The up or down game may be over for the Falcons, and you’ll see offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian calling plays from field level when Atlanta plays at Jacksonville Friday night.
That will be his third consecutive preseason game punching the clock amid sideline traffic with players, coaches and noise, noise, noise all around. He likes it there.
Last preseason, in his first tour as an NFL offensive coordinator, the long-time college coach worked both from the upper-level coaching box and the sideline. Then, he began the regular season on the sideline before head coach Dan Quinn asked him in mid-October to move upstairs.
Quinn had reasons.
It’s very quiet up there, and a year earlier, previous coordinator Kyle Shanahan found staggering success running the show from that bird’s-eye-view as the Falcons paced the NFL in multiple offensive categories on the way to the Super Bowl.
Sarkisian, though, is more comfortable calling plays from the sideline, as he did in stints as an offensive coordinator and/or head coach with USC, Washington, USC again and even for Alabama for one game — the national championship against Clemson after the 2016 season.
This is his preference, and Quinn is acquiescing.
Sarkisian likes interacting on the sideline with players and coaches between possessions rather than chatting via radio headset from afar.
“What it does for me is that’s just what I’ve been used to in my whole career,” he said. “I like having the rapport with the quarterback, with Matt [Ryan]. I love the dialogue, to be able to see the players talk, make adjustments.”
The boss man seems cool with this in part because he and general manager Thomas Dimitroff hired quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp a few months back, and they consider the long-time NFL quarterback coach and offensive coordinator quite the asset.
He’s working upstairs, constantly relaying information into Sarkisian’s headset on the sideline.
“The reason why is because . . . Greg Knapp [is] in the box,” Quinn said. “Greg brings a lot of experience to us both as a quarterback coach and as a play caller. His eyes up in the press box are really valuable, too. As it stands today, I’m comfortable with how it looks.
“[Knapp] would tell him what he sees. He would give instant feedback on the way somebody is playing something . . . the safety is playing this. The linebacker is playing this . . .”
Shanahan called plays from the sideline in his first season with Atlanta, 2015, and then decided to probe changes in NFL communications protocol to move upstairs in 2016. Coaches were for the first time able to speak directly from the box into the quarterback’s helmet headset.
He also valued the work space before him, not to mention the relative serenity of the coaching box vs. NFL sidelines.
“You weren’t allowed to talk to the quarterback at length before up there and this is the first year for that,” Shanahan told SB Nation that season. “You had to talk to someone else who then got the play to the quarterback. That cost you four seconds.
“Once the rule changed, I wanted to try it out. I’ve found it to be more relaxing. You get to gather your thoughts. Study. See what happens more clearly. Prepare better. Spread out your work. On the sidelines, you see pictures, you’re talking, distracted.”
Sarkisian said last season was the only year in his career that he called plays from the coaching box.
Quinn said after last Friday’s game against Kansas City that Sarkisian’s game-day station would continue to be evaluated, but strong signs suggest that a decision on his spot has been made: he’ll hang around the big, sweaty dudes when feathers fly for real.
He so values receiving direct feedback from offensive players that the sideline feels like home.
“There’s advantage to being up top, too. Your view is much different. You can see things differently, but I’m fortunate having Greg Knapp with us now, who has so much experience being up top and relaying information,” Sarkisian explained.
“I just feel good about being on the field, and we’ll continue that way.”
Nothing here says that up is right, down is wrong, nor vice-versa.
It’s a choice, and decisions to allow a play caller to work from the sideline depends partly on the pedigree of whomever serves as the eye in the sky.
“We won a Super Bowl with Pittsburgh (in 2006) with me calling it from the box and we lost one with Arizona (2009) with me calling it from the sideline,” longtime NFL offensive coordinator and head coach Ken Whisenhunt told SB Nation in 2016.
“I see the pluses and minuses to both. There isn’t any question that you see more of the field from upstairs. But there isn’t any question that you are more detached.”
Sark doesn’t want to do detachment. He’s not much interested in game-day peace, and Quinn appears to be down with that, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. As a long-time defensive line coach and defensive coordinator, he game-dayed it from the sideline.
“Right now, I’m comfortable with where he’s seeing it and getting the calls in quickly,” the head coach said. “He has more experience that way. All of his time in college, he’s done it from where he was on the field. If that works better for us then I’m all for it.”
