Play calling system

A play calling system in American football is the specific language and methods used to call plays.

It is distinct from the play calling philosophy, which is concerned with overall strategy: whether a team favors passing or running, whether a team seeks to speed up or slow down play, what part of the field passes should target, and so on. The play calling system comprises tactics for making calls for individual plays and communicating those decisions to the players.

In any football play, each of the team's eleven players on offense has a specific, scripted task. Success requires that players' tasks mesh into an effective play. A team maximizes the difficulty for the opposition by having a wide variety of plays, which means that players' tasks vary on different plays. A play calling system informs each player of his task in the current play.

There are constraints in designing a play calling system. The 40-second play clock means a team has 30 seconds or less from the end of one play to prepare for the next play. A complicated play calling system that lets a team tailor a play more precisely is harder for players to memorize and communicate. Noise from the fans in the stadium can interfere with communication, sometimes deliberately. To the extent the opposition can intercept and understand the call, it can prepare for it better.

The design of a play calling system answers the following questions:

Three general approaches to play calling dominate the National Football League:

In the West Coast system, all plays have code names. They indicate the specific formation and tell players where to line up. This code name is followed by modifiers that communicate variations on the play. For running plays, the modifier specifies the blocking scheme and the path that the primary ball carrier takes during the run, usually indicating which of nine numbered gaps, or holes, in the offensive line he aims for in his run. For passing plays, the modifier indicates what pass route each player is supposed to take.

Here are some plays from one specific West Coast playbook, and what the names mean:

The West Coast system was designed alongside the West Coast offense, though it is not confined to that offense. It has its roots in the system devised by Paul Brown as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, and is used extensively by members of his coaching tree. The Brown system became the West Coast system when it was successfully used by his protege Bill Walsh during Walsh's tenure as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers during their success of the 1980s and 1990s.

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