West Coast Offense - Good, Bad or Ugly?

[Defensewins]

Originally Posted by Ade Jimoh Fan Club

I know we have some smart football folks on this site - I was wondering what you thought about the switch to the West Coast Offense, specifically:

1) Is it just me or is this a terrible move for Campbell? He throws a sweet, sweet long ball, but his short dinks and dumps are horid. They are almost always off target - he just doesn't have that touch in his arsenal. Since this pretty much IS the West Coast Offense, do you think Campbell can change this part of his game, or is the beginning of the end for him...?

2) We definitely have the perfect receivers for this offense; fast, speedy, RAC WR's. Plus Portis has shown himself to be a great (and in my opinion, underutilzed) receiver. Do you think we are good in this area?

3) What does this mean for the O-Line? I know we had a lot of injuries last year, but they group should be starting next year intact and we all know they are a pretty good group of linemen. Does the West Coast Offense call for a different set of O-Lineman? (i.e. smaller and more agile?)

4) We all know that the priorities for the draft are D-Linemen and DB's. Is the move to West Coast Offense going to re-prioritize any of our draft picks?

Thanks for your input!

THE ADE

Mr. Ade,
Very good post. You ask some very important questions.
The true WCO puts a lot more of the pressure and responsibility on the QB, more so than our last system. The West Coast Offense employs a variety of formations and pre-snap motion designed to confuse defenders. This can also confuse young QB's.
The WCO uses the short passing game in place of running the ball so much, so the amount of throwing is going to automatically increase compared to last year. The WCO passes the ball at least 60% of the time. In some cases like the Eagles, even more then 60%. The WCO tries to avoid tendencies that defenses can key on so they throw on any down to diffrent parts of the field. In order to run the true WCO successfully Campbell will need to be ready mentally.
One more thing, Gibbs protected Campbell by running the ball more and keeping a TE or a back in to provide extra blocking. That goes against the WCO philosophy which relys heavily on an ability to flood a defense with more receivers than they can handle.