Seattle Seahawks New Bears OC Shane Waldron Diamond, Play Action and Boot Passing Attack
Shane Waldron has the Seahawks playing at a high level. He is doing it with various schemes. They are currently 6th in the NFL in scoring and averaging 27 points per game through 4 games.
The best part of their offense is their play action passing game. They are highly efficient in this category and keep teams off balance with some of their schemes. They do it with play action and boot schemes.
You will see them run some bone or diamond formations with 2 tight ends in the backfield, sometimes with both tight ends in the backfield on the same side. They will also run some interesting concepts with RB motions.
Lastly, they will run a ton of jet sweep action which draws linebackers up and allows them to throw the ball behind them.
But this article will look at the diamond and boot package. The bone package puts 2 te in the backfield with the RB.
12 personnel Bone/Diamond Package
They use some interesting sets out of 12 personnel.
What these sets do is forces teams to play cover 3 and also the 3-4 teams to commit a safety to one side. Like below, the 2 te are to the one side and the defense goes cover 3 in that direction.
Now it comes down to what plays you want to run vs the look.
#1 2 TE on the same side in the bone package
#2 The 2nd example is true bone .Again they force a cover 3 look, but the Lions roll to 2 high on the snap. The play call is still good.
Let’s take a look at some plays.
Here we have a few plays with the Tight End on the same side. The rb goes in motion and they fake a handoff to him. This freezes the LB and they run a dig with Metcalf behind it. Great play design.
#2 The next example is the sail concept from the bone package. They get the SS to bite and throw the ball behind him.
film
2 More examples vs the Giants and Panthers where they shift out of the heavy diamond formation.
True Bone, A TE on both sides
The first play is a zone read with the read to the front side on the DE.
He comes hard so he pulls it and you have the 3 route concepts
post
te wheel
te slice route to the flat
Here’s the play and video clip
Bone set again
The next play is out of bone with play action.
They create space for the #1 wr and the safety cheats to Metcalf. Again they get a favorable coverage in cover 3. They create space for the wr to work in.
look at the space to work with as he runs the sail(deep out route)
These are just some examples of the diamond package and how effective it can be throwing the football.
You will often see cover 3 with match concepts on the outside, so you can create 1x1 matchups for your wr vs. CB
Boot Game Traditional
The Seahawks are also exceptional in the boot game. They do it from 12 personnel as well as 11 with their talented wr trio of Njigba, Metcalf and Lockett.
Example #1
11P Jet Motion Boot the other way off toss action. He runs the shallow drag with the tight end coming across.
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They fake the Jet and the LB’s flow with the jet sweep and toss action, which opens the boot the other way.
Example #2
12 personnnel condensed 3x1
They run boot with a post corner by #2 with the #1 to the flat. Also get the drag from the x wr. They get man free and the TE beats the safety on the corner route.
Here is the film clip.
Another favorite of Waldron is running the shallow drag concept out of 12 or 13 personnel. The next 2 examples show the concept.
Example #1
13 P Fake jet , fake toss, shallow drag with the TE. Tight end wing on one side and the tight end flank on the other side.
Nice job off the toss fake and they hit the drag the other way. They get great flow from the LB
Example #2
13P again, a different variation of the toss boot with the shallow drag by the TE. Different formation, this time all 3 tight ends on the same side. They go tight end with 2 wings.
Again, they run boot off the toss action.
In the last example, they run jet reverse motion and they run boot back the other way. Lockett going to the flat draws the LB and they hit Metcalf coming across the other way.
Here’s the clip and analysis
I hope you enjoyed the analysis and some of the boot and play action schemes the Seahawks run.