ST asst coaches Harper (Eagles), Ficken (Vikings) Marciano (former ST C Lions)

Watching the Rams add three new coordinators feels like watching the NFL draft.
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A Very Special Special Teams Coordinator Candidate Episode
By jengajam on Jan 1, 2019, 11:04pm EST 42


Hey Buffalo Rumblings, my name is Jen and I'm here to present a little research I did on special teams coaches.

This is not a topic I knew much about - before looking into this, the only special teams coach in the NFL I could name was Danny Crossman, who lately seems to have made many Rumblers into cross men. (That was a pun, in case your pun coverage unit is a little slow.)

I started this particular adventure by looking at Football Outsiders' Special Teams DVOA numbers, which divides special teams performance into five categories: kicking (for points), kickoffs, kick returning, punting, and punt returning. It may not surprise you to learn that the 2018 Bills finished dead last in overall Special Teams DVOA this year (though not dead last in any one sub-category, just second-last in punt returning). My plan is to look at the teams that finished with a top-five Special Teams DVOA from 2013-2017, look up who their special teams coaches were, and see what those coaches are doing now, in the hopes of digging up some possible candidates to replace Crossman in 2019.

Teams with the top five Special Teams DVOA, 2013-2017

2017: Ravens, Rams, Patriots, Chiefs, Lions

2016: Chiefs, Eagles, Rams, Ravens, Colts

2015: Ravens, Giants, Seahawks, Vikings, Patriots

2014: Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs, Bills, Patriots

2013: Chiefs, Patriots, Ravens, Rams, Seahawks

So clearly we have some recurring characters on this list.

The Ravens are the only team with a top-five special teams unit in all five of these years (and they're sixth in 2018). Special teams coach Jerry Rosburg has been with the Ravens since 2008, and he has also been given the title Associate Head Coach, which I guess is what you do when you find that one special special teams coordinator that you want to be with for the rest of your career. Rosburg may not be going anywhere, but if it's possible to poach away assistant special teams coaches to be your head special teams coach, and I think it is, then he has an assistant coach of three years named Chris Horton that the Bills may want to interview.

I'm using Wikipedia to look up each team's coaches by year, by the way, and many of these team-by-year pages have game summaries on them, which are sometimes beautiful in their simplicity. Check out, for instance, the 'Game information' for the Ravens' week 15 loss to the Chiefs in 2015, which reads, in its entirety: "The Ravens unexpectedly wore gold pants for this game. This drew criticism from their fan base." The corresponding summary on the 2015 Chiefs page, sadly, makes no mention of pants.

Speaking of the Chiefs, their special teams unit made the top five in four out of the five years I looked at, and finished second this year. The common factor has been special teams coordinator Dave Toub, who held that role with the Bears for nine seasons before being hired by the Chiefs in 2013 - he also holds the title of Assistant Head Coach as of the 2018 season, making him Andy Reid's one true pairing. His job in Kansas City is no doubt safe, but the Chiefs also have an assistant special teams coach named Rod Wilson who might be worth a look. I should mention, though, that two other Kansas City special teams assistants have been given coordinator jobs since 2013: Kevin O'Dea lasted two years in Tampa Bay and Brock Olivo lasted one year in Denver before being let go, so maybe Dave Toub doesn't share his magical special teams secrets with his assistants. Olivo was fired exactly one year ago today, and the article on Mile High Report about his firing also mentions that "Isaiah McKenzie was a fumbling machine", so that was a fun read. Both O'Dea and Olivo currently hold assistant special teams positions with other teams, making them also technically available if we want one of them.

Next up, it's our best friends the Patriots, who also had a top-five special teams unit four times between 2013 and 2017. Their coordinator in 2013 and 2014 was the now-retired Scott O'Brien, whose assistant coach Joe Judge has held the position since. The Colts hired away Raymond Ventrone, who was Judge's assistant from 2015-2017, leaving this path a dead end unless we want to steal New England's current assistant special teams coach Cameron Achord, who just finished his first NFL season after five years as a coordinator and position coach for Southwest Mississippi Community College. I can't count the reasons I should stay; one by one they all just fade away.

The Rams appeared three times as a top special teams unit: in 2013, 2016, and 2017. Throughout that time their special teams coordinator was and continues to be John Fassel, who was also the Rams' interim head coach after Jeff Fisher was fired in 2016. Are there any assistant coaches from those years worth looking at? Well, in 2013, Fassel's assistant was Paul Boudreau Jr., who might have got the job because his dad was the offensive line coach, if I'm going to unfairly judge him for now coaching in the CFL despite knowing nothing else about him. In 2016 and 2017, Fassel's assistant was Tyrone McKenzie, who in 2018 was hired as the linebackers coach for the Titans. The Rams' current special teams coach is Matt Daniels, but 2018 was his first year in coaching, and the 2018 Rams didn't have the greatest special teams unit.

Next up, the Eagles and Seahawks each appear twice in the time period I'm looking at. The 2014 and 2016 Eagles special teams were both led by coordinator Dave Fipp and assistant coach Matthew Harper, who both continue to hold those positions. Harper has actually been the Eagles' assistant special teams coach since 2013, except for the 2015 season when he was their assistant defensive backs coach instead. The Eagles' special teams ranking dropped from 1st to 10th in 2015, and went back up to 2nd the year Harper was back on special teams, so just from a stats and vague impressions standpoint, I like this Harper kid and he just went to the top of my draft board. Yeah, I know it's not a draft, I'm just not sure what else to call it.

The Seahawks have had the same special teams coordinator since 2010. Is this a thing, is there less turnover for NFL special teams coordinators versus other positions, or does it just seem that way because I'm looking up the most successful ones? Anyway, I found no promising leads from the Brian Schneider coaching tree, so I'm moving on.

Hey, look at that, the Bills had a top-five special teams unit in 2014. When their special teams coordinator was… still Danny Crossman! So what made Football Outsiders rank them so highly that year? Was it the double-kicker tag team of Dan Carpenter and Jordan Gay? Was it that they scored two return touchdowns (one each from C.J. Spiller and Marcus Thigpen), something the Bills haven't done once since that year? Was it assistant special teams coach John "The Proud" Anselmo, who after leaving the Bills, appears to have coached for something called Impact Football NY, an organization whose shell of a website attempted to give me a computer virus? This may forever remain a mystery.

Okay, just four more of these.

2015 Vikings: ST coordinator Mike Priefer is still there, ST assistant Ryan Ficken has had that assistant job for six years now and should also merit consideration because he has WR coaching experience. His bio on the Vikings website talks a lot about the successes of Minnesota's kick returners presumably because that is his specialty. See above, where I mention the Bills haven't scored on a kick return in going on five years.

2015 Giants: ST coordinator was Tom Quinn, who held the job from 2007 until 2017, when he was fired. Then the Giants hired him back as a special teams assistant for 2018. I guess that means it's possible to hire him away if the Bills want him? Obviously his advantage is that he did the job for eleven years, and he did the job well at least in 2015. But even his Wikipedia article is not kind about his record ("Quinn's special teams units have often ranked near the bottom of the league" and an article about his re-hiring last year referred to him as a lightning rod.

2016 Colts: Tom McMahon, the ST coordinator for Indianapolis that year, was ST coordinator for a Broncos unit that finished third from the bottom in DVOA in 2018. His assistant in 2016 was Maurice Drayton, who just finished his first season as special teams assistant with the Packers' fifth-from-bottom unit. Drayton coached at the college level for many years and could merit a deeper look than I'm giving him right now based on his level of experience.

2017 Lions: Okay, this is more like what I was looking for when I started this little research project. Joe Marciano, who has been an NFL special teams coordinator since 1986, led Detroit special teams units that ranked 13th, 6th, and 5th, before being let go in November. The reactions to his firing on Pride of Detroit were mixed, saying they understood the Lions' special teams had fallen off considerably from the 2017 season, so they weren't surprised to see Marciano go, but most fans didn't blame Marciano for the drop in special teams play, which apparently had a lot to do with penalties. And for what it's worth, Football Outsiders still ranked Detroit 19th in special teams in 2018, thirteen spots higher than Buffalo. Marciano seems like he would be an objectively good hire, someone multiple teams will probably pursue this offseason.

Well, I learned a lot about special teams coaches today, and I hope you did too. So what do you think? What special teams coordinator candidates are you looking at? Out of all the names I looked up, my top three candidates to replace Danny Crossman in 2019 are Matthew Harper (ST assistant coach, Eagles), Joe Marciano (former ST coordinator, Lions), and Ryan Ficken (ST assistant coach, Vikings). Of course, two of those are out the window if it turns out that you can't hire away another team's assistant special teams coach to be your special teams coordinator. But I think that's allowed. If it's not, comment below to tell me to get back to the kitchen and leave the sportsball decisions to the boys, so I can laugh at you and say that I live in a one-room studio apartment, so technically I already am in the kitchen.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2020 09:38AM by Rams Junkie.