The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Lessons from the NFL's best offenses in 2021

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

Diante Lee is back with Robert Mays and Nate Tice to talk about the lessons we learned from the NFL’s best offenses in 2021. They dive into dig routes, QB’s who punish the blitz, schemes to get the ball out quickly and much more. Plus, stay tuned for the trailer of the new narrative podcast series, ‘Luck.’ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. Today's Friday, July 1st. I'm Robert Mays. Really fun show for you guys today. Talking about some offensive lessons. We did the defensive version of this pod a couple weeks ago. Just the lessons we've learned from rewatching some of the best offenses from the NFL in 2021.

Here to help me do that, my good friend, Nate Tice. Nate, how you doing, buddy? Doing very well. Oh, yeah, the phone call we had this morning was pretty funny when you're like, why are you tweeting about the Rams defense if we're talking about offense today? I was watching A.J. Brown. Don't worry, don't worry. But that was not, I was mostly trying to tease out an idea we're going to do next week.

So just like getting the juices flow. I'm very curious. How are you feeling about these historic USC Wisconsin matchups that you're going to be able to watch in the dead cold of November? It's great. It's great. Can't wait to go to the Coliseum. I'm excited for a. USC Northwestern week before Thanksgiving game.

Like that, that is something I'm looking forward to. I am so pumped. If you're a kid like went to modern day, right? Like you have all these high stakes high school games. You grew up in Southern California. You've known nothing but playing 70 degrees beautiful. Every game matters.

It's November 12th at what feels like 9 a.m. to you at Ryan Field playing to a half empty team or half empty stadium. I cannot wait for that moment for that kid. Yeah. Those empty stadium games are a little different when it's like, oh, we're in the Bay area. this isn't so bad. But now, oh, yeah.

Imagine going to Indiana. Yeah, you're in Champagne. Purdue, West Lafayette. Yeah, that's a good one right there. Also joining us who's giving us consistent, I am disgusted at this conversation looks right now is Southern California resident. Tiante Lee. I don't know what any of these struggles are.

And I really don't wish to know. It's actually, it's funny. I'm putting on a little extra show. Nate knows because he's in our group chat. I've been giving justice a hard time about this, Justice Mosquita about this move for the last like hour or so as an Oregon fan. Because my big takeaway from this is like, oh, so all that Phil Knight Nike money doesn't do enough for the TV deal to keep the LA school is happy.

So I've been putting the fight on the fight song on repeat for like the last hour or so celebrating this on USC's. the half. It's going to be really interesting. Yeah. I'm excited for those, like I said, the other winner, I know the Big Ten people are high-fiving over like UCLA Indiana basketball. A what? Like that, that is like the other. That's cash money. Print money for media right. We don't need the battle for Atlantis. We got the Big Ten battles of conference play. It does give you an excuse every, if you want to, Nate. I mean, now you got a little Palm Tree action in November for that Wisconsin game. Like, can you admit the people who live in East Lansing? Can you imagine how quickly they're going to buy those tickets to come out to the Rose Bowl for the UCLA game.

It's going to be, that's why they always, the bowl games all love the big 10s. I was going to say, they're going to get so many pale skin beer drinkers. Living in San Diego for the bowl season is great. Oh, yeah, holiday bowl. The point Seattle bowl and the holiday bowl. And you see just like these droves of big tin people downtown. Like, oh, this is what it's like at 11 o'clock at night over here. Where I'm from, we wouldn't even think about seven outside when the sun goes down.

I'm just, I'm feeling for those, I'm feeling for that 20 year old USC student who is just like, that guy getting out of bed for that 8 a.m. kickoff on a Saturday morning. It's going to be a rough life. You got to be able to just go all the way around. The people who are still out from the night before are going to be the ones that benefit from this. But for most people, it's going to be a brutal Saturday morning. 11 a.m. Big 10 starts are tough, especially once it gets past Halloween. Those are some tough games when it's 11. am wake up at 6 a.m. on game day.

When feels like it's cut in your face yet. Yeah. Yeah. 28 degree wind chill. It's great. The most miserable sporting fan experience of my life was 2007, Michigan, Ohio State. Okay. It was 34 degrees and just raining sideways.

And I'm just imagining Lincoln Riley having to sit there on that sideline and deal with that now. Yeah. It's perfect. He just thought Manhattan, Kansas was rough enough. Right. Just keep going up north up in the scale. All right.

Let's pull it back here to some actual NFL talk, even though I absolutely love that. I made the joke today, but I can't wait until there are two conferences and two TV networks, and that's just how we exist in America. All right. Nate, I'm going to let you kick this off because we let Deonti kick off the defenses one because he's a defense guy. Now he's playing an away game. I'm going to let you start us off here. What is the first lesson that you learned rewatching some of the best teams from the NFL last year on offense?

Yeah, I'll preface everything saying I've hinted at some of these things before, but also just like, I'm excited to to get into some of this stuff because it's stuff I've been chomping at the bid because you see sprinklings of it in 2021. So it's like how what dials get cranked up in 2022 and beyond? So for me, my first one, I don't know if this is my big haymaker to start, but I like this one is welcome back to dig routes. And there's front side digger outs and backside digger outs. And I think we're going to see a whole bunch of them. Generally, when we say too high defenses, it's, as we know, the too high shell. Because after the snap of the ball, defenses rotate a safety down. Sometimes they will stay in too high and run cover six or cover four or other variations to cover two.

But also they'll rotate down more of a rubber, or rubber, robber coverages or like a buzz defender. So what is really like happening there is this was kind of an answer to all those offenses running overrouts, all that stuff attacking the middle of the field. So we've talked about this before as opposed to now. Just think about it just conceptually, right? Like if you drop that safety down, he's now dropping right into where that overroute is coming. He's catching them. He's catching them. That's exactly right.

I'm just envisioning how the Niners play those against the ramps. Like that's exactly what I'm thinking about when you just conceive of that. Yeah. Anyway, keep gone. The real famous one was the Niners against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl was the one. Like the Niners were running that every third down. They were doing buzz as opposed to maybe robber stuff. But same kind of concept.

They're trying to catch those overrouts. And when I'm saying this is these are three by one formation. So trips to one side and a solo receiver on the other side. And so now what offenses have to do, okay, we have, we're running wide cross all the time. Why cross is a go and over and over and another dig coming in behind that over route. So now is when the problem. primary is essentially is going to go from that over to they're going to go one more over to that dig. The dig, all these guys were all these in breakers.

Diggs can be at 14 to 16. They can be at 18 to 22. So you got a medium dig, which some teams call dagger digs. And then you have deep digs, which is the seventh step variety or play action variety. So what a play that I think of is the Rams. The Rams really like this concept. I originally called it Tampa because it, well, I know why it was called Tampa because it was a Tampa 2 beater.

They call Swiss. Shanahan and McVeigh, call it Swiss. It's a three-by-one variety. If you want a visual of this, an example is Bryson Hopkins has a catch about four minutes ago in the first half of the Super Bowl. So it's a three-by-one variety.

The inside receiver runs a through route over the middle of field, basically like an over or more of a straight line over. There's an underneath route to tie down about six to eight yards, and then there's a dig bending behind it. So what's that doing is the through route is occupying the safety.

You have the underneath the tie down to underneath the defenders, and then you have to dig taken over this huge void of space. And it's traditionally a cover two beater, but I think now the usage is going to be to beat Robert because now you're trying to beat that robber player who's trying to catch everything. So you're taking advantage of that space. And this is continuing with the thought.

That's a front side dig. No, backside digs. We're going to see teams running straight cover two. We're talking about more simulated pressures potentially happening in this next year. What's it? I know Deonti knows this. I know Robert you know this. What's the coverage that usually gets associated with simulated pressures?

Cover two, right? some funky dean piece like guys are rotating every which way but when you look at it's like oh that's just cover too but the safety's like the safety is the middle player and the corners the deep half player like everything's all messed up but really the picture's the same a way to attack cover two if you ever watch the greatest show on turf rams this is mike mart's how he became famous is crushing backside digs that's what kurt warner would just crush over and over i think we're going to see more and more of those and backside digs come against who is quarters defense. I'm going to throw a defensive term. I know it's an offense term,

offensive show, but clip coverage where the backside safety is going to be pushing to number three in a three by one concept is because that is their way to cover fourverts. So when you have this clip quarters coverage where that backside safety on the solo side has to go to the trip side, you run a backside dig behind it. That's again, it's the same voided coverage right there. So I think you're going to see more and more of those. And guess what? X receivers matter again. Like this is going to be a continuation of that. So that's my first point. But year of the dig, I think is incoming 2022.

So let me try to. There was a lot. Into English. Okay. So, Deante, just stop me when I am wrong. Go ahead. It feels like now where those overrouts were going to be the big hitters, where you're going to get the chunk plays on those overrouts.

Now those are going to be clearing out space. And it's about taking advantage of the space behind it. That's it. I mean, yeah, that's the idea right there. just like running Y cross, right, off of play action or with flat routes or, you know, bubble screens is, you know, the bait. The idea is if you want to hit those intermediate areas, you're either trying to clear space vertically or clear space near the first level or near the line of scrimmage, right? So, whether it's bootlegs to open up overrout or, you know, you run, you know, certain formations or get

tight splits where everybody's got to drop to a deep area to protect yourself vertically. And now you can hit the overrout, you know, in that intermediate area. That's what you would do against single high. against too high where you know you're getting a lot of depth from your safeties, a lot of depth from corners. Now you want to clear vertical space and then hit those backside digs like Nate was talking about. You know, and I think that one of the things that I saw last year to kind of reinforce what Nate was talking about was almost every time a team needed to pass, like needed to pass, it was almost always three by one because you're getting these two high shells. And what three by one usually comes with is like pure progression passing. Right. I'm working.

one to two to backside dig, like he was saying, or one to two to check down. That's kind of what you see. That's where football is at. And it makes sense because we're dealing with two high shells. So if we're dealing with two high shells, and I know that's what I'm getting, I'm going to load my formation one way, work a progression because I know there's going to be certain layering in the coverage. And I know what's on the backside.

If a team is really concerned about fourverts like Nate was saying, that just about guarantees me one-on-one coverage, either to the field side, number one, if they're playing, some kind of like match quarters to the field and they're rolling the coverage over the X. Then you work, you know, whatever your one-on-one beaters would be. That's where you get like your Mills concepts or you get a curl or a dig on the inside and a post over the top from the number two or number one receiver because you're draining out the coverage in the middle of the field. Or to Nate's point, the example, he gave clip coverage, which is basically playing

quarters on the backside and cover two to the strength. That means that you're rolling coverage strong. So again, your one-on-one route is going to be on the backside of the coverage. So you work a progression, see if you can get it in a one-one. window to one side. If it's not there, flip your eyes, it doesn't matter what you think is on the other side. As long as you've got the platform and the time in the pocket to be able to move your hips and your eyes to where it's going to be at, you know you're getting one-on-one coverage there. And that's what you're looking for. Just like, just like Nate said, overrouts were the

cover one beaters for the last era. The backside dig is the split safety beater, you know, for this era. And getting quarterbacks that can not just hit that route, but the ability to work through a progression first to make sure you drain out the coverage to the strong side and guarantee you have the area of the window to work in to that X receiver. That's the biggest deal to me right now. That that is, I think, you know, a big point that Nate just made. Explain drain out the coverage a little bit more. So a lot of it's like, in order to work these windows in the passing game, the pure progression passing game, it does require time, right? Like, and we talked about it a couple weeks ago with the defensive lessons that we talked about. And I think I,

I mentioned Tampa 2. There's this clinic that I watch from Dave Miranda, who is the head coach at Baylor, right? And one of the things that he talks about all the time that he talks about in this clinic is- And one of the best coaches of the country, my idea. Yes, 100%. At any level. Yes, 100%. And what he talked about, and this was one of the most astute things I thought about was like,

hey, 20, 30 years ago, when everybody was doing pure progression passing in Tampa 2 and some of these just like soft shell coverages were prevalent, the idea was we want to force the ball down, right? We're going to get a bunch of depth in the defense. We're going to take away the vertical routes, and then we're going to force quarterbacks to check the ball down. That's quote-unquote draining out the coverage. And an era ago, or I guess two, three eras ago at this point now, there wasn't enough space in the game. There wasn't enough speed in the game to drain out the coverage.

That's why it was, hey, if my home run ball's not there, it's touched down to check down all day long. Now, in a spread era, that opens up the, that opens up an opportunity to work those intermediate areas. But in order to get there, you have to have some form of, hey, vertical stretches. Then we've got to have something in a horizontal area. And there's your progression right there, right? I've got some vertical stretch. I've got something working them horizontally to where we're going to stretch out the coverage now. So a safety has to be worried about a post, worried about an overrout, worried about a vertical.

He's got to go take that. We drain out, you know, we drain out the vertical end of the coverage, a vertical layer. We've got something in terms of stick routes, choice routes, bubbles, you know, what have you. That takes away those underneath defenders. What does that leave? Intermediate areas. It's probably the best bang for your buck outside of explosive plays that you can get in the passing game because it doesn't require yards after catch. It can be a catch and tackle and still be a very effective play.

Those are usually the hardest passes to come by, which is why offenses work so hard to manufacture that space. So that's what draining out the coverage is all about is getting safeties out the picture deep, getting linebackers up close to the line of scrimmage as much as you can short and being able to work those intermediate areas. It should be an easy throw if you do it the best and the best offenses make it look easy. your Rams, your bucks, your Packers, you know, the list goes on and on. Those are the teams that do it the most efficiently and proficiently, you know, last year and what I expect to see into the future. And what Deontes is saying right there about offenses too, and this is a continuation of what we're talking about with offenses and defenses and this newer wave of coaches, I'd say,

in the last five-ish years is the willingness to move guys around. That example I brought up. We'll get there. Yeah, that Rams play. Bryson Hopkins is running the frontside dick because they put a receipt. If they went traditional three by one, the tight end would be the guy running the through route. Right. Well, if you have a tight end running a 4-7, okay, that's not really, you're not draining up the coverage, right?

Okay, yep. But now you have a 4-48 guy, even if it's Van Jefferson or a guy that's, hey, that's still some heat. That's still some guys coming at you. So it's just putting guys in better spots. And this is what's so funny too that Deonti says this, because this is sometimes it's so funny when you say it out of you like, man, this really is obvious. It's a break down for when he break down football. Why do you see a lot of three by one? Well, if defenses want to stay balanced and too high, we got to make the offensive formation.

Unbalanced. And then when it was single high, we saw a lot more two by two. And then like it's just, it's just funny. It's like that's just the simple answer, but that's how it works. It's talking about having that speed at number three to drain the coverage. This is now something I was going to talk about, but I've been talking to a lot of people about slot players recently. and Frank Gregg mentioned this to me just about having different flavors of it

for different situations, right? Like on early downs, like you want your Zach Pascal there because you want to be able to have somebody that can dig it out in 11 person now. We talked about this in the defense podcast. But in pure passing situations, they know you're not fucking running the ball.

It doesn't matter. Right. So it's you, that having that speed option there and having that player you can put there, it's just different types of slots for different types of situations where, you know,

a generation ago, 10, 15 years ago, I think we thought of slots like a monolith that didn't necessarily have to change situationally. So what you're saying is literally so true that I think every single football analyst in the world was able to pick out the chief's offense for the last three years off of that concept right there. Everybody in the world knows, close your eyes. What are the chiefs doing formationally?

Oh, Tyree Kill is number three? Travis Kelsey has the X. Why is Tyree Kill number three? Because everybody in the middle of field in the middle of the field has to have their alarm bells going off. when number 10 is the guy that's closest to the quarterback, right? And now you've got this one-on-one matchup problem that can't be guarded by corners, safeties or linebackers, which is Travis Kelsey at his best. You can do whatever you want offensively when the talent you have at number three,

when the speed you have at number three is so overwhelming that the defense can't just say, hey, just open up and just give a bunch of space in the middle of the field. If you can't do that, that opens up the quarterback to say, hey, I can really work through my progression because I know they have to honor a guy. And this comes back to, you know, that whole Jimmy Joe's X and O's thing. If you have a guy who can fit in that space, now you can go four open and it's not going to be like what the dolphins were last year. Yeah. Right.

Or teams don't really have to honor you. Kelsey can be an X. So it's like, okay, it's easy to put three wides when our tight end can win every one-on-one that he gets matched up with. Not only that, it makes it easy for a guy like DeMarcus Robinson when he was the chiefs to be on the field. A guy like Mikul Hardman can get on the field. He doesn't actually have to be a major piece of. of your passing game because you already got an overwhelming threat as a slot. You have an overwhelming threat and 101-1-1-1 coverage in Travis Kelsey.

Now you really can say, we want to just build the rest of our receiving core to just have a bunch of speed, right? To just give you more to think about in terms of speed. Maybe you only get targeted four times a week. But, you know, if we do target you, it probably means they blew the coverage because they were so concerned about the threats that we have in these particular spaces. Number one receiver on the backside, number three receiver to the field or to the passing strength. That's that's the meta. You know, that that'll probably be the meta for the foreseeable future, I think, in football. All right.

We just spent 20 minutes on our first one there. Deiate, what's your first one that's got for us? That's an offensive conversation for you. So my thing is kind of two and one. And this kind of comes back to, again, like scheme versus personnel. I think that the biggest thing I took away from is like structurally, offensively, what all comes around to, you want to be able to make your offense blitzproof, right? You want as blitzproof an offense.

as you can, especially in the advent of the spread, right, where protections can only really be set particular ways because you got guys that are split out, you know, you're trying to work the ball more downfield. So you want to make it blitzproof. Well, how do offenses go about doing that? If you're on the extreme, I use Miami as an example earlier, if you're on the extreme with, you know, Miami, the Washington football team or the commanders, they were like this last year. It's RPO's all day, right? That's how you blitzproof your offense on first and second down. Hey, if you send pressure, we're just going to throw the ball over your. blitzer's head, right? We're just building a hot throw, basically is what it is, into our run

scheme to protect ourselves from negative plays. So that's great on first and second down. But what were those offenses struggle is if you're not successful then. Now you've got to get into real offense. A lot of pressure, yes, a lot of pressure gets put on your quarterback, even if you're only dealing with a four-man rush to have to work through progressions, work through changing coverage shells on the back end in those scenarios. So that's where it kind of gets to the second point, which is if you can't have, if you don't have a scheme that is kind of blitz proof on first and second down, your quarterback absolutely has to be a punisher of blitz is on third down, second and longs every single time. Super Bowl winner had that quarterback, right?

The chiefs have that kind of quarterback. The Bucs have that kind of quarterback. You know, when Drew Brees was playing with the Saints, he was that level of quarterback. And it kind of speaks to how even as like different atrophies happen within the offense, the chiefs being a perfect example, they were not excellent, I think, in terms of play calling. Nate has spoken to this. You know, this is something that I've seen watching them on film. A lot of their play calls, you can kind of look at the situation and be like,

I don't know if that was the best call in the situation, but you can kind of do what you want when it's 15, right? Yeah. Because, you know, he's a problem solver for you. And that's why they're able to call plays in the way that they are. That's why a team like the Rams can say, hey, we can really be on, go empty first and 10. No problem.

We can open up drives and empty, right? We can do, we can go into empty on second and 12, you know, and not only be efficient, but be explosive because you can't afford to blitz us because of what we have at quarterback. You know, Dak Prescott's another really good example of this as well. He punishes blitzes all the time. It makes it really, really difficult for you. So that's kind of my biggest lesson is finding ways structurally on early downs to punish teams for blitzing. And then if you end up in these obvious passing situations, you've got to have the quarterback that can handle that or dissuade defenses from blitzing or sending, you know, exotic looks at you as much as you possibly can.

It's hard to survive right now if you don't have that. Yeah. It was also my first one. Yes. So looking at the numbers, it just, it's plain as day when you look at like a EPA per dropback on five men, five or more man rushes last year. In the top ten, Stafford and Mahomes won two, like in their own kind of world. They were so good last year. Also in the top ten.

Kyler, Jimmy. Like the Niners offense can do this to you. For all the, like, ills that they have, he was really, really good against the Blitz last year. Burrow, Rogers Herbert. That rounds out the top ten. Those are your guys. I mean, those are your guys. Brady's a little further down than you would expect, but coming back around to this a little bit,

there's a direct correlation between the guys that kill you last year when they were blitzed and the guys that didn't get blitzed. Mahomes, Stafford, two lowest blitz rates in the league. Herbert was third, Burrow, Al-Kuyler, all those guys in the bottom five, and Brady's at the back end of the top 10 there. So even if you weren't as good on a per-play basis last year, if teams are afraid of what you're going to do when you blitz them, then you're in trouble. Right. So, and it just, like you were saying, Dei, if you can limit what a defense can do to you from the start, like before the game even starts, we know this is probably off the table. The advantage that creates for you is insane.

Like, it is such a cheat code. And that's what all of these defenses had, our offenses had last year. If you're the chiefs and you know you're getting blitz 13% of the time, that is such a huge head start over some of the. of these other offenses that don't get to dictate the game that way. Yeah. And I think about it on the opposite end as well. You think about teams or quarterbacks that just that don't have that. I think about like the Steelers with Big Ben the last couple of years, right? And just how little you can do offensively. I think about the fact that Joe Brady got fired halfway through the season. And when Matt Rule is talking about, hey, we want to be able to run the

ball more. I think that that's almost misdirection. I think the issue was really like, we have no answers for the fact that our quarterback can't handle pressure. Right. That's really what it comes down to. You think about what felled, you know, the Colts coming down the stretch of the year, a team that probably should have made the playoffs if their quarterback could have had better answers against pressure, against tight coverage. You think about falling off the cliff with the Patriots, you know, down like the last six or seven weeks of the year when all the defense is say, man, man, man, you know, why are we respecting this quarterback like you can handle pressure and can handle, you know, and can't handle, you know, or can handle man coverage?

Let's just play man and send pressure and see if he can figure it out. We're going to force him to figure it out. And all of a sudden, he couldn't. You know, you think about Zach Wilson and how bad some of his starts were last year. You know, like, it's game. Right. Exactly. You know, are you guys about Baker Mayfield once, you know, his shoulder was really not working for him.

The Ravens against pressure against the dolphins. Are you ready? Are you ready for the most blitzed quarterbacks in the NFL last year? Yes. I'm sure. There's not going to be a single surprise on this list. Lamar was number one. Mack Jones was number two.

Sam Darnold number three. Carson Wentz number four. Yep. Zach Wilson was number six right after Justin Fields. So literally as you were listing those off, those are the guys that. That's pretty funny. Because that's exactly the group. And the Mars is a schematic issue.

That is a, that's not, which I've got it before, but that was a, and that's going to be be one of a point I'm going to have up later. But that is a schematic issue. But you need a dude that can beat it. It is so clear that defenses understand who can hurt you in these moments of who can. And if they can hurt you, the dial turns down. If a guy can't hurt you, then the dial turns way up. We are going to spam the shit out of this.

you make us pay for it. And the guys that you just listed, the athlete are exactly the guys that couldn't do it. You know, Mack wasn't horrendous when you look at just league over the year league rankings, but he was significantly worse against the Blitz. Carson Lentz was worse against the Blitz. If you are worse, teams are going to keep doing it to you. And that's exactly what happened to all of these guys last year. And to me, you know who is going to be the team I think that defines us this year is going

to be the Denver Broncos. Who Russell Wilson is this year with the weaponry that they have. have around them. You know, the offensive line, I think, is just fine enough, you know, to where a lot of this is going to come down to, can Russ be the kind of quarterback down the stretch of the year that can really kill you if you pressure them? That can really kill you if you play man coverage. Because of more of that, they get out of them, the real, I think the more viable they are as contenders, you know, but if this is, hey, he's on the back end of his career now or the ball is rolling in the opposite direction, then they really might stagnate again,

you know, and then we're talking about where this franchise actually is. is over the next couple of years after the investment that they've made to acquire a guy like that. And this gets into a Jimmy's and Joe's thing, too, because what's the hardest thing to find is pass rushers. So if you can't blitz, you have to win with four. And not a lot of teams have dudes like a win. It's the hardest thing you can find is, and that's the ideal defense. It's only rushing with four every single snap and getting home with four. It's the hardest thing to do. So it's that also ties into that. If you can't blitz, you have to rush with four. And, oh, shoot. and we're not getting home.

Oh my God. Oh my God. They're getting 12 a pop. Blitz them. And then it's a gash for a touchdown. It becomes an our guys versus your guys thing. That's all becomes. If you can make it that and your guys are fucking better, then you're in a lot of trouble.

Yeah. It's great. All right. Nate, what's your next one? Oh, man. What is my next one? All right. My next one, but this is a continuation.

Really, up for the first two points that we both have brought up. But it's getting to more vertical concepts. This is a touchdown, the checkdown kind of thing. And I just wanted to kind of bring up. the Rams version was getting an empty, as we talked about, and providing chip help. And so really they're getting the seven-step concepts. So seven-step concepts. Best of both worlds, baby.

It's the best of both worlds. And when you're getting to spread offenses, the benefit of being in a spread offense is the defenses have to declare. You can't really hide too much when you're all spread out. All five eligibles are out there. And I can as a quarterback and as a center, I can look around and go, okay, well, that's safety's, you know, he's starting to disguise over there. Oh, look, the slots capped over there.

Okay, slide of protection left, move, but we get the ball off. How do defense is counter with that is, okay, let's make them throw underneath. This is what happened to the Ravens. No one could win a man. Lamar can only win so many times as a scrambler, and they fell off a cliff when they were operating out of empty because they weren't attacking vertically. So I'm kind of tying in two thoughts here is one. The best of both worlds was the ramps spreading it out and attacking vertically. That was their way to do it.

But there's other ways to do it. The bucks do it in their way of being an empty, but there is a true. static, empty, we're all lined up, and we're going to attack with five and seven-step concepts. You have to lean into the punch a little bit. You have to be sound and protection. It's really, you have to be really sound. I mean, it helps when you have a fiend on my quarterback. I mean, that makes it a lot easier as a coach. But protection has to be good because otherwise you get blitzed out of stuff. Or they just manipulate you and rush four and they get a free runner. Defenses are getting so much better at that. So what you need to do is your rules have to be good.

and you have to be willing to lean into the punch a little bit. If you look at every second and long from someone Ariens and Leftwich have been play callers, one of the funniest ones to look at is the Bucks or formerly the Cardinals, empty statistics. It would be second and long, anything seven and second and seven plus, it would be like 90% empty. They're not even threatening to run the ball. They're just going, we're going to get a chunk back on this because it's, they're going touchdown to check down out of empty.

So you have to find your different ways to do this. I'm glad you guys brought up the points of because I was going to bring up Stafford. since 2018, the best players against the Blitz are Stafford last year in Mahomes every year he started, which is which is hilarious. Ridiculous. Yeah, but every QB last year, and this is just tying and attacking vertically, every top 10 QB last year in EPA per dropback, eight of the 10 had 70 throws of 20 year air yards or more. So everybody, all those guys were pushing the ball. The only two that didn't, I bet you guys can guess one, because he's in a certain offense and he doesn't really push the ball. But he's a jimmy.

Jimmy Jimmy G. The other one is Burrow, but he was just under. And his was just just barely. And that's, I'm assuming just a volume for passing thing. And that's also just like having to get the ball out as quick as possible. Because the offensive line, that's tying, because he's aggressive. But all those guys are pushing the ball, pushing the ball, pushing the ball. You have to threaten defenses vertically because now that the bind, this is tying into earlier discussions,

the threat, the strain on the defense is on the safeties now, not the linebackers and the safety. Those are the guys you're making go forward and backward. So how you do that, put hit them over the top and then I'll have a point about run game later, but that's how you put the safeties in a bind. So that is where the next step is. But you have to be really, really trusting your offensive line and your quarterback to make the right decision in a timely manner. So mine is kind of tied to this, my next one. This is something that I actually thought about when I was watching the Packers.

They had a couple moments where the back got out and what they could do with five eligible receivers in the field. you just feel the difference in a passing game when you have the back out and you can create that just tension and stress on defenses. So just one of my overarching points was teams that can get five eligibles out in routes just have a significant advantage. And the numbers were really interesting when I dug into that. The team with the highest percentage of their dropbacks with five eligible on the field last year was the chiefs of 86%. They're standalone, like not even significantly higher than anyone else. The bucks were number two at 80%. This is math I did all myself.

You can't like sort by this. So this is all a little bit crude. But those are the two highest that I found. A lot of other teams near the top of the league are teams you would expect. The Rams were at 77% with all the empty that they run. The Bengals were at 78%. It was 77, 78% or higher for a lot of the best offenses in football. The Chargers were at 77%.

if you can get those guys out, it's such a huge advantage because now if teams are going to try to take away those explosive plays and you have to stretch defenses horizontally, having more guys to do that and play with that underneath space, having more bodies to solve that problem gives you a huge advantage. I mean, it's so much more difficult if you're cutting down your eligible receivers by 20%. And a lot of the best defensive coordinators in football, offensive coaches, every time I would talk to, him about Fangio. I remember this last offseason when I was talking about just the proliferation of the Fangio stuff. And one of the things that came up all the time was how good he was at manipulating offenses into keeping the back into protection,

just knowing exactly how their rules were and how to manipulate them into doing that. So if the best defensive coordinators are hell-bent on keeping the back in, it makes sense and stands to reason that the best offensive coordinators would be hell-bent on getting the back out. And it feels like that's what a lot of the best offenses in the league are consistently trying to do as often as they can.

And, you know, we noticed, I think we said the same thing when we talked about it on defense, right? But a lot of this stuff, in terms of our conversation points, are all kind of meshing together. Because you know what the best offense is that give five out in the route also do? Punish you if you blitz, right? Like, that's where a lot of this stuff kind of comes back to for me. So it's funny to hear that, you know, and I think about the offenses that are near the top in five-man protections, you know, getting all all eligibles out on the route.

they also either have offensive schemes, whether you're talking about the 49ers and Jimmy Garapolo, who are always great at punishing you, you know, if you leave a void in coverage or a quarterback that is just blitzproof, right? Like that's what it comes, this all kind of comes back to, I think the same kinds of things. And it's because of these very specific situations, your second and longs, your third and obvious is, right? Where you've got to be able to move the football efficiently. This is where all this stuff becomes it's most important. To me, I think the point I'm at now, you know, I don't know how really to articulate this properly, but I think I probably never cared less about success rate offensively than I do right now.

I think that that's kind of where I'm at right now. It's explosive play right. It's efficient. Explosiveness is efficiency right now for me. And it's not that you have to lead the league in it. I think it's more just like a benchmark. When I look last year at the teams who have like the higher percentages of 20 plus yard plays, basically if you kind of cut it off at like 6%,

which is right around where like the chiefs and bills were at 14th and 15th, Almost every other offense on the way up are ones that we took seriously at one point or another, right? You've got Cleveland before Baker got hurt. You've got Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, right? When they kind of figure out their identity, what Hertz is a runner, they're able to generate a lot of explosive plays. You've got Kyler Murray in that Cardinals offense. You've got Dak Prescott. You've got the Rams.

You've got the Patriots who were hot for a second. You've got the Bengals, obviously. The Raiders, one of Derek Carr's best years of his career. You've got the Vikings who have the pair of receivers that hurt you and a very explosive running back. the Niners, the Bucks and the Seahawks, right? Like all these offenses are ones that we've had to take, you know, when they're healthy. You know, the Packers are in that list as well. At one point or another, you can think of them and say, hey, if they got hot, that's a team that,

even if you don't think that they're Super Bowl contenders can beat other playoff worthy teams or playoff level teams. That's where you've got to be. When I look at success rate, it's all over the place. And what that tells me is getting the second and seven, it's nice or second and six, excuse me, is nice, but that's not changing the world for you offensively. that's still a win for the defense to me. I think that where we're at now,

because it's so hard, I think, to maintain drives with the two high shells, with how good teams are at fitting the run out of odd fronts and things like that. You are not going to be able to survive down after down, just playing for quote unquote efficiency. And I hate to continue to bring the mallet over the head of the Dolphin so often.

And the commanders, as often as I do, but they are like the bellwether teams for this. Just like, oh, the RPO is fine. You do the bubble scream and you were supposed to throw the bubble screen. I'm not going to yell at you for that. But God, this is the most uninspired thing in the world to be at second and five all that time. Exactly. It's the B minus when the A's there.

Exactly. And that's why I think a Miami's front office looks and says, we have to get something else to add to this offense. Like, this just isn't enough. We've got to find some other way to generate explosives. That's why a team like Denver says, hey, it's fine throwing hitch routes, throwing slants and glances, you know, on the interior. It's fine. but we can't live this way.

We cannot continue to succeed this way. It doesn't have to be Cincinnati where, you know, it's just nine balls, you know, until your eyes bleed. But it does have to be something that I think is more sustainable, again, on early downs to punish defenses for playing soft looks, you know, or for trying to blitz you. If they're going to live in extremes or there's going to be a bunch of soft coverage or a bunch of pressure, you better have some kind of answer to be able to generate explosive

plays, whether it's in the run game by being able to do a bunch of different things personnel-wise or with misdirection or changing the formation or in the passing game. You've got to be able to generate, you got to turn first and 10 into first and 10 as often as you can. It can't always go, you know, second down, second and short. That used to be the way we looked at football. Hey, let's get to second and short so we don't have to sweat third down as much. Yeah, no, we're out of that world. You've got to try to find as many opportunities to turn first and 10 into first and 10 again. If you really want to be able to sustain offense over the stretch of a season. Well, that was the push and pull that existed as to like why the ecosystem of

the league changed a couple of years ago. We talked as much as we did about the two high stuff coming into vote because defensive coaches now know that. They know that you can't survive on those little chunks over and over and over again. So they are going to do everything in their power to make sure that you can't get those explosive plays. So now it becomes about seeking them out. And you mentioning the chiefs being or the Bengals being able to hit those nine routes over and over again, that goes back to the Jimmy's Joe's conversation. It's like if you just have the dudes that we're going to get the explosives, no matter what

you do to us, it's a huge part of it. And then the last thing I wanted to say about the Jimmy's and Joe's thing is think about those teams that if you're using five eligibles all the time, you need to have five offensive linemen who could hold up. Think about the offensive lines for the Rams, the chiefs, and the bucks. It's not sexy and not exciting to talk about how

important it is to have a good offensive line. We see it. We just see it in practice now. If you have those five guys that can hold up. Think about how good those offensive lines are. And now would it affords you with all the other things going on? And those guys have good rule. Well, yeah, I was going to say, you guys had the good rules.

That goes in with it because when you look at that stat, when it have all five eligibles out, it's not just saying, hey, we're on five man protection. That also speaks to when they're in six man protection that they got the back out. Because that meant their offensive lines rules are good. The goal, I said this on the pre-show is my dad's philosophy when he's putting together a protection plan is how do we get the running back out? How do we, even if we're in six man, how do we not make sure to waste the running back? That's what a good simulated pressure does.

They bring four and you waste the running back. So now you're attacking with four eligibles against seven droppers in the coverage. And that's terrible unless you're doing a play action where everything's very, very deep, deep, deep. The other thing is, sorry, I just thought about this when you're talking about the explosive plays is Brian Billick used to have the toxic play differential, which is explosives. and turnovers. So I think that's going to become more relevant too. But I thought about that when you're saying you're looking at explosive points. Yeah, no. One of, again, to reference a group

chat that nobody else knows about, I really got to stop doing this. But what a Nate's recurring bits in our group chat was to send pictures of Jalen Hertz in the pocket and five-mare protection last year. And just how, just like how beautiful it looks. Like, and Jeff, so to your point about how good, how important it is, not only to have talented offensive linemen, but to have rules in your offensive line that makes it functional for your back to release. Jeff Stoutland is obviously one of the best in the league has been one of the best offensive line coaches in the league for a long stretch of time. And it kind of speaks to how they were able to manufacture offense for a passing game

that was really kind of paltry. They didn't have a whole lot in terms of talent, you know. And a quarterback, I think, that still needs to grow in his ability to work through progressions. Hey, the best way to kind of, you know, assuage some of those difficulties is we'll get you as many guys out eligible as we can. So it doesn't matter. If you don't like it, just check it down.

We're not going to kill you for it. So again, like that, I think we are circling around a lot of the same points in this way because all this stuff kind of is tied together. And it's funny that you mentioned the Eagles because looking at the numbers, you try to figure out what doesn't make sense here? Like some that are a little higher than you expect. J.1 Hertz was really good against the Blitz last year. Like their numbers against the Blitz were really good. I'm assuming in part because they can give him those sorts of options because of the way their offensive line and their protections are structured. They pick it up.

It's like it's good to have a good quarter. quarterback and a good offense aligned. It's really, hey, maybe you should build a team that way. Maybe that's the way you want to go about it. But this also, too, this is the flip side that I'm, because this was a point, but it wasn't like a real point I had, but I wanted to throw this in, but this was the Ravens discussion was they had bad rules. Like they were, defenses were able to go, we'll blitz you. You're, you're, we're going to get a hot runner. And we're going to drop a guy into the hot throwing lane. So what defenses are already now, I mean, Deonti knows this. I mean, this is what Brian Flores.

does with Cover Zero stuff and also what Belichick has done for years, if there are rules, the defensive rules are playing off your offensive rules, you got to zag. Stop. Stop. If there's no going down that basic path, you have to make the next step and how you make the next steps, you attack vertical or you have to change up your offensive line rules. So the good teams were doing that in different ways. I can't figure out whose turn it is now. I think Deonti, you were next.

Okay. Yeah, are we snaking this way? I think that, you know, some of this, it's hard to, I don't want to be too duplicative on what I'm saying, right? Like, because a lot of what I'm saying, what a lot of what I'm going to say now is kind of an amalgamation of these points. To put it in an amalgamation in the same fucking sentence. Oh, yeah. I'm essay. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Every SAT word that exists. Trust me. But I think a lot of this kind of does wrap back around, which is like being able to generate explosive offenses while also being able to get the ball out quickly. is something that I've really been focused in on a bunch. You know, I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, but it's a major, major piece, I think, of, you know, A, again, good scheme, understanding, hey, how we need to set up our offense based on what we're seeing,

and then B, having the quarterback that can say, and this is something I talk to Nate about all the time, to be able to get a look and say, hey, anytime they give us this front and this safety's here, I think they're rolling a single high, you know, and I think that Aaron Rogers is probably as good at this as anybody in the NFL. Oh, I know what look this is. Hey, 17, here it comes.

Right. You know, having that option in your offense, again, simplifying your process as much as possible, not only to just get easy yardage, but to go get explosive offense. That to me, again, is like at the top. The Rams, again, win a Super Bowl. You move Jared golf from Matthew Stafford for that reason completely, right? Entirely, if not exclusively, is to go say, hey, we need a quarterback that can just go generate the offense that we need simply. I don't want to have to put in two different motions and a shift

and have to fake this and boot that and screen this, right? And check this. Right. And this, I actually think that this kind of came to hamstring, the Cowboys, I think, at the end of the year. And you can definitely see it when they played the 49ers, right? I think that they were almost so invested and get into the perfect play all the time. Yes. Have you want to side adjust on this. We want to check to this on that. We want to get out of this or do this out of this personnel group. You keep trying to find the perfect play and what it ultimately turns into is what San Francisco did to them in that wild card round, which is throw the hitches all day. I dare you. I absolutely dare you. You actually got to go take the shot, you know, especially when you get those opportunities. I think the same thing

happened to the Chiefs in the second half against the Bengals. Try, keep trying to find those perfect explosive plays. It looks great in the first two quarters. And in the second that the defense says, hey, we're going to back up way, way more. You go beat me, you go beat me doing the thing that makes you most uncomfortable and you can kind of see the short circuiting. I think that happened with the Chiefs' offense. I think it's just it's so overrated to try to find these perfect plays or we're out of the era where we saw against single high shells, more four down, even front looks, where you do have the perfect play to beat cover one.

You know, if you got the guys, you do got the play to beat cover one. You know, if you're getting the same even front all the time, you do know how to set the perfect protection against this because you know exactly where you're going to pick it up from because the pressures are a little bit simpler to pick up based on the way that the defense is rotated. We're not really in that world defensively anymore. So again, for the offense, the biggest thing to me is get rid of trying to find the perfect plays all the time. Again, this is my Mickey Mouse offense RPO argument all the time, right? Trying to find the perfect looks against every last, you know, possible defensive coverage or pressure you're going to get.

Just try to generate explosive offense that the quarterback can get too simply. You know, maybe it's in the run game as well. Running away from safety rotation is still, You know, as good as good as it gets offensively, the Browns are about as good as this as anybody else in the NFL. Kevin Stefansky has been great at punishing teams while running away from the rotation. Generate easy, explosive offense. Finding the perfect play is overrated. You will cost yourself more than you will find gains in trying to look for the perfect play offensively. And that's why seven man, seven-man, seven-step concepts are why I'm attached to them.

I mean, this is my, I'm going to always have a bias of this. So this is why I'm freaking excited where the league I think is going. Because again, this is the families I've grown up in between my dad and also in college with Paul Christ, is why those seven-step concepts and even most five-step concepts, I like them. And where you guys have mentioned before, the progression passing is that those technically should have an answer no matter what the coverage is. Yes. Quick game and other concepts and more designery stuff, it becomes one and done because you're gearing up this play

for one guy to get open, which does. work when you're playing man all the time three match which plays out like man all the time uh you kind of know okay we're going to pick this guy or hey this guy's an outbreaker against inside leverage boom we just hit him all day well okay now if we don't know where the safety's rotating down we don't know exactly what kind of variation you're going to be in now we have answers against any variation that you want to throw at us because now we have the time in the pocket for the quarterback to go one to two to three so that's where that's the give and take of this either you want to be quick hitting but the ball has to get out and you have to have the right play or

or you have a kind of a catch-all play, but then your rules have to be really good. So it's kind of the emphasis that you put on. And we were talking about dials, and that's a good way to talk about dials. So while you were talking to you, I was curious. I looked up most attempts in the league last year,

most dropbacks on the last year, 15 or more air yards in less than two and a half seconds. Oh, Brady is probably. Okay. Brady is number one by far. Of course. He's 62. He's the best quarterback we've ever had.

He's a freak. What he's doing right now is a freak. It's absurd. It's absurd. It's absurd. at it. So he had 12 more than anyone else. And the reason I'm saying he had 12 more than anyone else is Ben Rathesberger was second. It does not count because it's for a completely different reason. Yes. He's just saying, fuck it. Yeah. He doesn't want to get hit. Claypool. Please. Somebody win.

He does not count. Removing him from the conversation. Okay. The top four are Tom Brady, Aaron Rogers, Kyle Murray, Joe Burrow. Okay. Okay. What's the surprise? Where is the surprise? So Kyler and Burrow, go balls. Rogers is just a freak and Brady's just a freak. Like I mean, it's just that's like, yeah, I mean, you figure it out right then and there. Well, and I think that Kyler is almost a really perfect example for this because the second that that nuke wasn't available for them, you see just how much offense they lose. And now Cliff Kingberry is back in. I've got to find the perfect play mode. Right. And the offense falls off a cliff under that context. That's the reason why you go trade for a guy like D'Andre Hopkins in the first place. Because sometimes it's better to have a great player than a

great play. Actually, more times than not, it's better to have a great player than a great play. I remember talking to a coach last year when we were discussing just like the rise of two high defenses and exactly what we were talking about Deonté, how so many of these teams, especially the Shanahan teams, had all of these single high beaters, right? All of the overrouts. It's what they were built on. And if you're going to not know what the coverage is before the play starts, that's the challenge of this, right? Even if it's a single high or even if it's a two high show, you don't know what they're going to play. So you have to have. these catch-all plays that work no matter what the coverage is. Another version of a catch-all play that works no matter what the coverage is is fuck it, it Jamar's down there somewhere.

Yep. Right? There are two versions of this. There are these plays that this, we have answers against no matter what the coverage is based on the structure of the play or our guy is better than yours. Like, those are the two versions of it. What drives any fan base more crazy than the Vikings watching Kurt Cousins try to find a perfect throw instead of just giving the ball to Justin Jefferson?

Right. They lose their mind every Sunday off of this. And it's, I talk out both sides of my mouth because I want these pretty plays and everything. And like sometimes and Bengals fans would love to remind me about it. But it's like, it's like, yes, I would like my offense have a little more, you know, a little more window dressing than what the Bengals do. But you can't beat it. Like you can't be just two guys dunking on guys over and over.

9-89 is a good concept. If you have dudes, there's a reason the Colts ran the shit out of it with Peyton. Manning, Reggie Wayne, and Marvin Harrison with Dallas Clark over the middle. They had dudes. If you have dudes, football's pretty easy. 100%. All right, Nate, what's your next one? Last one. And this is, I don't know if my last one, but yeah, kind of last one.

The tying into bombing away and attacking vertically, the other way to put the safeties in the bind is pounding the freaking rock and running the ball. I didn't have to say it this time. Yeah. I do this is coming out in some way. But I wanted to get all the passing and the cool. little stuff of quarterbacks out of the way before I got to running the ball. But it's, I mean, but seriously, though, this, that is when there's one less body in the box, it just becomes

juicier run looks. And I'll use that term. We're talking about putting safeties in the bind. And I think what's going to happen is we're now going to get a little more separation. Say, RPO's, I think are going to tone down a little bit in the NFL. I think teams that leaned into them realized the limitations of what they presented. I'm not saying they're going away. I think we're going to get back to the, the sprinkled. we will pepper and salt as opposed to, you know, the flour and sugar of our meal. It's just like zone. It's just like zone read, right?

Yeah. It's nice when it's nice. Once the defense has the answer, you, you know, just deemphasize it. Again, you don't love it, but you deemphasize it. It's so fun with the NFL because you'll see a new idea come in and then teams pound away at it. And then the defense or the offenses on the other side have their answer. And then you see kind of like the distilled version remains in the NFL for years and years.

So like that's what that's what we're getting to. But same thing with putting the safeties in the bind. That's what they're doing. When you're in a simple quarter's coverage, the safeties have to be the run fill. We used to face this all the time of the Big Ten because guess what? Big Ten teams like to run the ball. So you want to get those safeties in the run fit. And we have one with Narduzzi.

Narduzzi was the big one at Michigan State when he's a defensive coordinator there. He's now the head coach at a pit right now. But you're putting those safeties in the bind. You do this with quick play action. You do it with hitting them over the top. If you don't hit him over the top and threaten them to hit something behind him, like a, you know, like a center fielder, then they're just going to keep creeping up and up and up and up. So if you're hitting them over the top, hitting over the top, it's going to loosen up the run game.

And if the safeties are in a bind and now they're staying high, staying past 10 yards at the snap of the ball, you can get to different runs. We outside zone became the meta because defenses were on single high. And there's only certain amount of runs you can run against single high coverages. You can't really run inside zone unless you do some fancy stuff. you can't really run power single back power you can do two back power but not single back power you can do pin pull and you can do outside zone those are called run it runs and so that became the meta m eta what does that mean run it runs run it runs is no matter what the defensive look is we can

run this run and i can i can check to it if i have like you can do a run run kill or alert and it's whatever whatever defensive look that's why shanahan offenses traditionally they have varied it up now why they always ran outside zone because they said whatever you first you're fucking do against us. We can run the same plate and it different little tweaks on it. And our guys are going to get better and better at it because they rep the crap out of it. So you're dictating in that situation. You're dictating it. And if it's single high, now we don't have to worry about being single high. We have a run that has answers to your single high. So now we're getting too high. So it's kind of cool is now we're getting some more run,

different types of runs sprinkled back in. Duo is another run at run. You're always going to have duo. But you're also going to have like, I mean, it's really cool to kind of look around the league and see which runs. We're kind of getting like emphasized this year and which TV. It was a lot of offenses going like, oh, shit, we can run that now. Okay, okay. Oh, there's no safety we have to worry about. So what's run that? And it's like the second half of the year, you saw a lot more variations of run plays.

So the one that I'm going to make sure to tweet this one 100,000 times. But the chiefs have run the Y insert play, which is really just lead zone, but doing it out of a spread formation. And so Y insert is just the tight end is off the ball. He folds inside like a fullback and the runnerback runs behind him. And they started to get to that in the second half of the year. It was really pretty, actually. The bills did too, right? When they had more of those Gilliam plays, it feels like they had runs that were similarly structured to that, which not a surprise that those teams had to come to similar solutions based on how teams were playing against them.

And they were the same two teams that ran to issues with RPO's and running to the limitation. They're like, damn it, we have to run straight runs now. So we're going to get the RPO's kind of separated again. Another one. Oh, GT counter read. GT counter is the garden tackle pulling. They're running counter. You can't run counter usually against a single high box.

GT counter is a little different. I'm going to get to him a sec. But a traditional counter is a guard pulling and a tight end pulling. And you're going to the weak side. You can't run that against a single high box. Just the numbers aren't right unless you read something with the quarterback. So GT counter is the guard and tackle pulling. This is the Oklahoma play that they ran for years and years.

The Ravens have been running it with Lamar Jackson. The freaking Eagles are brilliant with this play. It is beautiful running this. I'm glad I watched it this week. It was really cool. Yeah, they got the dudes. Holy crap. Malata pulling is like.

They got the dudes. It's, I mean, it's cool. It's really cool to watch them. So that's another run teams are getting to. Straight QB runs, like the bill is running where they just are, he's a single wing back. Like that's just used a quarterback. But that makes sense because what's spread it out, they're going to be too high.

There's only one linebacker in the box or zero linebackers in the box. Boom. Let's pound away at it. Also, you're taking advantage of offensive linemen getting more athletic centers pulling. So you're getting to these runs because also like the egos are really fun to watch because of other runs that they were kind of like tweaking. So they would have the tackle kick out, the tight end climb on their zone plays. Just little tweaks because they knew what the fronts were going to be.

The traditional way, this is my last point. The traditional way like that you run against, if I had a too high defense, usually if I got a play call as a quarterback, the two runs I'll get are a counter or a weak side zone. Weekside zone is a traditional play. You can run out of these looks against two high defenses. But now teams are like, what else can we run? Okay, what else can we throw in there?

What other tweaks can we do? We can do center pole zone place. I know that sounds weird with pull on zone, but it's a look. I'll tweet it if anyone's curious. It's a zone adjustment that defense offenses can do. But we're seeing more of it. Centers are more athletic and also just the looks that defenses are giving.

You've had the guard pin down, center pulls around them. It plays out just like zone guys. I'm trying to make it, trying to go 201 and 101 here. So I'm sorry, guys. But it's those types of runs. That's why I want to see with the Ravens retire Linda Baum. So I'm one of my first thought when you were talking about. Not that.

That's where it's going. We're getting into these athletic guys because everyone has to pull now. It used to be athletic guys because they have to run zone and get to the second level. Like hurry, get a lot of 290 pounders. Now it's getting these guys to pull and getting them out in space. And when you get defenses that are getting lighter and faster, you need offense alignment that can catch them. So that's the answer to that. So really, I think the second half of last year, offenses realized after biweeks when they did self-study

that they're like self-scout, they're like, oh, shit, we got to change up a run attack. We don't just have to run zone. We can do this, this, this, this and this. The safety's staying back. We can do this, this and this and this. So I think we're going to see more teams lean into it this year. So I'm really excited to see where the run games go in 2022. That's it.

You got one more? That was it. I mean, honestly, the last thing I was going to say was that running the football but it still matters. And I was going to kind of detail all the same things that Nate did. He covered it for me. Like I said, I'm just glad that I didn't have to be the guy who said it this time. You heard her from the offensive guy.

I went to Wisconsin. My dad's an offensive line coach. that's uh i'm gonna have that even though i was a quarterback it's always gonna be burning in my brain and this show was hosted by a center so a center grew up in the Midwest yeah i think we we know what our it is yeah exactly i got one more and Nate you alluded to this a little bit earlier and this is not a crazy idea but just looking at some of the numbers you have to be able to weaponize your best pass catchers and that involves just lining them up all over the place right so I was looking at just yards per route run from the slot last year.

Top five. Devante Adams, Cooper Cup, Debo, Samuel, A.J. Brown, Jim Marchase. We're the top five. And it would be easy to say, well, those guys have probably the highest yards per route run when they're on the outside, too. But to a man, every single one, that number is higher from the slot than it is outside. It's because it's a sheet code. What you can do with that guy inside? I went back and I watched all of Devante Adams' most of Vante Adams' slot receptions last year.

So he only had 251 slot snaps last year. He had 78 slot targets. He was seven in slot targets despite being 39th in slot snaps. What was the quote you had about having the right guy in the slot there with Reich? You know, same with that. The Packers are the epitome of that because they were throwing a ball out. It was there. If not, Lizard or MBS is right there.

And when you just put him there, the fact that that's an insane number. That's, yeah. He was seventh in slot targets despite being 39th in slot snaps. So when he was there, they're like, fuck it, we got it. Yeah. Like every single time. And just when you watch some of those plays just play out, like the touchdown he

had against the Bears, I tweeted one today against the Vikings. When he has that two-way go and you have all of that space, there's nothing you can do about it. And just having that guy and understanding, we're going to move him around a ton and make it, make it hard on defenses. Just make it hard. Don't make it easy on them. And the distribution of these snaps, I thought, was fascinating.

So Cooper Cup, his snaps this year. 281 in the left slot, 247 in the right slot, 245 wide left, 202 wide right. Love it. Debo, 62 in the left slot, 83 in the right slot, 325 wide to the right, 266 wide to the left. This was my favorite one. 37 as a single back, halfback, 37 offset to the right, 40 offset to the left. It's distributed evenly all over the place. You have no fucking clue where these guys are going to be on any given play.

And just having players like that and just saying, I'm going to come hell or high water, I'm going to find every single way I can get this guy the ball, every single way. And weaponizing your best players is not a new idea. But going back and watching the Packers again and just seeing how they do it with him and then just all the other guys that we think are in that tier of player, it just comes up over and over again. It's not just receivers. Like tight ends, of course, but even a guy like the Saints last year with Kamara, the Saints had jack shit for receivers and tight ends.

I mean, it was tough if you watch it. But James, like when we're doing the play action stuff, James was the best quarterback. If you go drop down the filter to 150 pass attempts for all the quarterbacks, he was the best quarterback out of play action. And a lot of that was because he would just check it down. When we say touchdown the checkdown, all that stuff vertical makes so much room for these guys to operate underneath. And if you have a plus plus guy with a ball in his hands as the underneath option, those turn into good place. And that's the same kind of thing. Let's get your best weapons in the best spots, which sounds simple.

Godwin with the bucks, you know, obviously Cooper Cup we talked about, you know, all these guys, I think Michael Gallup with the Cowboys, right? Like who I would maybe not call their best receiver, but certainly the guy who's most pliop. and one of the guys that they have the easiest time getting the football too, right? You think about, you know, I think that the Buffalo is probably going to have to start looking into this with guys like Stefan Diggs. You know, maybe they're not moving him as often as you will move a guy like Devante Adams, but you have to be a little bit more flexible with these types of players. George Kittle, Brandon Ayu, you know. You think about all these guys who you quote unquote manufactured touches for, it's so, again, it's so hard to generate explosive offense in today's, today's NFL. you have to get your best guys in position where they can be close and, you know,

front and center and the quarterback's progression. Yeah. It's talking about both sides of your mouth. It's manufacturing touches, but also going, no, go through the progression. But, yep, hint, hint, wink, wink, guess who's the number one read right here? Exactly. Exactly. It was funny looking at the numbers.

The one guy who's like an outlier when it comes to the usage with this because Devante Adams, 44% of his targets last year were from the slot, despite that, the snaps weren't aligned like that at all. But when he was in the slot, they threw him the ball. Cup, high number, Debo, more targets than snaps. A.J. Brown, I think, was 40% of his targets, only 33% of his snaps. So when they were there, they went to them. The exception to this is Jamar Chase is like 17% of his targets because Tyler Boy plays in the slot for them.

So they're just more defying roles for that offense. So he's the only guy who's up there in the tier of receivers that wasn't used in as many different ways, just because, first of all, if the 989's working all the time, you're just chucking go balls to him all the time. who cares, but also they have a guy who plays 98% of the time in the slot. So that's like the only little complicated factor there. They're very traditional. Like a lot of his slots snaps or two are like when they're in empty and the backs outside of them. And so he's technically in the slot.

Like yeah, so it's like they're so statically static like that. So yeah, just looking at the fact that the best receivers in the league are also the guys crushing people from the slot. It's just you have to move those guys around. So that was the last one I had, which again is not totally revolutionary concept. But it kept coming up as I was thinking in talking to. talking about this. All right. That's all we got. Guys, that was very fun. Very dense. If you guys need to listen to it twice, go ahead. If you need some tweets to help you out,

I'm sure Nate's going to throw some up there. But you know what? When we get to, when we pay for video rights at the athletic, it'll really change. That would be great. It'd be great. Don't you worry. Some synergy articles that go with these terminology podcasts. Yes. All right, guys. Thank you very, very much for listening. Please enjoy your 4th of July weekend. Have fun. Be safe. Closing out our show today, we are going to give you the trailer for luck,

our Andrew Luck narrative podcast that Zach Kiefer has been working on for months. We are incredibly excited about this project. It is going to be coming to you the week of July 11th. All six episodes will drop on July 11th. You can binge it if you want to. Listen to one a day if you want to. You can listen to whatever you want, because we will not be coming to you with regular shows that week.

It is all about luck the week of July 11th. Please check out the trailer and please check out the show when it drops a little bit later. We'll be back on Tuesday for now. Appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you soon. At the center of one of the greatest what-ifs in NFL history is one of the greatest quarterback prospects of all time. What if the Colts have protected Andrew Luck?

It's amazing that the Colts could move on from Peyton Manning. and nobody really blinked. The reason why Andrew turned around the Colts and turned around Stanford was that beast inside of him that would look at the opposing team and saying, I'm going to kill you today. My encounters with him were unlike other encounters I would have with quarterbacks. He could have been a thoracic surgeon. He could have been anything. I don't think there's ever been a smaller gap between someone's floor and their ceiling.

If it's one to ten, he's a ten in every category. is Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Ben Rutherzberger, it's all erected of one. High end, he's a Hall of Famer. Low end, he's a multi-year pro bowler. Like, I can't see there's any way this guy doesn't succeed. I just remember him saying, Jacoby, like, this is going to sound weird, but can you hit me on the sideline? Because I need to feel the game right now.

I don't think I'm supposed to hit you. When Andrew, it was very secret. Seeing all the treatment he would go through, see all the hits he would endure. It was like, man, I know you have to be injured. He gets sandwiched between two linebackers at that moment. He has a ruptured kidney. The sort of injury used to stain in a car crash, basically. I never knew what the hell was bothering until all this news came out.

And it was like, oh, wait, he was suffering from this? It was all news to us. If the people that succeed us had put a team around it, as we did with Peyton, the results probably would have been the same. Andrew Luck has become a cautionary tale for any team with an up-and-coming quarterback who doesn't have protection. I remember both of us having a moment where we both were teary-eyed going, Man, this beautiful, beautiful player is not going to play anymore.

I'm Zach Kiefer from The Athletic, and I'm the host of a new podcast series called Luck. It's the Andrew Luck story, as you've never heard it. The series looks to answer this question. How did the greatest quarterback prospect since John Elway, the very player the Colts moved on from Peyton Manning for, end up walking away from the game before he was 30 years old? All six episodes will be released on July 11th. Look for luck on the athletic football show podcast feed wherever you get your podcast

and listen to Luck ad free on the athletic app.