Offensive identity
I am confused by what they’re trying to do on offense. I think they’re confused about what they’re trying to do on offense.
So, some thoughts on what it should be.
1. What Elway wants the scheme to look like, and does he really want it to look like that? What does the hire of Scangarello tell us about how these two thoughts maybe oppose each other, or validate that Elway’s comments aren’t what he alluded to.
When Kubiak was let go, or decided to leave, whichever you’re inclined to believe (I imagine the truth is in between and it was mutual), Elway made some comments about liking the schemes based in what we’ve colloquially been calling “college schemes.” I think we can assume he was speaking about Kansas City, Carolina, Los Angeles Rams, etc.
Now, they run different schemes, but those schemes all have some college spread concepts.
For example Andy Reid has combined West Coast concepts (his background is the Holmgren scheme) with spread concepts that were introduced to the pro game by McDaniels in New England about a decade ago. Reid’s scheme differs because it’s still essentially a West Coast scheme with the mesh and option concepts of the college spread. The threat of the quarterback running is more out of the passing side than the rushing side, though, which is a West Coast principle. Always be looking downfield even if the pocket is moving. This is similar to what McVey is doing in Los Angeles and now what Kingsbury is doing in Arizona. Kansas City’s offense is built on speed, and Reid has tailored his scheme to that speed, i.e. Hill, Hardman, Watkins, etc.
The flip side of that is the Carolina spread. It’s built in more of a downfield passing game and a power offense. It has elements of the Coryell passing game and the old power running game of the NFC East teams. They run true option concepts in the backfield behind pulling linemen and counter action. And the play action game is looking deep to short, rather than short to deep, like Reid’s offense (West Coast).
The question that is unanswered is: Does Elway want one of these schemes like he seemed to allude to when moving on from Kubiak? We don’t know the answer to that.
Scangarello’s hire seemed to indicate the opposite. Yes, he has a lengthy college background. Frankly, it’s hard to know too much about the scheme he ran when he was an offensive coordinator in college because he was with lower-level teams I’m not familiar with. One would assume there was some air raid/spread involved, as most colleges have run these systems for nearly 20 years now. But, the Atlanta/San Francisco Shanahan offense is quite a bit more traditional West Coast than McVey’s or Reid’s. That leads me to believe that Elway was OK with that more traditional offense. But again, we don’t know that for sure.
2. The player personnel.
The team that was assembled is a power run football team. I think that’s plain and simple. They carried (including practice squad), three tailbacks, two fullbacks and four tight ends. They only kept five wide receivers (these numbers are off the top of my head, so they may be slightly off). Then they traded one of those receivers, and now really only have one healthy impact player at the position.
The team’s best running back, Lindsay, despite being short, is a power (scheme) runner. He seems to work best when he’s behind a pulling guard or working downhill in a zone scheme. His best ability, past maybe his elusiveness, is his vision. I think he has elite vision.
Janovich is one of the best fullbacks in the game, and they carried two fullbacks initially. That screams power run scheme.
The offensive line is clearly a top unit in the league in the running game (DVOA confirms this) and brutally bad in pass blocking (also confirmed by DVOA).
So...
3. The playcalling.
Here’s the true identity question. Why are they not running more power? Lindsay only had 13 carries yesterday. They only ran the ball 16 times yesterday. Yes, there were three and outs, and that was a big problem, but they were averaging 5 yards per carry. Run the football, it’s cold and windy.
Is that not the scheme? If it’s not the scheme, I suppose that’s one thing. But that raises several questions, the most important being why isn’t Scangarello using his personnel to the best of its abilities? Why is he trying to run college concepts with a team that’s not built on the speed it takes to run them?
What do they want the offensive identity of this team to be? Starting with the front office, they need to do a better job of identifying what they want the scheme to look like and catering the personnel to that scheme, or vice versa, cater the scheme to the personnel. Right now, it’s all over the place.
Originally Posted by Buff
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