Coordinators: Sideline vs. Booth

JCotchrocket · Sep 14, 2010

First, here are a couple different articles over the last few years that highlight the differences between coordinating on the sideline and coordinating in the booth.

Chicago Sun Times

Martz likes sideline, but you'll find him in booth
August 28, 2010

After a decade of calling plays from the sideline, Mike Martz has returned to the coaches booth for reasons that have as much to do with mobility as strategy.

The Bears offensive coordinator has had back and hip problems through the years, making it difficult for him to get down to the locker room and back up to the coaches booth at halftime. After successful hip-replacement surgery, he's feeling spry enough to climb to his perch above the field.

Many coordinators prefer to be in the coaches booth because the sightlines make it easier to see the defense.

Not Martz.

''You just get a better feel for the game on the sideline,'' he said. ''Believe it or not, you can see better from the sideline than you can from the booth. I can. You watch specific things from the sideline. From the booth, you have a tendency to see the whole thing and not exactly what you're looking at. It's a discipline you have to go back and acquire again.''

Martz said his trust in his fellow coaches is the biggest reason why he moved upstairs before last week's 32-17 exhibition loss to the Oakland Raiders. Mike Tice and tight ends coach Mike DeBord will be among those communicating with players, making sure the right personnel group is on the field and helping to manage the game.

''There's such strong personalities down there, and Jay [Cutler] has such a good grasp of what's going on with us on offense and with the receivers,'' Martz said. ''Mike Tice, those guys on the sideline, they address it, and it's fixed right away. I just don't feel like I need to be there. We've got the leadership you'd want down there without me being there.

''Besides, it's a lot more comfortable up there.''
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Press Democrat

Raye might leave booth to solve communication snafus
September 13, 2010

A day after communication issues plagued the 49ers in a season-opening 31-6 loss to the Seahawks, coach Mike Singletary said offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye might move from the booth to the sideline for their Monday night meeting against the Saints.

"We will take a hard look at it, and we will have an answer for it," Singletary said. "We will figure it out in the next few days exactly how we are going to do that and exactly how this is going to get better. Whether Jimmy comes on the field, or however it is, we're going to figure it out and nip it in the bud."

With more than six minutes left in the second quarter Sunday, the Niners had used all three timeouts and had a delay of game of penalty as Alex Smith waited in vain for play calls to arrive. The timeouts were burned on critical third- and fourth-down plays and contributed to the Niners' red-zone issues as they scored six points on three first-half drives inside Seattle's 10-yard line.

The Niners' system for getting plays to Smith begins with Raye, who relays the play to quarterbacks coach Mike Johnson on the sideline through a headset. Johnson then radios the play to Smith's headset on the field.

Smith's headset cuts off with 15 seconds on the play clock. The issue for the 49ers is how to speed up the process so Smith isn't left hanging without a play.

"That's a lot to be able to get in and I know Jimmy understands that he has to do a better job of getting it in and we're going to work on it this week and get it where it needs to be," Singletary said.

Smith was open to ideas on how to solve the problem. He mentioned wearing a wristband, with plays listed, to help speed up the process. He discussed a scenario in which he could call his own play, if one hadn't arrived with about 24 seconds left on the play clock. He also said having Raye move to the sideline could work.

"It's a management problem," Smith said. "It's something that has to get fixed, no question. But I don't think it's that crazy a thing to fix."

On Sunday, Singletary said the play-calling issues were primarily due to malfunctioning headsets while Smith said the technology was only a problem on one occasion. Singletary was asked about the discrepancy on Monday and he said it was a "misunderstanding." He said Johnson told him there was a headset problem and he assumed that accounted for all the problems during the game.

"I'm not going to get into a conversation, 'Well Mike, what exactly do you mean?'" Singletary said. "If there's a problem with the headset, okay, there's a problem with the headset, if it's one time or if it's 20 times. That's what I thought. So, if I said it was more than once, then I was wrong."
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USA Today

Booth or sideline? Two perspectives
December 26, 2007

In the NFL, 22 play-callers work from field level and 10 operate in boxes overlooking the field.

Coaches have had success calling plays from both vantage points. While head coaches have no choice — they're on the sideline — other play-callers must weigh the merits of each perspective.

Working from a booth lets them see the entire field and block out distractions. "It's like watching film," Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians says.

But being on the sideline gives them a better feel for the game and allows direct communication with the quarterback. It might be too simplistic to divide play-callers into two categories, but at the core of the issue, it might come down to this: Is a coach the emotional type, or is he cold, hard and analytical?

"If you could talk to the quarterback from the booth, I might do it," Arians says. "But the way it is now, you lose valuable seconds relaying the call down. Sometimes you want to tell the quarterback what you're thinking: 'Hey, get it out of your hands quick and let's get 5 yards.' Or, 'Let's take a shot downfield. If it's not there, check it down.' But if you relay that down from the booth to the sideline, it never gets said right. You're like, 'No, that's not what I meant!'

"Plus, being on the sideline, I can yell and scream."

In his last six years as the Denver Broncos coordinator, Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak worked from the booth. "I'd rather be up there calling plays," he says. "You're just watching the chess match, totally removed from the emotions of the game. Now, that can hurt you sometimes. You might not make that call if you heard the crowd or saw what was going on emotionally with your team at that point."

Dallas Cowboys coordinator Jason Garrett has tried both locations. "At the end of the day, you probably see the game better upstairs," he says. "But you probably feel the game better from the field. As long as you have people you trust upstairs to help you see what the defense is doing, you're OK."

Bobby Petrino, who coached the Atlanta Falcons this season before resigning Dec. 11, says the men upstairs are crucial to a sideline play-caller. "They tell you what defenders are in the box, that kind of thing," he says. "They have it tough, because they have to watch the game like this" — Petrino holds a piece of paper up against the side of his face as if cutting the view of the field in half — "so they don't look at the quarterback and what's going on. They're just watching the defense."

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden worked from the booth when he was the coordinator in Philadelphia but has been on the field since 1998 when he became head coach in Oakland. Being on the sideline, he says, "is a little bit maddening, because you don't get the privacy. You can't spread your sheets out; you can't really see the pre-snap looks; you can't see the substitutions. And there are a lot less distractions up in the box. The trainer doesn't talk to you. The player who was wide open doesn't talk to you. The guy who wants the ball doesn't come to talk to you. And you don't have to be in charge of the defense, with respect to the decisions and penalties and whole makeup of the game.

"But when you're up in the box, you can't yell at the official; you can't work them to get a call on the next series."

Gruden also likes the feel of the game on the sideline. He says he'll let players talk him into plays because he doesn't want to call an unpopular play. But most important, he treasures the direct line of communication with his quarterback. He wants to be able to read his emotions and his body language. "If I send a play in and I can see in the quarterback's eyes he doesn't like it," Gruden says, "I ain't calling it."

Detroit Lions coordinator Mike Martz is also a sideline guy. "I was up in the booth for the preseason last year and, at first, I was excited about it," he says. "But then I hated it. I couldn't talk to the quarterbacks the way I wanted. 'Tell Jon (Kitna) to …' I said, 'Aw, to heck with it.'

"On the sideline, you get into the feel and emotion of the game. I like being on the field more than I thought I would."

Steelers rookie head coach Mike Tomlin has always coached from the sideline, from his days directing Tampa Bay's secondary to last year as the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator.

"You can't cook from the living room," he says. "I think there is value in being able to look a man in the face and see what is going on with him."
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JCotchrocket · Sep 14, 2010

Now, the question: would it benefit the Jets to move Brian Schottenheimer to the booth?

Personally, I'm torn. It seems to me a significant gamble to seperate a second-year quarterback from his mentor. Then again, is Schotty a mentor? I'm not so certain. I don't recall Sanchez listening intently to Schotty's pep talk during "The Pouty-Faced Game" (Bills, pt I, last year). In fact, the only meaningful exchange I've seen between the two of them came during Hard Knocks: "This is easy Schotty, you suck!" Quite the father figure, that B-Schot.

Schottenheimer is no leader of men. What he is is a clever, creative tactician. It seems to me that the vantage point most suited for a coach with such qualities is in the booth, away from distraction, free to observe the entire field of play and play-call accordingly. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe Nick Mangold is Nick Mangold because Schotty lights a fire under his ass in between each series. If that's the case, the cameras surely missed that shot.

If Schotty moved to the booth, I think we'd see a marked diminishment in what I call "fucking inappropriate plays." I also think we'd see much better in-game adjustments, something that has seemed to elude BS. Of course, there are drawbacks.

For one, as the Jimmy Raye article above points out, relaying plays from the booth to the sideline to the quarterback is a timely process. For a team that likes to get set early and shift the night away, this might lead to more than an acceptable number of DoG's.

Secondly, who becomes Sanchez's sideline handler? I'd love Rex to step up; that won't happen. The responsibility would likely fall to Matt Cavanaugh. I don't know if he'd be an upgrade as a confidante for Sanchez. Maybe Callahan could do it. Callahan's got his own group, but the man has coached a few offenses in his day and it seems like a waste of valuable experience not to put him in a more prominent role.

Ultimately, this whole thread is probably irrelevant. I think coaches learn "booth" or "sideline" and stick with it for the majority of their careers. (Cynically, I also believe Schotty is always "auditioning," and would much prefer to be in front of the cameras). But I thought this might lead to an interesting discussion, not just on Schottenheimer, but also maybe on how Rex interacts with Pettine and the booth vs. sideline debate in general.

Anyway, it beats "Fire Schottenheimer!!!!1111!!!"

Jet In Brooklyn · Sep 14, 2010

How about in the East River?

Vorrecht · Sep 14, 2010

Jet In Brooklyn said: ↑

How about in the East River?
Click to expand...

I was going to say something, but that works.

Coordinators: Sideline vs. Booth

Put Schottenheimer in the Booth?

Yes. It's best suited for his style of coaching.

Yes for other reasons.

No. Schotty needs to mentor Sanchez.

No. It wouldn't improve anything, so why bother?

No. Relaying the plays takes too long.

Other (i.e. I like beer)

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Coordinators: Sideline vs. Booth

Put Schottenheimer in the Booth?

Yes. It's best suited for his style of coaching.

Yes for other reasons.

No. Schotty needs to mentor Sanchez.

No. It wouldn't improve anything, so why bother?

No. Relaying the plays takes too long.

Other (i.e. I like beer)

JCotchrocket Active Member

JCotchrocket Active Member

Jet In Brooklyn New Member

Vorrecht Active Member

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