Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is the talk of the NFL. Some of that is due to rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, who is taking the NFL by storm. However, the former Arizona head coach is rightfully earning praise for the offense he’s built around Daniels.
Coming into the season, there were lots of questions about Kingsbury. Would his pass protection schemes work? How would he run the ball? What about keeping his top wide receiver lined up in one spot throughout the entire game?
It’s safe to say Kingsbury didn’t listen to any of that talk. The former quarterback and head coach regained some of the buzz surrounding him before landing with the Cardinals in 2019. Analysts watching Daniels can’t get enough of Kingsbury’s schemes and play designs.
In Sunday’s loss to the Ravens, Kingsbury called one play many fans and analysts had never seen before. It was a flea-flicker, but it wasn’t just any flea-flicker.
Check it out:
Kliff Kingsbury’s creative flex on consecutive plays. The flea flicker RB screen drew lots of wow reactions from football folks. Then, follow with a fake traditional RB screen (Ekeler acts like the ball is going to him) as Daniels throws Dyami’s way back inside. Good times. pic.twitter.com/9uoMAptv6v
— Ben Standig (@BenStandig) October 16, 2024
On Friday, Kingsbury met with the media and was questioned about that specific play, to which the offensive coordinator revealed where it came from.
“Yeah, I gotta cite my sources as always,” Kingsbury said. “It’s a [Louisville head coach] Jeff Brohm play. He did it at Purdue, and obviously, we have [Assistant QB Coach] David Blough, who played for Jeff Brohm. So, David Blough had brought that one up and we ended up, they threw it to a tight end. We ended up sneaking [RB] Austin [Ekeler] back there and it ended up working out. The guys executed it perfectly because they brought a pressure, which even made it better. But yeah, that’s, shout out Jeff Brohm for that one.”
Blough played for Brohm at Purdue and later for Kingsbury with the Cardinals. He joined Kingsbury’s offensive staff this past offseason.
While some in the media world spent the offseason criticizing Kingsbury, he was in a lab creating plays, studying other offenses to build the perfect offense for Daniels.
If things keep trending in this direction, Kingsbury will have head coaching options again in his future.