NFL Trends ‘08 - The Return of Lenny Moore?
Posted: June 18, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
Lenny Moore was the first double threat in the modern NFL era. He played halfback and flanker for the Johnny Unitas-led Baltimore Colts in the late ’50s and ’60s and was a blue-chipper at both positions. He made the Hall of Fame and a panel of former players and personnel men recently named him one of the ten best running backs of all time.
Recent news from NFL mini-camps suggests to me that we may see a resurgence in Lenny Moore-type running backs this year.
We have seen two major offensive trends in the recent NFL. One is towards spread offenses, which use base three and four receiver sets. The Patriots’ success last year with a base 3-WR, 1-RB package will no doubt be duplicated in this copycat league. The other sees more teams using running back platoons.
Reports from Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Dallas hint that the OCs there will combine both trends, producing an offense that features two running backs on the field at the same time, with one of the backs displaying Moore’s running and receiving skills.
Let’s begin in Tennessee, where the Titans’ OC Mike Heimerdinger was drawing up plays as fast as his hands could write them at the team’s first camp to get Chris Johnson on the field. His 4.2 speed was evident and the Titans will try to get him on the field in space in combination with Lendale White or Chris Brown. With Vince Young under center, the Titans are the closest thing the NFL has to an option-capable team.
In Pittsburgh, the Steelers are drooling about Rashard Mendenhall’s potential and are trying to get him on the field as much as possible. The linked story says he’s being tried as a kickoff returner but I would not be surprised if the Steelers tried some packages with Mendenhall and Willie Parker together.
Of course, we’ve seen reports from Dallas that have the Cowboys placing Marion Barber and rookie Felix Jones on the field together. Dallas tried this once in a while with Barber and Julius Jones but Felix has better hands and appears to have better open-field moxie than the older Jones.
One more tactic the two-RB package could revive is the no-huddle offense. The Bengals ran a slow version of a no-huddle, called the “sugar huddle” in the late ’80s when Boomer Esiason had Ickey Woods and double threat James Brooks in his backfield. That team would line up at the line of scrimmage and calls plays in a deliberate fashion, looking to take an offsides penalty when a defense tried to make a substitution.
Buffalo ran a more active and lethal version of a no-huddle in the early ’90s with its “K-gun,” a three-WR, one back set with Thurman Thomas in the backfield. Thomas could move all over the field and the Bills would exploit matchups while keeping a defense in its base or nickel packages.
The closest models to what we might see from Jason Garrett this year are the sometimes no-huddle packages the 49ers and Cowboys ran in the mid-90s. Dallas tried a power-version of this set, using FB Daryl Johnston as the flex back. He would move to the slot and sometimes line up wide. Johnston could do his damage — he made some enormous catches in a ‘96 win over the ‘49ers — but no one would ever confuse his moves with Moore’s or Jones’.
In San Francisco, the 49ers would sometimes open a game in their base set, with RB Ricky Watters and FB Tom Rathman in the backfield, and then go no-huddle, moving Watters into the slot or lining him up at flanker. Watters had played receiver while at Notre Dame and was a legitimate receiving threat. Because the defense could not substitute, it would either have to burn a time out or risk matching a LB or S on Watters in space.
Opposing safeties had to respect Jerry Rice and John Taylor’s skills, meaning Watters could run seam and post patterns from the slot and leave linebackers in his dust.
I imagine the Cowboys will use packages that more closely mimic what the 49ers did, with Jones playing Watters’ role. Since Marion Barber is a much better runner than Tom Rathman, and can pass block effectively, opposing linebackers face a conundrum: do they focus on Barber’s inside game and leave Jones in isolation or do they play the pass more and take their chances with Dallas’ run?
Whatever the case, we may have a new nickname for Felix Jones before the season is over — “Lenny.”
Comments
10 Responses to “NFL Trends ‘08 - The Return of Lenny Moore?”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
-
"The Sports Doctors"
iTunes/
Winamp
Windows
Media
RealOne -
Cowboy Up
Dedicated to providing the best Cowboys analysis anywhere, our efforts are free of charge but not free of expense. Your kind donation today will keep our drive alive.
Thank you
Or mail payment to:
RV2 Enterprises
P.O. Box 150093
Austin TX 78715-0093
Advertisers
-
Fave it!
-
SiteMeter
Burst Media
Very nice article. Well thought out and articulated. Its gonna be fun to see what Garrett dreams up. Lets hope Felix has the receiving skills to be a true threat in the slot.
Raf, Do you feel Choice will also be in the mix in this fashion. I am really excited about that kid i just wanna see playmakers on the field.How much will TG cost against the cap once his ingrate ass is finally cut free.
While these prospects are exciting, I think the idea of 2 TEs has more name your poison appeal. If Bennett can pull it together mentally and actually catch and block, how do you defend he and Witten when you don’t know who is blocking or going out?
If Felix is also on the field (and is the real deal), he adds a huge headache. What linebacker can cover a 4.3 guy with some moves or stop his run with 2 blocking tightends?
If you put your safeties near the line of scrimmage, TO goes off on you. If you drop your safeties, you are killed by the run or TE pass. This all hinges on Bennett’s development, I don’t think Tony Curtis scares anyone blocking.
rha,
Dallas has used a two TE, two RB set before, but in the Jimmy Johnson era it was a pure power formation, used when backed inside the red zone or in the opponents red zone or in the late stages of the 4th when Dallas was up a TD and wanted to grind clock. That’s cause neither Dallas back was a burner — sorry Emmitt — and the Cowboys’ second TE was always a clod like Kendall Watkins or Alfredo Roberts.
What we’ve never seen is that set with two backs AND two TEs who can scoot. You can put Felix in the backfield, split him wide, put him on a wing.
And with Bennett and Witten and T.O. and Jones you have four options who can get up the field.
It’s a speedy power formation, so long as Marion Barber can do a bit of lead blocking.
Dallas has LOTS of flexibility.
rha -
I think you and Raf are both on the right track. I think the beauty of both of your ideas comes from combining them. Garrett’s game planning and in-game adjustments last year were pretty darn good. (You would think that would improve with his second year as OC.) Now imagine that the offense can exist and execute both the “Lenny” offense and the 2 TE offense. Manipulating the game plan to attack the upcoming defense with either one of these strategies makes the overall offense even more effective.
As a defense, you can compensate for some weaknesses and focus on a “Lenny” or prepare for the 2 TE set. But what if you play the Cowboys in week 5, and you’ve seen both of these offenses executed. Now what? Again, its not about the individual weapons or plays; its about coordinating the attack to take it to a defense.
(After reading Raf’s post from when I was typing…) Yeah, what Raf said.
Excellent article Raf! Way to keep the articles flying when there isn’t anything happening.
Felix Jones played in 38 games in college, and caught 39 receptions for 383 yards and 3 TDs. And that was in a weird offense, definitely not pro-style. So we’ll have to see if he turns out to be anything like a Lenny Moore/Thurman Thomas/James Brooks/Ricky Watters in terms of receiving ability. I’ll be happy if he has the receving ability of Tony Dorsett or Herschel Walker. That would be nice.
Just to clear up for Raul, I did mean edit or delete our *own* posts. Sorry for the confusion, I didn’t realize it wouldn’t be clear. Again, the site looks great.
Just to clear up for Raul, I did mean edit or delete our *own* posts. Sorry for the confusion, I didn’t realize it wouldn’t be clear. Again, the site looks great.
Raf’s article also put me in mind of a 2 RB, 2 TE offense, with TO split wide or moving around the formation. Ha, who needs a #2 WR (JK)? Who do you defend, and how do you defend them? I wouldn’t want to face that, it would probably force a defense to do a high risk penetration attack where thy try to get to the QB or RB very quickly behind the LOS.
Also, it could open up a 3 WR (or 2 and Witten split wide) and 1 RB, where Felix could also motion wide, or if Barber, just have him catch out of the backfield as he does so well.
I can’t wait to see what our own mad scientist can come up with.