The +1 Quarterback: How A Mobile QB Impacts the Designed Run Game
The NFL is an ever-changing league that constantly adapts on a year-to-year basis. The league undergoes so many changes that teams have to be progressive in how they approach each and every position, quarterback included. The Indianapolis Colts are one of many teams looking to jump on a recent trend of success at the quarterback position with their next franchise passer.
The NFL game, for all its complexities, can be broken down into fairly simplistic terms. It is all about how to score points (on offense) and how to prevent teams from scoring points (on defense). The innovation comes in how to accomplish these simple goals.
For the vast majority of NFL history, the quarterback position has only really impacted the game as a passer. This is hardly a bad thing, as passing has traditionally been the easiest way to attain consistent success as an offense. With the rise of elite athletes and the restrictions on spacing that has resulted, however, teams can no longer deploy completely immobile passers in this new era of football.
The rise of elite athletes on defense has given a new rise to athletes at the quarterback position. These athletic quarterbacks are changing the game in how they dictate what a defense has to account for, how they muddy the pass/run reads, and how they add a new level of explosive element to an offense. The +1 quarterback is making football an 11 on 11 game rather than a 10 on 11 one with an immobile distributor in the pocket.
In this new series for the site, I will dive into the impact that a mobile passer has on a defense and how this new age of quarterback is creating new opportunities for playcallers. I will also relate these ideas to the Colts' new mobile franchise passer in Anthony Richardson.
The first article in this series will look at the designed run game and how having a mobile quarterback creates a more efficient rushing attack.
11-on-11 Football
As I mentioned above, the vast majority of NFL football has been played as 10 players on offense vs. 11 players on defense in the rushing game. When the offensive call has been to run the football, the quarterback's simple job has been to hand the ball off to the ball carrier and get out of the way. That traditional quarterback is effectively not involved in the play outside of maybe selling a play fake on occasion.
With a +1 quarterback in the rushing attack, offenses are able to turn the tide back in their favor. An extra player to account for in the run game means more space in the box to maneuver and it can isolate prime match-ups to exploit. While this may seem like a fairly self-explanatory premise in general, the numbers also back up this idea.
Dalton Miller of Pro Football Network wrote an article back in December looking at the impact of quarterback in the run game:
The top five rushers in YPC are QBs or QB adjacent. This includes Taysom Hill (7.1), Justin Fields (6.8), Lamar Jackson (6.8), Josh Allen (6.5), and Kyler Murray (6.3).
The four quarterbacks who rank inside the top 10 in missed tackles forced per attempt are Fields (30.3%), Allen (24.7%), Jackson (23.6%), and Hurst (20.6%).
The two other factoids that really stand out are that the only quarterbacks with 1,000-yard seasons on record are Lamar Jackson and Michael Vick, and there have been three instances total. Both Jackson and Fields are on pace for it in 2022.
Since 2020, there have been a total of 14 individual seasons where a team used their quarterback on 50+ designed rushing attempts. Of those 14 team seasons, 13 of the 14 rushed for more than the league average in rushing yards per game while 12 of the 14 had more yards per carry than the league average in their respective years.
Teams that deploy a quarterback in the designed rushing attack (since 2020) average an additional 28.5 more rushing yards per game and an additional 0.43 yards per carry. So while the league has typically hovered around 4.4 yards per carry the last three seasons, teams with a quarterback being used in the design run game are averaging closer to 5.0 yards an attempt on the ground.
Again, it is easy to see why this disparity exists on film. Teams have to account for an 11th player in the run game, which muddies assignments and leads to more space to exploit. In an NFL game filled with elite athletes, extra space created pre-snap is a major bonus:
Isolating Match-ups
Utilizing a quarterback in the run game also allows offenses to be multiple both pre- and post-snap. For instance, traditionally, if a run call is a sweep to the right, the entire offense is blocking for a sweep call to the right. The only way to adjust this call is flip sides or change the play altogether. With a mobile quarterback in the mix, the calls expand into more.
Rather than just a sweep run call to the right, an offense can now stack a read option with a sweep to the right and a QB power up the gut. This gives the offense the multiplicity to react to what the defense is doing. If the entire second level of the defense is crashing to the outside on the sweep, the quarterback can keep it up the middle for a solid gain. If the defense stays home over the middle, then the sweep will have fewer numbers to contend with on the outside.
We can see the impact that this ability to isolate match-ups has on the run game. The Baltimore Ravens' running backs during Lamar Jackson's phenomenal 2020 season averaged nearly 5.21 yards per carry, which was nearly a full yard more than the league average that season. The Buffalo Bills' running backs, despite a fairly lackluster group, averaged a good 0.27 more yards per carry in 2022 than the league average with Josh Allen at the helm.
The ability to split the field and isolate match-ups to provide a numbers advantage leads to a more efficient and a more productive rushing attack overall:
Quarterbacks Are Athletes Too
The biggest ingredient to this recipe is the newfound athleticism at the quarterback position. It was rare to see a quarterback run in the 4.6's back even in the early 2000's era of NFL football. Now, that number seems much less impressive.
There has been an explosion of athletes at the quarterback position ever since the league-changing 2018 NFL Draft with Jackson and Allen. Those two athletic specimens paved the way for players such as Jalen Hurts, Kyler Murray, Justin Fields, Daniel Jones (admittedly to a lesser extent), and now Richardson. This is the early stages of a revolution at the quarterback position that began back in 2018.
Quarterbacks are more than just productive rushers nowadays, they are closer to second running backs in the backfield. Jackson and Fields turn into track stars with the ball in their hands. Allen turns into a modern-day version of John Riggins in the open field. Hurts is as slippery and elusive as they come out in space.
These players are more than just quarterbacks running the ball, they are gifted ball carriers that create yardage. This innate ability to create leads to more yards (and points) for an offense:
Anthony Richardson Is Next
Richardson may have a ways to go as a passer early in his NFL career, but his impact in the run game will be felt early and often. He fits this new age type of player that I have discussed above, and his talents with the ball in his hand can't be denied.
With Richardson, the Colts will have another dynamic threat alongside Jonathan Taylor that can create explosives in the run game. Taylor currently averages 5.1 yards per carry in his NFL career despite playing alongside players that couldn't influence the defensive box or gap assignments. What is he going to do now with defenses also having to worry about the threat of Richardson next to him?
This Colts' rushing attack has the potential to be fairly special with Taylor and Richardson in the future. We have tangible proof that mobile quarterbacks create more opportunities in the run game for their team, and now the Colts are adding a 6'5", 248-pound passer that also runs a 4.48... Things could get fun in a very real way in the next few years.
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