2007-07-31

Bill Walsh and the Bucs

I'm not going to touch on what Bill Walsh meant for the NFL and for the sport in general, others have done that better than I could. Dr. Z has a good piece on Walsh worth checking out.

Gruden touched on this briefly today at practice but despite never coaching or playing for Walsh Gruden's entire career has been shaped by the offensive innovations Walsh is responsible for creating. Gruden is a second generation disciple of the Walsh offense, in other words an acorn of the Walsh tree.

‘’I’m one of those acorns that kind of fell far away from the tree. Again, I can just say that it was a great experience to be educated by guys like that, and I’m going to miss him.’’


(Click on the image to see a larger version)

What's surprising to me is how many guys there are on this tree, and how many of them have won Super Bowls. Additionally, the Bucs offense is based on the offense pioneered by Walsh, a quick hitting, passing offense which substitutes short routes for running plays. The offense also placed a new emphasis on efficiency and consistency (a la Jeff Garcia) in quarterbacks over rocket arms and gun slinging (a la Chris Simms).

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