The Seattle Seahawks were the only team in the NFL in the 2018 season to run the ball more than they passed it, and they did so at a definitive level, with 534 rushing attempts and 427 passing attempts. Despite the presence of Russell Wilson, and Wilson’s subsequent status as the NFL’s highest-paid player, the Seahawks, under the auspices of head coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, have a very specific philosophy regarding mistake-proof offensive football, and the importance of running backs in that.
Seattle’s 24-22 loss to the Cowboys in the wild-card round of the playoffs was a point of frustration for Seahawks observers, because Wilson was playing out of his mind, but he threw the ball just 27 times — even when Dallas took a commanding lead 24-14 lead in the fourth quarter, and Wilson was then deputized to shave it down. Twelve of Wilson’s passing attempts came in the fourth quarter, and he completed nine of them for 106 yards. One wonders what Wilson would have been able to do with a heavier workload earlier in the game.
Schottenheimer must have wondered the same thing, because he started to devise ways to get running back Chris Carson more involved in the passing game.
“That’s obviously something that we went to right after the season ended and said, ‘Hey look, Chris can help us win games a lot of ways.’ And a lot of ways that he wasn’t last year was in the passing game,” Schottenheimer said in mid-August. “Something we went into, he and [running backs coach] Chad [Morton] the minute Chris came back had something to talk about.
“Chris was really excited about it. Again, we need to get that number up around the 50s. Would be a great situation for us. We are still getting his yards on the ground, and he’s still helping us in the passing game.”
OK. Getting Carson up to 50 touches is a change in philosophy, but what do those touches look like? Last season, Carson had 22 catches on 27 targets for 162 yards and no touchdowns. Not exactly earth-shattering numbers.
Schottenheimer’s decree that Carson should see 50 targets brought about an article by Ben Baldwin of The Athletic in which Baldwin asserted that throwing to running backs doesn’t really make any sense at all.
Using the Expected Points Added (EPA) metric, Baldwin made a compelling, though general, statistical case that running backs simply aren’t efficient in the passing game the way receivers and tight ends are — and that’s even when you eliminate the simple dump-offs to backs out of the backfield and factor in running backs catching passes from the slot.
Of course, as Baldwin also writes, eliminating entirely those dump-offs from his study — the kind of potentially negative plays receivers and tight ends don’t see nearly as much as running backs do — would certainly change the data.
Regardless, Schottenheimer seems ecstatic about the potential for Carson to succeed in the passing game and pointed to positive examples in the current NFL.
“A lot of the backs you see do that stuff are smaller backs,” Schottenheimer said, further detailing his philosophy. “You see the [James] White kid in New England. He’s an unbelievable athlete. [Alvin] Kamara is not a small back, but obviously he’s a really agile guy. People are understanding that getting the ball to your backs in space in the passing game is a good thing. They’re still as elusive as they are running the ball, so when you get them the ball out in space in the passing game it’s the same problem for the defense they have to make those plays out in space on really good athletes.”
When I asked Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll this week what made Carson a specific force multiplier in the passing game, he had this to say.
“Chris is a really natural athlete. He’s just so comfortable in all situations, in particular catching the football. He’s got great hands. He’s got an excellent catching range. He has the sense that good players have that catching the ball and getting on the move and really bursting and making things happen.
“We’d love to get him in space more. He’s now ready with all the protection stuff, and he’s a very good pass pro player guy. He just fits it right. Obviously, as we expand his role there, it just makes it more difficult for the defense to know whether he’s going to run it or he’s going to throw it or what we’re doing. We just like every aspect of that. Rashaad Penny, when he’s in the game, we think the same way. Rashaad is ready in the passing game as well. We are hoping that can be a nice aspect to the offense.”
Carroll also pointed out that defensive tackle Poona Ford has really good hands, though it would be an extreme departure to see the 5-foot-11, 310-pound Ford taking bubble screens up the seam.
Having a plan for your backs in the passing game is good. Knowing what the required attributes are? Also good. Getting the ball to your backs in space? Sounds like a good plan, Coach.
But if you’re going to design and execute a productive passing game around your backs in the modern NFL, you’d better be throwing more at enemy defenses than a bunch of screen/swing passes and simple Texas routes. That’s what Schottenheimer and the Seahawks must be prepared to do.
The inherent problems with throwing passes to running backs tend to intensify when teams treat their pass-catching running backs as just that and nothing else.
When Schottenheimer speaks about James White and Alvin Kamara, he’s referring to offensive coaches in Josh McDaniels and Sean Payton who look specifically for running backs with receiving attributes — experience in the passing game, good hands the the knowledge of how to use them, and the ability to compromise defenses in tandem with other receivers in route combinations. And then, coaches like McDaniels and Payton use those attributes to make the passing game more complicated to cover. These backs aren’t just easy first reads — they’re major cogs in advanced route concepts, and they can win versus multiple coverages on a consistent basis.
And if you don’t have that … well, you wind up with stuff like this, where Kirk Cousins misses on a dinky swing pass to running back C.J. Moe. The ball is tipped in part because Moe poses no downfield threat on the route, and Arizona’s defensive line can just tee off on the pass.
As Baldwin points out in his article, most passes to running backs don’t test defenses much in terms of downfield threats or air yards. And sometimes, that’s OK — if your quarterback needs a quick-release throw and the back is the first read, there’s nothing wrong with that in the structure of certain plays. But the default mechanism on a lot of teams, and with a lot of offensive coordinators, is to use their backs in the passing game as they’ve been used for decades. Things are different now. Defenses are more complex. Slot bullies that didn’t exist 10 years ago can take your flat pass out in the blink of an eye. Edge rushers who weigh 260 pounds and run three-cone drills at safety speed can sit and wait for your quarterback’s feeble swing passes and nuke them at the line of scrimmage.
As is the case with most things in the 2019 version of the NFL, new paradigms are needed. Fortunately, a few coaches have figured it out in their own ways.
Without question, the two most advanced and successful play-designers in today’s NFL, when it comes to thinking outside the box with their running backs, are Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan. Over the past few seasons, it’s not really close.
Patrick Mahomes’ 62-yard touchdown pass to running back Damien Williams in Week 3 of the 2019 preseason against the 49ers shows just one of many ways Reid successfully creates conflict against man coverage. The Chiefs used to kill opposing defenses with this when they had Kareem Hunt — especially heavy man- and match-coverage teams such as the Patriots and Broncos.
Here, it was San Francisco’s turn to take the cheese. With tight end Travis Kelce and receiver Sammy Watkins running quick in-cuts on the left side, the coverage left Solomon Thomas, a 6-foot-2, 280-pound defensive lineman, to chase Williams up the boundary.
As you’d expect, it didn’t go well.
“With the front that they were showing, I knew [Williams] was going to get matched up on a [defensive] end,” Mahomes said. “With Damien, he’s just as good of a runner as he is a pass catcher. I knew that was a good matchup. I went straight to it. He made a great catch, and he made a great move making that safety miss and outrunning guys to the end zone.”
Making the safety miss is important on such plays. The week before against the Steelers, the Chiefs tried the same concept to the other side. It fell incomplete in part because Pittsburgh brought hybrid linebacker Mark Barron up to shadow Williams up the chute in man coverage. The Steelers, who have been far more adept in man and match coverage this preseason, did what you do in these cases — they treated Williams as a receiver.
Of course, the Chiefs had experience with this play, as this 67-yard touchdown pass to Kareem Hunt in Week 6 of the 2018 season against the Patriots shows. It’s the same principle — two receivers moving inside in their routes to test coverage, and throw to the back running the wheel route upfield. Tyreek Hill, the motion receiver, isn’t dancing his way to the right side because he’s got ants in his pants. Clearly, he knows that based on the coverage, this is a touchdown waiting to happen with the one-on-one matchup between Hunt and cornerback Jason McCourty.
Back to Week 3 of the 2019 preseason, where the 49ers responded with a Kyle Shanahan staple: creating defensive conflict by putting a running back in the slot or outside, and letting him run free through the subsequent confusion. The Chiefs are all balled up here as receiver Kendrick Bourne cuts inside while running back Matt Breida takes off downfield from the left slot for a 20-yard touchdown pass.
Shanahan has been masterful for years when it comes to deploying his backs all over the formation to threaten coverage. He used these principles to help Matt Ryan to an MVP season in 2016, and he’ll use it to make Jimmy Garoppolo a better quarterback than he’d be in other offenses.
Now, if we’re talking about the best receiving back in the NFL from a pure skills perspective, my vote goes to Le’Veon Bell, who established himself as a weapon with the Steelers from 2013 through 2017. Bell held out the entire 2018 season in part because he believed he was more than just a running back, and should be paid as such. The Steelers didn’t bend on that. The Jets did, signing Bell to a four-year, $52.5 million contract with $35 million guaranteed, and a maximum of $61 million if he reaches every possible incentive.
Whether Bell will live up to that contract is one thing, but he was right when it came to the notion that he was more than just a running back — with the Steelers, Bell developed the kind of receiving ability to make it in the NFL on that skill alone. In 2016, Bell led all running backs with 32.6 routes run per game — that was more than Julio Jones or Jarvis Landry. And no player gained more yards from scrimmage per game in his first four NFL seasons than Bell, with 128.7.
The routes Bell ran weren’t just the simple stuff most running backs see. On this 19-yard touchdown pass against the Jaguars in the divisional round of the 2017 playoffs, watch how Bell works a switch release from the right slot as Antonio Brown runs a skinny post from outside. Telvin Smith was one of the NFL’s most athletic linebackers that season, but he wasn’t going to keep up with Bell down the boundary.
And this 10-yard touchdown against the Bengals in October, 2014, is one of the filthier option routes you’ll ever see a running back run. Here, Bell shoots out of the backfield with a two-way go against linebacker Emmanuel Lamur. Bell’s ability to kill with movement off coverage leaves Lamur in the dust. It’s a common complaint from linebackers who have had to deal with Bell.
Though Bell’s roles as a receiver were regimented to a degree, former Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley said in March — just after Bell signed with the Jets — that it may take some time for Jets quarterback Sam Darnold to get the hang of things with his new primary back, because the chemistry between Bell and Ben Roethlisberger allowed Bell to be a “feel” receiver. Sid Gillman, one of the greatest offensive coaches in NFL history, used to tell his receivers to run routes as “feelings” when they were in option situations. It’s a high compliment for any receiver from his play-designer to let him off the chain to that degree.
“This is where the young quarterback will hurt [Bell] maybe a little bit,” Haley told ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “Darnold does have some of that freestyle, ‘feel’ play, which could help, but Ben was so good. Even though Le’Veon was in protection and had an assignment to block a guy — he’d block and block and block — and he’d release at the last possible second. Ben just had such field vision that he could just dump it to him. Those were some of his biggest plays for us in the passing game.
“He’s a ‘feel’ runner, and he’s a ‘feel’ receiver,” Haley said of Bell. “I was there from the start, and it was a lot of work and a lot of practice between those two that helped build that.”
Think about how Haley described Bell’s evolution as a receiver. He was talking about second-level instinct plays that came about after tons of reps, and enough success to engender trust between quarterback and receiver. It was more than just getting your running back in space, as it is for all the NFL’s best dealers in these types of concepts, and it’s that kind of expansive thinking that allows running backs as receivers to transcend any universal analytical result.
It’s the same with players at any position — when they’re asked to do more than the norm, they tend to bend what the norm can be.
