Double Your Use of TEs in the Passing Game, Involve Your Possession WR, Everything Else Falls in Place

[MyFairLady]

The modern NFL offense is explosive. The actual rules are changed every year to benefit explosive offense. You are trying to drag us back into the past. We need to be moving forward.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

Balance, diversity of targets and varying depth throws all while operating at a high rate of efficiency are key.

Or scheming the heck out of your opposition and hammering a weakness until they prove they can stop it.

Those things are all tools to generate big plays through the air.

TEs who don't get downfield (so, all but a handful in the league) are only valuable to the pass game insofar as they can exploit matchups underneath. You can't generate those matchups without deep threats.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

Ok but Dallas doesn't have a downfield threat at TE.

Okay....that may be. Didnt we just draft a....stud? Just for blocking and dump offs? Ugh.

 

[beware_d-ware]

Those things are all tools to generate big plays through the air.

TEs who don't get downfield (so, all but a handful in the league) are only valuable to the pass game insofar as they can exploit matchups underneath. You can't generate those matchups without deep threats.

That's my one silver lining with Schoon. He can run, and that's basically the only way that TEs can become game changers.

I was watching a Brett Kollmann video last night on Tampa 2. Would highly recommend it for any Cowboys fan. It gives a lot of insight on Dan Quinn's defense.

Anyway, he broke down one of Nick Saban's staple defensive calls, which is Cover 3 against trips. Notice how the TE is lined up on the LB in man there.

If that TE really is crossing to the weak side of the field, and he runs fast, he could cross that LB's face and open up late in the play for a huge gain. He can break that defensive concept just with sheer speed. But if you have say a 6'2" 240 lb LB running a 4.7, and you put a 6'5" 240 lb Dalton Schultz on him running a 4.7, Schultz is going to struggle to separate.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

That's my one silver lining with Schoon. He can run, and that's basically the only way that TEs can become game changers.

I was watching a Brett Kollmann video last night on Tampa 2. Would highly recommend it for any Cowboys fan. It gives a lot of insight on Dan Quinn's defense.

Anyway, he broke down one of Nick Saban's staple defensive calls, which is Cover 3 against trips. Notice how the TE is lined up on the LB in man there.

If that TE really is crossing to the weak side of the field, and he runs fast, he could cross that LB's face and open up late in the play for a huge gain. He can break that defensive concept just with sheer speed. But if you have say a 6'2" 240 lb LB running a 4.7, and you put a 6'5" 240 lb Dalton Schultz on him running a 4.7, Schultz is going to struggle to separate.

Fundamentally, yea, this is what you want, but you're wrong on the personnel part.

Schoon ran a 4.63, that's not fast enough to do anything that Schultz didn't. Instead, you exploit this look with a WR - the Cowboys do it with CD all the time on the deep crossers. And, the LB you're talking about is a) virtually nonexistent and b) is never going to be in 1-1 coverage like this in nickel packages.

As far as scheme goes, if you have that fast TE, just swap the FS and SS roles. The SS takes the weakside buzz and the Mike plays a strongside zone.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

Okay....that may be. Didnt we just draft a....stud? Just for blocking and dump offs? Ugh.

A stud TE is just a slow WR in the passing game. Outside of basically Kelce and Kittle, none of them regularly create any separation.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

A stud TE is just a slow WR in the passing game. Outside of basically Kelce and Kittle, none of them regularly create any separation.

We've had tes here do quite well upfield. I mean i cant argue (yet) that we have a mid/downfield te....but not a rare species.

 

[Pass2Run]

Ok but Dallas doesn't have a downfield threat at TE.

They have two: Schoon and Hendershot.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

We've had tes here do quite well upfield. I mean i cant argue (yet) that we have a mid/downfield te....but not a rare species.

Dallas hasn't had a downfield threat at TE in a decade.

Yes, TEs will occasionally get open there, but it's not as if defenses have to worry about it.

 

[Pass2Run]

WR targets are a lot more productive than TE targets, all things being equal.

That doesn't mean you just go out and target your WRs 50 times, there is more nuance to it than that. But I would be very skeptical about systematically increasing TE targets at WRs' expense.

Targeting TEs makes the defense have to account for them, which helps the WRs and RBs.

I'm pretty sure we weren't in the top half of the league in TE targets. If we were, oh well. There's still room to target them more.

Our running game and passing game should be more potent. Our trio of TEs should be utilized more than they were last year. It'll help the entire offense if they divise the right scheme.