What could the 49ers' offense look like with Trey Lance at QB?
A detailed look at how Kyle Shanahan might adapt his offense to fit QB Trey Lance.
As NFL training camps progress and lead into the first week of the preseason, the hype surrounding 49ers rookie quarterback Trey Lance continues to grow. Speculation on who starts at quarterback for the 49ers is mounting, with some believing that Lance could win the job from Jimmy Garoppolo as early as week one. That remains to be seen, but Lance is certainly an intriguing option for Head Coach Kyle Shanahan.
Lance is a dual-threat quarterback, meaning he’s just as much of a threat with his legs as he is with his arm. Having a quarterback that can do both is hugely beneficial to any offense and opens up the playbook. But what exactly could Shanahan’s offense look like with Trey Lance at quarterback? To answer that, we first need to look at the traditional foundation of the Shanahan offense and how Shanahan builds off of it.
Zone Scheme
The Shanahan base offense is built off of a foundation laid by the zone run scheme. In an extremely simplified overview of the zone scheme, it tasks the offensive lineman to all work in the same direction to get the defense moving horizontally from sideline to sideline. This causes vertical creases in the defense for the running back to cut into. There are two main versions of zone runs, outside or wide zone and inside or tight zone.
This is an example of a generic outside or wide zone scheme. The offensive line all step in unison towards the intended direction of the play, in this case to the right. Rather than trying to overpower the defenders in front of them to open a specific gap, their blocking scheme relies on a general rule set of covered and uncovered gaps. Essentially, if the offensive lineman has a defensive lineman in their play side gap, they are covered and have to block them. If not, they are uncovered and have to work up to the second level.
In this example, the left tackle, center and right tackle are covered, so they block their defensive lineman. The guards are left uncovered so they are required to work up to the second level and pick up the linebackers. As the ball is snapped, the guards help their teammates secure their defensive lineman, stabbing a hand to the chest of the defensive lineman before peeling off and working up to the second level.
The running back has a set track that differs from team to team and depending on personnel, but typically his aiming point is around the tight end to the play side. By his third step, he should know if he’s going to continue on the original track to the edge or make a cut inside. In this example, the edge defender stunts inside, telling the back to continue to the edge. However, a linebacker beats the right guard to the spot to secure the edge, but that leaves space back inside, so the running back makes his cut inside and picks up a solid gain.
The counter punch to the outside zone is the inside zone. When defenses start to get a little too aggressive working to the edge to stop the outside zone, they can be easily caught out by an inside zone run.
He’s an example of an inside zone run from the same game. Inside zone looks largely the same as outside zone, which is by design. However, the track of the running back changes. Instead of the back looking to attack the edge, he sets his track to attack the inside hip of the defensive tackle to the play side of the run. This means he starts his track working inside and if he cuts his run back, it can often go all the way back, behind the over-pursuing defense.
In this example, the back sets his track to the inside hip of the nose tackle aligned over the center. The center gets great movement on the nose tackle, driving him out towards the sideline. The rest of the defense flows that way as the offensive line washes them out, creating a big lane for the running back to cut his run back into.
Another key part of this run is the fullback. Kyle Shanahan is one of the few coaches in the league that still values the fullback position highly, and it’s largely down to what the position can contribute in the run game. Here, the fullback executes a sift block, which is a huge part of the Shanahan offense. He starts off working towards the right side of the line, but then sifts back across the flow of the offensive line towards the left side. He makes a critical block, cutting off the back side edge defender, who wasn’t expecting the block at all. That creates the lane for the back to work into.
Play-Action Bootlegs
The traditional Shanahan offense builds off of that zone running game with a play-action package based around bootleg schemes. With the defense flowing one way to defend those outside runs, the quarterback can fake the hand-off and roll out the other way, often completely unaccounted for. There are hundreds of variations of bootleg plays, but they all work off the same principles. The idea is to have a receiver attacking each level of the defense; short, intermediate and deep. These receivers won’t necessarily start on the same side of the field, but they will all end up attacking the same side as the quarterback is rolling out to.
Here’s a typical bootleg play from that same 49ers game against the Cardinals. The 49ers fake an outside zone run to the left and the quarterback bootlegs out to the right. The receiver on that right side works deep, while the receiver and tight end from the left side of the field cross the middle of the field at different depths to complete the trio of receiving options.
As you can see from that example, it’s simple to sneak a tight end wide open into the flat for a very easy dump off throw for the quarterback. In this case, the tight end crosses from the other side of the field, but he could just as easily fake one of the sift blocks I mentioned earlier and work out to the flat that way.
As always with the Shanahan system, there is a counter punch already installed for when the defense starts to catch up. Once teams stop overcommitting to the run fake and start getting back into throwing lanes on the bootleg, Shanahan loves to call one of the most effective concepts in the NFL: leak.
The leak concept is designed to look exactly like a normal bootleg, but with a twist. While the quarterback rolls out to one side and pretends to look at his normal three options on a bootleg, a receiver or tight end leaks out the other way. With the defense initially working one way to defend the run fake, then back the other way to defend the bootleg, the leaking player typically sneaks by and is wide open for a throw back to the other side, like we see in this example. It can be a huge chunk play and traditionally one of the most explosive in the Shanahan system.
So what does this all mean for Trey Lance? Well, the Shanahan’s have always preferred a quarterback that is mobile enough to execute those bootleg rollouts and throw on the run. As a dual-threat quarterback, Lance is perfectly capable of doing just that. In fact, he proved he could execute those bootlegs in college.
This play comes from Lance’s time in college. North Dakota State calls for Shanahan’s special leak concept and Lance executes it perfectly. He rolls out of the play fake smoothly and does a tremendous job of quickly flipping his hips to reset his feet, enabling him to deliver a touchdown pass on the throwback.
The zone runs and bootleg play-action fakes off of them are a package of plays designed to make life hard for edge defenders. The bootleg fakes are typically very effective and result in the back side edge defender being caught in a bind. He can crash down on the run and risk being responsible for the quarterback rolling out freely on the fake, or he can hold his position to account for the quarterback keeping it, but risk being out of position if the ball is handed off and the running back cuts his run back. Throw in Lance’s added mobility and this package will naturally make the back side edge defender’s job much harder.
With the mobility and threat of Lance on bootlegs, edge defenders are naturally going to hold their positions longer to try and account for him, which can only help the run game with one less defender needing to be blocked. But Lance is so more mobile than the typical quarterback that Kyle Shanahan has worked with. He can bring so much more to the run game than just being a bootleg threat. Fortunately, Shanahan has a history with a high-profile dual-threat quarterback.
Kyle Shanahan was the Offensive Coordinator in Washington when the team drafted Robert Griffin III back in 2012. Griffin had a different body type and running style to Lance, but he did offer the same level of mobility as a dual-threat quarterback. Shanahan and the now famous Washington staff of 2012 designed an offense to make better use of a dual-threat quarterback. Looking back to that system can give us some idea of how Shanahan might adapt his 49ers’ offense to fit Lance’s skillset.
Robert Griffin III and The Read-Option
Back in 2012, the read-option was just making its way into the NFL. Cam Newton and the Panthers had introduced it to the league, but it was still largely overlooked. Washington, however, saw how it worked on a lot of the same principles that the foundation of the Shanahan system is built on. So the Shanahan’s created an entire offensive package based around the read-option. Here’s a look at the basics of the read-option.
The read-option scheme is a run scheme where the offense designates a specific defender to leave unblocked for the quarterback to read. In Washington’s case, it was typically inside zone plays that they used for this scheme, so they would leave the back side edge defender unblocked for Griffin to read. If the defender holds his position and plays for the quarterback, the quarterback hands the ball off and the offense effectively blocks a defensive end with the quarterback. But if the defender crashes down inside on the run, the quarterback pulls the ball and keeps it himself as he runs to the edge.
It’s easy to see now why Shanahan was so open to incorporating the read-option into his offense. It puts the back side edge defender in the same bind as the combination of the zone scheme and play-action bootlegs, but it's much more effective. With the zone scheme and bootlegs, the defender can make an educated guess via situation or hints from the offensive if it's a run or pass and be right fairly often, putting him in a position to blow up either play. With the read-option, the defender is being read by the quarterback and thus, should always be wrong no matter what he chooses. It combines the foundation of the Shanahan offense in one play, with a much higher success rate.
Now, you might be thinking that this was back in 2012, the read-option was relatively new to the NFL back then and the modern defenses have caught up. Well, back in 2018, Kyle Shanahan was asked if he felt that NFL defenses had figured it out.
“No, there isn’t anything to figure out.” Shanahan explained. “It’s a very sound scheme. It’s how do you want to attack it, what do you want to do off it, will they 100% commit to stop it? Which they can, but that opens up everything else, so what do you do to scare them out of everything else? Is your quarterback good enough at running with the football to make them commit to stopping it and once they do, is he good enough to make the passes that he has to that they just opened up? And if he is then that’s a huge issue. It’s tough to find that guy and if you don’t protect him right and you don’t do the right stuff, it’s tough to stay healthy.
“People talk about that 2012 year, but I mean our running game was 70% outside zone, it was one third zone-read, but everyone was scared of it so they played for it every play. Which is why Alfred Morris led the league in rushing, I think he was second or third, but it was because of the threat of zone-read, which allows you to do a ton of other stuff. That doesn’t mean you have to… it’s not your base offense, but if you’re in pistol or shotgun, you can run it at any time.
“Defenses have been playing 11 against 10 for so long and now all of a sudden you have to play 11 on 11 and if you’re not, it changes everything you do. So, it’s not that they’ve caught up, you just need the right people, the right commitment, you have to stay healthy and you’ve got to have a whole package together. It’s not ‘we’re just running zone-read’. Well they’ll stop that. It’s what you’re doing off of it.”
So Shanahan himself still clearly believes in the scheme, but emphasized the importance of building an entire package of plays around it. The last point he made was crucial, it’s what you do off of it. So what did Shanahan do to build a package around the read-option?
As he stated, Shanahan kept the wide zone system as the base of the offense, using it for about 70% of his run calls. However, he replaced many of the inside zone concepts with read-option concepts. To enable him to keep continuity and allow everything to look the same to the defense, Shanahan also adopted the pistol formation. Rather than choosing to put the quarterback under center as he needs to for the traditional zone scheme, or in the gun as he needs to for the read-option, Shanahan found a middle ground.
In the pistol, the quarterback aligns three yards behind the center. This allows him to effectively be in the gun for read-option plays, but also give the running back room to align directly behind him as needed for the outside zone scheme. That meant defenses couldn’t clue into what scheme was coming based just on the formation and alignment of the quarterback.
Just like how Shanahan designed preemptive counter-punches into the zone scheme, he did the same with the read-option package, anticipating how defenses would look to defend the read-option and designing ways to counter those schemes. As he put it in that quote, it’s about what you can do off it to counter the adjustments defenses make. The most common adjustment defenses made early in the 2012 season was the use of the scrape exchange.
The scrape exchange is a fairly simple solution to the read-option. Rather than having the unblocked defensive end always wrong, defenses would teach that defender to crash down the line to defend the running back regardless of the quarterback. This would result in any hand-offs to the running back getting blown up by an unblocked defender, and allowed defensive ends to play more aggressively. However, the primary objective of this was to force the quarterback to keep the ball and run to the edge. That’s where a linebacker would scrape to the edge, effectively exchanging roles with the defensive end, and make the play on the quarterback.
So what Shanahan quickly brought into his Washington offense in 2012 was the addition of arc blocks.
Remember those sift blocks I talked about being important earlier? They’re back here. In this example, Washington runs a read-option play on an inside zone concept. On a typical inside zone concept, the fullback would sift back across the line and cut the back side edge defender. However, on this play, that defender is being read by the quarterback, so they don’t need to block him. Instead, the fullback can skip by him and arc around him to block the linebacker. In this example, the linebacker doesn’t scrape to the edge but the result is Griffin keeping the ball while the fullback leads the way for him.
Another variation Shanahan used in Washington was the triple option.
On this play, Washington starts in a fairly normal formation for an 11 personnel group. However, slot receiver Brandon Banks motions into the backfield behind Griffin and the running back. The Bengals’ defense responds by rotating down a safety from the far side while the slot corner joins as extra run protection on the edge. Washington uses a triple option, which works the same as the normal read-option, but with an added twist. If the quarterback keeps the ball, he has the slot receiver working with him to the edge as a pitch option. As Griffin works to the edge, the slot defender is caught between going for Griffin and worrying about the potential pitch to Banks. Griffin ends up keeping it for a solid gain. For the 49ers, someone like Deebo Samuel could easily provide a strong pitch option on a similar style of play.
Read-Option Play-Action
All of these run variations force the defense to load the box with extra run defenders, and that’s exactly what Kyle Shanahan wants a defense to do. Play-action is the biggest weapon in the Shanahan offense and by having a dual-threat quarterback that brings a read-option package into the system, the play-action game becomes even more of a threat. In 2012, Shanahan and Griffin shredded teams with a handful of play-action concepts. Teams knew they were coming but because of the effectiveness of the read-option package, they couldn’t stop them.
The most effective concept Washington ran in 2012 was called “Drift”.
It’s a very simple play-action fake with a receiver on one side of the field working vertically in the seam to threaten any deep safety, while the receiver on the other side of the field runs the drift route. The drift route asks the receiver to work vertically for about 10 yards before breaking inside and working over the middle to find a hole. Unlike other routes, they don’t have a specific angle to break on or spot to work to, they just need to find space over the middle. That might appear somewhat difficult. However, with the threat of a quarterback that can run along with a deep read-option run package, defenses were charging up to the line of scrimmage to try and stop the run. As you’ll see, that opened up a lot of room for that drift receiver.
Just before the snap, the Saints rotate to a single-high defense to get an extra defender in the box. As the ball is snapped, the two linebackers and extra safety all rush forward to try and defend the threat of the run, leaving a giant hole in the middle of the defense. Griffin simply pulled the ball back from his fake and waited for his receiver to set the angle of his break before finding him open over the middle for a big gain.
Here’s another example. This time the safety waits until the ball is snapped to charge down towards the line of scrimmage. Regardless, the result is the same. The defense has a huge hole over the middle for the receiver to work into and Griffin finds him with a simple throw in the middle of the field for another chunk play.
Washington ripped defenses apart with this concept. Pierre Garcon had a fantastic year and he benefited from the space created by the threat of the run game with Griffin at quarterback. The space over the middle allowed receivers like Garcon to pick up plenty of additional yards after the catch too. Often it would be a foot race between the receiver and the deep safety to determine if the play would result in a 15-yard gain or a huge 45-yard touchdown.
Later in the year, defenses started to clue into what Washington was doing with that drift concept. When Shanahan sensed that defenses were getting too close to taking away the drift concept, he hit them with a variation. What Shanahan found was that defenses were tending to ignore the receiver running deep and let the deep safety drive down on the drift route, so he attacked that instead.
This is a concept known as “Heat”. It’s designed to look a lot like the drift concept initially. One receiver initially works up the seam vertically while the other drifts over the middle. However, the receiver that drifts over the middle stops his route as he reaches the middle of the field and can either sit down or break back outside. The vertical route on the other side converts into a deep post route. In this example, the Cowboys play two-deep safeties, but both diagnose the play-action fake and immediately key on the threat of the drift route. That allows speedster Aldrick Robinson to burst by them on his deep post and beat them over the top for a touchdown.
There’s a clear package here from Shanahan with the zone scheme, to the read-option, to the variants of both schemes and then all the play-action passes off of it. It was an incredibly effective package for Shanahan in 2012 and sadly it only lasted a year before things between Griffin and the Shanahan’s went sour in Washington. However, with Trey Lance’s ability as a dual-threat quarterback, it would be very easy for Shanahan to revisit his 2012 season and bring back that same package to let Trey Lance run it. I suspect we will see plenty of that 2012 package with Lance whenever he does see the field. However, Shanahan has grown a lot since then, as have his schemes. So how might this package differ in 2021?
Modern Shanahan Run Scheme
While the foundation of Shanahan’s run scheme is still the zone scheme, in recent years he’s diversified a little more, exploring more gap scheme runs. Instead of having all the offensive lineman move in sync and try to generate horizontal movement in order to create vertical rushing lanes for the back, gap scheme runs are about driving defenders out of specific gaps that the running back is looking to attack. One of the most common gap scheme runs is known as power.
Here’s an example of a power run concept. The left side of the offensive line all block down inside, driving their defenders inside and down the line. Meanwhile, the right guard pulls from his spot around the down blocks and wraps around for the first linebacker. The fullback follows the pulling guard and kicks out the edge defender on that side. The play is designed to open up a specific lane for the back to work into.
In that example, tight end George Kittle does a terrific job blocking the defensive end on his own, allowing left tackle Trent Williams to work up and reach the Mike (middle) linebacker. The right guard actually whiffs on his block, but does enough to get in the way of the linebacker and open the lane for the back to break through.
So with Shanahan adding more gap scheme runs to his playbook, it would make sense that with the addition of Trey Lance, Shanahan could also build an option run game package based off of gap scheme runs as well as zone runs. A prime example of what that might look like is the Ravens. Baltimore Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman was in charge of the 49ers run game when Colin Kaepernick was the starting quarterback in San Francisco and he’s maintained a lot of his running game package from that offense in his Ravens rushing attack.
Lamar Jackson is a fantastic rushing threat at quarterback and the Ravens make use of his rushing abilities. Rather than zone schemes that Shanahan used in 2012, the Ravens use gap scheme runs that often ask the quarterback to run the ball between the tackles.
There’s a lot of moving parts to this type of play, but it’s essentially the same run that we saw from the 49ers earlier with the added threat of a read from the quarterback. The core of the concept is a power run scheme, with the left guard pulling to the right side to wrap around and block a linebacker while the fullback kicks out the edge defender. However, there are some key differences. The edge defender is being read by the quarterback, so he doesn’t need to be blocked, thus the fullback works outside of him.
The other critical difference is the path of the quarterback and the running back. On all the option plays we’ve seen to this point, the quarterback has worked to the edge and the running back works inside. But here, they swap roles. The quarterback runs inside on the power concept, while the back works to the edge. It’s up to the unblocked defender being read by the quarterback to decide who keeps it. In this case, Jackson pulls the ball and executes the power concept on his way to a first down.
Now there is a risk with this type of concept in that a quarterback is being exposed to more contact when running up the middle. However, Lance has a thicker frame than a lot of other dual-threat quarterbacks in the NFL. Robert Griffin III is listed at about 6-foot-2, 213 pounds and Lamar Jackson is listed at 6-foot-2, 212 pounds. Lance is listed at 6-foot-4, 224 pounds and looked comfortable handling contact when running in college.
Shanahan could certainly look to borrow some of the concepts that the Ravens have had success with in recent years. He could also take some concepts from watching Trey Lance in college. North Dakota State made use of Lance’s running ability and came up with some interesting option schemes.
On this play, NDSU asked Lance to read an unblocked defensive tackle, rather than a defensive end. The right guard skips past the defensive tackle to work to the linebacker while the center pulls around the downblock from the left guard on the other defensive tackle. Lance reads the unblocked defensive tackle, who works down the line to tackle the running back, telling Lance to pull the ball and keep it himself. That’s exactly what he does as he bursts past the unblocked defender on his way to a solid gain.
In terms of play-action passes off of these run schemes, Shanahan could try and get creative, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he leaned on the same drift concept that he used heavily in 2012. The route combination is fundamentally sound and can work almost regardless of what run play is being faked, as long as the defense is more concerned with trying to defend that run fake than get back into passing lanes.
But the other thing to factor in with Lance’s mobility is the dimension it adds to empty formation packages. Shanahan has increased his use of empty formations since 2012 and loves to empty the backfield and have all five eligible receivers outside to spread out the defense and create matchup nightmares. Defenses often cheat to the pass in these situations because the quarterback is unlikely to threaten them with a run. However, with Trey Lance at quarterback, Shanahan can force them to still respect the threat of a run from an empty formation. NDSU did just that with Lance in college.
Here we see NDSU call for a quarterback power run concept from an empty formation. All five eligible receivers are split outside, leaving Lance as the only player in the backfield. The defense naturally assumes the play will be a pass, so only keep five defenders in the box. That means the offense has a hat for a hat and the defense has no extra defender to account for Lance. Lance receives the snap and pauses for a second to fake a throw before taking off up the middle. The defense ends up getting an unblocked defender, but Lance powers through him on his way to the end zone.
Adding that kind of threat to Shanahan’s already effective empty package should make that package even more deadly. His mobility adds so much to the run game foundation of the Shanahan offense that it would be tough not to play him at least some of the time. Shanahan can ease Lance’s development significantly because of his running ability with this type of package. In 2012, Griffin leaned heavily on the run game package Shanahan designed and the play-action passes off of it. I suspect the same will be true for Lance early in his career, but the key for him will be taking advantage of what the running game can open up for the passing game.