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More sophisticated route combinations that require more precise route running. Which is something that takes time for young guys to learn when they didn’t really have to at the beginning takes of their development.
Lashlee’s system was a lot more simpler because the goal is to create mismatches in the secondary & stretch the field to the perimeter setting up for long ball plays. It’s an offense where the Flanker & the Slot get the lions share of targets, which forces opposing Defenses to pull their Safety’s back into 2-deep & ultimately opens up the rest of the field. It’s an Outside to Inside offense that works mostly Mesh & Hi-Lo concepts, plus a lot of 2x2 Spread PA Curl Cross Post, which is basically designed for the Y to get to be the first read on a Deep crosser going against the face of the FS’s coverage Shell & then the Z runs a post on the backside of the Boundary & depending on whether it’s a 2-deep or single high, it’s basically gonna be a TD or a really big gain off the first two progressions, as long as it’s protected properly it’s a easy pitch & catch play where it simply puts Speed vs leverage against most Cover 3/4 looks.
Basically it was an offense that was designed to put pressure on the perimeter of the Defense & then when they would compensate for the Deep ball element of to the outside by shifting their Safeties into Deep coverage shells, that’s when you would see us attack the middle with H-back routes for Mallory like what we did vs Pitt in 2020 or vs LVille in 2020, or the seam route that Arroyo scored on vs Pitt in 2021.
In this system it’s an Inside to Outside predicated offense that works the from the middle to the outside. The routes are more based on timing & getting to a space as opposed to just attacking a zone. It’s the Joe Moorehead offensive philosophy that’s all about open ended Option routes, like Left squeeze 85 Fork, or Left squeeze Max X option; which is basically where the OL is all going to angle & push towards a specific side of the formation, the Z will run a short Hitch the Y runs a quick out & the X will run a Post on the outside if it’s Man or option it off to a deep out if it’s Zone. The first read is not the Deep route, it’s the inside. But the point being, is the WR’s on the outside, particularly the Flanker & the X have to be nearly perfect on their timing & route running to get the ball, because if they’re off a step it’s going to the checkdown or the underneath route because the primary read is the TE or the H with the A & B as a safety valve, the outside guys are in a way going to be used to pull Safeties away for the underneath routes in most cases anyway.
That’s why everyone (myself included) has been saying the TE’s are going to absolutely feast in this offense, because it’s designed for them to get the ball, just like last year’s offense was designed for the Flanker & the slot to get the ball. So if you’re an outside WR you’re not going to get schemed open as much off the formations & the route combos & concepts, it’s up to you to get yourself open because you’re not the primary focus of operation to move the ball down the field, which means you either better be a top tier route technician or have really good speed, or else you could find yourself in no man’s land if you can’t catch the ball consistently because opposing Defense aren’t being forced to backoff in coverage. They’re biting down which is making it so that you have to beat Man & even in quarters coverage vs Zone you have to be a crispy route runner.
What all this means is that, the staff after having evaluated the WR’s this Spring feel like they need to add a consistent Speedster on the outside because they’ve seen that the current guys are still working through getting more comfortable in this new offense that is a little more harder than last year’s, so they feel they need to bring in a vet with good speed who will be able to force Safeties to at the very least respect the deep ball. Because if not, we’d be looking at some really nasty coverages this season & would be hoping that our TE’s could beat bracket coverages.
Adding more speed on the perimeter opens up the offense & makes it easier on the TE’s, but for some odd reason our fans want our TE’s to have a tough time lol (I’m joking), but the point is, they want more speed on the outside because they realize they need a Deep threat that will help the rest of the offense operate at optimum level, they don’t want the field cut in half simply due to being stubborn. Which is very smart on their part.
