Why the NFL is so obsessed with the Wing T offense
No running, no fun. 2024 will feature the best offenses in the league. This statement may sound like it’s from the ’90s, but given the way defenses prioritize stopping explosive pass plays, living in the air is a tough way to live. However, the best offenses aren’t just about standing in an I formation and calling up iso and power over and over again. To be a good running team you have to be creative and deceptive. Offensive coaches everywhere are looking for ideas, and several teams have turned to one of the original offensive systems: the Wing T.
The Wing T is a three-back attack. The original formation has two backs in the backfield and a wing outside and behind the tight end. The wing serves as a third defender who moves to receive handoffs or pretend to receive a handoff. While the formation and play may vary from iteration to iteration, the core principles are deception, sleight of hand, and speed. The goal is to crowd linebackers with moves and fakes and quickly hit the defense by running away from the fake.
The Arizona Cardinals are bludgeoning defenses with an offense that resembles a single-wing offense, the original offense from which the Wing T evolved. Mike McDaniels’ Miami Dolphins offense ranked first in yards per carry (5.1) last season by integrating Wing T principles, ideas and plays. Matt LaFleur won games while his starting quarterback was injured by turning the Green Bay Packers offense into a modern Wing T offense. Some of the league’s best playcallers – Andy Reid, Sean McVay, Ben Johnson and Kyle Shanahan – have sprinkled Wing T concepts into their schemes for years. Nowadays we see Wing T playing all over the league.
Why is the Wing T making its way to the NFL?
The prominent role of the jet sweep – where a receiver starts moving and gets a direct handoff to the perimeter – comes straight from the Wing T. During Jim Harbaugh’s first stint as head coach for the San Francisco 49ers, he started running wide receivers fly sweeps for Ted Ginn Jr. Harbaugh has credited Pete Lavorato of Sacred Heart Prep with teaching him the fly sweep after Harbaugh attended a clinic on Lavorato’s offense, a version of the Wing T.
A Jet(bag) sweep for the lead!@JJettas2 | @Vikings
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Now every team has the jet sweep in their offense. The game keeps defensive ends honest. Faking the jet sweep to receivers and then handing off or throwing the ball to running backs crowds out linebackers. The misdirection makes them look and lean the wrong way, which is one of the core characteristics of any Wing T offense.
16th TD of the season for Raheem Mostert!
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Wide receivers as runners and play diversity
Dan Casey built his reputation by posting interesting plays on social media. He now advises NFL teams and helps them add new ideas to their playbooks.
“There’s just a greater need for diversity in the game and the ability to touch multiple guys,” Casey explained. “I think the days when you could just stand in the singleback and run in the wide zone are over. The defense just absorbs that.”
Casey talked about what Liam Coen does with their two-back sets, using Rachaad White and Bucky Irving at the same time. Neither back specializes in blocking leads, so you can’t just have one block for the other. You have to find ways to emphasize the defense to create an advantage for whoever the ball carrier is. Wing T games will help you with that.
Shanahan started using Deebo Samuel as a running back in the 49ers’ Deadpool package years ago. That has put pressure on the defense, as they have to treat him like a wide receiver and trot out their nickel (five defensive backs) personnel when Samuel is part of a three-receiver set, but San Francisco can still run two back plays when he is in the foreground. field.
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“You just switch some guys around and whatever runs look good against the fronts you’re competing against,” Shanahan explained.
“Just from the conversations I’ve had with a lot of NFL guys… obviously you have your running back, and then every team wants a receiver that they can hand the ball to. Not just on sweeps, but on inside transfers as well,” Casey said.
In the clip above, the Detroit Lions execute a direct ripoff of the Wing T playbook: a basic concept called a “Sally” variation. During the play, there should be an outside run fake element with a handoff to a player in front of the quarterback, usually with pulling linemen causing punt blocking or lead blocking. The Lions ran it as Jared Goff faked a throw to the running back before passing it to receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown in front of him, with the lead center and tackle blocking in front of him. Sally is the most prominent Wing T play you will see in the NFL on Sundays.
Give defenses a new look and add layers to the game
“The defense has gotten really good at passing this, the basic version of run plays,” Casey said. “So you have to change the math or the fit somehow. The nice thing about these Wing T concepts is that there is no paradigm for the defense that fits them. It’s not like they see it every day in practice. So when I talk to NFL guys, they often say, “I just need something that people haven’t really seen much of because once they’ve seen it and replayed it, they can kind of squash it.” ”
Of course, running a basic play inside the zone will still work if you block it well, but the defense has seen it so many times that they can play it instinctively and get into the right places. Whether they can hold their own, shed blocks and make tackles is another story, but just by keeping the defense guessing where they need to be or where they are fit gives the offense an advantage. That’s where these Wing T backfield plays come into play.
In this clip, the Kansas City Chiefs are simply running an inside zone play. But before Patrick Mahomes handed the ball to the running back, he turned his back to the defense to fake a reverse to a wide receiver before completing his spin and getting back into position to hand the ball off to the running back . The Chiefs also added another layer of deception, as teams typically run inside the zone, away from the side the back has shifted to. So if the back is to the quarterback’s left, they run zone to the right. In the clip, the running back was standing to Mahomes’ left, but was running inside the left zone.
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Another core tenant of the Wing T is the quarterback who turns his back on the defense to run fakes. Many Wing T playbooks have a whole series of plays called “spinner,” where the quarterback spins to hide the ball from the defense. With the increase in shotgun formations in the league, quarterbacks will usually hand off the ball while the ball carrier gets in front of them. By integrating spinner concepts into the shotgun, they even take the element of deception back from the shotgun.
Taking it to the next level
The biggest lesson to be learned from the Wing T offense is not the play, but the sequence. In every game there is a counter and another counter. If a defense overplays the outside, they can fake an offside and hit you inside, or vice versa. McVay took the league by storm when he was first hired by the Los Angeles Rams, and built his playbook with this philosophy in mind. With the Dolphins, McDaniel has taken the element of deception and layering to another level. The footwork and magic tricks that Tua Tagovailoa performs are an improvement on the techniques that the Wing T has developed.
Week 10, 12:09 remaining in the first quarter, first-and-10
On this play, Tagovailoa first feigned an inside handoff to the running back to the left before throwing the ball in a reverse to receiver Malik Washington. The ingenious part of this play is that the center and guard are fake, as if blocking downfield before leaking to the perimeter to block for Washington.
Tagovailoa reversed and made a fake counter to his left. The right guard and tight end also cheated to the left to get the linebackers to step in that direction. Tagovailoa hid the ball after his spin before throwing the ball to Washington. He did a good job of barely moving his body while facing the sideline so the defense wouldn’t suspect he had the ball, and made as little movement toward Washington as possible.
Rookie Malik Washington takes the ball 60 feet to the house! @MiamiDolphins let the scoring begin.
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This piece is straight out of a Wing T playbook, but with some adjustments.
The quarterback turning his back on the defense and all the faking options add more layers of deception when teams want to pass the ball, leading to better play action.
Here, the Packers’ Malik Willis turned his back on the defense to fake an outside handoff before throwing a screen.
In today’s age of easy access to information, criminals look everywhere for inspiration and ways to throw off defenses. Naturally, they have returned to the roots of football for inspiration, because the principles of offense never go out of style. Deception and speed sequencing are a deadly combination. Wing T offenses weaponized these elements to near perfection decades ago. Modern offenses include taking notes and putting your own spin on them.
(Top photo of Tua Tagovailoa: Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)
