Can Eric Bieniemy make adjustments to help Sam Howell?
Looking at some small adjustments Eric Bieniemy could make to help Sam Howell’s development
Much has been made this week about Sam Howell’s poor performance and the struggles of the Washington Commanders offense against the Bills last weekend. The sack numbers are somewhat alarming and any time a quarterback throws four interceptions there will be questions raised, one of which regards the play-calling by Eric Bieniemy. Three games and just one loss into a season feels very over the top to be questioning the play-calling of an offensive coordinator that has been part of two Super Bowl winning teams in the last five years, but as everyone is talking about it, let’s look into it.
It’s no secret that Bieniemy has been very pass happy these first three weeks. Part of that is based on the situation of the game. In each game they’ve played this year, the Commanders have fallen behind and dug themselves into a hole where they’ve needed to pass the ball more in order to catch up. Another part of that is probably by design to try and make use of all the weapons the Commanders have at wide receiver. It’s also worth noting that Bieniemy does come from the Andy Reid coaching tree and Reid was always known to favor the pass; one of his biggest criticisms as head coach of the Eagles was not running the ball often enough.
I also wonder if part of it is Bieniemy testing Howell and trying to speed up his development. We know during the offseason, the team barely ran the ball during OTAs and minicamp to try and get Howell as many reps as possible to help him learn the offense and all the different things Bieniemy was throwing at him. It’s been clear from these opening few games that Howell does need reps against live opponents to help him see different looks and speed up his mental process, so part of me wonders if Bieniemy is leaning into that early in the season to help Howell get those reps so that the game starts to slow down for him as the season progresses.
But perhaps if Howell continues to take too many sacks from not processing things quickly enough, there’s some adjustments Bieniemy could make to try and help out Howell’s development. One of those adjustments could be running the ball more, but not just for the sake of running the ball. I’d like to see Howell more involved in the run game with read-option elements to help slow down the defensive ends.
This was Brian Robinson’s longest run against the Bills, where he picked up 23 yards. A big part of the success of that play was the potential threat of Howell keeping the ball on a read-option look. The Commanders hand the ball inside to Robinson with multiple double teams from the offensive lineman for him to run behind. In order to generate those double teams, the Commanders leave the defensive end to the right side of the line completely unblocked.
Being unblocked, the defensive end starts to work down the line but then spots Howell in a read-option look. Worried Howell could pull the ball and keep it himself, the end stutters and adjusts his path to Howell. That allows Robinson to take the ball and have an option to cut back his run with the defensive end effectively blocked by Howell. Right tackle Andrew Wylie and right guard Sam Cosmi do an excellent job double teaming defensive tackle Jordan Phillips and driving him back off the ball, creating a huge cut back lane as long as Robinson can avoid that unblocked defensive end.
Robinson cuts his run back and thanks to a combination of the block from Cosmi and Wylie and Howell “blocking” the defensive end with his read-option look, Robinson is able to get into the open field. From there, he’s able to show off his explosiveness and power by avoiding and breaking multiple tackles on his way to a 23-yard gain.
The read-option is a terrific way for the offense to even out the numbers game when it comes to running against a loaded box. The Commanders haven’t necessarily been facing many loaded boxes with teams using the two deep safety formula that the NFL has been using against the Chiefs over the past few years to try and prevent explosive passes. That means lighter boxes, so if the Commanders opt to use some more read-option looks, then that could give the Commanders some very favorable run looks where the defense can’t really match the extra gap created by the threat of the quarterback running.
Howell isn’t at Patrick Mahomes’ level of being able to read and diagnose those two deep safety defenses consistently and carve them up, so by using his ability as a runner with the read-option could force the teams into more single high coverages to help stop the run, which in turn opens things up in the passing game. We saw back in 2012 just how effective the play-action passing game could be off the back of a read-option based run scheme. If teams have to bring an extra safety into the box to even up the count in the run game against the read-option, there’s only so many coverages they can play behind that. Kyle Shanahan and Robert Griffin III shredded those defenses on the same handful of play-action passes because they knew exactly what coverages they would get from those fronts.
Those read-option looks could also help out in pass protection. We saw there the unblocked defensive end hesitated while reading the play. Back in 2012, the defensive ends were so concerned with Griffin running that they took an extra second or two every play to read run or pass, which gave the tackles on the edge extra time to get themselves set for the block. Charles Leno and Andrew Wylie haven’t been as bad as many fans will make out, but they would certainly enjoy the ends slowing down their rush on play-action passes from read-option looks.
Another way Bieniemy could potentially look at using Howell’s mobility more is to move the pocket. One of the things the Chiefs love to do with Mahomes is roll him out either to his left or right on a sprint action as the ball is snapped. It cuts the field in half, simplifying the read and also getting the pocket rolling to one side of the field, making it almost like a run play for the offensive lineman. We have seen Bieniemy use this with Howell a few times this season, but he could lean into it more.
Here are two examples of the sprint rollouts that Bieniemy has called for Howell so far this season. The first comes in a short yardage situation. The Commanders have two receivers stacked tight to the right of the formation. They execute a basic stick concept. Howell receives the snap and instantly starts running to his right. The offensive line are able to move the pocket, helping them make their blocks while the running back works almost as a lead blocker for Howell to secure the edge. Howell is then able to make a simple read and get the ball out to the flat for an easy first down.
The second play is a smash concept, which is something Bieniemy used on these rollout plays all the time in Kansas City with the Chiefs. A smash concept asks the outside receiver to run up the field and then break off his route sharply while the slot receiver or tight end runs a deep corner route over the top of the outside receiver. The idea is that against zone coverages, the outside cornerback is put in a bind where he has to either sink back to match the corner route from the slot, leaving the outside receiver free underneath, or bite up to the outside receiver and leave the deeper corner route free. On this occasion, the Bills corner sinks back deep to match the slot receiver, leaving McLaurin wide open on the sideline for Howell to find and pick up a nice chunk of yards.
I identified these quarterback rollouts as a way Bieniemy might look to help Howell this season back in training camp, where I wrote a more detailed piece on them with examples from the Chiefs last year, so feel free to go back and check out that piece here.
If Bieniemy is set on Howell passing the ball from the pocket and developing him that way, then there are a few ways he could still ease the burden on him. One thing they did a few times against the Bills, but I’d like to see more of, is working out of an empty formation.
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