The Ringer’s Kevin Clark is one of my favorite sportswriters today and he does it again with a nice feature on the spread offense in the NFL, including quotes and thoughts from Chiefs OC Brad Childress.
I recommend reading the whole thing. This passage on Childress stood out to me:
Childress, meanwhile, believes the current holy grail is the prospect who ran spread plays at the college level that can be easily imported to the pro level. He mentioned Eagles rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, who at North Dakota State played in a multiple-style offense that incorporated spread concepts. Childress was impressed that Wentz played under center sometimes and in the shotgun at other times, and that regardless of the formation, he was adept at making various throws. He said some of the sweep plays Wentz ran were particularly impressive, and that he wants to incorporate what he saw into the Chiefs’ game plan.
The example that Clark gave was this play from Wentz below. Looks awfully familiar to something we would see Alex Smith doing, doesn’t it?
Childress was the Chiefs spread game analyst before becoming co-OC after Doug Pederson left. I thought that his previous role was mostly as a scout looking at the Chiefs future opponents but clearly there was more to it.
Alex Smith clearly fits this mold of spread / pro style quarterbacks. Nick Foles isn’t quite as athletic but he excelled with Chip Kelly. The others? I’m not sure I can confidently say what Tyler Bray, Aaron Murray and Kevin Hogan can or can’t do considering they’ve taken zero NFL snaps.
Really, go read the whole thing.