Hogs Haven
Much has been made of the Commanders receiving options being below-average (especially with Mclaurin not practicing this summer), however that needs to be viewed in context of Kliff Kingsbury’s offense.
Is it more important to have players who fit the scheme, or to build your scheme around the players you have?
This is the million-dollar question – and although I don’t know if I’ll be able to draw a concrete conclusion here either way, it will hopefully prompt some good discussion.
Kingsbury’s hybrid Air Raid system is challenging to stop.
First, this offense is in no-huddle the majority of the time. Shorter, underneath routes are key when you run an up-tempo offense. You don’t necessarily want to run four verticals and then ask you receivers to come sprinting back to the line of scrimmage for the next play.
The different types of screens and misdirection, and the horizontal play concepts allow for guys to get open quickly and do not rely as heavily as some offenses do on guys beating man coverage one-on-one.
One of the staples we saw last season was the over route which hitches off a go, post or corner. These over routes can be run by a slot receiver or an outside X or Z. They are designed coverage beaters and are usually set up with some sort of combo flood scheme that shows something similar, but different. We saw Noah Brown targeted a lot on these routes prior to his injury. I think Deebo will be a guy we see used for these concepts this season.
Second, the receivers, tight ends and running backs need to be cerebral in this system. Instead of being asked to attack and beat a single defender, they are more focused on attacking an area of the field. Pass catchers need to be able to quickly decipher coverages, understand spacing and take what the defense is giving them.
Finally, moving guys around pre-snap is crucial to get defenses to tip their hand on what type of coverage they are showing. Both the quarterback and pass catchers are required to make a lot of pre-snap reads to help determine where the football ultimately goes.
Despite this being more of a horizonal attacking offense, there is a significant vertical component that will open up when defense try to take away the underneath passing game.
That is the beauty of Kingsbury hybrid system. Every play shown is designed to set up something later. That could be the next play, or two or three series later in the game.
The wheel route out of the backfield with a flood concept going away from the primary read is a good example of how Kingsbury likes to attack vertically.
Last year Terry Mclaurin averaged 13.4 yards per reception, down just a tad from his career average of 13.9. Zach Ertz bounced back to almost...
