The Impact and Importance of Offensive Schemes for QBs

by Derrick Klassen

People are often under the misconception that any QB (or any player, for that matter) can play and succeed in any offensive scheme. Well, think about it this way: Can you fit a square peg into a round hole?

Photo credit to USC 

Whether it be positive or negative, scheming and play-calling certainly has an effect on QBs. It could limit the QB's effectiveness or it could drastically improve it. Smarter GMs know their coaches and their respective schemes and will draft and sign players accordingly.

A prime example of drafting players accordingly is Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco. Let's rewind and imagine that the Falcons took Flacco and the Ravens took Ryan. The Falcons offense is designed more to spread the field and use every inch of the field. Shorter passes are more common and deeper throws are rather rare. If Flacco were in this offense, he'd be restricted from taking advantage of his most impressive trait: his arm strength. Without being able to use his arm strength as often, a drop in production would be almost certain.

Now, turn the table and try to picture Matt Ryan in purple and black. Cam Cameron (although longer with the team, but was there Flacco's entire career until late 2012) runs a vertical attack offense that relies heavily on deep shots down the field. As you should already know, arm strength isn't one of Ryan's strong suits. Ryan can't get the ball down the field as quickly and as effectively as Flacco can. His deep balls have a bit more hang time on them and lead to more INTs. In Cameron's vertical attack offense, the amount of turnovers would have been unbearable to watch.

Even at the college level, QBs, such as Brett Hundley of UCLA, are being restricted due to play-calling and scheming. UCLA's offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone is holding Hundley back. Mazzone calls for the RB to run a swing pass almost every other play and he expects Hundley to go to the RB every time. Not only is the swing pass leaving the RB vulnerable to a lethal hit, but it's wasting Hundley's arm talent for constant 5 yard throws. These swing passes were called an uncountable amount of times against Stanford and UCLA walked away from that game without the PAC-12 championship. Although, against USC, Hundley was set free. Few swing passes were called, which enabled Hundley to play freely and do what he wanted to. UCLA won 38-28 with Hundley carrying the team.

As you turn to another PAC-12 team, USC, you see that short passes and screens actually benefit the QB. In 2012, the Trojans were lead by Matt Barkley. His arm talent is nothing more than average in any area from his touch to his arm strength. Screens of all sorts were a common theme at USC. Considering Barkley's lack of spectacular arm talent, the short passes in which the other players put in most of the work benefited the offenses effectiveness. Restricting the amount of throws Barkley made further down field kept USC turnovers at a minimum.

For better or for worse, QBs are impacted by their offensive scheme. No 2 QBs are the same and they should all be used according to their abilities. To answer the question from the beginning: No, a square peg will not fit into a round hole. It's that simple.