Has the Run-and-Shoot come back to Jacksonville?

Well, yes and no.... While Tom Coughlin began running elements of the Run and Shoot while he and Kevin Gilbride were together in Jacksonville, the pure Run and Shoot hasn't been seen in the NFL for many, many years. However, Tom Coughlin and Kevin Gilbride really began blending Run and Shoot concepts into more traditional personnel groupings and formations while the two were together in Jacksonville. While the offense is somewhat varied from what they did in Jacksonville, Coughlin and Gilbride are still very much running Run and Shoot concepts in their passing offense.

But I'm only here to touch on Coughlin for a second....because there were two teams at Everbank Field yesterday running some Shoot stuff. From the first drive of the game:

The Jags have a two wide receivers to the bottom of the screen, stacked almost on top of each other. On release, they will cross each other, or what is known as a "Switch" release in Run and Shoot nomenclature. As you can see, after the Switch, the wide receivers will generally have multiple options based on the defense's leverage after the snap.

(Thomas making an Out cut based on the defenders' inside leverage)

(Switch, right out of Tom Coughlin's 2001 Jacksonville Playbook. Photo Courtesy of Chris Brown. For those interested, Coughlin's old Jaguar playbook can be found here [.pdf file]).

I should also note that just because two receivers run a Switch release doesn't necessarily mean that the option routes are always built in. Sometimes, the coach wants to call a specific pass concept and use the switch to get a clean release for the receivers.

(Smash run with a Switch Release - again from Coughlin's 2001 Jaguar playbook)

For more on the Run and Shoot offense, go here.

For a breakdown on Coughlin's blending of the Run and Shoot with an NFL offense (which, really, is being relplicated almost league-wide at this point) go here.