Commanders Scheme Breakdown: The Arrow Concept
Breaking down the Arrow concept and how Eric Bieniemy could look to use it in Washington.
Last week I looked at some staple offensive concepts we can expect to see regularly from the Washington Commanders’ offense under new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. The Drive and Sail concepts are two concepts you’ll see around the NFL every week but Bieniemy with the Chiefs had his own way of getting to them. This week, I’m looking at a few more concepts that we can expect to see from Bieniemy, starting with the Arrow concept.
The Arrow concept, known to many as “Spot”, consists of three receivers, typically a combination of a receiver, a tight end and a running back. Two of those receivers will work a corner-flat combination, where once receiver runs a corner route from a tight split while the other receiver works out to the flat. The third receiver typically aligns outside of the other two receivers and spots up in between both of them, creating traffic for defenders trying to follow the other routes and giving a quick option to the quarterback.
Here’s an example of the Chiefs using the Arrow concept last year, which most of the Andy Reid coaching tree calls “Tampa”.
On this play we see the slot receiver run the corne route with the running back working to the flat out of the backfield. Meanwhile, the outside receiver spots up in between them. As the play progresses, it’s clear that the defense is playing man coverage, which should make the throw to the flat a strong option. The receiver spotting up should create traffic for the linebacker desperately sprinting outside to try and catch up to the running back in the flat. However, quarterback Patrick Mahomes obviously liked his matchup with the slot receiver on the corner route and took the shot further down the field, leading to a bigger gain.
Different teams will teach the read on this play differently. Some will teach the read to be a triangle read between all three routes. Others will have the quarterback work the spot route to the flat with the corner as an alert option against specific coverages while some will teach the read to go to the flat first and then work back to the spot route inside if the flat is unavailable. The corner route is very rarely thrown on this concept as it’s more there to stretch the defense vertically and create space underneath for the other two routes. More often than not, the ball will go to the flat.
This play comes from the Chiefs 2021 season. We can see the impact that having a receiver like Tyreek Hill can have on the opposing defense. The slot corner, outside corner and safety all focus on Hill and drop back to contain him, leaving both the spot route and flat route wide open underneath. With both the slot and outside cornerback sinking back to match Hill, I would imagine Mahomes would take the spot route most of the time here, but the Eagles do get some nice pressure off the edge, so Mahomes decides to dump it off to the flat to avoid the rush.
In the end, the ball going to the flat works out nicely for the Chiefs as the defense has sunk back far enough to allow the back to secure the pass and turn up the sideline with a head of steam, while the receiver spotting up inside can also turn and run up the field to try and block for him. The back ends up picking up a first down easily before being forced out of bounds.
For the Commanders, it’s easy to imagine Terry McLaurin commanding similar attention from opposing defenses on the deeper route, creating space underneath for Jahan Dotson on the spot route or Antonio Gibson in the flat. Perhaps even Curtis Samuel could align in the backfield and become the flat option here.
Situationally, this concept is pretty flexible. It can be run on first and second down, third and medium or less and in two minute situations. It’s also a nice concept to call in the red zone.
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