The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach and former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski yesterday. The hire has been met with some mixed reactions, so I decided to ask someone who would know about him and his tendencies. Josh Kirkendall from SB Nation's Bengals blog Cincy Jungle was kind enough to give us a little scouting report on our new offensive coordinator.
During the best seasons of Bob Bratkowski's ten years as Cincinnati's offensive coordinator (2001 through 2010), he had Carson Palmer (before his eventual decline), Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmanzadeh all during the prime of their careers. Additionally Cincinnati had one of the best offensive lines in the NFL during that stretch, specifically in 2005 with multiple players either making the Pro Bowl or voted as an alternate.
During the prime of Cincinnati's offense in 2005, Bratkowski often called five to seven step drops, timing routes to T.J. Houshmanzadeh over the middle with Chad Johnson running the intermediary (10-15 yard square-in routes) and Chris Henry going vertical. From 2005 through 2010 (except 2009), Bratkowski had a 45 percent tendency throwing the football on first and ten and even if the pass fell incomplete, he ran the football on second down virtually every time.
Eventually Bratkowski's effectiveness declined with Cincinnati's inability to replenish the talent that departed, along with Carson Palmer's complete decline into mediocrity. It promoted and highlighted his lack of creativeness and inability to re-adjust to a defensive game-plan.