Breaking Down Scott Turner's Passing Game, Part 5
Part 5 of a series breaking down some of the core passing concepts in Scott Turner's system and how he likes to disguise them.
This is the final part of my series breaking down Scott Turner’s passing game for the Washington Commanders. In this series I’ve already broken down the Dagger concept, the Sail concept, the Mesh concept and different variations of Four Verticals that Turner likes to use. In that previous piece on Four Verticals, I showed a few examples of how Turner likes to spread out the defense using empty formations while still running Four Verticals. I think empty formations are something that we could see a lot from Turner and the Commanders this season, so this post will look at why that might be the case and how it could make use of the depth of weapons Washington now has on offense.
Empty
An empty formation is simply one where no player joins the quarterback in the backfield. Normally at least a running back will line up in the backfield with the quarterback, sometimes joined by a fullback or even tight end. But in an empty formation, none of the five eligible receivers will line up in the backfield or those that do will motion out of it before the ball is snapped.
There are risks involved with working out of an empty formation. The offense effectively gives up any threat of a running play, so the defense knows that a pass play is coming (unless the offense has a mobile quarterback). The defense also knows that there’s no running back staying in to protect, so the offensive line is limited in what protection schemes it can use and is vulnerable to certain types of blitzes.
However, there’s a lot of potential upside to working out of empty formations too. With all five eligible receivers spread out, the defense is forced to spread out to cover them. This typically leads to defenses playing much simpler and more basic coverages. Any kind of shift or motion to an empty formation will often give the quarterback a lot of pre-snap information. For example, if the running back starts the play in the backfield, but then motions outside the X receiver to the left of the formation, the defense will have to have somebody follow him and who that person is will give the offense good indications of what type of coverage they are getting. If a linebacker follows the running back outside, then it’s likely man coverage. But if the corner covering the X receiver slides outside to line up over the back, then it’s likely some form zone coverage.
These benefits allow offenses to manipulate matchups for their best players. Under Turner, Washington has used a fair bit of empty formations, but with the injuries and lack of depth at tight end and wide receiver over the past few years, it’s not been as effective as it could be. But now with a strong group of receivers and tight ends, Turner can use his empty set schemes and mix and match personnel groups to better effect.
Here’s an example of how Turner likes to use empty sets from his first season in Washington back in 2020. Washington works out of a 13 personnel group consisting of one running back, three tight ends and one wide receiver. With three tight ends and just one receiver on the field, the Cowboys defense bring five defensive lineman on the field, assuming the likelihood of a running play. Initially, Turner has the offense come out of the huddle and align in a run-heavy look. Two of the three tight ends align to the left of the formation while the third lines up at fullback. Even the one receiver, Terry McLaurin, aligns tight to the right of the formation, as he might do on a normal running play to give himself a chance to block a safety. However, after initially lining up in one formation, the quarterback then makes a signal and suddenly the offense shifts. All three tight ends split out to the left side to make a trips set out there while the running back motions out to the right side, outside of Terry McLaurin who then becomes the slot receiver.
Just from using 13 personnel and shifting to an empty set, Turner gives his quarterback a ton of information before the snap here. The Cowboys have to respond to the shift, so the defense goes from five defensive lineman, two linebackers and a safety all in the box, ready to defend a run, to suddenly having to spread out. The Cowboys revert to a basic Tampa-2 scheme and actually end up dropping an eighth defender underneath too. But you can see from the shift that Washington gets a lot of positive matchups. One of the defensive ends has to stand up and walk out over the tight end in the slot, which is a winning matchup for the offense. The cornerback over McLaurin slides out to cover the running back outside, which leaves linebacker Sean Lee to line up over McLaurin. That’s a huge winning matchup for Washington and as the play progresses we can see that Turner calls that same Four Verticals concept we saw yesterday with McLaurin running a juke route in the slot against a linebacker.
Empty formations are all about generating positive matchups for the offense in ways that other formations just can’t. Turner has used empty sets as a way to try and get McLaurin matched up on a linebacker or safety instead of a corner, which is always going to be a winning matchup for Washington.
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