Washington Commanders Coaches Kliff Kingsbury and Joe Whitt Jr. Will Differ From 2023 Coordinators

one of the biggest misconceptions heading into the season for the Washington commanders is that new offensive coordinator Cliff Kingsbury is going to throw the cover off the ball that simply is not true unless he has to that more coming up 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 every day what's up and welcome into today's episode of lockson commanders part of lockon podcast Network your team every day this is your daily podcast covering the Washington commanders and we are free and available for you to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you're listening to this podcast I'm your host David Harrison credential member of the media covering the Washington commanders for commander game day.com and I'm here with you every Monday through Friday at greatly appreciate you for coming through for this Monday episode every dares greatly appreciate you for coming through every single day on today's episode we are going to talk about Joe wiid Jr's intensity why it might remind some people about Eric benemy but in reality it's much much different we're also going to talk about today's offense versus yesterday's offense all in part of our conversation about answering the question is Cliff Kingsbury's offense potentially going to be run first with a rookie quarterback or will it be pass heavy the way that a lot of the national media expects today's episode brought to you by fandu will make every moment more right now new customers you get $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that's a bump from the last offer that's $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet so go to fanduel.com lockon to get started on that today of course if you want to discuss anything we talk about in this episode or anything else Washington commanders related all you have to do is text me and you can do that by going to join sub tex.com loock on commanders from there become a locked on commanders Insider and you can text me your thoughts questions reactions discussion pieces whatever it is that you want to send me we'll get news analysis content and more from me during games practices press conferences and in between time no hashtags no downloads no apps just straight to your text message app you send text messages straight to me as well again join sub tex.com lockon commanders to get in on that today and of course all the new insiders we've gained over the last week or so welcome to the program hope you get everything that you want out of it and more so today's episode we're we're looking to answer the question is Cliff Kingsbury's offense going to be more run first with a rookie quarterback Jaden Daniels at the under Center at least we assume he'll be under Center to start the regular season of course that is not necessarily a foregone conclusion it's just something that most of us are kind of carrying in uh with us throughout the OTAs and into the mini camp this week and everything else Marcus Mariota for all intense purposes is QB number one right now although there's no depth chart and no official announcement of that but this came through a question in our mailbag episode from Merl last week and I saved it for another episode uh to do to do because I knew this was going to take more than half of the episode and that's what we're going to talk about today so Merl's question was I know Cliff Kingsbury likes to throw the ball Dan Quinn is a defensive coach so could the offense be run first especially with a rookie quarterback now here's the here's the solution or here's the the summary uh the the resolution that I've come up with after dumping all these numbers and going through all this data no it's not going to be run first but it's not going to be as pass heavy as the national media would have you believe I think most of the local media at least the local media that's on ground uh with guys like me you know your John KS of ESPN The Washington Post guys the athletic buy TV all those guys I think that most of us have an understanding that there's going to be a healthy amount of run involved in a cliff Kingsbury offense but this is still a Passing League Cliff Kingsbury does come from an air raid history and he's not immune to the fact that this is a pass League Dan Quinn wants to throw the ball as well explosive passes are just as effective as explosive runs you want as many of those as you can get as well so what I did to kind of come to this solution or to this to this conclusion that no I don't think Cliff Kingsbury's offense is going to be run first but I also don't think it's going to be as pass heavy as other people believe it is is I literally went through and I dumped every single season of data from Cliff Kingsbury's offense it started from 2019 2022 when he was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and I will tell you that there are the differences here are kind of astounding like in 2019 when his team was up by eight points or more in 2019 he threw the ball the he called pass plays 20 the 25th most in the National Football League so he was near the bottom of the league in 2020 in that same sit situation when the Cardinals were up eight eight or more points that Rose to 13th most in the NFL in 2021 all the way up to second most in the NFL really tried to unleash the passing game that year but then in 2022 went back down to 26 in the NFL uh so there's some there's obviously some contextual things in there that we have to talk about and really the most important time I think in Cliff Kingsbury's career is the first year so that's the one I really want to hammer home and really dive into contextually to show you why I got the answer that I did so in 2019 Kyler Murray was a rookie Cliff Kingsbury was a rookie head coach so there is a little bit of a grain assault here to be taken because Cliff Kingsbury has obvious obviously learned a lot over the the last you know his his four full seasons as an NFL head coach but then also taking a step away from the game going to USC he's not going to be the same coach he was in 2019 so there is that grain assault here but at the same time this is the only time 2019 is the only season that you can look at Cliff Kingsbury and say what might he do with a rookie quarterback more importantly what might he do with a rookie quarterback that can run the ball himself and kind of be part of his own rushing attack I think that's a very significant part of the context here so in 2019 Kyler Murray's rooke season the Arizona Cardinals were 25th in the NFL in pass attempts when leading by eight points or more so again near the bottom of the league when they're leading by eight points or more however they were 12th in the league when leading by four to seven so one- score lead more than a field goal but a touchdown or less 25th went leading by 1 to three so a lead to a field goal lead 26th went tied 32nd went trailing by 1 to three ninth went trailing by 4 to7 10th went trailing by eight so obviously when you're behind you're passing more when you're ahead you want to go ahead and protect the ball and protect the lead try to drain the clock but I think most people given Cliff Kingsbury's history and his reputation would expect those rankings when his team is leading to be higher than 25th 26th or even 32nd when trailing uh minimally so I think that right off the cuff is a little bit of a surprise to the National media who doesn't necessarily who again i' I've heard I'm still hearing even though cliff in his own introductory press conference told us his offense is not Air Raid Offense and I know I myself have reiterated that I myself have pointed out evidence to talk about that I know other members of this beat have done the same thing yet people outside of Washington still want to look at this offense like it's going to be just a straight up air raid throw the throw the pig skin cover off the football type of offense so the big take away here is Cliff Kingsbury 2019 never really tried to put all the pressure on his rookie quarterback the team's two leaning running backs that year averaged a combined 22.6 carries per game of course the team only won five games but in them Murray attempted more than 25 passes only twice and in both of those the opponent opponent scored at least 20 points so there's a little bit of context there within the game Flow the defense given up a decent amount of points so let's look at those game Flows In Depth here to really examine what Cliff Kingsbury did the last time he had a rookie quarterback in a week five win over the Bengals they won the game on a last second field goal by Zay gonzal so this is a game that's very contentious all the way to the final whistle right the Cardinals led by seven at the half Murray attempts did a total of 32 passes 19 of those in the first half 13 in the second half the Cardinals running backs ran 16 or 26 times so with the game close again Cliff Kingsbury showed in that game specifically I want my quarterback to throw the ball but you look at the second half we're coming down to a game that's going to end up being won and by a last second field goal he he threw the ball six times fewer in the second half than he did the first half came out of the second half and said let's control the game Let's lean on our Run game we week week six win against the Atlanta Falcons the Cardinals final possession they were up one with a minute 53 remaining had to drain the clock Kyler Murray attempted 37 passes again this is a 34-33 win so this is a very high-scoring contest he threw 19 passes in the first half 18 in the second a very even split in the in the drop back section for Kyler Murray the Cardinals led by 10 at halftime the Falcons tied the game at 27 with 10 minutes and 50 seconds left in the fourth quarter and 14 of Kyler Murray's second half passes came before that that game was tied meanwhile the air zona Cardinals ran the ball 17 times so this is a game again in context CLI Kingsbury says we're winning we're leading but my defense is not stopping the opponent we've got to keep the foot on the gas pedal so you see there he has Kyler Murray throwing a little bit more week seven win against the Giants the Cardinals never trailed they led by three at the half but Kyler muray only attempted 21 passes 17 of those came in the first half even though the Giants trimmed the lead to just three with over eight minutes left in the game Kyler Murray only threw two passes after that point the Cardinals backs meanwhile ran 28 times so again the context here Cliff Kingsbury sees his defense is not giving up a ton of points his offense is in Fairly good control we can minimize the risk that we put our quarterback in week 15 win against Cleveland Browns the Cardinals again never trailed led by 11 at halftime Murray only threw 25 passes 15 in the first 10 in the second the game was never really close and the Cardinal backs ran 25 times week 16 win against the Seahawks Cardinals trailed or were tied until 46 16 left in the second half or the second quarter and Murray threw the ball 16 times the Cardinals led by 10 at halftime and Murray threw two more passes the entire rest of the game the Arizona Carls ran 28 times even in a five win season Kyler Murray only hit 40 or more throws five times Sam how last year did eight times in a four- win season and had 39 or more in nine of those games so the last time we saw Washington roll out with what was essentially a rookie quarterback was last year so I'm telling you Cliff Kingsbury's handling of a first year quarterback starter looks much different but you got to look beyond the per game averages in order to see that so we're going to talk about those big pass games and we're going to talk about that comparison next on today's episode of lockon commanders part of lockon podcast Network your team every day and today's episode of lockon commanders is brought to 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Network your team every day so we're continuing this conversation about Cliff Kingsbury whether or not his offense might be run heavy run first given the fact that he's at a rookie quarterback and Jane Daniels and I kind of added a little bit that question coming from murl I added a little bit of or is it going to be more towards the pass heavy aor raid style that a lot of the national media is expecting because Cliff Kingsbury is the offensive quarterback so or our offensive coordinator so we talked about some scenarios here from that 2019 Cardinal season where Kyler Murray was a mobile quarterback rookie quarterback similar to what Cliff Kingsbury is dealing with in Washington with jayen Daniels and I showed you some examples of times where look the Washington Comm or the the Washington the Arizona Cardinals were in some tight contest right 130 plus of win a 30 plus Point win over one opponent you see that Kyler Murray throws the ball a little bit more against the Detroit Lions going to overtime and ultimately resulting in a tie at one point in time the Cardinals are down two plus touchdowns they've got a comeback in the second half so they do that on the arm of Kyler Murray they get into overtime so they kind of rely on Kyler Murray's arm to try to get them to win they end up coming through with a tie and that's kind of one of those big examples of a time where yes you could see Cliff Kingsbury have Jane Daniels put the ball up a lot in the coming season because of context right against the Detroit Lions in that week one tie of 2019 Kyler Murray threw the ball 54 times it's because the team fell behind they stayed behind the running game wasn't effective the defense was G up a lot of points they had to catch up at the end of the day the team is always going to do what's necessary to try to catch up and win if they are trailing they're not going to sit back and say oh man we're getting blown out by 14 in the second quarter but we got a Young quarterback out there so let's go ahead and just run the ball and take the Y no they're going to go out there and try to be competitive you've got a whole bunch of other guys not just the quarterback putting their bodies on the line you can't go out there and say hey guys give me your hardest effort but we're going to lose this game because we don't want to put the quarterback at risk you can't do that it's just not feasible in Arizona's biggest loss again 1 to9 against the New Orleans Saints in week nine of that same season Kyler Murray threw the ball 33 times the Arizona Cardinal backs only ran the ball eight times why because New Orleans Saints were for the most part in control of that game throughout the duration so they had a four-point halftime lead but he had to throw the ball 19 times one of the few times that we looked at where Kyler Murray threw the ball more in the second half they did in the first because the New Orleans Saints ended up open up a 22-point margin of Victory so you have to have an elevation in passing in the second half if that's happening on the other side of the ball it's just it's just part of it so I'm not telling you that Cliff Kingsbury is just going to run the ball run the ball run the ball which is why I know he's not going to be run first but again if the commanders can get some leads if the defense can keep the point differential low keep the opponent from scoring more than much more than 20 points in a game Cliff Kingsbury has shown already a history of running the ball as much as possible especially with a rookie quarterback in there now that's where I think we need to talk about last year and I'm not trying to make this a cliff Kingsbury versus Eric bomy thing because that's not what this is about but 2023 last year is basically the last time we saw a quote unquote rookie quarterback Eric benamy remember last year kept saying Sam how is essentially a rookie quarterback last year so that's basically the last time we saw a Washington run a rookie quarterback out when the game was one score or or or less away so trailing by seven all the way up to Leading by seven Sam how dropped back last year 433 times 25 and a half times per game on average when the when the Cardinals were in the same contextual situation in 2019 Kyler Murray dropped back 386 times which is 24.1 times per game again one game Less in the regular season which is about a one and a half dropback less per game average for Kyler Murray under Cliff Kingsbury than Sam how under Eric Bey now if you're looking at that number and you're saying bro one and a half dropbacks fewer per game is really not that much you're 100% correct but when you add in the context of who your quarterback is again remember Kyler Murray has the opportunity or the ability to be a threat in the running game by himself Sam how listen Sam all wasn't a statue he not a statue he's not Tom Brady but he's not Kyler Murray and he's not Jane DS when it comes to the amount of athleticism and running attack a threat that he can be alone as a quarterback so when you're talking about the fact that you have one coach who has an athletic threat on the ground threat with his legs type of quarterback as a rookie and he's dropping back one and a half times less per game when the game is win the Striking Distance of one score on either side of the ball than a quarterback like Sam Howell is where he's not as dangerous not as athletic uh not as as capable of affecting the game as a rusher to me that that that that that kind of multiplies that 1.5 I'm not going to put a stiff number on it but having one and a half fewer I don't know man like that's if I were to tell you that Tom Brady runs the ball one and a half times more per game than Lamar Jackson it's not that drastic but there's a significance in the in the difference there between the two players so in 2023 the commanders had 186 non-quarterback runs when the games were within a touchdown again either way 31st in the NFL 10.9 carries per game now the Cardinals of 2019 they weren't first they weren't 15th they were 25th in the NFL with 190 so still not again not run first like bottom line but not as pass heavy I think as a lot people expect certainly not as pass heavy as we saw last year even with the game within Striking Distance of one score but look at this 2019 they were 25th in the NFL with 190 non-quarterback runs when the game was within a touchdown so from trailing by seven to Leading by seven that's four more carries than the commanders had last season in the same context the commanders had an extra game last year that's significant so to me again Cliff Kingsbury is not going to be near as pass happppy as Eric bmy was so it's not going to be run first not necessarily but you're going to see a much more judicious use of the Run game under Kingsbury I believe than what we saw the last time a quote unquote rookie quarterback was on the field for Washington because again that's what roner Vera and Eric bamy kept referring to Sam Howell as so that's the ultimate dive into Cliff Kings from Merl great question bro I don't know if that's what you expected from me when you asked me that question that's what you got which is why I didn't put it in the mailbag episode specifically I waited to have time in an episode to do it and flush it out completely and fully coming up next why joit Jr's style might come across a little bit Eric bemy like but it's really a lot lot different and it's much much more effective that's next on today's episode of lockon commanders part of lockon podcast Network your team every day we're wrapping up today's episode of lockon commanders with another conversation that again this is a much more direct Joe wit to Eric benmy uh comparison again the last one it's not intended to dog Eric benemy I'm not trying to Spur up people kicking Eric bemy when he's already out of the NFL and all those things but again we're looking at what this year's offense could look like versus last year's and why it's going to be different so it's necessary to bring it up however there's another contextual part uh to this new coaching staff that some people are drawing to Eric B I mean that's the intensity of Joe Wi Junior and there are some comparisons floating around out there that it's it's somewhat like Eric beny now here's what I was say about it there's 100 leadership styles in the world maybe more within those there are 100 variations maybe more so when you take Eric beny you take joy Jr for example despite one being on offense being one being on defense they have some similarities right both of them are very direct both of them are very intense types of leaders one however is a yelling version of leadership who's very demonstrative in his leadership very attention drawing I want to say seeking because I don't honestly think that that's what EB is trying to do is seek attention but it's very attention grabbing the other is very commanding and very purposeful but it's not meant to say everybody look at me and again I don't think EB is doing it from an ego standpoint but it's just the the residual effect of it is everybody has eyes on Eric B me so I think that's the start of that conversation of why they're so much different but the way that defensive end dorren Armstrong Jr described Joe Whit Junior's defense style is how I describe his leadership personality I think it's a great way to draw the parallel dorren Armstrong strong dorren Armstrong was talking about Coach W coach Quinn too for for that matter their defensive style and he said quote it's straightforward it's not difficult but you got to understand what you're doing in the system so it's all about the little details as well everything plays a part in itself end quote that I think is also that whole statement is a synonym for Joe Wi Junior's leadership style it's very straightforward it's not difficult he's not going to comp things for you he's not going to come to you and say hey man I don't like what you did in that scenario to fix it here's an algebra equation and a calculus equation that you need to solve to fix it no he's going to say hey man here's what I don't like here's what I want you to do instead and here's why very simplified very immediate very direct I remember asking joy junor in his in his introductory press conference if you have a player that's just not getting it not getting the play not getting the call the check his assignment whatever is just not getting it but the effort is there how do you go about fixing that and he said if that whole thing is happening that is not on the player that is on the coach it is my job to make sure that that player understands what it is they're supposed to do that is different that is straightforward that is not difficult but there is a necessary need for understanding there that Joe Wood Jr understands and it's about the details man this guy is about the details there's a saying that says don't sweat the small stuff I'll tell you right now that only pertains to failures in life right if you st your toe don't spell the rest of your day being like man I st my toe this morning don't sweat the small stuff but if you're completing a task sweat the small stuff the devil is in the details so to speak so again everything works in its own context right everything plays a part in itself so I think the dorren Armstrong quote about Dan Quinn and and joy Jr's style is a great transference to Joe wit Jr's leadership style nothing is done without a purpose with EB honestly there were several things done without a purpose yelling at players for making mistakes okay but the mistakes were made again over and over again we see the same mistakes happening on the practice field and we'd see Eric bmy yelling about them again why nothing is happening nothing is being affected because he was trying to pain them into submission I'm going to draw a little parallel to my own personal life personal and professional life uh which works and because that works in a general sense right I remember being a private in United States Army one of the first things that they did which I'm hearing rumors that they're not allowed to do anymore which is a travesty it's called shark attack and the idea of it is it shakes you away from your civilian roots and shakes you away from every comfort that you ever thought you ever knew and just rocks your world that's what it's intended to do quite quite frankly is turn you upside down put you in a state of confusion put you in a state where you have no idea what's going on because you really don't have any idea what's going on in this new world that you just entered into it's a culture shock when he gets you into that culture shock phase as quickly as possible so that we can then start to shape you into this new culture that you're going to learn every drill sergeant was part of that every drill sergeant was down there screaming down your face screaming on top of your head screaming down your bag whatever they're screaming at they're all out there screaming when it came time to get down to the nuances of how to be a soldier how to complete a task how to do this how to do that whether it was making your bed how to place your boots under your bed how to file into the bathroom to shower you know what I mean when it was time when it came time for that they were there was moments where they toned it down all right I'm going to give an example a quick story there was actually a moment where one of my drill sergeant was in our Bay and was kind of going through stuff and this other Soldier had nonissuer those drawers drill lost his mind that's kind of one of those moments where it's I'm going to jerk a knot in your butt right now and I'm gonna do it in front of everybody so everybody sees it and he throws his underwear and this private's like shaking right and like starting to cry and everything so the drill's like what's what's the matter Bri Bri says those are religious garments the immediately you see his face realiz he messed up said get get the garments everything everything kind of froze at that point in time so then they went through the process what do we need to do to fix it what do we need to do to clean it properly or replace it whatever we need to do to make it work what I when I the moment that I knew in my basic training that my drill sergeants cared about the training that we got was when one of them shed tears over that private shedding tears about what had happened to his religious garments inadvertently it wasn't intentional it wasn't on purpose it wasn't meant to be anything like that but the bottom line was it happened and it was significant and it was not just significant to the pride it happened to because the rest of us are around him and seeing this happening and so a significant a significant moment to all of us 20 plus years later I still remember it vividly that drill sard getting emotional about that when he didn't even do it like he wasn't even in the building when it happened that right then and there for as much screaming and yelling was happening as much you know whatever was happening I knew that that drill sarden cared and I knew the other drill Sant cared because of the way they reacted to that situation eight years later I'm standing in a shop at and for those of you who don't know it's basically a military sheets but not as good and and not as cool um and I'm standing line and I hear the most bone chilling how you been Harrison that I've ever heard in my entire life and it's that drill sergeant not the one who threw the underwear but the one who like I said got emotional after the fact about it even happening in the first place he recognized me standing behind me in line probably just at most saw the profile in my face at one point in time recognized me all those years later this dude gets hundreds of privates a year and he recognized me you know we're we're wearing the same clothes obviously right because we're in the Army so we're all look the same um this is the same dude who would scream like a banshee at us sometimes but then when it came to get to the overall tone of what was important when it came time to convey the importance of the message and really develop someone you brought it down to human levels of communication because that's what what is effective that's what Joe wit Jr does that is the difference so yes they're both intense they both are are very steel eyed they will both have moments with the media where the media tries to ask them some vague question and get them to say something they don't want to say and they're call going to call us out for it all those things are going to be similar but this these two people's leadership styles could not be any more different and hopefully I did at least an adequate job of explaining that too it doesn't mean that this team didn't need and not jerked in their butt last year when EB showed up I will stand by that training camp all the yelling all the stuff look they needed a little bit that they needed a little bit of culture shock there but it lasted way too long it was never truly invested in the people that's part of the problem and quite honestly it wasn't supported by the head coach the top commander of the football operations all of those things are different now everything you see Joe W Jr do with his intensity with his boldness with his directness it's all intentional It's All Purpose Driven it's all communicative it's all invested in the people and it's supported by the head coach and believed in by the players so there's a massive difference between Joey junor Eric bm's leadership styles and again I've seen a few com comparisons so I just want to get that out there Riley had the opportunity to coming up tomorrow again we're going to talk a little bit about what we expect in this week's mini camp mandatory mini camp in the meantime if you've got questions or comments just leave them down below in the YouTube comment section if you're there or if not text me directly by becoming a locked on Commander Insider join sub text.com lockon commanders don't forget make sure you check out lockon sports today the first ever 247 live streaming Sports channel on YouTube and as always thank you for making lock on commanders your first listener first View today and every day every day things for coming through on a regular basis like you do until we speak again if you're out and about please be safe be kind and I'll see you next time for another episode of lockon commanders part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day