Chris B Brown

* the outside receiver runs a post route, breaking towards the near goalpost (hence the name “post”) somewhere between 12 and 15 yards; * the inside receiver runs to a depth of 10 to 12 yards and either breaks inside (known as a “dig” or “square-in”) or runs a hook or curl back to the quarterback; * the backside receiver runs some sort of route to draw away the coverage, such a corner route, a fade or “go” route or a hook; and * the remaining eligible receivers (runningbacks, tight-ends or slot receivers) run underneath routes to be checkdown options if the defense covers everyone else. Below is the diagram of the West Coast version from Jon Gruden’s Oakland Raiders playbook: As taught by the West Coast coaches — from Bill Walsh to Mike Holmgren and on through Jon Gruden and others — Fox 2 X/Y Hook was first and foremost a ball control play: Fox 2 was a core West Coast run play, and this play was the perfect, conservative complement, designed to hit the tight-end right over the middle when the linebackers came up for the run. All good passing concepts are built of the same raw materials: (1) horizontal stretches, i.e., two or more receivers aligned on the same horizontal plane (left to right or right to left) that puts zone defenders in a bind as they try to cover each of them; (2) vertical stretches, i.e., two or more received aligned on the same vertical plane (deep to short) that similarly puts zone defenders in conflict; and (3) man beaters, i.e., individual routes or route combinations that are difficult to defend in man coverage, such as a route where the receiver cuts and breaks away (like a slant or crossing route) or some sort of combination that results in a rub (or pick). The common adjustment is to run a coverage commonly called “Special,” that combines three things: (1) the ability of the safety help the to cornerback with the backside single receiver; (2) the trips side cornerback locks on man-to-man on the outside receiver; and (3) the nickel/Sam, field safety and linebacker play three-over-two (triangle) Quarters on the #2 and #3 receivers.

The biggest story from the 2017 NFL draft was the surprise move by the Chicago Bears to pay a hefty price to the San Francisco 49ers — the 3rd overall pick plus the 67th and 111th picks, plus a 2018 3rd round pick — in order to move up a single spot in the draft, where they selected North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. Per both the traditional Jimmy Johnson trade chart as well as Chase Stuart’s updated version, both trades were expensive for the teams trading up: the Chiefs paid 120 cents on the dollar under the Jimmy Johnson chart and 170 cents on the dollar under Chase’s version, while the Texans paid approximately 125 cents on the dollar under the Jimmy Johnson chart and 154 cents on the dollar under Chase’s chart. Nonetheless, it is at least theoretically possible to compare the odds and cost of trading up and paying a premium for a first round QB — and thus taking a 50-70% chance on him becoming an effective starter — versus recreating that 50-70% probability by accumulating QBs in later rounds, i.e., the 2nd through 4th round. Nonetheless it is still possible to “overpay” (typically in terms of trade value) for rookie QBs, an issue that is most likely to arise if a team ignores the impact of base rates, i.e., the cost of a trade looks much more attractive if you think the likelihood of success of a potential QB is 85-95%, whereas even if that is your organization’s internal judgment

By the next season seemingly every college and high school team had added the Inverted Veer to their playbooks, including, with the arrival of Malzahn associate Chad Morris as offensive coordinator in 2011, the Inverted Veer’s original victim: Dabo Swinney’s Clemson team. The real purpose of the Inverted Veer/Power Read is to widen or at least freeze the defensive end in order to open up the inside power run for the quarterback, but if that end squeezes that runningback on the edge should be a good play. Specifically, many teams that feature the Inverted Veer/Power Read like Ohio State often have the backside guard block the defensive end while the quarterback actually reads the playside linebacker whether to hand off or pull. In short, the Toss Read is a great wrinkle that I expect more and more teams to use, particularly as I’ve increasingly heard over recent years how many issues teams (particularly high school teams) without star players at quarterback or runningback have had with the Inverted Veer.

The first things that should jump out to you about this playbook are: All of the terminology is built around being run from the no-huddle, so playcalls are limited and primarily use word concepts for play names, as Clemson will often use related words such as NFL team names, cities and mascots to all refer to the same concept; If you are familiar with Gus Malzahn’s offense it’s exceptionally similar to what Gus Malzahn has run Now, as I mentioned, Clemson’s staff has done a nice job adding more to the passing game to better feature Deshaun Watson’s skills, and there’s no reason for Clemson to drop in 500 of Bill Walsh’s favorite pass plays into the middle of a very streamlined, tightly organized offense, but it’s clear that the goal of Clemson’s offense is to make you defend Clemson’s tempo, formations, runs, That said, there is some cool stuff in there in terms of the running game itself as well as packaged plays/run-pass options, such as the below play which combines inside zone with a simplified form of the “Levels” pass play that Peyton Manning made famous: But in terms of the passing game the most sophisticated things I notice There are also a limited number of “coverage reads” in Clemson’s offense, such as the below which combines a slant/flat concept (good against single safety coverages like Cover 1 man and Cover 3 zone) and double slants (good against 2 deep coverages like Cover 2 and Cover 2 man).