In the weeks following Jay Gruden’s firing in Washington during the 2019 season, the Redskins’ offense was in a flux period. While Bill Callahan had been named the interim head coach for the team, Kevin O’Connell was still the offensive coordinator, and it was still his job to figure out the best way to devise an offensive gameplan that fit the teams’ personnel.
That didn’t quite gel with Callahan and the vision that he had for the team. As an offensive line coach, Callahan seemed hell-bent on establishing the run game, pounding the rock and getting through games as quickly as possible. It wasn’t until the final three games of the season that the offense really started to show some potential when it was clear that O’Connell was calling the shots.
He was successful in doing so because he devised the scheme around Washington’s personnel, allowing quarterback Dwayne Haskins to get the ball out of his hands quickly via quick-step throws over the middle, and he utilized the Redskins speed on the outside with Terry McLaurin and Steven Sims Jr. to get out in space and keep the defense guessing.
That’s what the new coaching regime hopes to do as well: gameplan for the talent on the roster, not fit the talent to the scheme you want to run. Offensive coordinator Scott Turner said on Wednesday that he still plans to use the ‘Air Coryell’ system that his father, Norv Turner, is famous for — in essence, a lot of pre-snap motion and vertical passing. However, he wants to create some wrinkles by letting a highly-talented young roster get into space.
“It is still the same system, but we have versatility within our system where we’re going to really fit and play to our players’ strengths,” Turner said, via The Athletic. “So right now, as a coaching staff, we’re really trying to get to know these guys.”
That doesn’t mean that the team plans to only do what the roster is fit to do. Turner noted on Wednesday that they still plan to push their players to develop offensively and branch out into new schemes. But the bulk of the time? Expect play-action, expect quick-passes, expect jet-sweeps.
To put it simply, get the ball into the playmakers’ hands, and let them do what they do best.
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