Pep Hamilton: Oakland Raiders Coaching Profile
The youngest of the candidates that have been linked to the Oakland Raiders‘ head coaching position is Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator, Pep Hamilton.
Background
At just 40 years young, Hamilton already has 17 years of coaching experience to his name.
After playing quarterback at Howard University for four seasons (1993-1996), Hamilton joined his alma mater the following season as the quarterback coach.
Two years into his tenure, Hamilton was promoted to offensive coordinator, while also maintaining his duties as QB coach.
NFL QB Coach
In 2003, Hamilton moved up to the NFL. He took a job with the New York Jets as an offensive assistant and also coached the quarterbacks and wide receivers during his three seasons in the Big Apple.
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In 2004, specifically, Hamilton was the Jets quarterback coach. Chad Pennington completed 65.4 percent of his passes to go along with a 16-to-9 touchdown to interception ratio during that season.
In 2006, Hamilton was hired to be the quarterback coach of the San Francisco 49ers. This was Alex Smith‘s second season, and he finished the year with a 58.1 completion percentage, 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.
Hamilton spent only one season in San Francisco before moving on to the same position with the Chicago Bears, where he spent the next three seasons (2007-2009).
The Bears fielded a three-man rotation of Brian Griese, Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton in 2007 alone, none of whom had much success during the season. In 2008, Orton started all but one game and posted a 58.5 percent completion percentage, throwing for 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
The next season, Jay Cutler joined Chicago and started all 16 games. Cutler notched 27 touchdowns, 26 interceptions, completed 60.5 percent of his passes and threw for 3,666 yards.
Time at Stanford
This would be Hamilton’s last season in Chicago, as he joined Jim Harbaugh‘s staff as the wide receivers coach at Stanford.
One season later, after Harbaugh’s departure, Hamilton was moved to quarterbacks coach and also was promoted to offensive coordinator.
Andrew Luck was his quarterback, and Stanford’s offense blossomed. Luck totaled 3,517 passing yards, 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. As a unit, the Cardinal offense ranked seventh out of 120 teams in total offense.
Luck entered the Draft following the season and Stanford’s offense understandably took a step back, but the team still did enough to earn a Rose Bowl victory.
Offensive Coordinator of the Colts
Hamilton returned to the NFL in 2013 as offensive coordinator of the Colts, reuniting with Luck.
The Colts finished 14th in total points and 15th in total yards in Hamilton’s first season. They also finished 17th in passing yards per game and 20th in rushing.
It was a mediocre year for Hamilton overall. His play calling was shaky at time, and if the offense would start to struggle, they would often stall instead of adapt.
In 2014, Hamilton’s second season, the Colts’ offense made strong improvements in most statistical categories.
The Colts finished third in the NFL in total yards per game and first in passing.
While healthy, Ahmad Bradshaw averaged 4.7 yards per carry and was a factor in the passing game too, catching 38 passes, including six touchdowns.
T.Y. Hilton also exploded onto the scene, tallying 82 catches for 1,345 yards and seven touchdowns.
Scheme and How He Fits the Raiders
Hamilton operates a West Coast offense that uses the run game to setup play-action and focuses on short, high-percentage throws for the quarterback.
In the run game, the Colts use a variety of formations to mix it up. Ranging from traps, counters and misdirections, jumbo sets, sweeps and runs out of shotgun, Hamilton gets creative in his efforts to get the run game going.
For Raiders fans, this would be a welcoming change and a far cry from Greg Olson’s constant halfback dives for no gain.
Latavius Murray has shown promise and the fans are certainly hopeful he can be the lead back next season. A particular strength of Murray’s is his vision. Given the variety of wrinkles in the run game, strong vision is a critical trait needed to excel in Hamilton’s system.
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As far as the passing game is concerned, Hamilton certainly enjoys the benefit of coaching Luck, but he does plenty to keep it creative. Even though the passing game is designed to be more efficient, focusing on quick routes to get players in space, the Colts have proved they can strike at any time. In 2014, the Colts offense led the league with 16 touchdowns coming outside of the red zone, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.
Carr possesses solid mobility similar to Luck’s (Luck ran 0.02 seconds faster in the 40 yard dash) and has outstanding arm strength, just as Luck does. He is still improving his footwork and his accuracy, but Carr certainly could thrive in an offense designed by Hamilton.
A few concerns that Colts fans have expressed with Hamilton is inconsistency with his play calling and usage of personnel. On third down in particular, Hamilton will sometimes over-think the situation and the offense will falter.
He’s also very young and has a small body of work in a leading role.
Similar to Todd Bowles, Hamilton has more of a quiet, laid-back personality. The difference is Bowles is spoken of as a guy who can command his defense and get fiery when need be, but most information on Hamilton says that he keeps it mellow most of the time.
With that being said, being a head coach is more about being a leader, motivating the team and getting the locker room prepared than it is about x’s and o’s.
Because of this, I think that Hamilton is a good, but not a great candidate for the Raiders.