Post by JustinTime18β’ on Aug 4, 2019 7:51:04 GMT -6
www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001038252/article/gary-kubiak-chuck-pagano-among-new-assistants-on-the-spot?campaign=Twitter_atn
Training camps swing open with the familiar storylines covering big-ticket offseason acquisitions and head-coaching changes. Once the practices heat up over the ensuing week or two, another collection of old faces begins to resurface in new places. The aftershocks of January's firings, hirings and promotions are first felt in late July, when new shot-callers and play-designers begin honing their craft for the season ahead.
A change at coordinator on either side of the ball can swing a season and make or break a Super Bowl bid. Can the Bears' defense stay atop the charts without Vic Fangio? Will Fangio's new offensive guru lead a turnaround in Denver? Can the Vikings, Falcons or Cowboys make a deep playoff run with their own offensive overhauls? Let's examine a handful of the new faces under the microscope in 2019:
1) Gary Kubiak, Minnesota Vikings assistant head coach/offensive advisor
Incumbent coordinator Kevin Stefanski will retain play-calling duties for an offense that deteriorated over the course of the season before his promotion to an interim role in December, caught between head coach Mike Zimmer's desire for a run-oriented attack versus exiled coordinator John DeFilippo's inclination to dial up passes behind an increasingly unreliable blocking unit. Make no mistake, though: Stefanski will be operating Kubiak's trademark boot-action scheme, the hallmark of which is a symbiotic marriage of the outside zone run and the misdirection pass.
LATEST ANALYSIS
One of baseball's trendy expressions is a concept called tunneling, in which the pitcher releases his two primary pitches -- fastball and slider, for example -- from the same arm slot, thereby keeping the batter guessing for a fraction of a second. Kubiak's offense works in similar fashion, tunneling the run plays through the same formations as his back-breaking play-action passes, a camouflaged combination that not only helps maintain a balanced offense but also forces defenses to pause for a crucial moment after the ball is snapped. This system qualifies as having godsend status for quarterback Kirk Cousins, running back Dalvin Cook and an offensive line reshaped to feature first-round pick Garrett Bradbury as the athletic pivot in the center of the action.
Kubiak has consistently produced top-10 offenses without the benefit of elite quarterbacks. An ideal fit for the new regime, Cousins is the only NFL signal-caller with at least 1,000 passing yards and a 100 or better passer rating on play-action throws in each of the past four seasons, per Pro Football Focus. Cook is one of the most talented tailbacks ever to play under Kubiak and new offensive line coach/run-game coordinator Rick Dennison, who has served on the same staff as Kubiak for 18 seasons in a variety of roles with various teams, with the tandem demonstrating an uncanny knack for turning undrafted players and late-round fliers into 1,000-yard rushers. Perhaps most importantly, a beleaguered offensive line that led the league in Football Outsiders' blown blocks metric won't be tasked with holding protection for seven-step quarterback drops and deeper passing routes.
Just as Kubiak learned the play-calling ropes from one of the all-time greats in Mike Shanahan, Stefanski couldn't ask for a better mentor as he undertakes the tall task of resurrecting an offense that gradually grew moribund at the hand of DeFilippo.
Training camps swing open with the familiar storylines covering big-ticket offseason acquisitions and head-coaching changes. Once the practices heat up over the ensuing week or two, another collection of old faces begins to resurface in new places. The aftershocks of January's firings, hirings and promotions are first felt in late July, when new shot-callers and play-designers begin honing their craft for the season ahead.
A change at coordinator on either side of the ball can swing a season and make or break a Super Bowl bid. Can the Bears' defense stay atop the charts without Vic Fangio? Will Fangio's new offensive guru lead a turnaround in Denver? Can the Vikings, Falcons or Cowboys make a deep playoff run with their own offensive overhauls? Let's examine a handful of the new faces under the microscope in 2019:
1) Gary Kubiak, Minnesota Vikings assistant head coach/offensive advisor
Incumbent coordinator Kevin Stefanski will retain play-calling duties for an offense that deteriorated over the course of the season before his promotion to an interim role in December, caught between head coach Mike Zimmer's desire for a run-oriented attack versus exiled coordinator John DeFilippo's inclination to dial up passes behind an increasingly unreliable blocking unit. Make no mistake, though: Stefanski will be operating Kubiak's trademark boot-action scheme, the hallmark of which is a symbiotic marriage of the outside zone run and the misdirection pass.
LATEST ANALYSIS
One of baseball's trendy expressions is a concept called tunneling, in which the pitcher releases his two primary pitches -- fastball and slider, for example -- from the same arm slot, thereby keeping the batter guessing for a fraction of a second. Kubiak's offense works in similar fashion, tunneling the run plays through the same formations as his back-breaking play-action passes, a camouflaged combination that not only helps maintain a balanced offense but also forces defenses to pause for a crucial moment after the ball is snapped. This system qualifies as having godsend status for quarterback Kirk Cousins, running back Dalvin Cook and an offensive line reshaped to feature first-round pick Garrett Bradbury as the athletic pivot in the center of the action.
Kubiak has consistently produced top-10 offenses without the benefit of elite quarterbacks. An ideal fit for the new regime, Cousins is the only NFL signal-caller with at least 1,000 passing yards and a 100 or better passer rating on play-action throws in each of the past four seasons, per Pro Football Focus. Cook is one of the most talented tailbacks ever to play under Kubiak and new offensive line coach/run-game coordinator Rick Dennison, who has served on the same staff as Kubiak for 18 seasons in a variety of roles with various teams, with the tandem demonstrating an uncanny knack for turning undrafted players and late-round fliers into 1,000-yard rushers. Perhaps most importantly, a beleaguered offensive line that led the league in Football Outsiders' blown blocks metric won't be tasked with holding protection for seven-step quarterback drops and deeper passing routes.
Just as Kubiak learned the play-calling ropes from one of the all-time greats in Mike Shanahan, Stefanski couldn't ask for a better mentor as he undertakes the tall task of resurrecting an offense that gradually grew moribund at the hand of DeFilippo.
