Bucs Film Room: OC Canales’ Offensive Vision

Time can only tell how effective new Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales will be. While his initial press conference was a resounding success, points aren’t scored and games aren’t won at the media lectern. But the transparency and detail with which he spoke was a refreshing change of pace for Bucs fans and media alike.

Canales gave a preview of what is to come with him at the helm of the offense with a few of his answers. He made multiple references to “the system” and even brought up several quarterbacks who had worked in it. These quarterbacks were Jared Goff, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson circa 2021 and Geno Smith.

Even though Canales has ties to multiple offensive systems over his 10 years with the Seahawks, this answer tells us he will be drawing mainly from his time over the past two years with Shane Waldron, who came from the Sean McVay coaching tree. The staples of that offense are wide zone runs, play action boot leg passes with a lot of crossing routes to stretch the defense horizontally.

The other answer that drew my attention came when Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds asked Canales about how he planned to use the Bucs star receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Canales’ response signaled a change in Godwin’s usage from recent seasons, but also gave some additional insight into how he wanted to create success for the Bucs’ receiving duo.

“I would say, specifically, they just do so many good things outside the numbers with the one-on-one matchups,” Canales said. “That will definitely be a part of what we do. And then, moving the receivers to gain access – you can release easier if you move your receivers around, so we have a simple system that allows us to be able to do that, to give them access into the secondary.

“And when you get a big sucker like those guys with a free run, where they’re not having to face press all the time – and they’re both magnificent versus press, that’s the cool part. Anytime you reduce football to just being mano-y-mano ball, it’s just not smart football. So, anything you can do to get a matchup, an advantageous matchup or to move a gain, to gain access, we’ll do those things. And we definitely use our receivers in the run game, so having two big guys who can do that is awesome. And actually Russell [Gage Jr.] is fantastic in there, too. He’s really tough. So that’s another guy we’ll be able to use.”

Taking this point that Canales made specifically and marrying it to tenants of the McVay offensive system,  we can see all sorts of examples of how the Bucs offense might look next year under Canales.

Creating Free Releases

Canales specifically mentioned making things easier for his playmakers. The NFL has been moving to offenses that can create free releases for talented receivers over the past several years. Andy Reid beat the Eagles defense not once, but twice in the Super Bowl for touchdowns on plays that involved movement at the snap to allow his playmakers to easily access the field.

And the Seahawks used this a decent amount as well.  According to Jon Ledyard’s recent podcast on Audibles & Analytics, the Seahawks were just outside of the top 10 in the NFL last year in motion at the snap, while the Bucs were dead last in the NFL. Here is an example of Seattle creating free releases for their receivers.

At the outset of this play, pre-snap you can see DK Metcalf (#14) lined up wide of the numbers to the field. His primary defender is lined up right on the line of scrimmage, indicating he will be pressing off the snap. Seattle brings Metcalf in motion to the stacked alignment on the reduced split. By doing this and pairing it with Metcalf running a shallow cross underneath the vertical corner route Dee Eskridge (#1) runs, it allows Metcalf to get a clean release to the middle of the field. This forces his defender to have to put the gas down to catch up.

Once Metcalf throttles down in the middle of the field, his defender has to try to close ground for what he thinks is a short pass. And so, he is unable to stay on balance to react well to Metcalf’s double move. This allows quarterback Geno Smith to hit Metcalf for the easy touchdown.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the play, Eskridge finds space the size of Jupiter on his corner route as the nickel defender and the box safety both stay shallow to cover the underneath whip route. The use of the motion and the stacked alignment combined to create difficulties for the defense in disrupting timing at the outset of the play and properly covering all of the routes being run.

Use Of Play Action

Smith was tied for 10th in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 417 drop backs in play-action usage at just a hair under 25%. Meanwhile, last year, Bucs starter Tom Brady was 21st (out of 22 qualified quarterbacks) at 15.6%.

Both quarterbacks enjoyed a yards-per-attempt bump of about 1.5 under play-action settings. It stands to reason a jump in play-action usage can help a Bucs offense that struggled in just about every facet last year.

Here is an example the Seahawks used against the Bucs last year. Just one play after running a jet sweep from shotgun, Seattle dialed up a similar look but used the jet sweep motion as part of a play-action to create space for Metcalf.

Both the jet sweep action as well as the fake hand off to the running back help to freeze Bucs slot defender Sean Murphy-Bunting as well as linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White. All of the movement to the boundary forces free safety Antoine Winfield Jr. to turn and shade to that side. This leaves Metcalf one-on-one with Jamel Dean, who is responsible for the deep third of the field. Metcalf is able to easily break into the dig as Smith throws him open.

These concepts are fantastic in their ability to create situations where the receivers can win more easily. This creates a distinct dichotomy with the Bucs’ previous offense, which asked receivers to win through sheer talent. This play was also run very early in the game (second drive), when the Seahawks had only run the ball twice prior. They understood that play-action does not require the establishment of the run to be effective.

Here is another example with Seattle using orbit motion (something that, to my knowledge, the Bucs did not employ at all under former offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich) off of play-action.

The orbit motion forces Lavonte David to immediately bail to the play side to ensure the Bucs have a numbers advantage in coverage (four defenders against three routes). The play-action brings safety Mike Edwards down into the box to gain a numbers advantage on the possible run to the strong side.

With the Bucs in zone and everything moving to the field side, cornerback Carlton Davis is taken out of the play altogether by virtue of assignment. This leaves the underneath middle open for a simple throw and catch to tight end Will Dissly, who then moves up field for some solid yards after catch.

Counters and Stacking Plays

You hear football people talk a lot about using the run to set up the pass. Well, how about the other way around? Remember that play-action jet sweep play I showed earlier? That was run the play after a jet sweep. Now, later in the game, the Seahawks come back with a similar look out of Pistol. This time, they put wide receiver Tyler Lockett in motion on the jet sweep and go with the traditional hand off to running back Kenneth Walker.

You’ll notice the middle of the Bucs defense hesitating while trying to decipher the play. They have seen the jet and they have seen the play-action off of it. This gives Walker all the room he needs to pick up five yards on this 3rd & 2.

Things Will Be Changing For Bucs’ Offense

Canales has alluded to using the McVay/Shanahan offensive system that is predicated on two main principles: using the entire field to stretch defenses both vertically and horizontally and using misdirection to create favorable matchups and situations.

Both of these principles were evident in Seattle last year and used to great effect. The Seahawks ranked 9th in the NFL in points scored with a journeyman quarterback, a largely young and inconsistent offensive line and a lack of a reliable third receiver.

What they did have was a strong one-two punch at receiver and talented running backs. The Bucs’ current roster on offense matches up fairly well with what Seattle was working with last year. So, if Canales can effectively implement his offense with this group, there is a very good chance the Bucs will be able to score more points in 2023 than in 2022.

The post Bucs Film Room: OC Canales’ Offensive Vision appeared first on Pewter Report.