Notre Dame football fans and former quarterback and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees have had a complicated relationship over the years. As a player for the team from 2010-13, most Irish supporters respected Rees for giving them everything he had. He wasn’t an overly talented quarterback, but he gave the program all he could muster, and held whatever role they asked of him.
Then his coaching career began, one that began to really sour fans on him. Despite having almost no coaching experience, Rees was seemingly handed a job as the team’s quarterback coach in 2017. Just a couple years later, he was given the title as offensive coordinator at just 29 years old. The age wasn’t what turned people off mostly, it’s whether Rees was given this opportunity off of merit or relationship.
Over the next three years as offensive coordinator, it was a very mixed bag for Rees in South Bend, and mostly underwhelming. He never ranked better than 20th in scoring offense nationally, including finishes of 33.4 points per game in 2020 (30th), 35.2 points per game in 2021 (20th), and 31.8 points per game in 2022 (42nd). The resume is nothing to boast about, yet Rees has routinely gotten the “boy genius” label and seems to be well-liked in coaching circles.
Despite leading the Irish to their worst scoring offense since 2018 in his final year, Rees was able to parlay his experience with a massive new opportunity. This time from legendary coach Nick Saban , who hired Rees as the new offensive coordinator in 2023 at the University of Alabama . The Crimson Tide experienced more inconsistencies under Rees, finishing 24th in college football while averaging 34 points per game.
The year before Rees went down to Tuscaloosa, Alabama averaged 41.1 points per game. Under new head coach Kalen DeBoer , the Crimson Tide are averaging 41.7 points per game so far this season despite working with largely the same skill position talent. Obviously true freshman Ryan Williams was a huge addition to the team, but they also lost Isaiah Bond to Texas this offseason, so that largely does even out.
The outlier output was Rees, who has garnered a reputation for being a run heavy play caller who struggles to consistently create explosive passing games. With that in mind, the Cleveland Browns decided to hire Rees after the coaching staff at Alabama as their passing game specialist (actually?) and tight ends coach.
That Browns offense has been special alright. Under Rees, along with the rest of the Cleveland offensive coaching staff, the team has averaged just 15.8 points per game so far this season and that ranked 30th out of 32 teams. The weakest part of the unit, you guessed it, is the passing game.
Quarterback Deshaun Watson has been the butt of jokes this season, and for good reason. He is statistically having the worst season of his career. From an efficiency perspective, he has been awful. His 76.6 passer rating of 76.6 ranks 29th in the league, and is considerably the lowest of his career. The only year that was even close was 79.1 in 2022, which he only played in six games for a very small sample size.
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Watson also has a 5.1 yards per attempt average, which ranks 35th in the NFL out of quarterbacks with at least 50 passing attempts. That average is behind the likes of Tyler Huntley, Aidan O’Connell, and Jacoby Brissett. That number would also be the lowest of his career.
His completion percentage ranked 27th at 61.3 percent, and yardage total is 23rd with 1,020 yards through the air. The per game passing yards average of 170 for the Browns is only behind the New England Patriots and the Tennessee Titans. Watson has just five passing touchdowns in six games, tying Will Levis, Bo Nix and Justin Fields so far.
Clearly it’s all Watson’s fault, right? That’s been a take that has been out there. While he is undoubtedly playing very poorly, other passing game weapons have also taken a step back.
Wide receiver Amari Cooper is statistically having his worst season of his career so far. In those six games, he has made just 24 receptions for 250 yards and two touchdowns. His receptions and yardage totals are the lowest he would have had on a per game average. Funny enough Cooper does share the team lead with those two touchdowns, tied with Rodney McCleod, who is a defensive back.
Cooper has also suddenly forgotten how to catch the football. In six games, he leads the NFL with nine drops. That is four more than the next closest player on the list. All of a sudden the five-time Pro Bowler doesn’t remember how to play football.
Both Jerry Jeudy (20 receptions for 248 yards and a touchdown) and Elijah Moore (16 receptions for 95 yards) are off to two of the worst years of their careers as well. The same is true of David Njoku, who has just 10 receptions for 89 yards in three games. Njoku is fresh off his first Pro Bowl berth last season, but you wouldn’t be able to tell based on the film every Sunday.
We have seen a quarterback, and every passing game weapon regress in one season, which is obviously a really bad sign for the coaching staff. While it would be irresponsible to blame Rees fully for that regression, he’s obviously a part of it. You can just add it to the underwhelming passing game outputs he has had over the years.
Despite that, I’m sure the next job will be even better. It shouldn’t be long until Rees is the head coach of your favorite NFL team. Maybe at the end of his career, he can write a book called “Failing Upward.” Let’s just hope that the resume for Rees someday does match his reputation.
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