Communication is a key to success in anything that we do. But it is critical to the success of a team. I came across this article from The Boston Globe by Greg Bedard. (Click on the highlighted area to read the entire article) In the article he discusses how the Patriots have simplified their offensive terminology to speed up their offensive tempo.
Coach Meyer taught us to use simple 1 syllable, 1 word concepts to paint those word pictures.
I also admire Belichick for his pursuit of improvement. He looked to Oregon's coach Chip Kelly and how they were able to communicate their entire offense in one word.
We will share this article with our team today to once again illustrate the importance of communication.
The following thoughts come from the article:
Just one word can be powerful.
Saying, “Help,” lets someone know a person needs assistance.
“Sorry,” can immediately heal some wounds.
“Stop,” could save someone from harm.
Yes, just one word can be potent.
The same holds true for football and the Patriots.
The Patriots operate their no-huddle attack most often using one word as the play call.
More accurately, they use six one-word play calls a game.
That word tells all 11 players on offense everything they need to know.
Formation.
Blocking scheme.
Direction on run plays.
Routes for receiver on passing plays.
Shifts in formations.
Snap count.
Possible alerts and play alterations.
One word.
We have a really heavy terminology-based offense,” Brady said. “So everything is really memorization with us, which is actually really hard, I think, for the guys that come in here because things usually don’t make a lot of sense.”
Somewhere in NFL exile, former Patriots receiver Chad Johnson, who came from a numbers-based scheme with the Bengals, might be nodding.
The Patriots, like other NFL teams, have decreased play calls for emergency situations down to one word. “Clock” is used by everyone for a spike to stop the clock, and each player knows where they are supposed to line up. The Patriots expanded that for other plays needed in a pinch.
“A lot of times it was situational,” Belichick said. “Like we were in the hurry-up and you have to get the ball out of bounds, whatever it is. But sometimes we’ve had that where one play means this is where we line up, this is the play we run, this is the snap count it’s on, and we’re going to either try to catch the defense off balance or we don’t have time to have a big conversation about this. It’s line up, snap the ball, and we’re running a sideline route to get the ball out of bounds or something like that.”
But that was the extent of the Patriots’ quick verbiage with shortened play calls.
Why didn’t anyone think of taking the next step to extend those calls to an entire offense?
“They have things where they can call one thing and it’s going to tell them formation, plays, everything, and all you have to see is coverage.”
The collective Patriots’ response to Kelly’s assertion was, basically, “You run an entire offense like that? How do you get the players to comprehend that?”
Kelly declined to be interviewed, but those with knowledge of the discussion said Kelly laid out his rationale.
Players memorize thousands of words in songs, hundreds of movie lines, and many other things involving pop culture.
Why can’t players have instant recall of a handful of concepts? Heck, everybody knows No. 2 on a McDonald’s menu gets you a Quarter Pounder, medium fries, and a drink.
“It’s kind of easy,” Dickson said. “It comes with repetition. A lot of guys learn different. Myself, I just needed to be out there repping those plays. The more comfortable you get, the faster you’ll go. He wants to make it easier to where you’re not thinking about anything, you’re just going fast. Make it as simple as guys can learn it so you can go really fast. That’s the key, making it simple for your players so they can play at top speed.”
Kelly’s overall message to the Patriots: Don’t put a limit on your players’ minds; they will learn whatever you teach them.
“I was interested to hear how he did it,” Belichick said. “I would say he expanded it to a different level and it was very interesting to understand what he was doing. Certainly I’ve learned a lot from talking to Chip about his experiences with it and how he does it and his procedure and all that.”
