Hard to guess who Buono will hire as Offensive Coordinator at this point.Qman wrote:gotta beilieve that JC is coming back here for round 3. our offense has been terrible since he left.
They would have promoted Khari by now if he was the guy
What I would finally like to see in B.C. is an offence built at least partially around the skill sets of our players rather than being a plug and play offence.
In the Buono era here in B.C. we have been in a spread offence after Burratto was jettisoned. Its basically the same spread offence from Buono's early days in Calgary and the same playbook. Chap ran it from 2005-2006 and 2008-2010 in his various roles. Khari Jones ran it and Cortez ran it. The only exceptiosn were in 2007, when Kruck called the plays, with Hufnagel serving as consultant, when we emphasized the running game and used some two back sets and in 2011-2012 under Chap, when he went with more of a hybrid offence with both pro, spread, and bunch sets with a lot of motion and misdirection but for some strange reason (likely Wally) went back to more of a spread offence in 2013, as the season progressed.
Each OC emphasized the passing game differently. Chap preferred the shorter horizontal passing attack in 2005-2010. Jones liked a lot more empty backfields and a slot oriented passing game. Cortez had an emphasis on long passing routes and the vertical passing style passing attack.
The problem with all three (with the exception of Chap's offence in 2011-2012) was that they did not design the offence around the quarterback. The spread offence suited Dickenson but not Printers, Pierce, Jackson, or Lulay. Jennings could run a spread offence very well but its also an offence that will restrict him, as well as increase his chances of getting hurt.
The reasons are straight forward. Dickenson was a quarterback who had the ability to process multiple reads. He was a very cerebral quarterback. Jennings also has that same poise in the pocket. Jennings has a quicker release than Dickenson and a better arm for the longer pass. Jennings, when he runs, keeps his eyes up and still looks to throw, amazing for a rookie pro.
Printers was more of a one read quarterback who had a very accurate arm while on the run. Buck Pierce was a combination quarterback who was not exceptional as a pocket quarterback or a running quarterback but could do both quite well. Jarious Jackson was an excellent deep throw quarterback with a strong arm but lacked touch and accuraccy on shorter routes. Travis Lulay was more of a one read quarterback when facing pressure but had excellent mobility and preferred to run than pass when taking off or look for Harris while on the run.
Each of these quarterbacks had excellent strengths but too often we did not design the offence for their strengths enough. While Dickenson was a spread offence style of quarterback, who preferred to throw out of the pocket and when he ran, he ran straight up field. However, we gave him a lot of long developing crossing patterns to execute while operating out of the spread, without check downs against blitzes. Burratto used a lot of formations in 2004, used tight end sets at times, and introduced a lot of new plays each game and used Printers strengths but in 2005 we forced Casey Printers to be a spread pocket passer, as we did in 2010. We took Buck Pierce and forced him to be a pocket passer, executing short routes, when he was best at play action and semi-boots and throwing intermediate patterns. We forced Jarious Jackson to be a deep pocket passer and tried to give him a lot of shorter routes, which he often ignored and threw deep to the only receiver we had running a deep pattern.
Travis Lulay got lucky in 2011 and 2012. We moved the pocket for him, gave him a lot of power sets, ran a lot of misdirection play action for him, we used a lot of motion, and we gave him Harris for check downs. But in 2013, we were forcing him to throw from the pocket more and go to second and third reads, not his strength.... and when teams took away his roll out, we didn't give him the play action and semi-boots and we didn't move the pocket for him, except for his one game return in the playoff game, when our run game had returned.
Khari Jones stuck Kevin Glenn is the most predominant spread offence we have ever seen here in the Buono ear. Operating out of empty back sets almost half the time, for most of the season and with few check down plays we were a slot back offence that got the hell blitzed out of us. Defenses cheated off our wide recievers and doubled up on our slot backs. It forced a lot of interceptions for a quarterback who was prone to thowing them anyway and we didn't protect him in the pocket at all.
George Cortez basically ran a vanilla 5 receiver set for most of this season. We rarely used motion and just waggled our two slot backs. He used a vertical passing offence for most of the season, keeping Lulay in the pocket and running a lot of deep vertical passing patterns with a group of receivers who, except for Arsenault, didn't have deep speed and were more possession receivers. Lulay's strength was also not the deep ball, which made matters even worse. Adjustments were made by the time Jennings arrived as our starter. Arsenault had been moved inside and Hawkins offered a second deep threat, opening up things for Arsenault, as Arsenault opened up things for Jennings. Jennings was more of a multiple read quarterback from the pocket and he had a better deep arm.
So overall, we have been a plug and play spread offence in the Buono era, with a few exceptions in 2007 and 2011-2012. However, successful offences are moving away from the spread. Jasson Mass used a modified West Coast volume offence in Ottawa this season, with quicker passes. Burris, and a better set of receivers thrived. They also used new plays each game out of their volume offence so they were more difficult to scout. Edmonton used a lot of motion this season
Wally will likely want to hire an OC who will install this plug and play offence in B.C. as he always has. Jennings has the best potential to be a spread offence quarterback since Dickenson. However, he is also mobile and would benefit from play action bootlegs and can throw the football on the run well. Therefore, a hybrid offence would suit him best, with multiple formations including pro, west coast and spread formations, with motion to enable him to get the ball to playmakers quickly in space.
Its a shame that Tedford did not introduce most of the concepts that had given him the reputation of being such an innovative offensive mind. That included versatility in the use of offensive lineman in space for the run game, the volume offences he liked to run with the introduction of many new and often innovative plays each week, and the variety of formations he liked to use. But he did give us Jennings and his work with Jennings will pay dividends.
I would just be happy to have an OC who will develop an offensive system that at least partially uses the best talents of our offensive players rather than plug and play. I'm tired of seeing mobile quarterbacks stuck in the pocket or possession receivers being mainly used as deep threats or deep threat receivers being used mainly as possession receivers, offensive lineman used as tight ends without the threat of being able to slip out and catch a pass, etc., etc. Some of the things we've done over the years has been almost criminal, from using Clermont mainly as a crossing receiver against zone or used obvious slot receivers like a Nick Moore or an Ernest Jackson as wide outs for too long, before losing both.
No matter who coaches our offence next season, he starts with a tremendous strength in Jennings. But we've seen excellent quarterbacks start off in a B.C. Lions uniform with success and in too short of a duration, they are not the same player no matter which offensive coordinator is running the offence. Dickenson was a walking wound from consussions to being bashed from head to toe. Printers was hurt almost all the time he played here (brutal turf toe -2004, rotator cuff-2005 and we played him on an injured knee that was a knee reconstruction case - 2010. Pierce suffered so many injuries they could take an entire page. We played Jackson with a badly injured hand. Travis Lulay's excellent first two seasons as a full time starter in 2011 and 2012 beame a distant memory from 2013-2015, as injuries and not adjusting to his strengths this year took their toll on his production. Kevin Glenn was quite simply snowed under most of the time under Khari Jones before getting injured.
We need to do a better job of protecting our quarterbacks with quicker passing plays, better protections, check downs, and better scheming. Wally Buono, with all of our quarterbacks going down in 2005 said "That's why we have four of them. IN 2009, we signed Casey Printers part way thought the season and soon started him, as all three of our quarterbacks ahead of him were injured.
Its time for a different quarterback philosophy and a different offensive philosophy of doing a better job of protecting our quarterbacks and using their strengths. Its time to stop plug and playing our offensive players into a system and adapting our systems more for their strengths.
Perhaps the best examples of this are Russell Wilson and Henry Burris. As a rookie and a short quarterback with great mobility, the Seahawks used a powerful running game and play action to get Wilson outside to make plays. They didn't force him to become a pocket passer. Now in his 4th season, he is becoming an excellent pocket passer as well but they used his strengths and gave him time to develop the weaker areas of his game, rather than forcing something that wasn't there too quickly.
The Ottawa Redblacks this season not only went out and got some decent receivers for Henry Burris but Maas also gave him a modified West Coast offence which allowed and also pushed him to get the ball out of his hands more quickly but Maas also did not force Burris to run plays that he was not comfortable with.
Hiring an offensive coordinator is one thing. Allowing him to do things differently than we've done in the past and also developing an offence more to the strengths of our players, while also doing a better job of protecting our quarterbacks could make a huge difference.
