HoofHearted

Here is a good article on Deep Choice. As far as zone insert, we were mostly running same side with Shakir in a nasty split. I couldn't find any images of it online, but I can draw it up later when I have more time. Essentially the way it fits out is like ISO (which I think is what I was calling it in my run game breakdown last season), but you're not isolating a linebacker because of the defensive personnel vs the personnel we had on the field at the time.

Yeah, sorry. Got caught without power for a while with these storms down here in Texas. Was lucky my QOD was able to go through on my phone 🤣. Shakir reminds me a lot of Hines Ward. Not the most physically gifted dude, but someone who plays with reckless abandon on every single play. Khalil doesn’t seem to care what he’s being asked to do - he doing it fast and physical. His blocking within the box and on the perimeter are weapons. As far as his role in our offense, I think it’ll be multifaceted. He has the ability to play both outside and inside as well as in a slot or wing role as we saw last year. I think he short area quickness plays well to the perimeter pass game we saw last year, but he’s also probably our best perimeter blocker so I’d expect to see him blocking for Samuel on these more often than not. From his interview the other day it sure sounds like Deep Choice is still going to be a focal point of the offense as he was talking about running those “collector” routes to pull coverage in order to open things up underneath for others. I’d imagine they’d run both DC1 and DC2 like they did in the past. What really intrigues me though is his ability to play within the box. There were multiple times last year we put Khalil in a wing or “nasty” split and ran a variation of zone insert. What makes this so intriguing to me is that we can do this with 11p but show 12 or 13p looks out of it. Essentially we’re forcing teams to play with a light box and scheming plays up that are forcing opposing teams corners to make tackles within the box. It was very effective last year, and is something Brady did during his time at LSU with his run game there. Overall I think he’s most natural in a slot role where he can run all of the choice menu Beasley did while also being a key factor in the run game from a blocking perspective. Sorry all for such a late response!

Brady has said he wants to take advantage of each players individual skill sets within this offense. Couple that with the uptick in production we saw out of Shakir at the end of last season once Brady took over, and one could assume he’s primed to be a focal point in this offense (albeit not to the level that Diggs was). So what say you. How would you get the most out of Shakir’s skill set within this offense? (There are no wrong answers and I’ll give my opinions later as not to influence the responses).

Yes, but more importantly defenses still have the upper hand without the threat of QB run because they don’t have to designate a defensive player to account for it (Essentially playing 11 v 10 in favor of the defense). RPOs allows offenses to get the numbers advantage by putting at least one defender in conflict, as you said. So now it’s 11 v 10 in favor of the offense. With a player like Josh you could have old school triple option through RPOs where you are now putting 2 defenders in conflict playing 11 v 9. This is why you saw an uptick in our RPO game once Brady took over. He understands the numerical advantages it gives you, especially when you have a guy like Josh back there orchestrating the whole thing.

Healthy debates are fine, and a debate is all it'll ever be. Neither one of us, or anyone else for that matter, has the exact answer. There isn't one way to skin a cat. We had success under center last year running play-action so people want to lean into that more which makes total and complete sense. From a coaches perspective, when you start thinking about how that limits you schematically and what skill sets it takes away from your offense that would otherwise set you apart from 90% of the other offenses in the league is where you start questioning whether the juice is worth the squeeze. When does it become too much under center if you will. Roll-out run game is fine, and we've had success with Josh running naked bootlegs in short third down situations which have provided him a single pass option to take if it was there, and if it wasn't then he would keep it himself. These are easily defended in normal down and distance situations within the base rules of defenses when it comes to secondary contain players forcing Josh to pull up while still having players in coverage. From a purely statistical standpoint I'd really like to see the numbers for play action compared to rpo numbers. I've seen what they look like for teams I've been involved with and I think they'd really be eye opening for fans. RPOs are the closest thing we have to out-right cheating in football lol.

Interesting, I saw the complete opposite of what you mention here and even posted about it during the season in the X's and O's thread (I believe). McDermott was very calculated in his blitzes. He did a phenomenal job imo of predicting and attacking protections, ensuring we were able to get an athlete matched up 1v1 with a RB. That's what you want to see. We used delays, overloads, you name it - it was done. Frequency can always be argued, but ultimately if your more likely to be a successful defense by getting a QB off his spot than if you let him sit back there all day.

1. His play-action numbers are outstanding - as are every other QBs play-action numbers vs normal dropback numbers. It's the whole point of Play Action - to freeze defenders and not allow them to play run or pass and get caught in no mans land. As far as I'm aware there are no sites who break down Play Action from under center vs Play Action from in the gun (would love to see that data if it exists though). 2. This was a common theme I saw during the season last year so I did a deep dive into our run game and found no evidence that suggested we run better from under center than from under the gun. I will try and find that thread and link it here. EDIT: Found the link Josh under center immediately takes him away as an immediate run threat. We have been so successful as an offense since Josh got here because of his legs, whether he uses them or not, because teams have to account for it. Gun provides that on every single snap and forces a defense to play 11 v 11 football instead of 11 v 10 which is typical of any QB who isn't a run threat. Now does that mean there is no place for anything under center? No. Obviously it's a good wrinkle to have, but with the way modern offenses are run you want to be in gun the majority of the time if you have a dual threat QB because of the stress it puts on a defense to defend the whole field. Additionally, gun allows you to take advantage of the RPO game which is even better than true play action since you are forcing a defender to be wrong regardless of what they do. Now you're getting into situations where you can play 11 v 10 offensively instead of the reverse.

1. I did a deep dive into our run game last season and posted the results on here. I'll have to see if I can dig that thread up, but Dart was our most successful run concept. I don't have any data league-wide. 2. Both of our Tackles move well enough to be great pullers, as did Morse, which is why we used him to pull in our pin and pull concepts rather than running the traditional Buck where both guards pull. 3. We've been a base zone run scheme team since McDermott got here. Yes, this is us.

There's been many here that have made this comment. I guess I'm left wondering why? Why take away our offenses greatest asset by putting our QB under center?

College defenses are way different than what you see in the NFL. Offenses attack players and coverages with their pass game. Most colleges are basing out of Quarters coverage - not so much in the NFL - so take anything you see from LSU with a grain of salt from a concept perspective. However, what it does illustrate is Brady's ability to scheme guys open vs coverages using various concepts.

I think you're spot on with the field stretcher comment. Deep Choice, I'm sure, will still be a big part of this offenses vertical passing game where MVS/Claypool will be running the collector routes (sole purpose is to pull coverage to open stuff underneath) so that Kincaid will be able to work off the underneath coverage defenders and find the soft spots in zone. I see a lot of Mills passing concepts for us with Kincaid running the Dig.

That wasn't a whole game thing. It was for that specific end of game scenario where they knew KC had to throw to come back. We ended up running a 55 front - two outside 5's and a true 0 tech inside to rush.

I don't think you'll see as much vertical passing game from us this year. To me it looks like they want to use pre-snap movement to set up quick hitters more in line with what we saw towards the end of last season. Probably will see a lot more screen game and RPO game this year. Any mesh action between a QB/RB is going to force the defense to, at the very least, stop their feet. Even on true under center play action no one is teaching linebackers to fly downhill anymore until they see ball given. There's too much offenses are doing now to take advantage of that. Works vs zone quite well too. That's why its a staple in essentially every offense. See man throw the mesh. See zone throw the OTB.

We ran Mesh a ton last year. It was one of the boards least favorite concepts we ran lol.

Yeah, that’s kind of the nature of it isn’t it. Playing on the edge like that can be very boom or bust. I think what encourages me, even on the plays that didn’t go our way, the design of the scheme was excellent. You could clearly see we were being deliberate with our pressures - not sending guys just to send them - but scheming up protections in order to guarantee someone free or at the worst 1v1 with a RB. Having personally been in those shoes before I can tell you exactly where those calls are coming from haha. When you’re not getting home with four and just leaving your secondary out to dry your next answer is to start bringing more.