Carolina Panthers in a spread offense

[klbishop143]

im hesitant to say it cause i know its gonna get ripped to shreds but i dont believe edwards could be a qb in the nfl. he just looks fragile. and hes a little short. i saw his highlight reels and they look awesome but so did The Golden Calf of Bristol (woops). im all for the "mountaineer" from time to time but not every down. i like a freeman type more, someone who can shrug off a hit and run or make a throw down field.

[klbishop143]

so say we do run the spread with edwards with the personnel we have now heres my hypothetical formation: ed in the shotty

a----b----cxxxxx----d-----e

a gettis

b rosario

c barnidge

d goodson

e smith

note: its late and im at work kinda bored

[GoApps70]

Edwards may look like he cannot take a shot, but I have seen him take on three defensive backs to make it into the end zone. He is one of the toughest players I have ever seen.

[dxpanther]

Edwards may look like he cannot take a shot, but I have seen him take on three defensive backs to make it into the end zone. He is one of the toughest players I have ever seen.

no more "devastating hits" allowed in the NFL anyways haha

[mav1234]

while the idea is all well and good, was I the only one seeing our o line get completely destroyed the last few weeks in formations that had more than 5 blockers?

I also don't think AE is suddenly the answer because we go to a spread. However, it' be nice to see what he could do some more anyway, but as starter? I'm a bit hesitant there. Maybe he'll be great, but I have a feeling he'll end up more like Pat White.

[CRA]

I think we should worry about having a couple NFL caliber WR's before we start wanting to spread it out.

eh, look at the Broncos and what they are doing. They have taken Kyle Orton and a bunch of scrubs.....and made a legit passing attack.

Scheme/coaching matters.

we have talent right now in Carolina.......put talent in poor scenarios for success and you generally don't see success.

[mav1234]

yeah, I agree CRA. In my opinion, one of the few things this team has going for them through this year is talent. while WR may be one of our thinner spots, we do still have some bright young guys. They just aren't being put in positions to succeed imo.

It was pretty striking when Fox said people are defending us the same way. That pretty much tells you the diversity in offensive schemes we have.

[mmmbeans]

i'm not opposed to the idea but it's effectively the exact opposite of what this team was built to do.

[magnus]

i'm not of the opinion that switching to a spread is a bad thing. pats have won a couple superbowls because of it.

i don't like the idea of making the team weaker by trading one of it's sure strengths away. trading williams is a bad idea, imo. keep willliams and stewart and build around that strength. doesn't make sense to me to do anything but build around your long term strengths.

not sure how your plan is going to "expand our fanbase and revenue".

our backs come from spread, most of our TEs. The Pats run the same offense, and it's the most spread of any pro offense (though Weis never gets lumped into spread, and we don't run the options or leads).

The thing of it is that the principles that the spread work on - the parts no one in the pro scheme would ever use - don't work on this level. That's why they're not used.

[Boomer]

I think we should worry about having a couple NFL caliber WR's before we start wanting to spread it out.

:thumbsup:

[panthers55]

The spread offense in one form or fashion has been run for the past 20 years at least in the NFL. The run and shoot offense used by Houston and Atlanta were versions of the spread offense. The run and shoot was designed to use 1 running back and between 2 and 4 receivers (sometimes wide receivers, sometimes slot receivers, sometimes running backs in the slot, etc.). It was defintely a spread offense which allowed receivers to change things on the fly to account for the defensive formations.

The New England offense particularly in 2007 was definitely a spread offense as are some versions of the WCO. Even the wildcat is considered a version of a spread offense. While in the pros you don't see option versions very much, Vick ran a version of that when he played in Atlanta especially his last year there.

So could we run it, definitely we could. The Mountaineer package put in for Edwards is likely some version of that given he ran a spread offense at APP.

Truth is that I expect more and more NFL teams to run a spread offense of some type given the number of college players who are familiar with it and schooled in it's use. Plus if the spread increases in popularity even more, it could conceivably at some point be harder to find traditional quarterbacks and wide receivers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_offense

[magnus]

WCO is spread? No, certainly don't think so.

[carolinarolls]

as Zod mentioned, some quality WR's would help out the transition but the TE's could help in the short term. Seems like our QB's are wired to check down so they might be able to get the ball out quick enough to account for the poor offensive line.

We definitely do not need all the backs that we have now. We need a workhorse who can block his arse off and be prepared to run 18 times for 40-50 yards every week. They are all over the place.

Will need a new OCoord., HCoach, OLC, QBC, TEC, WRC, and GM.

Why not..sounds easy enough.

/sarcasm

[panthers55]

WCO is spread? No, certainly don't think so.

Many spread offenses use many of the same concepts as a WCO. THe WCO is more of a philosophy and an approach rather than a specific set of plays or formations.

Basic Principles:

-Uses a short horizontal passing game to stretch out the defense.

-Opens up running and passing lanes for the receivers and backs to exploit by forcing defenses to concentrate on the short pass.

-Uses passing primarily instead of running and passing to set up the run.

-Uses short drops (often 3 and 5 step drops sometimes 7 on shallow crossing routes and deep ins) or more recently the shotgun.

- focuses on passes within 15 yards of the LOS

All of those elements are part of the modern spread offense. Are these concepts all the same as Walsh's original WCO concept, not the shotgun primarily and the spread is less rigid on route running variations versus most WCOs which pass to a predetermined spot and often are scripted. Most spreads have more flexibility on play variations based on defensive alignments but operate with similar concepts.

The line between WCOs and spread offenses have been blurred in the last 10 years as teams use elements of both. Modern spread offenses look different from the traditional WCOs of the 80s and 90s but there are actually very few rules with govern both of these offenses as teams use elements of both. Spreads tend to be easier to learn and quicker to master than traditional WCOs but the basic tenets and philisophy are the same.