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Empty Theory: Vertical Shots Down the Field

While empty personnel sets are typically designed for the quick passing game, there are a few ways that the Colts can be an explosive offense in empty.
Zach Hicks|
Empty Theory: Vertical Shots Down the Field
Empty Theory: Vertical Shots Down the Field

Indianapolis Colts' quarterback Anthony Richardson is young passer with sky high potential, but he needs to take a major step forward this next season in the short passing game. Luckily, Head Coach Shane Steichen could use empty personnel sets to make life easier for his new franchise passer.

One of the major points of emphasis in this series has been that empty personnel is built to accentuate the short passing game. While it is rare to have a designed deep shot out of empty, it is not impossible to have that element in this personnel set.

The Philadelphia Eagles this past season attempted nine passes with air yardage over 20 yards out of empty. On those nine pass attempts, Jalen Hurts completed five passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns. So while it may not be a massive part of this set (only 10.4% of the total empty pass attempts), it was quite effective when dialed up.

Today, we are going to take a look at how to take deep shots out of empty and how this personnel set allows an athletic quarterback to create more explosive plays.

Schemed Deep Shots

The Philadelphia Eagles hardly drew up any deep shots by design out of empty personnel last season. I only counted three of the nine deep attempts to be by design as one of the first reads on the play. While that does seem low, all three of those attempts were completed for a total of 134 yards and two touchdowns. So, when these plays were schemed deep, the Eagles typically struck gold.

Let's take a look at a few examples.

This first one comes against the Chicago Bears. Late in the game, the Eagles needed just a few more first downs to ice it against the worst team in the league. The Eagles, with their aggressive nature, decided to go for the ultimate final shot.

Jalen Hurts motions the running back to the far side of the field and the team runs a little mesh action underneath. Hurts, however, knows that he wants the deep shot all the way. He looks left before snapping his hips back to the right and launching a beautiful vertical shot to superstar A.J Brown.

Brown is able to haul it in for a gain of 68 yards on the play:

This next clip came against the New York Giants in the week prior. The Giants are aligned pre-snap in a single high look, giving Hurts exactly what he needed to see to take the vertical shot. The call to the weak side of the field is a chop/hitch, which is similar to a smash concept except with the inside receiver running a fade route instead of a corner.

Hurts, again, starts left before snapping his hips back to the right to launch the deep ball. He drops another deep pass in for his star receiver, this time to DeVonta Smith for a 41 yard touchdown:

This last clip may be the best example of how occasional deep shots can be effective out of empty personnel. The Tennessee Titans are in an aggressive man coverage call on this play, with both of their safeties slicing down on in-breaking routes over the middle. The Titans firmly believe the ball is coming out quick here, so they use both safeties to take away the intermediate throw.

Shane Steichen, and Jalen Hurts, had the perfect counter for that. The Eagles lined up DeVonta Smith by himself on the backside of the formation. He's running a skinny post on the play, but they are counting on their star to undress the defender in an isolated situation.

Smith is able to do that for a 34 yard touchdown on the play:

The Broken Play

Now, we get to the fun stuff. We have discussed throughout this series that empty personnel is essentially truth serum for a defense. Defenses have to show their hand pre-snap in empty, which helps a young passer properly identify what is coming at them before the play.

With this, an athletic quarterback could diagnose pressure early in the play and know where their outlets are from the pocket. This leads to more broken plays, which aren't necessarily a bad thing with a creative quarterback. Empty is designed to exploit the quick game, but coaches aren't going to complain if their quarterback turns a five yard gain call into an explosive.

Jalen Hurts didn't create too many chunk plays after breaking the pocket last season, but it was just another tool in that offense's arsenal. Having a mobile quarterback opens up the entire field and gives a team endless possibilities to create explosives even when that isn't the natural design of the play:

The Bottom Line

Empty personnel is built around the quick passing game, BUT a team can create explosives down the field on occasion out of this set. With defenses expecting that quick pass, there will be options down the field at certain points of the game/season.

This just about concludes the empty theory series for the site. There will be one more big wrap-up piece, but we just about covered all of the topics around this personnel set. All-in-all, I fully expect to see a lot of empty personnel from the Colts in 2023.

Need your fill on daily Colts' content? Head over to the Locked On Colts' YouTube channel where Jake Arthur and myself hit on all the major topics surrounding this team. Hit that subscribe button while you are there!

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Zach Hicks
ZACH HICKS

Zach Hicks is the Lead Analyst for HorseshoeHuddle.com. Zach has been on the NFL beat since 2017. His works have appeared on SBNation.com, the Locked On Podcast Network, BleacherReport.com, MSN.com, & Yardbarker.com. 

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