Glance-Flat-Wheel RPO
Called a whopping 50 times, this was easily Miami’s most called play in the 2022 season. While this is an RPO, this is more of a PRO as Miami only handed the ball off once all year on this playcall. There really is no progression on this play as McDaniel lets Tua really just make get a feel for which route to go to. McDaniel has built a lot of his offense around this play, and you'll see the constraints it causes defenses within other plays as we get more into it.
This is an ultimate constraint play as you get both a vertical stretch from the wheel route as well as a horizontal stretch from the slide/flat route and while I call it a Glance route, it's really a "find space" route, as you can see in the 2nd clip from Tyreek he just throttles down in space and lets Tua find him. It really just fully unlocks Tua's "point guard" play style (not a slight) as you can see him in the 1st clip vs the Lions even though the LB does a good job getting in the window Tua essentially back shoulders it in the only window there was for a completion. He'll also back shoulder the wheel route a good amount, it's just the perfect play to center around Tua's playstyle.
PA Speed Dig | Speed Dig Weak/Strong
Miami's go-to Playaction pass, the speed dig off of playaction was called 40 times in 2022. If you've watched the 49ers under Shanahan, you should recognize the speed dig as it's an integral part of their offense as well. You can see in the 1st clip vs Buffalo just how McDaniel has built a lot of his plays off of the glance-flat-wheel concept, everything at the start of the play looks like the RPO starting with the wheel route off motion, the TE motioning post snap across the formation, the offensive line getting on their tracks feigning outside zone blocking, and even the initial get off from Tyreek looks like the glance route. You can see the LBs shuffle toward Tyreek and Sherfield and by the time they realize it's not the RPO, Waddle already has the ball in his hands.
It's critical to hit the speed dig on time off the break to maximize the window, which Tua does better than most QBs in the entire league. This will normally be paired with a corner stop as a 2nd read if the speed dig isn't open, which you can see in the 2nd clip as Tua gets to his 2nd read vs the Niners. With the Dolphins not seeing much man coverage due to the pure speed of Waddle and Hill, this is a perfect play to attack zones and places a lot of strain on the LBs.
This is the non play action variation of the Speed Dig concept, i didn't want to make this a separate category as it's too similar to the play action version, but felt it was too integral to McDaniel's playcalls to leave it out as all of the non PA variations were all called a combined 64 times in 2022. In this version, it is normally paired with a 2 way option route from the #2 receiver/RB on the same side that can either sit in space or break out, and some form of quick slant or return route from the backside for a quick 1-2-3 progression. The choice route is important as it not only works to bring zone defenders down to clear space for the dig, but also if a defense wants to run quarters and have the safety nail down on the speed dig, the choice route will be left 1 on 1 vs the LB with outside leverage.
Choice/Lookie
While it looks similar to the choice route that's paired with the speed dig, this concept will actually give the choice route runner a 3 way option and will normally be paired with a corner route to the same side to clear space for the 3 way go. The choice route will now be the primary read in a pure progression and will be paired with a multitude of options to the backside including a through route in the 1st clip ran by Gesicki, a dig route or sometimes a return route.
Since this concept can be paired with a multitude of different options to the backside, it was ran in total 41 times in 2022 and is a very good concept to get the RB involved in the pass game (H Choice). This could very well be one of the plays that McDaniel kept envisioning Achane in, causing even more constraint with his speed.
PA Deep Out
With a lot of what we've seen so far being concepts that attack the middle of the field, it only makes sense for McDaniel to sprinkle in a concept that takes advantage of DB's expecting the dig route. The deep out is a killer vs any teams that want to stay in middle field closed defenses like cover 1 and cover 3 as in the 1st clip vs cover 3 the corner in a deep third has to speed turn to account for Tyreeks speed and the the curl/flat can't get deep enough to defend the deep out, in the 2nd clip vs cover 1 man the Tyreek gets the corner turned around and has no chance to stay on the out.
The deep out will usually be paired with a dig route which you can see in the 1st clip, but I like it better paired with the search route, which can be seen in the 2nd clip ran by Waddle. The search route can either sit in space vs zone, or break back out vs man and gives you 2 good options vs man coverage. With 19 total calls in 2022, it may not be a main staple of the offense, but this concept is deadly as a changeup to all the in breakers that teams are trying to stop.
PA Cross-Dig
You can see just how McDaniel puts LBs through hell with plays like this, watch in both plays as you've got a man in pre-snap motion, a lineman pulling, and in the 2nd clip another player post snap motioning across the formation, all while you've got a low cross and a dig route working against the grain of all these motions not to mention also having to key the mesh point from the QB/RB on the play action. Once you get those LB's moving like that, you've got wide open windows and forcing them to essentially guess every play because they also have to worry about the RPOs and run game. The dig route in this concept is a deeper dig route rather than the speed digs we've been seeing so far, and is a better option as a #2 after the low cross.
In the 2nd clip you can see this concept paired with the Deep Out that we covered previously, it's a great alert to have if you catch man coverage and you have Tyreek Hill running it. While this wasn't ran much at the beginning of the year, McDaniel ramped it up for the back half of the season and called it a total of 18 times on the season.
While we didn't get a full look at how McDaniel runs this offense, you can see just how much work goes into these concepts to cause stress on the 2nd level defense, and you pair that with the speed of Tyreek and Waddle that causes DB's to bail into their deep zones essentially every play, you can see just how much space that opens up in the intermediate passing game. All of the motions and pullers and play action etc all have a purpose in this offense, and it's just going to get better in 2023. Thanks for reading.
Called a whopping 50 times, this was easily Miami’s most called play in the 2022 season. While this is an RPO, this is more of a PRO as Miami only handed the ball off once all year on this playcall. There really is no progression on this play as McDaniel lets Tua really just make get a feel for which route to go to. McDaniel has built a lot of his offense around this play, and you'll see the constraints it causes defenses within other plays as we get more into it.
This is an ultimate constraint play as you get both a vertical stretch from the wheel route as well as a horizontal stretch from the slide/flat route and while I call it a Glance route, it's really a "find space" route, as you can see in the 2nd clip from Tyreek he just throttles down in space and lets Tua find him. It really just fully unlocks Tua's "point guard" play style (not a slight) as you can see him in the 1st clip vs the Lions even though the LB does a good job getting in the window Tua essentially back shoulders it in the only window there was for a completion. He'll also back shoulder the wheel route a good amount, it's just the perfect play to center around Tua's playstyle.
PA Speed Dig | Speed Dig Weak/Strong
Miami's go-to Playaction pass, the speed dig off of playaction was called 40 times in 2022. If you've watched the 49ers under Shanahan, you should recognize the speed dig as it's an integral part of their offense as well. You can see in the 1st clip vs Buffalo just how McDaniel has built a lot of his plays off of the glance-flat-wheel concept, everything at the start of the play looks like the RPO starting with the wheel route off motion, the TE motioning post snap across the formation, the offensive line getting on their tracks feigning outside zone blocking, and even the initial get off from Tyreek looks like the glance route. You can see the LBs shuffle toward Tyreek and Sherfield and by the time they realize it's not the RPO, Waddle already has the ball in his hands.
It's critical to hit the speed dig on time off the break to maximize the window, which Tua does better than most QBs in the entire league. This will normally be paired with a corner stop as a 2nd read if the speed dig isn't open, which you can see in the 2nd clip as Tua gets to his 2nd read vs the Niners. With the Dolphins not seeing much man coverage due to the pure speed of Waddle and Hill, this is a perfect play to attack zones and places a lot of strain on the LBs.
This is the non play action variation of the Speed Dig concept, i didn't want to make this a separate category as it's too similar to the play action version, but felt it was too integral to McDaniel's playcalls to leave it out as all of the non PA variations were all called a combined 64 times in 2022. In this version, it is normally paired with a 2 way option route from the #2 receiver/RB on the same side that can either sit in space or break out, and some form of quick slant or return route from the backside for a quick 1-2-3 progression. The choice route is important as it not only works to bring zone defenders down to clear space for the dig, but also if a defense wants to run quarters and have the safety nail down on the speed dig, the choice route will be left 1 on 1 vs the LB with outside leverage.
Choice/Lookie
While it looks similar to the choice route that's paired with the speed dig, this concept will actually give the choice route runner a 3 way option and will normally be paired with a corner route to the same side to clear space for the 3 way go. The choice route will now be the primary read in a pure progression and will be paired with a multitude of options to the backside including a through route in the 1st clip ran by Gesicki, a dig route or sometimes a return route.
Since this concept can be paired with a multitude of different options to the backside, it was ran in total 41 times in 2022 and is a very good concept to get the RB involved in the pass game (H Choice). This could very well be one of the plays that McDaniel kept envisioning Achane in, causing even more constraint with his speed.
PA Deep Out
With a lot of what we've seen so far being concepts that attack the middle of the field, it only makes sense for McDaniel to sprinkle in a concept that takes advantage of DB's expecting the dig route. The deep out is a killer vs any teams that want to stay in middle field closed defenses like cover 1 and cover 3 as in the 1st clip vs cover 3 the corner in a deep third has to speed turn to account for Tyreeks speed and the the curl/flat can't get deep enough to defend the deep out, in the 2nd clip vs cover 1 man the Tyreek gets the corner turned around and has no chance to stay on the out.
The deep out will usually be paired with a dig route which you can see in the 1st clip, but I like it better paired with the search route, which can be seen in the 2nd clip ran by Waddle. The search route can either sit in space vs zone, or break back out vs man and gives you 2 good options vs man coverage. With 19 total calls in 2022, it may not be a main staple of the offense, but this concept is deadly as a changeup to all the in breakers that teams are trying to stop.
PA Cross-Dig
You can see just how McDaniel puts LBs through hell with plays like this, watch in both plays as you've got a man in pre-snap motion, a lineman pulling, and in the 2nd clip another player post snap motioning across the formation, all while you've got a low cross and a dig route working against the grain of all these motions not to mention also having to key the mesh point from the QB/RB on the play action. Once you get those LB's moving like that, you've got wide open windows and forcing them to essentially guess every play because they also have to worry about the RPOs and run game. The dig route in this concept is a deeper dig route rather than the speed digs we've been seeing so far, and is a better option as a #2 after the low cross.
In the 2nd clip you can see this concept paired with the Deep Out that we covered previously, it's a great alert to have if you catch man coverage and you have Tyreek Hill running it. While this wasn't ran much at the beginning of the year, McDaniel ramped it up for the back half of the season and called it a total of 18 times on the season.
While we didn't get a full look at how McDaniel runs this offense, you can see just how much work goes into these concepts to cause stress on the 2nd level defense, and you pair that with the speed of Tyreek and Waddle that causes DB's to bail into their deep zones essentially every play, you can see just how much space that opens up in the intermediate passing game. All of the motions and pullers and play action etc all have a purpose in this offense, and it's just going to get better in 2023. Thanks for reading.
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