We’re on the doorstep of the 2023 season. This is the time of year I stop looking backward at the previous season and start looking towards the future. Training camp reports always get the hype meter amped up, and my brain starts churning and dreaming on what could be.
Like any well-adjusted person, I deal with that by drawing up diagrams and thinking of different ways to deploy core plays and their variations from the same looks and personnel groupings. It’s a fun thought experiment. It helps me to get excited about the upcoming season, but it also helps me understand these concepts - and the mechanics of the game itself - much better. It’s fun to draw up everything from a bunch formation, but what are the limitations of concepts within that? This helps me draw a box around a grouping/concept and see how things could work within that box.
Since I’m doing this anyway, I thought I’d throw it out to you all as well. Because you’re sickos like me.
Today we’re just gonna play around with PA Boot Sail from pre-snap balanced look with 12 personnel. Why start with this concept? Because it’s one of the things that makes the whole offensive engine go, so it felt like a logical starting point.
Since we’re just having fun, I’m throwing some rookies into the mix. I don’t expect these guys to be huge contributors right away, but it’s fun to dream on their potential right now. Hope springs eternal, amiright?
We’re building it all with a grouping of:
RB (33): Aaron Jones
TE (88): Luke Musgrave
TE (85): Tucker Kraft
WR (9): Christian Watson
WR (87): Romeo Doubs
Play 1: PA Boot Sail
A basic look. QB fakes to the RB one direction, boots the other direction and finds 3 receivers waiting for him, running different depths on the same plane. Musgrave goes in motion and releases to the flat, Doubs is the middle crosser from the left and Watson is the deep corner to the play side. Kraft is blocking down on the playside.
I initially had Kraft as the slice blocker and Musgrave blocking down to the playside, but I switched that as I was writing this. There are a couple reasons for that. This plays off wide zone run blocking, and I think Kraft (or, the ideal version of Kraft) is more valuable away from the run attack side. The slice blocker role is a slightly easier one in my mind, as you’re taking away the backside pursuit away from the ball, where the blocker on the line can work up to seal the middle inside.
I could be convinced either way, but I’d rather burn a guy I see with a lower ceiling as a blocker in the slice role. Plus, this way gets Musgrave in space in the flat and Kraft working a bit more in the muck.
By working in the muck, he’ll get some opportunities later. Don’t worry, Tucker. We’ll get you.
Play 2: PA Boot Sail Slam
Same general idea here, but Kraft is working a Slam route. After blocking down initially, he’ll release back to the boot and look for a hole in the coverage. That’s the only difference in the plays, but it felt like an important one.
Play 3: PA Boot Sail COP
Same initial action, but Watson is running a COP (Corner/Post) route here while Jones releases on vertically away from the boot. This could be a half-boot call, but it’s also a way to give the QB a boot option or a half-boot option, depending on if the defensive edge plays wide to take away the boot. If this is a full bootleg you don’t lose much in terms of attack power, as the throw rarely goes to that deep corner, anyway. That route still helps clear out the boundary for the middle crosser, but can also give you a deep shot if you catch the defense leaning.
If you really catch the defense leaning as a tendency, you’d likely want to call this as a half-boot option and really allow the QB to prepare to set and fire.
Play 4: Y Leak
I knew it was coming. You knew it was coming. So let’s do this. I told Tucker Kraft he would be rewarded for living in the muck and mire, so here it is. For my money, one of the most beautiful plays you can watch develop. It looks like PA Boot, but then the TE releases down the line. By the time the QB has stuck his foot in the dirt and is looking that direction, you already know what’s about to happen.
It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. I want to see this multiple times in 2023.
Play 5: PA Bang Dig
You likely know this as Drift or Strike, because that’s how this concept is typically referred to. I’m trying to get better about using more generic names for these, because not every concept carries the same name with it across playbooks, even within coaching trees. Or, perhaps, especially within coaching trees.
Yet I digress.
This concept never looks like much as a simple diagram, but it’s not just this diagram. It’s built off of everything that came before it. It’s a concept designed to get the linebackers pulled-up and widened out, then hit the space created in the middle of the field.
Play 6: PA Bang Dig In-Line
Same idea as the play above, but we’re getting our in-line TE on the dig route. Feels like a tougher needle to thread, but this was mentioned by RGIII on the tremendous Playcallers podcast series, so this was kind of a “how would that look?” type of diagram. I don’t know that I love it, but I also don’t hate it.
But it’s late, so what do I know?
That’s all I’ve got for the time being. Hope you enjoyed this little thought experiment. Will there be more of these? Who knows! I welcome any and all thoughts/feedback on this, as well as similar plays/formations/groupings you’d be interested in exploring.