Originally posted by Heroism:
Of course, the actual words aren't going to be the same years later, but they remain very similar. If you're familiar with WCO terminology, it's very easy to infer what a play call is irrespective of whose WCO it comes from because they're all structured in the exact same way. It's very likely that Sarkesian is still using play calls structured in a traditional WCO format, which would help Mac pick up Kyle's playbook very quickly.
Also, play call terminology has nothing to do with what's being run on the field.
I love to tell my Al Borges coaching clinic story. I was blessed enough to sit in on a coaching clinic by Al Borges, were he diagramed out a single play and went over the nuances of that play versus different defenses. It must have been over 3 hours on that one play.
Every offense has some combination of routs that every team and every QB has thrown. I think what really sets the WCO apart from other offenses is how they read and when they throw. Al Borges gave Jason Cambell the freedom to make his drop 3, 5 or 7 , but that is really where the freedom stopped....everything else was on script, depending on what he was seeing. Cambell had reads at different drop depths and some of the WRs came in and out of progression based on the timing of the offense. The end result for a "correct" read had as much to do with being open and were the other skill position players were. As a rout crossed the field....some of those players are no longer in the progression and actually were looking for their blocking assignments to make sure the offense had YAC. Throwing to the correct read, would in theory put the other players in position to screen the pursuit to the pass catcher.
At least in Al Borges offense, the idea of 3rd read or 4th read would be a misnomer. the TE for example on that play was not even in the rout progression unless Jason stopped his drop depth at 3 steps. Once that quick hit window was over the TEs sole job was screen traffic for Ronnie Brown exiting the back field. Much like a moving screen in Basketball... it was to slow down the pursuit . The WR running an in rout? Same thing...once his window passed...he was suppose to scrub the safety off the play for the WR working across the hash to have open ground on the post. I don't think Al Borges had 4th reads and outside of a dump off to the RB most everything was 2 reads. The reads changed if it was 3-5 or 7 but whenever the pressure came it was mostly a simple 2 read offense.
As complex as Al Borges offense was with all those moving parts setting up other players based on time, I am sure NFL offenses are more complex, I think that is were learning curve comes from, not the names of the plays or routs. Knowing when the ball goes to the target has to be a much larger thing to figure out then what the "new" name of a rout or rout combination is. None of the QBs the 49ers could draft will be unfamiliar with the routs or throws...assigning a new name to old knowledge is fundamentally much easier then knowing why or when you throw the ball. I say that as someone with a Training and Development back ground. A common teaching technique is getting people to attach new knowledge to old knowledge.