The Washington Commanders coaching staff keeps adding people and those hires are generating plenty of reactions – both good and bad and some furrowed brows, for sure. One person added to the offensive staff of Kliff Kingsbury on Wednesday was Anthony Lynn from the San Francisco 49ers, who Craig Hoffman called "a fascinating hire."
"I think that what is starting to come together is a cohesive vision for this staff," Hoffman said. "And the one thing I feel pretty good about saying is that they're gonna be in shotgun a lot... which was not necessarily guaranteed."
Hoffman noted that Kingsbury did not have a quarterback in the shotgun quite as much as many would think in his final year calling plays as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.
"I think what you've seen of the connective tissue of this offensive staff is guys who have a variety of experience with mobile quarterbacks and playing out of the gun," Hoffman continued. "So you think of [new offensive line coach] Bobby Johnson out of New York, and obviously the thing that stands out the most is [the Giants] took a bleep ton of sacks. What did we learn for those willing to pay attention last year about sacks? They are a quarterback stat as much as anything. They are a big-time quarterback stat."
The Giants had three quarterbacks play, two of which had bad track records of avoiding sacks in Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor and rookie Tommy Devito who "didn't even know where they were coming from the first couple of weeks."
"But what also did you have? Mobile quarterback in Daniel Jones, mobile quarterback in Tyrod and they used both those guys effectively as runners," he said. "...you would also see some really innovative use of the RPO game, which is obviously a big part of what Kliff has done in varying spots. And you would see some big runs from Saquon Barkley."
Add in Brian Johnson from Philadelphia and Lynn – who has experience creating a competitive run-game – and there is something cooking here.
"Now [Kingsbury] has got someone in his staff," Hoffman continued, "who has experience doing the things that he has tried to do but maybe haven't executed on the highest level in marrying pass and run [in Lynn], in getting an effective creative detailed up running game and then you're the pass-game guy, and all of the sudden if it works, this looks like a really good staff."
Of course, Kingsbury will have to get this staff to work well together so there is clear messaging to the players, but "on a baseline level, I feel like they have actually put something together here that makes a little bit of sense than I feel like it did when you first start hearing some of the names last week."
Listen to the full segment from the Hoffman Show on the audio player above!
