Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg have got a very important job to do this off season whether they make Kevin Kolb the starting quarterback or stay with Donovan McNabb.
They’ve got to tailor offense to the strengths of the quarterback and these receivers.
We all know that McNabb isn’t a good fit for the pure west coast offense.
Kolb is a good fit to the west coast offense but he doesn’t have a big arm so getting the ball downfield for the deep ball will be a challenge for him.
He should be able to flourish throwing the short to intermediate routes if he’s making good decisions.
Their job will not only be tailoring the offense to fit the quarterbacks, they’ve also got to desing plays to fit the receivers namely, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin.
Jackson isn’t really a pure west coast offense receiver. His strength is getting deep for the long ball but he’s not big enough to take the pounding required to run all of those short routes over the middle.
McNabb was able to get the ball to him on those deep routes, Kolb will have to do the same if he gets the chance.
Maclin fits the pure west coast offense better than Jackson because he’s got the size to catch the ball short and over the middle. Both of them are good at making plays with the ball once they get it in their hands.
Reid and Mornhinweg have got to be able to get the ball to Jackson without making him take a beating. If they allow defenses to get too many shots on him, he’ll miss games every year.
Remember Jackson got knocked out of a couple weeks of action after being hit on the shoulder by Redskins middle linebacker London Fletcher. He gave him a concussion by hitting him on the shoulder.
They can’t run plays which allow the smallish Jackson who weighs only 165 pounds to get beat up.
The Cowboys have been able to take him out of his game by having Terrence Newman and Mike Jenkins get physical with him. Champ Bailey roughed him up in the Denver and took him out of his game.
When you think about it, Jackson did all his damage in only 11 games because his missed most of the Redskins game in which he got injured, then didn’t play the next week.
He didn’t do much in the two Cowboys games and was shut down in the one against the Broncos.
Reid and Mornhinweg were never able to run plays which freed Jackson up from the bump and run coverage. They can’t allow this to happen next year.