Kingsbury adjustments led to McLaurin production in key situations

Breaking down some small adjustments Kliff Kingsbury made in order to get Terry McLaurin the ball in key situations

Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin is on pace for a career year. He already has a career high in touchdowns with nine, but he’s also only 295 yards away from his career high in receiving yards too. Over the last four games, he needs to average 73.75 yards to match his career best. Despite this, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury has come under fire recently for how he uses McLaurin. Much has been made about how McLaurin lines up as the outside left receiver the vast majority of the time. Before the start of the season, I broke down the reasons for that. But after two unproductive outings in a row against the Eagles and Cowboys, questions started to be raised again.

Against the Titans, Kingsbury made some tweaks in effort to get McLaurin the ball a little more in key situations. McLaurin still lined up as the outside left receiver more often than not, but Kingsbury was more willing to sacrifice some of his tempo to get McLaurin in specific alignments for some key situations where he knew the ball would likely get to the star receiver. The first play of the game is a great example of that.

On the opening play of the game, the Commanders align McLaurin outside to the right with Noah Brown in the slot. The concept is a slot fade combination. Typically, a slot fade is designed so that the outside receiver runs a hitch and occupies the outside corner, enabling the slot receiver to fade his route towards the sideline and away from the coverage. But here, the Titans are playing quarters coverage, something they did consistently throughout the game. The Commanders likely knew this was coming from scouting and game planning during the week. The slot fade doesn’t work well against quarters coverage because the outside corner shouldn’t attach to the hitch route and should be in position to take on the slot receiver.

However, the weakness in quarters coverage is the flats. You can see that as the play progresses here. As Brown works his fade route from the slot, the outside corner sinks back to match it while the safety is ready to cover any vertical route as well. That means when McLaurin breaks off his route, he’s wide open. In quarters coverage, the flat defender plays heavily inside to protect the middle of the field, but that leaves a ton of space outside, where McLaurin is. To further confirm the Commanders knew what was coming here, you can see that quarterback Jayden Daniels receives the snap and immediately sets up to throw to McLaurin. The ball is out before the outside corner even looks to Noah Brown.

It was a smart design all around. It enabled Daniels to make a quick, easy throw to the flat. It also meant they got the ball in McLaurin’s hands early while giving him space to work after the catch, which he used to pick up a first down immediately to get the drive going. It wasn’t the only time Kingsbury put McLaurin out right to get him the ball either.

Here, the Commanders line up with three receivers to the left and McLaurin isolated to the right. Typically in this formation, McLaurin would be outside to the left, but they deliberately switch him to the right for a reason. Before the snap, running back Brian Robinson motions out to the left, meaning four of the five eligible receivers are out to that side. That leaves McLaurin with tons of space on his own to the right side. From this isolated look, the Commanders have McLaurin run a simple slant route, which he does so effectively and has done for years. McLaurin wins the slant and secures the pass over the middle before taking a big hit.

Being able to win quickly on those slants and also show the toughness and willingness to go over the middle and take big hits to make the play is a big part of why McLaurin is such a good receiver. This was an important play too. It was second and six, so if McLaurin drops the ball after getting that big hit or can’t complete the pass for some reason, the Commanders then face a third and long situation, something they avoided well all game. But because McLaurin made this catch, while he didn’t quite pick up the first down, he set up a third and one situation. The Commanders are incredibly effective in third and short because they have their whole playbook available to them, especially with the added threat of Daniels keeping it on a read-option play.

But we have seen Kingsbury call one or two early passes for McLaurin in previous weeks and not necessarily stick to getting him the ball throughout the game. Against the Titans, he made a clear effort to move McLaurin around and put him in spots where he was most likely to get the ball, but only in key situations.