

Mike LaFleur, Rams

Let’s move on to the Los Angeles Rams who already have Sean McVay calling plays but hired Mike LaFleur this offseason. 

I’ve been in a situation where McVay’s personality, I think, and I was a  little bit like this myself as head coach, where he’s going to be in there involved most of the time with the offense. He’s just going to tinker, and he just can’t help it.

He’s a great teacher and clearly understands what he’s doing. McVay understands the system at the highest level and is very detail-oriented. He’s the kind of guy I respect as a football coach. 

The problem is: How big is the scope of his background? There are some different ways of doing some things that could help. Since he’s a young coach, he might not have seen some stuff before. How do you deal with that when making game-time adjustments? 

For instance, in the Super Bowl, when New England came out with a five-down front. What are some ways of dealing with that at halftime? What changes can you make? You know, those kinds of things.

So, they brought in LaFleur because he has experience running a different offense. McVay hired LaFleur based on the latter’s knowledge of the San Francisco 49ers‘ offensive system. 

McVay is going to marry into that system and find out how they do things. How do they succeed year in and year out no matter who the quarterback is? What’s the key to their passing game? He’s getting all of that information with LaFleur. 

Perhaps, he’s bringing in a guy with some different ideas about how things can be addressed. LaFleur will be another set of eyes for McVay, and that’s healthy for him. It will help revitalize him because there’s a lot of pressure when you’re the main guy putting it all in there week in and week out. It wears you down. I think that was the case with him to some extent.

Even though their backgrounds are vastly different regarding offensive systems, their focus and how they approach the game are probably similar. 

Mike Martz is a former NFL head coach and offensive coordinator, most notably for the St. Louis Rams. He was the OC for the Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” offense in 1999 when they won Super Bowl XXXIV. As head coach, he led the Rams to two division titles and an appearance in Super Bowl XXXVI.