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Success rate of coach’s challenges up slightly

NFL head coaches were able to maintain a similar success rate to 2015 when tossing the red flag through the first 14 weeks of the regular season.

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Replay statistics through Week 14

Following last year’s spike in replay challenges, NFL head coaches were able to maintain a similar success rate when tossing the red flag through the first 14 weeks of the regular season. At the conclusion of last season, reversals following a coach’s challenge occurred 45.8% of the time. This increase from the 2014 season took place as coaches became acclimated to the strict standard of evidence standard with senior vice president of officiating Dean Blandino as a “second voice” under the hood. At this point in the season, there is a minimal increase of only 3% in won challenges by coaches, and challenges by the replay officials (which are not constrained by loss of timeouts or challenges) are roughly the same rate as  in 2015.

More than half of head coaches are at or over 50% in their success rate, even though the current average is just under that mark. Rex Ryan and Doug Pederson share the lead for most coach’s challenges, with 8. Last season, Ron Rivera challenged the most, and although he is near the top of the list for accuracy, he has only challenged 4 times this season. Jaguars coach Gus Bradley and Ryan have had the most reversals with 5.

   Coach       Reversals Challenges Success %
1 Gary Kubiak   DEN 3 3 1.000
   Bill Belichick   NE 1 1 1.000
3 Ron Rivera   CAR 3 4 .750
   Chip Kelly   SF 3 4 .750
5 Gus Bradley   JAX 5 7 .714
6 Todd Bowles   NYJ 4 6 .667
   Dan Quinn   ATL 2 3 .667
   Mike McCoy   SD 2 3 .667
9 Rex Ryan   BUF 5 8 .625
10 Mike McCarthy   GB 3 5 .600
11 Sean Payton   NO 4 7 .571
12 Doug Pederson  ¹ PHI 4 8 .500
   Mike Zimmer   MIN 3 6 .500
   John Harbaugh   BAL 2 4 .500
   Chuck Pagano   IND 2 4 .500
   Jack Del Rio   OAK 2 4 .500
17 Ben McAdoo  ¹ NYG 1 2 .500
   Dirk Koetter  ¹ TB 1 2 .500
— Replay booth    NFL 57 148 .385
20 John Fox   CHI 2 6 .333
   Jeff Fisher † LA 2 6 .333
   Jason Garrett * DAL 1 3 .333
   Jim Caldwell   DET 1 3 .333
   Andy Reid   KC 1 3 .333
   Mike Tomlin   PIT 1 3 .333
   Mike Mularkey   TEN 1 3 .333
   Jay Gruden   WAS 1 3 .333
28 Hue Jackson   CLE 1 4 .250
   Bill O’Brien   HOU 1 4 .250
   Pete Carroll * SEA 1 4 .250
30 Adam Gase  ¹ MIA 0 1 .000
31 Marvin Lewis   CIN 0 2 .000
32 Bruce Arians   AZ 0 3 .000
— Coach’s total       63 129 .488

(2015 final replay statistics) Totals including the replay official: 120/277, .433  
 ¹-First-year head coach, not including interim assignments. *- Playoff team. †-No longer with team. Source: NFL game statistics, regular season only. Does not include Thursday night Week 15 results.

Cam Filipe is a forensic scientist from Massachusetts and has been involved in football officiating for 11 years. Cam is in his third season as a high school football official. This is his eighth season covering NFL officiating for Football Zebras.

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