Cleveland Browns should sell out with Air Raid offense

2 of 4

PASADENA, CA – JANUARY 01: Baker Mayfield #6 of the Oklahoma Sooners (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

What is the Air Raid?

The Air Raid offense is something like the NFL has never seen. Just watch a college game featuring the Oklahoma Sooners or Texas Tech Red Raiders and you will see a heavy dose of Air Raid. As typical of that offense, there is a lot of scoring.

Air Raid offenses are looking to pass the ball. Let me say that again. Air Raid offenses are looking to pass the ball. The primary goal is to stress the defense vertically. That is, it wants to through the ball deep first then check down to the middle or short passes.

More from Dawg Pound Daily

Anyone watching the Browns knows this is how Mayfield reads defenses. As a product of the Air Raid offense, he naturally looks for the deep ball first then looks to throw shorter routes. This has been both his genius and weakness in the NFL so far.

So, what is to stop a defense from taking away the deep ball all out rushing the quarterback? The answer lies in the Air Raid’s short passing game. The Air Raid looks to employ a series of unique screens passes as constraint plays.

For example, should a defense decide to play cover 3 deep, an Air Raid team will start throwing screens (bubble, inside, outside, TE screens). You name it or think of a screen, the Air Raid will run it.

Unlike spread offenses (i.e. Philadelphia Eagles) where the defense is spread to run the ball. The Air Raid spreads the defense to pass the ball. Traditionalists hate this offense as it is counter intuitive to everything football has held dear for almost 100 years. But the Air Raid is an analytics dream come true.

But why should the Browns run the Air Raid? Simple, Baker Mayfield.

Home/Browns News