How will the offense differ with JP as #1?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Obviously folks can answer how they want, but I ask this as a serious football question looking for some specific and as detailed as folks want to get responses about the nuts and bolts of plays (rather than the usual tired tirades or personal attacks on Bledsoe that this will mean fewer sacks cause Drew is a statue or a stiff).

 

Generally, I am coming to the conclusion that Bledsoe ran out of town because though TD and MM promised him an honest chance to win a competition with Losman, they were clear to him that the Bills offense was going to be one offensive style and the "new" Bills style was going to lend itself to what Losman does best rather than be based on what Bledsoe does best. Bledsoe would get a fair chance to do better than Losman but he was going to have to do better at QB in an offense designed for Losman rather than one designed for Bledsoe (the this is my team comment from Bledsoe). Ultimately I think Bledsoe realized that even if he beat Losman out in a Losman offense it would only be for a shorttime.

 

At any rate, I am really looking forward not so much to see Losman do his stuff (that will be nice but players are merely players to me and are fairly exchangeable as far as I'm concerned as I care more about the TEAM) but to seeing a fuller version of the MM/Clements playbook run by a player who has more of the skills it was designed for.

 

I think that the rants which labeled Bledsoe a statue were overblown as though the running game is not what he is best at all, s Kevin Killdrive showed us, if you don not run at all you are soon ineffective. One of the best things about Clements/MM this year was that they realized this and from plays like a couple of throws or TDs on the rollout from Bledsoe to Evans, a nice Bledsoe fake of a QB sneak and then a pitch back to WM for a TD and even several QB draws for positive yards, Clements/MM got production out of Bledsoe by moving and throwing and even running him.

 

By designing the offense for a more mobile QB. I expecty to see a lot more nifty Clements/MM plays and I am curious what folks think they will be. The following is my thought on how the offense will generally be different, and I curious what other folks think as well:

 

1. More moving pockets- the blocking schemes in the new offense should be very different. Rather than the OL dropping back to form a wall within which Bledsoe is expected to pass, I would expect the new offense to employ a style which requires some athleticism and mobility from the blockers as they will either move the wall of blockers in the pocket to the left or to the right. This will provide an advantage to the interior line as the bull rushes which sometimes put Teague on his butt will be less effective if the pocket as a whole is moving left or right. This mode can also be more effective against stunts as the DL will have to not simply move to a different spot to rush but will need to move to a moving spots to find a path to the QB.

 

Though the moving pocket provides some benefits in combating stunts and power rushes, it will add an intellectual challenge to making it work. Not only will Teague be called upon to do more multi-tasking (an area where he had problems in the past as doing line calls, a shotgun snap, and deal with a charging DT proved to be too much for him to deal with sometimes in the past), but the entire OL will be called upon to not only do the same things they did in the past, but now do them while moving laterally at the same time. Simple o understand and difficult to do while a 260lb fast opponent is trying to eat your QB.

 

2. More rollouts- Evans showed his effectiveness at this game and Losman will add to this by putting in a dangerous run option that Bledsoe could threaten but Losman should be able to do

 

3. More screen passes- One of thegreat frustration of watching Bledsoe was that he often seemed to fire the same pass whether a player was 20 yards away or 5 yards away. The modern QB is trained to throw the ball hard, fast and where only the reciever can catch it on every play and the pro receiver simply needs to step up and catch this hard fast pass, but Bledsoe just seemede to lack the touch to differ his hard fast pass to a near receiver as to a far receiver. it is to be hoped that the new offense will take more advantage of the screen pass as statisitcally Bledsoe simply completed far fewer of these passes than the best QBs in the league did. It will be ironic if complaints about Reed, Moulds or Henry's droppsies are improved by having a QB who can still throw it hard and fast but with a little better touch.

 

4. Timing plays and quick openers- while I doubt we will go to the West Coast offense, the Bledsoe style by design and certainly by practice has been for plays to go on long enough for a receiver to break free and then a lasar beam throw comes in. All too often (until it was improved by the MM use of the alarm clock which substituted for Parcells yelling throw the damn ball in practice alot) this led to the pat, pat, pat, sack than anything else. A MM/Clements offense may be skewed more toward timing plays where the QB throws it to a spot without the receiver being there yet or even open (as Bledsoe often did in his wait and deliver mode). I expect to see a lot more timing plays. This will be difficult for the receivers and QB as it will require more co-ordination between them (and some embarassing moments when they do not coordinate) but it can be done

 

5. More naked bootlegs- One great tool is to send the motion one way and the QB the other with a receiver in a one-on-one. When this works the QB has all day and can undress the DB. When this doesn't work exactly the QB wil find himself up against a defender with no blocker. If the QB is more fleet than the defender you can end up with a play like he one where Chad Pennington undressed Bills LB Robinson. If the QB is less fleer like a Bledsoe against Mo Lewis you end up with a collapsed lung. I suspect we will see the Bills O banking on Losman's mobility and running more naked bootlegs.

 

I expect to see more plays of this type in 2005.

[Spiderweb]

Even though my gut initially said this was a mistake in annoiting JP the "guy" without making him "win" the job, I'm beginning to feel a bit of excitement just thinking of what might be. I like the assessment of our offense from Mularkey and the realization that it needs plays from the QB position that they felt Drew just couldn't make. Now if we can just nail down a decent vet backup and pick up another young QB to develope......

[Rico]

Generally, I am coming to the conclusion that Bledsoe ran out of town because though TD and MM promised him an honest chance to win a competition with Losman,

243702[/snapback]

[Fan in San Diego]

I'm curious what Bledsoe does well that JP cant do well either?

 

But anyways, I agree with most of your observations. MM said in his transcript that there is a large portion of the playbook they could not run with Bledsoe at QB. With JP they can really open up the playbook.

 

JP is a scrambler so any play that involves moving the QB around, we will see alot of this year. The one thing I hope to see from JP is a good touch on the short dump pass. Bledsoe couldnt make those throws very often I think this will open up the offense a great deal as well.

 

Bledsoe couldnt set a screen to save his life. So I hope JP becomes good at this as well.

[Fan in San Diego]

Even though my gut initially said this was a mistake in annoiting JP the "guy" without making him "win" the job, I'm beginning to feel a bit of excitement just thinking of what might be.  I like the assessment of our offense from Mularkey and the realization that it needs plays from the QB position that they felt Drew just couldn't make. Now if we can just nail down a decent vet backup and pick up another young QB to develope......

243748[/snapback]

 

I'm glad they just annointed JP the starter. This means all of the off-season and pre-season will be dedicated to developing JP. Not a competition which will take away snaps from JP's development.

[Fan in San Diego]

243750[/snapback]

 

Where and when did they promise Bledsoe that?

[obie_wan]

.

 

 

1. More moving pockets- the blocking schemes in the new offense should be very different. 

 

2. More rollouts-

 

3. More screen passes-

 

4. Timing plays and quick openers- .  A MM/Clements offense may be skewed more toward timing plays where the QB throws it to a spot without the receiver being there yet or even open (as Bledsoe often did in his wait and deliver mode). I

 

5. More naked bootlegs-

I expect to see more plays of this type in 2005.

243702[/snapback]

 

you are correct - without Drew, the Bills will be able to run a complete NFL offense instead of the dumbed down version required to protect Drew from himself.

 

Drew's biggest problem was not his immobility but his horrible decision making. This led the team to essentially eliminate all passes more than 10 yards downfield, except for gadget plays. Drew generally would not throw the ball until he could see 3 yards of separation.

 

 

 

1. More moving pockets- the blocking schemes in the new offense should be very different. Would agree that OL will need to communicate and be smart. At the risk of sounding racist, it is not by accident that most of NE's OL are not super athletes, but super football players.

 

2. More rollouts-

 

3. More screen passes- Drew's mechanics were horrible in executing screen passes. But what do you expect from a player who never worked at improving his footwork, ball handling, pocket presence, etc.

 

4. Timing plays and quick openers- . A MM/Clements offense may be skewed more toward timing plays where the QB throws it to a spot without the receiver being there yet or even open (as Bledsoe often did in his wait and deliver mode).

 

This is not unique to a MM offense- this is standard NFL stuff and could be the single most noticeable difference. Drew absolutely was incapable of completing quick slants. He rarely would even attempt a throw to someone other than Moulds if he wasn't wide open. And even then, he wouldn't throw it because he had locked onto Moulds. Although JP will struggle due to inexperience, hw will at least attempt to move thru his reads and look at secondary WRs.

 

 

One item you fail to mention is play action passes. With McGahee the featured weapon, the Bills should be running play action far more than they did last year. The Colts basically run play action on most plays. The biggest frustration last year was Drew's inability to exploit the play action for big plays. He would have all the time in the world, and then attempt to dump off a pass behind the line. Drew had no confidence in his Wrs being able to make plays.

 

This area should improve dramatically in 2005.

[Bob4Bills]

 

Generally, I am coming to the conclusion that Bledsoe ran out of town because though TD and MM promised him an honest chance to win a competition with Losman,

 

Nothing general about it. Mularky said on NFL network last night that they -the Bills- told Bledsoehe's out as #1, and they wanted him to take a pay cut and serve as mentor to JP. What the Bills 'promised' is that JP is #1.

[TristanFabriani]

One difference I noticed between JP and DB, is JP's play fake is much better. While it seems inconsequential, it can have a significant impact. Think Peyton Manning, probably the best at it. He's so good I can't tell sometimes whether he kept the ball or gave it to James. Many of those play fakes ended up as Marvin H TDs...

 

DB's fake was terrible. JP's is pretty good.

[millbank]

One aspect of Drew Bledsoes tenure as a Bill was that he did not miss one game due to injury a most definte attribute of Drew Bledsoe was his durability. In JP Losaman the Bills will be more than fortunate if JP will prove to be as durable making who ever is a backup need be more than clipboard carrier. Bills are going to need a skilled vet backup rather than go cheap on a clipboard holder, if they dont it will cost them.

[eSJayDee]

I think one thing the 2 'style' offenses will have in common is their limiting of options.

A 'DB style' offense is limited by nature of needing to have provisions for max protect in the case of multiple blitzers. I also feel that one of DB's weaker points was/is in scanning the field. The inability (or at least a poor ability) to hit short, touch passes AND the requirement for max protect makes the opportunity to play to DBs strengths (intermed & long 'real' passes) that much limited.

I think a JPL offense will be limited w/ respect to his options when confronted w/ various defenses (i.e. 'hot' plays & audibles). Like most young QBs, running is a viable option AND it appears to me that Mularkey/Clements if anything encourage it.

W/ regard to how a JPL offense will differ, it brings to minds a comment by Flutie several years ago. Basically he said that on blitzes, he (Flutie) was responsible for one man. Either outrun or elude him. Having this ability IMMEDIATELY gives him one more option that DB seldom had, that is a legitimate safety valve route being run. (One less blocker means one more guy out in pattern.)

[FTW_BillsFan]

Let's hope the first half of the season has 'below' .500 teams on the schedule. I know that will be tough with us being in the AFC East, but if I was MM, I would start out by having the offense play pretty conservatively and start opening up the offense once I feel that JP has a feel for the offense and reading the D. Set up the offense so we are not depending on JP too much and keep him in good situations.

 

We have the luxury to do this because we have an outstanding Special Teams (if we get Nugent (couldn't help myself. )) and Defense. Basically using the Ravens playing style, play good D and field position and win games 17-13.

 

If we get out of the first 6 games with 3 wins, we will be setting ourselves up for a big run in the 2nd half of the season.