what is a West Coast offense?

Question

i love watching and playing football. i've been watching it for a while now and i understand basically everything about it. but the only thing i dont understand is what a West Coast offense is.

Can someone please tell me what a West Coast offense is and give me an example of a team that uses a West Coast offense? also, can you tell me why it's called a "West" Coast offense?

Answer 1

Answers for your 3 questions.

- West Coast Offense refers to a pass-first offensive strategy. It involves using a passing game of short, quick passes, which causes the defense to be more wary of immediate routes. This opens up running lanes and long-yardage passing. Before the WCO, teams would typically use a running attack to set up the passing game -- WCO does the opposite.

- Many teams have and are using some form of the WCO, including the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers, and Denver Broncos.

- The term originally came from a quote referring to a pass-first offense used by two west coast teams, San Diego and Oakland, in the late 70s to early 80s. But the term stuck with Bill Walsh's offensive scheme he used for the 49ers in the 80s.

Answer 2

The West Coast offense was pioneered by Bill Walsh with the SF 49ers back in the 80s, in the Joe Montana Super Bowl years. It represented a change in offensive philosophy from the more traditional style that had been prevalent in the NFL before.

Previously, the philosophy was to establish the run, and build a vertical passing game on top of that. You used your running plays to control the tempo and eat up the clock and grind out yardage, then when defenses started committing to stop the run, throw into their softened coverage.

West Coast offense did the opposite - it used the pass to establish the run. Instead of featuring grinding running plays and big passes, it used lots of quick, short underneath passes to do what running plays did before, grind out yards and eat up clock. It can also use a lot of screen and flat passes to RBs, instead of handoffs. West Coast quarterbacks value accuracy and pocket poise over big arm strength, RBs need good hands, and the TEs and WRs need to run accurate routes for their QB to find them in their fast-release, 2-3 step drop plays.

The Eagles are probably the team that's the most classic example of a WC offense in the NFL today. Jeff Garcia learned it under Steve Young, and Brian Westbrook is a prototype West Coast running back. Look for any team where the RB has a lot of receptions and thats probably a WC-style offense.

Answer 3

Ok the west coast offense is a system of offense that is relavively new- maybe 80's.

It comprises of short dump off passes designed to get 8-10 yards as opposed to 20 yds. In order to have this you have to have an accurate qb and a lot of good wrs

Examples: Nebraska this year, and San Fran when Montana was their(this is were it originated from)

Answer 4

It's all about the feet
The best way to define the West Coast offense may be to start with what it isn't.

The traditional passing game, which NFL teams ran for years, is based on deep drops, quarterbacks bouncing and waiting for receivers to come open, one-on-one matchups and throwing the ball downfield.

In contrast, the West Coast offense as it originated with Bill Walsh is any play or set of plays that tie the quarterback's feet to the receiver's route so there is a sense of timing.

The offense cannot be taught or run based solely on a playbook. If a coach has no history in the West Coast and wants to teach it based on a playbook, he wouldn't get it. Timing and choreography, not plays, are what make the West Coast offense.

My definition might include a number of teams that aren't generally thought of as West Coast offense teams. In fact, most of the league uses some of the West Coast philosophy and perhaps even the Walsh tree of plays. For the most part, the system and the plays are intersecting, but they don't need to be. The quick slant is considered a staple West Coast play -- dropping three steps, planting and throwing on time and in rhythm with the receiver. But there are tons of ways to design West Coast plays, even if they didn't originate with Walsh.

Two weeks ago I visited the Patriots and met with quarterback Tom Brady. When I asked him about his drops and his reads, he said everything is about finding space, zone routes, man-zone reads, short drops and timing. Brady's footwork tells him when to throw the ball. So, while offensive coordinator Charlie Weis has no West Coast history or ties to Walsh and the 49ers system in his coaching background, the Patriots essentially are running the West Coast offense.

Meanwhile, based on how Kurt Warner and the other Rams quarterbacks throw the ball, Mike Martz does not run a West Coast offense in St. Louis. He uses a more traditional passing game in which the routes are not tied to the quarterback's feet.

Bucs coach Jon Gruden, who worked under Mike Holmgren in Green Bay, will say, "We're not running the West Coast offense. I'm running my offense." Well, that's fine, Jon. And sure, he and other coaches may feel they don't run the West Coast, because they don't run Walsh's plays from 1980.

But I disagree. Although Gruden may run different plays and have different names for certain aspects of his offense, his plays are designed with the quarterback's footwork in mind. And that is the West Coast offense.

-- Steve Young

Answer 5

west coast offense is a passing offense
a team colts- peyton manning
my why of explaning why its called a west coast
east coast down by alabama, georiga
do you evr see a white runningback no
west coast offense colts peyton east coast offense (run) falcons mike vick warrick dunn
there you go