The Raiders Are Stuck With Derek Carr Unless Jon Gruden Modernizes His Offense Terminology
ONN – The Raiders Are Stuck With Derek Carr Unless Jon Gruden Modernizes His Offense Terminology – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube
Derek Carr was regularly the focus of trade rumors on the part of the former Oakland Raiders, now Las Vegas Raiders. The reason, initially, was the Raiders 8-win, 8-loss regular season record, at a time when many had pegged the Silver and Black for a trip to the NFL Playoffs.
Within that 8-win, 8-loss regular season record was the some-times great, other times spotty play of Quarterback Derek Carr. Overall, he was 4,103 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, and rated the 12th best QB in the league.
But what happened was Deshawn Watson, the 4th rated NFL QB, was the focus of giant trade rumors due to the turmoil in the Houston Texans’ front office. And while those trade rumors are still hot, the Texans are not willing to part with their star for anything less than a king’s ransom. That, I think, caused the Raiders to take a hard look at the Quarterback Market. In that look, the Silver and Black had to realize that the number of quarterbacks trained in the Bill Walsh-style of offense were not as plentiful as they used to be.
Today, Andy Reid, Matt Nagy, Doug Pederson, Frank Reich, John Harbaugh, Jon Gruden, Kyle Shanahan, and Mike McCarthy, are the ones who’s coaching experience directly extends from the Bill Walsh – Mike Holmgren – Andy Reid, “tree”. That “tree” contains knowledge of an offensive approach that’s based on timed passes, footwork, multiple formations, motion, and shifts. The coaches all script their first 15 plays, have play-action passes designed from a running attack that consists of end runs, off-tackle runs, and end-arounds, with an occasional use of runs from the I formation. But what the Bill Walsh Offense is most known for is its long play names.
The long play names separate the expert signal callers from the newbies. Mike Sherman, once the Sherman was the Packers coach and general manager from 2000-2005. After moving on from the Packers, Sherman took two jobs with the Texans, as assistant head coach in 2006, and then offensive coordinator, in 2007.
Mike Sherman’s last NFL job was with Miami as offensive coordinator from 2012-2013, where he built an offense around former Texas A&M Quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
Sherman has said that the complex terminology is one of the drawbacks of the West Coast.
“I think it goes back to Bill Walsh,” Sherman told ChiefsWire. “We didn’t really deal a whole lot with numbers, you paint pictures with words. The one negative with the West Coast offense is that it can become quite wordy. I think coach Walsh’s philosophy was that you paint a picture of the play with the words, so if a play was complicated, it became quite wordy.”
Sherman told ChiefsWire that the wordiness of the West Coast is being phased out with the use of the no huddle offense.
“Particularly with people running the no huddle offense and what not, so I do think people are trying to cut it back,” Sherman said. “The language of the West Coast offense like, Red right tight close swap G U corner halfback flat, people try to reduce that language into three or four words, where a quarterback isn’t spending all his time trying to learn the plays and say the plays in the huddle.”
It’s that process of “people try to reduce that language into three or four words” that Gruden has not taken the time to do; he’s stuck is using the old terminology. That also may explain why the Raiders are not a big user of the no-huddle offense. But it does explain why the Raiders will not part with Derek Carr as long as Jon Gruden is the head coach.
The newer QBs in the NFL come from systems that have shorter names and are designed to go no-huddle all of the times. And certainly Urban Meyer’s new job as Jacksonville Jaguars head coach will continue to trend away from the classic Bill Walsh approach, and more toward the faster offenses of today. In a few short years, Jon Gruden’s system will be considered antiquated. If Urban Meyer gets into the playoffs, his success will hasten moves away from Walsh’s long-winded terminology.
I think John would rather not spend a lot of time retraining another quarterback when he’s dealing with a new fan base and sponsors in Las Vegas and an owner in Mark Davis’s who’s hungry for a winning franchise.
Derek Carr and John Gruden are hitched to the Raiders fortunes together, for better or worse.
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