The West Coast Offense

Some recent discussion of Bill Walsh and Mike Holmgren inspired me to address the West Coast Offense and its roots. I have been somewhat critical of Mike Holmgren, but that is called being realistic and honest. Some fans would have you think he has always walked on water after finally winning some playoff games in his 7th season in Seattle. I think Holmgren is great coach, but he was below-average as a GM. Holmgren owes a lot of his coaching success to good GMs in Ron Wolf and Tim Ruskell as well as the mentorship of Bill Walsh.

Walsh invented the concepts and principles of the West Coast Offense. He has many generations of disciples that fall into his coaching tree (shown below). Holmgren is widely thought to run the purest (closest to Walsh's original) form of the offense, as well as understanding the principles the best. Many other coaches have made their own changes to adjust to defenses, but Holmgren prefers to stick with what Walsh taught him to overcome anything a defense might throw his way. He is probably the only coach that can get away with this because he has the best grasp of what made Walsh's system nearly unstoppable.

Holmgren did not, however, develop Joe Montana. That was the job of Bill Walsh and Sam Wyche; Holmgren did not get there until Montana and Walsh had won two Super Bowls together. Wyche, Paul Hackett, and current Arizona head coach Dennis Green all learned from Walsh before Holmgren. I am not discounting Holmgren, but he owes his success to Bill Walsh, not the other way around. Many current NFL coaches fall into the West Coast Offense coaching tree without any ties to Holmgren, the same cannot be said of Walsh.



A good series of resources on the West Coast Offense from ESPN.com if you want to learn more:
Coaching Tree - Interactive version of the above chart
History - Len Pasquarelli
Popularity - Steve Young
Defending Against - John Clayton
Pros & Cons - Joe Theismann, Sean Salisbury, and Mark Malone