How The Offensive Game Plan Is Put Together (John Keim Report)

[SmootSmack]

I was actually going to write up a thread about this the other day (similar to my Getting to Know the Front Office/Understanding the Scouting Process thread), but Mr. Keim did a great job here.

I highly encourage everyone to subscribe to his weekly emails

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Q & A with Kyle Shanahan

I talked to the Redskins’ offensive coordinator about what goes into crafting a game plan and calling plays during a game. I’ll sketch out how they handle things by the day and then get into the Q&A with Shanahan.

Monday: The coaches start focusing on their respective areas. Each coach receives stats from the scouts: the percentage of coverages, blitzes and fronts, etc. Receivers coach Ike Hilliard does first and second downs, three-receiver formations and the two-minute area. Quarterbacks coach Matt LaFleur does third downs and all the empty, no-back sets. Tight ends coach Sean McVay does the red zone as well as their U personnel (two tight end sets; one receiver, two backs). McVay also gets started on first- and second-down Tiger sets (two tight ends, two receivers).

Running backs coach Bobby Turner does short yardage and goal-line situations. Assistant offensive line coach Chris Morgan does all the protections; he gets every blitz the opponent ran and draws them up and focuses on potential protection issues that week. Quality control coaches Mike McDaniel and Richmond Flowers start breaking down the overall team stuff and enter it in the computer so the coaches can have the stats and percentages. Shanahan and offensive line coach Chris Foerster watch film by themselves.

Tuesday: Shanahan said they take the information from the other coaches and start to put in their packages. Each coach presents tape on their area of expertise, which Shanahan studies on his iPad. By late Tuesday afternoon, they have the base of their game plan completed. McDaniel and Flowers then “stay up all night” drawing up those plays and put it into a playbook format so the players have it first thing Wednesday morning.

Wednesday: They’ll walk through the plays, then practice them and review them on film with the players. After the players leave around 4 p.m., the coaches gather to watch film of practice. By Wednesday night, Shanahan starts focusing on third down, short yardage and goal-line situations (the coaches had already presented their information to him before Wednesday). He’ll finalize their plays in these areas and McDaniel and Flowers once again stay up “all night” to draw up the plays for the players by Thursday morning. Their playbooks will have all the new plays when they arrive.

Thursday: The process repeats itself in terms of practice. By 4 p.m. on Thursday, Shanahan’s attention turns to the red zone. McVay will go back a few years to look for ideas on what plays to run. They settle on plays, give them to the quality control coaches who then draw them up again and the players have it in their playbooks Friday morning.

Friday: They continue working on plays in practice, which ends around 1:30 p.m. The coaches head home around 3 p.m. for what qualifies as their weekend. They return early Saturday, review tape with players and then put together their 15-play script, which they’ll go over at the hotel Saturday night.

Q: So you don’t finish your first 15 until Saturday?

A: We don’t think about the first 15 until we run all the plays through the week. I like to see what the quarterback is comfortable with, what plays we feel he executes the best and I’ll review it at home, drawing up ideas and I’ll come in the office Saturday morning and bounce it off the coaches. I’ll go through it with my dad [coach Mike Shanahan], and I always talk to Chris Foerster on what runs he feels strongest about and get everyone’s input, and then I’ll talk to [quarterback Robert Griffin III] about what he’s comfortable with. He gives me plays he likes, and we put it together and give them a plan.

Q: How many plays after Wednesday might you toss out if you don’t see something you like in practice?

A: We don’t do it as much as you would think. We spend a lot of time going back and forth on plays before we give it to them, so we’re usually set in. But there are usually three plays a week that we tried and it wasn’t clicking and we’re like: This is a stupid play. Why are we trying this? We cross it off and don’t call it.

Q: How much do you rep a play in practice?

A: There are so many plays in a game plan. Ones that you know you’ll call you try to give them two reps. If it’s a main one, you try to give it against a premier look, and you try to give it against a bad look: What will you do if we don’t call it against the exact right look? A lot of those second reps we get in walkthroughs. There are 100 plays in a game plan, and we can’t rep them each 200 times or the players will be so sore and slow on Sunday.

Q: How much better are you at organizing this and being more efficient?

A: Each year it gets easier. When I was younger I tried to do everything. You’re so excited to have the opportunity to be a coordinator that you want to work at every single area as hard as you can. But you start to go crazy because there aren’t enough hours in the week. So I’ve gotten better at divvying up stuff and allowing others to help me and to do it faster by saying: “Sean, you spend two days on the red zone and catch me up on it so I only have to spend a few hours on it.” Just getting to know them, you start to trust them more, and they start to know what I like. It becomes more efficient when you work with the same people.

Q: Are there areas you like to dabble in more than others?

A: Not really. I enjoy every area. When I was younger and first starting, it was always the pass game that I enjoyed because that’s what I was most comfortable with. I really enjoy the run game now. It’s newer. It’s fresher. It’s nice to do different things. I’ve always loved third downs.

Q: After a good play are you saying, “Hey, Sean, that was your call!”?

A: Not really. I’ve been in their situation, too. I know how when you get a play in and suggest a play to a coordinator or head coach that you take a lot of pride in it and you hope they like it, and you try to sell it to them so after the game I’m like: Hey, that was a good play. It pumps guys up. It used to pump me up when Mike Sherman was the coordinator and I worked for him, and when I gave him a play that worked and he would tell me it was a really good play. It made my day. Then he started to ask me more. I know it means a lot to guys, and it keeps guys going.

Q: How much back and forth is there with coaches? Does it get heated?

A: Not really. I think it’s awkward at first when you don’t know each other. The hardest thing is, there are a lot of good ideas. I used to bring plays to the coordinator all the time, and they wouldn’t use it and I’d be pissed: “Why the hell wouldn’t they use this play? It was awesome.” Now that I’m in this role and have done it for a while I realize there are a lot of plays that are awesome. Everyone in the NFL runs good plays, but there are only so many in the game and what are the odds of you calling something? You can’t take every good idea into a game or you have nothing. It’s watered down. And it’s about executing plays. The hardest thing for guys to realize is just because you don’t use one of their plays it doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. At first you feel that way, but the more you’re together the more guys look at the bigger picture.

Q: How much do you look at using specific plays for a player or do you say we’ll run this no matter who’s in there?

A: We do that a lot. We’ve evaluated every week who is the best at this play or who is the second best at this play. I talk to Ike [Hilliard] about what the rotation will be at receiver. I’m caught up in the game. I’m thinking down and distance, and I’m thinking coverages. I can’t always think, “I want to get this guy here.” So sometimes [the coaches] have to hear what play I’m calling, and they have to know what guy I want so when they hear it they can get him in. Sometimes in the heat of battle you can’t do it. The play clock is going down. We can’t sub fast so we have to count on the other guys that they can run the routes, but you try to get the play for the guy who had the rep during the week.

Q: Seems like a lot of fun to call plays — when it works.

A: It’s awesome. It’s what we live for. It’s a hard job. We spend a lot of hours here. I think of myself in another job and it would be nice to not have to work seven days a week, seven months in a row. But I’d get bored and go crazy. You get addicted to the feel of Sunday and just winning games, and you enjoy when you help a player and put him in a good situation and they execute it. You see how happy they are and how happy we are, and it’s really very fun to watch players do it. The main thing as coaches is knowing the players are the ones who do it. It’s not, “Oh, that was such a good play.” It’s, “Hey, we gave those guys a chance to be good.” … You can call a perfect play and we don’t block long enough or we drop a ball. You can call a horrible play and someone makes a play and now you’re a good play caller. Or you call a great play that doesn’t work out and you’re a bad play caller. You learn that as you get older. You can’t get caught up in what people say outside the building whether you’re good or not. You have to work your hardest and understand the situation and hopefully good things will happen.

[MTK]

Just got done reading this email myself, good stuff

[FRPLG]

One can easily see why having continuity among your players and staff makes this easier. Familiarity and experience breeds efficiency. Everything becomes more intuitive...that's important when you're talking about the complicated nature of the multiple moving parts of an NFL offense.

[Chico23231]

best thing ive read all year. thats really thorough. Awesome

[RedskinRat]

So they're NOT just pulling three pieces of paper from a hat that says 'Go on X', 'Pass or Run' and 'Block or whiff'? I find that hard to believe.....

[53Fan]

Yeah good stuff. Obviously a lot gets put into it and having guys around who have learned what kind of stuff you like and earned your trust makes it easier for the OC. Interesting too how they'll go years back to see what worked in the redzone.

[Chico23231]

Did Kyle purposely leave out Danny Snyder's part?

[SmootSmack]

Thought this would fit here

The All-22: RG3 reaping the benefits of Shanahan’s multi-tiered passing offense | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports

[HailGreen28]

Great thread.

[Bishop Hammer]

So....much.....detail.....so awesome......making.....head.....explode.

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Thought this would fit here

The All-22: RG3 reaping the benefits of Shanahan’s multi-tiered passing offense | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports

and yes, this is aimed at everyone who assert MS & KS are holding RGIII back or are only minimally responsible for his success:

As great as Griffin has been, we have to stop and give credit to the much-maligned duo of Mike and Kyle Shanahan, Washington's head coach and offensive coordinator. Instead of trying to stuff RG3 into a bad scheme fit, the Shanahans took a lot of the stuff the rookie did at Baylor -- the read-options, edge tosses, motion plays, and play-action bombs -- and expanded upon them. What the Redskins have created is a running game that rivals San Francisco's in overall complexity (though with very different underlying principles), and a shotgun passing game that leaves every other in the dust when it's working correctly.

Give credit where it is due you DVR watching experts.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Man, that's an awesome read. I knew there were a lot of moving parts, but I totally underestimated how many there ACTUALLY were.

[SmootSmack]

It didn't mention that Chris Foerster oversees the running game, from what I read. So actually I'm not sure if that means he's not anymore or that Keim just didn't include that.

Also, I know I've mentioned how much the team likes McVay to some of you, and it looks like he's added some responsibilities

[mbedner3420]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

It didn't mention that Chris Foerster oversees the running game, from what I read. So actually I'm not sure if that means he's not anymore or that Keim just didn't include that.

Also, I know I've mentioned how much the team likes McVay to some of you, and it looks like he's added some responsibilities

McAvoy becomes Kyles OC when Mike decides to retire?

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Thought this would fit here

The All-22: RG3 reaping the benefits of Shanahan’s multi-tiered passing offense | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports

Awesome breakdown