FanPost

The Shanahan/Elway West Coast Offense


In the article "Denver Broncos’ Running Back Competition Heating Up" Triz06 makes the comment :

This is not the bronco offense some of us grew up on....

We are not a running team. We are a passing team that runs off the pass.

We wait for the light box and try to exploit the formation to eke out free yardage. When we aren’t doing that, we are running "dummy" rushing plays to set up play action later.

Back when Shanny was here.. We ran first… Then threw off the run. But we did everything mostly out of running formations. Notice everyone remembers rod and Eddie… But most people don’t remember a 3rd wide out right? Now think of Peyton and his career. Stokely, Clark, Wes… His 3rd wideouts are we’ll know because they’re always on the field.

The comment is a very reasonable description of what has happened in the last two years. To be honest, I cannot recall the names of the third wide out during the Super Bowl years off the top of my head. I do not think that the past is necessarily prologue. I began this fanpost as an inline response to Triz, but soon found that it hit on many different subjects and as such would not lend itself to the examination that I think we, as Broncos fans, are interested in having.

There are a few very critical differences between today’s Broncos and the Broncos during the tenure of Mike Shanahan. Triz hit on one, the slot receiver is now a very big part of the game today but not even noteworthy during the Shanahan era. Shany used a Full Back liberally, we often go with an empty backfield and don’t even have a Full Back on our 90 man roster. The biggest difference, however, is that the Head Coach does not get to wear the General Manager’s cap.

John Elway is the one wearing the GM’s cap today. This is Elway’s team (Still and Again). All indications are that he expects to still be here long after John Fox and Peyton Manning ride off into the sunset of retirement. If you want to know where the team is headed, look at John Elway not Peyton Manning. As great as he is, Peyton is only a temporary occupant of the QB chair.

To understand Elway’s intentions, it would probably be helpful to understand his philosophy of football. Back when Elway was recruiting Manning he made a comment that two of a quarterbacks best friends were a strong running game and a strong defense. It was this combination that earned Elway his two rings. Elway is not necessarily a fan of the running game per se, his feud with Dan Reeves over his conservative run heavy play calling is legend. Under OC and later HC Mike Shanahan, Elway saw first hand how the running game could be used to create opportunities in the passing game.

When Shanahan returned to Denver 1995, he brought with him his own variant of the Bill Walsh West Coast Offense. In his offense, the run was just as likely as the pass to be used as the agent to stretch the defense horizontally. For years the Broncos had been running the ball under Dan Reeves, and Elway felt stymied in a conservative offense. Now Elway’s mentor and best friend, Mike Shanahan, was free of Dan Reeves shackles and able to show the NFL how to use the running game for a purpose - not simply as a means to pick up short yards or kill a clock.

I think one of the keys to understanding John Elway the VPOFO is to better understand John Elway the player. His greatest influence, other than his father Jack, was undoubtedly Mike Shanahan. When Dan Reeves fire Shany amid the Elway feud, he claimed that John and Mike were conspiring behind his back to call plays they liked during the game. The Denver Broncos’ offense of the late 90's was the collaborative effort of Mike Shanahan, Gary Kubiak, and John Elway. John Elway was ready to quit football in 93. Once he was reunited with his best friend and mentor, he proceeded to have the best years of his career and had the best passing statistics of his carrier as well.

Elway experienced first hand, from behind center, how a run formation could influence the defense. It could hold them in a seven (some times eight) man box, it would give the offensive line a first step advantage, the DB’s could not play press as they had to account for both the receiver and the running back.

Shany and Kubes are long gone, only Elway remains. How much of this ancient history even matters? There can be no doubt that Elway is not attempting to run the same offense that got us the back to back Lombardis. We don’t have a full back. The zone blocking scheme used then has been largely made illegal, the watered down version lacks the punch of the original.

In analyzing Elway’s moves, bear in mind that it is always from a QB’s prospective. The OB’s two best friends are: a good running game and a strong defense. A strong defense gives the QB the security to take risks, to actually try to win the game rather than simply settle for not losing it. It also prevented the QB from having to perform heroic acts to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. A good defense allows the Quarterback to play his game, his way.

The good running game is not seen as an alternate means of picking up yardage, it is seen as a means of dictating to the defense what they will and will not do. They will not blindly rush the passer, else the lineman will use his forward momentum to carry him outside the play as the running back goes skating by. They will not play in a nickle formation, the hole where the MLB used to be will now be our running lane. They will not double my outside receivers, because the safeties have been pulled too close to the line in run support.

Elway was hired and given near complete control of football operations. He sat out to create the team as he had learned it from Mike Shanahan, updated to reflect the changes in rules and personnel. His first move upon arriving at Dove Valley was to hire a Head Coach with a history of successful rushing attacks. He followed up by using the second overall pick to acquire Von Miller. He manages to completely restock a defense that was pathetic to the point that we are now in the position to hold an overstock clearance sale. The running game also got some love: Draft Franklin, snag Vasquez in free agency, spend a third and then a second round on running backs, spend big to move up to draft the best blocking wide receiver in the draft. He invests two picks on future linemen. After that he brings in the most actively recruited CFA to challenge for a running back position.

Elway has this secret little room where he manufactures linemen. He feeds in untalented and underperforming wannabees and out pops guys that seem to instantly step into the shoes of probowlers without missing a beat. In his short tenure, we have seen Walton, Copen, Kuper and Clady all go down. Their replacements have filled in well beyond expectations, far better than most teams ever get to experience. His secret? He believes in his players and he believes in his coaches. He does not give up on potential so long as he sees progress.

So where does that leave us? Why do I claim that our running game will be an integral part of the offense, and not just simply a means to keep the defense honest or steal a few yards when they give us a light box? Dan Reeves taught John Elway that an ineffective running game actually places a higher burden upon the quarterback. Shany showed Elway how to use the running game to place the burden on the opposing defense, and to free the QB to make plays with his arm.

The best example of what I am attempting to illustrate would be to point to the 49ers offense this past Sunday. Never mind that they had no success, instead, look at how clean the jerseys of the QB’s were at the end of the game. We had only one sack and precious few hurries against the niners. Our D’line is as good as they get, but they had to honor the run (even with second and third stringers) and read the backfield before they could commit to the pass rush. This gave the SF O’line that all important first step advantage.

During the past two games, we have seen double tight end sets more often than previously. Half of MHR is up in arms that Fox keeps sending Hillman up the middle when he is ‘clearly’ a player that need to play in space. We have seen several plays where the primary purpose was to give Franklin some game time experience in pulling. Peyton even called his own number and attempted a draw play up the middle (bad!).

These things aren’t really working, so why do we do them. The reason is simple. If you cannot run up the middle in the NFL, then you really cannot run. If you cannot run up the middle, the defense cannot be forced to leave their line backers in the box. Once you establish that you can run up the middle, then the concentration of the defense to protect the middle opens up both the perimeter game and the passing game.

Seattle beat us by essentially keeping everything in front of them and then not allowing any yards after reception. The objective of the Shany/Elway West Coast offense is to pull the defenders to the line of scrimmage and then spread them out horizontally along the LOS. From there, one block in the secondary springs a big run - or - a lone safety is forced to commit to one of two receivers in single man coverage.

Although Shanahan’s offense produced one of the two best running backs in the history of the team, it really was not dependent upon the prowess of the running back. Shany’s offense succeeded because of the offensive line - Zimmerman and Nalen in particular. Peyton Manning can carry us, but as we saw in February, he can carry us only so far. Just like John Elway two decades earlier, he needs help if he is going to bring the Lombardi home to where it belongs. The success of this team ultimately rests on the ability of the offensive line to establish domination in the running game.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.