Saturday, March 28, 2009

It's harder to evaluate spread offense players... PLEASE!

I love football... I've been watching, playing it, coached it, and now have taken it to the internet with this blog and website (www.spreadoffense.com).

That being said, I read a lot about all levels of football... from Pop Warner all the way up to the NFL, and one thing that's really aggravating me is this term being thrown around prior to this year's NFL draft: "It's harder to evaluate players that are from spread offense systems".

Do you really think an NFL team would pass up an elite football player who happened to come from a college 'spread offense' system??

You hear this term a lot with the quarterback's, O-linemen, and running backs more than any other position.

"The O-line in college are never in a 3 point stance in the spread offense so they'll have a very hard time adjusting to a pro style offense"... well, give them a mini-camp and guess what, they'll go right back to being in the 3 point stance!!

I remember hearing last year that Steve Slaton coming out of West Virginia would have a hard time adjusting to a pro-set I formation coming out of the spread offense. All those lateral movements in the shot-gun zone read and triple option would make for a hard transition to the 'down hill' I formation... HAHA!! 1,282 rushing yards later with a 4.8 per rush average his rookie year with the Houston Texans... tough transition to the I formation Steve... you really had a hard time figuring it out in the NFL.

Come on analysts.... give the spread offense a break, because in a few years you may be saying... "This XYZ player out of X University will have a difficult time transitioning from a pro-style, two tight end college career to the NFL shot-gun spread offense".

--Mark

Spread Offense