Steve Sarkisian said he's "an aggressive play-caller by nature," and I can almost hear the cringing by Falcons faithful still stung by the Super Bowl . The Falcons should hope that Sarkisian understands aggressiveness is fine as an overall philosophy, but that game situations sometimes scream out for conservative calls as the smartest strategy .
(For the record, Sarkisian didn't take the bait when asked about the Falcons' strategy late in the Super Bowl: "The reality is, after every game, it's easy to play Monday morning quarterback.")
Anyway, Sarkisian said he's not looking to make major changes to the approach the Falcons used to set a franchise record for points. That's what Dan Quinn wants, and it's obviously the right approach. The Falcons have built their personnel around Kyle Shanahan's system. It took Matt Ryan a full season to get comfortable in that system. It would be foolhardy to change directions once again.
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Sarkisian already should be comfortable with one major aspect of the Falcons' offense. The Falcons in 2016 ranked fourth in the "situational-neutral pace" metric developed by Football Outsiders. Sarkisian's teams at Washington and at USC also sought to play at a quick tempo.
One major change for Sarkisian will be implementing the outside-zone run scheme favored by the Falcons. Sarkisian has said he's a "run-first" offensive coach, but he used a "power" running scheme at USC as opposed to the outside zone, which aims to spread the defense horizontally to create cutback lanes for ballcarriers.
The Falcons were very effective with outside zone runs in 2016 because of their nimble linemen (especially center Alex Mack). It was a great fit for Devonta Freeman because of his superlative vision, elusiveness in the hole and cutback ability. The threat of those zone runs set up the Falcons’ devastating play-action passing — the Falcons ran more play action than any team in the NFL in 2016 and ranked No. 2 in efficiency with those plays, according to Football Outsiders.
Shanahan rarely used “power” running plays. Sarkisian said he’s not looking to de-emphasize the outside zone plays, and in fact, favors them.
“I think that is a staple in what we do here (with the Falcons),” he said. “It is something I have done in my past, a lot of (it), where that was the exact focal point. You get to different places, especially in college football, where you have to play to strengths of the people that you have. That’s where we got to some of that power and counter, out of necessity.
“To run a wide-zone scheme, you need athletic linemen, you need guys that can to the second level. And we have those pieces in place here. I am excited to get back to that aspect of offense that I haven’t done for a couple of years because there’s so many other things that come off of it that make your offense explosive.”
I think one area in which Sarkisian figures to add his own wrinkle is with the use of perimeter screens. The Falcons ran a lot of them with Dirk Koetter, who loves them, and they were generally effective. They didn’t run very many perimeter screens, or screens of any kind, with Shanahan.
Sarkisian likes to give his quarterback the option of checking out of a run to a perimeter screen when the defensive alignment calls for it.
“I think it’s a good complement to the run game, especially when you get into your single back runs, your shotgun runs,” Sarkisian said. “It’s a good answer for teams that want to try to load the box and give you disadvantage in numbers. It’s a way to counteract that. It can be effective.
“I think it’s a piece of an offense. It can’t be a focal point, and that’s all you do. But I think it’s a good change-up to have. The more things you do well, the harder you are to defend. We are going to work our best to be a 'multiple' offense. That is going to make us difficult to defend and that (perimeter screens) will be a piece.”
Certainly the Falcons have the personnel to make that happen. Taylor Gabriel (a restricted free agent) and Justin Hardy would be effective on screens. Julio Jones would would be a good option because he’s good at everything, including blocking on perimeter screens.
Bottom line: The Falcons may run more screens with Sarkisian as OC, but otherwise should look similar to the Falcons with Shanahan: quick tempo, outside-zone runs and play-action passes. There's nothing to fix because it ain't broke.
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