How the Commanders offense changes with Mariota at QB

Looking at what changes and what might stay the same with Mariota starting in place of Daniels

The Washington Commanders officially ruled out star quarterback Jayden Daniels from their game against the Raiders this weekend. That means back up Marcus Mariota will get the start in Daniels' place. Mariota proved to be a valuable back up option for the Commanders last year when Daniels missed time. He entered during the Panthers game in Week 7 last season when Jayden Daniels injured his ribs and was very efficient, completing 18 of 23 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns. He also played in the final regular season game last year against the Cowboys, where he was even more efficient as he completed 15 of 18 passes for 161 yards and two touchdowns.

So the Commanders will feel good about Mariota’s ability to step in and keep them competitive, at least on a short term basis. But while Mariota has a similar skillset to Jayden Daniels, it’s not identical, which means the offense could look a little different. So I thought with Mariota being officially named the starter on Friday with Daniels being ruled out, we could take a quick look at what Mariota did well in his limited time last year to see what parts of the offense can stay and what pieces might change a bit.

To start with, let’s look at one big positive of having Mariota backing up Daniels. Like Daniels, Mariota does well with rhythm and timing throws where he can process information quickly and get to the correct read efficiently. So those basic staples of the offense can remain the same.

This play is a good example of that rhythm and timing from Mariota. Against the Panthers last year, the Commanders call what’s widely known as a Hank concept, with the outside receivers running curl routes, two receivers working to the flat underneath them and tight end Zach Ertz spotting up over the ball on a middle hook. The read on this play is almost always taught to be the middle hook and then progress out to a curl route, typically away from any safety rotation.

You can see as Mariota snaps the ball, the first thing he does is look for the safety rotation. He can see the safety to his right not gaining any depth and in fact stepping up slightly. Mariota then checks the other safety and sees him rotating back deep, giving the Panthers a Cover-3 look with one safety buzzing down underneath while the other rotates back to the deep middle of the field. In theory, a middle hook can work against Cover-3 because the route spots up in between the two middle underneath zone defenders, but Mariota also knows that the safety is sitting on that route, ready to drive down on it from his original position, so he quickly moves off Ertz and progresses outside to Terry McLaurin’s curl route.

With the safety rotating away from McLaurin, Mariota knows McLaurin is essentially one-on-one on the outside with a corner that has to stay over the top. So he anticipates McLaurin breaking off his route and the cornerback not being able to break off quite as sharply. He delivers the throw before McLaurin breaks and that means the ball arrives before the cornerback can make up the gap created by the break. McLaurin makes the catch and picks up the first down to move the chains.

Where Mariota works best is rhythm and timing throws, but also attacking the short-to-intermediate areas of the field, especially over the middle. In the brief periods we saw him play last year, Mariota demonstrated the ability to manipulate zone defenders with his eyes and open up holes for receivers further down the field,

This was one of the best pieces of quarterbacking I saw from any Washington quarterback last season. On third and nine, the Commanders work out of a bunch set to the right of the formation. Olamide Zaccheaus goes in motion just before the snap from the inside of the bunch to the outside of the bunch before running a quick spot or arrow route underneath. But he’s just the distraction, as we’ll see shortly. Alongside Zaccheaus is Noah Brown and Zach Ertz. Brown and Ertz execute a switch concept where the routes cross over each other. Brown is the outside receiver, so he’s breaking inside on a basic cross while Ertz is the inside receiver so he breaks outside on an out route. The switch is designed to create traffic for any man coverage they might see, but also create confusion for zone coverages as they have to try and pass things off correctly.

As Mariota drops back to pass, he quickly gets his body and helmet aligned with Zaccheaus underneath, as if he wants to check the ball down quickly to give Zaccheaus a chance to pick up as many yards after the catch as possible on third and long. However, this is just bait. With the Panthers in zone coverage, Mariota uses his body position, helmet position and his eyes to manipulate the zone coverage defenders. You can see this best from the end zone replay angle. The underneath zone defender follow Mariota’s eyes and body position and begins to break down towards Zaccheaus as Mariota begins to throw. That slight bit of movement out of his zone is all Mariota needs to rip a throw behind him into that vacated space to Noah Brown further down the field.

Noah Brown makes the catch in the hole created by Mariota’s eye manipulation and the Commanders get a first down as a result. It’s an advanced piece of quarterbacking that you only really see from veteran quarterbacks that are playing with complete confidence. It was an impressive play from Mariota and something he does well to help attack different zone coverages. We’ve seen lots of people suggest the blueprint to beat the Commanders now has been set by the Packers and Eagles - just play zone coverage and have an elite pass rusher. It’s not really a blueprint, but Mariota is someone that can help them beat zone coverage with his ability to manipulate defenders with his eyes and body positioning.

Mariota is good at making adjustments to beat defenders over the middle, as we just saw. He did it again later on in that same Panthers game.