Bill Walsh and the West Coast Offense
Bill Walsh became the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, pioneering the West Coast offense in the process. The offensive scheme emphasized passing more than running the ball. The short passing game takes the place of the run to control the ball and prevent opponents from loading up the box.
In the 1980s, Walsh made the offense famous and changed the game of football forever, as coaches tried to emulate his offensive system. While it may have become popular in the 1980s, Walsh first began running the offense in the late 1960s.
From 1968 to 1975, Bill Walsh was the assistant coach for the Cincinnati Bengals under Paul Brown. In 1971, Bengals quarterback Virgil Carter successfully ran the West Coast offense, as he led the NFL in completion percentage. The scheme calls for many short passes, making it easier for a QB’s completion percentage to be high. Even after Walsh left the Bengals, the team continued to use his system. In 1981, head coach Forrest Gregg built upon the West Coast offense helping quarterback Ken Anderson to win the NFL MVP and lead the Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance.
Walsh would then head out West to become the San Francisco 49ers’ head coach from 1979 to 1988. He drafted quarterback Joe Montana out of Notre Dame to help bring his offensive vision to life.
Montana was outstanding in the system, leading the 49ers to 3 Super Bowl wins under Walsh’s tenure. During that stretch Montana would also win three Super Bowl MVPs and two NFL MVP awards. Many continue to believe that Joe Montana is the greatest quarterback of all time, regardless of the exploits of a New England Patriots quarterback who grew up idolizing him, Tom Brady.
Jerry Rice was another player that benefited greatly from Walsh. Rice came from the small college of Mississippi Valley State. In Rice’s second season under Walsh, he caught 86 passes for 1,570 yards and 15 touchdowns. In 1987, Rice caught a league-high 22 touchdowns, which was almost unheard of for a receiver at that time. Rice thrived under the West Coast Offense, as he was the perfect player to catch short passes and take them to the house for a touchdown.
In San Francisco, Walsh’s West Coast offense was slightly different from previous versions as he used running backs and fullbacks out the backfield to catch passes. In 1985, Roger Craig became the first running back ever to run for 1,000 yards and have 1,000 yards receiving. Craig rushed for 1,050 yards and caught 92 passes for 1,016 yards that season. Adding the running back to the passing game made the offense dynamic.
Walsh’s fingerprints are all over the modern NFL game. With running backs catching passes out the backfield and the majority of offensive coordinators borrowing from his West Coast concepts. One of the most impressive things about Walsh is all the coaches on his coaching tree who continue to espouse his offensive principles to this day.
The tree begins with Walsh, who produced Jim Fassel, Dennis Green, Paul Hackett, Mike Holmgren, George Seifert, and Sam Wyche as coaches. Dennis Green then produced Tony Dungy as a coach, who produced Rod Marinelli, Lovie Smith, and Mike Tomlin. Because of Walsh’s help mentoring his assistants, the sequence and production of new head coaches continued, eventually leading to the rise of some of the NFL’s current coaches including Jon Gruden, John Harbaugh, and Andy Reid.
Bill Walsh did a lot for the game of football, and also created habits coaches continue to use even in 2022. One thing he liked to do, which continues to be emulated by a coach with a love affair for cut off hoodies up north, was get rid of players before they hit the back 9 of their careers.
That’s why you saw players like Joe Montana on the Kansas City Chiefs, or Ronnie Lott and Jerry Rice on the Raiders. Bill Belichick may have invented “the Patriot way”, but Walsh was putting similar principles into practice well before Belichick patrolled the sidelines in Foxborough. Walsh will forever be known as an NFL innovator and one of the best coaches of all time.
-LaMarr Fields
Twitter: @raiderway83