Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is a defensive minded coach at heart, so it was not too surprising to hear what he had to say Tuesday at the NFL owners\’ meetings when asked about the ever-so-trendy read-option offense that a few teams are using right now in the league.
“I think it\’s the flavor of the day,” said Tomlin. “We will see if it\’s the flavor of the year. We\’ll see if guys are committed to getting their guys hit.”
All of the talk right now about the read-option offense being in vogue stems from the success that the Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers all had with it in 2012. With more and more athletic quarterbacks coming out of college every year, it would not be too surprising to see another team or two implement it in 2013.
The offense gives defenses another player to account for in the quarterback, but just like Tomlin pointed out, it also opens up that same quarterback to more than his share of hits. When a team loses a young quarterback for several games due to these hits, they will think twice about the offense being so in vogue.
Tomlin? He doesn\’t seem too worried about it all and the Steelers defense did do a good job last season in stopping the Redskins offense that was centered around their rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III.
Tomlin, however, has his own plans moving forward for the read-option.
“We look forward to stopping it,” Tomlin said. “We look forward to eliminating it.”
Let\’s just say that I don\’t think you have to worry about quarterback Ben Roethlisberger running the read-option anytime soon.
