Guide to Offensive Play Calling in the NFL

mind when I say why short? Too strong? Right clamp ace H two y bingo X comeback cannon with role right B shallow. Uh. You know, it's a little annoying because I'm having flashbacks. I used my cousin's Netflix account, and I'm pretty sure when I got locked out, the password was exactly what you just said, So I don't know. Yeah, it was like I kind of wishing like you guys

just kind of made things simple for me. No, or maybe it was your recovery password for like one of your robin hood or one of your investment accounts of those things. That is an actual NFL play call that you here in the huddle during a real game, which really does beg the question why do things need to

be so complicated? The complexity is really significant. So today on NFL Explain, we're gonna talk a little bit about the basics of personnel on offense and when you're actually watching games this season, you'll have a better understanding of how and why teams line up on the field like they do. We're also gonna talk a little bit about some models why teams use terms like Tupac purple walrus. But I'm a biggie guy and not tupa right like where he's Okay, you needed to. This is why we

get along man change of players at the line. It is a thing. We know what to things. So let's dive right into it. Will start with the offense here. Whenever you see players running onto the field, it is a specific personnel grouping and that grouping is part of a two digit number system. And Rob give me some insight on this system and how it works. Well, Like you know, for all our listeners out there, you might

hear like one personnel. You may hear eleven personnel right, or twenty two or twenty three or things like that. You gotta understand there's eleven guys on the field right operating offense and defensively, and you want to be able to communicate with those guys. Everybody the collective is as as fast as possible and in a very efficient way. And first and foremost, you gotta know your your personnel

groupings to be able to execute the play right. So the way that the football gods came up with it, I don't know exactly who came up with all the terminology and things like that, but way back when they came up with personnel groupings to let everybody know everybody running on the field and running off and who needs to come off of the field, um, a more of efficient way of identifying. So for me, I played fullback,

So my personnel groupings were like twenty one personnel. Twenty one personnel means two backs, two running backs are running back in the full back and one tight end. Okay, with two wide receivers. Just in this particular personnel grouping, you didn't give a number for how many wide receivers are out there right there. You know, we're assuming that you know football players understand who the eligibles are on

a football field. So personnel was something which usually people say base or put up a one for one personnel. You also hear people talking about eleven personnel, right, eleven personnel is one back, alright, one running back and one tight end. All right, So if you got one running back and one tight end, you have an opportunity to have three other eligible receivers on the play or three other eligible people on the play to be able to go out for a past. So eleven personnel you put

those other three eligible guys. That's wide receivers. So it's three wide receivers on the field, one tight end, one running back. That's eleven personnel. And then you've got you know, defenses trying to match that personnel by bringing in Nickel and Din. Again, it's for the play caller to be able to communicate with the collective right with you know, knowing that it's hundreds of you know, thousands of people watching and all those things in the stadium, a lot

of know what's going on. You want to be able to have very short visual cues, are very efficient number system and how to communicate to identify the personnel groups. Because again, like when I came in as a fullback, I'm coming in yelling bass putting up a fist. If we were in eleven personnel, one receiver comes out and I'm coming in again. I got to get my eligibles down. But at the end of the day, it's all about

being efficient as you can communicating with the collector. Yeah, because when we're watching games, I'm robbed a lot of times. And here twenty one personnel, eleven personnel, and just to reiterate, here two digits. First digit we're talking running back. Second one is the tight ends. In terms of those personnel groupings. Take me through the times in the game where certain

groupings make the most sense to use. So, like you know, you get towards the goal line, right, you get towards the goal line or short yardist let's start with short yard is situations third and one third and two fourth and one fourth and nitch or something like that. You would go with more of a maybe a twenty two personnel. Two running backs are running back in the full back to its tight ends. Two tight ends. Right, you have another eligible out there that's another wide receiver on the field.

Two personnel has one wide receiver that's more of your big personnel. But you do have a wide receiver on there so that the defense has to be able to keep some speed on the field as well, or you get into a goal line package that's more of a twenty three type of a personnel, which again, just by looking at the number of eligibles twenty three, that's you're identifying. The five the first numbers for the backs, running back,

full back. The three is for the tight ends. You have three tight ends in the game, and to me, it's the teams that have You know, that tight end position is a little bit different, right. That position can be a Jimmy Graham like guy or it can be more of a Gronkowski type of a guy. Both are great at what they do. Gronkowski more of a dominant blocker.

But if you have tight ends, that can kind of fool a defense into thinking that, you know, you're running the ball when you really want to throw it, or you're throwing the ball when you really want to run it. Three tight end packages really can give defenses some fits. No, it's you're thing too, because you think about those tight ends and a lot of times were especially in the fantasy world, you think about pass catchers. But the reality is most NFL rosters will have multiple tight ends because

you need some of those big bodies. They become almost like extra down lineman in some of those goal line situations, so that the two running backs or the full back of the running back coming out of that backfield have

a little bit more blocking up front. Here's some data though for you, because the most used grouping for thirty one out of the thirty two teams in the league was eleven personnel, so once again, one running back, one tight end, and then three wide receivers that are out there now the league average it's fifty eight point three

percent of the snaps for using that personnel. That's up from thirty four percent in two thousand eights, so we've actually seen a nearly twenty five percent increase in these three wide outsets. The Rams ran the most eleven personnel one eighty three point four percent of the time, and if you watch Rams games, you're not surprised by that. But on the flip side, the Dolphins, they ran twelve personnel one running back, two tight ends, and two wide

receivers sixty one point seven percent of the snaps. The next closest was the Packers at just basically thirty percent. So Mike, there's there's a little bit of coaching philosophy. And by the way, new brand new coach down in Miami. So these are based off of what we saw last year. I think it's probably a better representation because Mike McDaniel was with the forty niners. To think about what they did offensively. But when you hear the numbers, when it's

eleven personnel, is that more of a coaching thing? Is it more of a scheme thing that puts guys because the coach seems to think that their roster is better suited for that offensively, You know, it's a it's a scheme thing, yes, but it's also a little bit of Okay, who is on my roster? What are their skill sets? And how can I make sure how can I marry my philosophy to the actual people we have an acker

room executing that philosophy. For instance, I mean, you talk about Sean McVeigh, right, he is an eleven personnel guy, and to me, what makes him an eleven personnel guy? Well, first of all, let me let me back up a little bit, Mike. You just talked about in two thousand and eight, which I was in the league. Then they were running eleven personnel thirty percent at the time. Now

it's almost tripled. Okay, I would say, and I don't know this for a fact, but I would say, if we look at what wide receivers make and what quarterbacks make from two thousand and eight two to now, that may have I gonna say, if this triple, but that went up exponentially as well. Our league has turned into a passing league, right, And I get it right, there's players safety involved in that. That is, you know what's

going on in our college game. There's a lot of different factors that goes into why teams are throwing the ball a little bit more. But I'm gonna get into the philosophy and based off of the you know, the players you have in the locker room, and how use Sean McVeigh for an example, because I think it's a perfect I think it's a perfect example. When you look at Sean McVeigh and this Los Angeles Rams offense, Sean

McVeigh learned offense from the Shanahan system. Right. If you look at what Kyle Shanahan does everywhere he has been he has operated in running the football. He loves twelve personnel, he loves to put two tight ends out there, and he's operated his offense from that way. Well, if you look at twelve personnel, which is two tight ends and one back, or eleven personnel, which is three wild receivers and one back, you can do a lot of the

same things. Especially if you have that h back tight end or that second tight end that's you know, you can flex him out. He can kind of be a wild out. He can kind of be in that Jimmy Graham type, that guy that's not gonna be a dominant blocker at the point of attack. I mean, don't get me wrong, he'll fight you or whatever as far as blocking, but oftentimes then not, he's gonna give your offense the advantage in the passing game. So to me, that's how you marry. Like what a team wants to be able

to run the ball. They want to be able to throw the football in play action passing, to be explosive down the field, yet you still want to run the football. What makes that offense go in Los Angeles is the fact that they have a guy in the slot. He's a wide receiver, but he also acts at times as

a tight end. He acts at times as an h back, and that's Cooper Cup And to me, and I've talked about this on Total Access, I've talked about this on everywhere that they will allow me to talk about it, right, the fact that what makes this offense go in what makes him so special in the reason why he was a triple Crown runner and the reason why he got so many receptions and all of those and targets is

because he blocks. I mean, Sean McVeigh design's run scheme with a wide receiver pulling sometimes leading the back into the A gap. I don't even think I can really understand what I just said. A wide receiver leading a running back into the A gap and a gap scheme type of one. When I say gap scheme, I mean you're gonna see pulling lineman and so yes, philosophy matters with the play caller wants to do how he wants

to attack a defense. That matter matters. But to me, the best coaches and our game are The National Football League has some of the best coaches. And I'm not saying football coaches some of the best coaches in the world. We have some talented people. The best coaches understand how to take what you have and work with with. You have marry you what you believe in, what you believe in scheme and your philosophy, and how you want to attack a defense on offense, but how you want to

attack the other side of football. You marry that to the Jimmy's and Joe's that you actually have walking in the locker room, because they actually have to be the guys executed. Now, you mentioned the idea of being a runner right and what that means for offenses. I think old school here. Ravens still run a good amount of two personnel here, which is once again two running backs to tight ends. They do that on percent of their

plays their team point four percent. To be exact, they were one of only two teams that did it more than ten percent of the time. So clearly run first right rams just for context here ran zero place at personnel and rob last year. That's crazy, that's crazy to think about because again I'm like, I'm a little old school too, and I come from an old culture of football where you know, we did Oklahoma drills, which that's no longer, there's no need to do that in football again,

you know anymore. But I come from that culture as well, and to think that a team won the Super Bowl one. You know, you can see the Lombardi over my shoulder, right, won the Super Bowl. Not even getting into big people personnel that much. It's crazy to me. But when you talk about Baltimore, I think Baltimore and Greg Roman, the way they've built that offense around Lamar Jackson. I don't know if there's another offense built quite like that, Taylor

quite like that towards their unique quarterback. I mean, we can talk about the Tom Bradies, we can talk about Aaron Rodgers and how they you know, have their little nuances in their offense as well. But the Baltimore Ravens beat you up. They put you in a meat grinder. They do two tight ends, they play with a fullback that their fullback is a backup defensive end, can play defensive tackle. I mean, they want to beat you up.

And so when you see and I'm so glad we're having this conversation right because I'm I'm a football enthusiast. I love I love the game of football. And to me, the teams other than you know, you talk about the Rams doing eleven personnel, but the teams that truly go to me go further, are the teams that have the ability to run the football. You see what I'm saying. No, don't know what we're talking about Baltimore, but Baltimore brings out these big tight ends. Okay, you've got Mark Andrews

and company and guys like that. If you match the personnel defensively, okay, now you have big people on their big people, Lamar Jackson is gonna run around you. Twice. Seriously, You're just not gonna have enough speed to match up with what that guy can do in the run game. And Lamar Jackson's a runner playing quarterback. Okay, He's not like Russell or Deshaun Watson. Those guys are gramblers. Those guys are throwers that have the ability to run. Lamar

Jackson's a runner, so it's totally different. He doesn't really take the hits that we think he takes. And his ability that's growing on it is growing. His ability to put you push the ball down field and especially hit those tight ends in the middle of the field. That's what makes this offense vital. That's what makes his offense crazy to stop, because again, if you put in big people, Lamar Jackson runs around you. If you put in small people,

they're gonna hand the football off. They're gonna be able to let those tight ends run routes and post you up. And Lamar Jackson is an accurate enough passer to put the ball in the catch radius of some of those big tight ends. And if you notice all of our listeners out there, if you notice most people or most quarterbacks who are movers like Lamar Jackson, they love tight ends, right they see the middle of feel great that they're

like a picture. They can stand on the mout and throw the ball to big guys who can kind of post up and help them with some of their inconsistencies as far as accuracy is concerned. So yeah, Baltimore is one of those things that put you in a meat grinder. But there's a lot of different ways to do that. When I talk about the Rams, they still run the football, they just do it a little bit differently. Again, Cooper

Cup makes it all work. No, it's wild to me because you look at what Lamar Jackson means to the Baltimore Ravens. So we can get it. He's a quarterback and we know the importance to that position. But boil boy, what they do the emphasis on his skill set dictating what the offense really is. It might be more significant than any team in the NFL because he's so unique. Well you see it drawn up on the board, the

xs and the ohs. Coming up next on the NFL Explained Podcast, we get into the nitty gritty a play call. Welcome back to the NFL Explained Podcast. Mike Yam and Michael Robinson with you, Robert, You and I have caught the little it about definding those groups. I actually want to get more into the play calling side of things. You know, I've been around college football, the NFL, the play sheets, these laminated things. It's like going to a diner in Jersey, right, Like the menu just look so

darn big. Take me through this because on the flip side, I've seen other play callers they got like a little note card. Why is there such a disparity there, Well, the little note card guys oftentimes those are gonna be defensive guys, and look, defensive guys don't get at me. Okay, I'm not saying it's a job being hard. I'm not saying that's not a lot of information, But you just gotta notice, like defense is always kind of responding. For

the most part, they're responding. Offense usually is dictating, and so offensive place sheets are gonna be longer. They're gonna have a lot more situations. And the play callers and the place sheets that I've seen have it broken down into you know, down in distance, your first down calls or your draft starters, your second down calls, or your second and four to six, your second and eight plus

again pairing for all of the situations. See again, part of being a great coaches putting your other coaches and putting your players in every situation that they're gonna encounter on game day. To me, some of the coaches that don't have as much success doesn't always put their team and their coaches in the situations that they're gonna see on game day. So when they get on game day, it's a surprise, right. And the great play callers, Yeah, you're gonna see their play sheets be long. You're gonna

see a lot of different colors, right. You see the colors in it a lot of times you see different colors from run in past, so that again in the brain, your eyes can quickly go to a color when you want it, Like if you know you want to look for a run and all of your run players are green, your eyes are gonna go to the green sections of your card a lot faster. Again, you have a play clock forty seconds, right, A play caller has to think two, three,

sometimes a series ahead. So being able between drives to talk to your quarterback, understand what he liked, Understand what he's seeing, because you may be seeing something in the booth, or you may be seeing something on the sideline, or you may be seeing something that you think you see. But until you know what that quarterback is seeing, you can't guarantee that he's gonna make the right decision in the moment. So again to me, being a play callers

being prepared for every single situation. I mean, I remember looking at UM coach Bevel Darryl Bubble, he was with me in Seattle. Remember looking at some of his play call sheets. I mean, and he would have two and three laminated sheets with a little ring at the top that you know he would just flip whenever he needed it. And I know some of our listeners are thinking like, how can a player remember so much? And guys, these

game plans change oftentimes on a weekly basis. A signal, right, be you may tap your nose for a slant at week one, that saying tap your nose, because everybody's watching, because cameras are everywhere, because other teams do Scott and reports, and they know sign language signs and all those things too. That same sign maybe out the next week, and you're paid as an athlete, as a professional football player, to know it and be right, and so it's it's difficult.

But yeah, I've seen play callers at the end, you know, on their place sheets at end the game them and even have end of game scenarios. People don't realize that failed Mary. People thought Golden didn't catch the ball. I was there, Mike, he caught the ball. Okay. Now if I was on the Packers side, I would have thought something differently, of course, But he caught the ball and the referees put up his hands. So that's what we're going with. Okay, that play call. First of all, we

practiced it every single Saturday, every single Saturday. Number two. That was written in the place sheet. It was one of those end of the game scenarios. Again, always preparing your team for any situation that may come up. We always hear about the mental side of the game. You're describing something really complex that has nothing to do with athletic ability, and we'll get into it after the break. Agains discuss offensive play calling here on the NFL Explained Podcast.

Welcome back to the NFL Explained Podcast. Mike am and Michael Robinson with you, rob do you think there's a large number of players, maybe more athletic than what we already have in the NFL, that just mentally couldn't be able to grasp some of the things that is required of them to be on the field on Sunday's Absolutely, it is difficult. It is I said, I tell people all the time football players, are you kidding me? They're

the most intelligent people on the on the planet. Because this I'm not talking about just sitting in a classroom getting something read to you and then you have to regurgitate it a week later. For great, that's memorization. Now I'm talking about I'm playing fullback. Okay, they go to a fifty seven funk defense with the safety up weak side, and I know, damn O this play side linebacker's mind, but so is this safety. Okay, what's about to happen? I can't call the time out. I can't turn around

and say, a beast mode, what's you think? What you think gonna happen right here? If he hit it first. You gotta figure your own information out. We gotta process everything in your environment and figure out your own answers. That middle linebacker on the other side is doing the same thing. He's figuring out I know they're running power, which one of these guards are pulling, and which one of these gaps I can shoot. That's real intelligence, man,

real intelligence. I mean that linebacker I'm talking about right now, whether he's guessing to shoot that gap at when when the guard pulls. That's a risk reward assessment that I pay a banker a lot of money to watch my money to see what if I'm investing in the right stocks. At the end of the day, I tell people all the time, being able to process your environment and come up with your own information without the help of anybody, that's true intelligence. Okay, so processing some of that nation.

You started off with my cousins Netflix password as a play call. It was long. There was cannonballs, deep dive, watch out below, splash corner, Spingo. Here we go a why so long? What is that play. What is that? So I'll talk you through the play first and again, this play didn't come from any offense that I was a part of. But again, once you've been a part of a few offenses, you you hear a few words, you start to figure it out. You're like, oh, I think I get what's going on. Okay, So why short

too strong right clamp ace? That is the formation, all right? So the y is the tight end. I'm guessing he was outside the wide receiver within the wide receiver had a close split. He motioned to go to strong right, which is basically the running back at the home position and the tight end. Now that he's motioned, now he's in the strong position off to the right, let's just say it's to the right clamp ace again. That's part

of the formation. H two is the protection, which is a full slide by the offensive line to the left again and with the offensive lineman are doing the right tackle is saying anybody else that first guy outside of me, I'm leaving him for my running back to go cut down, and then I'm sliding a full gap inside and I'm taking anything that moves that has another color right. And you do that every gap inside all the way to the left tackle or to the to the other side.

Why Bingo To me, this is a y read type of player. I don't know if this is basically the tight end after he motions to the strong right, whether he goes up ten yards and does a basic cross across the middle, or does like some type of an option route. That's why it says why bingo. X comeback is usually the third in the progression because the tight end and the zest to the right side, the X will be to the left, and so in a timing standpoint, the quarterback would hit his fifth step, take one hitch

checked the tight end, take another hitch. It will take his eyes, his footwork, and his eyes will go back to the X on the comeback on the back side, cannon with a roll right. That's again that's part of the protection. That's telling alignment, don't go downfield. That's also telling the running back. I have to get the end man on the line of scrimmage hooked. I don't necessarily have to cut him, but I gotta get him hooked because the quarterback launch point is changing, and then be shallow.

I don't know what personnel this is in but this is probably two tight ends and twilve personnel. Two tight ends to Wilde receivers that be shallow. Is the other tight end with a shallow that should be coming into the quarterbacks vision after he takes his third hitch, after he checks the backs that come back. Was that enough for you, Mike, I've digested. I realized that I can never play in the NFL and has nothing to do

with physical stature, which is not intimidating at all. So and Rob, there's obviously a lot to digest in one of these other things. And I think this is more more commonplace, is this idea of audible because you've got all these complex play calls you just explain to us.

Then you get to the line of scrimmage you hear something like this team to purple Walrus, Purple Walrus, take color, James Harden, James Hart his first appearance, Hey Wilson, Hoosier, Wilson Hoosier, Elvis, Elvis, Hey Elvis, Elvis, Hey Tufuck, Dusty Tufuck, Obama, Obama, Obama, Hey Rick Flair, Rick Flair pass that Kardashian to the audible tree. This week, Heay Teck, New York Boso all right, So to me, that's just kind of fun to hear

some of those things. Multiple possible checks for a quarterback when he gets to the line. How legit is this for QB it's very legit. So, I mean, there's a lot of different ways you can change the play at the line of score. A lot of quarterbacks love to have like their ready list or I know when I played quarterback in college, my quarterback goes. You used to always say, may just use your toolbox, man, that's what

your quick audibles are there for. And those are quick audibles, like you know, being able to come to the line of scrim and you see a blitz, you may have a run play or whatever, and the quarterback is totally changing everything. Hey, here's the protection, and he signals the routes, here's the snap count. Come on, let's go. There's other ways to be able to change the play. Maybe the play call has two calls, right, you call one play and there's an automatic attached to a meaning, so I

have two tight ends too. Our receivers in the game, I'm in twelve personnel and I can run inside zone play to the right, and I'll say, you know, fourteen zone, which is a zone play to the right. I'll say automatic, meaning if there's a safety down on the right side, I want to run away from that safety because that safety is unblocked. We don't have anywhere to block. The safety comes down to the right side. You'll see, you know guys like people used to see Kylin Kaepernick point

at his helmet because the red Roman system. You see Lamar Jackson do that. Now. That's basically saying, flip it over to the other side. Come on, let's flip it over to the other side. That's another way of being able to audible at the line of scrimmage. The play call may come in with two totally separate calls, like, um, I don't know, you have a lead play and then you have a kill to a some type of four vertical. You know, I have a draw play. I can call a draw play if they have too many people in

the box and it's a single safety high. I think we got some advantageous matchups on the outside or in the slot. The great ones that I've seen, like the great ones like I've heard stories about Brett fave I played with Leon Washington and he played with Brett with the New York Jets, and he would say. Brett would say, I know, you gotta block that linebacker right there, but instead of blocking him, if he comes, just swing, I'll

tell you the ball. And that's how we hand I mean, the great ones understand kind of how to manipulate the playbook and audible. But still, you know, have the coaches back at the same time. Yeah, well you got a legend and a Hall of Famer. That always helps because they have the acumen in that wiggle to work around certain things. I think about the install process. I've heard this phrase used all the time. How long these installs actually take? From these offenses? You said it changes every

single week. Is a little bit different. Is it based more on what I do really well as an offense or what I'm going to see in a game defensively from my opponent. Well, my school of thought comes from it's always about me, It's always about us, and Pete Carroll kind of helped mold that philosophy into my head. Joe Putunnel was like that as well. Yeah, you need to know what your opponent is gonna do. You need to game plan and understand you know their players and

things like that. But it's about what we do. What do we do? Well, there's a play I know everybody remembers Beast Quake. Um the beast Quake two point oh. What happened a couple of years later against Arizona Cardinals. But Beast Quake we were playing the Saints. I was in on the play. The play was seventy power. We blocked it terribly, But at the end of the day, that was Marshawn's favorite play. I mean, that was his

favorite play. He loved to have a pulling guard and the pulling are turned the corner kicked out that linebacker and he could kind of get into that divid that little triangle right between where the wipe down of the double team and the kick out of the of the guy he wanted to kind of he he loved being in that like a gap space. Well, we never really blocked that play, right, We didn't really have the personnel.

I wasn't a big, strong fullback like a Vante Leach that used to play for the Baltimore I wasn't that type of a guy, So we really didn't have the personnel. But look what happened and ended up being one of the greatest runs and playoff history because we had the guy to do it. He wanted to play. He put it in that week. What I'm trying to say is if you do something well, the other team has to

stop you too, you know what I'm saying that. So I come from the school of thought, when you're game planning during the week, we start with what the hell do we do? Well? We run inside zone, well, we run outside zone, well, we run weak side gap scheme, well, we do for virtus, well, we got a crazy tight end. We need to be able to single him out on option routes. Little thing is like that, like a play caller can say, these are the five or six or

seven things I want to happen in this game plan. Okay, then you just build around that. Okay, we're great zone runners, right, We're great outside zone runners, right. But Aaron Donald's on the other side, and he lines up to the offenses right as a three technique. We don't have a guard that man has ever built that can reach block him. So what we're gonna do is instead of running outside zone to him or inside zone to him, We're gonna run a duo block or crunch block. We're gonna double

team him and work up to the lineback. Now, same footwork for the running back, same same everything for the quarterback in the wilde receivers a little bit of an adjustment for the offensive linement, but again we're still running what we do well with the runner does well, but with a little bit of an adjustment. Because we ain't stupid. Aaron Donald's on the other side, we we gotta do something about him, you know, we just can't let him

take over the game. He is a dude. I feel like I have a much better understanding of the complexity around offensive play calling because of your expertise. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Continue to share it on social media, make sure you follow the show wherever you get your podcast. That's offensive play call Explained