I've often wondered why former defensive players have not transitioned to coaching on offense, particularly with play calling.
As defensive players they know what is difficult to contend with, what has been successful etc. They know how defenses disguise and perhaps can take advantage of this.
Don Mathews was a defensive coach who became a great player caller but doesn't really fit the bill as he was an offensive lineman when he played ( in college)
Interesting that Houston's play caller was a defensive lineman in the NFL. The Texans were just average in this regard last night vs the Chiefs.
Thoughts?
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I don't think that any but the very smartest of defensive players would even stand a chance with play design. Even though they have the experience of "what is hard for a defence to stop", offensive coaches also have this knowledge and also gameplan for it. You would definitely want a defensive guy to teach the offense about what disguises and fakes are common to defenses if the offensive players, particularly the quarterback, don't know them very well. Both sides of the ball are incredibly complex and take most people a very long time to understand. Asking someone to know both of them at a play design level is a lot, and it is much more important for your offensive playcaller/play designer to have vast and intimate knowledge of offensive strategies and schemes than it is for them to have that kind of knowledge of the defensive schemes. There is an amount of knowledge that a playcaller needs from the defence, but not as much as they need of offensive strategies.
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It would’ve helped if the Texans didn’t trade one of the best wide receivers in De’Andre Hopkins that help stretch opposing defenses last year