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NoCalHail · 11-23-2015, 02:43 PM

I know a lot of people like to point to Jackson going out as the reason for the lack of downfield passing, but look around the league and you will see plenty of plays being made downfield that aren't to #1 WRs or guys considered "burners"

A lot of it is play design. I think in general a WCO is not a scheme with a ton of downfield passing. It's about WR's catching the football in space and racking up YAC. What this requires though is very good route running, timing, and the ball being delivered so the WR can catch the ball without breaking their running stride.

Watch the Pats offense and you will see what our offense should probably resemble. You will see Edleman catching most his passes at about 4-5 yards out, but he is running in full stride when the ball hits his hands.

DeSean Jackson adds an additional wrinkle to the offense because of his game breaking speed, but it's not like Gruden is re-designing the offense based on one WR.

It's interesting because a lot of modern WCO take the approach Reid did with the Eagles, which was the basic WCO principles but they added in a lot more downfield passing than what you would see from say a Bill Walsh offense. They also largely used running backs that could catch the ball and emphasized screen passes with more importance than running from behind the los. And it was interesting too because McNabb threw a a great deep ball and intermediate level ball, but struggled with accuracy on what were considered the typical "easy" short throws of a WCO, so go figure.

11-23-2015, 02:43 PM	#621
NoCalHail Special Teams Join Date: Sep 2015 Posts: 368	Re: Who is Kirk Cousins? I know a lot of people like to point to Jackson going out as the reason for the lack of downfield passing, but look around the league and you will see plenty of plays being made downfield that aren't to #1 WRs or guys considered "burners" A lot of it is play design. I think in general a WCO is not a scheme with a ton of downfield passing. It's about WR's catching the football in space and racking up YAC. What this requires though is very good route running, timing, and the ball being delivered so the WR can catch the ball without breaking their running stride. Watch the Pats offense and you will see what our offense should probably resemble. You will see Edleman catching most his passes at about 4-5 yards out, but he is running in full stride when the ball hits his hands. DeSean Jackson adds an additional wrinkle to the offense because of his game breaking speed, but it's not like Gruden is re-designing the offense based on one WR. It's interesting because a lot of modern WCO take the approach Reid did with the Eagles, which was the basic WCO principles but they added in a lot more downfield passing than what you would see from say a Bill Walsh offense. They also largely used running backs that could catch the ball and emphasized screen passes with more importance than running from behind the los. And it was interesting too because McNabb threw a a great deep ball and intermediate level ball, but struggled with accuracy on what were considered the typical "easy" short throws of a WCO, so go figure.