Zorn Makes Great Progress with New Offense Geared To Campbells Talents

Well when Zorn came here we had no passing game. Moss was our only bonified WR and ARE was dropping balls. The O-line was not blocking well and JC was getting sacked. Can't have a passing game w/o a decent O-line blocking. Can't have a passing game w/o decent WR's catching or atleast more then 1 threat on the field. All they had to do was double team Moss and stack up in the box. Things have changed. Either the O-line has better players (which I thought we kept the same people for the most part) or you change your blocking scheme, which I wonder if Zorn had Bugel do. Then we picked up more WR's.

As the experts have pointed out. JC has shown flashes of being able to get rid of the ball quickly but it's ony flashes. Give him time to throw like the O-line has and he can pick them apart.

I know Zorn let JC take some shots down the field more this preseason, but I am not sure you can call it a new offense. Sorry dude, but in all the games I followed(every one, but the Ravens debacle) I just see much of a difference. That being said JC has some new tools(targets) to use and to hit with his passes. That in itself will lead to an improved passing attack. JC has come along also, but I just haven't seen too many big passes being completed to call this a new offensive scheme. Now if JC threw more long ones and completed more to say Kelly and Thomas then I could concur, but most of the passes thrown by any SKins QB this preseason were 10 yards or less.

Somewhat agree. I also think Zorn does not want to give the Giants anything to work with for the first game so he has let JC take a shot here and there or maybe purposefully has him missing to make other teams think our timing is off then come day 1 slam the Giants. ...LOL. Conspirathy theory. LOL. I also think he was trying to either get JC to use all his receivers or look at all the WR's he had on the roster. I get the feeling Zorn is going to suprise people this yr with the down the field passing game he was talking about last yr.

I am so glad that Zorn has tailored the offense to Campbell's talents. I thought that Joe Gibbs made a huge mistake hiring Saunders, because Campbell's talents were best suited to Joe Gibbs vertical style of offense. He is a deep ball passer like Mark Rypien. The west coast offense was never suited to his talents. I think that if they go with this down field vertical passing game there is hope for Campbell staying in Washington and taking us to the promise land. With the emergence of Mitchell, Kelly and Thomas, along with Moss, we should be a big play powerhouse.


You think maybe that's something Gibbs and Zorn talked about when they were discussing Campbell during the off season?

You think maybe that's something Gibbs and Zorn talked about when they were discussing Campbell during the off season?
Maybe it just me fantasizing, but those were my thoughts exactly.

At its core our offense will still be a WCO, I think. But it never hurts to go deep every now and then to keep the defense honest.

It will be interesting to see, in year two of Zorn, if he starts to adjust his philosophy more to his players. I look at Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs (even Brian Billick) as classic examples of premiere head coaches who did that. And succeeded.

I don't care if we run the Run and Shoot, I just want us to get in the endzone

We need to get that play action going...

to get off topic remember that MNF game when Brunell hooked up with Moss to win it?

I need to get a copy of that game on dvd or something....thats my favorite Skins memory sans the Super Bowl years

Completely agree. If Portis and Betts combine for 1500 to 2000 yards it will open up the play action and screen possibilities in a big way. With success running, the opposing corners will have to go one on one and I'll take Santana or even M. Kelly in a one on one deep matchup any day. Even if you miss a couple of the deep ones, it will at least make the defense think about it and then the underneath stuff opens up for Cooley and hopefully Fred Davis and maybe even Alridge out of the backfield if he makes the team, I hope.

At its core our offense will still be a WCO, I think. But it never hurts to go deep every now and then to keep the defense honest.

It will be interesting to see, in year two of Zorn, if he starts to adjust his philosophy more to his players. I look at Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs (even Brian Billick) as classic examples of premiere head coaches who did that. And succeeded.

I don't care if we run the Run and Shoot, I just want us to get in the endzone

Exactly. Gibbs went 8-8 his first yr although on the positive side of 8-8. He turned his losing season around to finish and looked good. His next yr the team got better. Zorn went 8-8 on the negative side of 8-8. but Zorn only had 50 plays to work with. Now he has like 130 plus plays to work with and seems to have adjusted to his talent. If the team does well (which I hope) then we will have a great HC in the making and I can see nothing but SB's in our future.

I am so glad that Zorn has tailored the offense to Campbell's talents. I thought that Joe Gibbs made a huge mistake hiring Saunders, because Campbell's talents were best suited to Joe Gibbs vertical style of offense. He is a deep ball passer like Mark Rypien.

I'm glad too, especially the I-Form and Singleback play-action passing game.
(BTW-Saunders and Gibbs stem from the same Coryell family)


The west coast offense was never suited to his talents. I think that if they go with this down field vertical passing game there is hope for Campbell staying in Washington and taking us to the promise land. With the emergence of Mitchell, Kelly and Thomas, along with Moss, we should be a big play powerhouse.

I think the WCO suits JC just fine, but what we saw last year and especially in the second half of the season was only a portion of the WCO.
The WCO has 3,5 and 7 step drop passing as well as play-action passing.
But, the pass-pro really couldn't hold up and limited us to the occasional 5 step but mostly 3 step drop passing game.
I think Zorn began realizing last season that JC big arm can help gain chunks of yardage from I-Form playaction:

They have to compliment each other in my opinion. if Portis doesn't excel, then the offense wont. Although, if Cambell can't throw against 3-4 man coverages then the running game is snuffed.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Cambell shows up in September. Preseason game 1/2 Cambell, or preseason game 3/4 Cambell.

Not really. Last year you had a total of five running backs go over 1,300 yards. The vast majority didn't even break a 1,000 yards. The two teams that played in the Super Bowl didn't have one guy go over 800 yards.

Obviously the Redskins are put together much differently than those teams I just mentioned, but the point is we lived or died with Portis last year. And while I think we've improved some this time around, I don't see a big departure in the number of carries Portis will get.

Goes to show the formula for winning a Super Bowl doesn't include having a great feature back, especially one who's the higest paid player on Offense. The Steelers were getting 100 yard games from their 3rd stringer last year, Melwelde Moore. And look at who the Pats had in their backfield when they won their Super Bowls. I think the Skins would be more successful if Portis got less yards, assuming they had 1 or 2 other RBs contributing.