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“In the shotgun, their eyes are never off the defense, there’s very little play action pass, they almost have a pre-snap, pre-determined read with where to go with the ball and then all of a sudden they’re in a pro system,” Senior Bowl executive director Phil Savage said in January of quarterbacks forced to make the shift.
“They’re having to actually call plays in the huddle, go under center, turn their back to the line, play action fake, now the coverage has moved and on top of that, the guys on the other side are pretty good too. ... Same sport, two different games.”
Being under center can also present mechanical issues. Taking a three-step or five-step drop is often new to quarterbacks who were asked to do little more than turn their shoulders and fire in shotgun.
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles has struggled with accuracy early in his NFL career, and much of that has been attributed to his poor footwork after playing often in the shotgun at UCF.
"Every day, we try to hone it down to a couple of things, whether it's footwork or understanding a situation or situationally," Jaguars offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett told the Florida Times-Union in 2015, when he was a quarterbacks coach. "Sometimes, I think we have to all sit back and go, 'Wow, he's still very young.'"
Bortles is just one of many quarterbacks who has been inconsistent while moving to an offense that asks for an increased amount of time under center.
An NFL playbook is basically a phonebook
Davis Webb got a taste of the transition to an NFL offense when he participated in the Senior Bowl in January. After the first day of practice with Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson, Webb said the biggest challenge had little to do with what was happening on the field.
“I’ve done a pretty good job of going read to read and understanding the concepts, understanding the protections,” Webb said. “I think it’s just the verbiage and the length of the play and saying it in the huddle, actually huddling up, controlling the snap count. But those are all things that can be done, though. It’s the nuances of an NFL offense.”
An Air Raid play card could have as few as 50 plays, relying on the spread-out formations to present as many options as possible and create an open target without necessarily asking a receiver to beat a defensive back.That means tighter windows and a whole lot more information to process, diagnose, memorize, and relay to teammates.“Some guys can handle that; some guys can't,” Jackson said in March. “Some guys can handle it early, and some guys can't. I think those are the things we have to find out. Some guys might be really able to process football but can't play as well. Some guys play as well and can't process football.”When the Rams selected Jared Goff with the No. 1 pick a year ago, they intended to give him an entire year on the sideline to adjust to the NFL. But then the team tanked with Case Keenum at quarterback, and Goff replaced him late in the year. Goff threw just five touchdowns and seven interceptions.
New Rams quarterbacks coach Greg Olson believes that had plenty to do with the verbiage of an NFL offense.
“A lot of things he was doing at Cal, he did it at the line of scrimmage with one-word codes,” Olson told the Los Angeles Times. “There’s a little bit more to that in the NFL.”Goff’s difficulty with the NFL playbook looks like a hurdle for most of the 2017 class, as well. And many passers, like Goff, won’t get much time to figure things out.
