Wildcat 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0
By Jason SmithI can't believe how many people aren't as fond of the Wildcats as I am. Everywhere I go I have to tell fans about how believable Goldie Hawn is as the head coach, and why you should pay attention to the first Woody Harrelson/Wesley Snipes on-screen pairing. Also, Nipsey Russell as the principal? I know he doesn't read a poem, but he alone was worth the price of admission.
(Author's note: At this point, I have been informed it's not the 1986 film "Wildcats" that is garnering skepticism, but the Wildcat formation. So we will move on in that vein. Still though, Goldie's football rap over the closing credits?)
As I was saying, I can't believe how many people think the Wildcat formation's time has come and gone. The Wildcat, in which a non-quarterback takes the shotgun snap with the option to hand it off, throw or run, was used by plenty of teams to varying degrees of success in 2008: Kansas City, Chicago, NY Jets, Oakland, Carolina, New England, Philadelphia, San Francisco and the most successful, Miami, just to name a few. Let's be honest: The Wildcat is not for everyone. I wouldn't take snaps away from Peyton Manning just to see what Joseph Addai could do, but not everyone has one of those guys under center. So when it emerged to success last season, teams began to copy it.
Since it was in its infancy, call what we saw last season "Wildcat 2.0." It's continued to grow in popularity, yet it's also seen its fair share of detractors both late in '08 and in the current offseason. Bears head coach Lovie Smith, for instance, thinks it will die a quiet death. Teams will learn how to defend it, and as a result it will fade away like so many innovative ideas of the past. You say "Wildcat," I say "glow puck." Toward the end of last season, you saw defensive coordinators start to send the house when they recognized the formation, and by filling all the gaps, it left limited options (and running lanes) for the offense. You started hearing some teams figure out ways to counteract it (Baltimore, San Francisco, Buffalo, even Bill Belichick and New England, who were early-season victims but had a good handle on it by the end of the year). But I believe Smith and others who think they've found their solution to the quirky offensive wrinkle are really missing the boat on what is just going to get bigger and bigger as the years go on. I will stipulate that in its current form -- which is the running back choosing to run 90 percent of the time and attempting a short pass the other 10 percent -- its shelf life is limited.
The Wildcat proponents have figured this out. And they've adapted, just as fish eventually evolved into growing legs and breathing oxygen so they left the water and became man. Think how advanced we are that now NFL coaches can up the ante on the Wildcat in one offseason. I think it took those fish like 500 million years to develop lungs. Advantage, NFL.
So how does the Wildcat go to the next level? As I mentioned earlier, the most successful team at this in 2008 was Miami. Ronnie Brown revitalized his career zigzagging through defenses, and the Dolphins won the AFC East thanks to their execution of it. Sure, Brown threw it a couple of times, but his passes won't remind anyone of Tom Brady unless Brady is throwing left-handed. Despite their success they didn't stand pat (note: a pun is coming!). The Dolphins went next-level: drafting Pat White out of West Virginia. A four-year running QB with lightning speed, he's made to run this formation. And he can throw just a tad better than Brown can (kind of how Brazil can close out in soccer just a tad better than the U.S. can. Ohhhhhh. Too soon?). Every week there's an update on White and how he's coming along. We're watching.
This is the next incarnation of the Wildcat. Your signal-caller needs to be a double-threat player: someone who can throw the ball with the accuracy of a quarterback or run it with enough speed to go all the way. That's Pat White. That's what is going to halt the aggressiveness of defenses in blitzing and coming after the ball. The possibility of a downfield pass, either short or long, is going to give heavy feet to linebackers and the secondary. You'll see a better ratio of runs to passes (instead of the 90-10 we posited earlier, maybe more along the lines of 67-33). This is who's going to be running the Wildcat from now on: ex-college quarterbacks who are multi-dimensional threats yet don't translate into every-day QBs at the NFL level. And they'll start getting snapped up in the draft faster than Star Wars action figures in their original packaging on eBay. Call it "Wildcat 3.0." The Wildcat will thrive, this year and beyond.
And there's one guy in particular who is going to fascinate film rooms across the country. You know where this is going.
Get ready for Tim Tebow.
Here's how this season is going to play out regarding the Heisman Trophy/national championship/campus plaque honoree: Every week someone will say he's going to be a superstar in the NFL, and someone will say he's not going to translate and be a bust -- a great college player and that's it. One team won't be able to resist and will pluck him sometime in the second half of the first round next April.
And whoever does is going to have the NFL's Shaq. I mean it. In the right hands, you have someone who can dominate the game and change the way we play offense and react on defense -- just like when The Big Aristotle hit the scene in the NBA no one had an answer for him for oh, 15 years or so -- but only if you're gutsy enough to give him the responsibility.
You won't ever find a better player with the combination of throwing/running/running for tough yards/leadership Tebow has. Don't worry about him getting hit and not being able to take it at the NFL level and then throwing a pass on the next play; he's been doing exactly that his entire Florida career. He'll be someone who can almost take an even number of snaps with the team's starting QB. I agree he won't be able to take the pounding of 20 rushes per game and throw as effectively as he needs to, so in splitting the job you'll get maximum production from him. Or if you're really feeling adventurous, you can put him in the lineup as an every-day player who can be very Reggie Bush-esque: a weapon you have to plan for every play, but also the world's best decoy. (Minus the Kim Kardashian element, of course.) Tebow can get the handoff and be a power fullback with a little more zip in his step. He can take a handoff and throw it. He can go in motion and draw defenses away from the play. Defensive coordinators around the league are going to get headaches just knowing the number of new plays his players will need to study for Team Tebow.
In the hands of the right Dr. Frankenstein (Translation: an offensive guru like a Josh McDaniels or Ken Whisenhunt), he'll be a monster. And I mean a Gene Wilder/Peter Boyle "Puttin' on the Ritz" monster. A football player who can run and throw! A monster who can terrorize and sing and dance! So come, let's mix where offensive coordinators walk with playbooks or footballs in their mitts.
Call it "Wildcat 4.0."
Jason Smith is the host of "AllNight with Jason Smith" (weekdays 1 to 5 a.m. ET/10 p.m. to 2 a.m. PT). Get in touch with him at allnight@espnradio.com.
