2019 NFL Draft Guide: Meet The New Boss

If you were planning on walking into your fantasy football draft thinking that the 2019 season was going to be similar to last year, you may as well consider your entrance fee a donation and take the year off. With eight new head coaches, 16 new offensive coordinators and 10 new defensive coordinators there are bound to be massive changes. We are already familiar with most, if not all, of the names, but their impact on their new teams is likely to cause some serious ripple effects on the personnel and therefore change how you should be viewing a number of players.

As we get further into the summer and training camps open, we will be diving much deeper into the specific offensive and defensive systems each team will run, but it doesn’t hurt to take a preliminary look at the list of new coaches and coordinators and speculate on what we expect to see from the new bosses and their teams this season.

New Head Coaches

Brian Flores, MIA – The former Boston College player has spent his entire professional coaching career working under Bill Belichick and that alone should pique your interest. He started with the Patriots as a junior scout in 2004 and worked his way up the ladder to become the team’s defensive play-caller after Matt Patricia left to take the head coaching job in Detroit. With this being his first head coaching job, it might be difficult to predict his tendencies, but as a Belichick disciple, it does seem like he could run a similar scheme to the Erhardt-Perkins system they’ve run in New England over the last decade, especially since he brought in Chad O’Shea who served as the Patriots wide receivers coach from 2009 through 2018.

Adam Gase, NYJ – Mention his name to any fantasy analyst and you’ll hear a resounding “Ugh!” from each and every one. He received high praise as the Broncos offensive coordinator during the 2014 season and then took the same job in Chicago in 2015. That didn’t last long, but he still managed to get hired as the head coach for the Dolphins the following year and employed his own version of the West Coast offense. The team went 10-6 and made the playoffs that first year, but they were bounced in the first round and then posted records of 6-10 and 7-9 the following seasons. Now with the Jets, we expect him and his staff to run a similar scheme. We can only hope he doesn’t do to Le’Veon Bell what he did to Kenyan Drake .

Zac Taylor, CIN -- Working under Sean McVay carries a lot of weight in NFL circles which is one of the reasons Taylor was brought in as the new coach of the Bengals. McVay is considered one of the top, young minds in the league so, of course, some of that has to rub off on his assistants, right? That’s what they’re hoping for in Cincinnati. Taylor started his NFL coaching career as a quarterbacks coach for the Dolphins under Joe Philbin and is credited for developing Ryan Tannehill . Given Tannehill’s overall performance, that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, but McVay liked him enough to bring him in as an assistant wide receivers coach to start in 2017 and then promoted him to the quarterbacks coach the following year. As the new Bengals coach, he hired former Raiders quarterbacks coach Bill Callahan as his offensive coordinator which makes things a little interesting. We can probably expect a West Coast offense as both fall under the Jon Gruden coaching tree, but so did Ken Zampese whose system struggled in Cincinnati just a couple of seasons ago.

Freddie Kitchens, CLE – After a decade in Arizona and working under both Ken Whisenhunt and Bruce Arians, Kitchens was brought to Cleveland in 2018 as the running backs coach. When head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were fired during the season, interim coach Gregg Williams promoted Kitchens to the OC job and watched as the Browns went 5-3 the rest of the way. Kitchens was given a lot of credit for improving the team’s offense and helping Baker Mayfield blossom as a rookie quarterback in his Air Coryell system and the team liked his work so much, they hired him as their new coach and sent Williams packing. We can expect the system to stay in-place, though we may see a few minor adjustments by new OC Todd Monken who also uses the system but likes to blend in some West Coast and spread offense features. Given the addition of Odell Beckham and the abilities of Nick Chubb , this should be a high-octane offense here.

Vic Fangio, DEN – After decades of being one of the most respected defensive coordinators in the game, Fangio finally gets a bite of the apple and will now serve as the Broncos head coach. There is no doubt he will be a major asset for the Broncos defense, but his lack of experience on the offensive side of the ball might make fantasy owners a bit nervous. He did bring in Rich Scangarello as his offensive coordinator which means a West Coast-style offense is the most likely given the recent work they’ve both done under the likes of Kyle Shanahan and Matt Nagy. Unfortunately, the personnel, particularly Joe Flacco , may not blend as well.

Matt LaFleur, GB – After spending the last two seasons working as the offensive coordinator for the Rams and the Titans, LaFleur is getting his first crack at a head coaching job in the NFL and it couldn’t be in a more high-pressure environment than Green Bay. Packers fans love their golden boy Aaron Rodgers and LaFleur is going to need to cater to his quarterback’s strengths rather than try to force a system that may not suit the always-vocal superstar. Working in LaFleur’s favor is his use of a West Coast offense similar to what the Packers had been using, though it was obviously tough to see just how he likes to interpret it. When he was with the Rams, Sean McVay handled the play-calling and when he was with the Titans, not only did head coach Mike Vrabel want to do more running, but LaFleur didn’t really have the personnel necessary to light up the scoreboard. What should also be interesting is to see what kind of a system he and new offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett devise as Hackett has spent most of his time in the NFL under Doug Marrone using an Air Coryell scheme. There are some outstanding weapons in Aaron Jones , Davante Adams , Geronimo Allison and even Jimmy Graham so this could be quite the coming-out party for the first-year head coach.

Bruce Arians, TB – Now this should be an interesting team to watch this season as Arians returns to the NFL after taking a year off last season. The good news for fantasy owners is that we have a strong track record and are very well-aware of how Arians runs an offense. In Arizona, he implemented an Air Coryell system and was all about the power-run game which then set up a wide-open passing attack. He allows the quarterback to have complete control of where he wants to deliver the football, but the question is how will Jameis Winston , notorious for some real bad decisions, fare? He’s got some fantastic weapons in Mike Evans , Chris Godwin and O.J. Howard , so we should see some high-flying aerial work which is great for fantasy. Of course, that also depends on how the ground game fares. Arians likes to use one running back as his primary carrier so keep a close eye on this team in training camp as Peyton Barber and Ronald Jones duke it out for touches.

Kliff Kingsbury, ARI – After spending the last 11 years as a quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator and eventually head coach in the college ranks, Kingsbury is getting his first shot at coaching in the NFL. He spent the last five years as the head coach of Texas Tech, but was let go after three-straight losing seasons. So why is Arizona taking a shot on him? Patrick Mahomes . Kingsbury is credited with developing the Chiefs quarterback in college, and the Cardinals are expecting (read: hoping) him to do the same for them which starts with their drafting of Kyler Murray . Expectations are running high right now as the two players have drawn a number of comparisons, especially when discussing arm strength and football acumen. But we’re not here to discuss the players. We’re discussing the coach and that means we need to focus on the system and how it will affect the players’ fantasy value. And the more I study Kingsbury’s Air Raid scheme, the greater my overall concern for some, particularly David Johnson . The system focuses heavily on the passing attack with the offensive line split apart to supposedly make it more difficult for defensive lineman to reach the quarterback quickly. Run-blocking could be an issue. How this will fare in the NFL is not yet known, so while you may be jazzed about Murray and guys like Christian Kirk and Andy Isabella, you may want to temper your expectations.

Here's a complete look at every team’s primary coaching staff:

**names in RED denote coaches/coordinators in their first year with the team.