Arizona Cardinals HC Mike LaFleur talks about new offense
· Yahoo Sports
When an offense struggles and couch critics come out of the woodwork criticizing playcalling and/or the quarterback, one thing is always true: No one points a finger at a team’s pre-snap operation.
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Even though that’s what led to then-Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray’s injury in Week 5 last season when a shotgun snap came unexpectedly.
New head coach Mike LaFleur understands how much those details affect the rhythm of an offense.
During his first press conference after being hired in February, LaFleur was asked what he had specifically learned from head coach Sean McVay during his three years with the Los Angeles Rams.
LaFleur quickly answered, “We like to say this in L.A.: ‘The worst playcall is the late playcall’. Get the playcall in to your quarterback. Get the playcall in to the offense so they can go operate. Even the time I had with Kyle (Shanahan) in San Francisco, having to go against the Rams. The one thing that always stood out was how they operated pre-snap. It just looked clean and sharp. And I am so fully invested in that portion of it.
“Everyone's got good plays, in my opinion. Everyone has a good scheme, but it's really leading up to that moment. How clean do we get out of that huddle? How do we operate? How fast do I get that call in there to allow these players to go do what they do best? And I think that's something that we even just got better at in the last few years, particularly this last year. And that's something definitely that we'll implement as we get this thing going.”
Noting the importance of the cadence for whoever the quarterback is, LaFleur said, "It's a massive weapon. From a quarterback standpoint, how can they all sound the same? Whoever ends up being the starting quarterback, you want all those other quarterbacks to mimic that cadence as much as possible."
Earlier this month, LaFleur explained, "We spent a week here with the vets, before we even introduced a play, all we did was talk about pre-snap operation. The first thing that you talk about outside of the huddle is the snap count. That first week will always be the foundation. We will always reset, and always try to improve it. We're not going to skip steps."
By all accounts, he hasn’t.
When wide receiver Michael Wilson met with the media Wednesday, he was asked what he likes about LaFleur’s offense.
“I don't want to reveal too much, but I like the motions that we utilize and how that affects the run and pass game,” he said, while adding, “I like our pre-snap operation and that's Mike's calling card when it comes to our offense. We want to be making sure we can control the controllables and be 100% as good as we can be in our pre-snap operation.
“One thing I like about him is ... I'm excited every day to come to work because he makes learning exciting. He makes the experience fun. He's obviously a details guy, but he's not an over-details guy, which is great because he understands football is sort of like controlled chaos in a little bit of an, or a lot of, an uncontrolled environment. And so he gives us enough rules, but then allows sort of natural ability, playmaking ability, and natural athleticism and football wherewithal to kind of take over.”
Six weeks after arriving in Arizona, LaFleur was asked at the NFL league meeting what it had been like building an offense with his own imprint.
LaFLeur gave credit to McVay for basically starting over each year, by saying, “He always wants to stay one step ahead. And we always start from the ground up, because that's what you've got to do.”
As for the work implanting the offense here, he said, “We tore this thing down. We have our foundational pieces that we're going to do schematically. But we started from scratch. And I want to hear people's opinions. And we left no stone unturned when it came to cadence, our formations, how we're calling our formations, all the way we're going to operate before the ball even snaps.”
Then, there’s the offense itself. Quarterback Gardner Minshew II shared significant insight Wednesday when he said, “What this offense does well is it drives off complementary looks and simplicity with the illusion of complexity through motions, similar formations. We really don’t do a ton off each look, but just enough to put a seed of doubt.
“The idea is we’re gonna get really good at what we do. I think it gives the players a ton of confidence. We have these things; this is what we’re gonna do. It’s your job to make it come to life. And I think we got the guys to do that.”
We’ll learn soon enough if he’s right.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals HC Mike LaFleur talks about new offense