New NFL

[RyCo1983]

Didn't the Patriots do some no huddle action last year? Fast enough to have teams complaining to the league because of it?

It won't last.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

The league will adjust. The things that continue to work will be assimilated. Lots of it will go away.

Luck will still be better than RGIII because he's better in the pocket.

 

[pkt77242]

I don't think that the "spread" will catch on with teams that have great dropback QB's, but I think that teams that are lacking in great QB's will try it for a year or two to be competitive. Think about it, if you could choose between having Brandon Weeden as your QB or signing two or 3 fast, but below average QB's and running the "spread" what would you choose? Easy give me the "spread" because I could be competitive with a couple of below average passing QB's that can run. Think of a pro team with Marcus Mariota, Braxton Miller and Taylor Kelly. None will probably be high picks but all could be below average to average QB's and be interchangeable at the position without having to worry too much about injuries.

 

[ickythump1225]

I don't think that the "spread" will catch on with teams that have great dropback QB's, but I think that teams that are lacking in great QB's will try it for a year or two to be competitive. Think about it, if you could choose between having Brandon Weeden as your QB or signing two or 3 fast, but below average QB's and running the "spread" what would you choose? Easy give me the "spread" because I could be competitive with a couple of below average passing QB's that can run. Think of a pro team with Marcus Mariota, Braxton Miller and Taylor Kelly. None will probably be high picks but all could be below average to average QB's and be interchangeable at the position without having to worry too much about injuries.

Obviously if you have Matt Ryan, maybe the slowest QB in the league, you're not running zone reads. However this levels the playing field by giving teams another way to win. As it stands right now and in recent NFL history you need a top 10 QB to have a legit shot at being competitive every year. However this allows a team try a different route as QBs like Brady and Manning don't fall out of trees. Trust me, as a Vikings fan I know how damn hard it is to find a "franchise" QB.

Also the zone read allows younger QBs to thrive in simpler playbooks with quicker reads.
The zone read/"spread" offense forces defense to spread out and try to cover the entire field and defend against the pass, the run, and a QB running.

Will NFL defenses adjust? Yes but I think that some people get the impression that the zone read is "gimmicky" when it's really not. It's really just fundamental football packaged differently. The offensive line is probably the most important element in the zone read offense. A lot of people, particularly down here in the south love the SEC because "herp derp big boy smashmouth football" but in reality the spread wants to accomplish the same thing as the caveman football of Alabama: run it down the opponent's throats. They just do it at a faster and more efficient pace.

 

[ickythump1225]

It won't last.

Nothing personal against you but I can imagine a conversation similar to this 100 years ago regarding the forward pass.
"Those damn Papists from Indiana used the forward pass? Ach, what a gimmick. It won't last."

It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that huddling is an archaism destined for the dustbin. I say it’s a slight exaggeration because there is a value to huddling, primarily when you have a great leader at quarterback as a huddle is an opportunity for him to show his leadership skills. But otherwise, it’s inherently inferior to going no-huddle. It’s slower, which is a problem both in games but also in practice where your offense gets fewer reps, and, maybe most importantly, the safety net of a huddle leads coaches to transform plays that can be communicated in just one or two words into multi-syllabic monstrosities. That’s the sad secret of those long NFL playcalls: They convey no more information than can be conveyed with one or two words or with a combination of hand-signals.
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None of this is particularly new. In the 1980s and early 1990s, both the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills used the no-huddle extensively, and college and high school teams have increasingly moved to no-huddle approaches over the last decade. In his 1997 book Finding the Winning Edge, Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh—whose West Coast offense fueled the growth of complex play calls—predicted that no-huddle offenses using “one word” play calls would come to dominate football. Walsh may have been a bit early, but Brady and Belichick are making his prediction come true.
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Modern defenses want to match offenses in terms of strength and speed via personnel substitutions. They also want to confuse offenses with movement and disguise. The up-tempo no-huddle stymies those defensive options. The defense doesn’t have time to substitute, and it’s also forced to show its hand: It can’t disguise or shift because the quarterback can snap the ball and take advantage of some obvious, structural weakness. And when the defense is forced to reveal itself, Tom Brady can change into a better play. The upshot of this tactic: Brady, of all people, sees defenses that are simpler than those most other NFL quarterbacks go up against.

The Future of the NFL: More Up-tempo No-huddle | Smart Football

 

[ickythump1225]

"Combination" or "packaged" plays have been sweeping across college and high school football over recent years, enough that NFL coaches are clearly taking notice. The Bears, Panthers, Bills, Eagles, and Chiefs each ran a number of them in their exhibition games, combining running and passing concepts — meaning the offensive line typically blocked a run play while receivers ran pass routes or screens, leaving the quarterback to decide whether to hand off or throw it out wide — often at a no-huddle pace.

Good offense has always been about deceptive simplicity — the clearest path to success is to make things as simple as possible for your players while also keeping defenses off-balance. It's a difficult recipe, as an offense that is too simple can get dissected, analyzed, and shut down by a savvy defense, but a team that tries to do too many things will master none of them. Packaged plays solve the quandary by combining simple plays all the players can execute in such a way that — if the quarterback makes the right decision — the offense always has the advantage, because no defender can be in two places at once.

Consider a series from Ole Miss's bowl game last season, under first-year coach Hugh Freeze. Until recently, Freeze was probably most famous as the high school coach from the book and movie The Blind Side, but with his team's surprising success last year, he's beginning to earn a reputation as an innovator. The official play-by-play description for the touchdown drive looks a lot like the description for any number of similarly successful drives:

Play 1: Eight-yard rush.
Play 2: Completion to a receiver for four yards, first down.
Play 3: Quarterback run for 13 yards.
Play 4: Completion to a different receiver for five yards.
Play 5: Completion for 18 yards, touchdown.

That description seemingly represented what everyone watching the game saw — Ole Miss kept Pittsburgh's defense off-balance with a mix of plays that resulted in a quick, efficient scoring drive.

Except that wasn't the case at all. Ole Miss did not choose five different plays to keep the defense confused. Instead, they ran the same play five times in a row. That play simply had four different options — ones that resulted in two different ball carries and two different receivers touching the ball.

Packaged Plays and the Newest Form of Option Football - The Triangle Blog - Grantland

Good read.