Tag: offense

Twitter reacts to RGIII saying Chiefs should sign Odell Beckham Jr.

Users on Twitter had mixed reactions to Robert Griffin III’s suggestion that the #Chiefs should sign Odell Beckham Jr.

The Kansas City Chiefs are expected to add a receiver during the 2024 offseason after their pass-catchers underwhelmed last year.

While Rashee Rice’s job is secure heading into next season, his positional running mates may be at risk of losing their spots on Kansas City’s roster.

Former Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III took to social media on Friday to give his take on the Chiefs’ receiver situation, suggesting that the reigning Super Bowl champions should sign Odell Beckham Jr. in the offseason.

Beckham played for the Baltimore Ravens last year after stints with the Los Angeles Rams and Cleveland Browns but didn’t achieve the prolific production that many fans in the Charm City expected.

Despite this, he remains one of the NFL’s most popular wide receivers and could benefit from playing with a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes in the twilight of his career.

Check out what users on Twitter thought about RGIII’s proposal below:

Dennis Allen lays out how Saints revamped their coaching staff

Dennis Allen reviewed the Saints’ offensive coaching changes with what he calls a mix of forward-thinkers and veterans who have “been there, done that” in the NFL:

Dennis Allen’s appearance on NFL Network this week was informative. His description of the New Orleans Saints’ revamped offensive coaching staff is exactly what the team needed. Allen described the staff as a “mixture of some older, veteran coaches that have ‘been there, done that,’ with some younger, progressive mindset kind of guys” led by new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.

The Saints have been in desperate need of youthful energy, so younger coaches like quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko and running backs coach Derrick Foster are welcome additions. But revamping their offensive line development with a couple of experienced Gary Kubiak assistants like John Benton and Rick Dennison is a smart move, too.

For the past two years the Saints have felt like a poor rendition of Sean Payton’s offense. The problem is you didn’t have Sean Payton running it, so the offense felt outdated. Hiring Kubiak was a great first step towards a more modern NFL offense. The “Shanahan System” will feature more pre-snap motion, more movement during the play, and innovative aspects you see in the prolific offense now.

Regardless of it was Kubiak or someone else the Saints needed to be progressive. Grabbing multiple coaches with that forward-thinking mindset was necessary. This will be a drastically different offense aesthetically in 2024. Allen identified how the Saints needed to change their offense and has made the proper steps towards that change.

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How did former Alabama offensive players perform statistically during the 2023 season?

Alabama is well-represented in the NFL. Roll Tide Wire takes a look at how former Alabama offensive players performed statistically during the 2023 NFL season.

It is difficult for a program to say that they have developed talent at the level that Alabama has. Over the years, the Crimson Tide have produced some of the more elite talent in the NFL.

With that being the case, the general expectation is that Alabama will help send multiple players to the league year in and year out.

Offensively, Alabama is known for placing some of the top skill position players into the league.

Several former Alabama players on the offensive side of the ball put their talents on display during the 2023 season.

Roll Tide Wire takes a look at how former Alabama players performed on the offensive side of the ball during the 2023 season.

Wisconsin football 2024 depth chart projection 1.0: Offense

Wisconsin football depth chart projection for 2024: Offense

Welcome to the calendar year 2024, a year during which Wisconsin football will face the new era of the Big Ten schedules.

The Badgers are coming off a disappointing 2023 campaign. A 7-6 record was highlighted by inexplicable losses to Indiana and Northwestern, and the fourth straight year of falling short in the Big Ten West.

Well, the West is now no more as the Big Ten expands to 18 schools and moves toward a new scheduling model.

Related: Way-too-early record predictions for every Big Ten football team in 2024

Wisconsin will need to step up its game to compete in the new Big Ten format. The years of coasting through the West schedule to Indianapolis are gone; now 2024 sees contests against Alabama, USC, Penn State and Oregon.

A key to the program turnaround will be to what level Phil Longo’s offense works. 2023’s results were underwhelming, and made this year’s performance even more critical.

Here is our first shot at Wisconsin’s projected depth chart on offense for the 2024 season:

Pete Carmichael was one of the NFL’s worst offensive play callers, says analyst

The bar isn’t very high for Klint Kubiak. He’s replacing Pete Carmichael, who this analyst says was one of the NFL’s worst offensive play callers in 2023:

Three of the NFL’s four worst play callers worked in the NFC South last year, according to research from pro football analyst Steven Patton. That includes former New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, who was dismissed after the season. He’s expected to be replaced by San Francisco 49eres passing game specialist Klint Kubiak, who is unallowed to sign a contract until after Super Bowl LVIII.

Patton’s methodology considered “personnel and market efficiency with team constraints” which reflects performance relative to other teams facing the same opponents and key players missing due to injury or suspension. And Carmichael ended the 2023 season with the third-worst rating; only ex-Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown (hired by the Chicago Bears for 2024) and recently-fired Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith (picked up by the Pittsburgh Steelers) ranked lower.

Carmichael struggled to adapt the Sean Payton offense to modern times. He was too slow to add motion to the offense and took too long to emphasize the play action passes that Derek Carr thrived with throughout his Raiders career. The Saints were too predictable in their personnel, often keying in opposing defenses to whether the play was a run or pass by relying too hard on blocking specialists at wide receiver. A bigger problem than that was predictability in their formations; New Orleans only rarely threw out of running looks and vice versa, giving Alvin Kamara too few light boxes to run against.

Hopefully Kubiak can liven things up in 2024. The Saints are betting that he learned a lot from his year in San Francisco working under Kyle Shanahan (who, Patton says, was the league’s fourth-best play caller on offense) and his previous experience calling plays for the Minnesota Vikings (in 2021) and Denver Broncos (during six games in 2022). And the good news is the bar isn’t too high in New Orleans. If Kubiak can stay about the bottom-tier he’ll be an improvement over past results. Obviously the Saints are betting he’ll do much better than that.

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Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes understands the importance of managing a game

#Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes explained that he understands the importance of managing a game after Kansas City’s win over the #Ravens.

The latest AFC Championship game victory for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs puts them in rare company among the NFL elite in historical context. The success of Mahomes since the beginning of his career is quickly approaching the legendary status of Tom Brady, who coincidentally has the only Super Bowl victory against the Kansas City quarterback.

Mahomes has never made it a secret that he wants to win more accolades and Super Bowl titles before his career is over. He spoke with reporters during the AFC Championship postgame press conference about his willingness to change his aggressive, offensive approach to accommodate the spectacular defensive effort of Kansas City in Sunday’s victory.

“It’s special because that’s a great team and quarterback,” Mahomes explained. “Spags (Steve Spagnuolo), when the games get bigger, when the challenges get higher, he performs even better, and the guys executed the game plan well; they got timely turnovers that play down at the goal line, punching the ball out. I think it was (L’Jarius) Sneed and recovering it. That was a timely turnover.”

Mahomes was aggressive with his passing in the first half as the Chiefs jumped out to an early lead following his 19-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce. In the second half, he played a more conservative approach as Kansas City’s defense took control of the game, changing his focus to setting up the run game and protecting the football.

“Whenever they’re rolling like that, I have to kind of manage my game,” Mahomes said. “That’s stuff that I’ve learned throughout the season is even if we’re not having the success that I want to have the defenses rolling and getting stops, just take the safe choice, get the ball out of my hand, don’t turn the ball over and let’s go with a football game.”

Mahomes’ ability to ignore his past ways of being known as a gunslinger for the team’s betterment is the next step in his evolution as a quarterback. He always places the team winning above his personal goals and challenges the game manager’s negative narrative for quarterbacks.

Texans QB coach Jerrod Johnson schedules second interview with Saints

Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson scheduled a second interview with the Saints, meeting team brass in person on Saturday:

This could be big: NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that the New Orleans Saints are meeting Jerrod Johnson for a second interview on Saturday, this time speaking with him in person following a virtual interview earlier this week. He’s a candidate for their open offensive coordinator position.

Johnson, 35, has been a hot candidate as teams work to look for their new play caller. He’s also interviewed with the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, and Philadelphia Eagles.

A highly productive quarterback at Texas A&M, Johnson has risen quickly through the coaching ranks as an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers (under Kyle Shanahan) and Indianapolis Colts (under Frank Reich). Before joining DeMeco Ryans’ staff on the Texans, he was an assistant quarterbacks coach for the Minnesota Vikings under Kevin O’Connell. He’s worked closely with some of the most successful head coaches in the league and could be a good fit with the Saints.

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Projecting Alabama’s starting offense heading into the spring

The Alabama football team will have a new-looking offense in 2024. Roll Tide Wire projects Alabama’s starting offense heading into the spring.

There will be some new faces on Alabama’s offense heading into spring practices. The Crimson Tide have virtually a completely new offensive coaching staff. The only coach that was retained by the newly-hired, Alabama head coach Kalen Deboer is running backs coach Robert Gillespie.

With all of the changes being made to the staff, many would expect there to be a lot of new names on the offensive side of the ball. While multiple starters transferred elsewhere, there are still plenty of familiar faces on offense.

A lot can change from now until the start of the 2024 season, but let’s see how the Crimson Tide is currently expected to look.

Roll Tide Wire projects Alabama’s starters on offense heading into the spring.

Wisconsin is now one of the best offensive teams in the country

Wisconsin is now one of the best offensive teams in the country

If someone read that headline at the start of 2023, I can almost guarantee they would assume it would be referring to the Wisconsin football team and Phil Longo’s air raid offense.

That is not the case. Greg Gard’s Wisconsin basketball team shot their way to a 91-79 win over Indiana last night, improving to 14-4 on the season and 6-1 in Big Ten play. Notably, the performance also thrust the group to KenPom’s No. 4 team in overall offensive efficiency.

The team is now ranked behind only Alabama, Purdue and UConn. Not only impressive given the company, but especially so given Wisconsin’s classic defense-first identity.

The Badgers average 1.14 points per possession and 76.5 points per game. Those two numbers may not jump off the page, but one must consider the context of the team playing at a slower pace — hence KenPom’s ‘efficiency.’

The excellent offensive season can be attributed to Greg Gard’s recent transfer addition of A.J. Storr, but also Max Klesmit’s breakout and the steady play of veterans Chucky Hepburn, Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl. Then add John Blackwell’s significant potential as a true freshman and the deepest bench we’ve seen the team have in years, and you get a dangerous offensive group no matter the five on the floor.

This may be Gard’s best shot at a Final Four yet.

Too-early Michigan football 2024 starting offense prediction

This still looks really good on-paper. #GoBlue

Michigan football may have just won the national championship and has no idea who the head coach will be in 2024, but it’s never too early to look ahead to see who might take the reins, player-wise, for the upcoming season.

The Wolverines lose a great deal offensively via the NFL draft. J.J. McCarthy, Blake Corum, Cornelius Johnson, Roman Wilson, AJ Barner and six offensive linemen going pro this offseason. Thus, there’s only one bona fide returning starter from 2023 coming back in 2024: tight end Colston Loveland.

That doesn’t mean Michigan is bereft of experience on the offensive side of the ball. Far from it. Donovan Edwards, Giovanni El-Hadi, Myles Hinton and Tyler Morris have quite a bit of starting experience.

With that in mind and considering only players currently on the roster (not accounting for potential incoming or outgoing transfers), here is what our starting lineup on offense would be as of January 2024.