Who's Calling The Plays?

Hello! Welcome back to Fantasy Football Is Hard! As you get settled back into the Fantasy Football season again, it’s always nice to get a refresher. And I only say “you” because, as my wife will verify, I have been relentlessly eating, sleeping, and dreaming about Fantasy Football 2026! I like to start my preparations by zooming out and taking a macro-glance at the NFL. So that’s what we’ll do today!

What’s different going into this season? Let’s start with what isn’t different. 15 teams are not changing their PlayCaller from last season. 11 of those teams replaced neither their Head Coach nor Offensive Coordinator. Those teams that I would expect little (to no) change in their offensive game plans - BUF, CAR, CHI, CIN, DAL, GB, HOU, IND, JAX, KC, LAR, MIN, NE, NO, & SF. BUF promoted their PC to HC. CHI, KC, and LAR will also still have the same fellas calling the plays, but they are changing OCs. We should assume some of these teams, if not the majority, will expand upon what they have been doing because of coaching or player personnel.. And it should be noted that there is usually improvement with teams that maintain coaching staffs. In general, though, most of these teams will run similar offenses. 

A few more updates, you say? Joe Brady is the former PC getting the promotion to HC for the Bills. They traded for DJ Moore to become the WR1 for Josh Allen.. The Panthers will try to help Bryce Young continue ascending with Dave Canales’s guidance. They drafted a WR, and hopefully a healthier Jonathon Brooks at RB will help a team that actually made the playoffs last season (and played well against the Rams twice!).. Ben Johnson will continue to develop Caleb Williams with a solid, young core around him with the Bears. For fantasy, we’ll keep an eye on which receiver, or TE, steps up without Moore.. Zac Taylor will be leading the Bengals with mostly the same core. Hard to not be excited about all of those players if Burrow can stay on the field.. Schottenheimer should keep the Cowboys among the top offenses again this season as long as George Pickens stays comfortable with playing on the Franchise Tag.. Matt LaFleur’s WR room for the Packers won’t have new faces, but they did lose their leading receiver from last season. For Fantasy, though, a condensed target tree should be interesting to monitor if Love is more focused on a WR1.. David Montgomery is the new face for the Texans at RB after trading for him. They also tried to reshape the O-Line, again. Hopefully, Nick Caley can get CJ Stroud to re-capture some of that rookie-season magic.. The Colts traded away Michael Pittman, and now Shane Steichen is hoping Daniel Jones can get healthy enough to return to the quality play we saw in the 1st-half of last season.. The Jaguars lost Etienne in free agency, but are running it back with mostly the same remaining players. We’ll see if Trevor Lawrence can continue to grow with Liam Coen’s direction.. Andy Reid and the Chiefs made a splash in free agency by adding Kenneth Walker to play RB. Main concern, though, is the recovery of Mahomes.. And the Rams were able to draft their backup QB in the 1st Round! Good news, though, they still have Sean McVay to run the offense that finished #1 in DVOA last season.. Kevin O’Connell got the Cardinals to pay Kyler Murray to come be the Vikings QB this season. Should be an upgrade over JJ, as long as KOC can trickle Call of Duty references into the playcall verbiage.. Josh McDaniels and Drake Maye should continue to improve the Pats offense with the additions of Romeo Doubs via free agency and AJ Brown via trade.. Kellen Moore and Tyler Shough will also aim for a strong sequel to the finish of last season. They drafted a Top-10 WR in Jordyn Tyson, and also signed Travis Etienne in free agency. We’ll have to see how opportunities in the backfield shake out because Alvin Kamara is still there.. Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers added the veterans Mike Evans and Christian Kirk, and drafted De’Zhaun Stribling. So Brock Purdy and the passing game should continue to impress, especially if George Kittle can get healthy by October-ish.

How about the new General Managers? It looks like there are only 3 new GMs going into this season. That means there will be 29 teams that will have the same guy running the show. Although there’s only one GM who has been with their team since the 20th century (Lookin at you, Jer.. Grr!). Those 3 teams with new GMs are ATL, MIA, and MIN. The Vikings are interesting because they were mentioned above for bringing back mostly the same coaching staff. They hired a guy to be GM who had a long history of being a grinder in SEA as a scout, and worked his way up to Assistant GM.. The Falcons hired a guy who had worked in player personnel and scouting for BAL and PHI, then served as Assistant GM in CHI. Then he hired some fellas from CLE with Kevin Stefanski to be the HC and Tommy Rees to be the OC and PC. We don’t know who the QB is yet, but we know he’ll be left-handed with Tua joining the team.. Dolphins hired the GB duo at GM and HC, but kept the guy from the Kyle Shanahan/Mike McDaniel coaching tree - Bobby Slowik, to be the OC and PC. They paid Malik Willis to be their new QB, and then traded his WR1, Jaylen Waddle, to the Broncos.

Still with me? Okay. 17 teams mentioned so far. I’m counting 10 new NFL Head Coaches going into this season, so 7 other teams that made a change we haven’t mentioned - ARI, BAL, CLE, LV, NYG, PIT, & TEN. How many other HCs do we know? 3 have done it before - John Harbaugh in NYG, Mike McCarthy in PIT, and Robert Saleh in TEN. McCarthy will be the PlayCaller for the Steelers, so that will be interesting with ARod. They traded for, and then signed, Pittman. Plus they added Rico Dowdle to mix into the RB rotation. Everyone better get open, though, cause that ball’s coming out quick!.. John Harbaugh will have Matt Nagy calling plays for the Giants. We’re all just wondering whether Malik Nabers will be back anywhere near the beginning of the season.. Saleh has hired Brian Daboll to be the OC and PC for the Titans. They drafted Carnell Tate at #4, and signed Wan’Dale Robinson in free agency to give Cam Ward a better chance this season.

That leaves ARI, BAL, CLE, and LV for new HCs. These are all first time Head Coaches, and all 4 of them should bring some positive changes to their teams. 3 of them will also be the PC for their respective teams. Jesse Minter is the former DC from the Chargers, but he hired Declan Doyle who has background working with both Sean Payton in the past and Ben Johnson last season. They’re hoping to get a healthy Lamar Jackson this season.. Mike LaFleur, who has worked with both Shanahan and McVay, will try to help a rebuilding Cardinals team that just drafted Jeremiyah Love at #3. Unfortunately, their proposed starting QB is still “holding in”.. Todd Monken has been hired by the Browns. He’ll be tasked with determining who the starting QB should be there now after being blessed with Lamar Jackson the last few seasons.. And the Raiders have hired Klint Kubiak, coming off of calling the offense for the Super Bowl win with the Seahawks last season. They drafted Fernando Mendoza with the #1 pick to be the franchise QB. But Kirk Cousins will start the season to try to keep Jeanty and Bowers afloat in fantasy. 

10 Head Coaches isn’t too crazy, but we’re playing Fantasy Football here.. So mostly focused on the teams that are changing their offensive situations - PlayCallers, especially. 21 new Offensive Coordinators? That’s what I’m talking about! Everyone is chasing that dream of being the type of team that all Fantasy Managers can rely on.. Right!?! Okay back to the other teams. 24 teams down!

What are the final 8 teams that will have different PlayCallers? DEN, DET, LAC, NYJ, PHI, SEA, TB, & WAS. The Broncos have an interesting situation where Sean Peyton is apparently handing over PlayCalling duties in order to keep Davis Webb around as his OC. And we shouldn’t sleep on that trade for Waddle!.. Dan Campbell decided he wasn’t interested in calling plays again this season, so he talked the former ARI OC, Drew Petzing, to come help for the Lions. They’re still stockpiled with lots of playmakers without Montgomery.. The Chargers have been the hype of the offseason (and the ADP risers of the summer) since Jim Harbaugh hired Mike McDaniel to be the OC in LA. Yeah, I can’t lie - I’m excited too! Justin Herbert might finally explode if they get they’re OTs back healthy.. Aaron Glenn went old school and hired Frank Reich to come be his new OC after doing a favor for Andrew Luck as the interim HC at Stanford last season. It wasn’t pretty the last time we saw him or Geno, but there’s some optimism with their young skill position players.. Sean Mannion must have been offered more money to go help the Eagles than the GB duo could propose to join them in MIA. Interesting note - he stopped playing backup QB in the NFL after the 2023 season! Sounds like the Eagles will be making some significant changes to the way Hurts will run the offense, but without AJ Brown.. Mike McDonald needed a new OC after his former one got a new HC gig, so he hired another Shanahan-tree OC in Brian Fleury from SF. Drafted a rookie RB to replace Kenneth Walker’s departure as the only major change to their Championship roster.. Todd Bowles is onto yet another OC, and he hired another one from the McVay-tree in Zac Robinson from within the division to work with the Bucs. Good skill players here also, but they did lose Mike Evans.. And Dan Quinn promoted David Blough. Another younger OC, he played with DET and Ben Johnson before working with the Commanders and Kliff Kingsbury the last 2 seasons. A healthy Jayden Daniels is still a nightmare for any defense, and it sounds like he’s fully recovered from last season’s ailments. 

We’re just getting warmed up for Projection Season, so I’ll give y’all a few of my first impressions.. Most Improved Team? NE Patriots. MVP runner-up gets to throw to AJ Brown and Romeo Doubs.. Get outta here! Most Exciting Coaching Change? LA Chargers. Mike McDaniel will still need to keep Justin Herbert upright, but he should be a major improvement on Greg Roman. Worst Offensive Outlook (for this season)? Tough choice here between MIA and ARI.. But I’ll take MIA. ARI may know who their Week 1 QB is today (Brissett is holding in, though!), but you can’t be serious about going into a season with Malik Washington as your WR1. It will be hard for me to hit the DRAFT button on players from either of those teams this season.

That’s all 32 teams mentioned to get you welcomed back for the 2026 season! It’s also a shortcut as to how I begin my process for Projections. Because Fantasy Football Is Hard, you know? 

Boom. A quick rundown for all 32 teams.. In case you’re just tuning back in. We’re almost there! Working on Team Win Projections and QB Rankings.. See y’all soon.

Peace and Love!