Is Kliff Kingsbury's Offense Too Basic for Washington Commanders?

preseason takes that offensive coordinator Cliff kingsberry system might be a little too vanilla for the Washington commanders to fully Thrive off of ironically enough to me seem a little bit Bland that and more on today's episode of lock on commanders you are locked on commanders your daily podcast on the Washington commanders part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday and welcome in everybody to today's episode of Locked on commanders part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I'm your host David Harrison credential member of the media covering the Washington commanders for Sports Illustrated commander game day.com and I'm here with you every Monday through Friday along with our every dayers every dayers greatly appreciate you for coming through for today's episode this is your daily podcast covering the Washington commanders and if you haven't already you can subscribe for free on YouTube or wherever you are checking out today's episode and on this episode you're going to hear from Washington commanders tight end John Bates we're going to have day 15 edition of I on the T tiger Jane Daniels completing less than 70% of his passes on the day almost through an interception but also through a touchdown and we're going to start it all off with talking by talking about the vanilla take that is starting to go around on Cliff Kings Berry's potentially vanilla offense if you want to discuss that or anything else Washington commanders related all you got to do is grab your phone send me a text message and you can do that by going to join sub text.com lockon commanders today become a locked on commanders Insider you can text me all your thoughts and your questions and you will receive texts from me on bonus content inside information we're going to do Insider zooms as we get through the rest of the preseason into the regular season no downloads no hashtags none of that necessary all it is is your phone my phone again go to join sub tex.com locked on commanders to become an Insider today today's episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create your account use the promo code locked on NFL to get $20 off your first purchase terms apply there are claims going around about about Cliff Kingsbury's offense here in the preseason and how it looks to be a little vanilla for what the team might need in order to thrive with quarterback Jen Danel the ironic part of the conversations going on is that to me it all seems incredibly way premature and because it's way too premature to be having that type of a conversation it also comes across to me as being very Bland and just kind of a boring conversation to be quite honest with you but it is a conversation that's going on and so I thought we would kind of sit down here today and talk about it uh dispel a little bit of it and also just kind of put a little bit of what we've been seeing in the preseason into context not in an effort to necessarily defend Cliff Kingsbury because for one he doesn't need me to defend them but two it's just the bottom line of of the whole conversation is we don't know what the regular season Cliff Kingsbury offense is going to look like but from being here in Ashburn I can tell you a little bit more give you a little bit more context as far as what some of the people out there are kind of saying and there was a tweet sent out with a graphic of a whole lot of Statistics from Ian herritz of fantasy life I'm not really sure I'm not really familiar with with the site to be quite honest with you but he's got a lot of followers on Twitter which is why I gained a lot of attaction and to be fair Ian is not the only one out there talking about this kind of stuff so I don't want this to turn into a you know me versus Ian type of conversation because that's not what this is about but there are enough people who are concerned about it talking about it uh commenting about it that I figure we need to uh kind of address it here on the show so in this tweet in this graphic that hean sent out uh it's titled Cliff kingsberry GNA cliff kingsberry and I'll tell you I've had conversations with lots on Cardinals host uh Alex Clancy and he's kind of talked about some of the same concerns about how Cliff you know isolated DeAndre Hopkins as his ex- receiver on the same side of the formation all the time every time and how it kind of appeared to to at least to a certain extent minimize the impact that DeAndre Hopkins could have now DeAndre Hopkins had a statistically fairly strong you know performance Under head coach Cliff Kingsbury so how big of of a problem really is that that's kind of part of the conversation um and that's one of the things that Ian starts off with here uh through eight quarters of preseason action he notes here that number one wide receiver Terry McClaren is lined up on the offense's left outside as they left outside wide receiver on 28 of his 29 snaps this sort of stationary alignment was common place for DeAndre Hopkins when he played for kingsbery in Arizona and that's AB obviously factually true like DeAndre Hopkins reps and alignments are part of public record and all that kind of stuff but here's what I can tell you about training camp about practice and everything that we've been seeing Terry McClaren is lining up all across Ross the formation here are the Washington commanders outside of quarterback and running back in tight end so you want them on the left side you want them on the right side you want in the slot you're going to get a little bit of all of that with what we've seen out of Terry mccorn here in the preseason or here during training camp what you're not seeing that a lot of obviously is in the preseason why well for one you got a rookie quarterback that is getting his feet wet in the National Football League these preseason games are his first exposure to live competition where they can actually plant him in the back field so understandably you're getting a lot of quick passes you're getting a lot of somewhat familiar looks and Concepts and all those things and you're not trying to mix things up too too much you want to keep them basically as simple as possible or in other words vanilla but guess what all 32 NFL teams are essentially doing the same thing and my understanding is there's also a conversation going on out there of some people who are worried about Cliff Kingsbury showing too much uh in the preseason so it's kind of uh it's it's a little comical to me that we've got one side of the conversation who says that Cliff Kingsbury is doing and showing too much but then we've got another side of the conversation that said Cliff Kings B's offense is simply vanilla and basically what it all boils down to is a lot of people who have apparently forgotten kind of the first rule of preseason which is to show as little as possible to your upcoming opponents because just like I have access to the all 22 from the preseason games you have access to all 22 for preseason games if you go through the right Avenues so too and even easier it's even easier access for them so too do the other 32 NFL teams so if you're the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for example who face and host the Washington commanders in week one you've got people in your building studying Washington commanders preseason tape trying to get anything you can get from those preseason games to help you game plan against not only Cliff Kingsbury as an offensive coordinator and play caller but also Jaden Daniels as a rookie and a mobile rookie quarterback because Todd Bulls struggles against two things the most mobile quarterbacks rookie quarterback so Jane Daniels is basically Todd bulls' cryp tonight so as much as he can get from this preseason tape he's going to try to tape so on the flip side of that Cliff Kingsbury is going to try to give Todd BS as little as possible to take away which I thought was a fairly commonplace uh understanding at least around media members who covered you know this game specifically for a living but apparently some of us have forgotten that vanilla offense is in the preseason very much the intense not just a trend that's the point like that's kind of the whole purpose right um another bullet here always known for featuring a quick Pace League high 34.6 no huddle rate with the Cardinals Washington has a ridiculous no huddle rate of 56.7% at the moment the Steelers are second place at 133% again uh you know when we get to ideals of of of football Theology and should you run no huddle offenses should you not run no huddle offenses should you use two tight ends should you not use two tight ends should you use two running backs should you not use two running backs the bottom line is everybody's got their own opinion on what they should do on what you should do me personally like I'm a three four defense type of guy like my if I were running a defense I would like it to be a three four three down lineman four linebacker type of look from a base package obviously sub packages and all that stuff would be different but that's kind of my own personal style now that doesn't mean that when I look on a football field and I see a team that likes to run a 43 or a different type of alignment as their quote unquote base package that I should then turn and say well you're an idiot and and it's ridiculous and it's it's and all these things so the question of how much no huddle should you run bottom line boils down to how many points can you score if you can run no huddle 56% of the time which I don't think Cliff Kingsbury is going to run no huddle 56% of the time guys but if you if you do run huddle 56% of the time and you lead the league in scoring you're probably going to be okay and people are probably going to be trying to steal things from your offense if you go no huddle 133% of the time and you score no points I don't know maybe you should try going faster maybe that'll keep your quarterback on their toes maybe they'll keep defenses and looks here but the numbers by themselves should not tell us anything about what the offense is going to be uh Washington currently ranks dead last and shift motion right yeah that's fantastic we're seeing plenty of shifts plenty of motion here in training camp I can promise you that is Washington going to rank in the top five in motion bottom five in motion I can't tell you that but what I can tell you is we're seeing enough Motion in training camp that nobody on the side line here in Ashburn has looked at each other and said man we're not seeing anybody move and no Motion in these practices so you're seeing enough uh another one only the Eagles and Panthers have a higher run percentage of Snaps featuring a run pass option than the commanders uh Cliffs Arizona Cliffs Arizona offense ranked third in RPO rate yeah you've got a Young mobile quarterback who ran a lot of RPO in college why wouldn't you run a lot of RP in the NFL if he's good at it and not for nothing guys but the little bit of RPO you have seen in the preseason guess what Jane Daniels has looked pretty good at it so again coach to your player strengths not to their weaknesses uh you know there's a there's a lot of negativity stemming and boiling over I think from Cliff's time in Arizona and and what I would tell you what I have told you every day as you remember this there were successful seasons for the Arizona offense in Arizona there were unsuccessful seasons for the offens in Arizona ultimately the unsuccessful seasons did Cliff Kingsbury in which is why he's no longer the head coach there got it but he's also a human being just like Dan Quinn just like Joey Jr just like you and myself and we all have the ability to learn and adapt from our experiences and also learn and adapt to our new environment so to draw some rudimentary numbers from the preseason in two games eight quarters yeah less than two full quarters of your actual starting unit being on the field so that's what we're doing here we're having this National narrative conversation about Cliff Kingsbury's offense using less than two quarters of first team offensive tape that's what we're talking about here so just keep that in mind as well when you're hearing these conversations don't let them get too rooted into your brain uh and let you kind of downplay or just just not enjoy some of the Good Vibes that are going on right now because I'll tell you this like I tell you every season guys by late October we could be talking about the NFL draft so right now you got good vibes here in Ashburn enjoy them turn into them don't look for reasons to be negative like some people are speaking of reasons to be negative Jon Daniels less than 70% completion rate a turnover worthy play that did not get turned uh turned into to a takeaway by the defense but overall not a terrible day for the quarterback just not his most seller day day 15 of I on the tiger coming up next on today's episode of lockon commanders part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day and today's episode of lockon commanders brought to you by FanDuel you've heard us talk about FanDuel a lot here on the locked on commanders podcast on the lock on podcast Network depending on how many shows you're listening to every week America's number one sports book is FanDuel and that is why we talk about it so much but we've got a little bit something different for you here as we get close to the end of the NFL preseason now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with a YouTube TV base plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all you need is a Google account account and a current form of payment and you can cancel that at any time the Washington commanders are two and a half Point favorites this Sunday night against the New England Patriots in the NFL preseason finale with an over under on that game of 34.5 points so drop $5 on any of those lines or any other line that you choose and you'll get your free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket just visit fanduel.com lockon to download America's number one Sportsbook Jane Daniels completing 68% of his passes on day 15 of I on the tiger thank you for making lock on commanders your first listen today and every day for your second listen enjoy the locked on fantasy football podcast get your daily insight to the best fantasy draft strategies so you can win your League this season part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I myself have the number one overall pick in my redraft league which has a 12 team snake draft League which means uh that's a terrible pick bottom line to have I'm trying to trade it and I'm looking at the fantasy lock on Fantasy Draft fantasy football podcast rather uh to help me make my decision because I gotta I gotta be very smart on how I trade this number one overall pick um with the number two overall pick the Washington commanders went after quarterback Jane Daniels out of LSU and since then we've had our eye on the tiger so to speak it's my little cute way of talking about our quarterback charting uh experience here with the Washington commanders and on day 15 out here Wednesday in Ashburn Jaden Daniels completed 12 of 18 passes 67% of them uh completed through a touchdown which I put in air quotes because they weren't doing an actual game scenario drill so yes the pass would have gone for a touchdown but the guy didn't actually run in the end zone so kind of take that with the grain of salt there was a practice sack and one turnover Worthy play along the way so let's get into the Crux of it so no Brandon Coleman on the practice field again as he continues to recover from his PE shoulder injury that he's been dealing with corn so Cornelius Lucas was out there at left tackle no pads on today so again not full contact by any means uh so take that into consideration as well first pass of his first team set Jane Daniels was incomplete was deflected by a defensive tackle some of us thought it was John Allen some of us saw it was Don Payne John Allen didn't celebrate donon Payne celebrated so I gave the credit to Don Payne that's a very rudimentary way of giving credit to somebody for a pbu but without the benefit of Replay and cameras that's the best I can do but it was either donon pay or John Allen so either way defensive tackles getting their hands up deflecting a pass very next play was uh a sack would have been a sack Bobby Wagner ended up getting the pbu on the throw so Jaden Daniels you know it's common place there's a quote unquote sack dur on Payne would have come in on Jaden Daniels but they continue to play anyway Jaden throws the ball Bobby Wagner did get a pbu but I don't chart it as a pass because again he would have been sacked so the second official pass of the set a middle hitch route to running back Austin Eckler completed making Jaden Daniels one for two in that first set along with a sack second set through four passes completed two of them first pass was a drop by Zack ZZ and that is the turnover worthy play should have been picked off by safety Jeremy chin he knows it Jaden knows it Zack Herz knows it in fact I think Zack Herz actually dropped the ball because he just wasn't expecting it to actually get through Jeremy Chin's hands but then it did he wasn't ready to make the catch so that falls incomplete fortunately enough for J in second pass was completed wheel route to Austin Eckler who got behind safety Percy Butler that would have been a touchdown had it been a game scenario drive or anything like that so that's where the touchdown comes in so right there in the first four passes five drop backs you've got a deflection a sack a completion to a running back a dropped interception which is also turning into a dropped reception and a touchdown so very eventful first five drop backs on the day for jayen But ultimately comes out of those first five drop backs two for five uh with a sack and a touchdown so interestingly enough there uh third pass of the second set was completed a right side out outs slant I don't know really what to call this basically John Bates lined up in line on the right side of the offense of line as a tight end and just ran a 45 degree angle it's not really a flare not really a swing uh you know I don't know what to call it but basically that's what he did uh they completed that as well John Bates actually looked for the ball over the inside shoulder but the defender was inside so Jaden threw it over the outside shoulder Jon had to make a nice adjustment to that which he did to make the catch and then finally fourth pass of the set incomplete left siiz slant route to Davon Davis which was dropped by the receiver third set Jaden Daniels threw four passes completed two of them again 0 for one on the first pass a swing route to Austin Eckler just went over the running back's head second pass was completed to Ade zakus on a comeback route on the right side of the field third pass incomplete to Zack Herz who was running a right side hitch ball is off Target so a little bit of off Target throws for Jane Daniels here on Wednesday and then finally pass completed on the right side on a swing route to Brian Robinson the running back fourth time out there on the field Jane Daniels ran the ball once on a drop back so it was not a designed run but it was a scramble run uh did go out of bounds just for the record and then completed two passes the first one a screen pass to dami Brown on the right side of the field second pass a beautiful seam route run by Zack Herz thrown by Jaden Daniels I'll tell you what this play was so effective Bobby Wagner did not know where the ball was at one point Bobby Wagner was turned back towards the the receiver but then by the time Zack her made the catch Bobby was facing the offensive line again and just kind of looked a little bit out of sorts not very common to see Bobby Wagner looking confused on the field but it happened there so very interesting to see that fifth set out Jane danels three for three first pass was a quick right out right side route to alom zus which was actually almost picked off by Mike Sanders still not a turnover worthy Play Because Sanders still made the play on the ball Alam zus just got there because it was outside of his reach so not a turnover worthy play but a very interesting play uh nonetheless and then another middle route to Zack Herz for the second pass and then Terry mclen on a slant for the third completion as you can tell Jen Daniels Miss seeing Zack hers a little bit Zack did not take the trip to Miami uh so getting back together today practice for the first time obviously they wanted to connect Sixth and final set of Team drills for Jaden Daniels completed two of his three passes also had a quarterback run to end the series first pass was completed a right side out route to Jameson Crowder second was a swing pass on the right side of the field to Brian Robinson and then third was a comeback route by Marcus rosemy Jack Saints which was broken up by Emanuel Forbes who was a little bit more physic than you typically see in these non-padded practices but give him the pbu he hit him with the no fly celebration all that stuff and then the final drop back Jaye danels again tucked it and ran with it uh did run out of bounds had a teammate say slide slide and he said I don't need to I ran out of bounds so good news guys Jaden Daniels knows how to get out of bounds and protect himself no matter what other people might tell you some other practice notes Here Jeff Driscoll hit dami Brown on the Deep ball was really nice Bryson termaine continues to have a really strong training camp in practices had a nice snag on a ball from Jeff over the middle Driscoll also hit Byron Pringle on a deep ball that would have gone for a touchdown behind cornerback Tariq Castro fields that is actually our play of the day uh so again Jeff Driscoll play of the day Saturday night against Miami Dolphins Jeff Driscoll another play of the day here at practice on Wednesday connecting with Byron Pringle deep uh Jeff Driscoll has had a really strong Camp to be quite honest with you um third quarterback on the depth chart but getting a lot of second team quarterback reps with Markus marota nursing his soft tissue issue that Dan Quinn says wouldn't be an issue if it was regular season but because it's preseason it is so Jeff Driscoll taking advantage of all of those opportunities and then cornerback choian nuum went down with an injury uh during special teams drills on in practice on Wednesday no official word on the severity of it didn't look too severe walked off the field under his own power so hopefully Choi nusum going to be ready to go get back on the practice field either Thursday or Friday and then certainly hope that he'll be able to put some tape down on Sunday night against the New England Patriots so those our practice notes from Wednesday out here in ashor again day 15 of training camp we got two more days of these practices left before we reduce it down and we no longer get our eyes on the entire practice so we're going to take advantage of both those days as much as we can coming up next you're going to hear from Washington commanders tight end John Bates that's next on today's episode of lock on commanders part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day and today's episode of lock on commanders is brought to you by game time game time has a new feature called Game Time picks that makes getting tickets for your favorite Live Events even easier game game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets curated deals make it easier to find the best price on great seats for example with game times Super 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how he feels heading into the final preseason game of the season I think just excitement you know go out there and um give it one last go with everyone here this training camp I think we've had a really really good training camp we've made lots of strides and improvements as a team in whole and just like the energy that we've had every single week you know it's been really exciting so it it'll be good and then you yourself right you came into the NFL a lot of people talk you're a really soft blocker you have some some some decent catching ability but every year you take that next step and this year looks like you've taken another step towards being a more holistic tight end do you feel like you've made that step and where do you feel like you've grown the most yeah for sure um I think just in terms of Route running and then just I think a whole another year underneath my belt of getting a lot of snaps and getting different looks and you know watching the film and all those things compiling into a whole year of just being able to learn I think it's the biggest thing you know coach R has been awesome we've been able to learn a ton from him in terms of releases and getting open stuff in the past game so um I feel really good where I'm at right now but every year it's just showing little it's say it's not a race it's a marathon right it's every every year just keep improving on something absolutely and then uh you got some new teammates right so let's talk about the veteran first Zack her like what have you gotten to know about him what have you gotten to learn from him as well yeah Zach I mean obviously his resume speaks for itself what he's been able to do on the field he brings in a ton of knowledge and you know he's a guy that we can really you know rely on to learn a lot of knowledge about you know the tight end position what the quarterback looks or what the quarterback is looking for what he's seeing and he's a guy that just brings a ton of knowledge in terms of the whole game of football into the room yeah and then with him sitting out those preseason games you've been getting those those first tight end reps how valuable has that been yeah it's been really great you know it's an opportunity for me to go out there and show my abilities um in the past game and you know in the Run game and just to be able to show the coaches and everyone that like I'm capable of being in that position and so it's been really good just being out there with the ones and being able to roll and kind of get a rhythm for everything yeah and then the rookie B in it so you you've been in the league a little bit now right a little bit more of a veteran but how's he doing as a rookie how have you been able to help him kind of adjust to NFL life yeah he's been doing really good so far Ben's you know he's improved already a lot since being here I think he's a well polished guy already coming in he's just got a lot more you know to keep continuing to learn stuff but you know he's made he's made great strides here already being there's a couple of plays you made a few good plays right in in the preseason game against the Dolphins but a couple that I really kind of honed in on were more about your effort as a blocker so the first one uh the quarterback option that Jaden decided to keep you saw on the left side pull over to the right side become his lead blocker um the first part of that seeing that defensive event right so the defens man crashes in but where how quickly do you have to diagnose if he's going to adjust quick enough that you need to lay a block on him to protect your quarterback or go around him like you did to become that lead blocker yeah really it's just a quick read like any sort of he's coming down I'm on to the next person if he's playing up the field or any sort of threat you know I have to take him so it's a really quick decision but it's me a lot and have a really good feeli foror so just little little stuff like that they you got to be able to react too fast and then when you get down field you and lamade kind of become those those two lead Locker for try to give them that lane to get up field is where's is there a line between trying to get to that safety as quickly as you can as aggressively as you can but also be smart to make sure you don't give away your angle yeah I mean definitely like we we teach aiming points and stuff in the perimeter blocking and whatnot so the biggest thing for me is making sure I get to you know my Target and where I want to get to in terms of bling and then also too just being a football player and being under control right you can't go out there like a crazy caveman and be you know 110 mph and then you know have him slip underneath you so there's a little bit of balance between both those so let's talk about the effort then right cuz I talked to Dan Quinn about that as well as effort as receivers getting downfield so you're downfield the play extends your quarterback ends up getting out of the pocket why is it so important where did you learn it was so important to become a blocker and stay alive for your quarterback yeah for sure and I mean I think it's something that's always been kind of taught coaches of what he's always kind of want to implement to the game but these coaches you know since they've got here they've made a huge emphasis on that and I think when you watch across the NFL you see how many scramble plays turn into you know big plays down the field and when you have guys on the perimeter blocking and making the extra effort that's when you get from your big plays to your big touchdowns and so um you know it's something that we take a lot of pride in wanting to do for our teammates and uh just got to keep it rolling and then Miami obviously joint practice game Tampa week one a lot of guys talked about kind of getting the opportunity getting that heat how how how important is that really as you get ready for that week one opener in Florida yeah for sure I mean uh Miami was you know a good test for us just to get the humidity and the heat um so it was really good for us as a team to be able to be exposed in that um obviously know we know when we get down there it's still going to be hot still going to be humid but we got to go out there and do our job and not worry about the external factors that we can't control all right once again that was Washington commanders tight end John Bates that's how we're going to wrap up today's episode tomorrow we will be right back out here in Ashburn for another practice we're also going to hear from offensive coordinator Cliff King Kingsbury and defensive coordinator Joe wit Jr after practice so make sure you come back for that in the meantime you got questions comments want to discuss this further all you got to do is send me a text message go to join sub tex.com loock on commanders become an Insider today and send over your thoughts next up make the locked on fantasy football podcast your next listen of the day and as always thank you for making locked on commanders your first listen of the day every day every dayers thanks for coming through on a regular basis like you do and until we speak again if you're on about please be safe be kind and we will see you next time right back here for another episode of lockon commanders part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day [Applause] [Music]