Sportsfrog.com

I’ve got a lot of ill feelings about the current state of the NFL that are still boiling up to the top.
In sum, it’s disgusted me lately, to the point where I’ve now tuned out much of what I used to fully immerse myself in.

The level of soap opera like, talk show ish, mundanely detailed and commercially manufactured ‘drama’ that comprises almost the entirely of what passes for ‘NFL news’ these last few years (and specifically this year) makes me start missing hockey season earlier and earlier.

So, with the Hall of Fame game behind us, let’s talk about something meaningful.

In my opinion, taking a Bill James-like approach to football wouldn’t involve in the evaluation of statistics. Instead, the values and advantages of rethinking how the philosophy of football is approached revolves more around the manipulation of ‘positions’ and formations.

And it’s nice to see there are coaches out there progressing with working examples of innovations that can be offered.

See the second part of this Football Outsiders article about the A11 Offense:

“Here’s the short version: California prep coaches Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries concocted a scheme in which, theoretically, any one of the 11 offensive players could be an eligible receiver. The offense lines up in an extreme spread formation with three traditional offensive linemen, two quarterbacks (you read that right) in shotgun, and six players split wide, four on the line and two off it. Once the offense sets, the five “interior linemen” (two of whom are actually split) are ineligible. That leaves six eligible receivers; because the quarterbacks are in shotgun, either could catch a pass. But until the offense sets, it is hard to tell who is a receiver and who is a blocker, and with some creative scheming, even the center could be eligible.”

Follows these links for more words and images: Football Outsiders: Two Deep Zone and A11 Offense.

The Football Outsiders story, written by Mike Tanier, has some great comments on how this – like the option and spread option – won’t work on a regular basis in the NFL. But it’s still something that could 1) be fun for both players and fans and 2) make the other teams spend time preparing for.

More than any other sport, the scripting nature of football is ultimately suited towards seeking advantage in getting your players who do something well in a position to do that very thing they can do. And there are a lot of ways that the game of football, as we see it today, isn’t taking advantage of this fundamental principle.