My father-in-law loves putting together puzzles.
This is not a hobby that he picked up during the past year, as the world largely stayed inside to help slow the spread of COVID-19. A retired engineer, my father-in-law truly enjoys solving problems. It has made homeownership on my end a lot easier, particularly when combined with my own dad’s background in electronics and computing. Between the two of them, there is not a problem around the house that cannot be fixed with a phone call or a quick visit.
Recently, my father-in-law tackled a unique puzzle: One without a photograph on which to rely. He simply had to figure out how the various pieces fit together without any frame of reference.
Projecting rookie quarterbacks into the NFL can feel a bit like fixing a puzzle without a picture to reference. The story is incomplete, and there is so much information that you simply do not have access to. Remember, NFL franchises get access to a world of information that those on the outside cannot obtain. They can call up high school and college coaches. They can hire investigators. They can dispatch an area scout to track down a player’s kindergarten teacher, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did with Mike Williams back in 2010.
And yet, mistakes are still made. Particularly at the quarterback position.
So while we cannot call up Trevor Lawrence’s kindergarten teacher to see if he shared with his classmates all the time or had trouble with “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” we can try and accomplish something that is also critically important to a rookie quarterback’s development:
Finding the right scheme fit.
(As an aside, I tried to get the graphics wizards here at The Wire Network to photoshop a young Trevor Lawrence into this picture of a woman reading “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” to young children but with free agency kicking off, I could not find any takers):
Next time I’ll plan better.
When it comes to mapping out an ideal scheme fit for North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance, there is one landing spot that seems almost too good to be true. That would be the San Francisco 49ers, and head coach Kyle Shanahan.
There are a few reasons why this pairing would be ideal. We will start with perhaps a critical component to this discussion, and one that flies under-the-radar every draft cycle.
Verbiage.
Anyone who has studied a West Coast playbook, or specifically a Shanahan playbook, knows that the terminology can be a bit…wordy. Sometimes a play call from these offenses sounds more like a Dennis Miller bit from a comedy club, one that begins with a discussion of airplane food and winds up with a deep dive into the Romanov Dynasty.
A few years ago, Mark Schelerth sat down with Shanahan before a game and asked him to recite a play call. Here is what the coach came up with:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BckLL7hjiJI/
In case you missed that: “Y-Short to strong-right clamp Ace; H 2 Y-Bingo X-Comeback; can it with with Roll-Right B-Shallow on two.”
Now, Shanahan somewhat cheats here, because he is really calling two potential plays that the quarterback will decide between at the line of scrimmage. The first play is H 2 Y-Bingo X-Comeback. The second is Roll-Right B-Shallow. The “can it with” language means that if the QB does not like what he sees from the defense, he can change from H 2 Y-Bingo X-Comeback to Roll-Right B-Shallow” by using a “kill” call.
Yeah, it is a lot. And not every young quarterback can handle all that out of the gate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqdexCpflUY
Of course, this leads to a discussion about whether all this terminology is necessary. After all, there were some who thought that the length of Shanahan’s playcalls, and the time he took to get them in, led to Matt Ryan’s inability to audible in Super Bowl LI as the Atlanta Falcons blew their 28-3 lead to the New England Patriots. But there is a method to the madness, as Sean Payton explained:
If you just come up with a one-syllable name, it’s probably gonna be easier on the [quarterback] and it’s probably gonna stress some others a little bit more. I can call, ’22 Flanker Drive.’ Boom. But if I call, ’22 Flanker Drive, Halfback Burst,’ I just helped the halfback out a little bit more. If I call, ’22 Flanker Drive, Halfback Burst, X go.’ Well, it’s the same play, but I’ve alerted the X on a go. So it’s information. And how much are you choosing to give? And who are you giving it to?
So these types of play calls are a lot to digest and spit out, and as we saw with the example above from Jon Gruden, it can be tough for younger quarterbacks. Especially those who came from simplified offenses and often got the play call while looking at the sideline and the cue cards being held up.
Lance, however, has a different background. As NDSU quarterback coach Randy Hedberg explained last week when he met with the media prior to Lance’s pro day workout:
I would say offensively, we’re probably more West Coast type. I think we probably resemble more West Coast; our verbiage gets kind of long. And that’s one thing our quarterbacks do, is we’re able to verbalize in the huddle where most quarterbacks don’t. They aren’t in a huddle in college anymore; they’re looking at signs on the sideline and not dictating what protections are in place. We verbalize the play in the huddle, and I think that’s one thing that would be a plus for Trey at the next level. He’s done that in our system, but it does resemble more West Coast than anything.
And the “kill” system, the “can it with” terminology that Shanahan uses? Lance is ready for that as well, as Hedberg outlined:
To answer your second question first: No, it’s the same that we had for Carson [Wentz] and Easton [Stick]. Our offense puts a lot of emphasis on the quarterback processing at the line of scrimmage with protections. They have an option to set the protections more often than not, and then they have the option of changing protections also. But they also have we have a “kill” system and a “maybe” system, which gets him into run/pass, pass-to-run, run-to-pass, whatever it is based on different alignments of the defense. So that’s part of our game also which I think the quarterbacks are really good at, but it’s no different. We did the same with Easton, and we did the same with Carson.
Now having covered the terminology, what about the actual offense? You know, the stuff that happens after the play is called? If you watch Lance in the NDSU offense and then what the 49ers have looked like the past few seasons, you see a lot of similarity. 12 and 21 personnel packages. Schemed throws to the fullback and an emphasis on the tight ends. Play-action plays and of course, everyone’s favorite playcall. Or at least one of them.
If you really want to get a feel for what Lance was asked to do in the NDSU offense, there are some fascinating clinics on Coachtube available from Tyler Roehl, the NDSU offensive coordinator. One is titled “Utilizing the Fullback and TE in the NDSU Offense.” Another is titled “Integrating FB and TE in Play Action Passing Game.” You can purchase those here if you are interested, but here is a free sample from the second clinic that features Lance:
“You got the fullback? Take it.”
Sound similar at all to how the 49ers use Kyle Juszczyk, who the organization just re-signed to a five-year deal?
21 personnel, play-action with the quarterback under center, hit the fullback in the flat. If you squint hard enough you can almost see the “Juszczyk” on the back of the jersey.
Of course, not every throw in Shanahan’s offense is designed to go to the flats. The coach loves to dial up shot plays out of these run looks. Consider that another box checked from Lance’s time in Fargo:
Another play-action design out of 21 personnel, only this time Lance looks for his X receiver running a little double-move route. The QB gets the safety to flatten his path a bit by using his eyes, and then the receiver gets behind the coverage for an easy touchdown.
So we have the terminology, and we have the offensive philosophy/experience. But there is one more element to this potential marriage.
Leak.
Or maybe you term it Y-Throwback. However you describe it, it is a play call that has become somewhat synonymous with Shanahan over the past few years. You know the design, where the flow of the play is to one side of the field, and then George Kittle sneaks out to the opposite side to work himself wide open?
Well, here you go:
Just another box checked.
The potential marriage of Lance and Shanahan checks a lot of boxes, from terminology to philosophy and even down to Leak/Y-Throwback. Lance’s background in an offense that shares many conceptual elements, from how plays are called to what the offense is looking to accomplish, makes this an ideal scheme fit in San Francisco. The only sticking point? The 49ers do not pick until the 12th spot in the draft. Will Lance be there? Only time will tell.
Until then, a guy can dream…