What might a Pat Shurmur offense look like in Washington?
Pat Shurmur was one of the first candidates to interview for the Commanders vacant offensive coordinator job and has been long considered one of the favorites. So what might his offense look like?
As the Washington Commanders search for a new offensive coordinator extends into another week, I figured I’d continue previewing what the Washington offense might look like under some of the candidates most linked with the job. Previously I broke down what an Eric Studesville offense might look like in Washington, and last week I took a look at how the offense might differ under Greg Roman. Today I thought I’d look at one of the candidates many consider a favorite for the job, Pat Shurmur.
Washington fans might remember Shurmur for his two-year spell as head coach of the New York Giants, where he went 9-23, with three of those wins coming against Washington. However, while his head coaching record isn’t exactly the most inspiring, he has a long history as a successful offensive coordinator in the NFL. He most notably won assistant coach of the year back in 2017 as offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, when back up quarterback Case Keenum led the team to a 13-3 record and pulled off the famous Minneapolis Miracle in the playoffs against the Saints.
Most recently, Shurmur was the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. So I watched some All-22 footage of his Broncos offense in 2021 for the most up to date version of his offense. There were a few obvious themes in that offense that emerged quickly, so let's take a look at what a Shurmur offense might look like in Washington should the Commanders hire him.
Run game and play-action
Shurmur was hired in Denver to take over from Rich Scangarello, who the Broncos had hired from the 49ers to try and replicate the Shanahan system. That system is based on a foundation of the zone run game, which Shurmur continued to work with once he took over.
Here are a few examples of Shurmur’s Broncos running the zone scheme. They can run the zone scheme right or left, inside or outside from a variety of different formations and personnel groups. While the Shanahan tree of coaches will incorporate a fullback into the zone runs, Shurmur opted more for two tight ends in Denver. With those tight ends, he could move them around to force defenses into particular fronts that give the offensive lineman better looks and angles to execute their blocks. With those tight ends, Shurmur also liked to use sift blocks, as you can see in three of the four plays in this clip. This is when the tight end lines up on the play side of the run, but sifts back across the line and cuts off the defensive end on the back side.
Those sift blocks can be a very effective way to not only cut off that back side defensive end and create a nice cut back lane for the running back, but they also give the linebackers a run key to fall back a gap in case the running back is following the tight end to the other side. This can then open up big lanes on the front side of the run. On top of that, the sift blocks naturally lend themselves to the play-action bootleg game, which is also something Shurmur used plenty of in Denver.
These are two examples of bootleg plays. The concept is to fake an outside zone run one way with the quarterback then keeping the ball and rolling out in the opposite direction. The passing concept will typically have a receiver running deep, an intermediate crossing route from the back side and a receiver of some sorts leaking out to the flat. In the first play of this clip, we see a tight end sifting back across the line like he would on a zone run, but instead of blocking the defensive end, he sneaks out into the flat for an easy catch and run.
Good bootleg teams will mix up the looks and try and get their best yards after catch receivers into that flat route. In the second clip, you can see how Shurmur has a wide receiver aligned almost like a tight end. That receiver runs the sift into the flat, however the Cowboys do a good job recognizing the threat and taking it away. Fortunately, Shurmur designed the play with failsafes, so the tight end on the right side of the formation fakes a block inside but actually leaks out late on a delayed route, giving the quarterback a back up option.
Shurmur also had some more drop back play-action passes built off the run fakes too.
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