Written By Bob Cunningham Reid calls himself a west-coast style guy, but his playcalling would indicate otherwise. Reid loves throwing the deep ball.
He'll send his guys straight down the field and tell McNabb to heave it up and see what comes down.
This, folks, is not the west-coast offense. This is more of a vertical passing attack similar to the '98 Vikings, or the '99 and '01 Rams under Mike Martz.
This season, I believe Reid gets back to his west-coast offense routes (like that play on words?).
Over the past few years, Reid has gone out and gotten the speed that he wants at receiver. In 2007, he went out and got Curtis as a free agent, 08 he drafted D-Jack, and now this year traded up two spots to snag Jeremy Maclin.
All of these guys are sub-4.3 runners who can get away from almost any corner in the league. The only hurdle here is teaching Maclin how to run an intermediate route, considering he never, or rarely, ran one at Mizzou in the spread.
Regardless, with the speed the Eagles now have, short timing patterns can turn into big plays for the offense.
Any one of these three guys have the speed to take a five-yard slant, hitch, comeback, drag, etc. and turn it into a touchdown simply by finding a crease and running away from defenders.
Look for a lot more timing patterns this year, and a lot of frustrated defenses.
