Welcome to the Spread Offense Before I get started I have a partial apology to make, because if any of my Florida Gator friends actually read this article they will want me hung, drawn and quartered. In fact it is these types of articles that some claim sabotage teams recruiting efforts, that said as NFL, Draft and more importantly a Buccaneers fan, at this moment in time I think there are issues in the translation between the spread option offense that is quickly becoming popular within many of the major college football conferences and the NFL . I have focused mainly on the spread-option variant of this scheme as there are a number of different types of the spread, however it is the spread option that has managed to forge a position beyond just a gimmick offense and is now firmly established within the college football. The spread-option is basically a hybrid of the traditional pass happy spread offense scheme along side and the traditional run based option offenses that have previously been popular. The essential philosophies of the spread option are defensive isolation in forcing the defense to defend a greater amount of the field. A number of coaches have been credited with innovation in regards to this offense. Rich Rodriguez (West Virginia & Michigan), Bill Snyder (Kansas State) and Urban Meyer (Utah, Bowling Green & Florida) have all been instrumental in the development of this scheme, resulting in a read option offense with a mobile quarterback operating out of the shotgun. Each team’s version of this offense incorporates additional elements that have been borrowed liberally from other schemes such as the west coast offense and the wishbone offense. We are even beginning to see the adoption of elements of the spread option at the NFL level, Ira Miller of NFL.com recently wrote an article documenting the relationship between Patriots coach Bill Belichick & Florida coach Urban Meyer. Belichick makes what has been termed as an annual pilgrimage to Gainesville in part to study the spread-option. In the most recent season the patriots have begun to blend elements of the spread into there established offense, and its difficult to argue with the results, although Brady, Moss, Welker etc may have had something to do with it as well. The Tennessee Titans on the other hand have done what the Texas Longhorns did before them, they recognised that Vince Young has an immeasurable amount of natural talent however putting him into a traditional pro-style offense is very much a square peg in a round hole situation. So they install some read option elements into the offense and just let Vince Young’s natural ability take over, this has generated mixed results. So not only do we have small components of this offense making its way into the NFL, on a larger scale we have prospects that have spent most if not all of there football career operating out of the spread. This creates huge issues in regards to both talent evaluation and development. Quarterbacks The quarterback is the focal point of all modern day offenses, in the spread-option it’s the decision making and ability to make the options reads by the quarterback that make this offense tick. This is why the 49ers Alex Smith is the standard bearer of the spread offense, while at Utah he was able to dissect defenses with pin point accuracy and almost flawless decision making, yet fast forward to the mid-point of his rookie contract, how many out there would happily take Alex Smith with the first pick of the draft. For example, the play action pass is one the most often used and basic plays that inhabits every playbook in the nfl, when you see Brett Farve take a three-step drop, fake the hand off to a running back, turn back around to face the defense, refocus on the receivers and the complete the pass downfield, this is isn’t one of the plays of the day, it is just taken for granted that QBs can execute the play action pass, but they can’t Alex Smith is still figuring it out. If it’s taken him this long to work out that play how long before he understands enough of the intricacies of an NFL offense to be effective. Watching the Under Armour Senior Bowl I see QBs that haven’t taken a snap under centre since they were in high school, in some cases it’s the first time they have ever done this. If you have to spend time teaching the pure mechanics of dropping back to make a pass a quarterback obviously has a significant distance to go before he is NFL ready. Then you have a QB like Matt Ryan, he is much easier to evaluate because he has spent his career in a pro-style offense, you know that he can run a play fake and simple drop back passes because there is countless hours of game tape of him doing just that against and with inferior talent compared the NFL. Yet Colt Brennan or Andre Woodson who have both spent significant running offenses out of the spread you don’t have the same level of evidence. This is not to say don’t draft a spread QB, because when all is said and done talent is talent, and at the moment the top high school talent is drawn to the spread offense. If you do draft one you might have to be patient and they might have to sit longer than you would expect a first round QB to sit. Not that isn’t a good thing I have long been against throwing a QB to NFL defenses as soon as physically possible, with the drafting of more spread QBs it may be necessity rather than a luxury to do so. Running Backs There are a number of top running backs in this years draft that have spent significant time operating out of the spread Jonathan Stewart (Oregon), Steve Slaton (West Virginia), Rashad Medenhall (Illinois) and even Darren McFadden and Felix Jones of Arkansas have spent time in this type of offense. The impact of the spread on a running backs ability is not as dramatic as that of the quarterback, it is often a misconception that the running back does not thrive within the spread option, this misconception has been brought about because of the success of mobile quarterbacks in the system. That said the spread offense is not just a passing offense and the way in which the offense spread the field it can essentially leave five offensive linemen run blocking against three linemen and two linebackers, this allows the running back a larger amount of space in which operate than the pro-offense, this allows us to see what these running backs can do when they get to the second level and if you have watched West Virginia’s Steve Slaton and Noel Devine you will understand that the results can be devastating at times. What you are not seeing frequently and therefore the question has to be, are these skills developing in these running backs, is the ability to fight through a crowded line of scrimmage to get the two yards needed and the ability to carry the ball against a stacked line with the safety in the box because we just don’t see this with the threat of the multiple wide receiver sets spreading the field. The ability to pass block is an improvement with many of the spread running backs, as most versions of this offense will operate without a fullback and therefore picking up a blitz of any type is very important within this scheme. Also if you are looking for a third down back, someone who can run out of the shotgun and run draw plays, a spread running back may be an ideal choice as they have more experience of these types of plays, as a large amount of the running plays will come from these types of offensive set. I have little doubt that a running back like Jonathan Stewart will be a success, with his size and running style he fits a pro-offense and while we haven’t seen him in the pro type offense he projects well despite the lack of evidence. But a back like Steve Slaton who size isn’t exactly ideal the question over both durability and his ability to fight for the yards at the line a scrimmage are in question, coupled with the lack of game tape of him doing so this becomes an issue. I watch a back like Mike Hart (Michigan) who is significantly undersized yet every game I see him hitting the hole hard, fighting for a yard or battling back to the line, I know he can do this, I don’t know if all these spread backs can do the same, I have an idea but the hard evidence in a lot of cases is absent. Wide Receivers & Tight Ends I have included these all together because in many cases the tight end is more of a large wide receiver than a blocker in this offense. Previous criticism of offenses such as the fun & gun were that it inflated the production of some sub-par wide receivers, this I feel is what you will see with the spread offense, this offense gives playmakers the ability to have the ball in their hands at every possible opportunity, this however is quite frequently not created by the running of standard routes, the more liberal use of reverses, pitches and screens allow some of the better athletes on the team to get the ball in space. While it can be observed that these wide receivers and tight ends are running many of the routes that are used in the NFL, they are not running them at the frequency that the pro-style offenses are within college. It’s the familiarity of running these routes that make the plays more effective and while there is little doubt that they can run the plays, the repetitions of these plays that they have completed during their college years could be significantly less than would usually be expected. One aspect that stands out to me is the blocking downfield by the receivers in the spread, with such a great emphasis playmakers in space and yards after the catch, the ability of the other receivers to block downfield is essential and an often overlooked part of this scheme. Summing up Overall, I think the Spread-option is a terrific college offense that is great for the sport and has helped level the playing field to some extent within college football, Michigan V’s Appalachian State is a fine example of this, I also believe that it emphasises and develops talent within game breaking type prospects, my issue is that the more mundane parts of playing these positions at the NFL level are either not emphasised enough or a very difficult to evaluate and thus project to the next level. This could make spending a high draft pick on a spread-option athlete a risky proposition. Over the next few years some of the top prospects in football will have only ever played in the spread, as we go forward it may become obvious that the ability to scout these prospect has improved, the way they are coached changes to help them adapt, but as it stands today I have my doubts about the instant impact that some of these prospect will have, in the long term I feel differently, but rarely is the NFL about the long term. Maybe it is too small of a sample to really know the impact the spread will have, maybe all that really matters is pure talent, but while Alex Smith is Mr Spread Option in the NFL I have a feeling a number of NFL GM’s may have their doubts as well. Wayne Maw, February 2008