Why Brett Hundley Likes Chip's Offense

Yesterday during interviews at the NFL Combine, UCLA QB Brett Hundley was asked what NFL offense most resembles the one he ran at UCLA the most. 

His response, from Jeff McLane:

Asked to name an NFL offense that was similar to the one he ran at UCLA, Hundley mentioned only the Eagles. Other teams utilize various aspects of the spread or up-tempo or zone-read-based offense, but no one as much as Kelly. But even his offense, particularly since Nick Foles became the starter, has increasingly morphed into one that includes pro passing concepts.

Let me start by saying that I don't have the time to watch a lot of college ball and I am no expert on Hundley or the UCLA offense. But taking a quick glimpse over some footage on youtube, you can see why Hundley responded the way he did. A lot of the plays I am going to highlight are hallmarks of a lot of spread offenses around the country. As we've stated over and over again, Chip is not necessarrily creating anything new in the football world. However, hopefully this post will provide some intrigue and discussion on how Chip's offense might be the best fit for Hundley in 2015 and beyond. 

Zone Read:

We'll start with the obvious. The zone read game. Hundley is a very good athelete. He ran a lot of zone read concepts at UCLA and we run a lot of zone read concepts in Philadelphia. Clearly and without doubt, Hundley would bring the dynamics to the zone read our offense is currently lacking. Here is UCLA running the packaged inside zone read with the bubble screen on the bottom. This is a core concept in Chip Kelly's playbook:

Hundley will read the defender through the mesh point:

Make the right decision and keep. It's worth noting that Hundley did not get an explosive gain on this, however he did force the deep safety to become a force defender and account for Hundley on the keeper. We talked in a previous post of how important stressing that force defender is on bubble screens and deep shots:

Triple Option with Orbit Motion:

Another familiar concept that jumps off the screen when watching UCLA is their use of Orbit motion. They use orbit motion a ton to set up a number of things on the backside of an inside zone read. Does this look familiar?

It should:

On the above play, by keeping backside honest with Desean's orbit motion, McCoy was able to score. Check out what happens on the UCLA play. The unblocked edge defender crashes hard on the running back and Hundley makes the right read to keep. However, Oregon is no stranger to the zone read, so you see they have the scrape exchange set up with a linebacker set to account for Hundley if he keeps:

But the linebacker comes too wide and it leaves a crease for Hundley to run through for the TD. Here you clearly see how the presence of a mobile QB makes this play more dynamic because it gives the offense a true triple option on this play that a defense has to respect. 

More orbit motion. On this play, Hundley will wisely choose the pitch out to the player going in orbit motion:

He clearly sees the numbers advantage on the bottom and makes the right decision:

Unfortunately, Hundley makes a poor throw behind the receiver who drops it, and it's a fumble because it was a backwards pass. Still, the decision making is there. 

Same idea in the Eagles offense:

Lastly, let's move on to passing concepts since that seems to be the biggest question mark regarding a transition for Hundley to the pros. This is actually where I see Hundley being attracted to the Chip Kelly offense. The Eagles do not have a complex passing offense. It is pretty QB friendly whether that is by design or for some other reason. Let's check out a few examples. 

Snag Concept:

One of the Eagles staple passing concepts is the snag concept. Sheil Kapadia and Coach Brian Flinn cover it beautifully here. The Eagles run this concept several times every single week. It's actually a favorite in their opening drive and is often run on the first play from scrimmage. Here's an example. Matthews will run a screen to the flat, Maclin will run a deep corner route and Huff will run the snag route underneath. This play is designed to stretch the defense and also works particularly well against a single high look which the Eagles see a lot. 

It's also designed to be 3 deep to shallow reads where the QBs progression will start with the deep route, come down to the snag, and finally to the flat:

Here Huff gets open but Sanchez does not throw the ball:

This concept is a huge staple in the UCLA offense. Mora loves to run it, and quite interestingly, he loves to run it off of orbit motion where the orbit play is the flat route on the concept. Here's a few examples of UCLA running it. They'll have a running back to the flat, the slot receiver runs deep, and the outside receiver runs the snag:

Here the snag comes open and Hundley delivers decisively:

This next one is worth showing because it shows Hundley doing a great job of going through his progressions, but also not giving up on a play prematurely and keeping his eyes downfield. Many have characterized Hundley as a "running QB" and it is something that Jim Mora Jr., his coach, has taken exception to. Here the Bruins are running the snag concept to the top of the screen:

The snag looks to come open quickly. At first I wanted to criticize Hundley for not pulling the trigger on this one:

But you can see from this angle, the pass rush on that side is distorting his passing lane a little:

So what would we expect the vast majority of running QBs to in this situation? His first reads has been taken away on a quick developing passing concept. I'd expect him to roll out right and try and get some yards with his legs. Instead, Hundley climbs up into the pocket and keeps his eyes downfield:

And converts downfield for a 1st down on the other side of the field. This is perhaps the most encouraging thing I see in Hundley despite all the legitimate concerns about him as a passer. For a mobile QB, his natural tendency is to climb the pocket and keep his eyes downfield. Too many running QBs put their heads down and run with this football. This is a quality that should help Brett make the transition to a pro QB. Very impressive play. 

Mesh concepts:

Moving on to another familiar concept. The Eagles love to run the mesh or "rub" concept underneath where we run crossing routes from opposite sides of the field. The idea is to create traffic in the middle of the field and hope you can create some natural picks that leave streaking WRs wide open. While it shouldn't come as a huge surprise, many offenses run mesh concepts, this is just another common theme in the Eagles attack and what Hundley is used to doing:

and from Chip's Eagles offense:

4 Verticals and Switch:

In 2014, the Eagles loved to run the 4 verticals concept, especially against Cover 3. Once again, Sheil and Coach Flinn break it down. Here's a great example against the Seahawks cover 3. We actually ran this similar switch concept from 4 verticals 3-4 times against the Seahawks and it worked every single time. Unfortunately, Sanchez only executed it once. The Eagles will run 4 vertical routes as shown below. With only one deep safety, this play is designed to attack the outside edges of the field. The key route here has Zach Ertz running a switch concept with Cooper. Cooper will streak down on the inside, while Ertz runs a wheel route to the outside:

By threatening this play from both ends of the field, Thomas is in a bind and Sanchez hits Ertz down the sideline:

Here's Hundley running a similar concept with four verticals. The slot receiver on the top of the screen will run the wheel route down the sidelines:

You can see the nice window for Hundley and he throws an absolutely gorgeous pass for a big play down the sidelines:

3 x 1 formation:

The Eagles love to run the 3 x 1 formation where they line up 3 WRs on one side of the field and isolate a 4th WR or tight end on the other side of the field. This usually involves the isolated receiver in man coverage and requires an accurate throw from the QB. Check out Hundley on this one. 3 x 1 formation with 3 receivers at the top and one single receiver on the bottom:

Following the snap, Hundley will look off the safety well to ensure he gets one-on-one man coverage down the field:

and throws an absolutely gorgeous ball for a TD: 

Chip Kelly talks time and time again about the amount of man coverage defenses play in the pros and the importance for the QB to show the ability to hit covered receivers. Hundley does a great job here. 

Packaged Plays:

Finishing up with one of my favorite concepts. Packaged plays. The Eagles run them a lot, and so did the Bruins with Hundley at the helm. Here's one of the common packaged plays the Eagles run. Here, Foles will read the second-level LB. If he covered the tight end, he hands off. If he attacks the run, he throws a pop pass to Zach Ertz:

Here's a couple of examples of Hundley running the very common packaged inside zone with a stick route to the slot or tight end:

The linebacker attacks the run game as Hundley reads him at the mesh point:

Hundley pulls and fires to the receiver running the stick:

One more example that by now, you don't need my commentary for:

Summary:

As I mentioned at the top. I am no expert in Hundley's game. The post I wrote up today came from a couple of youtube highlight videos from his games against Oregon and Nebraska in 2013. However, even watching those games you can see how perhaps the biggest concern about Hundley is his decision-making. He makes a number of WTF throws not unlike Foles and Sanchez. However, if Foles continues making those types of throws in 2014, you'd like to think that it would be good to have a guy like Hundley on the bench. No question, he makes the offense more dynamic with his mobility, and clearly he's comfortable enough already with a number of passing concepts that Chip likes to run in the pros. 

It's kind of interesting, with Bruce Arians' comments coming out yesterday about spread offense QBs, and the published concerns about guys like Mariota not being prepared for pro-style offense, you'd like to think coaches like Chip who run the no huddle spread offense that these kids run in college are likely to be more successful in systems like his in the short term. The QB position is the most important and most expensive position in football and perhaps in all of pro sports. There isn't a position that is harder to fill. So while Arians and others continue to try and force their pro-style concepts on young kids coming out of college and potentially hinder their growth and short-term impact, maybe the right approach for some is to build on what the kids have already done well at the collegiate level. Time will tell.