Pistol formations and read-option offenses took the NFL by storm in 2012, and the Seattle Seahawks were involved. The Seahawks used the read option more and more as the season moved along, though it never became anything close to a base package for playcaller Darrell Bevell.
A handful of NFL observers believe the read option is a fad that will eventually fade, ala the Wildcat package. That NFL defenses will “figure out” the zone read just as they did the Wildcat. And it will go away.
Quarterback Russell Wilson isn’t worried about Seattle’s read-option package being solved because the Seahawks have been careful to use it as a change-of-pace offensive play and not the foundation of their run-play design. (The Redskins and Panthers, for instance, might fall more into the latter category.)
“I definitely think it’s here to stay,” Wilson told WSCR in Chicago, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “In terms of the read option, it’s just a changeup for us. We may run 15, maybe 20 percent, of our runs are the read-options plays.”
Wilson also explained why Seattle’s read-option package, in particular, works with such efficiency.
“Yeah, it’s tough to stop,” he said. “I think the thing with us, and why it works so efficient for us, is we love throwing the ball out of the formation. We do a lot of things, a lot of play action, a lot of different looks.”