Washington Commanders’ Kliff Kingsbury on why fouls are happening more than ever

Ashburn, VA. — If you watch NFL football these days and think you see more movement from teams like the Washington Commanders than ever, you’re right.

This year alone, Kliff Kingsbury, Commander’s offensive coordinator, has devised a type of pre- or at-snap move that fundamentally changes the starting formation. His unit has reached the line 78 times in six games.

That number is higher than in his time before Washington, when he last played as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. In 2022, his final season there, that offense changed its starting formation 72 times in the same sample size. The year before there were 60. So you could say that there has been an increase in exercise use, but that does not only apply to Kingsbury.

“I think the game is just cyclical and people will see certain teams doing it that have had a certain level of success and then it’s like, ‘Oh okay, well we could add that and we could do it this way do and be able to add this wrinkle.” Kingsbury said of the increase in exercise specifically “And I think that’s what you’re going through and I’m sure it will transition to something else here in a few months. But yeah, it’s definitely being picked up. I see a lot of people doing it and I know it’s a challenge for the defense.”

94 of the Commanders’ 215 dropbacks this season have featured some form of movement. But even that 44 percent figure isn’t very high compared to the rest of the league.

While Washington uses motion on nearly half of its dropbacks, the league leaders are the Houston Texans, who have turned in 175 of 252 opportunities in the passing game alone. That is a usage rate of 69 percent.

The Commanders have also used motion on 46 percent of their run plays, putting them somewhere in the middle of the NFL pack.

Kingsbury is right, of course, and it may be a growing fad at the moment, but it will soon be forgotten when the next one comes along. Who knows what that will be?

For now, Washington is enjoying the current trend of its offense ranking much higher in production metrics compared to usage metrics — a clear sign that the team has been very effective in exploiting this latest NFL trend.

*data used in this article comes primarily from Sports info solutions

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