When talking about the best modern offenses, you'd be hard-pressed to find any conversation that doesn't involve Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay. Those two coaches not only have their own personal success as coaches, but have extensive branches that run throughout the league.
New Steelers offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio is one of those branches, having worked under Shanahan in Cleveland, then most recently worked under Kevin O'Connell, who worked as McVay's offensive coordinator with the Rams in 2020-21.
Mike McCarthy, who'll serve as the Steelers' play caller on offense, brings his West Coast offensive philosophies as the team's new head coach. So the big question is how can all of this mesh together?
"It's really all the same," Angelichio said during his introductory press conference on Friday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "It's all the origin of the West Coast offense. It's all about the quarterback. It's all about making the quarterback successful. Everybody's just had their little different spin on it. Sean was doing it out of 11 personnel. Kyle’s still doing it out of 21 personnel. In Minnesota, we were doing it out of 21, 12, 11. But the concepts are the concepts. They may have changed the names, but it's a progression-based offense. It's making it comfortable for the quarterback. It's having alerts, cans, kills, whatever, to try to get a premier play. But it's all the same, and the origin's the same. Everybody's just taken their spin off of it, and certainly everybody’s been successful. I think they all got Super Bowls, so they've done a pretty good job with it."
As for the Steelers' spin on the Shanahan/McVay/West Coast offense ...
"Our spin on offense, we'll figure that as we go through OTAs, but it is going to be based around the quarterback," Angelichio said. "It is going to be based around what our players do well. It's going to be based around the personnel groupings that we can use to exploit the defense. And that's the fortunate part to go along with the tight ends. Whether we're going to be an 11-personnel team, a 12-personnel team or 13, every game is different, every week's different. But the good thing is, concept teaching and the way the plays will be run, we can do them out of all the groupings. So that's what you want to be is multiple. You want to have a core concept of plays that you can run really well and plays that the quarterback feels comfortable with, and then you just change up what it looks like to the defense."
THE ASYLUM
The Steelers' 'spin' of West Coast offense
When talking about the best modern offenses, you'd be hard-pressed to find any conversation that doesn't involve Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay. Those two coaches not only have their own personal success as coaches, but have extensive branches that run throughout the league.
New Steelers offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio is one of those branches, having worked under Shanahan in Cleveland, then most recently worked under Kevin O'Connell, who worked as McVay's offensive coordinator with the Rams in 2020-21.
Mike McCarthy, who'll serve as the Steelers' play caller on offense, brings his West Coast offensive philosophies as the team's new head coach. So the big question is how can all of this mesh together?
"It's really all the same," Angelichio said during his introductory press conference on Friday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "It's all the origin of the West Coast offense. It's all about the quarterback. It's all about making the quarterback successful. Everybody's just had their little different spin on it. Sean was doing it out of 11 personnel. Kyle’s still doing it out of 21 personnel. In Minnesota, we were doing it out of 21, 12, 11. But the concepts are the concepts. They may have changed the names, but it's a progression-based offense. It's making it comfortable for the quarterback. It's having alerts, cans, kills, whatever, to try to get a premier play. But it's all the same, and the origin's the same. Everybody's just taken their spin off of it, and certainly everybody’s been successful. I think they all got Super Bowls, so they've done a pretty good job with it."
As for the Steelers' spin on the Shanahan/McVay/West Coast offense ...
"Our spin on offense, we'll figure that as we go through OTAs, but it is going to be based around the quarterback," Angelichio said. "It is going to be based around what our players do well. It's going to be based around the personnel groupings that we can use to exploit the defense. And that's the fortunate part to go along with the tight ends. Whether we're going to be an 11-personnel team, a 12-personnel team or 13, every game is different, every week's different. But the good thing is, concept teaching and the way the plays will be run, we can do them out of all the groupings. So that's what you want to be is multiple. You want to have a core concept of plays that you can run really well and plays that the quarterback feels comfortable with, and then you just change up what it looks like to the defense."
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