It's official - Al Saunders is our new offensive coordinator!

[70Chip]

I have to take issue with the Wikipedia link above. It claims that Gilman was the father of what is today known as the 'west coast' offense. Not so. What is now called the 'west coast' offense was developed by Paul Brown and Bill Walsh in Cincinatti in the early 1970s when the two coached together there. (call it the Ohio Valley offense) It was perfected and became famous when Joe Montana ran it for Walsh in San Francisco. This offense emphasises short controlled passes and was developed to allow a smaller team to control the clock without a power running game.

Gilman's offense, by contrast, emphasized deep passes and was the league standard for passing offenses prior to the emergence of the 'West Coast'.

Regarding Martz and Gibbs, I would suggest that in terms of the passing game the two have more, not less, in common. A qb coming from St. Louis to Washington would have much less to relearn than he would going to say Philadelphia or Green Bay where they run the west coast. Within an offense, one coach may emphasize run as Gibbs does now, or he may emphasize the pass as Martz does and Gibbs did in San Diego as the coordinator in 1979 and 1980. That's all.

In addition these offenses are constantly evolving so when one says 'west coast' offense or 'Joe Gibbs' offense, its a dynamic rather than static thing. Gibbs has said that offenses change about 30% a year. They steal things from other teams, think up new ideas, emphasize certain aspects to maximize talent, etc.