The 5 O’Clock Club: Washington’s OL coach, Bobby Johnson

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…

The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.

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The one coaching hire this offseason that was met with a lot of WTF and face-palm emojis when it was announced was that of Bobby Johnson, the offensive line coach.

On a site that is literally named for an NFL offensive line unit, it seems like a good idea to spend a few minutes trying to figure out why Bobby Johnson was the choice of Dan Quinn and Kliff Kingsbury to fill this important role.

I read a really interesting comment last week from LASkin:

There is a potential clue about why they hired [Bobby Johnson]…. Apparently [NY Giants head coach Brian] Daboll insisted that the OL be able to block using both gap and zone schemes. Most OL coaches do one or the other, but he has taught both to the same lines.

The blocking scheme in WAS is probably unsettled. Kingsbury came up in a zone system in college but he began incorporating gap concepts at AZ. Brian Johnson used a gap scheme at Philly. But Run Game Coordinator Anthony Lynn is a zone guy all the way. Bobby Johnson let them hedge their bets until they work out the scheme, or hybrid scheme, they want.

The blocking scheme is a nontrivial issue. The two schemes have different logics.

A gap system tries to blow holes (gaps) in the defense with power, counters, and traps, with each OL taking on a specific defender they want to move (with alternates, such as a LB, depending on how the play unfolds).

In a ZBS, you don’t take a man, you take an area (zone) and take on anyone who gets in it. The two schemes have different skill sets and most OL are better at one than another.

One reason a hybrid may be problematic is the set of comments claiming that Johnson’s lines had systematic problems with communication and coordination. An OL isn’t a jazz band, it’s a small chamber orchestra. You double the communication and coordination burden in a hybrid scheme because players have to learn how to do it in both gap and zone, which have different logics and ways of coordinating.

The bottom line of this comment was that, with an offensive staff comprised of coaches from different backgrounds, at the time that Johnson was hired, Kingsbury, Brian Johnson, and Anthony Lynn may not have yet figured out what kind of blocking scheme they would eventually commit to. That made Bobby Johnson an attractive choice because of his experience in teaching both schemes meant that he could do either once the choice was made and the offense designed.

I don’t think I’m reading too much into the comment to say that there is an implied criticism of Brian Daboll for insisting on teaching both schemes to his offensive line. I get the sense that this is intended to provide a little cover to Bobby Johnson for the Giants’ OL deficiencies in 2023.

It made me wonder if there was more to Bobby Johnson than the horrible performance of the Giants offensive line that we all witnessed in 2023.

I’m no film analyst, and even if I were, I wouldn’t be willing to put in the incredible amount of time it would take to analyze five seasons of film to get a better feeling for BJ’s skills as an offensive line coach just for the purposes of this article. What I was looking for was a quick & easy way to get an impression of why DQ & KK would bring Bobby Johnson on board.

I decided to look at his 5 seasons as OL coach, which conveniently happen to have been with just 2 teams over consecutive seasons. Johnson was the offensive line coach for the Bills from 2019-21, and then with the Giants in ‘22 & ‘23. He didn’t get fired in between; when Brian Daboll earned a promotion from offensive coordinator of the Bills to head coach of the Giants, he brought Johnson with him.

Not being a very creative thinker, I figured I’d simply look at a few easy-to-find traditional statistics:

• won-loss record
• rushing ranks (total yards & yards per attempt)
• passing ranks (total yards & sacks allowed)

I’m not sure how much these stats correlate to offensive line coaching, but this was a low-effort exercise on my part.

The chart paints, I think, a more promising picture than the snapshot of the Giants 2023 disaster alone.

First of all, Johnson has been mostly coaching winners for the past 5 years. His teams have had winning records in 4 out of 5 seasons, with a pair of division championships in there.

Secondly, his teams have had pretty good success running the ball. His units ranked in the top 25% of the league in rushing yards in 3 out of 5 seasons, and they were top-5 in yards per attempt in each of those three seasons. In none of these 5 seasons did one of these offenses finish in the bottom-third in rushing.

Thirdly, success in the passing game has been mixed. Two out of three seasons in Buffalo, the offense was among the top-10 in passing yards, and in all three seasons, they were in the top-half of the league in sacks allowed, leading the league in 2021. His two seasons with Daniel Jones & Co were…well…disastrous. The team’s passing statistics were very bad in 2022 and worse in ‘23. The Giants gave up more sacks in 2023 than any other team, including Washington (NY 85; WAS 65). The focus was on the Commanders because of the number of times Sam Howell got sacked. Because Daniel Jones got injured in the middle of the season, people stopped counting.

I’m not sure what all this means, if anything at all. I do feel more encouraged about Johnson. First of all, I’m impressed that Daboll brought him along when he got promoted. Secondly, I see more green on the chart above than red — and, the red is isolated to two seasons and one team, while the green encompasses 4 seasons and 2 teams.

At the very least, I feel a little better about DQ’s decision to hire Bobby Johnson, whose career seems to be about more than the 2023 disaster in New York.