Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Sports Columnist
It is no secret that not every coach can be a genius. Not every coach has a knack for drawing up plays, and not every coach has situational awareness. However, some play calls in sports can not only be mind-boggling, but downright stupid. It makes you wonder, just what is the dumbest play call in all of sports?
Could it be the fake extra point in football? Could it be the half court shot in basketball? Well the answer might not be what you quite expect.
What makes this play extraordinarily stupid is not only the horrific results that it has produced, but also the amount of situations in which coaches call it and the smug look they get on their face when they do. If you have not already guessed it, I am talking about screen plays in football.
If you do not know what a screen play is, the core concept is essentially that the quarterback gets the ball to a receiver or running back behind a group of blockers. The player then tries to run behind his blockers and rip off a large chunk of yardage. Now, a full disclaimer that I am not saying that the screen pass in football will always fail. When called in the right situation and executed properly a screen play can catch the defense off guard and result in a big gain.
However, the almost ludicrous amount of times that the screenplay is called combined with its disastrous results makes it appalling that so many teams still use it.
If we want to truly understand the stupidity of the play, we must first examine the positives that keep it in the league. First off, as previously mentioned the screen play has been known to produce large amounts of yardage. By putting the ball in the hands of an athletic player you are giving them the chance to take advantage of matchups in the open field; it can result in a simple play ending with a 50 yard touchdown.
It is a true boom or bust type of play and the upside that comes with the boom has been enough to find it a permanent spot in NFL head coaches’ playbooks. In theory, this concept is very clever. It maximizes the big play potential of your players while not putting pressure on your quarterback to make a perfect pass down field.
Nevertheless, when you look at the actual results that the screen has produced from its time in the league, every argument for the screen starts to crumble apart. According to Bleacher Report, when a screen pass is completed in the NFL, the average distance behind the line of scrimmage is 4 yards. The runner is only able to make it back to the line of scrimmage 30% of the time that the pass is completed. Additionally, 20% of that 30% is making it back for no gain.
Because you are throwing the ball 5 yards backwards with defenders closing it, the screen only manages to get a positive gain 10% of the time!! When you compare that to the success rate of other plays such as a play action pass that is absurdly low. Now, you may be arguing, “well even though it only works 10% of the time you have a high upside play with little to no risk right?” WRONG! Not only is the play risky in terms of the results, it is risky in the sense that no play in the NFL has generated more pick sixes. Because screens are normally pretty obvious to identify, all a defender has to do is predict the timing of the throw and knock it away or even worse pick it then take it back to the house for 6 points the other way.
Additionally, the injury risk for your players is massive. Because you are constantly putting your player in a position where they are going to have to fake out multiple tacklers to get a gain, it can lead to players taking hard hits or awkward tackles. Why do you think Deebo Samuel demanded the 49ers stop using him in screen plays? Because every other down he was at risk of getting his head chopped off! In trying to get greedy and find a big gain coaches normally end up losing yardage and having their players get injured as well. So let’s quickly recap the pros and cons of this play:
Pros: Big play potential, sets athletic players up with open field matchups, miracle potential in the last second of a game.
Cons: High potential for lost yardage, high potential for turnovers, high potential for injuries, stat inflator, only viable in very specific situations.
This does not sound like a play you want to be calling at least twice every drive now does it?
Now, if you still ignore the facts and are not convinced, I will give you one more example of a team that has been sabotaged by this very play the entire season: The Miami Dolphins. With several track stars in Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle along with a nuanced coach in Mike McDaniel, Miami seems like the perfect team to be able to run screens. Unfortunately for my Dolphins, the screen has hurt them far more than it has helped them…In fact, it lost them two separate games!
Lets travel to Miami’s game vs. the Tennessee Titans. Early in the game, Miami is driving down the field already leading. After being stopped on 3rd down Miami is faced with 4th and 1. Mike McDaniel decides to go for it but does it in the worst way possible. Instead of running the ball up the gut with a dominant running back in Raheem Mostert, he calls a bubble screen 7 yards back to Tyreek Hill with one blocker. Hill obviously got stopped and the Dolphins would lose the game 27-28 having missed out on that one score that could have won them the game… but it gets even worse.
This was not the only time that the screen set Miami up for failure. Later on in the game McDaniel calls another 7 yard bubble screen again to Tyreek Hill. Hill is completely swarmed and taken down in a flurry of bodies. He would severely injure his ankle and this injury would not only cause him to miss the Jets game but also cost him a shot at a 2,000 yard season and a league MVP.
But, I am not done! Because if we go all the way back to the Miami Dolphins game against the Chiefs, one screen play was the reason they lost. In the red zone against the Chiefs, McDaniel calls (you guessed it!) a bubble screen to Tyreek Hill on the outside. Hill is swarmed and the football pops out into the hands of a Chiefs player who then laterals it back to another who runs all the way down the field for the score in a game where Miami lost by 1 touchdown.
Not only is the screen pass a disgrace to the integrity of the game, it has sabotaged the seasons of multiple teams. Coaches need to learn that just because the play worked once and allowed you to convert a 3rd and 11, IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU’RE SUDDENLY A FOOTBALL GENIUS.
While screens should not be fully removed from the league, coaches need to learn that a play with such a high risk should not be called in situations where there is an easy solution. Unfortunately, despite the results, teams will only continue to call this play thinking they have become the greatest play caller in NFL history and the screen will only continue to sabotage teams for years to come.