Saints will Trim Down Offense

http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1108624453161470.xml

Simplifying offense major goal of Saints
Haslett, Sheppard on the same page
Thursday, February 17, 2005

By Jeff Duncan
Staff writer


Coach Jim Haslett walked past a bookshelf in his office Monday afternoon and pointed to a massive binder on the bottom shelf titled "2004 Saints Offensive Play Book." The black spiral-bound volume measures at least six inches thick.

"You better look at it now," Haslett said, "because it won't be half that big next year."

The man responsible for the heavy chopping is Mike Sheppard, the Saints' new offensive coordinator and, for the next few months, part-time lumberjack. In addition to evaluating free agents and draft prospects, managing a new staff and devising complementary schemes to the current system, much of Sheppard's time will be spent whittling, trimming, shearing and pruning.

Sheppard's job is less "Extreme Makeover" than it is "Judicious Minimization."

"The main thing we want to do is improve. Whatever we can do to make this offense better is our goal," Sheppard said Sunday as he sat in his spartan new office. "The offense will be similar to what we've done in the past. This is still Jim Haslett's offense and the New Orleans Saints offense."

That offense is starting to sound a lot like the Pittsburgh Steelers' attack -- with a West Coast slant.

"We want to run the ball, play-action pass, three-step (drop) on first and second down," Haslett said. "We want an offense that is efficient and fast-paced. I think our offense, our defense and our special teams have to complement one another. I think we got away from that the last couple of years. I want to get back to what we were doing our first year here."

That means more running and ball-control passing, and less of just about everything else.

There'll be a reduction in terminology, less shifting and motion and fewer progressions for quarterback Aaron Brooks on pass plays. Play calls that sometimes consisted of 15 words will be shorter. The voluminous amount of plays will be pruned to a more player-friendly number.

"We need to cut the volume down in what we're doing," Haslett said. "I think we can limit some of the things we're doing and improve the mechanics and techniques of it. We need more repetition in the things we do."

The excessive plays and the mind-boggling number of options of those plays, along with the wordy terminology, Haslett said, contributed to the mental errors and pre-snap penalties that have plagued the offense. The Saints led the NFL in penalty yards (1,141) and committed the second-most penalties (129) last season.

"Jim's philosophy is to simplify things, and his basis for that was the way our defense played the last four games (in 2004)," Sheppard said. "The simpler they got, the better those guys played. I believe that's true in all phases."

That doesn't mean the Saints are going to break out the Wing-T in September or return to the days of former offensive coordinator Carl Smith. Rather, they plan to limit the bells and whistles on an attack that regressed in nearly every category last season.

The two-back set will be the base offense, although, as in the past, the Saints still will use multiple formations -- three wide receivers, four wide receivers and two tight ends.

Otherwise, the offense won't differ much from the one former offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy ran the previous five seasons.

"The offense will be similar," Sheppard said. "Mike did some tremendous things here during his time. We've been pretty good on offense here. We don't have to reinvent how we're going to move the ball or find players to do that. We're fortunate to have a foundation in place. In that way, we're obviously ahead of the game."

Some differences will be conspicuous, though.

Sheppard, unlike McCarthy, who now is with the San Francisco 49ers, plans to call plays from the press box instead of the sideline. Also, the Saints will join a growing list of teams that experiment with quarterback wristbands that keep a list of plays handy to aid in calls from the sideline.

He'll also work on improving a rushing offense that ranked 27th in the league last season, lowest ever under Haslett.

An early ankle injury to running back Deuce McAllister and a tendency to fall behind early in games prevented the Saints from striking the offensive balance Haslett craves. The Saints attempted to pass on 59 percent (583) of their 989 offensive plays last season. As a result, their time of possession decreased to 28:18, fourth lowest in the league. Haslett wants to get back closer to the 52-48 pass-run ratio his first team had in 2000. His time-of-possession goal is 32 minutes.

Even though Sheppard's background is based in the passing game, he understands the importance of running the football. He's quick to point out that every dominant West Coast offense has featured a strong rushing attack. The NFL's top rushers, Curtis Martin of the New York Jets (1,697 yards) and Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks (1,696) last season operated out of West Coast offenses.

"On the best 49ers teams of the '80s, when everybody was talking about Jerry Rice and Steve Young and Joe Montana and Brent Jones and John Taylor, what nobody talked about was that they were leading the league in running the football," Sheppard said. "We're still going to run the football here."

Sheppard said he'll tap the knowledge and experience of his staff.

New running backs coach Johnny Roland and quarterbacks coach Turk Schonert will be tapped for fresh ideas. Offensive line coach Jack Henry, tight ends coach Bob Palcic and wide receivers coach Jimmy Robinson will be solicited for more input.

"If we can improve what we're doing on offense, then we've got a chance to win football games," Sheppard said. "There will be a lot of carryover. There will be obvious changes, things we think can make us better.

"Our offensive coaches are going to do everything they can to allow players to react and play. We're going to continue to work on that."

. . . . . . .

Jeff Duncan can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3405.

 

Brooks needs them to make it simpler huh?

 

I guess he's jealous of Jake's fashionable armband.

 

I still can't believe Hasslett has survived the offseason.

 

I think it's funny when teams blame motion and formations for their offensive problems. That basically means McCarthy spent time pinpointing mismatches and creating opportunities that Brooks couldn't understand without it being specifically noted to him.

I remember the Giants scapegoating Sean Payton that way with Collins, too. Of course, not long after, Fassel was out on his ass, too.

 

All this article tells me is that the Saints players are too dumb to learn a playbook. I sure hope we don't sign any FA Saints players in the off season.


Actually, maybe I better amend it to, "Brooks is too dumb to learn a playbook."
That's better. :xyzthumbs

 

Guess all that extra time these guys spent in class in college is starting to pay off, huh?

 

When is the last time you heard about a team with a great QB having to "dumb down" the playbook? Can you imagine Dungy coming out and saying we are going to scale back the playbook and stop all of the audibles. Peyton just has too much on his plate prior to the snap.

 

I had a thought. Since dumbness seems to run in the family, and His Vickness & Brooks are cousins, and last year His Vickness had trouble with the Tweeties' playbook, maybe the Tweeties will dumb down their playbook, too, and we can MAYBE beat them. :huh:

I know this sounded like one of Dukey's rambling posts with run-on sentences, so I apologize.

 

Another reason why we don't need an OC like McCarthy. If you have a playbook 6 inches thick, you're either obsessive-compulsive or have way too much time on your hands.