Fantasy Football Today - The Coaching Changes That Matter Most for 2026 Fantasy Football (06/30 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Which NFL coaching changes will have the biggest impact on fantasy football in 2026? Adam Aizer tees up Dave Richard as they break down the new offensive play-callers and coordinators who could reshape some of the league's most important fantasy offenses.Will Mike McDaniel unlock another level for Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense? Can Sean Mannion bring more creativity to Philadelphia and help Jalen Hurts, DeVonta Smith, and Saquon Barkley bounce back? Plus, what should fantasy managers expect from Baltimore's new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and his impact on Lamar Jackson, Zay Flowers, Mark Andrews, and the Ravens offense?We also go rapid-fire on several other key coaching changes, including Brian Daboll with the Titans and Drew Petzing with the Lions, and discuss what these moves mean for fantasy football drafts in 2026.

A lot of new play callers around the NFL. Dave Richard has broken it all down. If you go to CBSports.com slash fantasy, you can see an article about all of them. But we're going to talk about some of the most impactful for 2026 right now on FFT Express. Okay, so there are so many names. We'll try to get to kind of a rapid fire session in a little bit. But Dave wants to talk about the top three.

Top three in terms of, you know, big change is going to be made fantasy impact going to be had. Right? That's how we're looking at here. Yeah. Big changes plus potentially positive, big positive changes for fantasy. Let's do it. So it's not necessarily how I have them ranked, although the first name we're going to talk about is the number one play caller that's changed.

And it's the one we've talked about a ton. It's Jamie's new best friend. It's Mike McDaniel going from the dolphins to the chargers. We know what he's all about. West Coast offense, lots of zone running, especially outside zone, timed up passing attack, playing at a snail's pace. And one of the things that McDaniel talked about this offseason was not, he was really focused on easier completions for Justin Herbert. And think back to what he was doing in Miami with Tua.

Was he asking Tua to make easy throws and get the ball out quick because he was trying to protect Tua? Or because it was kind of working. And maybe that's just the way that he wants to utilize Justin Herbert. And don't get me wrong. I am sure that Herbert will have the green light to throw to Quentin Johnson if there's a one-on-one matchup. or even if it's McCocky, whoever the hell it is, I'm sure that he's got the green light to make those downfield throws. But I'm wondering if we see those short targets continue with Justin Herbert,

which will mean a higher completion percentage, if it's a schemed up well-oiled machine, that that means the receivers will be in a position to add yards after the catch. It's something that Quentin Johnston is trying to be good at. And we know what the run game can contribute as well. So there could be some real big fantasy impacts across the board. and it's why you're seeing Chargers become popular players in fantasy drafts. Number two.

Sean Mannion going to Philadelphia. And it's a little strange to be this excited about a guy who was a literal backup quarterback two years ago and has never been a play caller, never even been an offensive coordinator. And yet here he is with both of those roles in Philadelphia. But simply the fact that Kevin Petulow's gone should mean that we've got better organization and more creativity in this Philadelphia offense, I would expect there to be a lot more, I think they're going to see a lot of zone coverage

because if you play a man against Philly, you're going to get burned by Jalen Hertz on the ground. And drafting McI Lemon to me was a signal that they are anticipating that zone coverage and that they're willing to exploit that. We know Devante Smith is good against zone coverage. Lemon was great against zone coverage in college. It's a different story in the NFL.

We'll see how quickly he can adjust. But I think we're going to see a lot more of that same West Coast stuff timed up, throws, shorter throws, easier throws for Jalen Hertz to make, be it over the middle or closer to the sidelines, and still a lot of running. I still think Philadelphia gets back to running last year. They averaged almost, almost 22 running back runs per game. That's the second lowest total since Sariani took over Philadelphia.

In 2024, obviously, Sequin was there. That number was almost 27 running back runs per game. I think they're going to land somewhere in the middle, and you're going to see a lot of running back runs. That's good for Seekwon. but also a lot of those shorter throws over the middle against zone coverage where Jalen Hertz is timed up with his past catchers. Yeah, this one,

I can't really see how it goes bad for McDaniel in Los Angeles, right? There's really good personnel, and it's not like they were a bad offense last year, especially when they were healthy. I could see this going really bad in Philadelphia because you're asking Jalen Hertz to do things he's never really done before they want to be under center more. They're going to do more motion.

This is a team that's usually among the league leaders in shotgun, rate and usually among the lowest in motion rate. I don't know how that's going to work with Jalen Hurts. I'm not sure he's a fit for Mannion's for this. I don't, I think it's going to be like a hybrid system. It's not going to be the Rams. But I don't know if he's a fit for what he wants to do. So I'm excited about the chargers.

I'm curious about the Eagles. I'm excited. I don't think it can get much worse. But I also think, Dave, that it could get, it could be bad. I think if Mannion is smart and he doesn't. does what most offensive coordinators do, it's he adapts. And he sees, if Hurtz struggles within camp, he'll say, okay, scrap it. Let's go back to more shotgun.

What I don't think he'll do is scrap the concept of timing up his throws or asking Hurtz to time up his throws and to make quick reads. First read isn't there. Second read isn't there. Okay, go ahead, take off. And I think that something Hurt has done a lot of over his career anyway. So hopefully Mannion can just adjust, you know, Jalen hurts the strengths. and the entire offense's strengths with what concepts he wants to add in.

By the way, isn't it wild that 18 teams have new play call? It's ridiculous. It is completely ridiculous. It's never been this high. All right. We're going to take a break and get to the third one on this list when we come back. Okay, so we have discussed the Chargers with Mike McDaniel,

the Eagles with Sean Mannion, who's third? This is another interesting one in Baltimore because the John Harbaugh era is obviously over. Jesse Minter, defensive-minded coach, hired Declan Doyle, who's a Ben Johnson disciple and a Sean Peyton disciple to come in and be the new play caller there. They also gave up on the fullback. Remember, Patrick Ricard was there for a while. He's no longer there. He went to New York, I believe.

And that opens the door for more tight-end usage. That's where Doyle kind of came up in the NFL was utilizing tight ends. There's also been a lot of play design, creativity. That's something that Sean Payton liked about Doyle, something. something Doyle has done. Doyle's role in Chicago last year was making halftime adjustments. And so I wonder if that, and in Chicago was in a bunch of games last year. So I think a lot of the half time adjustments were good adjustments. I'm wondering if he's able to be that sharp on the fly focusing on the offense as much as he possibly can, which he's going to do, obviously,

that could lead to good things for Baltimore as well. I think there's room for Mark Andrews to have one last real good fantasy season. And it's because I think he'll be on the field a lot. We know that he's Lamar Jackson's guy. It's been that way over the course of the year, or of course of their careers together. I shouldn't say year. And there should be excitement for Zayflowers,

too, because if there's more creativity in the offense and more of an openness to let Lamar throw, then certainly the targets could go up for both Andrews and Zayflowers. I didn't know that whole thing about the halftime adjustments. The Chicago Bears in the first half of games, actually, I just because I have it up. In the second half of games, they were third in scoring at 13.7. Wow.

In the first half of games, they were 15th at 11.1 points per game. So I think that settles it. Ben Johnson stinks and Declan Doyle is awesome. I'm joking. That's not what I'm saying. I'm pumped about it, but I just wonder, how can Lamar Jackson get any better? I mean, he was so good under Todd Monk, and they were fourth, third, and then 11th in points. under Monkin and they were 11th only because Lamar Jackson got hurt and wasn't himself coming

back. Maybe it just means Zay Flowers is better or something, but yeah, Lamar is going to be, Lamar should be awesome. All right, any other player, you know what? I'll tell you what, I'll, for the next two minutes, I'm going to throw out a coordinator, or you just give me like, what do you think it could mean? Ready? Sure.

Okay, let's go to Brian Dable, Titans. I'm a fan of Dables. I think that his scheme is aggressive. and although I don't like every component of the Tennessee offense, I think he has some good players for fantasy. I think Tate will have an opportunity to see good target volume right out of the gate. But I think Wondell Robinson is going to end up being one of the players I draft a ton of in full PPR because of the track record that he has with Dable.

Dable drafted him. Dables used them to the tune of eight targets per game, each of the last two seasons that includes Malik Neighbors' breakout year in New York. And it was before Jackson Dark got. there was with Daniel Jones for part of that year. Yes, I think that there's room for Tate and Wondale to be number three receivers for fantasy managers. Those are probably the only two players that I'm really excited about in Tennessee. I will just do one more. Drew Petsky, Lions. We talked about him a lot on Monday's FFT episode and we've talked about him a lot this

entire offseason. Give me five seconds to call up the exact numbers for Petsing and how he's used tight ends over the course of his career in Arizona. All right. At worst, they were top six in multi-tight end personnel sets, each of his three years in Arizona. His tight ends saw at least a 33.1 percent target share annually in Arizona. And I mentioned this on the show. It's not like he was an amazing coordinator and play caller in Arizona.

The Cardinals threw a lot last year because they were trailing in games. I think Petzing got hired to Detroit because of his usage of tight ends. because that's something the Lions want to see more of. And so Sam Leporta should be the one who benefits the most. It makes me worry a little bit about Jameson Williams, whose talent is through the roof. But he's never been a consistently good fantasy receiver when Leporta's been on the field. He's had flashes, of course.

Everybody has flashes. But he's never been a must-start fantasy receiver when Leportas been totally healthy. Maybe there were obviously spurts in the second half of last year when both good, but Leporta was banged off. Bottom line is that I think, I think Petsing will be great for Loporta, good for everybody else in the run game, and certainly petting has to make sure that offensive line plays to expectations, if not above expectations. That's Dave Richard. I'm Adam Azer. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.