RGIII's one-season revolution

The Wall Street Journal

By Joe Schackman

Robert Griffin III's unique skills have changed the game's dynamics. But is it a temporary blip or a permanent evolution?

Jon Gruden was half right when he said that Robert Griffin III has revolutionized quarterback play in the National Football League.

The dynamic rookie is perhaps the only one alive who could run a pistol offense with consistent success, toggling between the array of passes, handoffs and scrambles presented to him at every snap. He’s confounded defenses and added a new layer of complexity to the position, and for that he has surely changed the game. In the NFL, though, change is as fleeting as it is common. The true test of the RGIII revolution is whether it sticks around.

As unique an athlete as the ‘Skins quarterback is, his singular effect on the league is not a new story. When teams find a player with a special skill set, they have always tried to maximize their impact by innovating around them. Often that means looking to the past, plucking decades-old game plans and inserting them into the present.

We saw that in 2008, when the Miami Dolphins wanted to get running backs Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown involved at the same time. Coach Tony Sparano found his solution in the early 1900s, adapting the Pop Warner-designed single wing offense to the needs and realities of the pro game. By opening day, it had been rechristened as the Wildcat and looked nearly identical to some formations being run in college football.

The Wildcat steamrolled across the NFL that season. Miami won 10 games and the AFC East title, and a so-called revolution was born. By the next year, half the league had developed its own take on the formation. But despite its initial success, there was a reason the Wildcat had become extinct in the NFL all those decades ago. Defenses were simply too fast to cover the obvious running plays engineered out of the formation, and once the surprise factor wore off they simply pinned their ears back and gunned for the ball carrier. The Dolphins followed their ‘08 season with back-to-back 7-9 years, and Sparano was soon out of a job. The Wildcat followed, and at this point is an afterthought slotted firmly into a few teams’ trick play category.

It’s hard not to think back to that short-lived period when watching Griffin run the pistol. He’s a dynamic quarterback with a big arm and wide receiver-type speed. Yet even with such distinct talents, we’ve seen this before, going back to Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb and even Kordell Stewart. Griffin could prove better than all of them, but he is still built from the same dual-threat mold.

Where he diverges significantly is the offensive package he’s charged with running. Rather than cram him into a traditional system, Washington adopted the shotgun/single-back hybrid called the pistol. Used by some college teams, it places the quarterback halfway between the center and the running back, ideally allowing the quarterback to read the defense while also giving him an extra second to get a pass off. San Francisco starter Colin Kaepernick ran it effectively during his time at the University of Nevada, and Missouri, LSU, Ohio State and UCLA are among the others that have featured the formation. Some NFL teams have played around with it as well, mostly as a change of pace. But it had never been a primary formation before the Redskins dialed it up.

So far, it’s hard to argue with Washington’s success. On Monday Night Football against the New York Giants, the ‘Skins ran 32 of their 52 plays out of the pistol. It gave them multiple options, opening holes inside for running back Alfred Morris, outside for Griffin, and giving the receivers time to get open for the deep pass. The Giants looked lost against it.

Washington found similar success the next week against the Ravens, and for that reason the pistol is suddenly seen as the next big thing for the NFL. Expect more teams to adopt it and tailor the formation to fit their own strengths, and maybe even reap the rewards for a few weeks.

The lessons of the Wildcat loom large, however. Defenses often need time to adjust to new offensive gimmicks, but when they do, they stop them cold. There’s little doubt coordinators are spending day and night dissecting the pistol. For teams adopting the ‘Skins scheme, it’s likely a matter of time before they’re forced to return to a more traditional game plan.

Time could soon be up for Washington as well. The smart bet is that the novelty will wear off and the team will find itself going the way of the Dolphins if they fail to innovate further. But no one else has a centerpiece like Griffin, and it remains to be seen just how powerful a variable he is. For now, he’s simply changed offensive football in the NFL. Determining whether it’s a full-fledged revolution will take a bit more time.

Joe Schackman is an editor and co-founder of Began in '96.