Originally Posted by guard dawg
A rare football question... my uncertain recollection of Watson in the Houston offense is that he was in the shotgun a lot. Maybe more than being under center. Stefanski's offense, until now, has the QB to get under center often. Likely to sell play-action more effectively. What's the opinion among dawg-talkers? Will we see more shotgun or will DW have to adjust to more snaps under center? How might shotgun affect the wide-zone?

Good observation and questions. I had to think about this for a bit and do a quick search.

I think you are definitely right about Watson being in shotgun much more than under center. I did find this however in a larger article:


Quote
...he’s been incredibly impressive throwing the ball from the pocket, too, both from under center or the shotgun. Watson has thrived in the play-action passing game in particular: On plays that include a run fake, he’s completed 67.4 percent of his passes at 8.8 yards per attempt with a league-high six touchdowns and just one pick on those plays, registering a 124.7 passer rating (fifth) per Pro Football Focus. (Compared with a respectable 87.7 passer rating, with six touchdowns and three interceptions at 6.8 yards per attempt, on non-play-action plays.) It’s no wonder, then, why the Texans run play-action the fourth most often (26.9 percent) leaguewide; Watson has done an excellent job using the threat of a handoff to move defenders and drop passes in behind the defense.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2017/10/13/16467512/deshaun-watson-houston-texans-offense

The Wide-Zone question is a really good one. Picture in your mind some of the teams that currently run it a lot. SF w/Shanny. Rams w/McVay. Bengals w/Taylor. GB w/LeFleur. Are they predominantly under center or in the gun? Or do they do a lot of both?

Here is a decent article about it w/videos. I am going to just post the link because the video examples are needed to fully understand the text.


https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/allb...joe-mixon-and-the-bengals-rushing-attack


I am not sure I am right about this, but my conclusion is that we will incorporate more shotgun plays to highlight some of Watson's strengths and still run a lot of under center plays to feature our strong running game and superior blocking scheme. I do want to add one last thing. I would like to see the Browns coaching staff help Watson w/improving his ball handling skills. By this I mean........he has to do a better job w/his eyes on really looking at the potential ball carrier when we are running play action and also sell his ball fakes a bit harder.