West Coast Offense

The West Coast Offense is a football strategy (in American football) based on Paul Brown's Cleveland and Cincinatti offensive schemes and later associated primarily with the great former San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh.

Personnel for the West Coast Offense

The personnel required to run the West Coast Offense is precise. Teams that wanted to run it (or modified versions of it) needed these ingredients in order to run it effectively:

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• A quarterback who can make quality reads and necessary adjustments. A "golden arm" is not necessary, but an accurate one is. It also helps if the quarterback has some agility and can make plays when leaving the pocket.
• Halfbacks and fullbacks who can catch the ball out of the backfield as well as run.
• A receiver dedicated to catching short, timed passes--usually quick slants or quick outs.
• A "deep ball" receiver so the defense can't gear up to stop the under-10 yard passes. This receiver will also run the same routes as the "possession" receiver, although he'll be the go-to man on deep routes.
• A receiving-oriented tight end who can catch "possession"-type passes over the middle.
• An agile offensive line. Since the West Coast Offense was an offense that passed to set up the run, a huge, 300-plus pound line geared for running wasn't needed.