How Eric Bieniemy could look to use WR Jahan Dotson

Breaking downs the different ways Bieniemy might look to use the Commanders 2022 first-round WR.

Earlier this week, I broke down how new Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy could look to use star wide receiver Terry McLaurin and get him more involved in the offense. But McLaurin isn’t the only weapon the Commanders have at receiver. Jahan Dotson had a very strong rookie season and should be well positioned to take a step forward entering his second year in the NFL. So how might Bieniemy make use of Dotson? Let's take a closer look. 

One of the first things Bieniemy will have to decide on with this group of receivers, and particularly with Jahan Dotson and Curtis Samuel, is who is the Z receiver and who is the slot receiver. Last year we saw Dotson and Samuel switch between those roles pretty regularly throughout the season and the roles do have a lot of crossover, so I suspect the defined lines of Z and slot receiver will be blurred somewhat. While the pair may well continue to flip roles, I think Dotson will ultimately become the primary Z receiver because he’s better than Samuel with precision and timing routes while Samuel is a more versatile and movable piece from the slot.

Being precise with steps, breaks and timings is critical in the west coast offense. The system is built on the quarterback being able to take his drop, match his feet with his eyes and throw with anticipation, trusting his receiver to break at the right time so the ball arrives as he’s breaking open. 

Here’s a very basic example of that rhythm and timing from the Chiefs against Washington back in 2021. The X receiver is isolated to the left of the formation and runs a curl route. The things to note here are how in sync the receiver and the quarterback are. The quarterback takes his drop and as his back foot hits the ground, he opens his body and delivers the throw on time. As the ball is being thrown, the receiver has yet to make his break, so the quarterback is trusting the receiver to make his break at the right moment. The receiver repays that trust by breaking off his route just after the ball was thrown. He doesn’t actually create a great deal of separation with his route, but because he times up the break with the throw, the ball is on his outside shoulder before the corner has a chance to do anything about it.

That level of timing and trust takes a while for a receiver and quarterback to develop. Fortunately for Washington and Bieniemy, Dotson and Howell appear to already be on the same page in that regard.

This play comes from the Commanders final game of the season this year. Dotson aligns outside to the right and runs a curl route, just like the one we saw from the Chiefs in the play above. Howell takes his drop and once his back foot reaches the top of it, he sets up and delivers the throw before Dotson has made his break. As Dotson breaks off his route, he turns and finds the ball already in the air and placed perfectly on his outside shoulder. The timing and placement of the throw makes the most of the separation Dotson gets with his route and also leads him outside away from the defender. Dotson then turns up the field and accelerates up the sideline for a first down and more.

That’s a good sign for Washington and Bieniemy that there is already a foundation of a connection from that pair, which should also help Dotson’s case to be the Z receiver. But there’s far more to the Z receiver role than just running timing routes. The Z receiver can be moved all over the field and run a variety of different routes, which often see them working inside and over the middle. Dotson doesn’t necessarily have the frame or bulk of some receivers typically associated with working over the middle, but his speed and elusiveness makes him very effective in that area.

This play showed just how capable Dotson is working inside and over the middle. The scheme is designed well with Dotson in the slot to the right of an empty formation. The receiver inside of him works vertically while the two receivers on the left side of the formation work outside, vacating a large area in the middle of the field for Dotson. This leaves Dotson one-on-one with the slot corner with lots of space to work with. Dotson uses a little stutter to force the corner to stop and start again before he then bursts away from the defender on his shallow cross. The quarterback finds him for an easy completion and Dotson then shows off his ability after the catch. He turns up the field, breaking through an arm tackle from the trailing corner and somehow managing to balance himself enough to transition into a spin move to avoid another defender before running into the end zone. 

Sending a receiver on a shallow cross isn’t a particularly innovative scheme, I certainly expect Bieniemy will be able to replicate that. But I also think we’ll see Bieniemy layer in plays off of those shallow cross looks to help create more opportunities for Dotson.

On the first play of this clip, we see Tyreek Hill line up in the slot to the right of the formation but then motions across to the left. There, Hill and Kelce execute a traditional west coast offense scheme known as drive, where Hill runs a shallow cross and Kelce runs a deeper basic cross. As we saw with the Dotson touchdown, the Chiefs do a nice job having their other receivers vacate space underneath and Hill is wide open over the middle for an easy catch and run.

The second play of the clip comes in a different game, but shows the exact same look pre-snap. Hill lines up as the third receiver on the trips side of the field before motioning across the formation to line up outside Kelce. As the ball is snapped, Hill initially drives inside like he’s going to run a shallow cross, as he did on the play before. The cornerback sees this and instantly drives down to try and stay with Hill. However, Hill suddenly pivots back outside, leaving the corner to get caught in traffic by having to work around Kelce’s route. That leaves Hill wide open in the flat for another easy completion and a first down after the catch.

Playing the Z receiver role will force Dotson to face some press coverage looks. One of the things Dotson struggled a little bit with in his rookie season was releasing against press coverage. Some bigger, physical corners were able to disrupt his release and therefore the timing of his routes. Now I suspect Dotson will follow in the footsteps of Terry McLaurin in that regard, who struggled with similar problems in his rookie year and came back much improved in his second and especially third year. However, one thing Bieniemy can do to help Dotson is to use stacked sets. 

A stacked set is simply having one receiver align on the line of scrimmage while another receiver lines up behind him, slightly to one side. This is something lots of teams like to use, but especially the Chiefs under Eric Bieniemy. The defense can only press the one receiver at the point of the stack, leaving the other receiver to have a cleaner release. So I suspect there will be plenty of looks where Bieniemy stacks Dotson behind Terry McLaurin, who is now extremely effective at releasing against press coverage, and using that as a way to protect Dotson a little bit.