Thomas Brown has stepped into a familiar situation. Last year, he was forced to take over play-calling from Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich as he was on the hot seat. Now here he is again, trying to salvage another #1 overall pick who saw his original play-caller, Shane Waldron, fired for incompetence. It isn’t a desirable spot to be in. Still, Brown deserves credit for accepting the challenge. First and foremost on the agenda is figuring out how to help Caleb Williams get out of his current funk.
The quarterback has been sacked 18 times in the past three games. It is clear he’s second-guessing himself, holding the ball too long, and afraid to take risks. Many fear he’s been broken. Brown doesn’t think that is the case. His objective moving forward is simple. According to Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times, the goal is to get Williams focused on taking the plays available. If the first read is open? Take it. Is it open again on the next play? Take it. Don’t ignore decent options in favor of big-play hunting.
New offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, in concert with quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph, is reemphasizing decisiveness this week.
They don’t want Williams to play cautiously, but they want him to take what’s available quickly. As Joseph explained Thursday, Williams should hit the first open player as he works through his progressions rather than bypassing decent options in the hope of making a bigger play.
“When we do that, those plays become ‘unsackable’ because the ball is out of our hands,” Joseph said.
Thomas Brown’s plan for Caleb Williams has common sense.
Every team wants to hit big plays, which are essential to a successful offense. However, they are almost impossible to pull off when the quarterback lacks rhythm. That has been a constant issue for Williams over the past month. Waldron kept calling slow-developing plays intended to strike down the field. The problem was that it allowed defenses to call relentless blitzes, which the offensive line couldn’t block. Williams had no outlets when this happened, leading to sacks.
Brown employed a similar philosophy with Bryce Young last season. It seemed to yield results. The quarterback’s three highest passer ratings of the season came when Brown was calling plays. He also had two of his three games above 70% completions under Brown. That should offer a good window into what Caleb Williams can expect moving forward. This new offense will be focused on getting the ball out of his hands, getting in rhythm, and staying ahead of the sticks. It sounds simple, but executing it will be the hard part.
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The logic is obviously sound. But it’s not like Waldon told CW to not throw to his 1st read if it’s open… I mean.. it’s the 1st read for a reason. But if the overall emphasis is on getting the ball out quicker, I’m def down for that. Gotta start taking the easy plays right in front of your face. Can’t go big game hunting every play.
Read the blog spooky-doo.
It’s pretty simple. Mix in the some quick passing plays along with the ground attack, to get the defense to back off from the blitz, and then throw in some play action. I would run 12 personnel leaving in 2 TEs to help protect the edges from clobbering Caleb. They need to get Caleb in a rhythm. Something that Waldron couldn’t do to save his life. Quick 3 step drop passing plays is how you do that. Slants, hitches, whip routes, screens, etc. 1, 2, 3, Fire. 1, 2, 3, Fire. Bam, Bam, Bam. Also I noticed that Waldron stopped… Read more »
That Shane Waldron continued to call slow-developing plays while the pocket was collapsing in a second or two drove me out of my mind. I mean how the hell could he not see what we were all seeing and screaming the solution at our TV screens? And why the hell wasn’t Eberflus screaming the solution into his face on the sidelines like we were screaming at Waldron on our TVs?
I didn’t read the blog, but I’m assuming it said, “2.5 seconds, throw, 2.5 seconds, throw…”.