The Shotgun Offense?

Sorry if this has already been discussed at length already, but here in Virginia Beach, I can just barely get the Washington D.C. station, SportsTalk 980. Obviously, they talk a whole lot of Redskins, so I listen whenever the local station here blabs endlessly about the MLB or the NBA. Anyway, one afternoon through some light static, I heard one of the announcers say that Gibbs may incorporate the Shotgun into his offense. Can anyone confirm this?

I thought I’d heard or read that somewhere else, and it may have been right here at the Warpath.

If true, how do we think that will unfold? I personally like the idea. Hell, if it takes switching to the Run and Shoot to light a fire under this offense, I’m all for it.

I can’t think of any teams in the NFL who use the shotgun exclusively. But it would seem to me that you can still operate most of your basic running plays from that formation. Not only that, it would add a dimension of uncertainty to opposing defenses if you could equally run and throw from the shotgun on any given play. When you factor in a better angle for the QB to see and adjust to blitzes, I start to wonder why you don’t see the shotgun more often.

Is anyone here opposed to adding some shotgun formations to our offense, and if so why?

What I've heard is that Musgrave has convinced Gibbs to try the shotgun in practice and possibly incorporate it into long yardage situations. I'm all for it, sometimes Ramsey needs that space to read his receiver and not worry about footwork.

I heard Musgrave has convinced Gibbs to at least try it out in practice, so we'll see.

I think they meant that Ramsey will be playing QB this year as if he's got a shotgun to his head. If he screws the pooch, blam! Campbell is the man. If he screws it up, blam! Brunell is up to bat. If he falters, blam! And then Vinnie will be looking down the double barrel.

Seriously, I'm all for the shotgun at times, but let's remember this thread every time that the QB can't handle the ball and has to chase it down and then curl up in the fetal position.

Gibbs has used it in the past, most notably against the nasty 85 Bears defense. What will be the deciding factor for Gibbs is if our new center is any good at shotgun snap? That is the reason why we stopped using it, because our centers at that time were sloppy and we had some turnovers. Gibbs stopped using right away.

Next thing you know Gibbs will start throwing the ball deep too!!!! Holy crap the shotgun...what year is it???????

ABOUT FREAKING TIME!!! Lets see if every team in the league uses it and it works...maybe we should...wait, wait, lets just try it in practice first to see if it REALLY works.

Come on Gibbs. We all know you won 3 SB and went to 4 SB. BUT we all know how bad the O stunk last year. It is nice to see someone on the offensive staff under 50 with new IDEAS....

OK I feel a little better now.

On all those 3rd and longs last year when the QB had the 1 and 2 step drops(sacks) the rest of us were screaming SHOTGUN and all the other teams were laughing at Gibbs. Now maybe he is serious about opening up the O a little...PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

It's an obvious way to get a little more time against the blitz. And it's not like Ramsey is fleet of foot. Any extra time will help. Hopefully they can execute it well enough so Gibbs feels ok about it.

Gibbs was never a big proponate of the shotgun, he would rather have his QB backpedal into the pocket so that he can read the defense as he was dropping back into the pocket, it also gives you a little more elimate of surprise as far as running plays are concerned, he did bust it out for the playoffs against the Bears as defensewins said but it didn't work that well at the time either, but the bears I am sure had a lot to do with it.

I had no idea Gibbs ever used it, but then again, I wasn't as closely studying the game in 1985 as I am now. I'd love to see a tape of that game against Chicago so long ago.

Wasn't the final score something like 23-19?

Not every team in the league uses it, and yes Gibbs used it briefly with Theismann.