Understanding NFL Football: The West Coast Offense

With the recent passing of coaching legend Bill Walsh, the NFL and the football community at large lost one of its most venerated and cherished members. A large portion of the current coaches in the game are direct or indirect disciples of the Bill Walsh coaching tree. Among his many accomplishments were taking a lead in the hiring of minority coaches, winning multiple Super Bowls and mentoring future Hall of Fame inductees Joe Montana, Steve Young and Jerry Rice. Perhaps his single greatest innovation though is the creation of what came to be known as the West Coast Offense, the system in which those great players thrived.

The term West Coast Offense originally referred to the style that Sid Gillman and Don Coryell started using as far back as the 1960s. The NFL teams using the system were the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders, and therefore the term West Coast was deemed appropriate. Since that time, that style of offensive attack has become known as the "Air Coryell" offense and the West Coast Offense now refers soley to Bill Walsh's principles and the style he implemented with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s.

Basic football knowledge leads one to believe that the "correct" offensive philosophy is first to establish a strong running game. This will control the clock and the tempo of the game and set a physical tone while wearing down the defensive players. Additionally, the defense will need to adjust to stop the running game, bringing more players closer to the line of scrimmage and center of the field. As that change occurs, the offensive team will pass the ball in the now open, deep areas of the field. Overall, at least 50-60% of the offensive calls will be some form of a running play. The West Coast offense is essence the exact opposite of this classic style of play.

The West Coast Offense emphasizes short, quick passes in place of a running game. At least 60% of the plays called will be passes and in stricter practices of the West Coast offense it could range up to 80% or more. Although now the system is used out of many formations, it was originally put into place with two receivers, two running backs (one on either side of the quarterback) and one tight end. The receivers and the tight end will all run routes, as well as the running backs that will generally leave the backfield to become viable passing targets in the flats (either side of the field, behind the line of scrimmage). With all of the available offensive threats, defensive teams are left scrambling with too many players to cover effectively. A defense still has to bring players close to the line of scrimmage to adjust to the offense, the difference being that the defense needs to be spread out across the entire width of the field as opposed to being concentrated in the center to counter a running game. In this way the defense is now vulnerable to the run and the deep pass at the same time.

This style of play relies on pinpoint timing, precise route running and quarterback accuracy. The quarterback needs to know exactly when and where all of his receivers will be and will often throw a pass before his player has arrived to that spot. With all of the defensive players spread out, if a receiver can make the first defender miss he will often have a large open field in front of him. Jerry Rice gained many of his receiving yards in this fashion and was famous in his prime for his YAC; yards after catch. It was the West Coast Offense which enabled the longevity of a player such as Rice. Because the system is not reliant on pure athleticism or speed-a receiver running down the field and flat out beating the defense-but rather on tricky and well thought out running routes, Rice was able to be effective well past when he "lost a step". The West Coast Offense also lends itself to an agile and mobile quarterback, such as Steve Young or currently, Donovan McNabb. It is not a coincidence that McNabb's coach, Andy Reid, calls a higher percentage of passing plays than nearly any other coach.

The NFL is the ultimate copycat's league; when one team finds success trying something new soon all the teams are doing it. Plagiarism in style of play doesn't just happen, it's expected to happen. In that way, the West Coast Offense quickly spread throughout the league. It was then the Tampa 2 defense - reliant on zones and not on man-to-man coverage - that developed to stop the proliferation of this form of attack. Read the rest of the "Understanding The NFL" series to learn how and why the Tampa 2 is effective and about many other football strategies, terms and styles.