Building The Perfect Offense For Joe Flacco
Marc Trestman is returning as the Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator. This means a rare bit of continuity for Joe Flacco. In addition to the departures of receivers like Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith, Flacco is on his fourth offensive coordinator in four years. It is imperative that the Ravens make this work for Flacco.
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The Ravens surely are hoping to restructure Flacco’s contract that holds a $28.5 million cap hit over the Ravens head. No matter what happens contractually, Flacco is going to be the Ravens starting quarterback next season and throughout the forseeable future. He should be ready to go week one according to all reports. The Ravens have invested in Flacco as their franchise quarterback. They have to maximize this investment.
When you handcuff Flacco in a conservative offense, you take him away from his strengths. He has a rocket arm. He is by nature a gunslinger. His belief in his arm is the root of all his strengths and leads to the occasional frustrating interceptions. With a gunslinger you have to let the ball fly.
It’s quite possible that the dink and dunk style of Trestman bores Flacco. It makes the deep pass like the off-limits cookie jar on the top shelf. Flacco’s throwing off his back foot and lapses of fundamental quarterbacking may have a lot to do with this boredom and tedious frustration.
When Flacco comes out firing on all cylinders, attacking the whole field that is when the light turns on. That is when that “Cool Joe” magic comes to life. There seems to be more purpose in his game. He is not thinking, he is fully engaged in the game.
The perfect offense for Flacco was a concept Gary Kubiak understood on a much more obvious level than Trestman. Kubiak also ran a West Coast offense, at least stylistically. Yet, Kubiak set up a series of plays that attacked the deep and intermediate shots down the field.
Ideally the Ravens use a great zone blocking scheme rushing attack. Big plays on the ground where the offensive line moves with so much purpose in unison set up the play-action passes and bootlegs that make Joe’s arm deadly weapon.
The Ravens have to get big play receivers around Flacco. They cannot bank on Perriman. Even with Perriman they cannot be satisfied with the number of playmakers they have offensively. The Ravens need speed and size as Flacco’s ammunition. If they give him that and let him play to hos strengths, he will be sucessful.