About five years ago, Andy Reed coaches popularized RPO (Passing Option Offense) from college to career, Mahomes seamlessly entered the professional system, and both Nick Fowles and Trubiski enjoyed more than expected results. While there's nothing wrong with this fit, except that the referee has to keep an eye on the offensive front to determine if they have covered more than a yard of fouls. The problem is that our understanding of explaining the differences in each RPO varies greatly, and when and where to use RPOs.
First, viewers and analysts get some sort of aesthetic satisfaction from passing offenses in RPO, which makes it easy to think that the RPO's routine operation is similar to some kind of fake run real pass or fast pass. Of course, there are advantages to understanding RPO in this way, as can be clearly seen from the dolphin offense. The Dolphins lead the league in passing usage at RPO, with their RPO passing leading the second place in 18 pass attempts and 200+ yards. According to a full range of statistics, dolphins' RPO efficiency is also the best in the league. Tua Tawviloa has become the league's best RPO quarterback, but it's hard to say whether that's a compliment or a disparagement.
The best way to solve the puzzle is to look at the dolphins' average pass depth in RPO passes. Of the 13 teams that have used at least 25 RPO passes this season, the Dolphins lead the league with 5.4 yards of passing depth and almost a yard more than the second-tallest Beal. The SLANT route (29%), fade route (20%) and flat route (18%) together account for two-thirds of all Dolphins RPO routes, but only 36% of the other 31 teams' RPO routes.
Functionally and conceptually, the Dolphins use RPO to pass the ball differently than other teams – essentially masking the fact that their road attack is weak. In the first 13 weeks of the season, the Dolphins averaged 3.3 yards in the league as the second-to-last. Considering that the requirements for a quick pass such as the RPO are not as high as the direct retreat steps on the offensive front, the Dolphins use this move to better protect the quarterback from pressure.
In addition to passing, another dimension of RPO is the rushing ball. Visually, handing the ball to the running back in the RPO seems to be a concession to the opposing defensive group. However, for many teams, because quarterbacks read the dynamics of opposing linebacks, once a lineback assists in defending a pass, the quarterback hands over the ball to the running back, attacking the opponent's weak area, or keeping the unsurfaced defender away from the point of attack. The top five teams in RPO rushing — cardinals, chiefs, nameless, packers and eagles — all exceeded 4 yards in size when using these types of punches, with four teams having more than a third of the total yards before encountering tackle touches.
Although the five teams have different abilities in the running back and offensive front, the similarities in offensive design can also be parsed by the average depth of RPO passes. The average depth of all five teams is less than three yards (the average of both teams is less than a yard), and only the Chiefs have tried more than 50 RPO passes in these five teams.
The external hand screen short pass (usually the foam screen) accounts for 38% of the five teams' routes, suggesting that these teams are using RPO as an extension of the road attack. The offensive front line made vertical cover to the second layer, making the opponent think that the offensive group was going to walk the surface, and they did not have an external hand to run the smart route to challenge the deeper window, and eventually became an external hand screen.
Although the RPO, whether it is receiving the ball pass or handing the ball to the running back, we can see that the deception and diversity of this type of attack allow many teams to play flowers, but the professional field defender talent and personal ability are too amazing, often with personal ability to make up for the error of judgment in the RPO, which makes it difficult for the RPO as a team's "main dish", can only be used as a "side dish". For this reason, unfortunately, the RPO will not make much progress in the next five years.