David Blough and the Offensive Staffing Thread

[Voice_of_Reason]

True, but, he's clearly a focal point of the offense this coming year. He was also a 7th round rookie. Most rookies have holes they need to address, let alone ones drafted this late.

If I recall his pass pro grades with PFF improved, for what it's worth.

He might be a focal point. He might not be. That’s yet to be determined by how much he’s learned over the year and how the other guys do.

It would be fantastic if he develops into a really good starting caliber running back.

But he wasn’t there last year. We haven’t see. Him play since January. We won’t see him again until August.

So we effectively know nothing more about him now than we knew 5 months ago.

We’ll see, though. He definitely has the potential to grab the starting spot and hold onto it.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

He might be a focal point. He might not be. That’s yet to be determined by how much he’s learned over the year and how the other guys do.

It would be fantastic if he develops into a really good starting caliber running back.

But he wasn’t there last year. We haven’t see. Him play since January. We won’t see him again until August.

So we effectively know nothing more about him now than we knew 5 months ago.

We’ll see, though. He definitely has the potential to grab the starting spot and hold onto it.

You mentioned a lot about him which is all true but scheme and fit will matter a lot as well. It may even be rhe case that Blough finds his “voice” only mid year this year. I understand sometimes you develop your tempo and style only as you go. So… we will see. I am thinking Blough week 1 may not be the same as Blough week 8.

It may be the case the guys he thinks he will gel with in week 1 get replaced as he finds that voice too. I would consider that a good sign, and I expect it from Blough’s profile.

I would expect there will be some real challenges early this year. Stupid Eagles early with a new OC. Wow. Not to mention DC but I am less worried there because of the experience difference.

 

[Chris]

Meandering conversation but some focus on David Blough and the new offense…

 

[RedWolf]

More quotes and tweets here...

David Blough: Jayden Daniels embracing offense; Moving Terry around more

David Blough talks about players adapting to his new offense, and competition at every position

www.hogshaven.com

 

[Conn]

I’ve been one who’s questioned how quickly Blough can get things rolling as an inexperienced OC, even if he DOES have “it”. Being a great communicator is one of the most powerful shortcuts available to him, major plus:



But it’s also the major skill (along with his football brain if he does prove to be a wunderkind) that would make another team want to promote him at a young age (again). So if Daniels lights the league on fire for Blough, we’re going to really have some tough decisions on our hands very quickly.

That’s getting ahead of ourselves, he needs to be good first. But having a respected football mind, a strength in communicating your ideas to players, and an elite QB talent pulling the trigger for you…those are like THE three attributes that create a future offensive HC in this league, these days.

 

[skinzplay]

The most recent Keim podcasts point to player enthusiasm about an offense that allows them to actually exploit match-ups, target the D's weaknesses and have built-in "wins" against certain defensive schemes. He also mentioned that the TEs will fare markedly better in this offense and should be able to really display their skill sets.

 

[KDawg]

All offenses are designed to do all of those things. Not saying this one is or isn’t better. But this is all off-season fluff right now.

That said, I’m glad to hear people talking positively. That is usually a good sign.

 

[DWinzit]

The most recent Keim podcasts point to player enthusiasm about an offense that allows them to actually exploit match-ups, target the D's weaknesses and have built-in "wins" against certain defensive schemes. He also mentioned that the TEs will fare markedly better in this offense and should be able to really display their skill sets.

There is more enthusiasm from all of the coaches and players on both sides of the ball than a recall in a long time.

It makes me feel better about both new coordinators. Much of their values touch on what their predecessors failed on.

It all sounds great! Now it's just trying to get it to all gel

 

[Conn]

All offenses are designed to do all of those things. Not saying this one is or isn’t better. But this is all off-season fluff right now.

That said, I’m glad to hear people talking positively. That is usually a good sign.

You’re right, but I took it as commentary in direct comparison to a lot of what we saw under Kliff. We rarely singled out and attacked a team’s 5th string DB if a team had injuries like ours, we mostly kept Terry static on one side of the formation and didn’t use motion to move him around and get him open, we rarely used play action to set anything up, things just felt disjointed unless Jayden was personally taking over a game. Even in 2024 when we went to the NFCCG, it was like succeeding on hard mode at times

Which is part of why even though a lot of our overall offensive numbers under Kliff had him popular with some fans, other fans wanted to move on

So while every offense should be doing those things, we haven’t been seeing it

Who knows if we’ll actually see it play out under Blough. Hopefully

 

[KDawg]

You’re right, but I took it as commentary in direct comparison to a lot of what we saw under Kliff. We rarely singled out and attacked a team’s 5th string DB if a team had injuries like ours, we mostly kept Terry static on one side of the formation and didn’t use motion to move him around and get him open, we rarely used play action to set anything up, things just felt disjointed unless Jayden was personally taking over a game. Even in 2024 when we went to the NFCCG, it was like succeeding on hard mode at times

Which is part of why even though a lot of our overall offensive numbers under Kliff had him popular with some fans, other fans wanted to move on

So while every offense should be doing those things, we haven’t been seeing it

Who knows if we’ll actually see it play out under Blough. Hopefully

I disagree. I think Kliff’s offense did fairly well in taking advantage of matchups. Where it was less effective is creating matchups, which hopefully Blough can do through motion and alignment.

Kliff’s lack of motion was one of my only critiques.

 

[Conn]

I disagree. I think Kliff’s offense did fairly well in taking advantage of matchups. Where it was less effective is creating matchups, which hopefully Blough can do through motion and alignment.

Kliff’s lack of motion was one of my only critiques.

It’s a hard thing to quantify, but it rarely felt like that to me watching. But then again, the creating matchups vs taking advantage of matchups is something I may be conflating.

My issue with attacking matchups was often in our no-huddle (which people often confused as being hurry up), where we substituted so often that we had to let the D also substitute in high leverage situations, and we were giving up a lot of the advantage I think you can find when you don’t huddle and get back to the line, if you can catch the D with personnel they don’t want to have running up and down the field.

And that’s where having more well-rounded skill players (and specifically more talent at TE alongside Ertz) may have helped Kliff out. But even considering personnel, he did himself no favors with the frequent subbing imo, it also often led to us snapping the ball predictably right before being penalized, as allowing subs let defenders take their sweet time, making jumping the snap easier for the D

 

[KDawg]

It’s a hard thing to quantify, but it rarely felt like that to me watching. But then again, the creating matchups vs taking advantage of matchups is something I may be conflating.

My issue with attacking matchups was often in our no-huddle (which people often confused as being hurry up), where we substituted so often that we had to let the D also substitute in high leverage situations, and we were giving up a lot of the advantage I think you can find when you don’t huddle and get back to the line, if you can catch the D with personnel they don’t want to have running up and down the field.

And that’s where having more well-rounded skill players (and specifically more talent at TE alongside Ertz) may have helped Kliff out. But even considering personnel, he did himself no favors with the frequent subbing imo, it also often led to us snapping the ball predictably right before being penalized, as allowing subs let defenders take their sweet time, making jumping the snap easier for the D

I think the frequent subs were due to a lack of well rounded talent more than something he really wanted philosophically.

 

[Faithful Fan]

Some good analysis here that would explain a lot of the changes we’ve made to the offense this off-season:

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

It’s a hard thing to quantify, but it rarely felt like that to me watching. But then again, the creating matchups vs taking advantage of matchups is something I may be conflating.

My issue with attacking matchups was often in our no-huddle (which people often confused as being hurry up), where we substituted so often that we had to let the D also substitute in high leverage situations, and we were giving up a lot of the advantage I think you can find when you don’t huddle and get back to the line, if you can catch the D with personnel they don’t want to have running up and down the field.

And that’s where having more well-rounded skill players (and specifically more talent at TE alongside Ertz) may have helped Kliff out. But even considering personnel, he did himself no favors with the frequent subbing imo, it also often led to us snapping the ball predictably right before being penalized, as allowing subs let defenders take their sweet time, making jumping the snap easier for the D

We seem to be disagreeing on a lot these days.

But on the topic of Kliff substituting too much and still going no huddle, and then not using shifts and motion. We agree.

It was one of my biggest criticisms as well.

If you’re going to go no huddle, then you’ve got to just keep the guys on the field and go. The minute you start trying to mix and match packages you slow down and eliminate the advantage you get from no huddle.

The best no huddle offense I’ve ever seen is the 00’s Colts. But they had the advantage of having HOF level players in Manning, Harrison, Wayne and Edgein James. And while not on rhe same level, Dallas Clark was a heck of a versatile TE. They could just line up and go.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

DECONSTRUCTED: How David Blough is REBUILDING Commanders Offense by Putting His Players First​

 

[MartinC]

I disagree. I think Kliff’s offense did fairly well in taking advantage of matchups. Where it was less effective is creating matchups, which hopefully Blough can do through motion and alignment.

Kliff’s lack of motion was one of my only critiques.

Pros and cons to use of motion. If the offense moves, so does the defense - muddies the read for the QB, especially a young QB. I like motion if you can get it done early, allows you to disguise formations, gives you reads on coverages and helps you create matchups. But I don’t like motion late on the snap clock. I think you want time with everyone set for the QB to make his pre snap reads with a settled look.,

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

Pros and cons to use of motion. If the offense moves, so does the defense - muddies the read for the QB, especially a young QB. I like motion if you can get it done early, allows you to disguise formations, gives you reads on coverages and helps you create matchups. But I don’t like motion late on the snap clock. I think you want time with everyone set for the QB to make his pre snap reads with a settled look.,

The best OL coach in the league (Stoutland for the Eagles) hated motion and tried to take it out of their playbooks. Thankfully he's gone now right when their OL shows signs of deteriorating too.

There's definitely a good side and a bad side to motion.

Personally I love the Peyton style of motion, do it early enough to give you a read on what the D is doing and then you can motion them backwards to reset it or keep it if the D is showing a flaw.

 

[burgold]

I love the early man vs. zone key read aspect

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Personally I love the Peyton style of motion, do it early enough to give you a read on what the D is doing and then you can motion them backwards to reset it or keep it if the D is showing a flaw.

Those Peyton offenses, mostly at the Colts but also the Broncos, were just so good at doing so much stuff.

However, they also utilized something which Kliff got criticized for: they didn't motion or switch outside WRs. Like, ever. Marvin Harrison lined up on the right, Wayne on the left. Literally every single snap. And they didn't do a heck of a lot of motion with them. (ESPN Article which goes into some detail on this.) Also, those offenses were primarily no-huddle. Also something Kliff got criticized for.

The motion they did was with TEs and RBs, and sometime slot WRs. But they just left the outside guys exactly where they were. However, it helps to have a HOF QB (Manning), HOF WR (Harrison) and a should-be HOF WR in Wayne. I'm not sure why he's not in. And for the time James was the RB, a HOF RB as well. Dallas Clark was also a hell of a good TE, and really underappreciated. He always seemed to come up with a critical catch when they needed it. That level of talent really allows you to do just about anything offensively and have it work.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Can I just say I really wish we weren't telling everybody we're going to be under center a bunch and use heavy play action? I mean, play action is by it's very nature intended to show the defense one thing and then do another. Why are we so insistent on telling people the overall plan? Assuming it's not a lie.