Author: Taylor Kolste

By Taylor Kolste

To compliment the wide zone study I released last week, I will be releasing for sale a study on play pass/play action. This study looks at both the pass protections and route concepts of teams running wide zone based systems. The study looks at the 2011 & 2012 Houston Texans (coached by Gary Kubiak), the 2012 Washington Redskins, 2016 Atlanta Falcons, the 2019 San Francisco 49ers (coached by Kyle Shanahan) & the 2017-19 LA Rams (coached by Sean McVay).

Below are 6 pages from the 43 page study (downloadable PDF – certain portions of the preview are blurred out). Full cut ups of these concepts from the teams listed above will be included with the purchase of this study.

If anyone has any questions about the study, you can reach me by email at TaylorKolste@gmail.com or on Twitter at @TaylorKolste.

Continue reading 4-Game Coverage Breakdown of The 2018 L.A. Chargers Defense

By Taylor Kolste

The first annual Cascade Coaching Clinic is in the books. This year’s clinic featured 15 speakers from various levels of football (high school, college, XFL, & NFL) including keynote speaker, Mike Riley. The plan is to continue to hold this clinic each year in the northwest for the considerable future.

Below is the presentation I gave at the clinic based on the importance of film study and my own study of the L.A. Rams Offense.

Presentation Slides

If you have any questions or comments about the clinic or the presentation above, you can reach me through email at TaylorKolste@gmail.com or on Twitter at @TaylorKolste.

By Taylor Kolste

Within the next few weeks, I will be releasing my second book, Breaking Down The 2018 Kansas City Chiefs Offense. The book will follow the same format as my first book, Breaking Down The 2018 LA Rams Offense. This preview will contain a few excerpts from the book to hopefully give the reader a good idea of what the book will be like. There are 25 of the 345 pages shown below. The rest of the book follows the same structure that is shown in the preview.

PREVIEW:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION – 1

CHAPTER 1: PERSONAL CHARACTER & LEADERSHIP – 4

CHAPTER 2: INTRO TO CHIEFS OFFENSE – 16

CHAPTER 3: RUN GAME – 20

• Outside Run Locked RPO – 24
• Perimeter Run – 63
• UC Run w/ Perimeter Threat – 70
• UC Run – 90
• IZ RPO – 88
• Gun Option Run – 100
• Gap Scheme RPO – 121
• Outside Run RPO – 133
• Gun Inside Run – 137
• Gadget Run – 141

CHAPTER 4: PASS GAME – 147

• Quick Game – 147
• Intermediate Pass Game – 188
• Vertical Pass Game – 229
• Movement Pass Game – 303

CHAPTER 5: SCREEN GAME – 324

Continue reading BOOK PREVIEW: Breaking Down The 2018 Kansas City Chiefs Offense

By Taylor Kolste

In 2011, when Chip Kelly was the head coach, Mark Helfrich the offensive coordinator, and Scott Frost the WR coach, Oregon first debuted their pin and pull sweep play. This play, known as “Outside Zone” in their system (they called what most people would consider Outside Zone “Mid Zone”), quickly became one of the best plays in their offense. In 2011, Oregon averaged 9.8 yards per play as they ran this play 36 times for 353 yards and 2 touchdowns. The next season in 2012, they ran their pin-pull play 42 times for 382 yards and 5 touchdowns, good for a 9.1 yard per play average. This play remained a staple of the Oregon offense as Kelly left and Helfrich and Frost became the head coach and coordinator. Chip Kelly brought this play with him to the NFL and Scott Frost brought it to UCF with all 3 of these coaches running it with success. In the 2015 season, Chip Kelly’s last with the Eagles, Philadelphia had a down year running the ball averaging only 3.9 yards per carry but still managed to average 5.7 yards per carry on this play.

This play is always ran to a 3-man surface. The frontside of the line (PSG through Tight End) would utilize pin and pull blocking rules meaning that if a defender is inside of you, you pin, if not, you pull. The center would always pull versus a 4-man front, and would only not pull if there was a nose tackle lined up directly over him. The backside of the line would zone block as if they were on the backside of any regular outside zone play. This is a somewhat oversimplification of the scheme so we’ll look through a few different examples of how the play is blocked before looking at different variations/window-dressings of the blocking scheme.

Continue reading The Chip Kelly/Mark Helfrich/Scott Frost Pin-Pull Sweep

By Taylor Kolste

Clemson Head Football Coach, Dabo Swinney, once said that wide receiver was the worst coached position in all of football. This is because of how technical the position can be, yet how little coached some receivers are. Although route running isn’t the only component of WR Play, I believe it is the aspect that is most technical and should be coached the most. There is an art to route running, great receivers are intentional with their technique throughout the entirety of the route. This article will aim at creating a system for route running that will create a common language between coaches and players and help walk coaches and receivers through route running versus different defensive techniques. There are plenty of different terms out there for the techniques discussed in this article, but the important thing is that they are defined by the coach so that the players and coaches are operating under the same language.

We will breakdown route running into 4 phases:

1. Stance
2. Release/Start
3. Stem
4. Breakpoint

First of all, the receiver must understand the coverage and defender they are attacking. The receiver must always have a plan of attack that will be determined by the route and the defender that they are attacking. We will start by defining 5 different types of defenders:

• Press
• • Quick-Jam
• Soft-Press
• Squat Defender
• Off Defender
• Bail Defender

Continue reading WR Play: The Art of Route Running