So, I’ve seen some say that Brown will likely ease Bryce into different concepts since he has been running Frank’s offense all year. I’ve been thinking about the situation that TB finds himself in and it’s got me thinking a little differently:
TB was hired as an “up and coming offensive guru, and after calling only getting the reigns for 3 games he’s in danger of being one and done with the Panthers unless he, not just makes marginal improvements, but WILDLY improves the offense. Because what new HC would not want to come in and either call plays himself or bring in his own guy, especially after the product we put on the field this year. And what OTHER team would watch our offense and go, “yeah, I need some of THAT in my life.”
So, to me, despite the season being lost in terms of playoff chances, Thomas Brown is going to be fighting for his (immediate) future as a play caller. If he wants to keep this job, or get another offer as an OC in the league next year, he’s going to have to not just “sink or swim” but it’s like he’s in a “sink or fly a rocket ship to the moon” type of situation.
If I’m Thomas Brown, Bryce Young’s development isn’t even my #1 priority anymore—I don’t have that luxury. I need points, and a lot of them. Period.
So I’m expecting that we come out with a scheme that looks considerably different this week with a lot of motion, RPOs, play actions m, boots and deep shots.
The Bucs are also 27th in the league against the pass, so this could be a good opportunity for a get right game for our passing offense. I’m hammering the overs this week for Bryce and the WRs.
Based on some of the comments here, I think there seems to be a misconception about what a “scheme” even is…
Real life football coaching/scheme is not like a madden playbook. I’m not suggesting they’re going swap out schemes in Madden from Air Raid to West Coast lmao.
There are really only a handful of run concepts used predominantly in the NFL:
Duo Inside zone Outside zone Power Counter
That’s really it. Every team uses pretty much all of them, just a different mixture of each and they do these out of different personnel groups, different formations and with different motions. Subsequently, all of our lineman and RBs already know how to run these different schemes.
The passing side of things is really not all that different. However many different passing concepts you carry, you can change the personnel, the formation, or add motions to give defenses a different look or create leverage or matchup advantages. That can make a big difference and does not require “learning a new playbook.”
RPOs and PROs affect no one but the QB. The other 10 guys block or run a route like they do on every other play, the QB just has another option in case he gets different looks. And Bryce ran RPOs a ton at Alabama; he’d be fine if we asked him to run some RPOs.
We are like 16th in RPOs across the league right now. I’m all for your premise of TB throwing the kitchen sink at this, but it’s tough to make drastic changes in a single week.
Biggest change I see upcoming is you likely see some guys get more burn that weren’t previously. Could also see a trick play or two to try to drum something up.
I’m expecting more motion and under center work. Outside of that it’ll be incremental changes.