Washington Football Team: Building a Super Bowl blueprint

Coaching

Tampa Bay’s blueprint starts with its coaching staff. Head coach Bruce Arians, who went 7-9 in his first year with the Buccaneers, took a major leap this year to become a Super Bowl Champion.

Arians himself is held in high regard around the league, but he surrounded himself with the largest coaching staff in the league, featuring 28 assistant coaches. Not only does this allow him to focus on the overall management of the game, but it shows that he trusts his staff to take ownership of individual aspects of the gameplay.

With former quarterback Byron Leftwich leading the offensive side of the ball and Todd Bowles running the defense, the Buccaneers have a formidable coaching staff.

Washington’s coaching staff is also fairly large, with 25 assistants reporting to Coach Rivera. On the defensive side of the ball, Washington has a veteran coach in Jack Del Rio, who similar to Bowles, has previous head coaching experience. In his first year with the team, he helped improve the defense from 27th in the league to a top-five unit.

The offensive side of the staff is not as strong as the Buccaneers’ group, but there were some positives in Scott Turner’s game planning.

It was nice seeing some trickery in the playcalling, leveraging both Antonio Gibson and J.D. McKissic out of the backfield. It was also positive seeing how smoothly Taylor Heinicke, who has prior experience working with Turner, ran the offense in his limited snaps, which gives a glimpse on the potential of the offense once everyone is on the same page.