How motion offense took over the NFL in 2023

How NFL offenses turned to motion for the season’s defining trend.

It’s Week 1 of the NFL season, and the Los Angeles Chargers are hosting the Miami Dolphins. Just before the ball is snapped, superstar Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill goes into motion. It’s a red alert for the defense: Hill is one of, if not the fastest player in the sport, and any motion that involves Hill is something all 11 defenders have to be aware of.

This motion was different, though. Instead of going all the way across the formation, Hill went into a fast motion out and away from the formation. The defense widens out with Hill, because of course an F1 car with that kind of head start is something defenses have to account for. With the defense stretching out with the fast motion, everything else opened up and the Dolphins shredded the Chargers defense en route to a 36-34 victory.

This motion that San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan would call “cheat” motion, along with other various types of motions, have defined the NFL this season. As NFL offenses and defenses punch and counterpunch their way to advantages within the margins, motion has been one way some of the top teams have gained an advantage over their defensive counterparts. With motion directly before the snap becoming en vogue, it’s no surprise who the top three teams in this metric are as of Dec. 7 (via ESPN’s Seth Walder).

Yep, the Miami Dolphins, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, coached by Mike McDaniel, Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, respectively. The Three Musketeers of motion continue to define modern offenses, and through their use of motion at the snap have been able to pry open defenses looking to limit explosive plays and force teams to win underneath. Of those three, two are in the top five for yards after the catch through Week 13, per Sports Information Solutions, and the Rams are 15th in YAC.

We all know the McVay-Shanahan-McDaniel story. Once one hit the scene, another came, and then another, like a Russian nesting doll of burst motion and Zorro toss plays.

As the three branches of modern West Coast offense have started to grow their own coaching trees, their offenses have each defined themselves in different ways. Sure, they all use motion, but each for different purposes. The Shield have each defined themselves in professional wrestling in their own unique ways despite being from the same tree, and the NFL’s version of The Shield each use the same kinds of motion in different ways, to fit their personnel and their own unique variants of the offense.

Mike McDaniel and the 2 Fast 2 Furious offense

Let’s start with the No. 1 team in that motion statistic: the Miami Dolphins. Forget playing basketball on grass; the Dolphins are an F1 team on the football field.

The emphasis on speed in the offensive personnel has been evident. Miami has drafted guys like wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, running back Devon Achane and signed running back Raheem Mostert, who was with McDaniel in San Francisco (we’ll get to that later). Oh yeah, they also traded for Tyreek Hill — a big swing for GM Chris Grier and McDaniel, which has paid off in full. The Dolphins have been one of the most difficult offenses to defend in the league.

They don’t just have fast guys to be fast. The motion usage for the Dolphins is so high for a reason, and that reason is vertical displacement and misdirection. Speed is speed, yes, but knowing how to leverage that speed is what separates good offenses from great ones, and McDaniel leverages that speed using motion and the threat of speed downfield. Per SIS, the Dolphins lead the NFL in total dropbacks with motion used, second in adjusted net yards per attempt and tied for fourth in yards per route run with motion. Not only are they using motion; they’re using it to attack downfield.

What the Dolphins do with this fast motion is put so much stress on the defense vertically. Secondaries are worried about getting beat deep by that speed, so the middle of the field is left vacated for their athletes to get into so much space for activities. Miami pulls second-level defenders up with play action, and when you combine that with the gaping hole of space behind the linebackers, it spells trouble for the defense.

Take this play against the Carolina Panthers as an example. Miami gets into their fast motion with return action. This means Tyreek Hill runs in between the slot receiver and the end man on the LOS, but then goes into that out motion at the snap. Look at how much space is vacated because of the threat of not only Hill, but the speed of Robbie Chosen on the inside of this dagger concept. The YAC that I talked about with Miami? That’s clear here. Speed kills, yes, but the threat of that speed might be even deadlier.

Even in the screen and RPO game, the Dolphins are using motion to move teams vertically and get them flying backward before just dumping it underneath, forcing defenses to try and catch these race cars Miami has on the field. As Tyreek Hill was going in motion against the Las Vegas Raiders, look at where and how the defense is aligned.

The Raiders are basically in Hialeah trying to defend the Dolphins when Hill goes into that out motion. This threat of their speed before the snap makes throwing this slide RPO that they ran to a lot of success last year even easier, vacating space vertically to operate underneath. The linebacker gets pulled up due to the run threat, and Miami creates an easy gain.

This is one of my favorite designs that McDaniel put into the Dolphins offense, because it once again plays with the threat of Hill going downfield off that motion. Against the Patriots, Hill goes into the out motion, but runs a tunnel screen off of that. Look at how far off the secondary is. By the time Waddle gets this ball, the linemen are already to the second level.

McDaniel and the Dolphins started a new wave of motion for the NFL, and with that motion, they’re leveraging their speed against opponents and making it work.

Kyle Shanahan: Educated aggression

Remember those SIS stats I mentioned earlier around Miami’s offense using motion? Almost all of the categories that the Dolphins aren’t first in, it’s because of the San Francisco 49ers.

Considering McDaniel’s time under Shanahan in San Francisco, it’s natural that these motions and offenses would look similar. Kyle Shanahan’s Niners offense is one of the most dynamic and versatile in the NFL. Even though their at-the-snap motion usage is third in the NFL, how they use motion looks different than the Miami Dolphins.

Where Miami uses their motion to displace teams vertically, San Francisco is using motion at the snap for horizontal displacement. Instead of moving second-level defenders up closer to the line of scrimmage, Shanahan moves defenders out away from their zones, allowing for his skill position talent to operate underneath and use their YAC ability.

The Niners are third in the NFL in yards after the catch, but also first in yards after contact. Think about the skill position guys they have: Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey. Shoot, you could even go to Brandon Aiyuk, Jauan Jennings and Kyle Juszczyk. All of those guys are great with the ball in their hands after the catch, and using motion at the snap allows these guys to operate in those in-between areas in a different way than their counterpart in Miami.

Shanahan and the Niners offense are so good at using motion to create space for receivers to turn into running backs with the ball in their hands. This is done using a couple types of motion: orbit-return motion and shuffle motion. This orbit-return motion is a way to draw the eyes of opposing second-level defenders out to the edges of the defense in order to pry open the middle of the field. The attention that guys like Samuel or McCaffrey command on this motion helps open up intermediate areas of the field where the ball can be delivered and play after the catch can begin.

This is a perfect example against the Seahawks. The Niners are in 12 personnel, but Samuel is in the backfield and McCaffrey is out wide. The Niners send their superstar back in the orbit-return motion, and watch how it widens out nickel Jamal Adams. This is more than enough space for Samuel to isolate against a slower LB and take this ball for a light 30 yards.

Again, this is great to do with guys who are absolute monsters after the catch. It’s not like any of these guys needed any space before the catch to really get to work, but with the use of motion they attack horizontally and then force teams to try and come up to make the tackle. This shuffle motion the Niners do with McCaffrey forces teams to widen out, and then Samuel, Aiyuk or any of the Niners’ other weapons runs underneath. From there it becomes a matter of who wants to get hit.

This shuffle motion TD against Tampa is especially brutal. They widen the Bucs defense out before sprinting back across the formation for an easy touchdown. They want to dish out pain after the catch, and if you give these guys a running start, you’ll end up on their highlight tape.

Both Shanahan and McDaniel have used motion to great effect, molding the motions they use to match the personnel that they have. Of course, both of those guys worked with the coach we’re getting to now…

Sean McVay: Football is geometry

In 2013, The Washington Commanders coaching staff was STACKED with assistants you probably know of now: Raheem Morris, Jim Haslett, Jon Embree, Matt LaFleur. Oh yeah, and the three guys who are using motion at the snap the most this year were on that same staff.

It’s natural we end this talking about Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams, who have been much better offensively than many expected this year despite the personnel. While the Niners and Dolphins use motion at the snap to stretch teams all kinds of ways, the Rams are a bit different. Their motion is used to shift angles and win leverage, especially in the run game.

Their offense has undergone a major shift from the outside zone, boot-heavy offense to the one we see today. There’s a lot more duo (according to Sports Info Solutions, the Rams’ snaps of outside zone are at an all-time low in the McVay era, and duo snaps are at an all-time high), but even with that, we see how the Rams use motion to shift angles and leverages, a necessity for a team that might not be as physically overwhelming as San Francisco or Miami.

Because the Rams essentially exist in 11 personnel, they use motion to create advantages where physically they don’t have them. Offense is much more geometry than anything, looking to create angles and advantages at the point of attack when everyone across the line of scrimmage is just as fast or just as strong.

On this duo run, Los Angeles sends WR Puka Nacua in a return motion, but it sends the Cardinals corner into a bit of a disarray. This running start for Nacua helps him dig out defenders on this run, and because it’s man coverage the Rams OL doesn’t have to shift assignments.

Where the Rams really get to cooking is when they bring the tight end in motion on these duo runs. Duo is a man run scheme that’s run to the strength of the tight end. Where Los Angeles wins is by flipping the strength by putting the TE in motion, changing the angles and leverage the defense thought they had. Pretty cool stuff, and a welcome development in how the motion is being used.

In the passing game, the Rams use motion to get into stacks and bunches, forcing defenses to declare their intentions as the ball is snapped and changing the alignment. McVay is phenomenal at using these bunches and stacked receiver sets to give his guys more advantages, making option and choice routes almost always correct.

There’s no better example of this than in the red zone against Baltimore. Kupp motions in, creating a tight formation with he and Nacua. This forces the Ravens to declare their intentions, showing a blitz off the edge. This means Kupp has a two-way go against a safety, and Stafford puts this ball in a great spot for the touchdown. The Rams use motion at the snap like a geometry teacher, shifting angles and leverages and forcing defenses to come up with answers on the fly.

Much praise has been written about the McVay-Shanahan-McDaniel connection, but each of these coaches is perhaps doing the best on-field designing of their careers in 2023, and it’s through using motion at the snap to their respective personnel’s strengths.

Using motion isn’t some magical panacea that’ll heal any ailing offense, but what it can do is create advantages within the margins. As defenses begin to punch back, it makes sense that these offenses remain near or at the top of the NFL.