The Logan Zone - New San Francisco 49ers QB Coach

Originally posted by Niners816:
IMO, the best way for offensive football is to wrap about 5-6 key concepts in a s**t load of formations and master those concepts. Do less better, I do not like a system that's a jack of all master of none.

As mentioned earlier, once these concepts are mastered you then add more concepts or wrinkles with in your core concepts. There are so many great concepts out there the key for an offensive staff is to find which fit their personnel.

100% Agree. You hear similar things said about some of the best QBs and offenses in the league. Not overly complex, but you master core concepts that can be executed repeatedly with precision.

Pretty sure Kaep scored the highest on the Wonderlic for QBs that year too or close to it. I think 37 or 38? Anyway, he is not dumb.

And I have to agree strongly, this is a good move. Beat them with concepts and formations and don't try to install a million different plays. There are plays that are run every game that have been around for decades that will always be effective if properly executed in the right moments. The playbook Peyton Manning uses is not very large. The guy has made a living off of perfect execution and awareness - not because he knows MORE plays than the rest of the league. He probably runs fewer than many.

But they do the same things - operate the same plays out of different formations etc.

Originally posted by baltien:
Good article. I like Logan's "no nonsense" style. Although the line played like garbage last year, nobody would argue that Kap has a lot of room for improvement.

Maybe Logan's style will resonate with him.

Sidebar: a lot of the commenters in that article are morons. Intelligence doesn't mean one is able to perfectly retain and efficiently run an entire playbook that spans hundreds of pages.

I find the comments calling Kap "dumb" especially amusing because most of (if not all) those guys probably couldn't recall 20 plays from Madden if a millions bucks was on the line.

Yet a QB is "dumb" because he doesn't know the playbook cover to cover.

Give me a break.

I remember Walsh taking it a step further and not just practicing a play until it was perfect, but the throw had to be perfect as well. The play was run again until the receiver was hit in stride by the QB.

Originally posted by SofaKing:

100% Agree. You hear similar things said about some of the best QBs and offenses in the league. Not overly complex, but you master core concepts that can be executed repeatedly with precision.

I watch a ton of old niner games (80s to mid 90s). It's to the point now I can call out most concepts just from watching. I couldn't do this as a kid, but having looked at the playbooks and kinda studied the WCO it's pretty easy to see what's going on.

The beauty of it all was the mastery of the concepts and the relentless packaging of them in various formations/shifts/motions. You can run the drive concept 6 or 7 times a game and thru formations and shifts/motions have it look like 6 different plays. But you've really only needed to master one concept.

Originally posted by socalniner:

I remember Walsh taking it a step further and not just practicing a play until it was perfect, but the throw had to be perfect as well. The play was run again until the receiver was hit in stride by the QB.

This was the key....you practice to be perfect, knowing that's not really feasible, but in the chase of perfection you capture excellence.

This just became my new favorite thread. Great stuff all...

I saw a great quote once about this, but I can't recall exactly how it went.

But it basically goes - you can certainly have proficiency and understand something, but that hardly means you have mastered it. It was just a quote about the stages of mastery and eventually it gets the point where you do everything without thinking about it on instinct at a very high level (some people never reach this in anything). You can play A LOT before you ever get to that level regardless of how talented you are. Obviously the more talented you are, the quicker it will happen in all likelyhood, but doesn't really change the point.

When I was a teenager I used to play Quake at a professional level. I can very much attest to this. By the time I retired I had reached a point where I just automatically knew pretty much everything that has happening on a map just based on experience and ability to execute things without thinking - that when I started, I almost certainly would have had to give thought to. It takes years to develop the neural networks.

I really think this offense is going to improve a lot this year in spite of the line just from what I've read. I think Logan has a better understanding of human development than some on our previous staff did that obviously had a lot of sway.

Originally posted by thl408:
Agreed. It's not that Kap can't remember plays. It's that he can't master plays when the playbook is too big and too many concepts are being dialed up. I liked this quote:

"Coach Chryst might agree with me that it got way too spread out last year," Logan said. "And it got a little bit to where maybe Colin didn't know where that third read was. That was my feeling coming in here when I was visiting with Geep about how to move forward."

A QB can hear a play, recall it from memory, then picture it in his head, but in order to master it to the point that he is executing it instinctively, he needs to start with a handful first. If the 49ers are going to reduce the playbook, they better up the execution and formations/personnel packages.

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by SofaKing:
100% Agree. You hear similar things said about some of the best QBs and offenses in the league. Not overly complex, but you master core concepts that can be executed repeatedly with precision.

I watch a ton of old niner games (80s to mid 90s). It's to the point now I can call out most concepts just from watching. I couldn't do this as a kid, but having looked at the playbooks and kinda studied the WCO it's pretty easy to see what's going on.

The beauty of it all was the mastery of the concepts and the relentless packaging of them in various formations/shifts/motions. You can run the drive concept 6 or 7 times a game and thru formations and shifts/motions have it look like 6 different plays. But you've really only needed to master one concept.

That sounds awesome, I'm hoping these principals translate into success for us this year. Chryst and Logan really seem to get it, and Kap is very receptive to their coaching.

Originally posted by NCommand:

This just became my new favorite thread. Great stuff all...

This is usually the level of discussion in the all22 threads. Just gotta steer clear of the kap thread, that thread gets ridiculous most of the time

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by NCommand:
This just became my new favorite thread. Great stuff all...

This is usually the level of discussion in the all22 threads. Just gotta steer clear of the kap thread, that thread gets ridiculous most of the time

Now THAT thread is my all-time favorite reader/education.

This one is awesome b/c we're starting to develop some great discussions in here about what the new offense is going to look like.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
That sounds awesome, I'm hoping these principals translate into success for us this year. Chryst and Logan really seem to get it, and Kap is very receptive to their coaching.

That's the feeling I've had from day 1. Now go execute young man!

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by socalniner:
I remember Walsh taking it a step further and not just practicing a play until it was perfect, but the throw had to be perfect as well. The play was run again until the receiver was hit in stride by the QB.

This was the key....you practice to be perfect, knowing that's not really feasible, but in the chase of perfection you capture excellence.

Bill Walsh preached precision, timing, and of course, perfection.

I think we're going to see many more WCO elements inserted into the offense. I think we'll see some read option and I think we'll see some combination of the two to throw defenses off. It might execute slightly differently but I think a lot of the concepts will remain the same.

Lots of moving pockets. More stretch runs and misdirection. And of course more quick developing routes.

Originally posted by NCommand:
Now THAT thread is my all-time favorite reader/education.

This one is awesome b/c we're starting to develop some great discussions in here about what the new offense is going to look like.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
100% Agree. You hear similar things said about some of the best QBs and offenses in the league. Not overly complex, but you master core concepts that can be executed repeatedly with precision.

I've brought up the Colts example many times. They ran a fairly simplistic offense with a lot of audibles from Manning but they didn't do a lot that was exotic, nor did they have an especially complex playbook but they executed with precision. Not saying that Kaepernick is Manning obviously but there was a comment from Tom Moore, the former Colts OC who joined the Cardinals that he made in response to being asked why the Colts offense was able to be successful for so many years despite using a comparably limited play selection and Moore's response was "let's say we are racing to the airport, you KNOW where the airport is and the fastest way to get there, I THINK I know where the airport is, which one of us likely gets there faster?"


You can get away with simplicity in your playcalling if your execution is crisp and consistent. The defense is always at a disadvantage because they can only take an educated guess as to where the ball is going, the offensive player should be able to beat the defender to their spot pretty much every time unless the defense somehow hits upon the exact perfect look to counter the offensive playcall.

Finally they get it.
Focus on 5 or 6 core concepts.
Run those core concepts in a million different ways.
If you understand the concept it doesn't matter how you run it, you know what you're supposed to do with it every single time.

if i write
I. 1. One.
it looks different to someone else each time but to me it's still simply 1.