The rapid explosion in “QB breakdown” videos this year from QBSchool, Kurt Warner, Brees, Daniels and a million copycats made me realize that they seem to have their own name for basically every route combination. “Oh yeah, I call this one Jimmy 2 Shift” proceeds to draw out the route combination.
I get that there are definitely some broad differences like Shanahan offenses leaning on zone run and bootlegs but it’s not like they’re running some extra special sauce right? Seems like everyone else knows the same plays and could just run more of them if they wanted to have a “Shanahan offense”.
What is it that actually separates the quality of these different coordinators and schemes?
So while concepts are going to be generally the same from coach to coach, it’s the details that make schemes different. Take the mesh concept. Man beater with the 2 shallow crosses. Every coach has this in their playbook. But while one coach may run this in shotgun with 13 personnel, other coaches may prefer running it with 22 personnel from under center.
And what are the outside WRs doing? Is one running a deep in? A post? A curl or hitch? Is the RB blocking? Running a wheel route? Running a late-releasing curl in the middle of the field once the WRs have cleared the defenders out?
All those details, those subtle little changes, are what makes schemes so different.
Madden is a hell of a drug.