Take it from the Super Bowl legend. The man with the brand-new ring. The man who etched his name into football lore by catching a toss and throwing a touchdown on the same immortal play, Philly Special.
Trey Burton is a Super Bowl champion in no small part because of how option concepts have proliferated among NFL offenses over the last few seasons.
That schematic evolution also helped him hit the free-agency jackpot with the Bears. Last season in the Eagles' option-filled, high-octane offense, Burton had five touchdowns on 23 catches. Pretty darn good for a third-string tight end.
So pay attention when Burton describes how option concepts have come to affect defenses during his four seasons in the league.
"They're unguardable," he said with a smile. "The RPOs (run-pass options), when we get to the line of scrimmage and are able to check to certain plays based on coverages, you make it unguardable.
"The old way of NFL (was) you line up and you run this play no matter how many guys are in the box, no matter what coverage it is. So we're kind of evolving the game, and the defensive guys can never be right no matter what they do."
Offenses have the answer key, as Burton sees it. Not a bad way to operate.
It's no coincidence, then, that the Bears hired Matt Nagy to be the head coach who oversees quarterback Mitch Trubisky's career. Nagy is a longtime pupil of Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who has led the option movement at the NFL level.
Nagy, in turn, hired Mark Helfrich to be his offensive coordinator. Helfrich was the coordinator and then head coach of Oregon and its up-tempo spread option attack from 2009-16.
So get ready, Bears fans, for option football. Option runs and run-pass options _ from a variety of formations and personnel groupings. It won't be the centerpiece of Nagy's scheme, but it will be a major part of it. And an entertaining one at that.
Nagy calls it "college stuff," a cheeky reference to how option concepts have trickled up from lower levels of football. The results, however, are anything but elementary.
"You saw with Philadelphia, they had a lot of success," Nagy said. "They had fun with it. That's what we're going to do. We're going to put our own little spin on it and see how our guys fit."
