CFL Teams are Using Backup OL in Normal (Non-Short-Yardage) Formations, and I'm Here for It
by Ted Kluck
Which of course begs the question, “Could/will we see this in the NFL?” But first, about the CFL. I love the Canadian Football League and have for a long time. I love the field dimensions, the extra guy on the field, the rouge (a one-point scoring play when the ball is kicked through the opponent’s end zone), the uniforms (check out Toronto and B.C.), and especially the one-yard neutral zone between offensive and defensive lines, which changes the geometry of offensive line play in pretty interesting ways.
Note: I enjoy watching on CFL+ which is free to watch on phone, tablet, or laptop.
Having watched the league for years, one thing I’ve noticed year after year is the way that offensive tackles would routinely struggle on an island against EDGE speed. The fact of the matter is, there are more fast EDGE players than there are special tackles to block them. An elite, long tackle like Jermarcus Hardrick was the exception, not the norm.
It’s almost an impossible block for most tackles (given that the EDGE guy has a yard head start), and would result in a kind of jailbreak where the QB is running for his life and forced to create on the fly…with the traditional CFL offensive philosophy being something along the lines of “put a bunch of guys in the pattern as a means of stressing the defensive formation and see what happens.” Good pass pro almost seemed to be a “it’s a nice bonus when we get it” type of afterthought. And the run game (with a few notable exceptions) was ancillary-at-best.
To be fair, some teams and quarterbacks excelled more than others in this model (thinking of Vernon Adams here), and some teams made moving the pocket (a la college schemes) a way to mitigate against shaky pass-pro.
But there are other ways to stress a defense.
This season, though, I’ve seen teams bringing backup offensive linemen into the formation on a semi-regular basis, on regular (non-short-yardage) downs, which has resulted in better pass pro and more robustness on early-down runs. Here’s why:
It changes the geometry of the pass rush. This one is pretty simple. An extra guy on the end of the line bumps the EDGE player out a couple of steps, making his path to the quarterback longer, and giving the quarterback an extra beat to see an open receiver and get rid of the ball. Add to this the fact that a backup offensive lineman is probably a better pass protector than a running back or chipping slot receiver, and you have a more stable situation up front. What offenses lose, in this scenario, is another receiver (or two) in the route…but as DE’s have gotten increasingly fast, and pass rush has improved…the likelihood of a CFL quarterback being able to survey the entire field is slim.
It pressures small, coverage-first linebackers in the run game. The B.C. Lions have been using this to great effect with William Stanback this season, who is second in the CFL in rushing (by one yard, to Kadeem Carey). CFL LBs - like their NFL counterparts - are generally coverage-first type players…which is a function of (in the CFL’s case) three-down football, and in the NFL’s case league-rules that are increasingly chummy toward the pass game, inasmuch as that is what they think fans want to see. As a result, a LB who would have weighed 250 lbs in 1998 (even in the CFL), weighs 215 or 220 now. The run game is more than an afterthought in B.C. what with Stanback, who was the crown jewel of their offseason acquisitions. The threat of a Stanback run opens up the field for Vernon Adams in play action. As a result, Adams is the league leader in pass yards and the team is 3-1, leading the west.
It causes defenses to have to re-leverage to account for the run, opening up fun possibilities on the backside of the formation. Self-evident per the above, when there’s an extra guy on the line it forces the defense to bump everybody over to defend against the run. B.C. has enjoyed a lot of success running receivers underneath to the weak side of the formation, while moving the OL toward the strength.
It actually simplifies things for quarterbacks. I’m a fan of fewer guys in the route, in general, and robust run games, so maybe I just like the aesthetics of this. But there’s something freeing, to me, about a simple hi-low read and then a checkdown option…or the option to run for an athletic guy like Adams. Oftentimes in the CFL, with the traditional five (or six with the RB)-men-out concepts, the protections break down so quickly the quarterback isn’t laying eyes on most of his receivers anyway.
I think we’ll see the NFL go “big” again, as the league pendulum always swings back and forth, and as pass-rushers get smaller/lighter/faster. With off-ball linebackers also getting smaller, and OL play getting harder to coach (with less practice time in pads), teams will probably look to this concept for a competitive advantage.