Fantasy Football: NFL coaching and coordinating changes we like, are just 'fine' and those we're skeptical about

The following was borrowed from Matt Harmon's 2026 Draft Blueprint, the definitive resource for your draft prep. Click here to check out the full piece .

If you know me, I am all about ecosystems. Fantasy football can be all about hammering players from the best ecosystems in the NFL. I always think back to the Peyton Manning-Broncos teams circa 2013. Sometimes winning your fantasy league is as simple as hoarding as many players from those kinds of special offenses.

It's obvious that great ecosystems equate to some of the most potent and efficient offenses in the NFL. They're surrounded by a quality line, loaded with good skill position talent and stewarded by a high-end play-caller. But there's more to it than that. It helps if you have concentrated target trees and clear backfield usage, but you shouldn't just cross off teams that don't fit the bill. Ambiguous situations can still equal profit.

If anything, the lesson from last season was how much great play-callers and offensive designers matter. Teams like the Jaguars and Bears reached unseen heights with the additions of Liam Coen and Ben Johnson as play-calling head coaches. The Patriots got back on track with Josh McDaniels taking over the scoring unit. Even a team like New Orleans became the source of sneaky value down the stretch with Kellen Moore installing a progressive offense that ranked first in presnap motion. Most importantly, the teams that Johnson, Moore and Coen left behind in 2025 all experienced some regression offensively.

Players make the plays but great coaches lay the soil for those trees to grow.

NFL teams know the value of a great coach on offense, as over half the league turned over their play-callers from 2025 to 2026. Everyone wants their version of Johnson, Coen or, in the most ideal world, Sean McVay, right now. With all the coaching turnover, I wrote up a piece back in February sorting the new hires into buckets based on how much I liked the move for fantasy football . Revisit that for the full analysis, but here, we will revisit the groupings ('I like it,' 'it's fine,' 'I'm skeptical') with some quick and updated thoughts on how those offenses project.

A hire that was met with skepticism, but frankly, I thought was a huge win; LaFleur is ready to at least be the architect of an offense. He was better than credited as the Jets' offensive coordinator, leaning into the right schematic buttons that boost modern offenses. I am Cardinals Curious and believe this team will be better offensively than the fantasy hivemind thinks, despite long-term quarterback questions.

Ravens hire HC Jesse Minter, OC Declan Doyle will call plays

Doyle is a young and intriguing hire off the Sean Payton and Ben Johnson coaching tree. We are likely to see something similar to what the Bears ran in 2025. Expect plenty of zone rushing and play action on downfield route concepts.

The Bills promoting Brady likely keeps more of the same in place with the Bills. I'm higher on Brady than most in the space. Many of the outside complaints about Brady's offense — heavy use of mesh, tons of screens/short throws and a tendency to go run-heavy — are mostly forced into the unit because of personnel problems. I expect the addition of DJ Moore and perhaps getting the running backs more involved in the passing game, as has been reported from camp, will solve a lot of that.

It may not all come together for fantasy football in 2026 but this was a great hire. Kubiak did almost everything you want out of a modern offensive coordinator last season. Seattle made use of heavy personnel packages to increase the efficiency of the passing game, ran under-center play action and was fifth in dropback motion rate. He's also not a one-hit wonder, as he was doing most of this for a 2024 Saints team that had its moments offensively but fell apart due to injuries. Let's just hope Ashton Jeanty will be on the field to reap the benefits of this new system.

Just like everyone else, I'm excited about the idea of adding Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator to an already strong team under Jim Harbaugh and a talented offense. If you're interested in chasing the hype, however, expect to pay a heavy ADP price. The pursuit may well be worth it. We've never seen McDaniel's offense operated by a quarterback as talented as Justin Herbert and this team is quietly loaded at all skill position spots. Unfortunately, the offensive line is dealing with injuries yet again.

Falcons hire HC Kevin Stefanski, OC Tommy Rees will call plays

I'll admit I'm mixed on this one and the quarterback situation makes it even murkier. However, I think Stefanski is a quality offensive coach and his scheme does fit with Atlanta's talent. He's a sensible option but might not be a true needle-mover like some of these other names. Rees is also an unproven variable and I wouldn't say anything from recent Browns seasons push my opinion one way or another.

Blough coached under Kliff Kingsbury the last two seasons, but I expect he will present a somewhat left-turn schematically from the spread tenets of that offense. Blough began his career in 2019 with the Detroit Lions as a backup quarterback and hung on to the roster through Ben Johnson's rise up the ranks from offensive quality control coach, tight ends coach and ultimately to a passing game coordinator role in 2021, where, after Anthony Lynn was demoted, he helped head coach Dan Campbell bring to life what we now identify as the Lions offense. Blough would return to Detroit in one of Johnson's final seasons with the club as the offensive coordinator when he was no doubt already eyeing a move to the coaching ranks. My suspicion was that Blough probably leans more toward the ideas of Johnson's scheme.

Monken has head coaching experience at Southern Mississippi from 2013 to 2015 and has most recently been the architect of a Ravens offense that ranked third in EPA per play and fourth in success rate since his arrival in 2023. While Lamar Jackson deserves a good chunk of that credit, there's no doubt that Monken helped evolve the MVP quarterback's game. His presence with this team makes me more optimistic when selecting the pass-catchers despite obvious quarterback questions surrounding named-starter Deshaun Watson and big-name backup Shedeur Sanders.

The Lions picking Drew Petzing for the offensive coordinator job got flamed on the internet but just as the section implies, I thought the hire was … just fine. To be clear, there are some justifiable critiques of his play-calling work and pre-snap alignment of Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson with the Cardinals, and those are areas where the 38-year-old needs to improve. However, my hunch is he's mostly in Detroit to revive its run game, which stalled out last year under John Morton, while the passing game principles held by Dan Campbell will remain the same.

Slowik became a bit of a punching bag by the end of his watch as the Texans offensive coordinator in 2024, but I think he's worth a second look at the position. Slowik couldn't evolve the offense as the team had hoped from the "The Shanahan Greatest Hits" compilation it ran in 2023 to a more three-receiver spread unit in 2024. However, he did good work in that first year and was on this Dolphins staff last season. I can't imagine he's going to come in here and tear down a successful run game, which matters for De'Von Achane, the only Miami player drafted highly in fantasy.

Two noteworthy takeaways come from Seattle's hiring of Brian Fleury. For starters, it's interesting that Seattle, which had some internal candidates to replace Klint Kubiak, decided to go outside the building and pluck another Shanahan tree member. The second is that Fleury, who was most recently the tight ends coach in San Francisco since 2022 and held the title of run game coordinator last year, has an extremely varied background. My hunch is that Seattle won't change much of its stripes, but will hope Fleury can keep beefing up the run game — good news for Jadarian Price.

You can think what you want about Robinson's overall offensive attack in Atlanta. It wasn't perfect. However, he was objectively good for receiver usage, most notably when his motion concepts allowed all four of the main pass-catchers to get a 39% or higher slot rate on passing downs in 2024. This usage awaits for Emeka Egbuka, someone I'm drafting with a ton of confidence if healthy.

Brian Daboll has quarterback-development skins on the wall he can point to during his recent stints with the Bills and Giants. However, you can also argue that the Bills got better offensively when they moved away from his heavy spread concepts after he departed and Daniel Jones played his best football in a much better-designed unit last year with the Colts. My quick take on Daboll is that he helps get your quarterback on base, but his spread-and-shred stylings lead to way too much long-term volatility. For Tennessee and Cam Ward, getting on base would be progress.

Broncos promote OC Davis Webb, give him play-calling duties

The Broncos clearly felt the heat from what was a relatively hot cycle of interest in their 31-year-old former quarterback coach, Davis Webb. From what I hear, Webb and Bo Nix have a tight connection and this move likely signals their desire to help the young passer take the next step. That should be doable in 2026, especially with Jaylen Waddle in tow. I do wonder if Sean Payton doesn't get back in the play-calling chair at some point if this gets off to a slow start.

I like the idea of Mannion bringing in some tenets from Green Bay and that offensive family. It can help smooth out some of the rough edges in Philly's passing game from last year. But it's a big change for the Eagles based on how they've played under Jalen Hurts. It will be a lot to oversee for the 33-year-old riser, who was on NFL rosters as a player as recently as 2023 and spent the last two years with the Packers as an offensive assistant and then quarterback coach.

Giants hire HC John Harbaugh, OC Matt Nagy will call plays

The Chiefs essentially fired Matt Nagy. They can try to soften and launder it through the media, but they let him walk out the door without a thought of keeping him before he took a coordinator job in February, only after the Giants didn't land Monken. That's a firing and based on how it went in Kansas City, I don't blame them for wanting to make a change. I also find the fit with Jaxson Dart a little odd.

I don't think Mike McCarthy is some miserable hire by the Steelers, but I think we can agree it was uninspiring and likely doesn't push them out of the stagnation that befell them during the late Tomlin years. I have two major hang-ups about McCarthy as the offensive architect in Pittsburgh. For starters, it's tough that this is being framed as a way to make Aaron Rodgers, who was a bottom-tier quarterback last year, more comfortable. Second, it's hard not to notice that the Packers and even the 2025 Cowboys immediately got better right after McCarthy left, as a younger play-caller took over and installed a more dynamic offense with under-center concepts and more motion.

At least we have a clear idea of what the attack will look like under McCarthy. He'll cede plenty of pre-snap control to Rodgers and likely run an old West Coast offense out of mostly 11 personnel. Expect a lot of quick game to Michael Pittman Jr. and the occasional boundary shot to DK Metcalf.

Honestly, I didn't get this one. Tanner Engstrand designed a good passing game, but the sequencing and rushing attack in 2025 wasn't ideal. If you want to start over, that's fine, but I'm not sure Reich, who felt out of step with the league in his static RPO-heavy offense with the Panthers before a midseason firing in 2023, is the answer. The Jets quietly have a good group of weapons, but color me skeptical this will be what unlocks them.