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Originally posted by sonorajim
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I'll take what if's vs. watching WTFs with Lombo ball!Chiefs won the Superbowl with 10 Rookies....
"Locked, Cocked, and ready to Rock!" Jim Harbaugh
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What Ifs over What The Fucks!Originally posted by gzubeck View Post
Right there's our 2023 battle cry, Men ... er, and Women, ... (er, and ... anyone I left out?)!“Less is more? NO NO NO - MORE is MORE!”Comment
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Time to brush up on your sensitivity training my friend - it's a whole new world out thereOriginally posted by dmac_bolt View Post
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Lombardi was a student of offense and had a good basic playbook.Originally posted by gzubeck View Post
--but no gift for timing, adjustment or improv.Comment
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Ted Nguyen and Daniel Popper collaboration gold!
On Jan. 18, Chargers coach Brandon Staley addressed the media to wrap up the 2022 season and discuss the firing of offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi. Staley was asked about the timing of the decision to move on from Lombardi, four days after the Chargers blew a 27-point playoff lead in Jacksonville. He identified three areas in which he felt the offense needed to improve.- “There is a different level that we need to play at offensively, particularly at the line of scrimmage and in the run game.”
- “Having the marriage of the run and the pass.”
- “Creating more explosions on early downs.”
Staley had watched as his offense failed to run the ball in the second half of the collapse against the Jaguars. Chargers running backs combined for just seven rushing yards on seven carries in the third and fourth quarters despite entering that second half with a 27-7 lead. There is a reason Staley listed the running game first.
Less than two weeks after Staley’s news conference, the Chargers agreed to terms with Kellen Moore to be their new offensive coordinator. Over four seasons calling plays for the Cowboys — the first under Jason Garrett and the final three under Mike McCarthy — Moore’s offenses ranked fifth in the league in expected points added per play, according to TruMedia.
With Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard, Dalton Schultz and a strong offensive line, the running game was central to the Cowboys’ success under Moore. Dallas ranked seventh in EPA per designed rush in those four seasons, according to TruMedia, and the Cowboys ran designed rushes on 49.3 percent of their early-down offensive plays in the first 28 minutes of games. (These parameters create a more telling picture of a team’s willingness to run, as the game script can impact play-calling in the final two minutes of the first half and the second half.)
The Chargers, by comparison, called designed rushes on 42.2 percent of their early-down offensive plays in the first 28 minutes of games in Lombardi’s two seasons. That was the fifth-lowest rate in the league. The Chargers ranked 16th in EPA per designed rush over the past two seasons.
Moore will be tasked with spurring improvement primarily in three areas: run game, marriage of the run and the pass and creating more early-down explosive plays.
The Cowboys’ run game numbers speak for themselves.
Over Moore’s four seasons, Dallas ranked 17th in early-down explosive play rate, according to TruMedia. (Explosive plays are defined as any rush over 12 yards or any completion over 16 yards). The Chargers ranked 20th in that metric with Lombardi calling plays.
The marriage between the run and the pass is harder to quantify. On a basic level, this is referring to creating synergy between the run game and the play-action game. The more similar the run plays and play-action plays look, the more deception an offense can create.
Moore slowly introduced more play-action into the Cowboys’ offense in each season under McCarthy. Here is the breakdown of Dallas’ early-down play-action rate from 2020-22, via TruMedia:
2020: 26.3 percent (30th in the league)
2021: 33.1 percent (22nd)
2022: 36.7 percent (13th)
The increase in usage coincided with more efficiency from the play-action game. Here are the Cowboys rankings in EPA per early-down play-action dropback from 2020-2022, via TruMedia:
2020: 26th
2021: 20th
2022: 11th
These figures do not paint the full picture, though. The Chargers were a very effective play-action team under Lombardi, ranking seventh in EPA per dropback on early-down play-action over his two seasons. What is not taken into account is how a fine-tuned marriage of run and pass can also create opportunities in the running game. That is what was missing for the Chargers last season.
To paint that full picture, let’s dive into Cowboys film to demonstrate how Moore might attack these three areas Staley identified.
Run game
The Cowboys had a varied rushing attack last season that consisted of outside zone, mid zone, inside zone, counters, sweeps and duo. They were particularly good at running out of the shotgun because they were able to run almost all their under-center concepts from the gun, which isn’t easy to do. The Cowboys ranked sixth in EPA per rush from the gun. The Chargers ranked 15th.
Dallas’ best shotgun run was duo, which is a power concept that isn’t typically run from the gun. The Cowboys were able to spread out defenses and gash them with a concept predicated on creating vertical double teams. In this clip, the Cowboys are in 11 personnel (one back, one tight end, three receivers). The defense was in nickel and only had six defenders in the box. Running duo, the back reads the movement of the MIKE linebacker and has the choice to run through the middle, bounce outside or cut the play back.
The play allows offensive linemen to come off the ball vertically instead of horizontally like they would on a zone run. Despite the Cowboys being so effective at running out of the gun, defenses hardly loaded the box in these situations because of Moore’s willingness to call vertical passing concepts. Last season, the Cowboys only faced seven or more in the box on 177 snaps, fifth fewest in the NFL.
The Cowboys were also one of the best teams at running the ball with multiple tight ends on the field last season, ranking eighth in EPA per rush out of 12 and 13 personnel, according to TruMedia. The Chargers ranked 15th in EPA per rush out of these same personnel groupings last season. The Chargers still do not have a strong blocking tight end on their roster, so they could draft one from a loaded class at the position. But it can take time for tight ends to develop. Moore will have to adjust and find ways to run effectively out of 11 personnel. With the Cowboys, there were times when he used a sixth offensive lineman. That might have to be an option for the Chargers, who could perhaps deploy reserve tackle Foster Sarell.
Marriage between run and pass
Most offensive coordinators have play-action concepts built from their bread-and-butter runs, and Moore certainly includes several in his playbook. But where Moore excels is in designing plays that create mismatches downfield. When the Cowboys were in multiple-tight end sets, they ran the ball on 64.4 percent of snaps, the third-highest rate in the league. But when they did pass, they were explosive. When passing from two- and three-tight end sets, the Cowboys ranked eighth in explosive pass rate (17.1 percent). The Chargers, from the same multiple-tight end groupings, ranked 21st (13.9 percent).
13:33 remaining in the second quarter, second-and-9
Here, the Cowboys were in shotgun with two tight ends on the field. The Jaguars anticipated run because of the Cowboys’ personnel grouping and had their base personnel on the field with three defensive linemen, two edge linebackers and two inside linebackers.
The Cowboys motioned tight end Peyton Hendershot back and forth. When he came back toward the bunch, edge linebacker Josh Allen had to pick him up in coverage because he was responsible for the flat in the Jaguars’ zone coverage.
The corner and free safety were occupied by the double posts, leaving only Allen to defend Hendershot on a wheel route.
Quarterback Dak Prescott recognized the mismatch and threw a perfect pass for a touchdown. Though there was no play-action on this play, the mismatch was created because the defense anticipated run. That is the deception a good marriage of run and pass can create. If the Chargers can cobble together a respectable running game with multiple tight ends on the field, Moore could create downfield mismatches for Gerald Everett, Donald Parham or a rookie tight end.
Early-down explosives
The Chargers want to be more explosive and efficient on early downs so that they don’t have to rely on Justin Herbert to be Superman on third down as often. Last season, the Cowboys ranked 24th in explosive play rate on first and second down, just below the Chargers. However, the Chargers passed the ball much more frequently on early downs in the first 28 minutes of the game: The Cowboys ranked 25th with a 45.9 percent pass rate; the Chargers ranked fifth at 59.9 percent.
Also, the Cowboys had one of the worst receiving corps in the league last season, which is one of the reasons Moore leaned on multiple tight end sets. Without talented receivers, it can be a struggle to create explosives, but Moore was able to create explosives through play design.
13:15 remaining in the third quarter, third-and-15
On this play, the Cowboys lined up in a trey formation with Hendershot lined up to the short side of the field and running back Tony Pollard offset to that side. Hendershot ran a post route, while Pollard ran a wheel outside of him. On the other side, CeeDee Lamb ran a stick nod route downfield.
The Vikings were playing a specialty coverage designed to fool quarterbacks. To the three-receiver side, they played cover 2 zone. On the tight end side, they played man coverage, but the deep safety to that side had eyes on Lamb to help on potential crossers, meaning the man-to-man defenders had no deep help.
Moore knew the Vikings would play this coverage and designed the play to take advantage of it with Pollard matched up on an inside linebacker. Prescott read the coverage, audibled into the play and threw a perfect ball to Pollard for the touchdown.
This play design was a great example of Moore’s understanding of coverages and how to take advantage of them.
Another way that Moore creates offense is through the use of tempo. Last season, the Cowboys were 11th in EPA per play on no-huddle plays. The Chargers ranked 21st in the same category and had 71 fewer no-huddle snaps. Staley wanted tempo to be a core tenet of his offense when he took the Chargers job in 2021. He hired Lombardi in part because Sean Payton’s Saints system was famous for attacking defenses with tempo. Payton calls it “blitzing the defense.” However, over two seasons under Lombardi, the Chargers ranked 22nd in total no-huddle snaps with 152, according to TruMedia. Over that same span, the Cowboys, under Moore, ranked sixth with 300 no-huddle snaps.
But changing tempos isn’t just about going no-huddle. Moore likes to hurry to the line to catch the defense off guard as well. He calls this his “attack” tempo, which just means the offense will break the huddle, rush up to the line and snap the ball on the first sound before the defense can fully get set.
2021, week 11, 7:36 remaining in the first quarter, second-and-8
Here, the Cowboys broke the huddle and got into an exotic empty formation. This type of formation requires more communication from the defense.
As the defense was still lining up and communicating, the offense snapped the ball and got an easy completion from a stick concept. Moore talked about this play and how he uses tempo during a clinic at Auburn University.
One common criticism of Moore is his over-reliance on static routes like stick, hitches and curls, which could be said of Lombardi, too. These sorts of routes make it difficult for receivers to run after the catch. In Moore’s tenure with the Cowboys, they ranked 28th in the percentage of receiving yards that came after the catch. These sorts of plays are safe, the quarterback can quickly read them, and they usually lead to positive yardage. Like Staley on the other side of the ball, though, Moore has to find other “comfortable” plays to lean on to add more variety to his early-down menu. But he’s only been coaching for five years, and in that time he’s overseen some of the league’s best offenses.
Some might say the statistical success of Moore’s offenses had a lot to do with the talent in Dallas, but that shouldn’t concern Chargers fans, as he will now get to work with one of the NFL’s most talented young quarterbacks in Herbert.
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No creativity, no imagination, too conservative, no balls . . . . . . .Originally posted by sonorajim View PostComment
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https://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-chargers/post/_/id/29121/chargers-offense-great-satisfactory-or-needs-adjustments
Chargers' offense: Ranking positions as great, satisfactory or needing adjustment - ESPN
COSTA MESA, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Chargers made a significant change after the season when they fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and replaced him with former Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. More offensive changes are expected after falling short of a deep postseason run and because of salary cap constraints. Moore inherits a unit that ranked 14th in offensive efficiency last season, averaging 22.5 points per game (10th), leaving plenty of room for improvement powered by quarterback Justin Herbert.
“We’re going to probably have a new vision and approach on offense,” general manager Tom Telesco said after the season. “We’ll always be a passing team. We have Justin Herbert, we like to throw the ball. We’re never going to be a 50-50 balanced team of run and pass, but you have to be able to run the football efficiently and effectively, especially in the second half of games where you have leads.”
Coming off a 10-7 season and a quick exit from the playoffs after losing 31-30 to the Jacksonville Jaguars, which included surrendering a 27-point lead in large part because of the inability to run the football, Herbert expressed an eagerness to return and improve on the performance.
“That’s good fuel for the offseason,” Herbert said on locker clean-out day in January. “Unfortunately it didn’t go our way this year, but we’re going to continue to work hard and this offseason will be big.”
The Chargers are currently projected to be $20.5 million over the 2023 salary cap, according to Over The Cap. Some adjustments to offensive personnel will be necessary to be in compliance with the cap at the start of the new league year on March 15.
Here’s the state of each offensive position group – great, satisfactory or needing adjustment – as they look ahead to free agency and the draft.
Quarterback -- Great
In his third season, Herbert demonstrated again why he is considered among the top young quarterbacks, all while playing through an amount of adversity he had yet to experience in his pro career.
On his way to passing Andrew Luck for the most passing yards through a quarterback’s first three NFL seasons, the 24-year-old played several weeks through fractured rib cartilage, adjusted without play-making receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams -- who were available together for only four complete games because of injuries, and then underwent postseason surgery to repair the labrum in his left shoulder.
“I sleep better at night knowing we have a franchise quarterback,” Telesco said. “He’s done so much already in his young career, yet we all know there’s still a lot there because of his commitment to the game.”
Wide receiver -- Satisfactory
The expectation for this group, given the track record of Allen and Williams, was greatness. But significant injuries caused it to fall short.
Allen missed seven games because of a left hamstring strain and Williams sat out five games because of a right high ankle sprain before he fractured his back in Week 18 and missed the wild-card playoff.
Rumors have swirled that Allen, who has played 10 seasons for the Chargers, could become a salary-cap casualty, but don’t expect that to materialize.
“It’s not tempting to me,” Telesco said when asked if cutting Allen was a temptation given it would save $14.8 million in cap space. “Good players make money and I would rather have a lot of good players on our roster than a lot of cap space.”
Joshua Palmer showed improvement in his second season, catching 72 passes for 769 yards and three touchdowns.
But for this group to potentially reach the next level, and to fully utilize the strengths of Herbert, the Bolts should attempt to add a speedy receiver who can stretch the field and alleviate some of the pressure on Williams to consistently make impact plays.
“Speed is always dangerous,” Moore said in an introductory news conference. “We certainly have seen that throughout this league. When you do have speed, it is certainly a huge advantage.”
Telesco said speed would be of use, but that it would not come at the cost of Allen or Williams.
“Would I love a bit, 4.3 receiver? Yeah,” Telesco said when asked several questions on the topic. “Are you kidding me? Absolutely. But, I like the guys that we have, too. I’m not giving those guys back.”
DeAndre Carter, who consistently stepped up in the absence of Allen and Williams and stabilized the return game on special teams, is set to become an unrestricted free agent.
Offensive line -- Needs adjustments
The personnel appears to be mostly in place to have a top-caliber line, with the challenge being to ensure the health of players. The line was forced to adjust throughout the season because of injuries.
Left tackle Rashawn Slater was placed on injured reserve after Week 3 because of a torn left biceps tendon and was replaced by rookie sixth-round pick Jamaree Salyer. Veteran center Corey Linsley missed three games because of various injuries and right tackle Trey Pipkins III missed three games as he battled through a knee issue.
The unit finished with a pass-block win rate of 56.6% (Ranked 23rd) and a run-block win rate of 70% (28th). [Bottom 5 in the league]
“There is a different level that we need to play at, offensively, particularly at the line of scrimmage and in the run game,” coach Brandon Staley said. “And having the marriage of the run and the pass, creating more explosions on early down.”
Those numbers should significantly improve with the return of Slater, who was on track to return if the Bolts advanced to the divisional playoff.
But an answer must be found at right tackle, where Pipkins is scheduled for free agency.
After gaining significant pro experience at left tackle, the position where he earned a national championship at Georgia, it’s possible that Salyer could be a candidate to flip to right tackle, despite being drafted to play guard. “We’ll figure out what the best role for Jamaree is,” Telesco said. “It’s a negative when a player gets hurt. The one little positive is other players getting an opportunity and now, we know what he can do, rather than thinking he can do something. It will give us some flexibility.”
With the need to comply with the salary cap, it could be interesting to see what happens with veteran left guard Matt Feiler, who has one year remaining on his contract and if cut, could create $6.5 million in cap savings. Center Will Clapp, who started in Linsley’s absence, is scheduled for free agency.
Running back -- Needs adjustments
Adjustments, improvement. It’s one and the same with this group, which Moore will be tasked with fixing.
“From my vantage point, what Austin has done has been remarkable,” said Moore of Austin Ekeler, the NFL’s touchdown leader (18) in 2022. “You saw Josh [Kelley] start to develop a role. Certainly, that’ll be a situation that, hopefully, we develop two or three guys in there that can all take turns.”
Joshua Kelley established himself as the No. 2 back behind Ekeler, while rookie Isaiah Spiller experienced what could be described as a rookie learning curve at the position, playing in only six games and rushing for 41 yards.
“If you look at where our rushing numbers will be -- like I said, they’re never going to be high rushing numbers, as far as terms of yards -- but yards per carry should be better,” Telesco said.
The Bolts averaged only 3.8 yards per carry last season (30th). The last time they appeared in the NFL’s top 10 in yards per carry was 2018, when they averaged 4.7 yards per rush (7th), powered by former Charger Melvin Gordon.
Tight end -- Needs adjustment
Chemistry grew throughout the season with Gerald Everett, who joined the team on a two-year $12 million contract and is expected to return.
In his sixth NFL season, Everett finished with a career-high 87 catches for 555 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
Donald Parham Jr., who returned this season after suffering a significant head injury in 2021, was sidelined and slowed because of hamstring issues and could be in danger of losing his roster spot. The Bolts also could move on from Tre’ McKitty, a third-round pick in 2021, after a challenging second season in which he caught only 55.6% of the passes he was targeted on and struggled with blocking assignments.
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I'm optimistic because of the combination of Kellen Moore and the further maturation of Justin Herbert. Moore runs 12 personnel at you until you put a LB to counter, then Moore has got you in a mis-match with a backup LB covering a WR, TE or RB. I'm watched the Cowboys 2022 season and starting watching the 2021 season to confirm Moore tendencies. Moore is the guy who can get the running game up and executing at a much higher level, and Moore has an eye for talent at RB the Chargers' brass lacks. Moore WILL raise that run-block win rate of 70% ranking as as the 4th worst in pro football, and and 30th in yards-per-carry, and he'll do it through scheme and personnel.
I believe that WR, RB, and TE are going to be addressed in the draft and within the the first four rounds. Telesco made his cap decision - opting to kick the can and possibly put his job on the line, and quite alright with that prospect - the Chargers will now go into 2024 lacking WRs + EDGEs, they will target either WR or EDGE in the 1st Round in the 2023 draft, as I see it.
Taking all that into account, I believe the Chargers draft WR Jordan Addison or EDGE Nolan Smith at #21 in two-weeks.
I'm leaning Addison because of the options he would add to Moore's 3 + 4 WR set concepts in the redzone - as a backfield option - as the Chargers currently stink at flanker screens - and Addison is really brilliant at reverses and flanker concepts. Quick twitch with YAC.
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Great post, Xenos. Encapsulates everything I've been kicking around regarding Moore and his personnel groupings.
This. This. This. Possibilities abound as to the Chargers rotating a sixth lineman or 12 + 13 personnel groups - ideally, a one more blocker than they have defender - is a perfect summation of the passing game working together with the running game 'marriage' that Moore will bring to the table.If the Chargers can cobble together a respectable running game with multiple tight ends on the field, Moore could create downfield mismatches for Gerald Everett, Donald Parham or a rookie tight end. - Xenos Athletic/Popper
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I like the case he makes for Addison.
"I'm leaning Addison because of the options he would add to Moore's 3 + 4 WR set concepts in the redzone - as a backfield option - as the Chargers currently stink at flanker screens - and Addison is really brilliant at reverses and flanker concepts. Quick twitch with YAC."Comment
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Yep, there are a number of ways to go offensively to get what we’re missing. C’mon draft, get here already.Comment
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Watched PFF guys discuss another sportswriters mock of Quenton Johnston to us in the first.They stated the Bolts could use what Johnston excels at.Got me thinkin...
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