Dear Bob, Please Consider This…

As outlined in the article about retrofitting the offense, I noted that Bob Bratkowski has approached the offenses under his tutelage in a rather risky manner.  Namely trying to get his quarterback to pass more touchdowns than interceptions, and figuring that the more the ball goes forward, the better.

However, I find this approach to be slightly unfitting for the Jaguars.

I became a Jaguar fan largely because I knew that I enjoyed smash mouth football.  Fred Taylor was still pounding the rock back then and while he wasn’t the most physical back the world has ever seen, he definitely was solid and showed that the offense can effectively be channeled through the ball carrier.

I don’t see Bob Bratkowski focusing on this unfortunately.

I have a long history of not supporting offenses that aim to stretch the field with pass plays when the personnel isn’t fitting.  Many of the best offenses in the league are the best because they cater to the personnel’s strengths rather than trying to build personnel to perfectly fit a system.  Mike McCarthy is effective in Green Bay because he took advantage of a between the tackles running game and short slants to compensate for a heavy passing scheme that worked in concert with his bigger receivers that excel in short to mid routes.

Peyton Manning catered the entire Indy offense to his skill set the entire time he played for the Colts.  Drew Brees does a good job of making sure that he has a large number of slant routes that allow for open throwing lanes since he isn’t the tallest player on the field (much less taller than his linemen).

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Bob Bratkowski has a history of catering to his personnel’s strengths.  In Cincinnati he has a solid quarterback in Carson Palmer, but after Palmer started to fizzle he continued to call plays that focused around an effective passing attack reliant upon numerous attempts.  Predictably the number of interceptions rose and the offense ultimately sputtered.  But it wasn’t Bratkowski that was to blame, it was Palmer.

I don’t want that to happen to Blaine Gabbert.

I don’t want to see the second year quarterback throwing 25-40 passes a game simply because it’s the scheme the coordinator wants.  I want success as much as the next person, but if a very gifted quarterback like Carson Palmer sputtered out in the system (and he was a decent rookie!) I can’t expect our Blaine Gabbert who appears to need some easing into the world of the NFL to be any different.

– Luke N. Sims