Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. What's going on Everyone. It is
Speaker 1: a brand new edition of NFL Explained Mike yam along
Speaker 1: with my super Bowl champ m Rob in the house.
Speaker 1: You're feeling good today? I'm feeling excellent, Yams. I'm breathing,
Speaker 1: my family is okay, and I get to share a
Speaker 1: podcast with the Man, the myth, the legend himself, Mike
Speaker 1: yams All. I gotta learn my lesson of asking you
Speaker 1: were always in a good mood. It's kind of amazing. Well,
Speaker 1: because that's one thing that we have control over. We
Speaker 1: can have control over how we respond everything. So yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a good life philosophy and mantra
Speaker 1: that I will try to implement in my own life. But, um,
Speaker 1: you know one thing, not only could I say your
Speaker 1: super Bowl champ and the most positive person that I know,
Speaker 1: can I use another word to describe you? It's not
Speaker 1: offensive either. It's a good thing. Trailblazer. Have you heard
Speaker 1: that before in your past? Well? Not really? Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: please explain. I actually think it is an appropriate title
Speaker 1: for you because I think the one that you have
Speaker 1: heard is dual threat? Oh you've been you can call
Speaker 1: that a couple of times. Dual threat quarterback. All right,
Speaker 1: I want you to rewind for a second, because when
Speaker 1: you're at Penn State, you know the reality is back
Speaker 1: in see thousand six, we heard that phrase before. Like
Speaker 1: that's not something that we hadn't heard, but like you
Speaker 1: were legit dual threat, like not just a guy who
Speaker 1: could play quarterback and run a little bit or a
Speaker 1: runner who was playing quarterback, Like you could thrive in
Speaker 1: both of those scenarios. So is that a cool title
Speaker 1: for you? Act? It is cool, But to me, I
Speaker 1: think dual threat turned into a negative thing. You get
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, And I know it's good that you know.
Speaker 1: They say the more that you can do, you can run,
Speaker 1: you can do this. But what happened was when you
Speaker 1: show a lot of these teams that you can run
Speaker 1: the football and you are a great runner, oftentimes they say,
Speaker 1: oh no, let's just hand them the ball and not
Speaker 1: allow them to play quarterback. All right, So you and
Speaker 1: I are going to go through this whole identity of
Speaker 1: the dual threat quarterback who can do what the numb birds,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. But the modernization of NFL offenses. That
Speaker 1: is our topic today here on the NFL Explained podcast.
Speaker 1: There's a ton of analysis to get to you. But
Speaker 1: what do you think the biggest influences on what we're
Speaker 1: seeing offensively and these philosophies that have evolved over time? Man?
Speaker 1: Where do I start? Yeah, it's so much here, It's
Speaker 1: so much when I was when I knew we were
Speaker 1: talking about this, Man, my brain just got going because
Speaker 1: obviously everybody sees the spread system, which is in the
Speaker 1: National Yal League. Right. You know when I say spread,
Speaker 1: I mean you have your five offensive alignement. Oftentimes you
Speaker 1: have a quarterback in the shotgun with the running back.
Speaker 1: Possibly the running back is split out somewhere, and you
Speaker 1: have four wide receivers or five wide receivers, all your
Speaker 1: eligibles just out and wide right. And what's happening is
Speaker 1: the defense has to adjust. The defense has to cover guys.
Speaker 1: They have to show whether they're in zone. I have
Speaker 1: to show whether they're in man. And I think this
Speaker 1: trend started from the bottom and went up. And what
Speaker 1: I mean by that is I'm in youth football. I
Speaker 1: sit on the NFL Legends Youth Advisory Committee. We were
Speaker 1: charged the right in the football curriculum for all the
Speaker 1: football so that apparent youth football coach can have the
Speaker 1: fundamentals of how to teach the game. And the reason
Speaker 1: why that committee was formed is because I feel and
Speaker 1: a lot of former players feel that we have a
Speaker 1: coaching problem in the younger levels and the youth levels.
Speaker 1: And what's happened quite frankly, Mike, and just just gonna
Speaker 1: be frank with you, bad coaching has led to and
Speaker 1: I'm talking one on the youth level, has led to
Speaker 1: coaches on the youth level just saying, you know what,
Speaker 1: who's my best player. Who's the guy that can throw,
Speaker 1: can run, nobody can tackle who he's just that much better.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make him the quarterback. He's gonna touch the
Speaker 1: ball every single time, and I don't have to coach.
Speaker 1: Is hard, and I think that formula kind of worked
Speaker 1: this way into college football, and college football is a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a business, so coaches they have
Speaker 1: to let these guys play earlier. They have to adapt
Speaker 1: to what these guys are used to from high school
Speaker 1: in little league so that they can win faster, So
Speaker 1: that these guys can play earlier. It's about recruiting and
Speaker 1: things like that. So I think coaches jobs played a
Speaker 1: role in these offenses evolving really really fast to keep
Speaker 1: up with the players that they were recruiting. And I
Speaker 1: think in when the Philadelphi Eagles won the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: I think it legitimize the style, meaning that spread system,
Speaker 1: meaning a bunch of r p os, basically that backyard
Speaker 1: that you football being in a park style of playing football.
Speaker 1: I think that's what's happened with the modern day, especially offense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think something that you're touching on is really
Speaker 1: fascinating to me because I've had this conversation a lot
Speaker 1: over the years, and it's this idea that high school
Speaker 1: football influences the college game, the college game influences the
Speaker 1: NFL game. And I think it's almost counterintuitive to how
Speaker 1: most people would think, well, the pros do it this
Speaker 1: way and then everyone else follows suit, because it does
Speaker 1: feel like if we're gonna talk about offenses here and
Speaker 1: spreading the whole, like a lot of this stuff does
Speaker 1: start at a lesser level. Think about it, Mike, where
Speaker 1: you're getting your players from the NFL, their amateur system
Speaker 1: is college, right, so for these guys to be able
Speaker 1: to be NFL ready and play faster. The great coaches
Speaker 1: adapt see it, and I can sider myself a pretty
Speaker 1: good coach. Okay, I don't believe there's any human being
Speaker 1: walking the planet that a coach can't get through too.
Speaker 1: It's on the coach. Everybody can learn. It's on the coach.
Speaker 1: And so what you've seen, especially at the NFL level,
Speaker 1: they're saying, Okay, if from an ownership standpoint, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: only have this job X amount of years, I gotta
Speaker 1: get these guys playing as fast as possible. So what's
Speaker 1: happening is they're going into college to dip it into
Speaker 1: these kids playbooks and saying, let's just take their playbook
Speaker 1: and let's let them play fast now so that they
Speaker 1: can come in and know what they're doing college. Same
Speaker 1: way I just talked about it, right, colleges, they're recruiting
Speaker 1: young players out of high school. So what's the best
Speaker 1: way to get them ready to play earlier. Go to
Speaker 1: the high school, see what they're doing, and implement that offense.
Speaker 1: So I get it. People are like, hey, pass happy.
Speaker 1: The numbers have to bear it out. I'll say this,
Speaker 1: you actually haven't seen a huge, massive uptick and passing
Speaker 1: rates over the last last twenty years. Only one team
Speaker 1: ran it more than it passed last year. That was Philly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ten teams threw it at over a sixty clip. Tampa Bay,
Speaker 1: by the way, attempted passes on sixty of their place.
Speaker 1: And that's not really surprising when you think about the
Speaker 1: amount of firepower in the NFL and the shifts to
Speaker 1: a passing game. But despite all of this, we actually
Speaker 1: have seen a huge shift in quarterback formations and two
Speaker 1: thousand NFL quarterbacks took only fourteen point six percent of
Speaker 1: their snaps in shotgun. That number is actually steadily increased
Speaker 1: to the point where of the snaps are taken in
Speaker 1: the gun like that you watch these games, it's like
Speaker 1: it really is. That's actually a four time increased, so
Speaker 1: as you might expect. And this is something that you
Speaker 1: touched on a little bit earlier in the podcast where
Speaker 1: you're pulling from your your farm system, so to speak.
Speaker 1: As the college game. Super popular in the college level,
Speaker 1: RPO run pass option that has taken off. According to
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus, r PO usage has nearly tripled since
Speaker 1: just going from eight point seven percent of plays to
Speaker 1: twenty three point five percent. But em Rod, we watch
Speaker 1: a lot of college football these days. Guys are rarely
Speaker 1: under center halftime. You don't even see guys even huddle up.
Speaker 1: Go to a high school game, that's never even happening.
Speaker 1: The change of offensive philosophy in the NFL. Is it
Speaker 1: mostly due to the fact that high school quarterbacks college
Speaker 1: quarterbacks like they just don't do it. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that has a lot to do with it. You talk
Speaker 1: about R. P. O. S Man again, and you said
Speaker 1: the shotgun formation had an uptick after I think earlier
Speaker 1: I talked about the seventeen Philadelphia Eagles winning the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl and legitimizing that style of play. Again, listeners, listen up.
Speaker 1: Whoever wins the Super Bowl the year before, everybody in
Speaker 1: the damn National Football League tries to copy what they're
Speaker 1: doing when we want our Super Bowl. With the Seattle Seahawks,
Speaker 1: everybody saw that three deep defense, saw the style at
Speaker 1: which they played, the length of the cornerbacks, and guess well,
Speaker 1: for the next five or six years, every defense in
Speaker 1: the National Football League was looking for Richard Sherman type
Speaker 1: and playing three deep defense, so that that that's just
Speaker 1: the way it goes. You also talked about the shotgun formation.
Speaker 1: I got a little confession to make, Like when I
Speaker 1: chose to go to Penn State and back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, they had just introduced the shotgun formation
Speaker 1: for the first time ever in its school history and
Speaker 1: two thousand with with Shard Casey. And when I heard that,
Speaker 1: like I heard that from you know, competing schools, trying
Speaker 1: to tell me, you don't go right, what the hell, man, Joe,
Speaker 1: He's a hundred seventy five years old. Man, they won't
Speaker 1: even evolved, man, like them. They ain't even getting the
Speaker 1: shotgun til last year. And when you talk about the shotgun,
Speaker 1: the advantages of it is it gives the quarterback clear
Speaker 1: vision of everything. And again that's the most important position
Speaker 1: on the field when you talk about in terms of
Speaker 1: responsibility and things that they have to do. And they
Speaker 1: touched the ball every single play, and so a quarterback
Speaker 1: being able to clearly see the adjustments of a defense
Speaker 1: because Mike, dude, there's times when you first walk up
Speaker 1: to the line of scrimmage you may see two safeties
Speaker 1: back on the hashes. But as you start to get
Speaker 1: into your cage and start to look around, and as
Speaker 1: you do, color number color number, that second color number
Speaker 1: that you say as the snap is about to happen,
Speaker 1: those safeties start the road tape, you start to see
Speaker 1: things changing. It's a totally different picture. It totally cloud
Speaker 1: your red and so having clear vision is very important
Speaker 1: for the quarterback. It also allows more space for when
Speaker 1: the ball is snapped, for the manipulation of the pocket,
Speaker 1: and when the quarterbacks and shotgun. He's a typically file
Speaker 1: the six yards deep. When I take a five step
Speaker 1: drop from the shotgun, I'm dropping back to ten and eleven,
Speaker 1: twelve yards deep. It gives my tackles and my offensive
Speaker 1: lineman more room to push these guys past so I
Speaker 1: can step up in It gives me more room to
Speaker 1: step up in the pocket. So that's some of the
Speaker 1: things that come along with the shotgun position. The negatives
Speaker 1: about it. Again, this is the running back in me
Speaker 1: happening now is the run game. You really don't get
Speaker 1: much influence on the the second level in the run game.
Speaker 1: So a running back which I blocked for two Hall
Speaker 1: of famers in my opinion, and Frank Gore and Marshawn Lynch,
Speaker 1: these are two guys that can be in the shotgun.
Speaker 1: Take the ball. Like let's say if you're a quarterback
Speaker 1: and the running back is to your left side, these
Speaker 1: are guys that are in the shotgun. They can take
Speaker 1: the ball from the quarterback using inside zone footwork, go
Speaker 1: across the midline of the offense, and still get back
Speaker 1: to the left side, the same side that they started
Speaker 1: right and only a five yard area right there, which
Speaker 1: is again I know some of our listeners, like Michael you'
Speaker 1: talking about that is very difficult to do. That is
Speaker 1: not a lot of people walk on this planet that
Speaker 1: can do that. But it tries to give the maximum
Speaker 1: amount of influence on the second level so that you
Speaker 1: have space to cut back. I'm gonna always love to
Speaker 1: see a run game with this quarterback on the center
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, gives maximum influence
Speaker 1: on the second level. And then when you're able to
Speaker 1: do play action passing, which in two thousand three, two
Speaker 1: thousand four, two thousand five on Peyton, Manning made that
Speaker 1: long reach out the Edger and James where he's reaching
Speaker 1: out there and then he pulls it back up and
Speaker 1: stands up and Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison running across
Speaker 1: the field. Those guys running wide open that gives the
Speaker 1: maximum displacement of the second level of the defense. That's
Speaker 1: why I think understander will always be the best influence
Speaker 1: on the second level footwork. You just mentioned a five
Speaker 1: step drop back. How I mean obviously in the shotgun
Speaker 1: you're not worried about dropping back. So you speak your
Speaker 1: footwork when you're practicing and your training and you're getting
Speaker 1: ready for games. If you know you're going to spend
Speaker 1: most of your time in shotgun and not under center, like,
Speaker 1: how does that alter your footwork and your preparation. Well, again,
Speaker 1: I know for me, I was a runner, and there's
Speaker 1: a difference between a runner with passing ability, which is myself,
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson. Sure, I will put Jalen Hurts in this category. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a difference between a scrambler who's really a passer
Speaker 1: that has movement ability, Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, Steve Young
Speaker 1: when he was playing those guys. So it is a
Speaker 1: little bit different. Well, I will say for runners, and
Speaker 1: you see this a little bit out of Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: because they're in the shotgun, their body feels like they
Speaker 1: gotta move and do something, so it's weird. It was
Speaker 1: always in the shotgun thrown from me. It was always
Speaker 1: weird when I had to just stand there because the
Speaker 1: body wants to move. Body feels like I gotta drop back,
Speaker 1: I gotta hitch up, I gotta do something. But oftentimes
Speaker 1: you gotta understand that the offensive line is just guarding
Speaker 1: that little spot right there and you gotta stay there.
Speaker 1: So for runners playing the quarterback position, sometimes they have
Speaker 1: to work on their footwork a little bit more. But
Speaker 1: it does change what you're working on. And again, drop
Speaker 1: back drills. You're gonna do drop back drills no matter what.
Speaker 1: It's just the launch point changes up a little bit.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the NFL Explained podcast. Mike ab and
Speaker 1: Michael Robinson with you. So we're talking about the evolution
Speaker 1: of NFL offenses. It's important to note that that does
Speaker 1: have an effect on deep senses and there's some changes there.
Speaker 1: So the data actually shows that Nicol st When I
Speaker 1: say Nicol, I'm talking about five dbs use sixty one
Speaker 1: percent of the time across the league in the bills
Speaker 1: their fans and I know, you know, yeah, let's roll here.
Speaker 1: Bill is actually percent of the time and Nicol that's
Speaker 1: the most in the league. By over ten percent, and
Speaker 1: we saw them actually sack Matthew Stafford a Week one
Speaker 1: seven times without blitzing once the entire game. Five dbs.
Speaker 1: Basically they're based defense, So Rob, we're clearly seeing a
Speaker 1: lot of different players being drafted specifically for their skill
Speaker 1: sets on offense. But how is that affecting what's happening
Speaker 1: draft wise on the defensive side. I mean we just
Speaker 1: talked about I mean we have tight ends like Travis Kelsey,
Speaker 1: We got running backs like Aaron Jones who is probably
Speaker 1: gonna end up leading Green Bay and receptions and things
Speaker 1: like that this year based off what they have on
Speaker 1: the outside. It's just the defender has to change it
Speaker 1: tras that evolve. It's no longer than Levon Kirkland's The
Speaker 1: Big showder paying guys that are just banging and running
Speaker 1: into each other all the time. It's more like the
Speaker 1: Jeremiah wool Sue core More, Isaiah Simmons, the Fred Warners,
Speaker 1: the Shack Leonards, Guys that have the toughness to really
Speaker 1: mix it up and be able to share it against
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, but also have the movement ability that if
Speaker 1: this running back motion is out in the slot and
Speaker 1: we're in man, like you're expected to cover this guy?
Speaker 1: Is that a divisional thing? When we talk about drafts philosophy,
Speaker 1: like if if the team that is the best in
Speaker 1: your division is rolling out with a ton of offensive
Speaker 1: weapons in a West Coast style, like, then do you
Speaker 1: have to think defensively like, Hey, I gotta match up.
Speaker 1: I'm playing those twice a year, like I need to
Speaker 1: figure out how to beat them. I'm building my roster
Speaker 1: according to the best team in my division. Ist or
Speaker 1: first and foremost, every team's goal is to win your division.
Speaker 1: You win your division, you guarantee yourself home playoff games.
Speaker 1: So to answer your question, absolutely, whoever has won the division,
Speaker 1: you're always trying to chase and beat them. Let's take
Speaker 1: the a f C West for instance, Kansa City Chiefs
Speaker 1: have dominated the a f C West. So if you're
Speaker 1: another team in the f C West, I eat Denver,
Speaker 1: I eat the Las Vegas Raiders, the charges, things like that.
Speaker 1: You want to have a lot of defensive backs, That's
Speaker 1: why J. C. Jackson is now in the division. You
Speaker 1: want to have pass rushers, that's why you have Khalil
Speaker 1: Mack in the division and guys like that. So yes, absolutely, Mike.
Speaker 1: To answer you a question, whoever wins the division, you're
Speaker 1: always drafting the chase and beat those guys. So I
Speaker 1: asked you about footwork a little bit earlier in the
Speaker 1: podcast because I'm thinking about certain teams and what I
Speaker 1: see from them and where I was going with it
Speaker 1: is prestap motion. You know, I've spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time watching San Francisco Ford. Now I under seen a
Speaker 1: little bit now with Mike McDaniel down and it winded
Speaker 1: before the place started. Man, just all I was thinking
Speaker 1: about former players thinking about it like that. Damn, that's
Speaker 1: a lot of running, man. I'd be running all over
Speaker 1: the place before I even get off the line. Offense
Speaker 1: are actually using prestap motion almost four times as much
Speaker 1: as they were back in team, so from four point
Speaker 1: five percent to sevent over the course of the last
Speaker 1: eight years. Explain besides being winded, what emotion is gonna
Speaker 1: do for offenses and the real advantage that's there. There's
Speaker 1: eleven guys on offensive, eleven guys on defense. That means
Speaker 1: that there's eleven one on one matchups, eleven people that
Speaker 1: have to be on the same page on offense and
Speaker 1: defense at the same time defense, I line up in
Speaker 1: I right or whatever, which is a receiver to the right,
Speaker 1: of receiver to the left of tight into the right
Speaker 1: with the eye formation and backs. Okay, defense is said.
Speaker 1: They know exactly what defense they're playing. They're all good.
Speaker 1: If this running back, not the full back, but the
Speaker 1: running back motion is out of the backfield and goes
Speaker 1: wide outside the receiver to the left, it totally unlocks
Speaker 1: the defense. Now the corner has to step on. Now
Speaker 1: the linebacker has to walk. Now the box is a
Speaker 1: little bit like. Now there's a safety that has to
Speaker 1: drop down in the box. There's a lot of communication
Speaker 1: that has to happen, and there's six gaps across the
Speaker 1: offensive line, and every gap has to be accounted for.
Speaker 1: If there isn't a gap accounted for, then usually that's six.
Speaker 1: That's how this game works. That's how great these players are.
Speaker 1: That's the chess match between the offensive coordinator and the
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator. Right. So at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's all about putting maximum pressure on the defense. And
Speaker 1: so again, one motion, one shift. Um. Sean McVeigh is
Speaker 1: excellent at doing this building for building a formation. He
Speaker 1: may have three receivers on one side, he may motion
Speaker 1: one guy to the right, shift another guy to the right.
Speaker 1: Then before you know it, before the ball snap, he
Speaker 1: has four more people on the other side of the football,
Speaker 1: forcing the defense to communicate. And again, with eleven guys
Speaker 1: having to communicate, chances are one guy will be off.
Speaker 1: And if one guy is off, that's all this take
Speaker 1: the needed to take get a touchdown. What's it like
Speaker 1: to be a quarterback where you see things unfolding with
Speaker 1: guys moving before the snap and you know you got him.
Speaker 1: It's about holding your water man because you just want
Speaker 1: to snap then faster. Everybody, just just be cool, Just
Speaker 1: let the snap be good, let the combinations get the
Speaker 1: way they want to go to. But that's what it is.
Speaker 1: You always hear people talk about this game being a
Speaker 1: game of inches. Oftentimes when you see a play fail
Speaker 1: is because ten of the matchups were won by the offense,
Speaker 1: but on defense, this one person won their matchup and
Speaker 1: totally crashed to play a game of inches. That's how
Speaker 1: close things are, all right. So we're taking everyone through
Speaker 1: the evolution of NFL offenses, and we've been talking about
Speaker 1: some of the philosophies that have been in place when
Speaker 1: when we come back here on the NFL Explained Podcast,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about a little bit of a hiccup
Speaker 1: in the middle of this timeline that actually involved one
Speaker 1: of the most memorable game plans in NFL history. Trust me,
Speaker 1: I don't want to miss that. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: NFL Explained Podcast. I know I usually ask at the
Speaker 1: end of the episodes. I just want to throw this
Speaker 1: your way. Um, you get hit up on social media
Speaker 1: a lot. I know you're a little bit of a
Speaker 1: media maven, so to speak. I've been getting some questions
Speaker 1: from some of our listeners for our pod cast, so
Speaker 1: I do want to encourage people to keep firing them
Speaker 1: off a little inside baseball here, I said, I got
Speaker 1: a d M and we're gonna use this in our
Speaker 1: mail bag episode. And I'm not gonna lie. I think,
Speaker 1: m Rob, I think you're a little jealous that someone
Speaker 1: slinder on my du man. I'm just like, if I
Speaker 1: do it a bunch of haters, Why are you saying
Speaker 1: that about the Patriots and whatever? Oh, I don't get
Speaker 1: just great questions, No I don't. Yeah, So look, if
Speaker 1: you want to spread the wealth, you can feel free
Speaker 1: to hit up the real m Rob with the d
Speaker 1: M and a question or Mike underscore yam and happy
Speaker 1: to include those in a future episode. Love getting a
Speaker 1: lot of these questions. But right now we're talking about
Speaker 1: the evolution of NFL offenses, and I want to hop
Speaker 1: into the time machine and take you back to two
Speaker 1: thousand eight. The Miami Dolphins. They weren't doing a whole
Speaker 1: lot of partying around that time. In fact, they were
Speaker 1: coming off a one in fifteen season. In two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: they go to New England to take on the Patriots.
Speaker 1: In Week three. Tom Brady had torn his a c
Speaker 1: L in Game one, so he's not playing right. So
Speaker 1: let's pump the brakes here because you're like, oh, the
Speaker 1: Patriots loss of Brady. No, I'm playing all right. So
Speaker 1: the Patriots they still finished two thousand and eight eleven
Speaker 1: and five, and they had won twenty one straight regular
Speaker 1: season games when the Dolphins heads to leet. Now, Finn
Speaker 1: had to do some little drastic here, right, because you
Speaker 1: know it's the mighty Patriots. These dudes been balling out
Speaker 1: and they've owned us. That's what I would be saying
Speaker 1: if I was a member of that team. Towards the
Speaker 1: end of the first quarter, Miami lined up with their
Speaker 1: running back Ronnie Brown, who was probably winning me a
Speaker 1: fantasy championship. I remember I had him on a couple
Speaker 1: of my squads. They lined them up and shotguns from
Speaker 1: the Patriots two yard line, whereas we know it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the wildcat. He scored on a run up the middle,
Speaker 1: proceeded to shred the Patriots for a hundred and thirteen
Speaker 1: yards and four touchdowns. The Dolphins go from one in
Speaker 1: fifteen in two thousand and seven to eleven and five
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight. They make the playoffs, and
Speaker 1: we're talking about one of the biggest turnarounds in league history.
Speaker 1: They ran almost two hundred and fifty plays out of
Speaker 1: the wildcat that year. And the wildcat, by the way,
Speaker 1: it peaked in popularity two thousand nine, it's still used.
Speaker 1: How many times do you watch a game outlaw cat formation?
Speaker 1: It happens all the time. Between NFL teams averaged just
Speaker 1: under one wildcat play a game. So maybe I need
Speaker 1: to pump the brakes. It happens. It just maybe not
Speaker 1: happening as much as I think. But they're gaining an
Speaker 1: average of four point seven yards per play. You tell
Speaker 1: me the inspiration here, like, how does this thing even
Speaker 1: come about? Well, first of all, just to use the
Speaker 1: Miami New England's whole situation, that was interesting because you
Speaker 1: gotta understand who Bill Belichick is. Okay, Bill Belichick is
Speaker 1: a guy. He has to be prepared for every situation.
Speaker 1: And the nature of defenses is to outnumber the offense.
Speaker 1: They have an extra defender why because again, most defenses
Speaker 1: don't account for the quarterback. They look at the quarterback.
Speaker 1: He's just the video game player, right, He's really not real.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, So we don't really
Speaker 1: have to defend him. That's why we can keep this
Speaker 1: middle of the field safety back and we can outnumber everybody. Well,
Speaker 1: when Miami was playing New England, they realized they had
Speaker 1: to do some things to be you know, unpredictable. For
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick, well, when you line up in a wildcat,
Speaker 1: now the quarterback is a real threat to run the
Speaker 1: football because the quarterback now is a real runner, a
Speaker 1: running back, a guy that has contact balance, a guy
Speaker 1: who can read blocks and things like that. And so
Speaker 1: Bill had to make a decision. A defense is that
Speaker 1: year those couple of years and still have to make
Speaker 1: a decision. Do we just willingly know we're outnumbered and
Speaker 1: keep our safety in the middle field, or do we
Speaker 1: And in the modern daytimes, coaches don't really want to
Speaker 1: do this, especially on defense. Pull that middle of fields
Speaker 1: safety from in the middle of field because he's the
Speaker 1: last line of defense. Put him about seven or eight
Speaker 1: yards at the line of scrimmage. Do we want to
Speaker 1: put him that close? Because again, if the runner breaks through,
Speaker 1: there's nobody back there. That's the kind of chess game
Speaker 1: that is going on. When your quarterback, whether it's the
Speaker 1: runner and and you call it the wildcat or the
Speaker 1: quarterback who has running ability lock of themar jackson, when
Speaker 1: your quarterback is a real runner, it is the epitome.
Speaker 1: And again with Cam Newton was doing it, it is
Speaker 1: the epitome of true eleven on eleven football. And it's
Speaker 1: gonna always have an advantage for the offense. Why do
Speaker 1: you think it's decreased the way that it has. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's decreased because of the quarterbacks have gotten
Speaker 1: so you know what I mean, And they can run
Speaker 1: it now. They're getting yards running the football, and defenses
Speaker 1: have gotten smarter. Meaning when it usually when teams do Wildcat.
Speaker 1: Their regular quarterback is split out wide somewhere really not
Speaker 1: doing much. World teams aren't covering that guy. Now, now
Speaker 1: they're gaining an extra defender and being able to stop
Speaker 1: wildcat plays. All right, So let's bring it full circle here,
Speaker 1: because you actually gave some love to Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen,
Speaker 1: Kyle Murray. We're talking about more athletic guys who are
Speaker 1: playing the quarterback position also your primary ball handler. So
Speaker 1: teams must have thoughts in themselves it if I can
Speaker 1: create some mismatches with the wildcat. Let me just get
Speaker 1: some of these dudes right. And the problem is they
Speaker 1: don't necessarily grow on treat. No, they don't. There's only
Speaker 1: a couple of those guys, which is why most of
Speaker 1: them are making like two hundred plus million dollars pay Lamar. Statistically,
Speaker 1: what we've seen has been a dramatic increase in quarterbacks
Speaker 1: running the ball if you include design runs and scrambling.
Speaker 1: Two thousand nine peak wold Cat quarterback rushed for a
Speaker 1: total of four thousand, five hundred and seventy two yards.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to one, quarterbacks are accounting for over ten
Speaker 1: thousand rushing yards in a season, so when I say
Speaker 1: I called you a trailblazer at the start of the show,
Speaker 1: like that is accurate. Do you know what your numbers
Speaker 1: were when you were at Penn State? No, I don't. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you you rushed for over eight hundred
Speaker 1: yards and passed for over twenty three hundred yards in
Speaker 1: the same season. But it's all good. The legend in
Speaker 1: your mind, the years go on. It just um with you.
Speaker 1: I played quarterback too, apparently, I'm like twenty years removed
Speaker 1: from college. I was a baller back in the day.
Speaker 1: Um you look. I do think that there's at least
Speaker 1: some concern because we are seeing some of these guys,
Speaker 1: the Lamars and the Colin Murrays in the world, Like,
Speaker 1: these dudes have this ability that is so unique and
Speaker 1: so special, and I know it's not exactly skill set
Speaker 1: that grows on trees like I made reference to. Are
Speaker 1: you concerned though, about your traditional drop back passer being
Speaker 1: a thing of the past. No, that's gonna always be
Speaker 1: a place for a traditional drop back past. I just
Speaker 1: think we're gonna be redefining what a traditional drop back
Speaker 1: passer is. To me, the robots in the pocket, like
Speaker 1: the Tom Brady. And again I can't really say Tom
Speaker 1: Brady as ro because he's not right. If Tom just
Speaker 1: had to run a forty, he'd outslow you, he'd be
Speaker 1: slow in that regard. But he's athletic in the pocket.
Speaker 1: He has mobility in the pocket, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and he very rarely takes hits in the pocket. And
Speaker 1: so I think by redefining what a pocket quarterback is,
Speaker 1: I think we have to say a pocket quarterback now
Speaker 1: has to have a little bit of athletic ability in
Speaker 1: there and not And again I'm not saying running quarterback
Speaker 1: power or quarterback sweep or going seventy nine yards like
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson or anything like that, but I do think
Speaker 1: that you have to be able to if you run
Speaker 1: a naked boot leg and it's fourth and four, you
Speaker 1: gotta be able to run for the first down if
Speaker 1: you wide open. Okay, So I know we're talking about
Speaker 1: some scrambling quarterbacks here, and generally speaking, like you do
Speaker 1: need some mobility to play at the NFL level, especially
Speaker 1: if your mobile quarterback around that goal line. At the
Speaker 1: same time, we've actually seen a trend that seems to
Speaker 1: go along with how much shotgun is run and how
Speaker 1: pass happy a lot of teams are. The rate of
Speaker 1: rushing touchdowns to passing TVs has increasingly moved in favor
Speaker 1: of the ladder, nearly a one to one ratio in
Speaker 1: ninety five to now passing touchdowns being almost two and
Speaker 1: a half times more common than rushing touchdowns. Before the
Speaker 1: season started, we spent an entire week doing like calling
Speaker 1: it like fantasy week. This is why when we're talking
Speaker 1: about running backs like people like you might want to
Speaker 1: wait on a couple of those things. All right, the
Speaker 1: amount of passing and rushing yards in the game, that
Speaker 1: actually hasn't changed all that much. So how do you
Speaker 1: explain if the yardage is relatively flat, why there's such
Speaker 1: a disparity when it comes to actually how teams are scoring. Well,
Speaker 1: I just again it goes back to I mean, we
Speaker 1: live in Western society, right, Our society it's about you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, basically being on attack mode. Right,
Speaker 1: But that's that's what it's all about. And offenses are
Speaker 1: no different. Defenses are no different. Football is no different.
Speaker 1: And when you get down inside the red zone, I
Speaker 1: just think that teams are finding matchups. So let's think
Speaker 1: about this when a team gets down into the goal line,
Speaker 1: let's call it the green zone inside the five. Right,
Speaker 1: you bring in big people. Right, If an offense has
Speaker 1: big people that can catch the football, you have an
Speaker 1: advantage because now the defense is going to bring in
Speaker 1: people and now you have that advantage. And I think
Speaker 1: just from a younger offensive coordinators, guys getting jobs, getting
Speaker 1: opportunities to call plays, guys are just more aggressive. I
Speaker 1: mean not only just from calling plays, from even the
Speaker 1: players that they're picking. Guys are more aggressive. And that
Speaker 1: trend is just going all across the National Football League.
Speaker 1: And to me, I like it. You know, even as
Speaker 1: a former runner, I do like it. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, winners of our Super Bowl, and
Speaker 1: I know we can talk about the Rams last year,
Speaker 1: they had the ability to run the football. To me,
Speaker 1: the winners of our Super Bowl still always have the
Speaker 1: ability to run the football. Man, So running the football
Speaker 1: and goal line situations, you say, give me the rock
Speaker 1: and formations actually matter and not to you know, pick
Speaker 1: at a couple of different teams. But I couldn't help
Speaker 1: but notice, as I've been watching games over the last
Speaker 1: few weeks, my social media feed by Twitter timeline as
Speaker 1: I'm listening to Scott Hanson on ren Zone, people calling
Speaker 1: out shotgun formations basically in goal line situations and people
Speaker 1: hating that. Do you hate that what shotgunna go down situations? Yes?
Speaker 1: Yeah I do. I do. I mean the advantage of
Speaker 1: it is maybe you know the ball care you can
Speaker 1: get the ball faster, and that way he can kind
Speaker 1: of see whether he needs to take off and jump
Speaker 1: where he needs to cut or whatever. I can understand
Speaker 1: that message. But at the end of the day, I'm
Speaker 1: all about the ball, and to me, when the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: hands are underneath the center, that's the more sure ball
Speaker 1: exchange than the ball leaving somebody's hands being in the
Speaker 1: air for a little bit and then somebody having to
Speaker 1: catch it with ball handling and all of those types
Speaker 1: of things. But if you're running the football on the
Speaker 1: goal line, if your quarterback is under center, to me,
Speaker 1: if you want to throw it, it's the play action
Speaker 1: that to me gives you the biggest advantage. But you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't a part of this Super Bowl, but the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl forty nine, I know I always get a
Speaker 1: lot of questions about whether Pete Carroll should have thrown
Speaker 1: the ball and things like that. If you listen to
Speaker 1: the reasoning as to why he threw it, he saw
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick put his big people out there, and that
Speaker 1: was that led to the reason of them A part
Speaker 1: of the reason of them throwing the football. He saw
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinator basically put his chest pieces out on
Speaker 1: the board. First, Okay, it's big people. They're gonna be
Speaker 1: a man. Hey, what's our best man beat play? And
Speaker 1: kids just made a better play. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways, like a comment on that. I understand the
Speaker 1: reasoning be it, but well, you know, some people think
Speaker 1: somebody was coaching it to give Russell the the m
Speaker 1: v P and not beast mode. You know, I hear
Speaker 1: all of these things, the conspiracy theories. There are those moments,
Speaker 1: those critical down and distances, and certainly third down, fourth
Speaker 1: down inside the three yard line. Uh, we've got some
Speaker 1: data for it. There's actually a slightly better statistical outcome
Speaker 1: on run plays from under center, which is why I
Speaker 1: asked you about shotgun and it seems like you like
Speaker 1: the outcome when a quarterback is under center. So since
Speaker 1: we're talking about the goal line, one thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to bring up as a form of fullback. We're seeing
Speaker 1: some usage sickle, come on, don't do me like, okay,
Speaker 1: just gone down of the traditional running too. A guy
Speaker 1: just the you know not dude, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But you know you got eight backs. You got second
Speaker 1: tight ends that line up in the lead block of
Speaker 1: position that aren't traditional fullback. So look a lead blockers
Speaker 1: still gonna be there. Yeah, that's all I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1: All right, I just just for urification purposes, do you
Speaker 1: want to go your muff says I give the fullback,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna listening to the snaps taken including a
Speaker 1: fullback like that makes sense that number. Yeah, it is
Speaker 1: a little bit of a buzz kill. It's dying breed
Speaker 1: in some respects. But maybe there's optimism here because the
Speaker 1: game is going to continue to evolve. Maybe the fullback
Speaker 1: comes back and it becomes full But is there something
Speaker 1: that you'd like to see or you think a trend
Speaker 1: that becomes the next I don't know. We'll do an
Speaker 1: NFL Explained podcast in twenty years, me and you and
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about this. Well, honestly, I think
Speaker 1: the game is going to position this football. The game
Speaker 1: is going to eleven dudes up against eleven dudes h
Speaker 1: pretty much closely built the same, very fast, very athletic,
Speaker 1: everybody can do everything. You gotta understand the entire National
Speaker 1: Football League is trying to keep our guys healthier. And
Speaker 1: to me, I think that's why you're seeing, uh, the
Speaker 1: fullback be a dying. You're seeing the big thicker just
Speaker 1: Hey Busser type of a linebacker back in the day,
Speaker 1: the old cultural football. You're seeing that go away just
Speaker 1: because it's a contact sport. But the focus on player
Speaker 1: health has just changed the dynamics of the game. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, I don't think lee blockers will go anywhere,
Speaker 1: but I do think, yeah, the thumpers will be totally gone. Honestly,
Speaker 1: you were in Birmingham, and I know that the NFL
Speaker 1: is trying to get and I think we all hope
Speaker 1: we see it flag football as an Olympics. I'm speaking
Speaker 1: in until existing it's gonna be an Olympic sport. You
Speaker 1: know what I found fascinating was I remember doing the
Speaker 1: hit with you on on Total Access and then you
Speaker 1: came into studio and you had said, like, there's some
Speaker 1: really talented players. Now they might not be NFL players,
Speaker 1: But there might be some NFL players that can't do
Speaker 1: flag football, like as you said, positional lists football, Like
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about sheer athletes that are just out
Speaker 1: there absolutely and let's be honest. I mean football, It's
Speaker 1: an athletic game, right, Flag football a game. How do
Speaker 1: you train for football? You trained for football, ball, playing foot.
Speaker 1: I can see guys in the National Football League using
Speaker 1: flag football to train in the off season and still
Speaker 1: get their movement in as well while playing the game
Speaker 1: of football. All right. As my dual threat quarterback that
Speaker 1: is you, who is your favorite dual threat quarterback, favorite
Speaker 1: dual threat quarterback like of all time? Ye, Sarah Gott
Speaker 1: Because I actually have a guy that I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: that I'm only bringing it up so I can mention
Speaker 1: his name in this podcast, because I actually think Michael
Speaker 1: Vick is in a lot of ways. When we talked
Speaker 1: about the evolution of NFL offenses, I'm like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: Like people were talking about, oh, he can't last because
Speaker 1: he's gonna take too many hits, and now all these
Speaker 1: quarterbacks are running like Victid. Yeah, man, Vic he had
Speaker 1: to be one of my favorite. He was one of
Speaker 1: my hosts when I went on my visit of Virginia Tech.
Speaker 1: We're both out of the state of Virginia his high
Speaker 1: school and never went to the playoffs though you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Van in my high school we stilway
Speaker 1: beat up on them schools down there in the seven seven.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I guess I would have to say, Michael
Speaker 1: Vick man, Um, I never really thought about it like
Speaker 1: at because again, I love Lamar Jackson, Um, Lamar. I
Speaker 1: love Lamar Jackson because he's a runner as a position.
Speaker 1: And again that's what I was when I say when
Speaker 1: I mean by runner, Guys, you don't see Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: take big hits because he has the runners instant. Slippery man,
Speaker 1: you see what I'm saying. Yeah, if Bret was running
Speaker 1: the football, he would take big hits because he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the runners instincts. So y'all would have to say,
Speaker 1: Mike Vick, Lamar Jackson, have you seen that NFL Legends
Speaker 1: thing that we do here? Yes, yes, yes, Vick and
Speaker 1: Lamar dude, man, and they have they did it. They
Speaker 1: did it. It's awesome. I gotta go check. It's one
Speaker 1: of the first times when I've watched those pieces where
Speaker 1: I sit there and I just focus and I'm just
Speaker 1: watching these dudes interact. What's really cool? And I think,
Speaker 1: what's what's interesting about it? And our listeners are understand this.
Speaker 1: When you're literally the fastest, most dynamic, most athletic human
Speaker 1: on the field at any given time, and you're the quarterback,
Speaker 1: you get the ball every single play. It takes a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of responsibility not to just say, you know what, guys,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna put ten guys on the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get the ball and I'm just gonna it
Speaker 1: does like I remember Joe Puto telling me, like, Mike,
Speaker 1: what do you throw on it for? You're the ultimate shutdown?
Speaker 1: Just run the ball. Yeah, And I always hear his
Speaker 1: voice every time I think about doing three quarterback. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it really is remarkable. Uh, No one better
Speaker 1: to hang with to do these episodes, and you, Mike
Speaker 1: Rob always appreciate it. I know I mentioned this earlier.
Speaker 1: If you got a question, don't know how to find
Speaker 1: the answer, we got a whole staff here. We got
Speaker 1: a team that can get you that answer. You can
Speaker 1: slide into my m s add like underscore M you
Speaker 1: can send some shades towards Real and Rob ready to
Speaker 1: rock and ball, Mike, Rob always going to be with
Speaker 1: you man. That is evolution of NFL offenses explained