We saw an abnormally large number of new coordinators this cycle, but every year some big hires hit and others flounder, while some lesser-known names come to surprise fans across the sport. I’ve chosen my top candidate for each fate among this crop of offensive coordinators.

A few months back, I graded all of the new offensive and defensive coordinator hires (that were official at the time). Now, I’m going to take a closer look at three of the offensive coordinators hired this cycle and do a deep dive into their styles, tendencies and prospects. What are their histories? What schemes do they run? How likely are they to succeed in their new positions?

Let’s dive in:

Thrive: Chargers OC Mike McDaniel

This was one of my favorite hires of the entire offseason. A former Shanahan disciple, McDaniel got a shot at being a head coach in Miami back in 2022. His offenses took the league by storm, creating new and innovative ways of keeping defensive coordinators up at night and running roughshod through some of the NFL’s most feared units. He made the playoffs in each of his first two seasons, but never won a playoff game and bottomed out in 2025, leading to his dismissal.

McDaniel’s alleged shortcomings as a head coach aside, his offensive prowess never waned. Name a schematic advantage offenses can create: McDaniel is at the forefront. Motion, tempo, play action, etc. He doesn’t discriminate and is always pushing the limits of what league rules will allow him to do.

Perhaps most famously, McDaniel began using so-called “cheat motions” to maximize play speed at the snap. League rules prohibit players from moving towards the line of scrimmage at the snap, so he found a way around that rule to create a massive advantage. A few years ago, the Dolphins began sending players in lateral motion before turning upfield at full speed right as the ball was snapped, blowing past coverage defenders who had to try to keep up from a standstill.

It took the league by storm and by the end of the season, other savvy offensive playcallers had begun using it too. It’s a copycat league, after all, and other playcallers were looking to McDaniel for inspiration as the Dolphins put up ridiculous performances week after week. 

Chargers QB Justin Herbert is by far the most talented quarterback McDaniel will have called plays for in his career. McDaniel created successful offenses with Miami’s poor offensive line and now gets one of the best tackle duos in the league (if they stay healthy). No one in Los Angeles is Tyreek Hill, but he’s not lacking in playmakers, either.

All the pieces are in place for the Chargers and McDaniel has proven himself time and again as one of the most creative and devastating offensive coordinators in the league. Don’t be surprised if Los Angeles comes out of the gate swinging like the Dolphins did early in McDaniel’s tenure.

Flop: Giants OC Matt Nagy

I still can’t square what a bizarre hire this was for new Giants HC John Harbaugh. Freshly fired by the Ravens and landing probably the most coveted job in the league, he hired Nagy, the former Bears head man and Chiefs playcaller. Even though Nagy’s stint in Chicago didn’t end well, he was scooped right back up by Andy Reid in Kansas City for his second run as offensive coordinator. However, the Chiefs elected to let his contract expire at the conclusion of the 2025 season.

The official messaging was that it was to allow Nagy to explore career growth opportunities, interviewing for head coaching vacancies and other play-calling roles. It was no secret, though, that the Chiefs needed to shake things up on offense this offseason after how stale it had gotten the past few years. 

Nagy’s resume looks great at first glance when you see Patrick Mahomes’ name and the gaudy stats the Chiefs put up most years he was on staff, but a deeper dive paints a much different picture. First and foremost: Nagy was never the sole playcaller in Kansas City under Reid. The only data we have on him as a playcaller was during his time in Chicago, and that ended with him relinquishing playcalling duties each of his last two seasons there.

Second, Mahomes’ efficiency tanked the moment Nagy was re-hired as offensive coordinator for the Chiefs in 2023. Before that, Nagy hadn’t been the offensive coordinator with Mahomes as his full-time starter. The data we have over the last three seasons shows a Chiefs offense that has declined from its heights as the league’s most feared to a very beatable one, albeit one that’s sometimes bailed out by Mahomes’ heroics.

There’s another factor here: former Chargers OC Greg Roman. After he was let go by Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers this offseason, Roman (clearly an honorary Harbaugh brother) rejoined John Harbaugh’s staff as a “senior offensive assistant.” Roman previously worked under Harbaugh in Baltimore as the offensive coordinator and is expected to hold considerable sway over the offensive scheme in New York, particularly the run game, which is his specialty.

Those two make for a worrying combination for several reasons. Nagy and Roman prefer completely different run game schemes, with Nagy running heavy man/gap concepts while Roman is one of the league’s most prolific zone playcallers. Nagy loves to spread it out and get in the gun, while Roman is big on heavy formations. If Roman is influencing the Giants’ run game as heavily as reported, that could clash with what Nagy wants to do.

More broadly, the two men simply have diverging offensive philosophies. Nagy is arguably the least creative offensive playcaller in the NFL, utilizing motion, play-action, and other advantage-creating edges at astonishingly low rates. Meanwhile, Roman’s offenses have been criticized at times for being gimmicky, getting in the way of his talented players by overscheming his offense — not to mention running the ball too much and taking it out of his quarterback’s hands.

Of those two competing offensive approaches, Roman’s would seem to gel better with New York’s quarterback. The Giants traded back up into the first round to select Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart last year, and while he had a decent rookie season all things considered, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. He averaged less than seven yards per attempt, eclipsed 250 passing yards in a game just once, and was sacked a whopping 35 times. On the other hand, he showed some upside with limited options in the passing game, with sharp deliveries over the middle and real zip on his passes.

All this describes a growing quarterback who needs time to develop as a passer, but can offer some additional utility as a runner. Nagy will most likely fail to put Dart in the best position to succeed. Perhaps Dart will overcome that, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Roman’s presence may not help, especially if there’s friction amid a floundering season and he offers solutions that go directly against Nagy’s schemes.

Surprise: Commanders OC David Blough

We don’t have any data on Blough’s tendencies as a playcaller as this is his first offensive coordinator gig. In fact, he was still actively playing less than three years ago, finishing up his second stint with the Lions before being hired as an assistant quarterbacks coach in Washington by then-OC Kliff Kingsbury for the 2024 season.

It was a reunion of sorts for Blough, who started two games under Kingsbury for the Cardinals in 2022 after being signed off the Vikings practice squad. Kingsbury and Commanders HC Dan Quinn both spoke quite highly of Blough over the last two years, and when Quinn chose to part ways with Kingsbury this offseason, it didn’t take long to promote Blough to his former mentor’s position to head off another team from snatching him up (the Lions had already scheduled a second interview with him for their OC vacancy).

Blough cites two main influences on his offensive scheme. It should be no surprise to see Kingsbury listed as one, but the other is Bears HC Ben Johnson. The two worked together when Johnson was the Lions’ offensive coordinator and Blough was on their practice squad in 2023, as well as some overlap from Blough’s first burn in Detroit from 2019-2021. The former Boilermaker hasn’t been shy about his desire to merge Kingsbury and Johnson’s offensive philosophies into one scheme, which he intends to implement in Washington this year.

What’s interesting about that is how different those two schemes already are. Kingsbury runs a pretty rigid Air Raid style offense that focuses on static formations and lineups to speed up plays and stress defenses by running a lot of no-huddle. His approach is to eliminate down-to-down variations in favor of giving the defense less time to react, and his playcalling reflects this with a lot of quick-game, in-breaking concepts. Kingsbury’s offenses almost exclusively operate from the shotgun, as well.

Johnson’s offense, meanwhile, is far more creative and methodical. He favors more long-developing, under-center plays and downfield concepts, switching up the looks he gives defenses at nearly league-leading rates. Condensed formations, play-action, misdirection and motion are all things Johnson incorporates into his offense to create the looks he wants. He also runs the ball more and tends to adapt his scheme to his personnel better than Kingsbury.

Can Blough successfully merge these two seemingly disparate schemes into a potent offense? I have no idea, and there’s only one way to find out. He’s set to try it while still putting his own spin on it, and he’s already given some quotes to the media suggesting he knows which aspects of Kingsbury’s scheme are a bit outdated and how he can blend some of Johnson’s more new-age style to benefit the players he has in Washington. I’m optimistic it’ll work, but in truth there will likely be growing pains. Can Blough power through those and come out the other side with an innovative new offense in Washington?

Blough’s first NFL completion came in his first start for the Lions in 2019, a 75-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Golladay on Thanksgiving day. His coaching career has gotten off to nearly as flashy a start — now it’s up to him to keep the momentum rolling with a lot more pressure on him to perform. Both Kingsbury and Johnson believe Blough will be a head coach sooner rather than later. Can he prove them right?