New Broncos' RT Dishes on Similarities of Payton & Shanahan Offenses
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The Denver Broncos have long been one of the paragons of the West Coast Offense. Mike Shanahan brought Bill Walsh's scheme to Denver back in the mid-90s, tweaked it slightly with the implementation of the zone blocking scheme, and that Xs and Os philosophy brought how three World Championships (when you count Gary Kubiak's ring).
New Broncos head coach Sean Payton is also an acolyte of the West Coast Offense, and like Shanahan, he has put his own spin on the venerated scheme over the years to great success. From fielding a well-balanced but prolific passing game to a hard-nosed, power rushing attack, Payton is another example of how, when it comes to the WCO, there's more than one way to skin the cat.
The Broncos signed right tackle Mike McGlinchey in March, who was coached by Mike's son Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco for years. On Thursday, McGlinchey dished on the similarities between the Shanahan and Payton offenses.
“Well, I think a lot of—it’s based in the old historic West Coast stuff and the outside zone and the stretch game. A lot of that is similar," McGlinchey said. "There’s a lot of similarities. I’m not quite sure of how they called the route trees and all that kind of stuff, but certainly in the run game install, a lot of it’s pretty similar. It’s just about executing the techniques that are coached and using the little tweaks that different coaches have within their own scheme to make it work.”
The biggest hurdle for McGlinchey has simply been learning Payton's nomenclature. Although the plays, techniques, and principles might be cut from the same cloth, Payton's terminology differs from Shanahan's.
“It’s kind of funny, it feels like I’m a little bit in the Rosetta Stone right now, just with the translations and different words and different calls," McGlinchey said. "But there’s only so many things you can do when there’s 11 guys on the field, and so they changed that rule. Football’s pretty much the same, regardless of how it’s called.”
Throwing a newish wrinkle into Payton's offense will be the unique attributes of quarterback Russell Wilson. For the longest time, Payton's quarterback in New Orleans — the great Drew Brees — was one of the league's model pocket passers.
While Wilson can win from the pocket, alone, as the focal point, that's not his strong suit, as Broncos fans learned the hard way last season. In order for Wilson to fully thrive, the coaching emphasis needs to include his mobility, footspeed, and elusiveness as a quarterback.
In all likelihood, Payton's offense in Denver will look a lot more like the one Mike Shanahan fielded back in the '90s, with the exception, perhaps, of a more power-oriented rushing attack, as opposed to a predominantly zone approach. But expect to see a heavy emphasis on play-action passing, moving pockets, and even QB runs designed to get Wilson on the move to loosen up defenses.
“I feel great. I had a great offseason, just preparing, getting ready mentally, physically," a slimmed-down Wilson said on Thursday. "And I think, in terms of what we’re doing out here, the coaches have done a great job of teaching us. We’re doing that really well. We’re taking it day by day, so we’re preparing."
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