Personnel And Saunders Scheme?

[Leon Phelps]

Does the personnel that we have currently established fit in with the way Saunders likes to run his offense?

Its clear from the top that Saunders likes his RB to be a threat out of the backfield and I’m not sure Clinton is too adept at doing that. Also, the QB’s we currently have in place are typically considered mobile QB’s and move out of the pocket when they see trouble which isn’t a bad thing but does Saunders “Pocket QB” system mean that we will have to do away with one of out most effective tools last year(Bootleg to Cooley or Sellers). I’m sure that we can integrate both systems but how much of an overhaul will occur ala past years when player complained about not having consistency within the coaching staff?

[gortiz]

I think CP is better than average out of the backfield, especially on 1st and 2nd down when he can sneak out into the flats. I'm not sure about Saunders O, but I have to believe he has bootlegs and rollouts in it, so I'm willing to bet the concept won't be hard for him to get used to.

Your last quesiton is the one I'm not sure about, sure the of? I think people are assuming that both joe's and al's schemes are similiar, but I have a feeling they are not. The only thing that seems to be same is the naming convention used to distinguish plays. Al used a lot of screens, and a lot more downfield plays that were close the sidelines, his play calling was a lot more aggressive, and I think he uses more sweeps and tosses, he also threw the TE a lot more than joe.

[rhyno]

Kansas City is the only other team in the NFL that runs that shuttle pass as often as we do, and as almost as effectively...

[Philip Pease]

I did not know about Saunders except what I have read on these message boards. From what I have read he does a lot to confuse defenses. In my view, when we got into the playoffs we became too predictable on offense. We ran on first down and second down and a roll-out left pass to either Santana or Chris on third down. I am hopeful that Saunders will indeed be more unpredictable and really keep defenses guessing.

Getting to this thread topic, we upgraded our WRs to allow for a more effective passing attack. In order for that to work I think we need to be able to have the QB stay in the pocket so that the entire field is in play. Last season Mark used his ability to roll-out in order to gain time and take some of the pressure off the OL; but that essentially cut the field of play in half. So I think that we will see a lot less roll-outs by the QB this season and an attempt at spreading out passes all over the field. Of course this puts more pressure on the OL pass protection; but help will come by mixing in screen passes, draws, reverses, and quick timing pattern passes.

So, I forsee a major change in our offensive scheme this season. On first down I forsee us passing at least half the time. One good first down play will be play-action long pass to whichever of our three fast WRs is single covered. Call a few of these plays during the game would keep defenses from stacking the line-of-scrimmage to stuff Clinton.

When we are in an obvious passing down, I think our OL is very capable of protecting our QB for quick timing pattern passes to be very effective. With three very quick WRs just throw it quick to who has the best match-up. With the quickness of our WRs I think that the WR screen may be even more effective as any of our WRs could break a big gainer (not just Santana) so we could work that play either left or right depending on the match-ups. Again, with the speed of our WRs, throw in a reverse once in a while (with Randel-El throwing a pass off that play occassionally just to keep the DBs guessing).

Screen passes to Clinton would be a really good option to have; but I am not too confident that our OL can make that work consistantly. That is a play that I think with practice can become an effective call when the defense is expecting a long pass and is calling for an all out rush to get our QB.

When a team has a top running back plus three fast receivers supported by a very good offensive line and a quarterback who is accurate and can make good reads defenses only hope is to disguise their coverage and hope to guess correctly what the offense will call. I definitely think our offense has so many playmakers at the skill positions (RB, WRs, HB), a very solid OL, and a QB (Mark) who doesn't make mistakes that Saunders scheme should be just about unstoppable.

Yeah, I know I am being overly optimistic. I thought that we needed just one really top receiver to compliment Santana to make us a much better team; but to end up with three really quick WRs (plus the reliable Mr. Cooley) we should have a passing attack that is as good as any team. In my optimistic opinion we just might have a team that can win it all.

[SBChamps172226]

Amen to all of that.

[Darth Tater]

Phillip,

We passed nearly 50% of the time last year. Add the times our QB scramble or was sacked, we actually called slightly more passes then runs. You will, however, find we run it more often when we win. Meanwile, KC passed on slightly more often then we did but found itself in situations were it had to more often. The 2004 Chiefs did throw a lot but that was again because they were in situations were they had to.