QUINTIN JAMES
Staff Writer
Football is a constantly changing game, especially at its highest level: the NFL. One of the ways the NFL is changing is the speed of the game and the importance of having a quarterback.
A newer style of offense has recently taken the NFL by storm. That would be the spread offense, which has been a college style offense for the past decade. The offense is fast-paced and is centered around lots of quick pass plays, option runs and other shotgun or pistol format variables that fit the team’s players.
The spread offense found its way into the NFL in 2006 when the Carolina Panthers used then-running back DeAngelo Williams as the guy receiving the snaps as a quarterback would.
It became popular in 2008 when Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning introduced a “wildcat formation” where the running back would line up in a shotgun formation and take the snap like the quarterback, just as the Panthers did a couple years prior. After that, teams would start to copy the wildcat and change it up to their own style.
In college football, plays like that are common in the spread offense, because the players in the offense are athletes who can throw the ball, catch the ball and run after the catch. The reason that the spread offense is so popular in college is because it maximizes players’ potentials on the field.
The problem with this offense was always that it didn’t prepare the players for a pro-style offense. The pro-style offense is more traditional with a QB under center, a running back, a fullback, two wide receivers and a tight end. That has been the normal offense for years in the NFL, along with the West Coast offenses and Run and Gun style offenses that were like them.
When kids from spread offenses come to the league, they often struggle learning the new offense and their play declines because they don’t know how to play another way besides in a spread. Now the NFL is starting to incorporate the spread offense into the league.
With many college coaches getting hired in the NFL, such as Chip Kelly, Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll, and other coaches using it as their own style like Rex Ryan, Andy Reid and more, the game is changing and the spread might be here to stay.
Rather than being forced to be a pocket passer, head coaches have made their offenses centered around a quarterback who can run the ball as well as he can throw the ball. Add multiple plays when two running backs are on the field together in motion, along with multiple wide receivers without tight ends, and the game becomes faster and more modern. Offenses are getting down the field in less time, stats are getting inflated and defenses aren’t as dominant as they were.
Spread offenses can be different from each other. If a quarterback snaps the ball out of the pistol and shotgun and has multiple receivers, running backs and more to throw to, it’s a spread offense.
The spread offense has been in the league for a few years now, but other than the Seattle Seahawks, no other team has used it effectively enough to win a championship. There’s a lot of reasons to why that is, and many people argue that a good defense can shut down the spread offense.
If you have fast linebackers who can play man coverage while being good tacklers, it helps defend against short pass plays to receivers and quarterback or halfback runs through the holes of the defense.
If you can get to the quarterback and stop the run, it messes up everything a spread offense is about. Teams have worked to counter the holes in the spread offense but there’s many variations to it.
Three examples of spread offenses are the Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs, and Buffalo Bills.
The Tennessee Titans are an example of a spread offense that uses their running quarterback Marcus Mariota as both a passer and runner, while using two running backs in their offense alongside wide receivers and quick tight ends. Their offense is built around speed, quickness and running right at you, then using their speed on play action passes.
The Kansas City Chiefs run a spread offense that doesn’t use their quarterback as a runner as much, though Alex Smith is mobile. Kansas City uses a lot of smaller running backs and big nimble tight ends in short yardage plays that move the chains. They don’t really have a true prototype number one wide receiver.
Finally, the Buffalo Bills are an example of a spread offense that is a ground and pound offense. It uses a lot of run plays out of the shotgun and pistol. The Bills have the best running quarterback in the league in Tyrod Taylor and a top five running back in the NFL, LeSean McCoy. They pound you on the ground and then go deep with their big play wide receiver: Sammy Watkins.
They lack other receivers and consistent tight end play, but they run a lot of read options and short pass plays with multiple running backs in the backfield. This offense is very hit or miss depending on the defense and how the game is going, but when the blocking is good, it is a very hard offense to stop.
Even though these new spread offenses aren’t winning right away, they are making an impact and they are winning. All three teams sit at or above .500: Kansas City at 8-3, Buffalo at 6-5 and Tennessee at 6-6.
Last year, quarterback Cam Newton won the MVP and took the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl. The Panthers run a spread offense much like what Cam Newton ran in college at Auburn. The game is changing slowly, and soon, a lot more teams will have a spread formation in their playbook.
It’s likely there is a very strong future for the spread offense in the NFL, because it’s gaining so much stream and the success from it is hard to ignore. The game is more about passing the ball now, but being able to complement the passing game with a strong ground attack makes your team that much harder to beat. Look to see multiple teams start spreading the field and following the new trend.