New Giants' Offensive Philosophy Could Resemble This "Super" Approach
In two weeks, the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals will take the sport's biggest stage as they battle it out on the Super Bowl LVI stage for the world championship title. And already, it's promising to be an epic battle highlighting two explosive offenses, each of which ranked in the top 10 league-wide in passing yards (Rams 5th, 4,893 yards, and Bengals, 7th, 4,806 yards).
The Rams and Bengals--and yes, even the Bills--all have something in common regarding offense that has been a part of its success beyond a solid quarterback.
That common ground, which might very well become a core part of the Giants offense under new head coach Brian Daboll and his still-to-be named offensive coordinator, is a high deployment of 11-personnel (one running back, one tight end, and three wide receivers).
According to Sharp Football, the Rams and Bengals ranked first and second last season using 11-personnel, Los Angeles using the formation 84 percent of the time, and Cincinnati using it 76 percent of the time.
The Bills finished sixth in the NFL, running 11-personnel on 71 percent of their offensive snaps, finishing fifth overall in the league in average yards per game (389.3).
The use of 11-personnel has its advantages if it's fueled by versatile players that can excel in different positions. For example, while with the Bills, Daboll routinely moved receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis around the formation to create different looks out of the 11-personnel base. That, in turn, gave the opponent more things to worry about as each look had multiple options that could be run.
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Daboll hasn't said what his offense will look like in the Giants--he'll likely decide the details once he hires his new offensive coordinator--but it's hard to imagine his core concepts and philosophies will stray too far from what's worked for him in Buffalo.
That includes finding players to fit the system. New general manager Joe Schoen figures to lean heavily on Daboll and his staff regarding fixing the Giants offense, which last year used 11-personnel 62 percent of the time (17th in the league) but which also finished 31st in average yards per game (287.3).
And according to Schoen, Daboll is very clear in expressing what he looks for in a player.
"He came in as an offensive coordinator (at Miami in 2011), and he had a very clear plan for what he wanted," Schoen recalled. "(Tight end) Charles Clay was a sixth-round pick we took because Brian defined, ‘Hey, I want a guy that can play fullback, that can be a pass-catcher out of the backfield, that can play tight end and maybe run the ball, too.’ We ended up taking Charles Clay in the sixth round because of the vision that Brian had for that type of player, and he had a lot of success."
More recently, thanks to Daboll's vision, the Bills were able to snag a key player on offense on Day 3 of the draft two years ago: receiver Gabriel Davis, a fourth-round pick.
"Brian said, ‘Hey, I need somebody that can play all four receiver spots that’s smart, tough, and dependable,’ clearly defined what he looked for and in the fourth round, and there’s that guy (Davis) that checked all those boxes."
That kind of specific feedback, Schoen said, should make his first draft with Daboll a productive one.
"He’s done a really good job every staff I’ve been on clearly defining what he wants and that makes it so much easier for the personnel staff to go find those players and identify them. Again, when the value meets where we see them, you have a lot of success when you do that."
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