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If every offense runs very similar plays, how are schemes considered to be so different? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by Public_Youth_2348@alien.top to c/nfl@nfl.community

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The rapid explosion in "QB breakdown" videos this year from QBSchool, Kurt Warner, Brees, Daniels and a million copycats made me realize that they seem to have their own name for basically every route combination. "Oh yeah, I call this one Jimmy 2 Shift" proceeds to draw out the route combination.

I get that there are definitely some broad differences like Shanahan offenses leaning on zone run and bootlegs but it's not like they're running some extra special sauce right? Seems like everyone else knows the same plays and could just run more of them if they wanted to have a "Shanahan offense".

What is it that actually separates the quality of these different coordinators and schemes?

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[–] SuperSecretestUser@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

It's a copycat league, if you prove that a particular route combo works then everyone else is going to use it too. The thing that separates a decent coordinator from a great one is two things, being detail-oriented and being strategic.

Details matter when it comes to play design, making sure your receivers are running very specific routes in order to manipulate the defenders is the difference between a massive play and an incompletion. One of the things that JT O'Sullivan talked about a lot is that other teams are trying to use the new Dolphins motion where Tyreek sprints out right before the play starts, but these other teams don't do it as well because they don't have a player who's able to turn into their route while losing minimal speed like Tyreek can which ultimately makes the motion as effective as it is for the Fins. Great coordinators get the most out of their players through details like that.

Then on the strategy side of it, at some point you've seen a perfectly-timed screen pass where the defense is overcommitting and a play that should've gone for 3 yards goes for 30 instead. Knowing how the other team is feeling and taking advantage of that is huge.