The Cleveland Browns and the “West Coast” Offense.

There has been a great deal of speculation over whether or not the “West Coast” offense can be a successful philosophy in the AFC North. Many are convinced that in a run-heavy division like the AFC North it is simply not a favorable philosophy. But what is the “West Coast” offense? And where did it come from? The answers may surprise you.
The common philosophy in many offensive schemes is as follows. To be a successful offense, you must establish the run in order to be successful in the passing game. But the West Coast philosophy differs.
The basic philosophy which has come to be known as the “West Coast Offense” is to execute short horizontal passes in order to stretch the defense. This can cause the defense to become vulnerable to deeper passes and longer runs. Many attribute this philosophy to Bill Walsh who successfully implemented his offense in San Francisco. But it was former Cleveland Browns, and hall of fame head coach Paul Brown that was the originator of this playbook. Paul Brown’s success in the NFL is well documented, not only in Cleveland with the Browns, but he was also the founder of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Walsh’s exposure and implementation to this offensive philosophy came while he was an assistant coach at Cincinnati under Paul Brown from 1968-1975. Walsh later took a modified version of this offense to San Francisco when he became a head coach. Walsh won three Super Bowls with this offense, but It was not until 1985 after a playoff loss to the New York Giants (17-3) when the term “West Coast” was applied to Walsh’s offensive scheme. Then head coach of the Giants Bill Parcells made a comment after the game poking fun at Walsh’s scheme, “How do you like that West Coast offense now?”. Later in 1993 Bernie Kosar used the term to describe the offensive system used by the Dallas Cowboys as the “West Coast” offense in an article published in Sports Illustrated. Although he was referring to the “Air Coryell” style of offense (Similar offense popularized by Don Coryell with the Chargers in the 1970’s & 80’s), it was mistaken that Kosar was referring to Bill Walsh’s philosophy and the term stuck.
Needless to say this style of offense has become popular among many coaches over the years such as George Seifert, Mike Shanahan, and Mike Holmgren just to name a few. And as each coach who is taught this philosophy, they will take it, and make their own variation. It has been wildly successful for many teams and in various weather conditions. Current head coach of the Cleveland Browns Pat Shurmur uses this philosophy, and as time goes by, and as players become familiar with the system we will hopefully see success in the future.
Michael W. Youngman ( Lead Analyst )

http://www.clevelandbrownsreport.info/2012/03/cleveland-browns-and-west-coast-offense.html