I have heard about it for years, but I have to admit I don't know what it means. Can anyone give me the basics on why this offense is different, why "West Coast", and how many offenses are there? The "No Huddle" Offense is pretty self-explanatory, but "West Coast"?

My guess on the West Coast Offense is that the offense is predicated on a short passing game. The offense emphasizes accuracy as opposed to throwing the ball downfield. The intent behind most West Coast Offense teams is that the majority of the big passing yards come from the runs after the catch. Speedy wide receivers and also possession receivers then are likely going to do well in this offense.

Many other offenses (like the Joe Gibbs-styled offense) are more likely to go deep downfield than take what the defense gives them. I'm not sure exactly how many general schools of offensive thought exist in the NFL, but you could say in a way that there are 32 different offenses in the league. I think there are probably about four or five prevalent offensive philosophies, but I'm not sure if they all have a name or not.

As for why "West Coast" probably because Bill Walsh was one of the innovators behind the offense and he implemented it with the San Francisco 49ers to great success.

Hope that helps!

[ March 31, 2004, 04:36 PM: Message edited by: DestinyRules ]

DestinyRules was fairly close. Hopefully Jim @ Outsports takes a stab at this one as he articulates things pretty well.

I'd say the West Coast offense goes away from Traditional offenses that used to have 2 TEs, 2 RBs, and 2 WRs. Traditional offenses used to pound the ball with the run, often described as "Smash Mouth Football." West Coast will mix it up more using 3 and 4 WR sets with single backs and more Receiving tight ends than Blocking tight ends. Therefor the passing game is a larger part of the offense. Routes tend to be more complicated and work together rather than having 2 WRs running routes.

Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman is an expert on this. In short:

A lot of motion. "Swooping and swerving," as Paul Brown called it. A lot of rollouts, underneath throwing, maximum use of backs running horizontal routes off lots of picks. Not entirely gone, but certainly no longer a prime factor, was the deep attack. It achieved perfection with Joe Montana and the Walsh 49ers.

Bill Walsh termed it "the Cincinnati offense" and got annoyed when people started referring to it as the West Coast offense later on, since that really wasn't its birthplace. But the phrase caught on, and that's what is sweeping the NFL today, with variations, of course.

[ March 31, 2004, 06:38 PM: Message edited by: Jim at Outsports ]