06-25-2024, 02:25 PM
(06-25-2024, 12:40 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: No, it hasn't. The last two years it has been. In 2020 and 2021, the Bengals were just barely above league average in their usage of shotgun. This trend continued into the first four weeks of 2022 when they made a change in week five. I suspect it was due to how awful the running game was, and the run game production improved after the change so they stuck with it. Analyzing 2023 is tough, but the Bengals were much more modest in their usage of shotgun with Browning in the game. Who knows what they wanted to do headed into the season.
However, the point is that Joe and Zac offenses have not been "extremely gun heavy" every year that they have been here. Just the last two years, due to fairly explainable reasons.
"Since the start of 2020, the Bengals lead the league in 11 personnel rate. Their shotgun rate is eighth-highest" - This was written after the 1st month of the 2021 season. So I'm not sure where you're getting your information from.
So again, they were a heavy shotgun team in 2020, (very likely 2021), 2022, and 2023. We know Burrow prefers shotgun. The coaches & Burrow have been quoted that the playbook is the playbook and there aren't significant changes.
Nobody has any evidence of this change except playing this way with a different QB
Yet, folks have this weird confidence in the offense changing.
