The Myth of Napier’s Antiquated Offense

[Escambia94]

Introduction
I see posts all over social media saying that Billy Napier’s offense is antiquated, which is highly inaccurate. Approximately half the NFL teams use a version of Napier’s offense, which looks like the Mike Shanahan or Kyle Shanahan offense underneath the hood. Admittedly, without the right personnel and with a disrupted game flow due to penalties the Napier offense is easy to make fun of or mistake for an old, broken offense. Some could argue that Napier needs a dedicated offensive coordinator, but that is a discussion for another day. Today we are dispelling the myth that the Billy Napier “Scared Money Don’t Make Money” offense is antiquated.

Overview
The Napier offense uses pre-snap motion and out of the 12 and 11 personnel groupings with the QB operating out of the pistol or shotgun primarily. Plays are designed to establish a strong line of scrimmage with a strong running game and play action to open up the vertical passing game. Napier does sprinkle in modern elements of the RPO and spread option when the personnel allow it. The play action is a mix of front facing and traditional style with the QB turning his back to the defense. This entire paragraph describes half of the NFL and a quarter of all the top 100 offenses in college.

12 Personnel - 1 RB, 2 TE

The "12 personnel" grouping is a staple of the Napier offensive scheme that operates with one RB and two TEs on the field together with two WRs. This grouping successfully accomplishes two of Napier's main concepts: create open gaps for the running attack and/or create an immediate vertical passing threat. The 12 grouping dares defenses to stack the box with eight run stoppers— the four defensive linemen, three linebackers, and a “conflicted defender” who can be a STAR, JACK, strong safety, or at best, a larger cornerback. This formation can be stopped with a stout defense that has sound gap coverage, moderate penetration up front, and a flexible linebacker corps and secondary.

11 Personnel - 1 RB, 1 TE

The 11 personnel package is one of the most common groupings in modern football— one RB, one TE, three WRs. Last year package looked very similar to the 2018-2021 Dan Mullen offense with the slight difference in the way motion is used by Napier to deceive the defense. Critics of this Napier offense will decry the use of deception, which is a foolish statement considering the fact that all offenses use misdirection and deception. If anything, Napier’s version of misdirection plays has looked pedestrian due to a lack of NFL quality QBs at Clemson, Arizona, and Louisiana. Certain plays simply do not work well without a willing runner at QB who is also willing to turn his back to the defense in half the play action calls.

 

[Escambia94]

21 Personnel - 2 RBs, 1 TE

Another set we can expect Napier to employ is a 21 personnel grouping using two RBs and one TE with two WRs. Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers run this to perfection in the NFL. Aaron Rodgers ran this at Green Bay

Outside Zone

Critics of Napier might point to the use of 12 personnel and old-fashioned play action as being antiquated despite its use by at least half the NFL and fifty college teams— along with outside zone set up by pulling guards and counters. Here is Oregon running the outside zone with a zone read instead of an RPO—and Oregon is always considered to be a new and sexy offense.
Sail Concept

The most basic and most widely used play in play-action is “Sail”, which is an overload at one side of the field with three routes at three different depths. With this spacing, the defensive zones are flooded with three receivers against two defenders on that side and one defender in conflict who might be a nickelback, WILL linebacker, JACK hybrid linebacker/ edge rusher, or STAR hybrid linebacker/ safety. Whichever routes the three defenders choose to defend, the quarterback can throw off of their movement. The vertical route is usually used to clear out the deep defender and the offense is then able to put the flat defender in a high-low read on the intermediate and flat route. In the NFL a few teams use a variation called “Rider” that heavily depends on jet motion to inform the QB of the preferred receiver to target.

 

[Escambia94]

Y-Delay
The Y-Delay is tag that can be applied to Sail or Rider later in the game to take advantage of linebackers who begin to drop aggressively against the pass, thus opening up some lanes for big run-after-catch opportunities.

Differences From NFL

After reading all the above one might be tempted to say that Napier has copied the Shanahan offense, which is not necessarily accurate. The Napier offense does not use as much, if any, inside zone blocking or gap blocking. Like the Shanahan offense, plays are slow developing, but in the Napier offense the QB does not need to be as mobile. Granted this seems silly because Shanahan did use Matt Ryan like a statue in his Atlanta offense. Kyle Shanahan has gone on record stating his offense works with either style of QB but he prefers a mobile QB who can roll out away from the counter action happening at the line of scrimmage. Both Shanahans would agree that some of the descriptions above sound like the West Coast Offense which is also inaccurate because the Shanahan offenses are not ball control offenses. Admittedly the Napier offense looks more like the early Mike Shanahan offense that he used as the Florida offensive coordinator in the early 1980s than the Kyle Shanahan offense due to the more frequent throws to the edges just short of the sticks. Mike’s early offense at Florida before he coached for the Denver Broncos was limited by the right arm of #15 Wayne Peace and a lack of explosive receivers getting separation. Napier’s Gators also lack an explosive receiver, so there are more passes short of the sticks as if this were a Bill Walsh West Coast Offense. As Napier’s speedy receivers get experience and gain separation I expect to see just about every pass going beyond the sticks.

Modifications to the Arizona/ Louisiana Offense
As Napier gets more dual threat QBs I expect to see rollouts and bootlegs that we will not get from Graham Mertz. For some reason Napier did not use rolls and boots with Anthony Richardson, which could have been a sign that Richardson was injured or was being protected for the NFL. Mertz did show a modified version of a sprint option with a jet sweep, which is a unique variation of a triple option: counter left, jet sweep left to right, with the QB having himself, the running back after play action, and the jet sweep receiver as options. Other oddities in the Napier offense that deviate from most NFL teams (except some Kyle Shanahan coached teams) is the avoidance of third down. If the Napier coached team is doing its job, they will convert on second down and not need a third down. This sometimes forces Napier into fourth down conversions that are seen as gambles, which may have led to his “Scared Money Don’t Make Money” play at Louisiana.

 

[Escambia94]

Outlook for 2023 and Beyond
Despite 2/3 of this offense being recruited by Billy Napier, the personnel on offense are not entirely suited for the offense he initially designed at Clemson and modified after a stint at Alabama before trying his scheme as OC at Arizona State and HC at Louisiana and now Florida. Napier is looking to bring speed back to the receiving corps and running back stable—both features that have been rare under Muschamp, McElwain, and later Mullen years. Napier is building a massive offensive line and matching defensive line for his DC of the year. Offensive line is such a priority that he uses two OL coaches to manage the complex blocking scheme needed for outside zone with lots of counters. Jaden Rashada was supposed to be the first blue chip QB recruited expressly for the SMDMM offense, but transfer QB Graham Mertz is the fill-in for at least a year, maybe two. Assuming DJ Lagway does not back out of his commitment like Jaden Rashada and Austin Simmons, Lagway will be the first QB recruited out of high school for the “Scared Money Don’t Make Money” offense and he will shape how the offense looks moving forward. I assume the offense will look more like the Kyle Shanahan offense with Lagway than it will with Mertz. I expect to see even more jet sweep triple options with speedsters like Eugene Wilson at receiver. If Napier keeps whiffing at tight ends he might be using more 11 and 21 personnel.

 

[DRU2012]

Y-Delay
The Y-Delay is tag that can be applied to Sail or Rider later in the game to take advantage of linebackers who begin to drop aggressively against the pass, thus opening up some lanes for big run-after-catch opportunities.

Differences From NFL

After reading all the above one might be tempted to say that Napier has copied the Shanahan offense, which is not necessarily accurate. The Napier offense does not use as much, if any, inside zone blocking or gap blocking. Like the Shanahan offense, plays are slow developing, but in the Napier offense the QB does not need to be as mobile. Granted this seems silly because Shanahan did use Matt Ryan like a statue in his Atlanta offense. Kyle Shanahan has gone on record stating his offense works with either style of QB but he prefers a mobile QB who can roll out away from the counter action happening at the line of scrimmage. Both Shanahans would agree that some of the descriptions above sound like the West Coast Offense which is also inaccurate because the Shanahan offenses are not ball control offenses. Admittedly the Napier offense looks more like the early Mike Shanahan offense that he used as the Florida offensive coordinator in the early 1980s than the Kyle Shanahan offense due to the more frequent throws to the edges just short of the sticks. Mike’s early offense at Florida before he coached for the Denver Broncos was limited by the right arm of #15 Wayne Peace and a lack of explosive receivers getting separation. Napier’s Gators also lack an explosive receiver, so there are more passes short of the sticks as if this were a Bill Walsh West Coast Offense. As Napier’s speedy receivers get experience and gain separation I expect to see just about every pass going beyond the sticks.

Modifications to the Arizona/ Louisiana Offense
As Napier gets more dual threat QBs I expect to see rollouts and bootlegs that we will not get from Graham Mertz. For some reason Napier did not use rolls and boots with Anthony Richardson, which could have been a sign that Richardson was injured or was being protected for the NFL. Mertz did show a modified version of a sprint option with a jet sweep, which is a unique variation of a triple option: counter left, jet sweep left to right, with the QB having himself, the running back after play action, and the jet sweep receiver as options. Other oddities in the Napier offense that deviate from most NFL teams (except some Kyle Shanahan coached teams) is the avoidance of third down. If the Napier coached team is doing its job, they will convert on second down and not need a third down. This sometimes forces Napier into fourth down conversions that are seen as gambles, which may have led to his “Scared Money Don’t Make Money” play at Louisiana.

Thankyou for all three of your in depth analyses here: It ALL needed the breakdown AND explanation for the very reasons you note...
Add to that the extensive condemnation and (albeit somewhat predictable) crescendo of criticism mounting even BEFORE such a poor and puzzling letdown of an opening performance and I suppose SOMEONE going into such minute detail was overdue.
Meanwhile, like many Gators I didn't find older brother Jaguar Travis Etienne's little postgame dig in an open online message to his Gator brother that maybe it was time for him to consider transfering over to Primetime's Colorado squad very funny either.
However, like many fans, analysts and commentators, regardless of the underlying technical rationales I too was puzzled by the discrepancies between all Coach (and just about everyone else) had stressed about our "talented RB room", and how we'd be depending on them to a great extent to move the ball and control the game's clock, tempo, and possession time...Then we only run the ball ELEVEN TIMES THE WHOLE DAMN GAME.
Yes, I could SEE that they were KEYING on the run, had all those defenders "in the box" on early downs from the very start, AND how weak our O-line play was after all (we just didn't match UP: Our guys were clearly "big but slow"--they consistently got caught out of position after getting beaten on the first moves, too).
But as some have also pointed out: "When there is a large and consistent gap between what the COACH SAYS is going to be the way we do things and then all too often actually does something totally different, the players soon turn off and stop listening, go their own ways...".
If that even STARTS to happen on THIS squad things will fall apart very quickly.
We must now, more than EVER come closer together as a TEAM, get back to fundamentals as we turn to each other, our coaches, and back to the fundamentals that presumably have been at the heart of the spring and summer preparations leading UP to all this.
THAT is why so many of us who are NOT spoiled, short-sighted little shits who want it all, just the way they want it RIGHT NOW, and immediately turn on their team when things don't go their way, are nonetheless pretty damn worried as to what comes next.
We have basically two weeks and a glorified scrimmage along the way to turn things around to the point that we can at least give Tennessee a game--and look like a credible SEC rival in the doing of it.
Can't put it any more starkly than that.

 

[Escambia94]

Thankyou for all three of your in depth analyses here: It ALL needed the breakdown AND explanation for the very reasons you note...
Add to that the extensive condemnation and (albeit somewhat predictable) crescendo of criticism mounting even BEFORE such a poor and puzzling letdown of an opening performance and I suppose SOMEONE going into such minute detail was overdue.
Meanwhile, like many Gators I didn't find older brother Jaguar Travis Etienne's little postgame dig in an open online message to his Gator brother that maybe it was time for him to consider transfering over to Primetime's Colorado squad very funny either.
However, like many fans, analysts and commentators, regardless of the underlying technical rationales I too was puzzled by the discrepancies between all Coach (and just about everyone else) had stressed about our "talented RB room", and how we'd be depending on them to a great extent to move the ball and control the game's clock, tempo, and possession time...Then we only run the ball ELEVEN TIMES THE WHOLE DAMN GAME.
Yes, I could SEE that they were KEYING on the run, had all those defenders "in the box" on early downs from the very start, AND how weak our O-line play was after all (we just didn't match UP: Our guys were clearly "big but slow"--they consistently got caught out of position after getting beaten on the first moves, too).
But as some have also pointed out: "When there is a large and consistent gap between what the COACH SAYS is going to be the way we do things and then all too often actually does something totally different, the players soon turn off and stop listening, go their own ways...".
If that even STARTS to happen on THIS squad things will fall apart very quickly.
We must now, more than EVER come closer together as a TEAM, get back to fundamentals as we turn to each other, our coaches, and back to the fundamentals that presumably have been at the heart of the spring and summer preparations leading UP to all this.
THAT is why so many of us who are NOT spoiled, short-sighted little shits who want it all, just the way they want it RIGHT NOW, and immediately turn on their team when things don't go their way, are nonetheless pretty damn worried as to what comes next.
We have basically two weeks and a glorified scrimmage along the way to turn things around to the point that we can at least give Tennessee a game--and look like a credible SEC rival in the doing of it.
Can't put it any more starkly than that.

Let’s stop comparing normal people to men of destiny. Deion Sanders took this job and brought his son with him as the QB, so he was destined to win on hype and adrenaline alone—but he is not winning a national championship at Colorado. Steve Spurrier took the job at Florida where he played and coached and knew most of the coaching staff—and he had resources built up by Charley Pell and Galen Hall to build upon in addition to his own deep connections to UF. Pell had 10 years of trash to fix and it took him 6 years to do it. Kirby Smart did the same for Georgia as Spurrier did for Florida, but he does not have a program like Bobby Bowden’s FSU to slow him down every year. Billy Napier is not in a Spurrier or Smart position—he is in a Pell position where he needs to rebuild 10-12 years of trash. Sanders is somewhere in the middle, but Sanders will look exciting for a while.

Getting back to the topic of offensive scheme, Napier is all business and that is boring. He is not bringing hype like Deion Sanders. He is not entertaining at press conferences like Spurrier. He will be an easy target for mockery until the Gators defeat a top-15 team in week 1–which they did in Napier’s first game as head coach and fans have already forgotten!

 

[DRU2012]

Let’s stop comparing normal people to men of destiny. Deion Sanders took this job and brought his son with him as the QB, so he was destined to win on hype and adrenaline alone—but he is not winning a national championship at Colorado. Steve Spurrier took the job at Florida where he played and coached and knew most of the coaching staff—and he had resources built up by Charley Pell and Galen Hall to build upon in addition to his own deep connections to UF. Pell had 10 years of trash to fix and it took him 6 years to do it. Kirby Smart did the same for Georgia as Spurrier did for Florida, but he does not have a program like Bobby Bowden’s FSU to slow him down every year. Billy Napier is not in a Spurrier or Smart position—he is in a Pell position where he needs to rebuild 10-12 years of trash. Sanders is somewhere in the middle, but Sanders will look exciting for a while.

Getting back to the topic of offensive scheme, Napier is all business and that is boring. He is not bringing hype like Deion Sanders. He is not entertaining at press conferences like Spurrier. He will be an easy target for mockery until the Gators defeat a top-15 team in week 1–which they did in Napier’s first game as head coach and fans have already forgotten!

Lots of different directions I could choose to leap off in from above...but the one that I find particularly timely and interesting here has to do with quirks of personality and not comparing "normal folk to those of destiny"...
Speaking of which, among all that high volume (and even higher DENSITY) of targeting you note now ongoing with respect to Napier, one name trending now in comparison is that of Chad Morris, formerly at Arkansas.
Remember him? It was just a few seasons back: All it took was a bad opening loss to a lesser opponent to trigger a string of further breakdowns, culminating just a few games later in that what was still not even 2019's halfway point for them to fully collapse in a loss to what should have been another hugely outmanned lesser opponent and, despite otherwise ongoing strong recruiting he was unceremoniously given the gate--fired with prejudice, with no further hesitation. Of course by now it isn't just Fibebaum and The Athletic's Stewart Mandel who are predicting Billy's in-season firing; Trolls, normally "unbiased" commentators, even former Gator fans who formerly supported him are now HOWLING for his head. And if this team does now similarly go to pieces, if the script similarly repeats itself here over the coming weeks they just might GET it!
Let us pray that this will not be the case.
Bad as things looked--I mean, after all the work and talk these past weeks and months this Gator squad came and faced a Utah team missing its star quarterback/leader AND by far its best defensive player--and still looked weak, ill prepared and disorganized in every phase of the game.
Taken as a whole things do not bode well.
Personally I'm sick of all the talk:
It is action, RESULTS that matter now.
To our Coach, his staff, the players, the whole program:
Save yourselves in order to save us ALL!

 

[Escambia94]

It turns out that Colorado runs some of the same “antiquated plays” as Florida.

This stick concept was completed to TE Jonathan Odom. One play later the sail concept works except for the part where WR Ricky Pearsall cuts off his route and QB Graham Mertz has to jam the ball in. The difference is that Colorado was not playing a vastly superior Utah defense.