Windy City Gridiron
More play-action is always a good thing, regardless of whether a team can run the ball effectively or not
There is no better easy button in the NFL than play-action passing. The numbers show that attempts from play action have a higher success rate and go for bigger gains than other passing attempts. The numbers have also shown through the years that the ability to run the ball doesn’t matter. Play-action works regardless.
I know that will blow some of your minds, so I’ll give you a second.
Countless studies have been done.
Numbers have been analyzed.
I’ve written about it here at WCG and discussed it on my podcasts.
You can have a 50/50 or 30/70 run-pass ratio, and play action is still a cheat code.
Play-action works whether you can run the ball or not.
I know some will fight this notion, but if you disagree with the data and facts, you may as well click away and watch some highlights from the 1985 Super Bowl.
For the rest of you, welcome to football this century.
Play-action passing isn’t about how good of a running team you are. It’s about misdirection, deception from the offensive line and running back, ball-handling skills from the quarterback, and most importantly, it’s about how well you can marry your run concepts to the pass.
The following clip is from our recent Bear & Balanced, where we interviewed playbook author Bobby Peters about the offense that new Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson ran as the Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator.
Johnson’s offense will look different in Chicago because he will build it around the Bears’ personnel, but his philosophy will remain intact.
While Johnson was Detrot’s play-caller, Lions quarterback Jared Goff led the league in play-action pass attempts in 2024 and 2023, and he was fourth in 2022. In 2021, before Johnson took over as the Lions’ primary play-caller and before he specifically designed the playbook around Goff and what he was comfortable with, Goff ranked 27th. Last year, Jared Goff’s yards per pass attempt (YPA) on play action was 16% better than on other passes. Also, 40% of Goff’s passing yards came on play-action passes.
I'm sure there are still some nonbelievers reading who insist that Goff and the Lions’ play-action success was only because of their top-five rushing attack.
So, let’s check out the other end of the spectrum.
The Las Vegas Raiders had the fewest rushing yards in the NFL in 2024 with just 1,357, and they were dead last in rushing yards per attempt at 3.6, but Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew II received a 5% boost in YPA on play-action passes, and Aidan O’Connell saw an 11% increase.
Las Vegas’s poor...
