Let's Talk About Charles London's Pass Game Philosophy

Charles London was one of the guest speakers at the NFL Quarterback Coaching Summit. Let’s dive into what he had to say about pass game philosophy.

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To totally brag, I have previously gone deep into the coaching background of Charles London. If you haven’t read the article you can do so by clicking here. London has been a fast rising star among the NFL’s coaching circles. Heading into the 2022 season both the Los Angeles Rams and Miami Dolphins brought him for interviews for their offensive coordinator position.

Neither McVay or McDaniel have any kind of connection or history with London and to me that is a good sign of talent recognizing talent. I encourage you to pause for a second and reconsider clicking the link above to the London article. The reason being is that I really go into his transition from RB coach to QB coach.

He has several interviews where he talks about the why behind using COVID and lockdowns to start studying quarterbacks. He reached out to other QB coaches and this was a self-driven endeavor. He didn’t have a QB coach job lined up, he just wanted to learn more. It eventually got him to where he is now with the Titans.

If you think London is just a QB Coach for the Titans then you must be living under a rock. He also has the title of Pass Game Coordinator. This is an important addition because it means he has a lot of say and vision into certain things with the pass game.

I am not sure if he has the same responsibilities as Tim Kelly did in the same role last year but Kelly was involved in early down passing and red zone offense. I am sure his input is taken into account into those things but we aren’t exactly sure yet what the exact details are, but maybe we can gain some insight about the new offensive philosophy of the Titans passing attack based on his remarks.

The NFL Quarterback Summit is currently going on and Charles London was one of the guest speakers. He dove deep into his pass game philosophy in front of a large crowd and while some of them may seem very “duh” on the surface level, just remember Todd Downing and the various other awful offensive coordinators in Titans history and the NFL who struggle with these concepts.

Let’s get to it

Stacks and Bunches

The Titans, under Art Smith, were no stranger to using stacks and bunches in their offensive formations. It allowed them to do exactly what London said it would do: to get free releases and create leverage to help your players win the route.

Side note: it shouldn’t be any surprise that a lot of what London says is stuff the Titans did in 2019/2020 under Art Smith. After all, London spent the last two seasons as the QB coach for the Falcons, where Smith is currently head coach.

The Titans created opportunities for players like Jonnu Smith and AJ Brown by using bunches. It allowed both to get into space and have opportunities to make plays on the ball with ease. It also made things easier for Tannehill to be able to find the open player.

Now, I don’t have the data so I am just going based off what we saw on the field under Todd Downing. It felt, especially last year, that Downing didn’t use a lot of bunch/stack sets. Even with a full complement of weapons in week one, it was mainly just kind of a normal passing formation most of the time.

This should be a good thing for the Titans top three pass catchers: Chig Okonkwo, Kyle Philips, and Treylon Burks. All of these guys have playmaking ability when the ball is in their hands and we know from various player comments that leverage is an important part of this new offense. So, it makes sense that using something the Titans have used before (stacks and bunches) and seen work would be a part of this offense.

Using Shift and Motion

I have talked a few times about how Tannehill has thrived when using shift and motion before the snap. So, I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but it is important to note that this is also an Art Smith tent pole of his offense that Downing chose to let slip away.

Using shift and motion before the snap allows the quarterback to gain insight on the defensive coverage, while also forcing the defenders to talk to each other and maybe cause confusion among them. It is an important tool to use and successful offenses, like the 2019/2020 Titans, used it a lot.

What needs to be noted is that Bill O’Brien and Kelly rarely used pre-snap motion with Watson, so it will be interesting to see how this is integrated into that offense and at what rate it is used.

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