While most of the now off-season speculation resides on who might step in to take snaps in Thorson's absence, a clear significant question is how Mick McCall tweaks the schemes under the assumption an inexperienced quarterback is taking snaps at the start of the year.
The evolution of the offense in the year just ended was pretty interesting. Clearly, at the start of the year there were a lot of problems, mostly coming from the role shifting on the OL and the overall health of Justin Jackson. In retrospect, I think the decision to move Hance inside was based on the ideas that Thorson's strength was as a pocket passer and that Hance is a better run rather than pass blocker. What transpired was not pretty until Hance moved back to tackle and the passing game was moved to strongly depend on mesh routes, along with moving Thorson in the pocket. The other innovation McCall put in the last part of the year was the two tight end formation and the options off of that. By year end, the Cats had hit a good degree of competence despite the absence of deep passing threats. A lot of this success was due to Thorson's size and experience: within the range of play options, he saw the field well and was able to execute.
With Jackson gone and Thorson out possibly part but not necessarily all of the year, McCall faces the dilemma of whether to stay with what was working at the end of the year with both of those players in the backfield or design the offense to take into account their absence. To me, faced with the uncertainty of the QB role and the strengths of Larkin, I would go back to an offense centered on the read option. Since the Cats' defense should be strong, avoiding mistakes will be huge on the offensive side, and I would think a new QB could master a run based offense much more quickly and reliably than an offense that relies more on a controlled passing game like the one Thorson shines in. That would mean more of a role for the superbacks and bigger receivers, as well as the selection of the QB who has the quickest feet rather than the strongest arm. The problem with going to a read option based offense is that if Thorson returns, the offense would have to convert back to the model that worked at the end of this year.
As several posters have noted, spring practice will be really important this year. McCall has his work cut out for him, and it will be interesting to see what he does.
The evolution of the offense in the year just ended was pretty interesting. Clearly, at the start of the year there were a lot of problems, mostly coming from the role shifting on the OL and the overall health of Justin Jackson. In retrospect, I think the decision to move Hance inside was based on the ideas that Thorson's strength was as a pocket passer and that Hance is a better run rather than pass blocker. What transpired was not pretty until Hance moved back to tackle and the passing game was moved to strongly depend on mesh routes, along with moving Thorson in the pocket. The other innovation McCall put in the last part of the year was the two tight end formation and the options off of that. By year end, the Cats had hit a good degree of competence despite the absence of deep passing threats. A lot of this success was due to Thorson's size and experience: within the range of play options, he saw the field well and was able to execute.
With Jackson gone and Thorson out possibly part but not necessarily all of the year, McCall faces the dilemma of whether to stay with what was working at the end of the year with both of those players in the backfield or design the offense to take into account their absence. To me, faced with the uncertainty of the QB role and the strengths of Larkin, I would go back to an offense centered on the read option. Since the Cats' defense should be strong, avoiding mistakes will be huge on the offensive side, and I would think a new QB could master a run based offense much more quickly and reliably than an offense that relies more on a controlled passing game like the one Thorson shines in. That would mean more of a role for the superbacks and bigger receivers, as well as the selection of the QB who has the quickest feet rather than the strongest arm. The problem with going to a read option based offense is that if Thorson returns, the offense would have to convert back to the model that worked at the end of this year.
As several posters have noted, spring practice will be really important this year. McCall has his work cut out for him, and it will be interesting to see what he does.
