Reference Desk
Coaches’ reversal rate drops while replay booth reversal rate soars
2017 replay statistics
A year of many modifications to replay is coming to an end, and overall, the rate of reversals has dropped for the first time since the 2014 season. This year’s centralization of replay gave senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron and his team in the New York offices the ultimate decision on every play that is reviewed to maintain consistency among all games. This has become the subject of much scrutiny: while most plays that went to review were called controversially, yet correctly, others left fans a lot of room for interpretation.Â
Most of these notable rulings came on plays that were subject to automatic review, more commonly scoring plays and turnovers. Among these were a fumble returned for a touchdown in Week 1, touchdowns reversed to touchbacks in Week 6 and Week 10, and process of the catch reversals in Week 15 and Week 16. Although the coaches’ success rate is approximately 47.6%, which is a slight decrease from last year’s reversal rate of 48.8%, the rate of reversals by the replay booth jumped from 37.8% in 2016 to 44.0% this season.
All replay rates by coach (and the replay booth) are shown below. (Updated to reflect the 2 booth challenges from the Super Bowl.)
| Â | Coach | Â | Â | Reversals | Challenges | Success % | Postseason | Challenges | Overall % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dirk Koetter | TB | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | Â | Â | Â | |
| 2 | Jim Caldwell | †| DET | 4 | 5 | .800 |  |  |  |
| 3 | Marvin Lewis | CIN | 5 | 7 | .714 | Â | Â | Â | |
| 4 | Mike Zimmer | * | MIN | 5 | 8 | .625 | Â | 0 | .625 |
| 5 | Mike McCarthy | GB | 3 | 5 | .600 | Â | Â | Â | |
| Â | Pete Carroll | SEA | 3 | 5 | .600 | Â | Â | Â | |
| Â | Jay Gruden | WAS | 3 | 5 | .600 | Â | Â | Â | |
| 8 | Bruce Arians | †| AZ | 4 | 7 | .571 |  |  |  |
| Â | Bill O’Brien | HOU | 4 | 7 | .571 | Â | Â | Â | |
| Â | Doug Marrone | * | JAX | 4 | 7 | .571 | 2 | 2 | .667 |
| 11 | John Harbaugh | BAL | 5 | 9 | .556 | Â | Â | Â | |
|  | Kyle Shanahan | ¹ | SF | 5 | 9 | .556 |  |  |  |
| 13 | Chuck Pagano | †| IND | 4 | 8 | .500 |  |  |  |
| Â | Ron Rivera | * | CAR | 3 | 6 | .500 | Â | 0 | .500 |
|  | Sean McVay | * ¹ | LAR | 3 | 6 | .500 |  | 0 | .500 |
|  | Anthony Lynn | ¹ | LAC | 2 | 4 | .500 |  |  |  |
| Â | Adam Gase | MIA | 2 | 4 | .500 | Â | Â | Â | |
| Â | Bill Belichick | * | NE | 2 | 4 | .500 | 0 | 1 | .400 |
| Â | Sean Payton | * | NO | 2 | 4 | .500 | 0 | 2 | .333 |
|  | Steve Spagnuolo | †‡ | NYG | 1 | 2 | .500 |  |  |  |
| — | Replay booth |  | NFL | 110 | 247 | .445 | 7 | 21 | .437 |
| 21 | Jack Del Rio | †| OAK | 4 | 9 | .444 |  |  |  |
| 22 | John Fox | †| CHI | 3 | 7 | .429 |  |  |  |
|  | Mike Mularkey | * †| TEN | 3 | 7 | .429 | 1 | 1 | .500 |
| 24 | Dan Quinn | * | ATL | 2 | 6 | .333 | Â | 0 | .333 |
| Â | Andy Reid | KC | 2 | 6 | .333 | Â | Â | Â | |
| Â | Doug Pederson | * | PHI | 2 | 6 | .333 | 1 | 1 | .429 |
| Â | Todd Bowles | NYJ | 1 | 3 | .333 | Â | Â | Â | |
| 28 | Hue Jackson | CLE | 2 | 8 | .250 | Â | Â | Â | |
| 29 | Sean McDermott | * ¹ | BUF | 1 | 4 | .250 |  | 0 | .250 |
| 30 | Jason Garrett | DAL | 1 | 5 | .200 | Â | Â | Â | |
| 31 | Ben McAdoo | †| NYG | 0 | 1 | .000 |  |  |  |
| 32 | Vance Joseph | ¹ | DEN | 0 | 3 | .000 |  |  |  |
| 33 | Mike Tomlin | * | PIT | 0 | 4 | .000 | Â | 0Â | .000 |
| — | Coach’s total |  |  | 86 | 182 | .473 | 4 | 7 | .476 |
(2016 final replay statistics) Totals including the replay official, regular season and postseason: 207/457, .453
¹-First-year head coach, not including interim assignments. *-Playoff team. †-No longer with team. ‡-Interim coach. Ranked by regular-season success rate. Sources: NFL game statistics, Football Zebras research.
