One of the questions facing Redskins Coach Jay Gruden this offseason is how he might adjust his offensive playbook for new quarterback Alex Smith.
With Smith under center last season, the Chiefs were referred to as a “college offense” at times, thanks to their use of concepts more commonly seen in the college game, like run-pass option packaged plays. Similar run-pass options, or RPOs, were successfully used in the postseason by the Jaguars and Eagles, who added more of them to their playbook after Nick Foles took over at quarterback for the injured Carson Wentz.
Gruden has already confirmed the Redskins will look to incorporate some RPOs into their playbook.
“I think as a change-up every now and then it can be a great weapon, a great tool for you. Not only to get the running game box in your favor but also to take advantage of some looks in the passing game if they’re there,” Gruden explained to Grant Paulsen and Craig Hoffman on 106.7 The Fan. “You can’t do it all the time, but I think as a change-up it’s good to get easy completions and get the ball out of the quarterback’s hand, but also it helps the running game because it helps loosen up the box for you and give these backs some good running lanes for them to run through.”
One of the most basic and common RPOs that is seen around the league is an inside run packaged with a bubble screen.
This type of RPO gives Smith a simple read pre-snap to make his decision. He counts the number of defenders in the box against the number of defenders over the bubble screen and makes his decision based on the most favorable count. Here, the Titans have four defenders over the bubble screen, leaving just five in the box against five blockers. That gives the offense a huge advantage as there is no unblocked defender available in the box to account for the running back.
That leads to a huge running lane for the running back, who picks up five yards before even being touched by a defender.
The Chiefs used this concept regularly, but had multiple ways of getting to it.
This time, the Chiefs line up wide receiver Tyreek Hill to the right and send him in motion to the left behind the quarterback. As he runs in motion, the ball is snapped. Smith can either hand off or throw the screen to Hill, who already has a running start to build up momentum.
The Titans stack the box, with a safety rotating down as Hill crosses the field in motion. That tells Smith to pull the ball and throw the screen to Hill. The corners do a good job winning their blocks and restricting space for Hill to work with, but he still manages to pick up three yards on the play.
Another type of RPO the Chiefs used often involved keying a particular defender and making the decision to hand off based on his reaction to the snap.
Instead of reading the numbers in the box pre-snap, the quarterback has to read a particular player, in this case the weakside, or Will, linebacker. If the linebacker steps up to play the run, Smith can throw the slant to Hill in the vacated space behind him. But if the linebacker drops into coverage, Smith will hand it off knowing he has a favorable box count.
The Will reads run and steps up toward the line of scrimmage, telling Smith to keep the ball and throw to Hill, who picks up 26 yards on the play before being tackled.
The Redskins ran this play last season against the Chargers in Week 14.
Ryan Grant was the receiver to make the catch, but didn’t quite have the speed to break away from the defense. This is perhaps a concept the Redskins could look to run with new addition Paul Richardson, who has the speed to run away from defenders.
The Chiefs had various twists on their RPO concepts, like this one.
The idea of this concept is to isolate a receiver on the back side of a run, usually tight end Travis Kelce, and have him run an out route.
With six defenders in the box and Kelce isolated one-on-one on the back side, Smith opts to keep the ball and throw the quick out to Kelce for a simple completion and solid gain.
The Redskins could also look to Kevin O’Connell, who was just promoted from quarterbacks coach to passing game coordinator, for other RPO concepts. O’Connell served as the quarterbacks coach in San Francisco in 2016 under Chip Kelly. Kelly didn’t necessarily bring RPOs to the NFL during his time with the Eagles and 49ers, but he certainly popularized them. One of his favorite RPOs is the tight end pop pass.
This concept works similarly to the RPO slant, with the quarterback reading a specific defender for his key to hand off or throw.
The quarterback reads pass, so he pulls the ball from the running back and hits the tight end up the seam for a big gain.
While Gruden said he sees it as a change-of-pace option, the success of RPOs has spread quickly around the league, most noticeably with the Eagles during their Super Bowl run. There are various types of RPOs used around the NFL and even more in college football. In Smith and O’Connell, the Redskins have two strong resources experienced in RPOs in their own building.
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