Something I've noticed for a while now, not giving it up attention so I went back and looked at some games from the early 2000's and it RB depth in backfield and where QB is getting the RBs the ball has definitely gotten shallower. This might be so small it can be easily overlooked but in our zone run scheme it could make a huge difference.
Early 2000's our RBs were deeper in the backfield at least 7 yards. To go along with this and our zone run game, our QB would drive deep to get depth in the backfield in order to the ball to the RB deep in the backfield, essentially giving the back more time, better vision to see where the hole was or the cut back lane was going to be. Makes sense running a zone offense.
Looking back today and some more recent years (greg davis era to today). The QBs do not drive to get depth deep in backfield to get the ball to the RB. The QB is now waiting for the RB to receive the ball from them. By this time the RB is closer to the line of scrimmage and is a lot more committed to a specific hole which limits any sort of cut back lane they may have which is exactly what makes the zone run game extremely effective. RB's need depth to allow a play to develop, Offensive lineman need time to run their defenders out of the play, to allow the RB to find the hole.
Something I've notice, it could be so small it is over looked. It makes complete sense this trend started with Greg Davis arrival as I'm sure he put less emphasis on this detail and now it could be somewhat forgotten.
Early 2000's our RBs were deeper in the backfield at least 7 yards. To go along with this and our zone run game, our QB would drive deep to get depth in the backfield in order to the ball to the RB deep in the backfield, essentially giving the back more time, better vision to see where the hole was or the cut back lane was going to be. Makes sense running a zone offense.
Looking back today and some more recent years (greg davis era to today). The QBs do not drive to get depth deep in backfield to get the ball to the RB. The QB is now waiting for the RB to receive the ball from them. By this time the RB is closer to the line of scrimmage and is a lot more committed to a specific hole which limits any sort of cut back lane they may have which is exactly what makes the zone run game extremely effective. RB's need depth to allow a play to develop, Offensive lineman need time to run their defenders out of the play, to allow the RB to find the hole.
Something I've notice, it could be so small it is over looked. It makes complete sense this trend started with Greg Davis arrival as I'm sure he put less emphasis on this detail and now it could be somewhat forgotten.
