SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Kyle Shanahan’s decision to bring in an outsider to run the San Francisco 49ers defense backfired last season when the previously dominant unit took a step back in 2023 under Steve Wilks.
The Niners still ended up making it to the Super Bowl but lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs when San Francisco gave up four straight scoring drives to finish a 25-22 overtime loss.
That led to an immediate change with Shanahan firing Wilks after just one season and promoting Nick Sorensen, who had spent the previous two seasons as an assistant in San Francisco and knows the style of defense that fits the Niners roster.
“It helps that he knows the system and has been around it,” All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner said. “We just have to get better at the fundamentals and technique of what we do as well as implementing some tweaks in there as well, because we have been running the same thing for a long time. Teams know what we’re running. We’re not afraid of that. But there do have to be some tweaks in there to make sure that we are switching things up a little bit, and I think Nick is going to do an amazing job.”
The 49ers are one of at least nine teams that made the playoffs last season and will have a new play-caller on offense, defense or both in 2024.
The Eagles switched both coordinators for a second straight season but this time because of poor performance and not because they were getting head coaching jobs. Vic Fangio will take over the defense and Kellen Moore is set to call the offense after spending the previous five seasons as a coordinator for the Cowboys and Chargers.
The other new play-callers for teams that made the postseason in 2023 are offensive coordinators Liam Coen in Tampa Bay and Arthur Smith in Pittsburgh; and defensive coordinators Jeff Hafley in Green Bay, Mike Zimmer in Dallas, Zach Orr in Baltimore, Anthony Weaver in Miami, and Chris Shula for the Los Angeles Rams.
Buffalo has a new defensive coordinator after promoting Bobby Babich from linebackers coach but head coach Sean McDermott hasn’t said whether he will cede calling the defense to Babich.
Cleveland also has a new offensive coordinator with Ken Dorsey replacing Alex Van Pelt but head coach Kevin Stefanski is expected to remain play-caller.
Here’s a closer look at the some of the new play-callers for playoff teams who might have the biggest impacts on the 2024 season:
Sorensen is a former NFL safety who has been well-schooled in this scheme after having started his coaching career on Pete Carroll’s staff in Seattle. Sorensen spent the past two seasons in San Francisco, where he specialized in pass coverage and slot defenders, and also ran the team’s weekly “Ball” meetings that stress creating takeaways and limiting turnovers.
While he has never called plays at any level, Sorensen has earned the trust of stars like Warner and Nick Bosa, and can get some help from new defensive assistant Brandon Staley, who oversaw the top defense in the NFL for the Rams in 2020 in his only year as a coordinator.
The Eagles offense got stale last season after Shane Steichen left to become head coach in Indianapolis and Brian Johnson took over with heavy influence from head coach Nick Sirianni.
Moore should get more free rein after having run offenses that finished in the top 10 in several metrics in his three seasons with a healthy Dak Prescott at QB.
The Eagles ran the least pre-snap motion in the NFL last season and were near the bottom in play-action rate. Both of those should increase considerably under Moore, which could make life easier on quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Hafley is bringing in big changes for a defense that hadn’t performed up to its talent level the past three seasons under Joe Barry. The former head coach at Boston College is switching to a four-man front in hopes of fortifying a run defense that got gashed far too often in recent years.
He inherits a roster that has seven former first-round picks, including edge rusher Rashan Gary, and that added talented safety Xavier McKinney in free agency from the New York Giants.
The Cowboys had a top 10 scoring defense the past three seasons with Dan Quinn calling plays, leading to him getting a new job as head coach in Washington.
But Dallas got exposed in a wild-card loss to Green Bay when the Packers scored six TDs on the first seven drives.
Zimmer has a long history of running strong defenses as a coordinator in Dallas nearly two decades ago, in Cincinnati and then as a head coach in Minnesota. He inherits a skilled unit led by Micah Parsons and aggressive cornerbacks DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs.
Smith struggled as a head coach in Atlanta but following a successful run as coordinator in Tennessee, where he helped revive Ryan Tannehill’s career.
Smith will try to do something similar in Pittsburgh with either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. He also should bring more pre-snap motion and play-action passing than the Steelers employed under Matt Canada. That should take pressure off whoever wins the quarterback battle.
While many of the other new play-callers are looking to tweak or improve their systems, the main task for Orr is maintaining the high level of play Mike Macdonald generated for the defense that allowed the fewest points in the league last season.
Macdonald’s scheme that relies heavily on disguised coverages to fool quarterbacks and simulated pressures that stress the QB without using too many pass rushers is so coveted that four teams hired defensive play-callers this offseason that came from the Baltimore system.
The 32-year-old Orr is a former linebacker who spent the past two seasons as inside linebackers coach. He inherits many of the pieces that made Macdonald’s defense so successful, including All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton, All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith and second-team All-Pro defensive tackle Justin Madubuike.
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