I know some physics people will say that athletes are the best physicists out there because they're doing a million physics calculations every second in their brain when playing a sport, and they just do it naturally, while actual physicists have to sit and work things out on paper.
That was a very impressive explanation of what a basic NFL run play is called in the huddle, what each facet of its name means, and what it looks like in a diagram, MB! You’re constantly proving you’re more than just the film "guru" that one search result called you! 😉
I’ve heard basic play calls before—outlining the formation, blocking schemes, route trees, or run gaps—but they were nothing like this. As you said, this is about as basic as it gets in the league, but it’s still way beyond my powers of concentration. Maybe the thin air at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic isn't helping any!🥵 (Love in-flight Wi-Fi!❤️)
Way above & beyond these, we’ve all heard game announcers have fun relaying those "ri-DONK-ulously" long-form play calls! I might assume only a Mensa candidate could master them...if I didn’t know that most NFL QBs ain’t Mensa candidates.
That makes me wonder: how complex are the calls a high-level college QB is expected to handle on a regular basis? Would you expect a kid like Athan be flummoxed by the NFL learning curve (at least for a while), or should he have enough familiarity with the basic terminology that he should pretty quickly get up to speed with diligent study?
Yeah, most college kids these days won’t enter the league with playcalls like this. There’s not a ton of “pro style” systems in college any more as teams look for more efficiency. So yeah, it will be a steep learning curve for most quarterbacks entering the NFL now. It’s a bit easier for other positions because they only have to listen out for the parts of the play that are relevant to them. OL don’t need to know the routes that the WRs are running, for example. But the QB has to understand it all so it’s a lot tougher on them.
But I do think the west coast structure is fairly easy to get your head around when you remember the order of things. It’s just about learning the many new terms to go with everything. That’s why year 1 of this system will be different to what the Lions 2023 offense was like when Blough was there, because there’s only so much you can expect the players to learn in a single year.
It was interesting to watch the way Ben Johnson’s offense changed from his final years with the Lions to his first year with the Bears. I think I wrote a post about lessons learned there and he stripped down the offense a fair bit from a concept and personnel standpoint, but he did install a bunch of formations and motions to help give them flexibility and disguises. Interesting to see what Blough does
If ‘19’ identifies a run to the left, why is the weak side scheme ‘Wanda’ included? Seems redundant. Are there different types of outside zone runs to the weak side in addition to Wanda? Like Willie? Or Waylon? 🤠
This is a good question and one I’ve wondered (Wanda’d? Forgive the pun) about myself, because surely if you know the direction of the run and the formation, you know what the weak side is.
I don’t have a definitive answer for you on that but here’s my best guess. I know a lot of wide zone runs have different tags, especially to the strong side. One of the most common ones you’ll hear from a Shanahan playbook is “Zorro”, which is an adjustment to a wide zone scheme where they will have a fullback or tight end or even receiver motioning into the scheme and securing the inside hip of the Y TE on his block
If you look through the Shanahan playbooks, you'll see terms like "Zorro", "Support", "Force", "Zap". "Wanda", "Wendy, "Wizz" and yes "Willie" are commonly used for weak side runs too. I don't know the intricate details of the subtle changes that each of those individual terms makes to the scheme. A lot of it is about who gets targeted, where support comes from etc. What I can do is copy and paste the playbook description of Wanda for you.
"This is a Box declared single back concept designed to attack the perimeter to the weak side. RB will take an outside zone course to the outside leg of the play side tackle. Press Landmark/Front Side. Combination Block for read, 1 gap at a time, outside-in. PSWR will
block 8-9/Slot rules. Blocking surface will employ outside zone push scheme principles. Block The Box."
And to compare, here's the playbook description of Wendy, which is an inside zone run to the weak side:
"This play is a open side Will Declared single back concept designed to attack the inside hip of the PST weak. RB will open, crossover, and roll to a squared up position on 3rd step. Read block of first DL inside/out from the center one gap at a time. Press the LOS. PSWR will block 4-5 hole rules. Blocking surface will employ inside zone push scheme principles. Block The Box."
So the subtle differences between Wanda and Wendy include how they declare the targeting, the aiming point for the running back, the read for the running back and obviously the OL is blocking outside zone on one and inside zone on the other.
I remember watching an Alex Gibbs coaching clinic on YouTube. For those that don't know, Gibbs was the OL coach for Mike Shanahan that helped make the zone scheme so big back in the day. Gibbs talked about having this box of terms like Wanda and Zorro and Force etc to help make subtle changes. It's still zone runs but each one has it's slight change that can help you deal with different defensive fronts or blitzes you're expecting.
Love it. Thanks Mark! Sounds like it could be intentionally redundant from a human comprehension perspective. The brain hears ‘19’ and prepares to next hear a subset of tags and isn’t overwhelmed by sorting thru all possible tags from the whole playbook at any moment. Appreciate the pun as well!
This what I love about this stack. I learned a lot of this years ago but things are constantly changing in the NFL. These days I hear things that don't jive with what I originally learned, particularly around the slot and tight end. This article clears up some of the things that have confused me lately.
Don’t those two positions seem to be ever-changing these days? OCs are always trying to throw monkey wrenches in DCs’ best-laid plans - and vice versa.
The intricacies & fluidity of it all have me wondering whether Blough is ready to take on the big boys and throw in some new-fangled monkey wrenches of his own. But I can't help but think (pray?) that DB’s already got a few in his toolkit, otherwise why would DQ have staked his career on him?
(Fwiw, I'm not feeling nearly the same trepidation about Daronte Jones’ readiness to take on the mantle of coordinator. He seems plenty experienced and well-schooled.)
So its the small details like these calls and terminology that when you peel back the layers of and start to get an understanding for, makes you realize just how much goes into being an offensive coordinator and just how big of a jump Blough is taking. I could go in and call a weak side zone run scheme, but I wouldn't necessarily know what front they want to call it against and more importantly, what looks they DON'T want to run it against, and then what adjustments to make to help combat what they're expecting to see. I wouldn't know what situations would require the "Zorro" or "Force" adjustments I talked about in an answer above.
When you get to see the levels of detail that go into this, it shows just how big this task is and why it's so hard for play callers to get it right. You can also see with that level of detail why guys like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay are so successful. But also, it's worth pointing out that Dan Quinn isn't dumb. He's fully aware of those things and has worked with Kyle Shanahan and his coaching tree before. He knows what a good OC looks like. He knows how tough it is. So the fact he's willing to take the risk on Blough speaks to how good they think Blough can be.
There's for sure going to be ups and downs for him. He'll be learning on the job. But so are all rookies and we saw Jayden Daniels was able to have amazing success as a rookie despite learning on the job. So it's not impossible.
My high school coach was a musician. He always used to correlate football with an orchestra. The QB was the conductor, and each position was a section of the orchestra. It made sense to me, especially when the plays worked well in practice. He would always say, "One band, One sound," popularized later by Dr. Lee (Orlando Jones) in the movie "Drumline."
But of course, he shouted, "This band doesn't sound right," when just one person messed up.
It was kinda cool when we came out on the breakdown huddle, " One band, One Sound!"
Man, and I thought physics was tough!
🤣
I’d rather learn football playcalls than physics any day!
💯
Physics is easy. Well, for some.
I know some physics people will say that athletes are the best physicists out there because they're doing a million physics calculations every second in their brain when playing a sport, and they just do it naturally, while actual physicists have to sit and work things out on paper.
That was a very impressive explanation of what a basic NFL run play is called in the huddle, what each facet of its name means, and what it looks like in a diagram, MB! You’re constantly proving you’re more than just the film "guru" that one search result called you! 😉
I’ve heard basic play calls before—outlining the formation, blocking schemes, route trees, or run gaps—but they were nothing like this. As you said, this is about as basic as it gets in the league, but it’s still way beyond my powers of concentration. Maybe the thin air at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic isn't helping any!🥵 (Love in-flight Wi-Fi!❤️)
Way above & beyond these, we’ve all heard game announcers have fun relaying those "ri-DONK-ulously" long-form play calls! I might assume only a Mensa candidate could master them...if I didn’t know that most NFL QBs ain’t Mensa candidates.
That makes me wonder: how complex are the calls a high-level college QB is expected to handle on a regular basis? Would you expect a kid like Athan be flummoxed by the NFL learning curve (at least for a while), or should he have enough familiarity with the basic terminology that he should pretty quickly get up to speed with diligent study?
Cheers!
Yeah, most college kids these days won’t enter the league with playcalls like this. There’s not a ton of “pro style” systems in college any more as teams look for more efficiency. So yeah, it will be a steep learning curve for most quarterbacks entering the NFL now. It’s a bit easier for other positions because they only have to listen out for the parts of the play that are relevant to them. OL don’t need to know the routes that the WRs are running, for example. But the QB has to understand it all so it’s a lot tougher on them.
But I do think the west coast structure is fairly easy to get your head around when you remember the order of things. It’s just about learning the many new terms to go with everything. That’s why year 1 of this system will be different to what the Lions 2023 offense was like when Blough was there, because there’s only so much you can expect the players to learn in a single year.
It was interesting to watch the way Ben Johnson’s offense changed from his final years with the Lions to his first year with the Bears. I think I wrote a post about lessons learned there and he stripped down the offense a fair bit from a concept and personnel standpoint, but he did install a bunch of formations and motions to help give them flexibility and disguises. Interesting to see what Blough does
If ‘19’ identifies a run to the left, why is the weak side scheme ‘Wanda’ included? Seems redundant. Are there different types of outside zone runs to the weak side in addition to Wanda? Like Willie? Or Waylon? 🤠
This is a good question and one I’ve wondered (Wanda’d? Forgive the pun) about myself, because surely if you know the direction of the run and the formation, you know what the weak side is.
I don’t have a definitive answer for you on that but here’s my best guess. I know a lot of wide zone runs have different tags, especially to the strong side. One of the most common ones you’ll hear from a Shanahan playbook is “Zorro”, which is an adjustment to a wide zone scheme where they will have a fullback or tight end or even receiver motioning into the scheme and securing the inside hip of the Y TE on his block
If you look through the Shanahan playbooks, you'll see terms like "Zorro", "Support", "Force", "Zap". "Wanda", "Wendy, "Wizz" and yes "Willie" are commonly used for weak side runs too. I don't know the intricate details of the subtle changes that each of those individual terms makes to the scheme. A lot of it is about who gets targeted, where support comes from etc. What I can do is copy and paste the playbook description of Wanda for you.
"This is a Box declared single back concept designed to attack the perimeter to the weak side. RB will take an outside zone course to the outside leg of the play side tackle. Press Landmark/Front Side. Combination Block for read, 1 gap at a time, outside-in. PSWR will
block 8-9/Slot rules. Blocking surface will employ outside zone push scheme principles. Block The Box."
And to compare, here's the playbook description of Wendy, which is an inside zone run to the weak side:
"This play is a open side Will Declared single back concept designed to attack the inside hip of the PST weak. RB will open, crossover, and roll to a squared up position on 3rd step. Read block of first DL inside/out from the center one gap at a time. Press the LOS. PSWR will block 4-5 hole rules. Blocking surface will employ inside zone push scheme principles. Block The Box."
So the subtle differences between Wanda and Wendy include how they declare the targeting, the aiming point for the running back, the read for the running back and obviously the OL is blocking outside zone on one and inside zone on the other.
I remember watching an Alex Gibbs coaching clinic on YouTube. For those that don't know, Gibbs was the OL coach for Mike Shanahan that helped make the zone scheme so big back in the day. Gibbs talked about having this box of terms like Wanda and Zorro and Force etc to help make subtle changes. It's still zone runs but each one has it's slight change that can help you deal with different defensive fronts or blitzes you're expecting.
So hopefully that answers your question somewhat!
Love it. Thanks Mark! Sounds like it could be intentionally redundant from a human comprehension perspective. The brain hears ‘19’ and prepares to next hear a subset of tags and isn’t overwhelmed by sorting thru all possible tags from the whole playbook at any moment. Appreciate the pun as well!
This what I love about this stack. I learned a lot of this years ago but things are constantly changing in the NFL. These days I hear things that don't jive with what I originally learned, particularly around the slot and tight end. This article clears up some of the things that have confused me lately.
I'm glad I can help out. If you have any other questions or things you're confused about, let me know and I can try and find an answer for you!
Don’t those two positions seem to be ever-changing these days? OCs are always trying to throw monkey wrenches in DCs’ best-laid plans - and vice versa.
The intricacies & fluidity of it all have me wondering whether Blough is ready to take on the big boys and throw in some new-fangled monkey wrenches of his own. But I can't help but think (pray?) that DB’s already got a few in his toolkit, otherwise why would DQ have staked his career on him?
(Fwiw, I'm not feeling nearly the same trepidation about Daronte Jones’ readiness to take on the mantle of coordinator. He seems plenty experienced and well-schooled.)
So its the small details like these calls and terminology that when you peel back the layers of and start to get an understanding for, makes you realize just how much goes into being an offensive coordinator and just how big of a jump Blough is taking. I could go in and call a weak side zone run scheme, but I wouldn't necessarily know what front they want to call it against and more importantly, what looks they DON'T want to run it against, and then what adjustments to make to help combat what they're expecting to see. I wouldn't know what situations would require the "Zorro" or "Force" adjustments I talked about in an answer above.
When you get to see the levels of detail that go into this, it shows just how big this task is and why it's so hard for play callers to get it right. You can also see with that level of detail why guys like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay are so successful. But also, it's worth pointing out that Dan Quinn isn't dumb. He's fully aware of those things and has worked with Kyle Shanahan and his coaching tree before. He knows what a good OC looks like. He knows how tough it is. So the fact he's willing to take the risk on Blough speaks to how good they think Blough can be.
There's for sure going to be ups and downs for him. He'll be learning on the job. But so are all rookies and we saw Jayden Daniels was able to have amazing success as a rookie despite learning on the job. So it's not impossible.
My high school coach was a musician. He always used to correlate football with an orchestra. The QB was the conductor, and each position was a section of the orchestra. It made sense to me, especially when the plays worked well in practice. He would always say, "One band, One sound," popularized later by Dr. Lee (Orlando Jones) in the movie "Drumline."
But of course, he shouted, "This band doesn't sound right," when just one person messed up.
It was kinda cool when we came out on the breakdown huddle, " One band, One Sound!"
The looks from the other team were classic.