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I have confidence Allen can get open regardless of the QB. Heck, he was open a lot last year and Rivers didn’t even look his way. A QB who can see the field post-snap might be a good thing.
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Just watched a youtube video on what chicago is going to do with rpo and nick foles. Seems foles plays 100% better when he moves out of the pocket and has confidence to pass it down field. I don't see a problem with Herberts accuracy when a receiver looks fairly open or is one on one with a defender. It's only a problem with Herberts confidence in heavy heavy traffic in the middle of the field. Rivers had problems as well every time we got down into the red zone.Originally posted by richpjr View PostChiefs won the Superbowl with 10 Rookies....
"Locked, Cocked, and ready to Rock!" Jim Harbaugh
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When did they have a Keenan Allen to throw to in their past? It wasn't all Rivers by a long damn shot.Originally posted by richpjr View Post
I don't expect that there will be no difference but they aren't complete idiots.
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If you missed it, here's an interview with the new QB coach.
THE YEAR OF THE FLIP!Comment
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Until I see Foles play well for any team not named Philly I will take it with a boulder of salt.Originally posted by gzubeck View PostComment
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Thank God for Popper during this offseason:
Analyzing four scheme changes coming to the Chargers’ offense in 2020
Last week, we dove into some of the scheme changes expected to come to Gus Bradley’s Chargers defense in 2020.
Now it’s time to assess the offense.
The changes to the offense will be more noticeable and more substantial than those on defense. And that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Philip Rivers is gone, and he will be replaced by a quarterback with a very different skill set — whether it’s Tyrod Taylor, Justin Herbert or Easton Stick.
Shane Steichen, who took over as interim offensive coordinator in Week 7 last season, is now the permanent OC, and he has an entire offseason to mold the scheme and system in his own image. In 2019, Steichen had to adjust on the fly, and therefore wasn’t in a position to make any sweeping alterations.
Odds are, you will hardly recognize the Chargers’ offense this season.
“It’s going to be different,” head coach Anthony Lynn said last month.
There are four major changes I expect the Chargers to make to their offense. They are all related in one way or another.
Let’s go one by one and explain why the change is happening and what it will look like.
1. More pistol formation
After the draft in April, Lynn explicitly stated that the Chargers will be in pistol formation “more than we have been in a while.”
What is the pistol formation? It’s a variation of a shotgun formation, in which the quarterback is slightly closer to the line of scrimmage and still has a running back behind him. In a standard shotgun formation, the running back is split either to the right or the left of the quarterback.
Here is an example from the Ravens, who used pistol more than any other team in 2019 — on 478 of their 1,064 offensive plays (44.9 percent).
For some context, the Cardinals used pistol the second most, on 48 of their 1,000 plays. The Chargers were in pistol on just five offensive plays, and three of those came with Taylor in the game.
What’s the motivation for the Chargers to use more pistol? Primarily, it’s to make Herbert, their No. 6 overall draft pick in April, as comfortable as possible.
Herbert didn’t operate under center while at Oregon. The pistol formation allows an offense to get the best of both the shotgun and under-center formations. The quarterback is farther away from the line of scrimmage, so he has more time before the rush gets to him, meaning more time to process the defense. That’s crucial for a rookie QB. At the same time, the offense doesn’t lose the ability to run some harder play-action fakes, because the running back is aligned behind the quarterback. And the offense can also run read concepts, like the zone read, which we will discuss in more detail in the next section.
“You want to build some things around what your quarterbacks do,” Steichen said. “Let’s work to their strengths and build off that.”
The underlying motivation is the success the Ravens had using pistol last season. They had the most electric offense in the league. A lot of that, of course, was quarterback Lamar Jackson playing at an MVP level. But the Ravens also tailored their scheme to Jackson’s strengths, which helped him to flourish.
And there is a connection here. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman is the brains behind the Ravens’ revamped offense. Roman and Lynn coached together with the Bills in 2015 and part of 2016. Taylor was the quarterback, Roman was offensive coordinator and Lynn was assistant head coach and running backs coach. Roman was fired early in 2016, and Lynn was promoted to interim offensive coordinator. He took the Chargers’ head-coaching job the following offseason.
There is no doubt Lynn is tantalized by what the Ravens achieved last season with Roman and Jackson. Adding more pistol formation is just one of the ways Lynn will try to facilitate a more dynamic offense in 2020.
2. More QB movement
This is another change Lynn has specifically referenced this spring.
“There will be more movement in our offense,” Lynn said.
He added, of his quarterbacks: “It’s a mobile group that allows you to open your offense up and do some different things that may put pressure on the defense in a different way than before.”
“Do some different things” is quintessential coach-speak. So let’s translate.
Rivers will go down in history as one of the best passers of all time. That can’t be debated. But one skill he didn’t provide — especially later in his career — was mobility. And whether you point to Russell Wilson or Patrick Mahomes or Jackson, it’s clear that having a mobile quarterback can take a lot of stress off an offense and place it on the defense. The ability to scramble for a first down or roll out of the pocket and find a receiver is incredibly valuable in today’s NFL.
It’s hard to predict how those off-script tendencies will manifest in the Chargers’ new offense. But we can predict the scripted ones.
Two concepts I expect the Chargers to use much more frequently are bootlegs and zone reads.
Lynn wanted to implement some of these concepts in his offense last season. We all remember Taylor coming onto the field to run a zone read. The plays failed every time. But it’s a window into what Lynn wants to do offensively. He was willing to move his future Hall of Fame quarterback to wide receiver, or take him out of the game altogether, just to mix things up.
With Rivers out of the picture, Lynn can make those concepts a big part of his offense, not just gadget plays.
Bootlegs are easy ways to move the pocket. They help mitigate opposing pass rushes and also can take some of the pressure off the offensive line because the quarterback isn’t a stationary target, as Rivers so often was.
The zone read, meanwhile, is a run-game concept.
We’ll again use the Ravens as an example.
Typically you see zone read run out of a shotgun formation. The Ravens would often run it out of pistol. The Chargers are likely to do the same.
The quarterback takes the snap and puts the ball in the belly of the running back. This is what is called the “mesh point,” and it’s when the quarterback makes his read.
He can either hand it off or keep it, and he’s typically reading one player — the edge defender. If the edge defender commits to the inside, then the quarterback tucks the ball and takes off to the outside. If the edge defender stays outside and keeps contain, the quarterback hands off because the running back has one less man to beat.
As you see, Cardinals edge rusher Chandler Jones — No. 55 — dives to the inside, so Jackson keeps.
The wrinkle in this zone read is that the Ravens have a fullback in the backfield, which the pistol formation allows them to do.
Expect to see some variations of the zone read frequently in the Chargers’ offense in 2020.
3. More play action
The Chargers only ran 99 play-action plays last season, the fifth fewest in the league. The Ravens, by comparison, ran 178, the second most.
That number should increase significantly for the Chargers next season, and it’s related to quarterback movement. The easiest way to move the pocket is through misdirection. Get the defense flowing one way with a fake handoff, then send the quarterback in the opposite direction.
The Chargers were significantly limited in how much play action they could call because of Rivers’ lack of mobility. They could fake a handoff out of shotgun. They could fake a handoff from under center. But Rivers was rarely, if ever, going to roll out after one of those fake handoffs. In that sense, the Chargers’ play-action game was predictable, at least relative to the rest of the league.
That will change with Taylor at quarterback, and eventually with Herbert at quarterback. There are no more limitations on what kind of play action the Chargers can run, which will allow them to “open up” their offense, as Lynn put it.
4. More outside zone
Outside (or wide) zone refers to the run-blocking scheme used by the offensive line. In a zone scheme, offensive lineman block an area as opposed to a certain player. In the outside zone scheme, the linemen all block in one direction laterally toward either sideline. It’s then up to the running back to find a hole and make his cut upfield.
New offensive line coach James Campen coached this scheme during his time with the Packers. Lynn played in this scheme under Mike Shanahan with the Broncos in the early 1990s. He also coached this scheme as the running backs coach for the Jets.
Gary Kubiak is a big proponent of the outside zone scheme, and he brought it to the Vikings last season as their assistant head coach and offensive advisor. (He’s now the offensive coordinator.)
He’s a clear example of the scheme from the Vikings in 2019. As you see, all the offensive linemen shoot to their right at the snap.
This won’t be a stark change for the Chargers. They were a hybrid outside zone/gap scheme team under former coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.
But they will rely even more on outside zone in 2020 with Campen running the show up front.Comment
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Peyton Manning on the preparation that QBs need to do during this strange offseason:
Peyton Manning was busy recovering from neck surgery in 2011, but he saw the work his brother Eli Manning put in during the lockout.
And he also saw what that work led to, so he’s spreading the word.
Peyton Manning told Peter King of NBC’s Football Morning in America that the topic came up during a Zoom meeting with investment bankers, and Eli Manning detailed the work he did to get players together when they couldn’t go to team facilities or talk to coaches. Eli gathered scripts and plans, and then went through detailed work with his teammates.
“Eli talked about organizing their own workouts and taking some ownership,” Peyton said. “Eli got practice scripts, like blitz walk-through drawings, diagrams, he got practice jerseys, he organized workouts at a high school. He was kind of the head coach/coordinator and they were doing full routes and doing 7-on-7 and blitzes at practice. He was really thorough.”
Of course, that season ended with the Giants beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl, making it an easy object lesson. And it’s one Peyton has been preaching with other teams.
“So I’ve done a few Zoom calls. I did the Buffalo Bills quarterback room meeting. Did the Los Angeles Rams full team meeting. Did the Bears quarterbacks,” Peyton said. “That was kinda my message, sort of, you know, follow Eli’s lead. Quarterbacks, take ownership. All these Zoom meetings, right now, the coaches are leading them. My message was to the quarterbacks. ‘Hey, organize your own Zoom meetings without the coaches, just get you and the tight ends, you and the receivers.’ It’s actually an opportunity to even have better communication. Because there’s nothing else to do, right? Hey, every Tuesday, 9 a.m., quarterbacks and the offensive line, Zoom, watching film. Instead of complaining about it, see it as an opportunity to really improve. There’s no reason you shouldn’t have every play from last year studied down to the T.
“I shared how I broke down film from the previous season. I always watched the interception tape first. Then the sack tape. All the bad things. You figure out why you’re throwing these interceptions. What drill do I need to incorporate into the offseason to fix that? Sean McVay said after I talked, he got a text from Jared Goff and from Jalen Ramsey. He said they’re going to organize their own meetings and workouts. To me, that’s what you have to do. The coaches shouldn’t lead everything. Josh Allen seemed real excited about that.
“I think the team that wins it all this year is gonna be the team that’s really getting an edge during this time — kind of like the Giants in 2011.”
We’ll see if that comes to pass, but when Manning Brothers talk about the steps needed to succeed, young quarterbacks would be wise to listen, and to put them into play.Comment
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Here's an article that makes me rethink my position regarding sitting a rookie QB. Very interesting thoughts from knowledgeable people.
THE YEAR OF THE FLIP!Comment
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Adam Rank thinks the chargers are going 3-13 starting Tyrod Taylor...as a matter of fact he sees us going 0-4 the first few games...If we're 0-4 and the offense is flat with taylor then I see Herbert coming in after game 4....regardless of his experience.Chiefs won the Superbowl with 10 Rookies....
"Locked, Cocked, and ready to Rock!" Jim Harbaugh
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2. More QB Movement.Originally posted by Xenos View Post
I mentioned this earlier.
If you look carefully at the visuals here, BAL uses a FB and the TE lined up at OLT. Three Olinemen are to the right of the Center ! Look for the Chargers to use Virgil Green, whichever UDFA FB they elect to keep, and HH in this sort of formation.
For the life of me, I do not understand talk of anything different happening.
We play modern football.
:coffee:Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Ben HerbertComment
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Given no on- the- grass OTAs, mini-camps, practice restrictions - whenever they are allowed and possible reduction of preseason games, I'm thinking after the Bye -but what the heck?Originally posted by chargeroo View Post
Cincy just isn't very good, we'll probably lose to KC regardless - let him take the field with the QB he will be compared to for the foreseeable future.
Car & TB were funky on D last year and getting to play vs The GOAT, then HOF QB Brees is a thrill I wouldn't deny to Herbert.
Go for it.
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U have a point there, Gzubie...if the Bolts DO start Herbie out the gate or after 3-4 games, I would hope he gets plenty of preseason and practice reps...Originally posted by gzubeck View PostComment
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