Cleveland Browns run game returns in read-option
By Joel W. Cade
How the Harbaugh Brothers Killed the Read-Option
Before getting into exactly how the Browns fixed their running game with the read-option, it will be useful to review the history of the read-option in the NFL. This is important because Hue Jackson’s usage of the read-option is the next development in its viability as a scheme in the NFL.
The read-option make its mark in the 2012-2013 season/playoffs with Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers. The then Jim Harbaugh-led 49ers incorporated the read-option as a way of taking advantage of Kaepernick’s speed and running ability. It was also used to mask Kaepernick’s poor accuracy in the passing game.
The 49ers were a run heavy team who found opponents stacking the box in order to stop the run. Harbaugh decided to open up the running game by incorporating the then little known read-option. Kaepernick had experience running the read-option out of the Pistol formation during his time at the University of Nevada, Reno. Under coach Chris Ault, who invented the Pistol offense, Kaepernick learned the nuances necessary to make the read-option work.
Needing an answer to opponents stuffing the box, Harbaugh decided to take a page out of Chris Ault’s playbook. The wrinkle in the offense was effective. The 49ers made the Super Bowl losing to John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens.
As is usually the case when the Ravens are involved, a football innovation that creates an advantage for an opposing team gets neutralized by the rules committee in the offseason.
The read-option put the NFL rules in a bind. On the one hand, the option game is designed to create confusion as to who has the ball. By making the decision based on defensive reaction, the offense is able to take away their aggression. On the other hand, the emphasis upon protecting the quarterback unwittingly helped the offense. Defenses were not allowed to hit the quarterback unless it was absolutely clear he was a part of the play and only then it was a limited amount of contact. This rule provided further indecision on the defense. Who would risk a personal foul by hitting a QB who faked them out and did not have the ball?
The Ravens’ contingency correctly argued that the emphasis on quarterback safety handcuffed defenses trying to stop the read-option. As a result, the NFL declared that quarterbacks running the read-option will be treated as a runner.
“He is still treated as a runner until he is clearly out of the play,” NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino said in a 2013 article on Pro Football Talk. “The quarterback makes the pitch, he’s still a runner — he can be hit like a runner until he’s clearly out of the play.”
In a stunning reversal of emphasis, the NFL ruled that when running a read-option, the quarterback must clearly take himself out of the play. If not clearly out of the play, the quarterback would be treated the same as a running back taking a fake. That is, it is now open season on quarterbacks running the read-option. The hunters are many.
Of course Jim Harbaugh claimed these new rules were biased and flawed. “By definition, a fake is a deception,” Harbaugh said, continuing to voice his concern. “It is a deception, deceptive maneuver. . . . Now are they opened up to being hit in the head and the knees, treated like a running back? It seems like they would have more of an appetite to look at that, and they’ve said they don’t have an appetite to look at it any further.”
Nevertheless, the sibling rivalry of the Harbaugh brothers lead the death of the read-option in the NFL. No sane coach would open a $20 million quarterback to hits that the league otherwise protects them from. With that logic, RIP read-option.