Great piece on cbssports.com on spread concepts more frequent in the NFL

[tiger7_88]

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25182090/product-of-the-system-nfl-already-becoming-a-spread-offense-league

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians was vocal about this point. “Seeing the guys coming out of the systems now where the coach holds a card up, the players line up, he kicks his foot and they play football -- the hardest thing for them is to get into a huddle and call a play,” Arians said. “They're stuttering, they're stammering, the guys around them don't believe in them. That's that leadership thing. That's the hardest thing for these young quarterbacks who play in these systems … they have to learn how to play quarterback at this level and sometimes that's overwhelming.”

It should be noted here that college quarterbacks don't have the benefit of radio communication from their coaches like NFL quarterbacks do, which makes it difficult to radio in a play call to them. Additionally, the NFL is increasingly becoming a no-huddle oriented league. No-huddle usage more than doubled from 2011 and 2013 alone, rising from 5.7% of snaps in 2011 to 6.7% in 2012, to 12.2% in 2013. Even more teams used it in 2014, and though I wasn't able to find a confirmed percentage breakdown, the percentage of no-huddle snaps taken is doubtlessly higher than it was the year before, and next year it will be higher still.

Look at all the teams that have professed an interest in using more of the no-huddle next season. First, there's the Raiders. Head coach Jack Del Rio believes it will allow them to be more diverse on offense and vary their tempo. Then there's the Carolina Panthers. Riverboat Ron Rivera recognized how much more effective Cam Newton was down the stretch of last season when the team went no-huddle, and wants to do it more this year. The Buccaneers are expected to run more no-huddle under offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter.

These stories come on the heels of teams like the Chargers, Colts and Steelers announcing (and mostly following through on) plans to run more no-huddle before last season. Browns coach Mike Pettine called the no-huddle the future of the league. Add all those teams to Peyton Manning's Broncos, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady's New England Patriots and of course, Chip Kelly's Philadelphia Eagles, and you've got the makings of a leaguewide trend toward less huddling that's already reflected in recent data. What's more is that no-huddle plays have historically been -- you guessed it -- more efficient than those run after teams huddle up.

There are advantages (more time for the quarterback to read the defense and get into the optimal play call, tired defenses that aren't allowed to change personnel groupings, the need for the opposing team to devote valuable practice time to learning how best to defend no-huddle offenses) and disadvantages (difficulty communicating plays across the entire field, short drives if you don't get a first down, more time spent on the field for your defense) to the no-huddle, but by and large it's becoming more prevalent with each passing season, and it's an effective strategy if you play it correctly. You don't have to run up to the line of scrimmage and snap it with 20 seconds on the play clock like the Eagles, either. Peyton Manning's teams rarely huddle, but also rarely snap the ball before there are five or fewer seconds on the play clock. It can be used simply to keep your team in favorable personnel groupings while also controlling the pace of play.

Its the future of the NFL IMO (like it or not).

I hope beyond hope that Rivera is serious about pushing for more no-huddle in the Shula offense. Can Shula handle updating his dinosaur comfort-zone with new concepts? For the Panther's offense sake, I hope so.

[mattnasty919]

I fully expect we will run more no huddle on offense this season. On defense I think the addition of Shaq Thompson will make it easier to defend as well, having to rely less on personnel subs.

[dos poptarts]

I asked a friend once why he wore bell-bottom jeans and polyester in the 70s.

His answer: Because that's all they sold.

 

Same in the NFL. Spread offense is now in high schools and colleges. When most of QBs have never huddled in their entire football career it's going to carry over into the NFL. The next decade of QBs could be good or we could see the most horrific QB play while coaches force them to learn to huddle and snap under center.

 

 

[joemac]

We have the perfect no huddle QB. Cam had maybe the best offensive season in college football history running no huddle in college. The Panthers offense looked much more dynamic last season when they went no huddle.

Personally I hope we see it as a staple next year, and we torch the league with it!

[UpstatePanther]

i find it interesting to think about how this might affect the game itself. more no huddle equals tired defenses. tired defenses will demand more athletic players, who normally weigh less. on the line of scrimmage, less weight will cause the DL to get beat, unless players can be found who are fast and technique-strong. the only way a defense will be able to contain a no-huddle passing offense is to be leaner up front and meaner in the secondary. but leaner up front will mean that bigger running backs will come in vogue, as they can simply run over the lighter Dlinemen. i suspect that unless a defense has the right kind of personnel, a spread offense NFL will also, perhaps contrary to what one might believe, produce more productive running games, as well as the expected bump in passing offense. 

 

its all a trickle down scenario. the more the spread is used, the more defenses will adjust scheme or personnel to contain the spread. the more effective defenses get at containing the spread, the more we might see mauling offenses come back in vogue. 

 

vicious cycle i guess. haha. the great teams will be those who can play defense against the best of any offensive scheme. 

[Kurb]

i find it interesting to think about how this might affect the game itself. more no huddle equals tired defenses. tired defenses will demand more athletic players, who normally weigh less. on the line of scrimmage, less weight will cause the DL to get beat, unless players can be found who are fast and technique-strong. the only way a defense will be able to contain a no-huddle passing offense is to be leaner up front and meaner in the secondary. but leaner up front will mean that bigger running backs will come in vogue, as they can simply run over the lighter Dlinemen. i suspect that unless a defense has the right kind of personnel, a spread offense NFL will also, perhaps contrary to what one might believe, produce more productive running games, as well as the expected bump in passing offense. 

 

its all a trickle down scenario. the more the spread is used, the more defenses will adjust scheme or personnel to contain the spread. the more effective defenses get at containing the spread, the more we might see mauling offenses come back in vogue. 

 

vicious cycle i guess. haha. the great teams will be those who can play defense against the best of any offensive scheme. 

 

 

Its a cycle I think.

 

Offense spreads out.

Defense gets leaner faster.

Offense counters with big OL and Power Run game to push around "smaller" defense.

Defense gets bigger.

Offense spreads out....

 

 

and so on...

[UpstatePanther]

Its a cycle I think.

 

Offense spreads out.

Defense gets leaner faster.

Offense counters with big OL and Power Run game to push around "smaller" defense.

Defense gets bigger.

Offense spreads out....

 

 

and so on...

 

i suppose this is why they say that "defense wins championships", right? lol

[Kurb]

i suppose this is why they say that "defense wins championships", right? lol

 

First step for  the O to score is to get the ball right?

[rayzor]

the writing has been on the walls for years.

 

i did a lot of looking into this before we drafted cam and dicsussed quite a bit how the league was evolving into something that looked more like the college game and that this was something that had been going on quite successfully for years.

 

no all that was specifically the spread offense as a whole. the more progressive (and productive) offenses were using the spread offense and either setting league records or winning conference championships or superbowls. even more teams were using the shotgun more frequently. it makes sense that the no huddle/hurry up offense would be the next thing to take hold of the league.

 

players grow up playing spread offenses and then for some reason were expected to change when they got to the pros so they could play a "pro-style" offense (as if it were the official offense of the NFL). the smart teams will build what they do around the stregths of their players. the stubborn ones will try to force round pegs to fit in square holes.

 

one of the things that makes newton so special is his ability to improvise and feed on momentum. shula was/is the wrong OC for that. i do think that the structure that cam was put into was good for his development and helped/is helping him to be a more well-rounded QB, but there comes a point where you need to key in on the strengths of the player and hope that the fundamentals you taught him were ingrained into him and will help his play going forward. imo, we have reached that point.

 

we need to allow the offense to feed off what cam brings and trust his natural abilities to make things happen on the field. part of that requires shula to release the reigns and relinquish some control and tbh, i don't trust his ability to do that consistently. i know we did more of that towards the end of last year, but we seem to always have some regression at the beginning of each year, and that regression usually happens because the coaching staff will revert to old ways and habits after learning better ways of doing things from the previous year that helped them finish strong.

 

hopefully this year is different because we will continue to see the same limited results every year going one step forwards and then one step back.

[Mr. Scot]

Here's a rebuttal, but it's not from me.  It's from Seahawks OL Coach Tom Cable.

 

The increasing popularity of spread offenses at the college level have made it hard for NFL teams to evaluate the ability of rising quarterbacks to play in the more buttoned-down style seen at the professional level, but Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable says that the issue extends to other positions as well.

Cable said that part of the reason why the team has moved players like J.R. Sweezy and 2015 sixth-rounder Kristjan Sokoli from defense to offense is because he feels like he has to retrain linemen to play outside of a spread system anyway because of their poor fundamentals.

“I’m not wanting to offend anybody, but college football, offensively, has gotten to be really, really bad fundamentally,” Cable said Tuesday on 710 ESPN in Seattle. “Unfortunately, I think we’re doing a huge disservice to offensive football players, other than a receiver, that come out of these spread systems. “The runners aren’t as good. They aren’t taught how to run. The blockers aren’t as good. The quarterbacks aren’t as good. They don’t know how to read coverage and throw progressions. They have no idea.”

 

Tom Cable says spread offenses are doing a disservice to players (PFT)

 

Tom Cable: College spread offenses are really bad at the fundamentals (ESPN)

[magnus]

with the pistol and the read option came the ability to not have to work under center.   Most teams were running the inside and outside zone as their base run already, so the core of the play 

 

Most of the league was starting to use 3 WR and/or a split TE already, or a starting WR in the slot in 3 wides, before the read option.  The Saints and Pats took the parts they wanted long before we brought the read option to the big leagues.

[CPantherKing]

Football has been a game of move and counter move with formations since the beginning.

 

Defense wins championships and dictates what an offense must do to be effective. Sometimes the defense is so successful and the offense can not find a counter. When this happens the NFL changes their rules to favor offensive production and allow the offense a counter to the defense.

 

The question is are your coaches ahead of the trends or are they following the trends? Are they putting the players in the best position to win games?

 

I believe a coach should tailor their offense to beat the defenses in their division and the top 2 team in their conference. As for defense a coach should tailor the defense to fit their players and focus on stopping the offensive trend in the NFL.

[tiger7_88]

Here's a rebuttal, but it's not from me. It's from Seahawks OL Coach Tom Cable.

Tom Cable says spread offenses are doing a disservice to NFL coaches who would rather not work as hard (PFT)

Tom Cable: College spread offenses are really bad at the fundamentals I prefer then to have because it makes my job easier (ESPN)

Fixed your URLs for you.

[Frizzy350]

I certainly hope we use it more often. Cam consistently tore defenses up in the no huddle... to almost a baffling degree.