Five Wide Fullbacks is back this week with another variety of questions that need to be answered. Today we’ll discuss the power of offensive coordinators, the big quarterback shuffle coming this NFL off-season, Irish in the Super Bowl, the growing legacy of Joe Burrow, and USC cashing in on the spoils of the Transfer Portal.

1) With Tom Brady and Big Ben retiring with some other big name players like Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson, and Russell Wilson potentially in new homes, where are the best organizations for quarterback to go to right now?

First, let’s scratch off the team’s we feel comfortable knowing they are not changing quarterbacks for 2022, including: Bills, Patriots, Jets, Bengals, Ravens, Titans, Jaguars, Chiefs, Chargers, Cowboys, Rams, and Cardinals. That leaves the following teams:

Dolphins, Steelers, Browns, Colts, Texans, Raiders, Broncos, Eagles, Commanders, Giants, Packers, Vikings, Bears, Lions, Buccaneers, Saints, Falcons, Panthers, 49ers, and Seahawks.

In terms of a landing spot, Houston, Denver, Washington, New York, Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Seattle all feel like a combination of weaker teams (Texans, Giants, Commanders, Lions, Seahawks) and/or franchise’s that are going to stick with what they have (Bears, Saints, Falcons, 49ers) for now. That leaves these top 8 destinations:

#8 Colts – They likely can’t get out of that Wentz contract until the year after next but we don’t like to see prime Quenton Nelson years wasted.

#7 Eagles – Philadelphia barely has any money tied up at quarterback, a lot of picks to play around with, and a decent roster.

#6 Dolphins – Tua has 2 more years remaining on his rookie deal but has been dangled as trade bait pretty consistently for a year or more.

#5 Raiders – Will Josh McDaniels be satisfied with the soon-to-be 31-year old Derek Carr going into the last year of his contract?

#4 Vikings – Kirk Cousins’ final year of his contract is already guaranteed but he’s turning 34 next season and this offense could use an upgrade if Minnesota could arrange something.

#3 Browns – Cleveland picked up the 5th year option on Baker Mayfield’s rookie deal and he’ll be involved in approximately 17 million trade rumors this year.

#2 Bucs – It looks like no Tom Brady opens up about $20 million in cap space for Tampa Bay. I’m sure this off-season they’ll see a little more roster upheaval but there are plenty of pieces to like if you’re a star quarterback.

#1 Steelers – This team made the playoffs with Big Ben basically unable to throw a football. If you’re a big name quarterback you have to love the franchise stability, stout defense, and enough pieces on offense to do some damage. Although, the division is pretty rough these days.

2) Is there any way to explain the rise of Joe Burrow since his second season at LSU? If the Bengals go on to win the Super Bowl where would Burrow’s legacy rank in football history after just 2 seasons in the NFL?

I can’t remember someone having this type of personal and team success so quickly from college to the NFL while being this likeable. I remember back in 2018 we maybe brought up Burrow once all season after he transferred from Ohio State to LSU. No one saw what was about to come in college for him in 2019.

Winning a National Championship, Heisman, and Super Bowl with the freaking Bengals all within a 2-year period would be dumfounding. Burrow should retire in the stadium in Los Angeles if this happens. Only Joe Namath and Joe Montana have won a National Championship and Super Bowl as a starting quarterback–kind of unbelievable right? If the Bengals win, Burrow will be the only one to have a Heisman with a title at each level.

It does seem a little too good of a story, doesn’t it? I wonder if Burrow is flying a little too close to the sun and there’s going to be a come down soon? For example, does he do something soon that makes a lot of people turn on his likeability? What if the Bengals get their doors blown off by the Rams and/or he suffers another major injury? I have a hard time seeing Cincinnati winning just because Burrow success would be way, way too much to handle and unfathomable. And, I think the Rams are better.

3) So, Caleb Williams to USC huh? Welp. We all saw it coming didn’t we? Can you make me feel better about this?

No, not really. I already wrote about Lincoln Riley coming to USC and the rivalry heating up. There’s enough evidence to show that the Trojans may have a much more bumpier ride than the hope of Williams under center provides.

Fair play, USC.

It’s the mobility of Caleb Williams that really scares me. USC traditionally has started brick-footed quarterbacks and the only time they didn’t in recent years is when Sam Darnold’s modestly decent running gave them 250 yards on the ground with the program winning 10 games and the Rose Bowl for their best season since Pete Carroll left town.

Williams can run for 1,000 yards and that will be really difficult to defend. It’s not like we can bank on Isaiah Foskey teeing off on a stationary target like has been the case against USC in the past.

4) If there was some sort of VORP for college football coordinators do you think offensive coordinators or defensive coordinators would have more value?

It’s more valuable to have the defensive mind. For a long time, I wanted a new head coach to follow Brian Kelly who had an offensive background. With Marcus Freeman, I think it may be better to know your head coach has that defensive background because offensive play-callers can be a little more interchangeable with similar results.

I looked back at the coordinators for the National Champions since 2013 and this is the list:

Offense: Todd Monken, Steve Sarkisian, Steve Ensminger, Tony Elliott, Jeff Scott, Brian Daboll, Mike Locksley, Lane Kiffin, Tom Herman, Ed Warriner, and Jimbo Fisher as his own OC for Florida State.

Defense: Dan Lanning, Glenn Schumann, Pete Golding, Charles Kelly, Dave Aranda, Brent Venables, Jeremy Pruitt, Tosh Lupoi, Kirby Smart, Luke Fickell, and Chris Ash.

Who among that list from offense is still thriving? Daboll did a great job with the Bills and will get to spread his wings as the Giants new head coach. Kiffin is doing well on his 5th reclamation project. Fisher is holding his own at Texas A&M. Elliott just got the Virginia job. Otherwise, it’s not great. Even if you want to substitute in Joe Brady for LSU’s Ensminger he struggled in 2 seasons with the Carolina Panthers and is now set to be a quarterbacks coach in Buffalo.

The defense list is much more appealing and even with some of the no-name guys you have to factor in Nick Saban and Kirby Smart being defensive head coaches.

To me, it feels like in today’s game talent level on offense is more important than ever. Nick Saban has cycled through 8 offensive coordinators with the reality being just don’t mess things up. On defense, I feel like structure, system, gameplan, and teaching fundamentals are more important than what you need on offense.

There’s a case to be made that really average offensive coaching and play-calling hurts you more than the same on defense where it’s easier to be reactive but I firmly believe steadier high-level defense is born more from coaching than what you see on offense. To this day, we’re still not really sure how LSU’s 2019 happened other than Burrow/Edwards-Helaire/Chase/Jefferson/Marshall/Moss being a perfect mix of talent to come together at once.

5) Ben Skowronek didn’t even get his own scouting report for the NFL Draft last year on this site and yet is one game away from wearing a Super Bowl ring. On the other side of the field we have Khalid Kareem with a chance to become NFL Champion. Which player are you rooting for more?

Kareem is one of my 10 favorite players from the Brian Kelly era so this isn’t even close for me. I was kind of shocked at how low he went in the Draft (5th round, 147th overall) and really thought he’d shine quickly for Cincinnati. Through 2 seasons that really hasn’t happened while dealing with some injuries limiting him to just 28 tackles, 2 TFL, and 1 sack so maybe his Draft slot was accurate.

Oh, Benny. 

Skowronek just snuck into the Draft last year 249th overall and 10 picks away from Mr. Irrelevant. That he pulled this off and made the Rams roster as a rookie has been amazing. Now, he did benefit from the injury to Robert Woods in November, although less so with OBJ being brought in to town mid-season. Prior to that Woods injury though, Skowronek had 3 targets and 3 catches all in the same game against the Texans from the Rams’ first 9 games. Immediately after the Woods ACL injury, Skowronek had 5 targets against the 49ers from 18 total targets in their last 12 games.

He’s clearly not a big part of this Rams offense but you never know when your big moment could come. Just don’t drop a sure touchdown in the end zone during the Super Bowl, my man.