The Film Room: The Air Raid Is Taking Over The NFL

As a draft analyst, you often have to take a deep dive into individual teams to understand everything you possibly can about them before you ever start pairing them up with prospects. It’s one thing to say, “This defense needs an edge rusher” or “This receiving corps needs help”, but it’s an entirely new challenge to put yourself in the minds of their coaches to determine what kinds of edge rushers they like and what types of receivers they really need. Scheme matters. Philosophy matters. Most importantly, history matters.

So for this week’s “Film Room” episode, I decided to look at all three of those things - scheme, philosophy, and history - for the new Arizona Cardinals coaching staff to determine exactly what kind of quarterback this franchise really needs to be successful. What I found out, interestingly enough, affects the Texans just as much as any other ball club in the league.

To put it bluntly - the NFL has been ripping off Kliff Kingsbury and the rest of the Air Raid coaching tree for far longer than I, or maybe anyone, anticipated. New England, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Kansas City - you name any elite offense over the last decade or so, and you’ll likely find a ton of Air Raid concepts that make up large parts of their passing games. In fact, it’s a movement out of college football that came on so slowly over a long period of time that by the time I recognized it was even happening, it was already nearly at its peak.

Curious to find out more? Check out the episode below and let me know what you think in the comments! I will issue one minor spoiler alert, though - if you’re a Texas fan...some of the plays that I broke down may be rather...let’s say, disheartening. Just a fair warning.