NFL Week 6: Grading Each Team's Offensive Coordinator

We are nearly through six weeks of the NFL regular season and, boy, has it been entertaining. The NFL hasn't seen offensive numbers put up like this in its history—it's not even close. 

A few different head coaches call their own plays, but for the most part offensive coordinators play a huge part in each team's offensive success. If they work well with the head coach, the results can mean tremendous success—if not, it could lead to awful performances. 

As much as we want to set blame and praise for the players, they need to be put in the right situation to succeed. If the defense stacks eight in the box and you run a power up the middle, the results probably aren't going to be too great. Although that is just one example, there are plenty more. 

Today, I am going to grade each team's offensive coordinator and their offensive performance as a whole. After all, they usually go hand in hand. 

Josh McDaniels, St. Louis Rams

It hasn't only been a downward spiral for the St. Louis Rams, it has been such for their offensive coordinator. Just a couple years after being the most sought after assistant coach with the Patriots, and a year removed from a horrible head coaching stint in Denver, Josh McDaniels is now looking over the worse offense in the entire NFL. 

The Rams are dead last in the NFL in points per game at a hair under 10, but it doesn't end there. St. Louis is 27 percent on third down and have been unable to find the end zone during their first five games—four offensive touchdowns. 

The Rams are averaging 4.4 yards per rush, but less than 100 yards per game. This means that they have abandoned the running game early and often. You need to have a nice mix on offense, and St. Louis doesn't have that. 

Grade: F

Clyde Christensen, Indianapolis Colts

I do like what Indianapolis is doing right now with Curtis Painter. They are utilizing the minimal skills that he has to the best of their ability. Still, it has a lot more to do with talent than anything else. 

Indianapolis doesn't have a top-tier running back, are going with an unproven quarterback and have a bunch of issues a long the offensive line. The five and six step drops need to end when the offensive line is struggling so much. 

This is something that has adversely affected the success of the Colts offense up to this point. 

Indianapolis is 28th in scoring and 31st in total offense. 

Grade: D-

Dirk Koetter, Jacksonville Jaguars

Maurice Jones-Drew is third in the NFL in rushing yards and averaging about 20 attempts per game. However, it doesn't seem that the Jaguars are doing a great job getting him the ball in the open field. You are seeing less screens to him than most people would expect. 

With a rookie quarterback, Jones-Drew really could act like a solid safety valve, but it isn't happening right now. I understand that having an inexperienced signal-caller under center limits an offense's ability to be consistent, but there is more to it in Jacksonville. 

They are averaging just 12 points per game and remain unable to get anything going when it counts on offense. Jacksonville's defense has played decent, but this unit is just bad right now.

Grade: D-

Bill Musgrave, Minnesota Vikings

Ouch, the Christian Ponder era may have just started after a dreadful early-game performance against Chicago last night. The Vikings' first half consisted of three punts, a blocked field goal, safety and one drive that ended up with three points on the board. 

Donovan McNabb was 19-of-24 in the game, but the plan didn't allow him to push the ball downfield. This allowed Chicago to stack the box with eight and stifle Adrian Peterson. At some point, Minnesota will have to open it up a little bit to give AP some breathing room. 

With Christian Ponder taking over for Donovan McNabb in the second half last night, they might not be afforded that opportunity. This would spell doom for the rest of the season. At least Minnesota gets to see a glimpse of their quarterback of the future. 

Minnesota is 17th in scoring and 24th in total offense.

Grade: D-

Mike Miller, Arizona Cardinals

Arizona's offense has looked downright horrendous thus far in 2011. Two weeks ago against Minnesota, it was obvious that they failed to make the necessary adjustments in terms of play-calling and route-running. As Minnesota built up a huge lead, Arizona went completely away from a run game that had looked pretty good with Beanie Wells over the last few weeks. 

Instead, they relied heavily on Kevin Kolb, who has yet to earn his worth. I understand that your primary weapon is on the outside in the form of Larry Fitzgerald, but you need to continue with what is working. 

And, right now, it isn't Kevin Kolb. 

Obviously, Arizona invested a great amount of money in the former Philadelphia quarterback. Still, you play to win, not to keep skeptics at the backdoor. The Cardinals need to get back to basics after their bye week or this offense is going to continue to struggle. 

Arizona ranks 23rd in scoring and 18th in total offense. 

Grade: D

Mike McCoy, Denver Broncos

What an utter mess it is in Denver right now. Their starting quarterback has been benched and their top wide receiver will probably be on either the San Francisco 49ers or St. Louis Rams by this time next week.

What to do? 

Change your entire offensive philosophy to suit a talented, but unconventional quarterback? At this point, that might make some sense. Just tear up the playbook and start anew. It isn't like Denver is going anywhere this season. 

Look for them to play a lot more spread offense moving forward. The problem with that is they might not have the weapons for that to succeed. 

Denver is 20th in scoring offense and 26th in total offense. 

Grade: D+

Brian Schottenheimer, New York Jets

Where is my running game? Can I get some help? Seriously, Mark Sanchez is not going to win games by himself in the NFL, he just is not that good. Instead, the Jets need to get their anemic running game going. 

Rex Ryan and Co. have vowed to start that process tonight against the Miami Dolphins, and they better hope it sticks. Otherwise, this offense will continue to struggle a great deal. Sometimes, you just need to make adjustments and work with the personnel you have. The Jets have yet to do that. 

New York is 10th in scoring and 29th in total offense. 

Grade: C-

Mike Mularkey, Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons have done a good job recognizing their offensive weaknesses and moving to fix them. This is something that is incredibly hard to do during the season, but they have been successful at it. 

They are no longer allowing Matt Ryan to sit in the pocket and take hit after hit. Instead, Atlanta is rolling the young quarterback out and allowing him to make plays. Nothing is worse than having a quarterback sit in the pocket behind a bad pass-protecting offensive line. This has also allowed Michael Turner to find green in the running game and the Falcons' top receiver threats more time to get open.

Still, with the talent Atlanta has, they should be a lot better on offense.

Atlanta is 16th in scoring and 20th in total offense.  

Grade: C

Bill Muir, Kansas City Chiefs

Kansas City has continued to improve over the course of the season and was peaking prior to their Week 6 bye. 

Matt Cassel has 520 yards and five touchdowns in those two games. Additionally, Kansas City seems committed to sticking with the run despite the fact that Jamaal Charles is out for the remainder of the season. I love their zone-blocking scheme, which enables backs to get the ball in the open field. 

It might have taken a lot of time to adjust, which is why the grade won't be too high. But, I like what they have been doing recently. 

Grade: C

Mike Martz, Chicago Bears

Prior to last night's onslaught against the Minnesota Vikings, I had a lot of worries about the Bears' offensive continuity. One game won't change that a whole lot, but it is a move in the right direction. 

It seemed to me that Mike Martz was being really stubborn in the way he was calling previous games—continuing to allow Jay Cutler to drop back five or six yards behind a dreadful offensive line. That changed against the Detroit Lions last Monday, and even more so against Minnesota last night. 

If Martz continues to play with the hand dealt to him, rather than pretend this is a repeat of the 1999 St. Louis Rams, this offense should continue to progress. 

Chicago is 19th in scoring and 21st in total offense. 

Grade: C

Pat Shurmur, Cleveland Browns (Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator)

I just don't get what is happening in Cleveland. Colt McCoy averaged over 34 pass attempts per game through the Browns' first five. 

This is a team that boasts a solid offensive line and multiple running backs who can get the job done. Instead, they are abandoning the running game and deciding to go through the air.

It isn't working. 

They are averaging over 19 points per game, so there is some hope that all of it will come together as the season progresses. If that is going to happen, Cleveland needs to start committing more to the run. 

Grade: C

Darrell Bevell, Seattle Seahawks

After anemic performances against San Francisco and Pittsburgh, the Seahawks offense has gotten it going as of late. They are averaging 32 points per game over their last two outings. 

One primary reason for this: the offensive line.  

They put up 145 rushing yards against the New York Giants two weeks ago, as the offensive line held their own against a stout Giants front seven. 

They did surrender six sacks in that game, but it looks like Darrell Bevell and Pete Carroll are doing good in terms of finding what ails this unit and attempting to cover it up. Whether Charlie Whitehurst or Tarvaris Jackson starts this week, you can expect the Seahawks coaching staff to do well to work the offensive around what they do best. I like what I see from this unit right now.

Seattle still ranks 26th in scoring offense and is averaging less than 300 yards per game. 

Grade: C+

John Garrett, Dallas Cowboys

It really is hard to gauge the success of the Cowboys offense at this point. They have played a majority of the season without one of their primary offensive weapons—whether it be Felix Jones, Dez Bryant or Miles Austin, one is usually not in the game. 

Still, I am not a big fan of going away from the run so early like Dallas has done multiple times this season. Their offensive line may be struggling in run blocking, but it's necessary to give Tony Romo some help on offense. 

It also doesn't help that Dallas appears to have lost some confidence in Romo as evidenced by their conservative play-calling late in yesterday's loss to New England. 

Dallas is 14th in scoring and seventh in total offense. 

Grade: C+

Kyle Shanahan, Washington Redskins

What a disastrous showing by Rex Grossman yesterday against the Philadelphia Eagles—it cannot emit much confidence in him moving forward. While Washington does appear to have a nice little thing going on the ground, it doesn't look like they have a quarterback ready to lead this offense to the next level. 

Additionally, you are seeing major issues in regards to the Redskins receiving corp, and the injury to Chris Cooley cannot help either. 

Moving forward, Washington is going to have to rely on a heavy dosage of the running game, while finding a quarterback to manage the game—looks like that is going to be John Beck to me. 

Washington is in the middle of the pack in both scoring offense and total yards. This won't continue if their quarterback-play struggles remain.

Grade: B-

Brian Daboll, Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins offense doesn't look to be getting any better with Chad Henne out for the season. Matt Moore isn't a starting quarterback in the NFL, and it will show tonight against the Jets. 

Still, Miami is in the middle of the pack on offense, averaging over 350 yards per game. They haven't been able to turn that yardage into a whole lot of points, but it seems that they are able to find a nice mix on offense. 

Miami's running game promises to get better with the return of Daniel Thomas, who missed last week. Don't expect them to stray from what has worked to an extent on offense.

Grade: B-

Bruce Arians, Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers' offensive line was struggling, so they went with quick passes and more balance on offense. Well, that has seemed to work so far. Good coordinators find a way to succeed in less-than-ideal situations, and Bruce Arians is one of the best at his position. 

You can expect them to continue this upward trend as the season progresses, and as "Big Ben," among others, get healthier. 

Pittsburgh is 21st in scoring and 10th in total offense. 

Grade: B

Marty Mornhinweg, Philadelphia Eagles

The only person who shouldn't get blamed for Philadelphia's slow start is Marty Mornhinweg—he is putting the offense in situations to succeed. Stupid penalties, dropped passes, bad throws etc., are not his fault. 

Still, the Eagles rebounded with a big win against Washington yesterday, and offensive balance was the key. They ran the ball 38 times and passed it 32 more times. I had been a huge advocate of getting the ball into Shady McCoy's hands more, and that is what they did. 

Don't expect the Eagles offense to be much of an issue moving forward; this is an extremely strong unit. 

Philadelphia is 11th in scoring and third in total offense. 

Grade: B

Greg Olson, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

After Tampa Bay's offense struggled a great deal against San Francisco last week, they were able to come back against a weaker Saints defense. 

Josh Freeman, whether he succeeds or not, has been put in a position to succeed. Tampa Bay utilizes his skills to the best and that should have a dramatic impact moving forward. This offense still misses a true No. 1 receiver, but has been solid for a majority of the early season. 

I like how they have attempted to keep the running game involved early on as well—Freeman isn't the type of quarterback who is going to be successful throwing the ball 40-50 times likes some others. Instead, they need to mix in the run. 

Tampa Bay currently ranks 16th in scoring offense and averaging nearly 400 yards per game. 

Grade: B+

Kevin Gilbride, New York Giants

The Giants offense looks amazing one second, and then fall flat on their back the next second. They have absolutely not consistency, but that has to be more on the play of Eli Manning than anything else. 

They have a nice mix of pass and rush, while being able to get the ball to their playmakers in the open field. If New York's skill position players can execute better, this has an opportunity to be a dynamic unit. 

New York is ninth in scoring and 12th in total offense.

Grade: B+

Chris Palmer, Tennessee Titans

When Chris Johnson was struggling early on in the season, Tennessee didn't sit back with a conservative game plan and rely heavily on him. Instead, they decided to let Matt Hasselbeck air it out. Well, that worked well for the first four games. 

Once Johnson started getting his legs back, Tennessee fed the All-Pro the ball. Now after the bye week, he should be close to 100 percent. That is going to make a dramatic impact moving forward and I am sure Chris Palmer will make sure to utilize that skill set. 

The injury to Kenny Britt hurts a lot, but I have a feeling the first-place Tennessee Titans will be just fine on offense. After all, they are in good hands. 

Tennessee is 20th in scoring and 19th in total offense. 

Grade: B+

Cam Cameron, Baltimore Ravens

This team knows how to use their running back extremely well, something that cannot be said for some other coaching staffs around the league. They continually put Ray Rice in situations where he can succeed in the open field, and that has caused a lot of matchups for opposing defenses. 

Joe Flacco had a good game against Houston yesterday as well. If he can continue that progression, this offense can be scary good.

Baltimore is fifth in scoring and 14th in total offense.

Grade: A

Clarence Shelmon, San Diego Chargers

Philip Rivers' early season struggles aside, the Chargers are doing a heck of a job on offense. They are surprisingly mixing the run well with their above-average passing game. This is going to keep opposing defenses honest moving forward, and enable Rivers to find more one-on-one situations down the field. 

They are doing well isolating Vincent Jackson on the outside, which has created some big plays. Additionally, San Diego's short passing game has been affected by their downfield threats. 

Look for this offense to hit their stride after the bye. 

San Diego is 12th in scoring and sixth in total offense. 

Grade: A

Rick Dennison, Houston Texans

It really is hard to find continuity when your All-Pro running back is limited due to injury during your first couple games, and your star wide receiver misses the next few. 

This is the situation that Houston has found itself in. 

Still, they have been putting up respectful numbers and this has a lot to do with coaching. Houston hasn't strayed far from the running game and their solid run-blocking offensive line. Instead, they have been able to find holes in the defense and exploit them. I like how this offense projects moving forward, and then Andre Johnson is healthy again. They have a nice mix going on there. 

Houston is 13th in scoring and eighth in total offense. 

Grade: B+

Jay Gruden, Cincinnati Bengals

What do you get when you add a rookie quarterback, rookie wide receiver and over-the-hill running back? Usually one of the worse offenses in the entire league. Well, that hasn't been the case with Cincinnati thus far. 

They are calling a conservative game plan because logistics require that. Cincinnati has a a nice amount of young weapons, but they are not anywhere near seasoned enough to play in an advanced pro-level NFL offense. Instead, this simplified game plan has worked wonders. Don't look now, but the Bengals are a surprising 4-2 and tied for second in the NFC North—this offense has a part in that. 

Cincinnati is 15th in scoring and 21st in total offense. 

Grade: A

Al Saunders, Oakland Raiders

The loss of Jason Campbell is going to hurt big-time. He wasn't an ultra-talented quarterback—instead, Campbell managed the game well. I fully expect Oakland to go after a veteran quarterback within the next few days, and David Garrard is the most likely candidate. 

Still, the Raiders have Darren McFadden and know how to utilize him. Additionally, Heyward-Bey is stepping up on the outside right now. 

Oakland's offense should still remain in the top half of the NFL because their coaches know exactly how to utilize the talent they have. 

Oakland is eighth in scoring and 11th in total offense. 

Grade: A

Scott Linehan, Detroit Lions

A lot has been made about the Lions' inability to get a consistent running game going. A lot more has been made about their unwillingness to do so. 

Well, skeptics need to be quiet right now. They don't have the running back necessary to carry the ball 25-30 times a game—it is just unrealistic to expect them to find this running game out of thin air. 

Instead, Detroit goes with the best players they have and it has been working so far in 2011. 

Detroit is fourth in scoring and 13th in total offense. 

Grade: A

Greg Roman, San Francisco 49ers

It hasn't been pretty, but San Francisco's offense continues to get it done. Their running game is now the best in the entire NFL, and Alex Smith continues to prove that he can be an above-average quarterback in the NFL. 

San Francisco's offensive line struggles in pass protection, so they go with quick releases and draws out of the shot gun. Their receiving corp is shattered by injury, so the 49ers utilize two tight-end sets with Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker. 

The adjustments this coaching staff continues to make simply amaze me. More good news for Roman and Harbaugh is the fact that Braylon Edwards will be returning after the bye. Oh, and they look to be the possible front-runners to land Brandon Lloyd. Good times!

San Francisco is seventh in scoring and 28th in total offense. Yes, you read that right! 

Grade: A

Rob Chudzinski, Carolina Panthers

This is probably one of the most surprising units in the entire NFL. Listen, I understand that Carolina is still just 1-5, but their improvement on offense has been just out of this world. You are looking at a unit that was the worst in the NFL last season, using a rookie quarterback to jump up the boards. 

On that note, I love the fact that Carolina has just let Cam Newton play his game instead of holding him back with conservative game-calling. This will cause a lot of mistakes from the young quarterback, but it will also help him learn from those. 

One issue that I have is with their lack of use in regards to Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams. However, that has changed over the course of the last couple weeks too.

Carolina is 18th in scoring and fifth in total offense.

Grade: A

Pete Carmichael, Jr., New Orleans Saints

Drew Brees broke an NFL record in the Saints loss to Tampa Bay yesterday. It was the fourth consecutive game that he has thrown for 350 yards.

This says two things: that he is one hell of a quarterback and that the Saints refuse to commit to the run. I understand the hesitation of taking the ball out of your best player's hands, but they need to find more of a balance on offense. 

Still, they won the Super Bowl two years ago this way. Who am I to judge?

New Orleans is sixth in scoring and second in total offense. 

Grade: A

Curtis Modkins, Buffalo Bills

The Bills' offensive display so far this season has been by far one of the biggest surprises in the NFL—right up there with the starts of San Francisco and Detroit. 

Still, you have to wonder where this is coming from. Remember, it wasn't too long ago that Buffalo's offense was among the worst in the entire league. In fact, many of the players they have on this unit were a part of that team. 

Now, the Bills are able to mix pass and rush extremely well, while keeping opposing defenses on their heels. Despite their loss to the Giants yesterday, Buffalo's offense is for real, people. 

Buffalo is third in scoring and ninth in total offense. 

Grade: A+

Bill O’Brien, New England Patriots

Thank the gods that Tom Brady isn't throwing the ball 50-60 times a game anymore. I think the physical health of opposing defense coordinators would have declined even more if that continued. Instead, the Patriots are attempting to find some balance on offense. Good for them. 

Yesterday's win against Dallas was the first time since last October that New England didn't score 30 points in a game. Tom Brady and Wes Welker are on pace for record seasons, and the list goes on. 

New England is third in scoring and first in total offense. 

Grade: A+

Joe Philbin, Green Bay Packers

I don't know if Green Bay's offensive success has to do with their coaching, or the fact that Aaron Rodgers is just playing at another level. I think it is a combination of the two. This unit continues to run opposing defenses completely off the field. They are so good that it is just becoming second nature to expect 30 points and 450 yards. 

In fact, I had to do a double take when I saw that Green Bay only scored 24 points yesterday against St. Louis. If they keep this up, no team has a chance to dethrone the defending champs. 

Green Bay is first in scoring and fourth in total offense. 

Grade: A+