How Recent Coaching Moves Impact Fantasy Football

By Vincent Frank on Monday, January 4th 2016
How Recent Coaching Moves Impact Fantasy Football

It's hard to gauge how specific players will be impacted by coaches being fired in the days following the end of the regular season. At the very least, understanding who will be replacing said coaches plays a larger role in terms of fantasy football. 

With all that said, there have been some major moves take place around the NFL since the regular season concluded on Sunday. 

Here is a look at those moves and what they might mean for some of the top fantasy players. 

Philadelphia Eagles Fire Chip Kelly

This is an interesting thing to look at. Running Kelly's system in the season finale on Sunday, interim head coach Pat Shurmur led the Eagles to a 35-30 win over the New York Giants. 

Soon-to-be free agent quarterback Sam Bradford completed 30-of-38 passes for 320 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in the win. Meanwhile, the all but forgotten DeMarco Murray tallied 69 yards on 12 attempts, including a season-long run of 54 yards. 

Continuing what was a tremendous late-season run, Zach Ertz caught all nine of the passes thrown in his direction for 152 yards. That brings his four-game total to end the season to 35 receptions for 450 yards. 

The two knowns here are Murray and Ertz. Both will be back in Philadelphia next season. Meanwhile, we have no idea what's going to happen with Bradford. 

Any coach replacing Kelly wouldn't act as an upgrade from a fantasy perspective here. Simply due to his fast-paced offense, players had more opportunities to put up fantasy points. That's the one thing to consider if you are looking to make some trades in dyno leagues before this situation is settled

 

San Francisco 49ers Fire Jim Tomsula

When Carlos Hyde went down with a season-ending injury back in Week 7, the 49ers became a irrelevant from a fantasy perspective. Dead last in the NFL in points scored, there was not a single player on the team's offense that could be relied on to put up solid numbers on a consistent basis. 

Now that Tomsula, and most likely his entire coaching staff is gone, things change a great deal here. 

The expectation has to be that San Francisco will seek out an offensive-minded head coach with both Chip Kelly and Sean Payton already showing interest in the job. 

If one of those big-name coaches comes aboard, it would be absolutely huge for an offense with some untapped talent. It would also indicate that Colin Kaepernick might be returning after it seemed that he would be gone just a couple short months ago. 

 

Tom Coughlin Resigns

Who doesn't want to see Eli Manning and Odell Beckham play in a fast-paced offense? With all due respect to Coughlin and his offensive coordinator, Ben McAdoo, that simply hasn't been the case over the past couple seasons. 

As likely the most attractive head coaching opening, the Giants should draw interest from the best candidates out there. If they choose to go offense, that will most definitely be something to keep an eye on. 

 

Cleveland Browns Fire Mike Pettine

There really isn't much to see here. Outside of Pettine's firing, reports over the weekend suggested that Johnny Manziel is done in Cleveland. While Manziel wasn't going to be a fantasy option heading into the offseason, this pretty much indicates that Cleveland will go quarterback early in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft. 

Most candidates linked to Cleveland since it fired Pettine have been those who specalize on the offensive side of the ball. In this, the likes of Duke Johnson and Travis Benjamin could become interesting mid-to-late round options depending on the hire. 

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