The Athletic Football Show breaks down The offensive environment Ward is going to/2024 offensive scheme breakdown

[Bulluck4dmvp]

No offense can function with a turnstile RT and a QB that’s always in panic mode 

[NashvilleNinja]

1 hour ago, Starkiller said:

The coaches have to help train them on the NFL level, but generally QBs are going to succeed or fail based on their own talents.
 

They need to work with Ward on his mechanics, for example, but it’s his innate skills that will make him great. 

 

Most development has already taken place by the time a QB has reached the NFL.

[9 Nines]

On 5/15/2025 at 6:17 AM, OILERMAN said:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lingering-questions-part-1-the-titans-offensive/id1528622068?i=1000708555744

 

The Titans talk is at the very start. 

 

This is a great listen. These guys go back and review the 2024 offense to see what kind of offensive scheme Ward will be going to and analyze the 2024 offensive problems. Long story short they were pleasantly surprised how optimistic they were and the 2024 problems were almost all on the talent(QB and OL mainly). 

 

Paraphrasing

 

First of all the Titans lost the most EPA on aborted plays(dropped snaps type), offensive penalties and turnovers. If they were only half as bad their offense would have been in the middle of the pack/mediocre. They point out penalties are a year to year thing, lack of talent and not connected to coaching. 

 

Will Levis is horrid. He has "anti-pocket presence". When he had protection he'd do poorly and when he was pressured he was a total disaster. Refused to check down and incapable to making plays when things go poorly(opposite of Ward). Rudolph had a higher floor but turned the ball over and when he was pressured he would check down or throw it away right away. He had a 4.2 yards per play on playaction(pitiful). 

 

The OL was equally as bad. Even with Levis having terrible pocket presence the bigger problem was he was pressured right away. The Titans were bad anyway but they were also injured. Their highest graded starting 5 played together among the least amount in the league. 

 

Latham had problems transitioning to LT in pass pro. They gushed about Latham's run blocking. The right side was a disaster. They pointed out even on well called screens when the OL would get a number advantage multiple OL would usually miss blocks. 

 

They believe the OL will be much more functional.

 

The WRs got no separation. Boyd and NWI couldn't get any. Don't fret over losing NWI. Ridley was good but can't play the X spot, which is why they signed Jefferson and used the draft. WRs could still be a problem, they signed journeymen and took later round WRs. 

 

They praised the design of the run game, the perimeter and their run game from shotgun. They said the design of the playaction passing game was good and said Callahan did a good job adjusting(trying to) to the problems the offense had. 

 

I 100% believe Nihill and Brinker are way higher on Callahan than the fans. 

 

Every time I hear Callahan talk I'm more impressed than I expect to be. I think he's about totally blameless with the offensive struggles last year and Ward is in very good hands. 

 

 

This summary is almost verbatim - I thought I had already heard the show when I listened to it after reading this. 

[Jamalisms]

On 5/15/2025 at 6:22 AM, OILERMAN said:

BTW, going into the season last year with Levis as the unquestioned starter was total ineptitude. Just laughable they thought he had any chance of being a quality starter. They should have drafted someone and had an open battle in camp. Levis would have easily been beaten out. 

 

The way they talked about him in the lead up to hiring a coach was disturbing. Multiple of us said it at the time but Amy discussed him as if he was a selling point.

 

The delusion there is a major concern and you have to hope that either she's not heavily involved despite that the praise asking with how they treated him or the people around her are better at convincing her or maybe she was just speaking off the cuff and try to put lipstick on a pig.

[Jamalisms]

On 5/15/2025 at 11:16 AM, TeamRamrod said:

Imagine watching the games with your eyes. Couldn’t be titans fans!

 

Eye.

[NashvilleNinja]

1 hour ago, Jamalisms said:

 

Eye.

 

Hamburger.

[CreepingDeath]

1 hour ago, Jamalisms said:

 

Eye.

[BudsOilers]

1 hour ago, Jamalisms said:

 

The way they talked about him in the lead up to hiring a coach was disturbing. Multiple of us said it at the time but Amy discussed him as if he was a selling point.

 

The delusion there is a major concern and you have to hope that either she's not heavily involved despite that the praise asking with how they treated him or the people around her are better at convincing her or maybe she was just speaking off the cuff and try to put lipstick on a pig.

People always made too much of those comments much like they did when she said she hoped Mariota would be a franchise QB.  I'd venture to guess she had Ran talking up Levis, the roster, etc. just like he did publicly - the old "we checked all the boxes" this offseason.....

[TerryBoats]

Vrabel averaged 30 PPG when he had good players on offense.  Any offense will look good with good players, and bad with bad players.  There's not a single coach who you couldn't make the same case as they did here for Callahan. 

 

As you mentioned, WRs were never open.  WRs who consistently create separation are paid as much as the top pass rushers.  Callahan's top responsibility as a play caller is to scheme players open in order to help his QB.  This is what the best offensive coaches in the league do, no matter who their WRs are (guess which starting QB throw into the fewest tight windows last year - Patrick Mahomes)

 

  If your offense needs Joe Burrow, Jamar, Chase, and Tee Higgins to be the #6-7 scoring offense in the league, then the design of the offense isn't great. 

[TerryBoats]

14 hours ago, Justafan said:

Great breakdown. Helps to explain some of the WTF moments from last year.

Having said all that, I think it's naive not to have at least some healthy amount of skepticism regarding Callahan. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, but the team got worse in nearly every statistical sense from a year ago, the offense was putrid, and the guy they brought Callahan in to develop simply didn't. I can't think of a single thing I saw in-game that looked better with an improved roster from the year previous (IMO). Some of that can be explained by personnel (Levis was even worse than expected, and the offensive line was once again historically bad), and I'm willing to give some benefit of the doubt to a rookie coach who is also a first-time playcaller. Still, when an entire unit plays poorly, it's hard for me to buy that coaching didn't have an impact. 

In 2018 the Bengals were a 6 win team with a the #17 scoring offense.  This is with Andy Dalton/Jeff Driskel at QB and Tyler Boyd as WR1, and a terrible OL.  Fast forward one year under Taylor/Callahan and largely the same personnel, they had the #30 scoring offense and subsequently the #1 draft pick.

 

This scheme isn't one with a history of elevating the level of talent.  And in fact, a case could be made that it has the opposite impact.

[CreepingDeath]

28 minutes ago, TerryBoats said:

In 2018 the Bengals were a 6 win team with a the #17 scoring offense.  This is with Andy Dalton/Jeff Driskel at QB and Tyler Boyd as WR1, and a terrible OL.  Fast forward one year under Taylor/Callahan and largely the same personnel, they had the #30 scoring offense and subsequently the #1 draft pick.

 

This scheme isn't one with a history of elevating the level of talent.  And in fact, a case could be made that it has the opposite impact.

How long does it take a team to learn a new offense?  A new offense with a terrible OL, shit QBs and Tyler Boyd at WR1?

[Callidus]

1 hour ago, TerryBoats said:

Vrabel averaged 30 PPG when he had good players on offense.  Any offense will look good with good players, and bad with bad players.  There's not a single coach who you couldn't make the same case as they did here for Callahan. 

 

As you mentioned, WRs were never open.  WRs who consistently create separation are paid as much as the top pass rushers.  Callahan's top responsibility as a play caller is to scheme players open in order to help his QB.  This is what the best offensive coaches in the league do, no matter who their WRs are (guess which starting QB throw into the fewest tight windows last year - Patrick Mahomes)

 

  If your offense needs Joe Burrow, Jamar, Chase, and Tee Higgins to be the #6-7 scoring offense in the league, then the design of the offense isn't great. 

Vrable has never run an offense. 

[NashvilleNinja]

1 hour ago, Callidus said:

Vrable has never run an offense. 

 

Not for lack of trying...

[reo]

On 5/15/2025 at 9:54 AM, NashvilleNinja said:

 

It makes me wonder how much of the offense we saw last year was the offense Callahan actually wanted to run.

 

I don't think we've seen what he wants to run and honestly I'm sure if he had anything specific. He calls what he thinks will work with what he's got. 

 

It's going to be something completely different with Ward.

[reo]

1 hour ago, Callidus said:

Vrable has never run an offense. 

 

Vrable had a player who could make a conservative offense look explosive. He lucked into that.