it will always be a passing league, but i do like the idea of countering all that speed on defense with some power. if it actually works. i guess we’ll find out.
Some things about this.
First, yes you have to pass well in the league when you pass…but you don’t always have to pass.
If you look at the 12 teams with the highest passing percentage last year, 1 was a playoff team (New England).
If you look at the 12 teams with the highest RUSHING percentage, 7 were playoff teams in 2015 (Carolina, Minn, Seattle, KC, Cinn, Arz, Houston).
Then look at the Rams, because there’s another aspect to this. Last year was the first with Fisher where they crossed over into being “run heavy.” I count pass heavy as throwing 60% of the time or more, I count balanced as anywhere from 56+% to 59+%, and I count run heavy as running 44% of the time or more. In 2012 the Rams passed 59% of the time, and in 2015 they ran 46.6% of the time.
But they STILL set up long passes and took shots.
Even with Foles and Keenum (combined numbers) they threw 31+ yarders 5.4% of the time (which is top third in the league though not top 6th) and hit on 28% of them (which is edging toward good though not there…30% or more is good).
Anything at 5% or more on long passes is the top 1/3rd of the league. In fact that was better than a lot of teams–last year, for example, Flacco was 4.3%, Wilson was 4.1%, Luck was 4%, Rodgers was 4%, Brees was 3.8%, Rivers was 3.6%, Brady was 3.4%, Tannenhill was 2.6%, Stafford was 2%, Ryan was 1.9%, and Eli was 1.9%
That’s the worst rated passing game in the league, with a melted down starter and problems to fix at WR. And the long shot was STILL part of their game.
So I imagine how good it will be when the qb is starting-caliber and they have more at TE and WR