The Arizona Cardinals have a very good problem: Now in-house, they have two offensive play callers.
But newly-hired Mike LaFleur stated in his first press conference that he will be the one calling plays. This comes on the heels of the hiring of Nathaniel Hackett as the team’s new OC. Hackett is well-known as a veteran play caller.
RELATED: CARDINALS HIRE NATHANIEL HACKETT AS OC
The offense for the Cardinals has suffered long and hard. On paper, it looks like a viable group with WRs Marv Harrison, Zay
Jones, and Michael Wilson, Pro Bowl TE Trey McBride, RBs James Conner and second-round draft pick Trey Benson, two veteran QBs in Kyler Murray and Jacoby Brissett, and several key offensive linemen including OTs Paris Johnson and Jonah Williams, C Hjalte Froholdt, and OG Will Hernandez.
However, this group had lots of problems. One issue was attrition. In all, 14 offensive players ended up on season-ending IR, including both offensive tackles and the duo of starting running backs. And quite a few athletes were injured for short stints, such as Harrison.
Hackett is a great addition to this coaching staff. He has been the OC for four other NFL clubs and was the head coach of the Denver Broncos in 2022. Oddly enough, after the New York Jets fired Robert Saleh as their head coach in 2022, every assistant coach on the Jets staff was looking for work. Their OC was Mike LaFleur. Hackett replaced LaFleur when New York hired Aaron Glenn as the new head man.
The West Coast-based offensive scheme is what Hackett utilizes. He is influenced by that Sean McVay/Kyle Shanahan philosophy, which is what LaFleur came out of, so their heads meld together. Hackett’s offenses have always focused on pre-snap motion, maximizing YAC, and zone-blocking run schemes.
Hackett was the OC for Mike’s older brother Matt in Green Bay from 2019 to 2021. It’s where Mike and Hackett got to know each other although associated with different ballclubs. Hackett was Matt’s eye-in-the-sky on game days and was a vital component to the game plan each week. He was part of the Packers’ turnaround regarding the offense. He had a very close relationship with QB Aaron Rodgers and became one of his closest friends.
Known to possess a very high football IQ, Hackett is the one who will put it all together as far as the game plan and can do the job of four people. He is known as “a machine” with great energy.
But he is also a gifted play caller.
However, LaFleur called plays while employed with the Jets, and at one time, New York was 7-4-0. From the Jets, he landed as the OC with the Los Angeles Rams. With the Rams, head coach McVay called all plays even though LaFleur was the OC for three seasons.
It was assumed that the Hackett hire would mean that he would become the play caller. But in Tuesday’s initial press conference introducing LaFleur to the media, LaFleur was asked if he was going to call plays.
His response was: “Yes. Yes, I will call the plays.” He even mentioned that he had missed play-calling on game days while with Los Angeles and is looking forward to getting these duties back. He said he likes it and is an integral part of the game that he loves. Obviously, the play caller is a huge part of the game.
Back in the day, all quarterbacks called their own plays. The New York Football Giants had a unique system in the 1950s when they had the aging veteran Charley Conerly as their starter. But they drafted a young stud named Bobby Thomason. How the coaching staff worked it out was that Thomason would start and play the entire first quarter while Conerly had time to watch the defense. Then Conerly would go in and play the final three quarters.
The practice of allowing QBs to call their plays wound down in the 1960s. Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown invented the idea of coaches calling plays instead of the quarterback. He would send in messenger guards each down with the play so that QB Otto Graham didn’t have to think about this aspect of the game. Graham was a gifted athlete who played running back in college and was converted by Coach Brown to QB. So, Graham didn’t have the play-calling experience, and Coach Brown was a former high school quarterback.
Now, rarely does a QB get to call any plays. Occasionally, a guy like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers or John Elway will call a play here and there, but not for an entire game. It eliminates one more job duty for the quarterback, and usually comes from a guy who is sitting in the press box with an ideal view of the entire field.
And a lot of offensive-minded head coaches in today’s NFL call their own plays, such as McVay, Shanahan, Andy Reid, Kevin Stefanski, Matt LaFleur, Zac Taylor, Kellen Moore, Ben Johnson, and Brian Schottenheimer.
Now, add Mike LaFleur to that list.
