Why 2014 is the year of the uptempo offense in the NFL

The no-huddle, the wildcat, the spread, and now the uptempo.

If the game itself wasn’t fast enough, it’s about to get even faster.

This is probably a good thing for those who actually complained that the game of football is too slow.  But the difference between the uptempo offense compared to the three mentioned before, is that the uptempo is here to stay.

Why is that?  The answer is simpler than you may think.

The uptempo offense isn’t necessarily a new type of offense, but rather a new style utilizing the those three “offensive fads” from years past, which will keep defenses honest and force them to make adjustments fast.

We’ve seen no-huddle offenses used before, highlighted by the Bills “K-Gun” offense utilized by Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, but this is a tad bit different.

The uptempo offense in the pro game made its debut last year in Philadelphia with Chip Kelly, utilizing guys like Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy to keep everything fast.  Even when Vick went down to injury last year and Nick Foles (who is much, much slower than Vick) took over, the offense never lost a beat.

Foles’ success proved that you don’t necessarily need a mobile quarterback like a Michael Vick, Cam Newton, or Colin Kaepernick for it to succeed, thus why it is spreading everywhere this year. The Eagles ran a total of 1,054 plays in 2013, averaging about 65 plays per game.

This year, teams like the New York Giants, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Miami Dolphins, Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos are utilizing or adding the uptempo offense or some of it’s parts into their system. “That seems to be the answer to some of the different things that defenses are doing,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.

“I’m trying to get them out of the huddle faster,” Dolphins offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said.  “And sometimes it’s uncomfortable.  Sometimes it’s uncomfortable for the line to make the calls that quickly.  The quarterback might want them to settle in and to make the line calls.”

“I think the No. 1 thing we want to do is play with great tempo.”

While teams like Miami with a young quarterback like Ryan Tannehill can use an uptempo offense to improve their short-to-intermediate passing game, teams like Pittsburgh with a veteran quarterback like Ben Roethlisberger are using the uptempo style to open up their system.

“I think it can be our base offense,” Roethlisberger said in a recent interview.  “Even if we’re huddling and calling plays, we’re calling a lot of no-huddle play in the huddle, if that makes sense.  In the no-huddle, we pretty much have out whole playbook available.”

“When we’re hitting and we’re going, it’s a great weapon because we can keep people off balance.”

Even defensive minded teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, under new head coach Lovie Smith, are taking advantage of the up-tempo and no-huddle offenses, preparing for it on both sides of the ball.

“Looking at it from the other side, most defenses in general would like to huddle up and make sure you’re all on the same page,” Smith said.  “You can’t do that (against the no-huddle, up-tempo).  I think you gas the linemen a little bit.  You can’t substitute as much.  As a general rule, most of the time you force defenses to be basic with what they do.  All of those things contribute a little bit to what we want to do.  It’s a little bit like in basketball, do you want a slow-down approach or do you want an uptempo running up and down.  We want to be a fast team, period, in all phases and this kind of leads to that, too.”

But keep in mind, the key word in this story is “tempo.” Offenses that can run plays faster while remaining efficient, or improving efficiency can run more plays in a game while tiring out defenses quicker, leading to less pressure on the quarterback and offensive line from an opposing front-seven that tires out quicker while also allowing runningbacks to find holes easier and reach the second level of the defense (linebackers to defensive backs) quicker. So how does an uptempo offense work and how will it benefit teams in 2014 and beyond?  Let’s take a look.