Deadspin’s Rick Chandler exposed this devil-spawn offense to the jaw-dropping masses this summer — the A-11, two quarterbacks in the backfield causing chaos for opposing defenses.
The real debate with A-11 was whether a kicking formation was a legal offense. Should high school teams should be able to “gimmick” their way into the win column? Despite its haphazard ways, A-11 seems to do the job and keeps things interesting.
NCAA rules limit the use of the A-11 formation in college football, but given the popularity of “Wildcat” plays last season after the Miami Dolphins torched the New England Patriots with Ronnie Brown, how long is it going to be before this offensive scheme saves the Detroit Lions? And perhaps your fantasy team?
The A-11 Explained
The A-11 offense is actually a scrimmage-kick formation using two quarterbacks, two tight ends, one center and six potential receivers. As long as one quarterback lines up more than seven yards deep, there’s no need for those fatties on the offensive line to take the field.
From A11Offense.com:
The A-11 Offense (All Eleven Players Potentially Eligible) is an innovative new offense that blends aspects of almost every type of offense in the history of football such as the West Coast, Spread Option, Run and Shoot, Shotgun Zone Fly, Wing-T, Single Wing, Notre Dame Box, Triple Option and Veer just to name a few. Teams can use the A-11 as a “package” to supplement their own offense & feature up to eleven players as potential threats, and even two quarterbacks in the shotgun!
When the ball gets snapped, the quarterback is on his own — except for the other quarterback, of course. The two quarterbacks keep the defense at bay by splitting the field and moving the ball. If you need a visual, Deadspin’s got one for you, and you can read all about the offense and its California-dreamin’ co-creators Piedmont High coaches Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries.
Is it the wave of the future? Maybe. But it’s definitely the hottest thing to hit high school sports since Allison Stokke.
NFL Impact
The “Wildcat” was the experimental stepchild of every NFL coach after Miami’s offensive coordinator Dan Herring, who had experimented with the concept in Carolina with DeAngelo Williams in 2006, and quarterbacks coach David Lee, who was the offensive coordinator at Arkansas in 2007 when they were running the “WildHog” formation with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, unleashed it full force against the Patriots with Ronnie Brown.
The A-11 could not only have a similar rise to prominence within the NFL, it could also make fantasy football a much different affair.
As Bryan points out in his blog, the athletes are getting faster and more suited to a wide open, speedy offense. The formation protects athletes and gives smaller schools a chance to compete at the high school level. What if it could save a rebuilding franchise or two?
The biggest danger is leaving highly-paid quarterbacks exposed, but if your offensive line is already doing a lot of that, there’s not much harm in designing a few A-11 plays to see what happens.
Obviously, the Lions come to mind, but teams like the St. Louis Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars, who had all kinds of issues at the line of scrimmage this year, might help themselves out by adding some A-11 formations to the playbook.
If teams deep with receiver talent like the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals adopted it, the A-11 could cause devastation for a few plays.
Maybe it’s time the Lions signed Michael Vick and threw Vick and a quarterback of the future from the draft or their roster onto the field in the A-11. Vick would add the run threat to the offense and a veteran presence while a younger quarterback could develop.
Fantasy Impact
While good for struggling NFL franchises, the A-11 is not such a welcome change for fantasy owners.
These wrinkles added into the offense increase the number of players touching the ball even if they do make the offense more explosive. That means fantasy owners will have more wide receivers to track and more options for their roster each week who will only be getting a portion of the stats.
The A-11 could make it practically impossible to know which of six receivers is going to be the most effective on any given Sunday. The offenses could generate more yards and points while also involving more players.
In short, we might all be screwed. The A-11 is offensive chaos, but it’s the good kind of chaos, just like your first Mardi Gras…right?
How scared are you right now?
The Single Wing is real football and it does not make a travesty of the intent of the rules of football like the A-11 does. As we speak 9 states have banned the A-11 and the Fed and NFHS are looking at doing so nationwide. Innovation is great, but taking advantage of a loophole in the rules isnt.
The Single Wing is real football and it does not make a travesty of the intent of the rules of football like the A-11 does. As we speak 9 states have banned the A-11 and the Fed and NFHS are looking at doing so nationwide. Innovation is great, but taking advantage of a loophole in the rules isnt.
@davecisar:
Well, Dave, you make a good point. Regardless of whether it’s a loophole or not, I think there is some room in football for some more creative formations, and A-11 is one of the most creative I have seen. Since A-11’s time to shine in high school sports has come to an end, I hope coaches will sit down and consider how they could bring some of the plays A-11 allowed into their normal packages.
I was glad to see the Single Wing make its return to the NFL with the Wildcat, and it’ll be interesting to see where the NFL goes from there. With guys like Darren McFadden and Pat White coming into the NFL, I hope to see them bring some of the creative college offenses to the professional stage.
@davecisar:
Well, Dave, you make a good point. Regardless of whether it’s a loophole or not, I think there is some room in football for some more creative formations, and A-11 is one of the most creative I have seen. Since A-11’s time to shine in high school sports has come to an end, I hope coaches will sit down and consider how they could bring some of the plays A-11 allowed into their normal packages.
I was glad to see the Single Wing make its return to the NFL with the Wildcat, and it’ll be interesting to see where the NFL goes from there. With guys like Darren McFadden and Pat White coming into the NFL, I hope to see them bring some of the creative college offenses to the professional stage.