49ers Playbook, Week 17: The orbit return swing pass

This is the final installment for the 2017 49ers playbook series at Niner Noise. Today we breakdown the orbit return swing pass used against the Los Angeles Rams on a scoring drive in the first quarter.

The San Francisco 49ers offense took on new life since quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo got his first start against the Chicago Bears in Week 13.

Since then, we have seen the ingenuity and genius of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense on display, and I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of what he’s capable of.

As offenses have evolved over time, they’ve taken on new and exciting ways to deliver the ball to their playmakers. Offenses are not traditional West Coast or Air Coryell or the Run and Shoot anymore. Today’s offenses blend the best while discarding the rest. They’ve done so to account for the evolution in defensive schemes.

San Francisco 49ers

Shanahan’s offense in 2017 was no different. While giving the traditional West Coast Offense his own flavor, he also incorporated concepts from the Erhardt-Perkins system used by the Patriots since the 1970s, which I have written about here, to make Garoppolo more comfortable in the system while he learns the full playbook.

One other system Shanahan and other coaches have borrowed from this season are traditional spread offense concepts. In at least four instances this season, several teams have run the “orbit return swing pass” for touchdowns or big gains.

The orbit return swing pass utilizes a trips or doubles/stack slot bunch to one side, with the outside receiver either motioning to the orbit, or lining up close the edge of the line in a stack, and running the orbit at the snap. At the snap, the orbit receiver abruptly cuts back out as if he were now running a swing pass.

The inside receiver is usually running a rub or slant route, especially against man coverage. The quarterback and the running back carry out a play-action run fake to keep the defense in place. This play is ideally run against man coverage inside the 15-yard line, where it’s difficult for a defense to recover and catch a speedy receiver.

The play first showed up in the Miami Dolphins’ offense under head coach Adam Gase against the Atlanta Falcons.

Miami is in a stack slot formation to the left against the Falcons’ Cover 1 man-free defense.

The orbit motion by receiver Jarvis Landry pre-snap causes the Falcons to shift the nickel back to the safety position, and the safety to rotate over to the side he thinks the motioning player is going to end up on, taking him out of position.

Notice the inside receiver also runs a rub or slant route to further stretch the defense, who follows the outside-zone run fake, toward the opposite sideline of the orbit return swing.

Later in the season, the Los Angeles Rams employed the same concept against the Houston Texans. The Rams run it out of a 3-by-1 stack with the trips stack bunch to the right.

Instead of a rub route, the inside receiver runs straight up the seam and occupies the safety and corner (who backs off when he sees the jet).

Rams quarterback Jared Goff tosses the pass to receiver Robert Woods on the swing for the touchdown in the open field.

In their season finale, the Detroit Lions also ran a version of it against the Green Bay Packers out of a pistol formation in 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends, two receivers).

Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford motions wide receiver Golden Tate on the orbit motion, while inside receiver runs a slant/rub route against the man coverage, freeing up Tate on the swing back out.

And finally, the 49ers ran their own version of the play against the Rams in the first quarter that would give them the early 10-0 lead, when wide receiver Marquise Goodwin caught the swing pass and sprinted to the end zone alone.

The 49ers line up in 12 personnel with an unbalanced line to the left and a two-receiver stack slot bunch to the right with Louis Murphy and Goodwin.

The Rams are showing a Cover 3 defense that turns into Cover 1 at the snap.

Goodwin runs the orbit swing, while Garoppolo holds the defense in place before tossing it out to Goodwin for the touchdown.

Next: Will Carlos Hyde stay or go?

We’re only just seeing head coach Kyle Shanahan scratch the surface of his playbook, and additions like this show that he is willing to adapt and accommodate his playbook to his roster talent, enabling him to use his player’s strengths.