No run, no fun. In 2024, the best offenses in the league run the ball. This statement might sound like it’s coming from the ’90s, but with how defenses are prioritizing stopping explosive pass plays, living through the air is a hard way to live. However, the best offenses aren’t just lining up in an I-formation and calling iso and power over and over again. To be a good running team, you have to be creative and deceptive. Offensive coaches are looking for ideas anywhere, and multiple teams have turned to one of the original offensive systems: the Wing T.
The Wing T is a three-back offense. The original formation has two backs in the backfield and a wing lined up outside and behind the tight end. The wing serves as a third back who goes in motion to receive handoffs or fake like he’s getting a handoff. Though the formation and plays can vary from iteration to iteration, the core principles are deception, sleight of hand and speed. The goal is to displace linebackers with motions and fakes and quickly hit the defense with runs away from the fake.
The Arizona Cardinals are bludgeoning defenses with an offense that resembles a single-wing offense, which is the original offense the Wing T evolved from. Mike McDaniels’ Miami Dolphins offense ranked first in yards per carry (5.1) last season by integrating Wing T principles, ideas and plays. Matt LaFleur won games with his starting quarterback hurt by transforming the Green Bay Packers offense into a modern Wing T offense. Some of the league’s top play callers — Andy Reid, Sean McVay, Ben Johnson, and Kyle Shanahan — have sprinkled Wing T concepts into their play sheets for years. Today, we’re seeing Wing T plays all over the league.
Why is the Wing T making its way into the NFL?
The prominence of the jet sweep — in which a receiver goes into a motion and gets a direct handoff running to the perimeter — comes directly from the Wing T. During Jim Harbaugh’s first stint as the head coach for the San Francisco 49ers, he started running wide receivers fly sweeps for Ted Ginn Jr. Harbaugh credited Sacred Heart Prep’s Pete Lavorato with teaching him the fly sweep after Harbaugh attended a clinic on Lavorato’s offense, a version of the Wing T.
A Jet(tas) sweep for the lead!@JJettas2 | @Vikings
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Now, every team has the jet sweep in its offense. The play keeps defensive ends honest. Faking the jet sweep to receivers, then handing off the ball or tossing it to running backs displaces linebackers. The misdirection gets them looking and leaning the wrong way, which is one of the core features of every Wing T offense.
16th TD on the season for Raheem Mostert!
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Wide receivers as runners and run game diversity
Dan Casey built his reputation by posting interesting plays on social media. He now consults for NFL teams, helping them add new ideas to their playbooks.
“There’s just a greater need for run game diversity and being able to get multiple guys touches,” Casey explained. “I think the days of being able to just line up in single back and run wide zone are over. Defenses just gobble that up.”
Casey talked about what Liam Coen is doing with their two-back sets, using Rachaad White and Bucky Irving at the same time. Neither back specializes in lead blocking, so you can’t just have one of them block for the other one. You have to find ways to stress defenses to create an advantage for whoever the ball carrier is. Wing T plays help you do that.
Shanahan started using Deebo Samuel as a runner years ago in the 49ers’ Deadpool package. That has stressed defenses because they have to treat him as a wide receiver and trot out their nickel (five defensive backs) personnel when Samuel is part of a three-receiver set, but San Francisco can still run two-back plays when he’s on the field.
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“You just switch some guys up, and whatever runs look good versus fronts you are going against,” Shanahan explained.
“In just the conversations I’ve had with a lot of NFL guys … obviously, you have your running back, and then every team wants a receiver that they can hand the ball off to. Not just on sweeps, but on inside handoffs as well,” Casey said.
In the above clip, the Detroit Lions are running a direct rip-off out of the Wing T playbook: a staple concept called a “Sally” variant. On the play, there needs to be an outside-run-fake element with a handoff to a player in front of the quarterback, typically with pulling linemen either trap blocking or lead blocking. The Lions ran it with Jared Goff faking a pitch to the running back before handing it off to receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown in front of him, with the center and tackle lead blocking for him. Sally is the most prominent Wing T play you’ll see across the NFL on Sundays.
Giving defenses new looks and adding layers to plays
“Defenses have gotten really good at fitting this, the basic version of run plays,” Casey said. “So you do have to change the math or change the fit somehow. The nice thing about these Wing T concepts is there’s not a paradigm for defenses fitting it. It’s not like they’re seeing it every day in practice. So when I talk to NFL guys, a lot of times they’re like, ‘I just kind of need something that people haven’t really seen much of because once they see it and rep it, they can kind of squash it.’”
Of course, running a basic inside zone play will still work if you block it right, but defenses have seen it so many times that they can instinctually play it and get to the right places. Whether they can hold their ground, shed blocks and make tackles is a different story, but just getting defenses to second-guess where they need to be or where their run fit is gives the offense an advantage. That’s where these Wing T backfield actions come into play.
In this clip, the Kansas City Chiefs are simply running an inside zone play. Still, before Patrick Mahomes handed off the ball to the running back, he turned his back to the defense to fake a reverse to a wide receiver before completing his spin and getting back in position to hand off the ball to the running back. The Chiefs also added another layer of deception because typically teams run inside zone away from the side that the back is offset to. So if the back is lined up to the quarterback’s left, they’d run zone right. In the clip, the running back was lined up to Mahomes’ left but ran inside zone left.
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Another core tenant of the Wing T is the quarterback turning his back to the defense to execute fakes. Many Wing T playbooks have a whole series of plays called “spinner,” which involve the quarterback spinning to hide the ball from the defense. With the increase in shotgun formations across the league, quarterbacks will usually hand off the ball with the ball carrier coming in front of them. By integrating spinner concepts into the shotgun, they get the element of deception back even from the gun.
Taking it to the next level
The greatest lesson to take from Wing T offense isn’t the play but the sequencing. With every play, there’s a counter and another counter. If a defense overplays the outside, it can fake an outside play and hit you inside, or vice versa. McVay took the league by storm when he was first hired by the Los Angeles Rams, building his playbook with this philosophy in mind. With the Dolphins, McDaniel has taken the deception and layering element to another level. The footwork and sleight-of-hand ball fakes Tua Tagovailoa is executing are an elevation of the techniques the Wing T has established.
Week 10, 12:09 remaining in the first quarter, first-and-10
On this play, Tagovailoa first faked an inside handoff to the running back to his left before tossing the ball to receiver Malik Washington on a reverse. The ingenious part of this play is having the center and guard fake like they are down-blocking before leaking out to the perimeter to block for Washington.
Tagovailoa reversed out to fake counter to the left. The right guard and tight end also false-pulled to the left to get the linebackers to step in that direction. Tagovailoa hid the ball after his pivot before tossing the ball to Washington. He did a good job of barely moving his body while facing the sideline so the defense wouldn’t suspect he had the ball and made as little movement toward Washington as possible.
Rookie Malik Washington takes the ball 18 yards to the house! @MiamiDolphins get the scoring started.
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This play is directly from a Wing T playbook but with some tweaks.
The quarterback turning his back to the defense and all the fake possibilities adds more layers of deception when teams want to pass the ball, leading to better play action.
Here, the Packers’ Malik Willis turned his back to the defense to fake an outside handoff before throwing a screen.
In today’s age of easy access to information, offenses are looking everywhere for inspiration and ways to throw defenses off. Naturally, they’ve returned to football’s origins for inspiration because the principles of the offense never go out of vogue. Deception and sequencing with speed are a lethal combination. Wing T offenses weaponized those elements near perfection decades ago. Modern offenses are taking notes and adding their own spin to them.
(Top photo of Tua Tagovailoa: Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)
