What to expect from new Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore: Part 1

The Eagles formally introduced the rent of Kellen Moore on Monday. I used to be very glad when it was formally introduced as a result of I had spent the earlier three days watching a whole lot of Kellen Moore. I watched a lot movie, that I’ll flip the clips I recorded right into a sequence of posts, quite than only one lengthy publish. Each will give attention to a number of completely different elements of Kellen Moore’s philosophy.

I’ll give attention to what he does within the first few posts after which I’ll have a look at the strengths and weaknesses of his philosophy within the remaining publish. Get pleasure from!

The Fundamentals

First, let’s have a look at the fundamental tendencies of a Kellen Moore-led offense utilizing Sports activities Data Options (and by way of @TheHonestNFL).

Some takeaways from the numbers…

The Chargers’ lack of run sport meant Moore couldn’t run play-action anyplace close to as a lot as he had beforehand.
Movement has constantly been a giant a part of his offense.
He was keen to run into stacked containers when with the Cowboys however gave up doing this with the Chargers.
He doesn’t rank that extremely in anybody metric yearly which reveals that his philosophy is partly right down to his gamers.
His hole scheme numbers within the run sport have been increased up to now 2 years than they had been earlier than this.
His offenses constantly rank properly in no-huddle. Even final 12 months, he ranked sixth in no-huddle success fee which is superb because it wasn’t a very good offense.
He ran much more under-center with the Cowboys than he did with the Chargers.

There’s additionally a unbelievable interview on the Chargers web site from final 12 months, the place Kellen Moore spoke about his imaginative and prescient for the offense. Listed below are a few of my favourite quotes:

“From an offensive perspective, you are taking bits and items from everybody, and I believe that’s the great thing about it,” Moore stated. “We’re going to construct a 2023 L.A. Chargers offense.

“Will you have the ability to see the Air Coryell, Jason Garrett aspect? Completely. Will you see the West Coast, Mike McCarthy aspect? Completely,” Moore added. “We’ll hold issues which are in place right here that Justin [Herbert] feels actually, actually good about.”

“There’s a balancing act within the run sport, groove calls and calls that you could type of cling your hat on, whereas additionally being numerous sufficient to make changes all through a sport and relying on a protection’s appears to be like,” Moore added. “You may have to have the ability to make changes all through a sport and discover the issues that work finest for you week-in and week-out.”

“I’m simply actually excited to get to work with them,” Moore stated. “I believe the great thing about soccer and the great thing about the system is that you just wish to construct it across the gamers. I’m excited to determine what they do finest, how they’re wired, how they work and put them in one of the best scenario to achieve success. No matter that system in the end appears to be like like, we’ll construct it collectively.”

Then my favourite quote…

Our entire purpose from an outdoor perspective is to make it look as complicated as doable. And on the finish of the day, it’s fairly easy for us. It’s a whole lot of the identical ideas, it’s a whole lot of methods of doing the identical issues.

I believe that philosophy suits what Nick Sirianni needs to do on offense too. It appears fairly apparent to me that Kellen Moore does have a system, however he’s going to adapt that system to the gamers he has out there to him. Let’s get into a number of the key areas of his system. Brett Kollmann described Kellen Moore as ‘aggressive and adaptable’ and I might agree with him.

If you recognize me by now, you recognize the place I’m going to start out…

Run Sport

I believe Kellen Moore’s run sport is a big, enormous a part of his offense. I can’t fairly consider a number of the stuff I examine his obvious lack of a run sport. It’s ridiculous. I believe the one largest distinction between his Cowboys’ offense and Chargers’ offense is that his Cowboys’ run sport was profitable.

The actually attention-grabbing factor is that his run sport may be very completely different from the Eagles’ run sport. Kellen Moore’s run sport has a whole lot of Shanahan influences in it. The usual run play is underneath middle outdoors zone, which is one thing we have now not seen loads with the Eagles of late. This enables him to open up his offense and run some play-action bare bootlegs too, which we’ll get to later.

Let’s get to the usual run play. Shanahan fashion. The Cowboys weren’t afraid to simply line up in heavy personnel and run it down the center of the protection. If the protection wished to play nickel or gentle containers, the Cowboys had been going to run it. This was an aggressive ‘smashmouth’ fashion run sport.

What was I saying about smashmouth? 22 personnel with a WR coming into block as properly? Signal me up. The Eagles didn’t run a whole lot of underneath middle outdoors zone final 12 months as a result of they wished the run sport to be primarily based across the shotgun as a result of that permits the quarterback to be a significant a part of any run play by studying the defensive finish. The Eagles simply didn’t run from underneath middle. Kellen Moore’s offenses the previous 3 years rank twenty fourth, twenty seventh, and twenty second in shotgun fee. He needs to make use of underneath middle and the Eagles must adapt to this in the event that they wish to run his offense.

Jason Kelce… time to announce you might be coming again?! I noticed numerous pin/pull too which isn’t a shock with a lot outdoors zone run.

That is only a minor level however I observed that the Cowboys ran to the Nub TE aspect rather a lot, so hold a watch out for this.

Now in case you have learn all the things thus far and frightened concerning the Eagles’ run sport drastically altering, I wouldn’t panic. It’s going to change, I don’t doubt that. However I believe Kellen Moore has proved that he can match into the Eagles’ present philosophy round operating the ball as properly. He ran loads much less hole scheme the previous few years than the Eagles did, however I don’t assume the Eagles are simply going to cease operating counter or QB counter bash anytime quickly.

In case you are frightened about whether or not Moore will make the most of Jalen Hurts within the run sport, I wouldn’t panic. I didn’t see a lot QB run sport with Herbert which is barely stunning, however I did see some ideas that took benefit of Dak’s mobility. That is the type of play that will get me excited. Dak and Herbert are each cellular, however they aren’t Jalen Hurts. I do know that Moore needs to adapt to his scheme to his gamers, and I believe he could have enjoyable within the run sport with Hurts at quarterback. I’m positive there shall be some struggles at instances, however I believe mixing Moore’s underneath middle run sport with the Eagles’ shotgun QB run sport shall be thrilling.

You may see the Eagles operating this subsequent 12 months, can’t you? That is what I imply by Moore’s run sport being actually numerous. You may have the 22 personnel underneath middle smashmouth stuff after which the unfold offense stuff like this. It’s a very cool run sport and it sums up Moore’s philosophy typically. He’s keen to adapt to his gamers.

Play-action Bare Bootleg

I’ve banged on concerning the underneath middle run sport as a result of it results in this. This may increasingly look so easy, nevertheless it’s simply one thing that’s not been part of the Eagles’ offense the previous few years. You may’t do the bare bootleg stuff in the event you can’t run from underneath middle. This may increasingly not appear revolutionary, however you will note groups each week within the NFL having success from operating PA bare bootleg as a result of it’s so tough to cease in the event you can run the ball successfully.

It appears really easy, however in the event you can run the ball from underneath middle then you’ll pressure the protection to be over-aggressive and begin biting on play motion. That is old-school Shanahan stuff and you may see it again and again when watching the Cowboys’ offense. Nevertheless, you simply don’t see it as a lot with the Chargers’ offense as a result of the Chargers couldn’t get the operating sport going. This fashion depends on a robust run sport.

Jalen Hurts has by no means actually performed from underneath middle, however I believe he’s going to need to be taught. I don’t count on the Eagles to simply abandon the shotgun, however I don’t get the thought behind hiring Moore except they will introduce some underneath middle to this offense. I assume the hiring was primarily based on Moore’s work with the Cowboys, and never the Chargers, and I count on to see a good bit of underneath middle PA subsequent 12 months.

Movement

I’ve already gotten into loads on this article, however I can’t end half 1 with out speaking about movement. Movement is a little bit of a buzzword for the time being and everybody simply assumes that each one movement is nice. That’s simply not true. However movement can clearly be a very essential device for an offense to make use of. The Eagles simply didn’t use movement final 12 months in any respect. It wasn’t part of the offense. Once they did use it, I referred to it as ‘token’ movement because it felt like they had been doing it only for the sake of doing it. I didn’t see an actual plan behind it. Kellen Moore has ranked within the high 15 in movement fee the previous 3 years and he’s additionally profitable when operating it. Final 12 months, the Chargers ranked sixth in success fee when utilizing movement, regardless of not being an excellent offense general.

The Cowboys used movement to make the most of man protection and likewise stress the protection horizontally, as you’ll be able to see right here within the crimson zone.

Moore ran this actual play with the Cowboys, which is why I really like the design of the following play a lot.

This was my favourite play I noticed on movie. The Cowboys used movement successfully within the crimson zone (and had the #1 offense within the crimson zone in 2022 which dropped to twelfth final 12 months with out Kellen Moore) and it is a magnificence. The Cowboys know that the Lions are going to go off the routes quite than keep in man protection because the protection did within the clip above. So the Cowboys run the tight finish to the other aspect that the movement is heading. Which means the defensive again has to vary path when operating with the movement which is almost not possible. That is simply easy, however nice sport planning.

The Cowboys additionally like to run movement to offer their receivers an opportunity to get off the road of scrimmage and keep away from press protection. It’s sound easy, however the Eagles simply didn’t do that! It creates an enormous stress on the defensive horizontally and this permits some house to open up in the course of the sector. The Cowboys’ offense underneath Moore cherished to run movement to emphasize the protection horizontally after which throw deep posts or slants in the course of the sector to make the most of the house created. A whole lot of the throw doesn’t even go to the receiver in movement, however that’s high-quality.

I received’t lie and say that Moore is nice at designing screens, as a result of he wasn’t. I didn’t see a whole lot of profitable screens run within the video games that I watched. However here’s a good instance of how movement may create misdirection and profit the display sport. I wouldn’t count on the Eagles’ display sport to dramatically enhance subsequent season although.

This can be a very related name to the one above that I used to be speaking about. Utilizing movement to get your finest receiver operating at full pace earlier than the snap of the ball simply seems like a cheat code that the Eagles weren’t profiting from final 12 months. I believe the Bengals bust the protection, however that’s another excuse why movement could be so helpful. Simply have a look at the Vic Fangio protection and the way it’s a must to have a name for each single protection. It’s fairly easy evaluation, however it may be tougher to determine your protection guidelines when the image is altering on offense on the final minute. The offense can simply flip the passing energy a second earlier than the snap and that adjustments all the things on protection. It’s a weapon that’s too invaluable to disregard.

Completely different group, completely different play, identical thought and the identical end result. I like it.

I additionally noticed this on movie a number of instances. Discuss messing with defenses checks and making them make selections on the fly. You may inform {that a} huge a part of Moore’s philosophy is making an attempt to confuse defenses and make them assume. That is the precise reverse to the Eagles’ method from final 12 months the place there was a conceit that the play would work, even in the event you knew what was coming.

I used to be tempted to save lots of movement for half 2 however… I couldn’t go away you guys hanging. In order for you much more element, you’ll be able to try the newest BGN Radio podcast I did with Shane the place we speak concerning the subjects talked about on this article.

As all the time, suggestions is appreciated and I’ll be again quickly with half 2!

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