How Shane Steichen Could Build an Offense Around Bryce Young
The Indianapolis Colts have their guy at head coach, as Shane Steichen officially signed his new six year deal with the team this past Tuesday. With that major step out of the way, the next order of business for the team becomes the move at quarterback.
The Colts are in an advantageous spot when it comes to this upcoming NFL Draft. There are currently four quarterbacks projected to be top 15 picks in this draft, which benefits the Colts and their fourth overall draft position. Even if the worst case scenario unfolds on draft night, the team will still be at a spot where they can select a talented young passer.
This new miniseries for the site will dive into each of the top four passers and explore how Shane Steichen can build a passing offense that best fits what that passer excels at. First up is the polarizing yet talented Alabama quarterback Bryce Young.
Analyzing the Traits
Bryce Young is the most advanced passer in this draft class, as he is an insanely smart and methodical player that can attack all levels of a defense. His lack of size and speed may limit him the designed run game, but he more than makes up for it with how surgical he can be in the quick passing game.
In two years starting at Alabama, Young amassed 8,200 yards passing (on 8.8 yards per attempt) and 79 touchdowns to just 12 interceptions. His highlight plays showcase his improvisational ability, while a deeper dive into his game demonstrates just how efficient he is.
He excels in the quick game and at manipulating defenders over the middle of the field. His size may be a concern at the next level, but it would be rather lazy to group him in with other short passers that struggle to attack the middle of the field (Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson).
Bryce Young is much closer to the traditional pocket passer generation of Drew Brees and Philip Rivers in how he attacks defenses than he is to this new, backyard style of passer. The extra improvisational aspect is just the cherry on top.
The Empty Theory
When looking at the style of offense that Bryce Young could work with in the NFL, we have to take a look at his offensive coordinator at Alabama. Bill O'Brien called the plays this past season and he is one of the founding fathers of the "empty theory" concept in football.
The basic premise of empty theory is that empty sets (regardless of personnel grouping) are advantageous to quarterbacks that are cerebral enough to hunt match-ups. It allows quarterbacks to understand their hot reads easier, to get a better read of the defense pre-snap, and to isolate certain match-ups at any level.
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Bill O'Brien is a major benefactor of empty theory, and you could see it on Alabama's film this past season. Over 15% of Bryce Young's drop backs last season came out of empty sets, and he was simply dominant out of this personnel set.
Getting back to Shane Steichen, he also employed quite a bit of empty looks this past season with Philadelphia. Jalen Hurts, like Bryce Young, is a player that can thrive when given these quick reads with beneficial match-ups. The Eagles lined up in empty sets on a little over 10% of their offensive plays in 2022, which is among the highest in the NFL overall.
The Eagles even utilized empty sets on early downs in 2022, lining up in this set on 5% of their first downs on the year. Shane Steichen built the quick game in Philadelphia around empty sets this past season. He likely gets this from his time in Los Angeles under Ken Whisenhunt, another coach that subscribed to the idea of empty theory and building run after the catch opportunities off of it.
It is easy to project how Steichen could build a similar quick passing offense around Bryce Young as he did with Jalen Hurts and Philip Rivers in years past.
Shotgun Snaps in General
Outside of looking at just empty sets for Shane Steichen and Bryce Young, the two also both lived out of the gun the past few seasons. Alabama was almost exclusively in shotgun this past season, while Steichen's Eagles' operated out of the gun 83% of the time in 2021 and 90% of the time in 2022.
This isn't a limiting offensive trademark either, as both Alabama and Philadelphia found ways to mix in a variety of personnel groupings within their shotgun snaps. So, even if these teams were almost exclusively in the gun, they would still roll out sets that featured three tight ends or two running backs (and so forth).
This is another way that Young would seamlessly fit into what Shane Steichen was able to do with Philadelphia over the past two seasons.
Play Types and Passing Concepts
Bryce Young obviously had some common play calls and route combinations that worked for him this past season at Alabama that would transition over to Shane Steichen's offense in Indy. Let's look at a few below:
RPO Passing
The Philadelphia Eagles were one of the heaviest RPO passing teams in the league this past season, utilizing this option on over 20% of their offensive plays. A common misconception about this type of play call is the type of quarterback needed to operate it.
Jalen Hurts and his mobility is a wonderful asset to have on these plays, but the main aspect of the play is the offensive line selling the run action. For a quarterback to thrive on RPO plays, they have to be able to quickly read the conflict defender and be smart enough to know when to exploit leverage of that defender.
Bryce Young was built to run an RPO-heavy scheme for these reasons.
Triangle Reads
Shane Steichen learned under some of the best offensive minds in the league in his career, including coaches such as Ken Whisenhunt and Frank Reich. With that, it is easy to see where some of his influence as a play caller comes with the passing game.
Whisenhunt, when Steichen was on that Chargers' staff, loved to attack the middle of the field with triangle reads/high-low options. He had a cerebral passer in Philip Rivers that was able to properly diagnose and manipulate defender spacing to be efficient in the quick passing game.
Bryce Young is an efficient enough passer to where he can also exploit defenses in a similar way. He knows when to be aggressive on these plays (clip two) and also when to take the underneath option to create yards after the catch (clip one). It is easy to see how Steichen could drift back into his Chargers' days to craft a quick hitting offense for Young in Indy.
Quick Screens
I know I keep mentioning his name, but Ken Whisenhunt clearly had a major influence on Shane Steichen's style of play-calling. Whisenhunt, and Frank Reich/Nick Sirianni as well, firmly believe that the best way to call an offense is to get the ball to play makers in space and allow them to go to work.
One of the best ways to do this is with wide receiver screens. These screens, if blocked correctly, can create big plays after the catch for speedy wide outs. Bryce Young's offense ran a ton of these the past two seasons and he is well adept at getting the ball out quick and placed well fir his receivers to make something happen.
The Bottom Line
Bryce Young is the best fit for Shane Steichen's quick passing game in this entire draft class. He is a smart, cerebral quarterback that understands how to execute the empty theory on gameday. His transition to Steichen's passing scheme would be rather seamless compared to other prospects in this class.
I completely understand the concerns with Bryce Young's game and why some people would be wary of this smaller quarterback fitting into a scheme that ran their quarterback 165 times in 2022. The type of scheme that Steichen would likely deploy for Young would be a hybrid of the offenses he worked on for Jalen Hurts (2021-2022) and Philip Rivers (2011-2012, 2014-2019).
Overall, Bryce Young is a talented young passer that Shane Steichen could build a quick passing game around. On top of that, Young would bring that extra improvisational work to create out of the system when plays break down. Young may be a weird fit for Chris Ballard due to his size, but there is no denying how well he would work in Shane Steichen's offense.
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