Evaluation: An Instance of Shane Waldron Transferring Russell Wilson Out of Pocket
The high demand makes sense. Wilson’s play style and height of 5 feet-10 inevitably affect him when he tries to access certain windows. Seattle, like every NFL team, sometimes has passport protection issues. And on a team that wants to play football, it makes too much sense to use running actions to move the bag and a mobile quarterback.
As with his attempted quick game adjustments, 2020 offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s movement passes ultimately couldn’t get past the Rams when it came down to it: in playoff football. Now comes Shane Waldron, the chief schemer who is supposed to work with Russell Wilson’s elite talent. Let’s get to 2021.
Last week’s preseason matchup with the Broncos already showed an exciting movement of the quarterback out of Waldron’s pocket. But first; Let’s address the benefits and limitations of moving a passerby out of the pocket.
Pulling the quarterback out of your pocket like Waldron did – on a sprint – is less effective than you might originally think.
Yes, it floods defensive coverage with various threats while simplifying the quarterback’s reads and violating the traditional pass-rush distance.
This movement, however, reduces the field for the offensive by half, while at the same time reducing the defensive area of the defensive.
Hence, the defense can flood their pass cover on the game as they would compared to a bootleg or bare move pass.
In addition, there is no real run-fake / run-action from the offensive, so the defense can counter the concept without conflict.
In addition, intelligent play callers can also pick up on indicators that press right into the teeth of the movement, making the concept dead on arrival.
There’s a reason most of the NFL sprintouts take place in the Redzone; Coordinators expect man-marking or aggressive matching and one-read games based on rubs-to-quarterback runs.
What made Waldron’s game intelligent was the design and the game situation.
The Seahawks faced a 3rd and a 13. They returned and shifted their tight end from an 11-person 3×1 set. The pre-snap movement told them they were facing zone coverage as no player was following the tight end.
In order to trigger formations, the Broncos defense, led by Vic Fangio, attempted to weaken the bonus fire zone pressure throughout the game.
In that game, Denver sent 6 men to the quarterback – the sixth man to go weak after the running back fell under cover.
Seattle, however, performed a full slide on its offensive line, letting its running back absorb the heat behind. Rashaad Penny did an excellent job of picking up the most dangerous rusher – the free defender closest to the quarterback. Seattle didn’t need to block the backside edge as it was out of the game due to its broad alignment and path.
