Brian Billick on "Why" the Wildcat won't work long term

What is Billick talking about? Who ever said the wildcat would become a fulltime offensive system? It's just an extra package designed to take preparation time away from the opposing defense. If a team decided to run the wildcat fulltime, then they could just carry 2 WRs and fill the extra spots with wildcat personnel. But no one is going to do that, because thats not what the wildcat is for; and thats why Billick is no longer a coach.

I don't think a QB could withstand it long term.

The two guys we talk about most, Pat White and Tim Tebow, got banged up running similar kinds of offenses full time in college. Even Michael Vick, at 7.5 carries a game over his career, can't withstand it.

But not only will the Dolphins challenge Billick's opinion on the matter (as a staple), so will New England (in 2010 when they draft Tebow). And perhaps Tennessee (as they still have Vince Young), Seattle (Seneca Wallace) and whichever team signs Vick.

OT: Billick wrote this last November, if that makes a difference.

he is right on 2 points ...

it is a change of pace formation / system ... and should not be run for extended periods of time, unless on a particular day - a team is getting riddled by it (ie. the match up dictates it)

a QB could not run this formation / system full time and last 16+ games ...

on the other 2 points ...

well, your roster is dictated by your schemes, so - if we have to sacrifice '1' roster spot for White ... that doesn't seem to outlandish ... especially, with our FO - who mandates that players be multi-faceted.

Teams have done a good job thus far against it, well - because, it hasn't been too challenging to stop ...

And this coming from the "offensive genius" Billick, who won 1 SB purely with Defense. Not the strongest of opinions IMHO.

We will likely rarely ever run the formation more than 5-7 times a game, that doesn't sound like a QB killer to me.

I disagree with Billick. The WC will continue to evolve and become more of a spread formation. It will continue b/c that's what the colleges use and it's what more of the QBs coming in will be trained to do. The NFL rarely gets their QBs from anywhere else.

"PhinsRock wrote:

And this coming from the "offensive genius" Billick, who won 1 SB purely with Defense. Not the strongest of opinions IMHO.

We will likely rarely ever run the formation more than 5-7 times a game, that doesn't sound like a QB killer to me.

Actually you beat me to that part.
Billick proved himself to be something significantly less than an offensive guru due to his consistent middle of the road offenses in Baltimore.
However he absolutely loves to use 24 dollar words in an effort to convince everyone that he is smart.
Anyway.......
I don't think anyone wants to make it a "staple" the way you might use a counter play or single running back. But I also believe that Pat White is going to do more than just line up as our WC QB.
Mostly I just laugh at the skeptics. You just know that a lot of people didn't think that passing the ball instead of running it would be successful long term. "hey its going to be hard to find people who can throw the football that quickly and that accurately"
Interestingly enough a fair amount of RB, WRs (and CBs) in the NFL started off as QBs in HS or even college.

"Muck wrote:

I don't think a QB could withstand it long term.

The two guys we talk about most, Pat White and Tim Tebow, got banged up running similar kinds of offenses full time in college. Even Michael Vick, at 7.5 carries a game over his career, can't withstand it.

But not only will the Dolphins challenge Billick's opinion on the matter (as a staple), so will New England (in 2010 when they draft Tebow). And perhaps Tennessee (as they still have Vince Young), Seattle (Seneca Wallace) and whichever team signs Vick.

OT: Billick wrote this last November, if that makes a difference.

If that happens, I think Universe collapses in on itself.

He's right, it's best used as a change of pace formation and teams will catch on pretty quickly to the new "wrinkles".

"Muck wrote:

I don't think a QB could withstand it long term.

I think the key to that is, the Wildcat will have more then one Qb, White, Brown, and maybe Bess or Ricky Williams.

Just the defensive preperation for the tendencies of 3 ro 4 different WC qb's would be a nightmare.

The two guys we talk about most, Pat White and Tim Tebow, got banged up running similar kinds of offenses full time in college. Even Michael Vick, at 7.5 carries a game over his career, can't withstand it.

That is why a Qb who can both run at an NFL level and pass at an NFL level is required, IMO to be successful the "qb" has to be able to run the standard offense as well as the WildCat offense, 5 straight running plays won't get it done, to really use the thing they must shift in and out of the formation and still run both offenses credibly well.

But not only will the Dolphins challenge Billick's opinion on the matter (as a staple), so will New England (in 2010 when they draft Tebow). And perhaps Tennessee (as they still have Vince Young), Seattle (Seneca Wallace) and whichever team signs Vick.

Well, it is a copy cat league.

OT: Billick wrote this last November, if that makes a difference.

IMO it doesn't matter, we pretty much ran the same plays but the Oline was poor by the end of the season, 2008 was more a glimpse then the offense within our offense that IMO we will see.

P White as the Qb go with 4 Wr, then audible into the Wildcat, then run the stock offense, that will be fun to watch.

"like2god wrote:

He's right, it's best used as a change of pace formation and teams will catch on pretty quickly to the new "wrinkles".

Which happens with every offensive system in the NFL, the key is controlling the tempo and execution.

ESPN on the Wildcat:

YouTube - Gus Malzahn interview on ESPN about Wildcat package

Vince Young and Pat White (though I disagree with that comparison) with some spread offense highlights:

YouTube - Texas Longhorns & West Virginia Mountaineers

Watch the language on the second one though...:)

"padre31 wrote:

Which happens with every offensive system in the NFL, the key is controlling the tempo and execution.

ESPN on the Wildcat:

YouTube - Gus Malzahn interview on ESPN about Wildcat package

Vince Young and Pat White (though I disagree with that comparison) with some spread offense highlights:

YouTube - Texas Longhorns & West Virginia Mountaineers

Watch the language on the second one though...:)

Absolutely, brother. Regardless of schemes, formations, etc....whatever.
If you can place yourself in the driver's seat - set the scene to be proactive and not reactive then you're setting yourself up for success.

"late again wrote:

Absolutely, brother. Regardless of schemes, formations, etc....whatever.
If you can place yourself in the driver's seat - set the scene to be proactive and not reactive then you're setting yourself up for success.

That is how you win with a change in your offense, surprise helps but sooner or later it comes down to execution.

Interesting footnote vis a vis Pat White and the WVa offense.

DC Pasqualoni and George Deleone have either defended against it (at Syracuse) or taught players how to operate in the Spread.

And Brannon Marion may be a better shot at making the team then was thought previously, Tulsa runs the spread and has WildCat options in the offense.

i agree with billik although if pat white is limited to 15 plays a game i could see how the wildcat could pose significant problems. i think thats why parcells and sparano decided to improve upon it

"adamprez2003 wrote:

i agree with billik although if pat white is limited to 15 plays a game i could see how the wildcat could pose significant problems. i think thats why parcells and sparano decided to improve upon it

Billick is a smart guy, I do question some of his conclusions simply because the WildCat has not really beeen run in the modern NFL in a serious manner.

I see an mini offense with maybe 10 plays that 3 or 4 erstaz Qb's can run but each bring their own strength to the table.

If anyone is interested in the Wildcat addition to the Spread offense, and you are capable of reading CoachSpeak:

http://www.thespreadoffense.com/2009/04/utah-2003-video-clips-zone-read-out-of.html

or

Fascinating site/blog, apparently the man is a Coach and he really disects the Spread and the Wildcat with a eye specifically to Pat White's role in college and the NFL, and what Ronnie Brown did last season as well as colleges that run that offense.

The Dolphin version "explained":

http://bal.scout.com/a.z?s=118&p=2&c=863498

We ran four plays in the WC last season:

The Steeler:

One Steeler option is a handoff to quarterback Chad Pennington from wide right -- the Fins completely fooled the Texans with this one -- when Pennington threw to halfback Patrick Cobbs from the slot, there was no Houston defender within ten yards of him

"Power"

Left guard Justin Smiley was money for the Dolphins on this play until a leg injury ended his season early (the red arrows indicate secondary options for the back; dashed arrows indicate fakes or players running dummy routes.)

"Counter"

This is the formation that Ronnie was most likely to pass out of, he hit Fasano on it against the Pats for a TD.

This is the Browns wrinkle on the Wildcat.

Apparently, Pat White was "the guy" to run this thing according to Scouts and FO types at the Combine, with Atl's Dmitroff saying:

The name on everyone's lips when it came to scouting and drafting for the Wildcat was West Virginia quarterback Pat White, who Dimitroff called "an incredible athlete." The all-time NCAA rushing leader among quarterbacks with 4,768 yards -- he ran for over 1,000 yards in each of his four seasons, if you include bowl games, White may be able to transcend that damnation of faint praise among NFL personnel people -- the designation of "running quarterback," and he may be able to do so for two reasons. First, unlike many "Slash" players, White has a passing arm strong enough to make downfield plays. Second, a team running odd formations could find him to be a supreme asset.

3 basic plays though? That is not enough to really make this mini offense very successful over the long term, to few options to defend.

What happens if we line up in a Wildcat formation, the defense stuffs the box to deal with a run, and White gets the snap, drops back, and throws it over everybody's heads into the resulting single coverage? How do you deal with a Wildcat QB who can also throw the long ball accurately?

As much as I respect Billick for the job he did with the Ravens, I disagree and think that this is going to be a movement, similar to what happened when the T formation and the I formation came into use.

"cdz12250 wrote:

What happens if we line up in a Wildcat formation, the defense stuffs the box to deal with a run, and White gets the snap, drops back, and throws it over everybody's heads into the resulting single coverage? How do you deal with a Wildcat QB who can also throw the long ball accurately?

That is what White may bring to the table cdz, the "Cure" for stopping the run out of the wildcat is putting the Free Safety in the box at the line of scrimmage, when the Qb can pass effectively, someone will be man on man covered as the Safety is occupied.

As much as I respect Billick for the job he did with the Ravens, I disagree and think that this is going to be a movement, similar to what happened when the T formation and the I formation came into use.

What killed the single wing as DE who can run and pursue from the backside, QB Coach Lee solved that problem by adding additional blocking on the backside of the formation.

The analysis video featuring Ronnie has CP, Ricky W and Ronnie explaning that they thought the WildCat was not going to work, and then why the Patriots couldn't stop it when we started running the thing.

But what is of more interest is, 3 plays, that's it, we can do much better then that and as Sparano explained "we left alot of meat on the bone last season".

"padre31 wrote:

3 basic plays though? That is not enough to really make this mini offense very successful over the long term, to few options to defend.

not true. more than once we ran the wildcat from a 3 rb shotgun set

(ricky)(ronnie)(cobbs)

ronnie had the option to give to ricky on the playaction, or use cobbs as a lead blocker. rickys td vs seattle was from this set.

we ran a lot more than 3 plays from the wildcat last year.

billick, belicek, whoever you wanna put in there has no clue if they say it will not sustain, its never been freakin done for cryin out loud, and the reason for that is a team has never committed to the formation, while committing to a player that can execute it properly. You put Pat white and ronnie brown in the backfield together with some misdirection, with football players that are intelligent, big and strong blocking for them that have shown the ability to exectue x offense, and you can call it whatever you want, its gonna work, its gonna smash you in the mouth, AND its gonna make you look silly on certain plays.

Its just football man.

Ok this aint much detailed compared the schooling i recieved reading the page full of posts.

But if this is not a viable change of pace offense and new scheme, what was the K-gun? Under Levy and Kelly the No-huddle run n shoot was used at opportune times much like our scheme, they utilized it perfect got themselves to 4 superbowls? Now again if we are talking about personel they had a great defense to allow for a mishap if they turned the ball over quickly. But on offense they made it work. I believe the jurys still out on the wildcat and it only takes the guts to try.

Billick is right in saying that it isn't going to work as a long term base formation for the reasons he espouses.

He seems to be endorsing it as a change of pace formation which is where we were most effective in its use, and he also pinpoints the weakness in the formation we had last year with Ronnie Brown not being a big enough threat in the passing game to stop good defenses keying in against the run.

What I want to see is Ronnie Brown, Pat White and Chad Pennington on the field at the same time, because it will keep opposing Ds guessing until the last possible second about whether we're running a WC play or a regular play with Pat White at WR.

"djphinfan wrote:

billick, belicek, whoever you wanna put in there has no clue if they say it will not sustain, its never been freakin done for cryin out loud, and the reason for that is a team has never committed to the formation, while committing to a player that can execute it properly. You put Pat white and ronnie brown in the backfield together with some misdirection and football players that are intelligent, big, strong blocking for them and have shown the ability to exectue x offense, and you can call it whatever you want, its gonna work, its gonna smash you in the mouth AND its gonna make you look silly on certain plays.

Its just football man.

I know, it's short sighted and close minded to say flat out "it wont work in the NFL"
If the defense doesn't know when it's going to be sprung on them it's going to work some of the time. Besides, if they commit too much to trying to defend the WC then they're going to leave themselves open for Pennington to call an audible and then something else will work. Its just like anything else - once a team starts to show their own defensive tendencies in defending our WC we'll pick up on it and make our own adjustments.

There shouldn't be any doubt that the Wildcat is not a base offense, it is a change of pace to keep the defense thinking and to give them something else to prepare for. I don't think anyone has said this will be an offensive scheme that Miami is going to use in place of the regular offense. Thats like saying the halfback option pass wont sustain itself because a team will have to draft only running backs who can pass the ball.
I don't think it is anymore of a trick or gimmick play than the flea flicker, half back option pass, tackle eligible or any number of other plays that are out of the ordinary. I also think the Dolphins are good enough that they don't have to use trick plays but thats JMO.

Finally, to adapt the style of play with an “athletic” quarterback that could effectively pass and run from this style of play can not be sustained. No quarterback in this or any other league could get through the grueling NFL four preseason games, 16 regular season games and subsequent playoffs. Like the earlier observations, you would have to carry a group of quarterbacks that run this style of play that would be prohibitive given today’s roster limitation.

How does "HE" know this? It doesn't look like the NFL ran this formation in rescent memory.
True, a starting QB would probably have a hard time doing this if he played every snap of the season
That's where a player like Pat White or a Mike Vick can come in and dominate.The actual starter will be rested during the season.I guess I didn't see Brian Billick(who?)address this.