Breaking down Kliff Kingsbury's GT Counter package

Looking at the GT Counter scheme Kingsbury likes to use and the package of plays he has to build off it

One of the schemes Washington Commanders fans can expect new offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury to install this season is the GT Counter scheme. GT Counter is a variation of the basic Counter scheme, which itself is a variation of Power. For those that don’t know, Power is a core gap scheme run that sees a guard pull from their original position and work to the opposite side of the line, wrapping around some down blocks and working up to the second level to block a linebacker. Counter sees the guard pull but instead of wrapping around the down blocks and working to a linebacker, the guard kicks out the edge defender instead, keeping the defense on its toes and preventing defenders knowing exactly who is going to block them on any given play. 

GT Counter is an evolution of the counter scheme. Older Washington fans may well recognize it from the Joe Gibbs era when they called it Counter Trey. GT is a more modern and basic name which simply indicates that both the guard and the tackle pull from the back side of the line. The guard does exactly what he normally does on counter, kicking out the edge defender on the opposite side of the line, but the tackle then follows him on a pull to the opposite side of the line and wraps around the down blocks to work up to a linebacker on the second level. 

The Gibbs Counter Trey run looked like this when drawn up:

This is a drawing of the Counter Trey from an old Gibbs playbook. You can see in this example how the left guard pulls to the right side of the line and kicks out the edge defender while the left tackle pulls and wraps around to block a linebacker. Back in this era of football, teams running this scheme would of course have the quarterback under center and typically have a fullback or tight end stay on the left side of the line to secure that side and allow both the guard and tackle to pull without enabling any defenders to get a free run into the backfield. 

The modern version of this scheme is a little different. Kingsbury is a big fan of this scheme and in fact has a whole package of plays built around it, like any good NFL offensive coordinator should. There’s no point in installing an individual scheme if it doesn’t come with a package of plays you can build off of it. But before I get into that package of plays, let’s first look at how Kingsbury’s version of the GT Counter scheme varies from the version Washington fans will know and love from Joe Gibbs. 

Here we can see a basic GT Counter run from Kingsbury’s Cardinals offense back in 2022. The two immediate differences that stand out are the quarterback positioning and the lack of protection on the pulling side of the line. Kingsbury likes to run the majority of his offense with the quarterback either in the shotgun or in the pistol. Here we see Kyler Murray in the shotgun. I know some Washington fans are tired of shotgun runs after Scott Turner and Eric Bieniemy used them a lot in recent years, but they’re likely here to stay under Kingsbury. There’s a reason for that which we’ll get to shortly. 

The other main difference is Kingsbury has no real protection on the left side of the line. Both the left guard and left tackle are pulling to the right side and Kingsbury doesn’t have a tight end or fullback in the area to help secure the area once those two lineman have pulled. This makes things very hard on the center, who has to make up a lot of ground to cut off the first defender and leaves the edge defender completely unaccounted for by the offensive line. 

However, the benefit of that risk is clear to see here. The offense gets extra blockers on the front side of the play, which enables them to pin multiple defenders inside. They then gain an additional two blockers from the pulling guard and tackle. The guard kicks out the defensive end and the tackle wraps around the down blocks to pick up the linebacker. A defensive lineman actually peels off his block and occupies the tackle before he can engage with the linebacker, but the damage is already done as a huge lane emerges in the heart of the defense and the running back cuts into it for a nice gain. 

It’s a nice run scheme, but to run it like that with no extra protection on the back side is a risk. However, Kingsbury has an answer for that and that answer is the quarterback. The reason Kingsbury likes to run this from the gun as opposed to under center as we saw Joe Gibbs used to, is to allow the quarterback to read the unblocked edge defender from the pulling side. 

On this play against the Saints, we can see Kyler Murray reading the unblocked defensive end on the left of the formation. The center is able to block down on the defensive tackle while the left guard and left tackle pull to the right side of the line. This leaves the defensive end unaccounted for by the offensive line, but with a mobile quarterback like Murray, Kingsbury turns this play into a read-option play. Murray can simply read the defender and if he rushes down the line to make a tackle on the running back, Murray can instead pull the ball and keep it himself, running into the space vacated by the defender. On this occasion, the defender fears the threat of Murray running, so he holds his position, allowing Murray to hand the ball off while effectively “blocking” the defensive end. This then gives all the positive benefits of the rest of the scheme. You can see how the line pins down the defense inside while the left guard kicks out the edge defender and the left tackle wraps around for the linebacker. The running back is afforded a huge lane to run into for a big gain. 

Now I mentioned Kingsbury has an entire package of plays built around this GT Counter scheme. We’ve seen the basic GT Counter and the basic read-option variation of it, but there’s so much more that Kingsbury has up his sleeve.