And as Allen has taken his game to the next level, the offense has taken off. Walsh's 49ers won three Super Bowls during this period, behind the passing abilities of legendary quarterback Joe Montana. Smith's offenses have been great at it, producing the most expected points added per play over the past two seasons when handing it off on that scheme and the second-most EPA per play when showing that look and pulling the ball for play action. None of that sounds like anything the Saints have done the past 15 years. He stopped calling trips formations at a high rate, as well. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has created the perfect attack for quarterback, The Panthers ranked 20th in shotgun rate despite Brady playing almost every snap in the gun with, Head coach Zac Taylor didnt have to adapt his offense too much after the team drafted quarterback, was better. Some 41% of the 49ers' offense is based in either 21 (two backs and a tight end) or 22 (two backs and two tight end) sets. Strong-armed Ken Anderson, initially a "project" of Walsh's, replaced Carter as Cincinnati's starting quarterback in 1972 and was even more successful in his execution of Walsh's complicated, versatile patterns, leading the Bengals to a division title in his first year as starting quarterback. Its a pick-your-poison affair with two of the top players at their position creating high/lows and side-to-side stretches on defenders. Reich can certainly get back to all of these types of concepts, even with an older Wentz, to get the ball rolling a bit and make his quarterback comfortable. 51. HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- James Spady is bringing the pistol offense to Alabama A&M, but is still banking on winning with defense. Theyve run the ball at the eighth-highest rate during that time frame, as well. Given the bar that has been set, McCarthy and his West Coast system will need to stand up to the task. This explains the communication mistakes that commonly occur on West Coast offensive plays where the quarterback throws to a spot that the receiver is running away from. By adding a second running back into the backfield the offense now has a much more diverse selection of run plays. Aaron Rodgers is the trigger man in Mike McCarthy's modern version of the West Coast Offense. Wilson does not want to throw over the middle, so it will be interesting to see the give and take in the quick and dropback passing games. 2020 Pass Efficiency Rank: 10 Still, the moniker stuck. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 22. Although Mike Shanahan's tenure as Washington Redskins head coach wasn't completely successful, his tenure did produce 3 rising star head coaches: His son, Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur and Sean McVay. 2020 Pass Efficiency Rank: 11 Y Shallow Cross. . Last year, the Steelers played in shotgun at the fourth-highest rate in the league. His versatile offensive schemes, along with his high percentage passing game and emphasis on ball control, complemented the skills of Joe Montana, who implemented Walsh's visionary system with great success as the 49ers' starting quarterback. The Broncos are going to have to find a way to hide, Denver finished second last year in deep throw rate. The running game is complementary, with Alvin Kamara getting the stretch handoffs while Latavius Murray takes the downhill runs. They also arent a spread-option team like wed see in college. Oh, and the Chiefs also have, In 2020, Las Vegas quarterbacks threw the ninth-highest rate of deep passes. After years of living in the shadow of first the remnants of the West Coast offense and then the new spread offenses of the 2000s, the Mike Shanahan/Gary Kubiak/Alex Gibbs offense is finally making a breakthrough. Finizio was the anchor for the Croatan offensive line this season. 1. Although Walsh-influenced teams now commonly use formations with more or fewer than two backs, the offense's unevenness is still reflected in its pass protection philosophy and continues to distinguish it from single back passing offenses. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 14. However, McVay won Super Bowl LVI, when the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 8. They play with heavy personnel groupings, ranking first in 22 personnel rate (two backs, two tight ends), second in 21 personnel rate (two backs, three receivers) and fourth in 21 personnel rate (two backs, one tight end). PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. With the proper personnel, which I will get into below, you should be able to move the ball with machine-like efficiency. Beyond the basic principle of passing to set up the run, there are few rules that govern Walsh's West Coast Offense. 2020 Pass Efficiency Rank: 23 Bill Walsh was the leader in creating the system, which . 2020 Pass Efficiency Rank: 5 The rushing attack consists of a lot of downhill runs, such as duo, power and counter, although New York was just average, finishing 14th in EPA per rush on those combined runs. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. What will change is the Rams' tendency to call quick in-breaking routes for, Tampa Bay generated the fourth-highest rate of rushes where the running back made a cut away from the initial path. Bill Walsh actually created the offense as the quarterbacks coach and play caller for the Cincinnati Bengals in the late 1960s.. Walsh became known as one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time after leading the San Francisco 49ers (and Hall of Fame quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young) as their . Playbooks with this Play. Slants. Brown, the Titans have two of the best in-breaking route runners in the game. PA Ctr Waggle. Some 80% of those runs were leads. Jones is just an average short thrower, so its hard for the Giants to get out of first gear. Roger Craig was a leading receiver for the 49ers for many years and was a 1,000 yard rusher and 1,000 yard receiver in the 1985 season. The timing isn't ideal with spring practice just over a month away so the process to hire the next person has to happen quickly. Executing these plays successfully could establish momentum and dictate the flow of the game. Bernie Kosar used the term to describe the offense formalized by Sid Gillman with the AFL The driving philosophy of the system is "pass to set up the run." This is for all intents and purposes an option offense. LaFleur has led the Packers to 3 straight NFC North division titles, thanks to the passing skills of Aaron Rodgers. He would soon transform the 49ers from a mediocre team to a perennial league powerhouse, recalling the dominance of Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packer teams of the 1960s, and of Chuck Noll's Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s. It also gave the coaching staff an opportunity to run test plays against the defense to gauge their reactions in game situations. In blitz or short-yardage situations, many of the West Coast offense's strengths are negated by defenses blocking running and passing lanes. Head coach Frank Reich will look to run it back with Carson Wentz, his quarterback in Philadelphia when he was offensive coordinator there. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 10. It is now commonly referred to as the "Air Coryell" timed system, however, and instead the term West Coast offense is usually used to describe Walsh's system. into our offense. Thats all going to change in Year 1 post-Brees. Kingsbury decided to cut down on some of his tried-and-true Air Raid principles after his first season in charge, and it led to better efficiency with a second-year quarterback at the helm. Offensive coordinator Joe Brady came to Carolina from LSU, where they did only a few things but very well. In 1971, the Oklahoma offense set an NCAA record with 472.4 rushing yards per game, and the Sooners employed the offense all the way into the '90s en route to 12 Big 8 championships and three MNC's. For most of the rest of the league, the fullback was eventually reduced to a secondary role as a lead blocker for the featured tailback in the I . . University of Nevada head coach Chris Ault developed the Pistol offense in 2004 as a way to add a power running game to the spread formation. Despite often leading teams plagued by injuries, Shanahan has molded the 49ers into a physical, hard-nosed team with a potent run-first version of the West Coast offense. A running quarterback can compensate by acting as a runner himself, paralyzing an overly aggressive defense. Wilson has the easy release to be able to throw quick or intermediate in-breaking routes, just like what the 49ers have had Jimmy Garoppolo do in the past, but they will hope that Wilson isn't similarly blind to linebackers. This means we can expect a lot of two-man deep route concepts off of play action. Rich Gannon is a good example of a quarterback who fared better in one system than the other. Another aspect of the West Coast offense is the use of fast running quarterbacks. The Tua Tagovailoa era officially begins in Miami with co-offensive coordinators George Godsey and Eric Studesville. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let's just say that Cal didn't reach its offensive potential in 2019. New York, under the direction of the 49ers' East branch, will try to ease Zach Wilson into life as an NFL quarterback by giving him plenty of runs and bootlegs. 2020 Pass Efficiency Rank: 19 The Dolphins are going to try to run downhill with inside zone split and duo runs. They ranked just 21st in RPO rate when Burrow was injured. Curl Flats. That doesnt leave much room for straight dropbacks, but they havent been very good at them recently, either. Reggie Bush held that title for a few seasons before . The run game could get much better with all the jets and fake jet motion theyll give to newly signed wideout Curtis Samuel, which should unlock the defense. The next version of the Steelers' offense could be completely different from any attack weve seen before. And of course, they happen to have a premier one-two punch in Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson. All of this leads to an offense that ranked 28th in rate of passes of 15-plus yards. Almost all offenses now incorporate spread . Philadelphia needs to stay away from routes in the intermediate middle of the field because Hurts had trouble in that area last year. Before he suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 10, the offense ranked 22nd in EPA per play (.016), a jump from 29th and -.124 last season. There are two similar but distinct offensive strategic systems that are commonly referred to as "West Coast offenses". Another one-time member of Holmgren's coaching staff, Andy Reid, has successfully utilized the West Coast offense during his tenure as a head coach for both the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. The West Coast offense caused a split still evident today among quarterbacks; those who were more adept at the West Coast style: Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre, Tom Brady, and Matt Hasselbeck; and those more in tune with the old style: Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, and Peyton Manning. Five step and even 7 step dropbacks are now implemented in modern-day WCO's because defensive speed has increased since the 80's. And of course, they happen to have a premier one-two punch in, When the Patriots do get in shotgun to run the ball, 75% of those plays have some quarterback run element. Pistol. He has also developed what seems to be a promising, impressive coaching tree. The Pistol is a combination between the traditional Spread Offense run out of the shotgun formation and the Pro Style offense, which has two running backs lined up in various positions in the backfield.. Gannon struggled in the old style system but found great success with the Oakland Raiders and the West Coast system run by head coaches Jon Gruden and Bill Callahan. Since the routes are relatively short, and the pass leaves the quarterback's hand quickly, there is less need for additional blockers. Paul Hackett was another former assistant coach who once served under Walsh. [6] Today, the West Coast offense no longer only resides on the west coast, but can be found in schools across the nation, including Boise State,[7] and Vanderbilt. The Pistol formation is an offense that marries two other types of offenses together to make a new hybrid type of offense. Rice, who earned induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010, recorded 1,549 receptions, 22,895 receiving yards, and 208 total touchdowns, more than any other NFL player in all three categories. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 27. They were the No. That would entail a diverse run game where the Eagles use quarterback counter and quarterback power to go along with the option stuff and heavy play-action sets that allow Hurts to throw to deep crossing routes. This system compensated for any weakness in the quarterback's arm, as it allowed the ball to be thrown to short and intermediate routes where receivers with running ability could make up for any shortage in yards after the catch. Gruden's scheme and quarterback, The Chargers brought in longtime Saints coach Joe Lombardi to essentially Saints-ify their offense, although one would think that would be at odds with how Rookie of the Year quarterback, The Sean McVay offense in Los Angeles has always been a run-first, play-action later, drop back-never offense, but that may change after the team traded for, No team has run a higher percentage of play action since 2017 than the Rams (32.5%). With Cam Newton at the helm, the Patriots have switched to a run-heavy scheme. You can still find old-school tenets in head coach Jon Grudens current offense. What will change is the Rams' tendency to call quick in-breaking routes for Jared Goff. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 1. Waldron cant just come in and copy/paste the Rams' offense. Since 2018, he has been helped by superstar QB Patrick Mahomes. Hopefully that means more explosive pass plays, a metric the Football Team also ranked dead last in last year. The timed spots are often farther down field than in the Walsh-style offense, and the system requires a greater reliance on traditional pocket passing. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 11. TOTAL. Buffalo ran the fifth-most formations that we chart as two-back in the regular season, even without having a real fullback like the teams (Patriots, Vikings, 49ers, Ravens) ahead of them. Oh, and the Chiefs also have Patrick Mahomes. Staff. In the West Coast offense, the quarterback must be quick and accurate. The West Coast Offense as implemented under Walsh features precisely run pass patterns by the receivers that make up about 65% to 80% of the offensive scheme. 2020 Pass Efficiency Rank: 8 The West Coast system has been the foundation of Reid's offense ever since he began his NFL coaching career as an assistant on Mike Holmgren's Packers staff in the early 1990s. The Eagles could go that route, deploying a spread offense using zone reads and quarterback runs. That 2016 Bills team was a heavy pulling team, as it finished in the top 10 in both counter and power usage. (West Coast, Pistol, etc) and though the Beavers were 61% run last season with a good duo in the backfield, it was only a few years ago that . Originally the offense used two split backs, giving it an uneven alignment in which five players aligned to one side of the ball and four players aligned on the other side (with the quarterback and center directly behind the ball). 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 29. api-313469173. HB Counter. The Saints may cut down on some of their pass concepts and the number of formations in order to give cleaner looks to either Jameis Winston or Taysom Hill. After several years as a color commentator on ESPN Monday Night Football, he signed a deal to return to the Raiders as head coach for the 2018 NFL season. Shanahan then enjoyed a strong, lengthy tenure as head coach of the Broncos from 1995 to 2008. Montana thrived for many years as the starting QB for the 49ers. The term "West Coast offense", though most often associated with Cincinnati Bengals quarterback coach and, later, San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh, may actually derive from a remark made by then New York Giants coach Bill Parcells after the Giants defeated the 49ers 173 in the 1985 NFL Playoffs. OCTOBER 08, 2020. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 18. Subscribe $9.95/mo. Later in the game, an observed tendency in a certain situation by the opposing defense could be exploited. Thats both a Daniel Jones and Jason Garrett problem. Green Bay cut down on routes over the middle and used Aaron Rodgers elite speed release to continually hit out routes and go balls. As a team, the Eagles tallied the second-most rushes that were either quarterback-designed or had some sort of option element to them. Over one-third of the Titans' passes were off of play action last year, and that shouldnt change much. While at Louisville, Jackson operated a fair amount out of pistol looks. Shanahan also served as head coach of the Washington Redskins from 2010 to 2013, but his time in Washington was significantly less successful than his tenure with the Broncos. While outside zone did make up around 36% of San Francisco's runs the past two seasons, fifth-highest in the league, Shanahan also ranks top 10 in power and counter run rate. Offensive schemes in football ebb and flow from year to year, adapting along with the game itself. The offense might have to change drastically depending on who is playing quarterback. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 19. Ken Anderson later replaced Carter as Cincinnati's starting QB, and was even more successful. The Packers finished second in RPO rate, too, although most of those were screens easy ways to get the ball into Davante Adams hands. . It was popularized when Walsh was the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Offense | Updated 2/16 by JackOregon. Also, finding a spot for tight end Kyle Pitts where hes not asked to be a primary blocker in a system that has used tight ends like that will be important. HB Slip Screen. Then, from 2018-2022, Reid coached the Chiefs to 5 straight AFC Championship Game appearances. 2020 Rush Efficiency Rank: 7. The Titans lost offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to the Falcons, but given how good the offense has been the past couple of years, not much should change under Todd Downing who has been in Tennessee since 2019. The Seahawks, however, lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The 49ers are another outside zone team. They also should see their use of 31 formations, 24th in the league last year, increase with the addition of JaMarr Chase at the X receiver position. Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury is sticking to his Air Raid roots, and we can see that in his heavy use of 10 personnel (one running back, four receivers). They will also have to start targeting more routes in motion. As of the end of the 2022 NFL season, Reid has won 22 NFL playoff games, and he trails only Bill Belichick (31) for most postseason wins by an NFL head coach. PA Post Shot. The ground game is the foundation of the Ravens' scheme. Chicago was a heavy RPO, inside zone team in 2019 but moved, like the rest of the league, to an outside zone-based system. Freeman now gets to make his choice to run Notre Dame's offense. Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy's roots are in the West Coast Offense, which he's now bringing to The Star - with Dak Prescott and "2.5 seconds'' a centerpiece determinant for how well it'll . It worked with. Pederson served as head coach of the Eagles from 2016 to 2020. The horizontally stretching runs and play-action shots dominate the current NFL landscape, but that's not the only scheme teams are running. He is confined by the elite yet mercurial play of quarterback Russell Wilson. Those runs didnt actually go anywhere, though, producing just .008 EPA per play. Originally, Kosar had meant a comparison with the "Air Coryell" system used by West Coast teams in the 1970s, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders in particular. Louisville was more of a 10 and 11 personnel squad, while Baltimore currently leans more on heavier formations, but many of the same philosophies and concepts apply either way. That 2017 offense featured a lot of spread concepts, with the Eagles showing the eighth-highest rate of 11 personnel (one back, one tight end) in the league, the fourth-highest rate of shotgun snaps and the second-highest rate of RPOs. Kurt Warner (a disciple of a variation of Air Coryell) and Ben Roethlisberger (a traditional gunslinger) are notable examples of non-West Coast quarterbacks that found success in the "dink-and-dunk" system.