Hackett is a Good Offensive Coordinator.

[hondo in seattle]

Like most Bills fans, I’m not a huge fan of Nate Hackett’s performance thus far.

 

But let me play devil’s advocate today and assert this: Hackett is a good at coordinating a passing attack and competent-but-hamstrung at coordinating a running game.

 

Passing. In Kyle Orton’s best year as a starter, he notched a 87.5 QB Rating. His rating under Hackett so far is 104.0. In three years with Chicago, Orton passed for 161.2 yards per game. In his time with Denver, he average 248.1 yards per game. With the Bills so far, he’s averaging 282.0 yards per game. Under Hackett’s tutelage and in Hackett’s system, Orton is enjoying the very best year of his career.

 

Rushing. The Bills are averaging just 98.9 ypg this season and fans want to see more power sweeps, counters, and so on - not to mention screens. But many of these plays require talented, agile OGs which the Bills lack. 3.8 ypc and 99 ypg is acceptable, if not brilliant, performance for an OC working with this interior line.

 

Big Plays. Brian Billick, former SB winning coach, has written a couple articles over the years about the importance of the “Toxic Differential.” He explains:

 

It has long been a proven adage that if you have a plus-2 turnover advantage on your opponent, you will win the game 80 percent of the time. If you have a plus-2 explosive-play advantage, it equally leads to winning about 80 percent of the time. If you have both of those, you win close to 95 percent of the time.

 

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000419687/article/toxic-differential-watch-out-for-bills-texans-in-the-second-half

 

Under Hackett, the Bills offense is producing a lot of big plays (35 explosive plays by Billick’s count) while not turning the ball over a lot. Combined with the ball-hawking skills of our defense, the Bills have the NFL’s best Toxic Differential. Interestingly, Seattle led the NFL last year.

 

I don’t believe the Bills lead the Toxic Differential rankings in the highly competitive NFL by accident. Understanding the importance of the Toxic Differential, Hackett’s scheming and play-calling are designed to produce big plays for the Bills while limiting turnovers.

 

In sum, given the hand he’s been dealt, Hackett is doing an admirable job as an OC.

[Gugny]

Starting QBs during Hackett's tenure thus far:

EJ Manuel - 14

Thad Lewis - 5

Jeff Tuel - 1

Kyle Orton - 4

 

Factor in offensive line woes, WR injuries and oh ... last year being his first year as an OC in the NFL ...

 

I will agree that Hackett is a good OC. He certainly hasn't proven that he's not good.

[BillsFan-4-Ever]

let me play devil’s advocate

 

In a "passing league" shouldn't he be putting up 400+ YPG?

[ALF]

The energizer bunny would be successful if Marrone could fix the OL

[FireChan]

let me play devil’s advocate

 

In a "passing league" shouldn't he be putting up 400+ YPG?

 

How many teams do that?

[C.Biscuit97]

Like most Bills fans, I’m not a huge fan of Nate Hackett’s performance thus far.

 

But let me play devil’s advocate today and assert this: Hackett is a good at coordinating a passing attack and competent-but-hamstrung at coordinating a running game.

 

Passing. In Kyle Orton’s best year as a starter, he notched a 87.5 QB Rating. His rating under Hackett so far is 104.0. In three years with Chicago, Orton passed for 161.2 yards per game. In his time with Denver, he average 248.1 yards per game. With the Bills so far, he’s averaging 282.0 yards per game. Under Hackett’s tutelage and in Hackett’s system, Orton is enjoying the very best year of his career.

 

Rushing. The Bills are averaging just 98.9 ypg this season and fans want to see more power sweeps, counters, and so on - not to mention screens. But many of these plays require talented, agile OGs which the Bills lack. 3.8 ypc and 99 ypg is acceptable, if not brilliant, performance for an OC working with this interior line.

 

Big Plays. Brian Billick, former SB winning coach, has written a couple articles over the years about the importance of the “Toxic Differential.” He explains:

 

It has long been a proven adage that if you have a plus-2 turnover advantage on your opponent, you will win the game 80 percent of the time. If you have a plus-2 explosive-play advantage, it equally leads to winning about 80 percent of the time. If you have both of those, you win close to 95 percent of the time.

 

http://www.nfl.com/n...the-second-half

 

Under Hackett, the Bills offense is producing a lot of big plays (35 explosive plays by Billick’s count) while not turning the ball over a lot. Combined with the ball-hawking skills of our defense, the Bills have the NFL’s best Toxic Differential. Interestingly, Seattle led the NFL last year.

 

I don’t believe the Bills lead the Toxic Differential rankings in the highly competitive NFL by accident. Understanding the importance of the Toxic Differential, Hackett’s scheming and play-calling are designed to produce big plays for the Bills while limiting turnovers.

 

In sum, given the hand he’s been dealt, Hackett is doing an admirable job as an OC.

 

Apperciate the efforts. Allow me to counter:

 

1) IMO, QBR is a better stat than QB rating. QB is purely a passing and does not take things like sacks into account. IT's why RJ had a pretty decent QB rating when he was here and we all know how bad he was.

 

Orton's QBR was 50.1 in 2010. http://espn.go.com/nfl/qbr/_/year/2010 This year, he is at 46.1.

 

2) I'd credit Orton's improvement from his rookie year until now with growing with experience and other coaches, especially Josh McDaniel. This has nothing to do with Hackett.

 

3) In Gailey's last year, we averaged 138.6 yards per game and 5.0 ypc. Spiller averaged 6 ypc. Now, Spiller is bad? And this is with Fitz and teams stacking the box on defense because he couldn't throw deep.

 

4) You don't think the OC does not have a major say in personnel? The oline regressing is partly on him.

 

5) In Gailey's last year, our wrs consistented of Stevie Johnson (7th round), Nelson and Jones (UDFAs). We have a number 4 overall pick, Woods (2nd), and a guy who has produced 10 tds and 900 yards in a NFL season (williams). This core is 10 times better.

 

6) Honestly, which player on offense has become better? Watkins was a stud that's why he went 4th overall. But who has gotten better?

 

I apperciate your efforts but this is not a good offense and Marrone/ Hackett share the blame. And it's one thing if they ran a powerhouse and creative offense in college. IT was a boring, middle of the pack Big East offense. So I disagree. He is a bad OC.

[TakeYouToTasker]

IMO, QBR is a better stat than QB rating.

QBR is an arbitrary metric created by ESPN for the sole purpose of marketing Tim Tebow.

 

You'll have to make a strong argument for it's superiority if you wish to make that assertion, and you've yet to do so.

[YoloinOhio]

let me play devil’s advocate

 

In a "passing league" shouldn't he be putting up 400+ YPG?

if that's the criteria, there are only 4 good OCs in the whole league. Oh wait, those 4 are only putting up 400+ ypg combining passing AND rushing. Carry on. Edited October 31, 2014 by YoloinOhio

[stony]

let me play devil’s advocate

 

In a "passing league" shouldn't he be putting up 400+ YPG?

 

How many guys throw for 400 yds on a regular basis?

[YoloinOhio]

 

 

How many guys throw for 400 yds on a regular basis?

Zero and it isn't close. Luck has the highest ypg and is avg 341.

[PaattMaann]

gets the popcorn ready for the show....

[stony]

Zero and it isn't close. Luck has the highest ypg and is avg 341.

 

Exactly, and at that average he'd still come under the single-season record.

[boyst]

If I could work with Hackett we would go to a High School coach in the area. Hell, 10 HS coaches. Ask to look at their playbook and ask what works for them. Hackett is trying to run with the big boys. He doesn't have the talent to let him do it.

 

These T-Formation, H-back sets are a big ridiculous. By taking him to HS I could show him how unlikely the matchup of an extra TE would outmatch about any D formation or alignment.

 

The wish bone, wing T, and flex bone are going to put the best talent on the field and he is simply refusing to do that.

 

The big fear is that spreading the OL out a little bit would allow for more defensive penetration. That is true but it also offers more room in the pocket for the QB to move. Orton seems aware of his pocket and this may be a good move to make - spreading it out.

[billsfan1959]

I think, as in many debates, the truth lies somewhere in between. Hackett has a year and a half under his belt as an NFL offensive coordinator. His first year was marked by learning the abilities of players he had never previously worked with and teaching them a new offensive system, a revolving door at QB (all with little to no NFL experience), nagging injuries at running back and wide receiver, and a regression in O-line play from he previous year. This year he began by calling a limited game plan for a still raw QB (who subsequently began regressing) and moved to calling a game plan for a more experienced QB, but one that nobody knew how he would actually perform - all behind an offensive line that was an on going experiment in player personnel and subpar in it's play, particularly at the guard position. I think that it would have been difficult to be consistently successful under those circumstances for even the most experienced of offensive coordinators

 

On the other hand, at this point, he should fully understand (1) the limitations of the offensive line and (2) the abilities of KO at QB. I think the frustration many people felt in the Jets game was that there were stretches in which his game plan was painfully conservative and predictable - and many of those were not when the Bills had an insurmountable lead. I understand the desire to protect KO from a top five defensive line and to limit the turnovers the team had been experiencing the previous two games in particular. However, part of being a good coordinator is designing a game plan that utilizes some of the strengths (quick decision making and quick release of KO and an upper level receiving corps) to minimize it's weaknesses (awful offensive line play, and running back play - both running and blocking).

 

Like I said, I will give him the benefit of the doubt in the Jets game because of the circumstances (the horrible play of the Jets offense and great play of our defense). However, going forward against some very good teams, he is going to have to be more creative in compensating for the poor offensive line and running back play. He was able to do this to some degree with the read option when EJ was at QB - and he needs to find a way with KO's strengths. Hopefully, to help Hackett out, they will find the right combination of O-line personnel and they will find some consistency - and FJ will make it back sometime soon.

 

I am interested to see what they show us coming out of the bye week

Edited October 31, 2014 by billsfan1959

[TakeYouToTasker]

If I could work with Hackett we would go to a High School coach in the area. Hell, 10 HS coaches. Ask to look at their playbook and ask what works for them. Hackett is trying to run with the big boys. He doesn't have the talent to let him do it.

 

These T-Formation, H-back sets are a big ridiculous. By taking him to HS I could show him how unlikely the matchup of an extra TE would outmatch about any D formation or alignment.

 

The wish bone, wing T, and flex bone are going to put the best talent on the field and he is simply refusing to do that.

 

The big fear is that spreading the OL out a little bit would allow for more defensive penetration. That is true but it also offers more room in the pocket for the QB to move. Orton seems aware of his pocket and this may be a good move to make - spreading it out.

The lack of spread formations is dictated by the blocking scheme of the O-line, which is a power, closed gap scheme, which relies on big, powerful linemen. Spread formations rely on wide gap, zone blocking schemes, which utilize smaller, more nimble offensive linemen.

[Dorkington]

Zero and it isn't close. Luck has the highest ypg and is avg 341.

 

Luck sucks. I bet EJ could do it.

 

AMIRITE

[OCinBuffalo]

gets the popcorn ready for the show....

My thoughts exactly when I saw the thread title. While I'm waiting for the popcorn, I'm sharpening my axe for when the nonsense statistical analysis begins.

[boyst]

The lack of spread formations is dictated by the blocking scheme of the O-line, which is a power, closed gap scheme, which relies on big, powerful linemen. Spread formations rely on wide gap, zone blocking schemes, which utilize smaller, more nimble offensive linemen.

Oh, I understand that but I do not call what is occurring now working.

 

I don't want a full spread line but i want something in between. I'm not quite sure. I hate saying it because I cannot offer a solution, but I want things to change.

[YoloinOhio]

 

 

Luck sucks. I bet EJ could do it.

 

AMIRITE

and Tuel Time! What's the diff?

[The Big Cat]

Oh, I understand that but I do not call what is occurring now working.

 

I don't want a full spread line but i want something in between. I'm not quite sure. I hate saying it because I cannot offer a solution, but I want things to change.

 

In defense of the line through 8 games, now going into the bye: they started training camp with their LT "injured," they did what they could to secure the LG spot in free agency, that flamed out (although not entirely unpredictably), the guy they spent a second round pick on has been a to-date bust and the project player the nabbed in the fifth has proven to be precisely that.

 

Outside of Henderson, they whiffed across the board trying to shore up what was a weak spot last year. It just hasn't worked out for them.

 

Now they have some stability, in that at least 3.5 positions are set coming out of the bye. And I'd expect a re-evaluation process to occur as we head into the latter portion of the season.

Edited October 31, 2014 by The Big Cat