Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh developed the west coast offense with the thinking that he would get five receivers out into the pass patterns.
At that time, offenses went with the standard two wide receivers, one tight end and two running backs. The Niners were one of the first teams to make it a point to utilize their running backs as featured receivers.
They had a pass catching fullback in Tom Rathman and a pass catching halfback in Roger Craig.
This puts a lot of pressure on the offensive tackles. They countered that pressure on the tackles by having the quarterback get rid of the football as fast as possible.
His philosophy was to get as many guys as possible out into the routes. The Eagles want to get five guys into their routes as much as possible this year.
This would allow to take advantage of any matchups that they consider to be a mismatch.
For example if they feel their advantage is getting fullback Leonard Weaver downfield on a linebacker that's what they will do. You know the same is true of Brian Westbrook.
The Birds believe they can get Weaver, Westbrook and the tight ends out into the pass routes rather than help on the pass protection.
One of the reasons the Birds have put Shawn Andrews at the right tackle spot is to enable them to get five receivers in the pass patterns more often than they've done in the past.
With Andrews at right tackle and Jason Peters at left tackle, the Eagles think they can leave these guys one on one more of the time, they did with Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan.
There's not a more athletic pair of offensive tackles in the league. They're both complete tackles who can pass block, run block and even get downfield in front of a screen pass.
I think you're also going to see the Eagles ask these guys to hold their blocks onger, so they can throw down field.
