Spread Offense in the NFL?

[zebrainz]

Food for thought in an "I'm bored because there is no football" offseason.

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?sport=NFL&id=1354

Chiefs coach Todd Haley fired five assistants Friday, but offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has kept his job -- for now.

Retaining Gailey would be good news for Tyler Thigpen, who flourished in the second half. Gailey and Haley both have experience with spread offenses, but it would still be surprising to see an NFL team enter the season with the shotgun spread as its base offense.

As the quote above says, it's surprising (read unlikely) that the Chiefs would try this. I've been keeping my eye on them though, as they seem to be at least considering the possibility at this point. Gailey has bounced back and forth between the pros and college a couple of times IIRC. He would be a pretty good candidate to help adapt the spread offense for primary use in the NFL if anybody is going to actually do it. There are some pretty serious disadvantages to latch onto in this argument, but I think that eventually someone will try to convert it from only being used in specific down/distance/score situations to a full time NFL offense. The reason is pretty simple, specifically, the potential talent advantage to be gained is huge. I'll try to list the pros and cons below:

Advantages

1. Talent, talent, talent, especially at the skill positions. A team utilizing this system would have the pick of the talent that fit its system, much like when only a couple of teams ran the 3-4 defense.

2. Talent again, with a different spin. There are quite a few specially gifted players who have trouble adapting to the rigidity of a pro system. The system lends itself to fully utilizing the talent of "tweener" type players prevalent in the college game today. There are QB/RBs, QB/WRs, RB/WRs, TE/RBs, TE/WRs, etc. These types of players would thrive in this system.

3. There are many more ways to get more touches for your best playmakers in this system. It's a lot harder to just shut down one guy because there are more ways to disguise the true intent of the play.

4. The learning curve isn't as steep. More rookies are ready to go right away.

5. If only one or two teams successfully convert to this system, it forces the other teams to keep their defensive talent geared to stopping the traditional offenses with heavier, slower players, especially on the defensive line. They would be have 12-15 games a year against teams that require traditional talent and schemes to stop them.

Disclaimer

Let me just say, before I list the disadvantages, that the innovation and development of an effective running game in this system is critical to its viability at the NFL level. Somebody like a Gibbs disciple would be needed. Not Joe, Alex.

Disadvantages

1. Run/Pass intentions for a play are harder to disguise in some situations. Play action is problematic.

2. The college version of this system with smaller, spread out linemen cripple the running game, especially in short yardage situations. I could say that I've seen a time before this year that the Panthers' run first offense would throw the ball in third and less than a yard, especially on goal line, but I won't.

3. Pro defenses are more adaptable and read an offense's play intentions quicker than colleges. Pursuit is much quicker to the ball, nullifying some of the plays that can be run in the college version of this offense.

4. The running game issues can make ball control a problem. Long sustained drives are possible, as the proven by the west coast offense, but they are more difficult and likely to stall. This is not an offense for the conservative minded.

5. If the offense is set up for a single talented QB, he is more exposed and more susceptible to injury. The availability of hybrid type QBs could offset this, but multiple QBs would have to have significant playing time to prevent a dropoff if the starting QB were to sustain an injury.

I've listed 5 pros and cons, trying to keep it pretty simple. There are plenty more on both sides of the issue. This isn't something that I think teams with a conservative mindset would try, but I do think someone will eventually try it as their primary offense because of the talent carrot. The larger percentage of players are trained in some form of this system from the pee-wee leagues on until they reach the pros. I think it will continue to drive sport in this direction. As a football traditionalist, I don't necessarily like it, but players who grew up with this offense are becoming coaches now, and if the right group of them get together at a pro level, this thing could take off. Some pro teams are at least giving it lip service with the already copycat use of the Wildcat. The question is will it go the way of the West Coast offense and herald an innovative revolution? Or, will it flop like the run and shoot? There are many similarities between the run and shoot and this offense. Will it be lessons learned? or are the problems too great too overcome?

Note: Being one myself, I know how the thought of this is going to grate on some of the staid Carolina Panthers conservative minded folks (I'm talking football, not politics, there is a difference). I don't think this is something a team in the Panthers situation should try. It is something that at least needs to be considered by a team like the Chiefs in their current situation.

[TerriblePizza]

The Patriots already run a version of the spread.

[Cardiac Cats86]

I think we'll see more of things like the Dolphins Wildcat formation or variations of it, and the Jumbo packages likes Baltimore ran this year with great effectivness. dratfing bigger/physical TE/FB and linemen.

[scpanther22]

yea when KC ran it the 2nd half of the year it worked out well they have the QB to do it.thigpen can run

[zebrainz]

The Patriots already run a version of the spread.

But was it their primary offense that they ran most of the time? Or did they just come out and use it on certain drives given the game situation?

I try to not watch the Pats, much like I try not watch my dog take a dump in the backyard. Unlike a lot of people I'm pretty successful at both. So I don't know the answer to this one.

edit - where did Pioli (sp?) come from again? (<---one of them rhetorical questions) This is another contributing factor as to why I think the Chiefs may actually take the plunge this year and try to use this system.

[carpanfan96]

But was it their primary offense that they ran most of the time? Or did they just come out and use it on certain drives given the game situation?

I try to not watch the Pats, much like I try not watch my dog take a dump in the backyard. Unlike a lot of people I'm pretty successful at both. So I don't know the answer to this one.

edit - where did Pioli (sp?) come from again? (<---one of them rhetorical questions) This is another contributing factor as to why I think the Chiefs may actually take the plunge this year and try to use this system.

I agree that you'll probably see the Chiefs use a variation of the spread. Yea thats the pats offense right there. Spread variation, they didn't use it as much this past season from what I saw. The season with Brady breaking records though they used it a lot and it was there primary offense.