The Opening Drive 1/21: Udinski Draws Bills Interview, and Plays Within Plays
The pressure on hiring the young talent might need to be accelerated as competition arrives.
The Browns are trudging forward with their coaching search, which took a turn with Mike McDaniel’s decision to decline a second interview, but they still have a set list of three intriguing young candidates to interview. We do expect one more candidate to emerge to satisfy the Rooney Rule in the coming week as well. The three main names, outside of Jim Schwartz, appear to be Grant Udinski, Nate Scheelhaase, and Jesse Minter. Both Scheelhaase and Minter are set for in-person interviews with other organizations, and both have completed several video interviews as well. Only Udinski had yet to surface with any other team for a head-coaching interview.
Well, that changed today, as the Bills began making their formal requests and have now also reached out to the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator for an interview of their own.
There have been other names connected to Buffalo, and several others will also get time with the organization as well — the team has confirmed interest in Joe Brady, Brian Daboll, Udinski, Anthony Lynn, and Anthony Weaver — but Udinski’s involvement is what starts to make Browns fans uncomfortable. The growing sentiment has been a desire to hire the 30-year-old coach, and with no competition for his services, it felt as though if the Browns offered Udinski the job, he would accept. Now, there is some other interest of note.
While I think the Bills’ championship window, which is very much active right now, makes it unlikely they would want to hire a young coach like Udinski, I do think their interest is something Udinski will take seriously and could change the timeline for his acceptance should an offer be made. The Bills will likely meet with him virtually later this week and then try to bring him to their facility if there is enough interest for an in-person interview. The Browns, meanwhile, appear to have a mid-week timeline next week to make their decision.
As I said, I think the Bills go in a different direction here, but the interview request is especially noteworthy for Udinski’s standing in the league and for how the Browns fanbase will perceive him. If he were hired without interest from any other franchise, some would grow concerned, so that narrative is now off the table. The Bills are firmly in “win now” mode, and they would not waste their time. That means the Browns should not waste their own time either if they are serious about offering this job to Udinski. Big weekend coming up.
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I wanted to get a little Xs and Os worked into today’s Opening Drive and this interview following the National Championship on Monday caught my eye. The heroic 4th quarter run from Fernando Mendoza was publicly perceived as quarterback run the whole way. A classic draw play where you sell pass but it’s a run from all design purposes. This quote from Mendoza following the game gave us a glimpse into the growing world of “play within a play” that is happening in offense football.
The concept is simple in nature. If you think you are getting a pressure look pre-snap then you can throw the slot fade against man coverage if you believe that is the scheme. The decision is made in the pre-snap. Mendoza, seeing what he thought was a half man coverage, half zone coverage look decided to ignore the pass and make the “money down” play on his own because of the look inside the tackle box. If you think you can run, then run it. He did, and that moment will be shown in College Playoff highlight reels for the rest of our lives.
Mendoza clearly could have thrown that back-shoulder fade ball he is so gifted at place if he wanted to, but he chose otherwise. He mentioned in that interview above the play was similar to the one the Hoosiers ran against Oregon in Eugene in their important 4th quarter drive to take the lead back.
On this snap Mendoza sniffed out the man coverage and let it rip outside to his best playmaker. You get pressure, throw it outside. It’s about the pre-snap feel and then making the right call. It’s wild how well Mendoza handled both of those calls given the pressure of both situations.
Football has so many hidden layers the general public doesn’t know. I love to find them and point them out. Hope you enjoy them as well. More to come.
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