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When it comes to coaching, so much of the attention and analysis is paid to how new head coaches will impact their teams. However, it's often the offensive and defensive coordinators who make the biggest impact.
There have been a lot of coordinator changes this offseason, whether from former coordinators moving on to bigger jobs or teams making changes to improve their 2024 outlooks. Overall, 17 teams enter the 2024 season with a different offensive coordinator, and 15 enter with different defensive coordinators.
Let's rank the top five offensive/defensive coordinator hires of the 2024 NFL offseason. First, though, a quick note on some names that just missed. On offense, we have Ken Dorsey (Cleveland Browns), Greg Roman (Los Angeles Chargers), Mike LaFleur (Los Angeles Rams), and Kellen Moore (Philadelphia Eagles). On defense, Zach Orr (Baltimore Ravens), Jesse Minter (Los Angeles Chargers), and Dennard Wilson (Tennessee Titans) carry honorable mention tags.
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5. Ryan Grubb - OC, Seattle Seahawks
This is a risky move, but it also has what might be the highest upside of any coordinator hire. 47-year-old Ryan Grubb has never worked in the NFL before, but he's coming off a wildly successful tenure as the OC at Washington, where he helped turn Michael Penix Jr. into a bona fide star.
The #Seahawks are expected to hire #Bama OC and QBs coach Ryan Grubb to be their next offensive coordinator, sources say. A major recruiting pull for coach Mike Macdonald, as Grubb leaves Tuscaloosa before moving in.
The former Washington OC and QBs coach lands back home. pic.twitter.com/xS9EMZ2Y31
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 10, 2024
Grubb has spent most of his career working under Kalen DeBoer, so it'll be interesting to see how he does on his own. One thing to note: Grubb has been a position coach for basically every position at some point. Before coaching quarterbacks at Fresno State and Washington, Grubb spent time as an offensive line coach at Eastern Michigan and Fresno State. Farther back, he coached running backs and wide receivers at South Dakota State. All this experience should make the NFL transition easy for Grubb.
4. Arthur Smith - OC, Pittsburgh Steelers
Don't laugh. Yes, Arthur Smith's tenure as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons simply wasn't very good, but moving back to the role of an offensive coordinator should be good for him. He excelled in that role with the Tennessee Titans for two years.
Sure, those Titans teams had Derrick Henry, something that this Steelers team won't have, but Smith can still create something that draws from that Titans experience. See, I think this is the perfect hire for where this Steelers team is at right now because I see a lot of similarities to those Titans squads.
Tennessee won despite having a quarterback who wasn't stellar. The Steelers, fresh off a playoff appearance that keeps them from being positioned to draft a top quarterback, will have to win without a big name at the position. That name could be Kenny Pickett. It could be Mason Rudolph. Heck, it could just end up being Ryan Tannehill.
Smith's not going to build an offense that fantasy managers love, but he knows how to make a limited quarterback work with a strong run game. Sure, there's no Henry, but the combination of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren is a solid one-two punch.
3. Anthony Weaver - DC, Miami Dolphins
This isn't Anthony Weaver's first rodeo. In 2020, he served as the defensive coordinator for the Houston Texans, and the results weren't very good, as the team was 30th in yards allowed, 27th in points allowed, and last in takeaways. It seems weird to rank him this high then, right? Well, two things to explain that.
First, the Texans team he coached was in a weird spot. It was the season Bill O'Brien was fired after an 0-4 start, and the defense had a lot of holes in it. Sure, J.J. Watt was still around, but the fact that his five sacks led the team should say plenty about the situation Weaver was in.
The defense was in the bottom half of the league the year before in points allowed and lost some good pieces in the secondary. The defense didn't improve the next season once Weaver was gone.
Here’s another glimpse at the energy, intensity new Dolphins DC Anthony Weaver brings as a coach and the way he backs up his players (via @305Culture) pic.twitter.com/gR3NArnuzL
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) February 10, 2024
The second thing is that after Weaver left the Texans, he landed in a great spot. For the last three seasons, he's served as an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens, including spending the last two seasons as assistant head coach. He parlayed that into multiple head-coaching interviews before landing the Dolphins' DC gig.
2. Mike Zimmer - DC, Dallas Cowboys
Bringing Dan Quinn in before the 2021 season revitalized the Cowboys defense. In three seasons with the team, Quinn's defense led the NFL in takeaways twice and was top-10 in points allowed each season. Quinn was a huge part of Dallas becoming the contenders they are.
But Quinn left for the head-coaching job with the Commanders this offseason, which left Dallas in a tough spot. How do you avoid slipping backward as a defense when you lose a DC as good as Quinn?
The answer? You hire a guy who spent eight seasons as an NFL head coach. Enter Mike Zimmer, who coached the Vikings from 2014-2021 and has a long history with the Dallas Cowboys, coaching for the team from 1994-2006.
Zimmer brings some consistency with him. A lot of the coverage schemes that Quinn ran look like the ones Zimmer will run, though expect Zimmer's man coverage schemes to feature a little more pressing. He plays into the strengths of this defensive unit.
1. Kliff Kingsbury - OC, Washington Commanders
Look, I'm as skeptical as anyone is of Kliff Kingsbury. He couldn't win in college despite having Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. His Cardinals tenure was so-so, with the team never finishing in the top 10 in scoring offense despite Kingsbury coming from an offensive background.
Commanders are hiring Kliff Kingsbury as their new offensive coordinator, per league sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 5, 2024
However, those concerns don't outweigh something else -- the fact that the Commanders just hired an offensive coordinator with four years of NFL head-coaching experience who understands how modern offenses work.
We don't know what the quarterback situation will look like for the Commanders yet, but having Kingsbury on the sidelines to even develop a rookie quarterback or help Sam Howell improve his decision-making will be huge. Theoretically, at least.
On paper, Kingsbury should be an elite OC now that it's the only thing he really has to focus on, but he's never held that role in the NFL. He was the Texas A&M OC back in 2011 though, when Johnny Manziel won the Heisman as a freshman.
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