In a season with vast replay changes and many notable reviews, not much has changed statistically, as the success rate of coaches’ challenges is currently mirroring last year’s rate. Coaches are ½ challenge below 50 percent, which is the same as 2016 (including postseason). Perhaps the biggest change in replay this year is the centralization; giving senior vice president of officiating Alberto Riveron and his team in the New York offices the final word on every play that is reviewed to maintain consistency among all games. Initially, it seemed as if the officiating department was staying with the calls on the field a lot more often, but as the season progressed, there have been a lot more reversals.
As a result, the rate of reversals when the red flag is tossed continues to climb very slightly. This has been the case since 2014, when the referee was first connected to New York to consult with his bosses before making a decision. Now, the roles are flipped: the referee doesn’t have that decision, and he can only provide input. However, this large-scale modification has not shown virtually any change in replay reversals at this halfway point in the season.
The coaches’ average sits just above the replay booth success rate of approximately 47.3%. While four of the five first-year head coaches have been granted a reversal only a third of the time or less, 49ers rookie head coach Kyle Shanahan leads the pack with four correct challenges out of four.
All replay rates by coach (and the replay booth) are shown below. Dirk Koetter (TB) and Mike Mularkey (TEN) have not challenged any calls this season.
| Coach | Reversals | Challenges | Success % | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Shanahan | ¹ | SF | 4 | 4 | 1.000 |
| John Harbaugh | BAL | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | ||
| Jim Caldwell | DET | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | ||
| Dan Quinn | ATL | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | ||
| Bill Belichick | NE | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | ||
| Jay Gruden | WAS | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | ||
| 7 | Doug Marrone | JAX | 2 | 3 | .667 | |
| Mike Zimmer | MIN | 2 | 3 | .667 | ||
| Pete Carroll | SEA | 2 | 3 | .667 | ||
| 10 | Marvin Lewis | CIN | 3 | 5 | .600 | |
| 11 | Chuck Pagano | IND | 3 | 6 | .500 | |
| Mike McCarthy | GB | 2 | 4 | .500 | ||
| John Fox | CHI | 1 | 2 | .500 | ||
| Jason Garrett | DAL | 1 | 2 | .500 | ||
| Andy Reid | KC | 1 | 2 | .500 | ||
| Adam Gase | MIA | 1 | 2 | .500 | ||
| Sean Payton | NO | 1 | 2 | .500 | ||
| Todd Bowles | NYJ | 1 | 2 | .500 | ||
| Doug Pederson | PHI | 1 | 2 | .500 | ||
| — | Replay booth | NFL | 53 | 112 | .473 | |
| 20 | Hue Jackson | CLE | 2 | 5 | .400 | |
| 21 | Sean McDermott | ¹ | BUF | 1 | 3 | .333 |
| Ron Rivera | CAR | 1 | 3 | .333 | ||
| Anthony Lynn | ¹ | LAC | 1 | 3 | .333 | |
| Jack Del Rio | OAK | 1 | 3 | .333 | ||
| 25 | Vance Joseph | ¹ | DEN | 0 | 1 | .000 |
| Ben McAdoo | NYG | 0 | 1 | .000 | ||
| 27 | Bruce Arians | AZ | 0 | 2 | .000 | |
| Bill O’Brien | HOU | 0 | 2 | .000 | ||
| Sean McVay | ¹ | LAR | 0 | 2 | .000 | |
| 30 | Mike Tomlin | PIT | 0 | 3 | .000 | |
| — | Coach’s total | 38 | 77 | .494 |
(2016 final replay statistics) Totals including the replay official: 91/189, .481
¹-First-year head coach, not including interim assignments. Source: NFL game statistics, regular season only.
Ben Austro contributed to this report.
Photo: Kansas City Chiefs
You’ve found the one metric by which Rex Ryan coached better than McDermott. I’ll stick with McDermott nonetheless.