Broncos Film Room: Here’s what Denver’s offense will look like under Pat Shurmur

Back in 2017, Denver Broncos offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur, was all the rage and we, too, at DNVR Film Room began to admire the Minnesota Vikings’ bright play-caller for his work with Case Keenum.

That offseason, the Broncos signed Keenum in free agency only after free-agent headliner Kirk Cousins was so impressed by the talent Shurmur’s offense had showcased that he signed with the Vikings, while the hot play-caller went on to take over the New York Giants.

Yes, 2017 was Shurmur’s year, and while things didn’t go as planned with the G-Men, the Andy Reid disciple still managed to outperform the Broncos’ offense in every meaningful category the past two years with fairly comparable talent at his disposal.

He was quickly forgotten the next summer as every team searched for the next Sean McVay, Matt Nagy—or in Denver’s case, Kyle Shanahan. But now, in an attempt to recreate his time with Nagy, Vic Fangio snatched up another Reid disciple that could help replicate the type of success the two had in the Windy City. 

With all that in mind, we went back to watch Shurmur’s offense with the Giants and Vikings and looked at what Denver’s new play-caller can do for Drew Lock and the rest of the Broncos young core.

Shurmur’s credentials

The Broncos fourth coordinator in four years since Gary Kubiak abruptly left his post as head coach was groomed under Andy Reid in Philadelphia. He was one of Reid’s original disciples, pre-dating Doug Pederson, Matt Nagy, Frank Reich, and Eric Bieniemy as the NFL’s next young offensive play-caller. 

He’s had experience as an offensive line, tight end and quarterback’s coach, though it’s his work with signal-callers that’s put him on the map. From guiding Sam Bradford to a Rookie-of-the-Year performance to adopting Chip Kelly’s spread concepts to get the most out of a young Nick Foles, getting Case Keenum to an NFC Championship, all the way up to last season, where he got Daniel Jones to outperform his college production as a rookie, Shurmur’s work with quarterbacks has been exceptional.

Like any Reid disciple, he runs a west coast offense, but unlike other west coast loyalists, Shurmur derives from the coaching tree that has shown itself to be most adaptable and forward-thinking in implementing college concepts, something that the Gruden tree—which includes McVay—or Kubiak have been reluctant to do.

Scheme

Shurmur’s west coast attack has shown itself to be versatile, adapting to the strengths of his team and, most importantly, his quarterbacks.

In Minnesota, when he needed balance to avoid third-and-long situations that would exploit Keenum’s average NFL-arm, he ran the ball close to 50-percent of the time. While with Bradford, Jones and Foles, he adjusted to what was best for his young QBs, throwing in more RPOs and spread looks.

Shurmur likes to attack vertically and will go big-play hunting but can also run the ball, play a ground control game and pick his spots.

Like McVay, he’ll use a lot of 11 personnel (three receivers)—though with many more shotgun looks than the Rams, who line up under center more than just about anyone else in the league. In 2019, only the Rams were in 11 personnel more often, as Shurmur found himself tied with other Gruden disciples like Zac Taylor’s Bengals and Jay Gruden’s Redskins at 82-percent of the snaps being played out of 11 personnel. 

Shurmur isn’t using a bunch of 21 personnel like Kyle Shanan and the 49ers or Kubiak in his offense. He doesn’t implement tons of 12 personnel like the Baltimore Ravens or 2019 Denver Broncos either, though, in Minnesota, he would from time to time.

Schematically, he’s his own man with his own twist separating him from other west coast savants.

What really impressed us about his time in Minnesota was his efficiency on third down, as Shurmur always kept the offense ahead of the chains with balanced play-calling, while keeping defenses guessing on third-and-short or medium.

On third-and-short, Shurmur would spread em out and be really efficient attacking defenses by targeting the running back.

At the same time, he could go play-action on third and short and hit big plays when all the offense needed was a handful of yards to extend the drive.

Part of Shurmur’s genius in targeting running backs is how he does it, attacking boundary zones where the defender isn’t peeking into the backfield to see where the running back is until it’s too late.

Shurmur’s attack could also carve up man coverages with easy completions to the isolated receiver, hunting one-on-one matchups outside.

A staple of the attack is to put trips to one side and exploit the single coverage outside. Shurmur’s big on pre-snap motions to clear out defenders, and really stress linebackers in underneath coverage to adjust quickly.

With the Giants, Shurmur utilized freakishly athletic tight end, Evan Engram, to exploit matchups all over the field, disguising 11 personnel as 12 personnel (two tight ends) or 11 personnel into four-wide formations. These same looks to convert third-and-short lead to the big plays that make the offense so successful.

Here Engram, lined up outside, looks like he’s setting up to take a bubble screen, freezing Washington’s secondary just enough for this wide-open deep touchdown down the sideline.

Play action and bootlegs are still a part of this offense, though not nearly as prevalent as in the Scangarello/Kubiak scheme.

Shurmur will still take shots deep off of play-action, like this shot in max protection out of 22 personnel (two backs and two tight ends.) More so than requiring balance between run and pass and building the big plays off play action, the offense is much more like McVay’s in that everything looks the same pre-snap, taking away any keys for the defense and making plays unpredictable.

While the Scangarello offense is more focused on scheming receivers open, half-field reads and shots off of play-action bootlegs, Shurmur plays things much more straight up. The quarterback needs to go through his progressions, and receivers need to get open, making it a more dynamic attack when everything is clicking.

A fit for Munchak?

One of the biggest offensive changes that should come from Shurmur taking over the offense is that the Broncos zone-blocking scheme should, for the most part, be gone.

In his last two stops, Shurmur has run primarily gap or power blocking schemes, which always felt like a much more natural fit for Mike Munchak and the offenses he’s coached in for most of his career.

Just watch this power run with the left guard pulling to obliterate the gap and open up a big hole for Saquon Barkley to run through.

While the zone blocking scheme has lead to three rings in the Mile High City, there’s something about a power scheme and the ‘me against you’ battles it creates in the trenches. 

Of course, Shurmur and Munchak can mix things up and could even stick with more zone concepts if they choose, but this offense won’t be nearly as zone heavy, which should change the type of athletes the Broncos target on the line this offseason.

A New School Twist

Chip Kelly’s influence cannot be understated for an offensive coordinator that’ll be tasked with getting the most out of a spread product like Drew Lock. The fact that Shurmur’s already done this with Bradford and Jones is that much more encouraging.

At the end of the day, everyone wants an accomplished NFL play-caller with a track record of success, but with a young quarterback, it’s becoming significantly more important to have that college playbook to go to. It’s not just the direction the league is going in, it’s crucial in closing that gap and bringing young arms along quicker.

With Jones, we saw more RPO and spread concepts, things that really helped Lock in Scangarello’s offense as well.

Plays like this will be perfect for Lock and serve as an added wrinkle for defenses to deal with.

The added motion or jet sweep fake to clear out the linebacker and allow the quarterback to simply read a single edge defender is how you survive with a young QB.

Here below is another beautiful big play off of an RPO look, as that RPO freezes the underneath defenders just enough for the explosive Engram to pounce open and make a house call.

When everything’s out of the same 11 personnel, and then you throw in actions like this, you throw in play-action, you max protect, you spread out an athletic tight end or running back, it’s hard to key in and defend it all without knowing what’s coming.

This same RPO touchdown by Engram is what set up the play-action throw deep out of max protection that we featured in the section above.

When everything looks the same, and then you attack with new and old school concepts alike, you become very hard to defend, something Fangio knows all about having faced off against Shurmur back in his time with the Vikings when Shurmur won both matchups scoring 20 and 23 points. 

What does this mean for Denver’s roster?

More so than significantly impacting the offensive roster right now, this move by Fangio alters what we thought Denver would need going into the offseason.

Suddenly zone blocking, athletic offensive lineman aren’t essential, a blocking tight end is also not necessary, and a stable of running backs with vision and speed similar to the Niners isn’t a requirement.

One thing is for sure, a stout offensive lineman who can hold up in pass protection just became even more of a priority for Shurmur’s big-play offense to function. The same could be said for competent route-running receivers who can consistently wiggle open when given one-on-one opportunities.

This also puts pressure on Lock, who’ll have to capitalize on those big plays and extend plays with his legs to manufacture even more big-play opportunities when the line can’t hold up.

This hire is also promising for Noah Fant—even if he’s not on the George Kittle plan anymore—who Shurmur can utilize like Engram, exploiting the former first rounder’s unique athleticism to unlock the passing game and create plenty of big plays for the young tight end.

This will also be big for Phillip Lindsay in the passing game, as his opportunities should increase with Shurmur targeting running backs.

Finally, the blocking scheme could mean Ronald Leary’s chances of staying another year have increased as he’s an ideal fit, the same can be said about Connor McGovern being signed. On the other hand, Elijah Wilkinson might have become more expendable going into fee agency.

The bigger question is how Andy Janovich—who seemed to be on the Kyle Juszczyk track—will fit in beyond spot duty as a blocking fullback and special teamer. With a fresh contract, you can be sure Shurmur will find a way to use the Nebraska product.

In conclusion

Shurmur is a slam-dunk hire, his resume speaks for itself as does his work with young and inexperienced quarterbacks. By any viewpoint, he’s a great coach to groom the offense around Drew Lock and the rest of the Broncos young core.

With Shurmur and Fangio, the Broncos suddenly became much harder to scheme against on both sides of the ball, with one of the better veteran combinations of play callers you’ll find in the NFL.

With a market correction in this coaching cycle and less young offensive minds being targeted, the goal remains the same—accumulate the best possible play-callers on both sides of the ball. The McVay-Wade Phillips combination is what made the Los Angeles Rams so intriguing during the 2019 coaching carousel, that more than going after the next hot, young offensive play-caller is what should’ve been taken from the Rams success.

With the Kansas City Chiefs’ elite combination of play-callers, the bar in the AFC West has been raised for Shurmur to beat his old mentor. Only time will tell if he’ll be able to replicate that same success.