As Chris Cooley exited an offensive staff meeting, he heard the words that offered comfort and excitement.
“We are going to get you the ball,” new Redskins coach Jim Zorn told him.
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As Clinton Portis stood against the door, a smile spread across his face as he pondered his role in Zorn’s west coast offense. Not to mention the yards he might gain.
“Things will open up,” Portis said. “It will be a more relaxed setting. I’m sure you’ll see a lot of players go wild — wild as in stats, not trouble.”
On the first day players returned for voluntary offseason workouts, players were still adapting to the post-Joe Gibbs era. But they were also upbeat about Zorn — and his offense. The Redskins past two years saw some offensive confusion as Gibbs and Al Saunders tried to mesh their philosophies, which sometimes led to a disjointed attack.
That won’t be the case under Zorn, who will double as head coach and playcaller.
“One idea, one philosophy,” Portis said. “Everyone will get on the same page. This system will be more like a spread Denver system; same strategy. … It will be more opportunity to open up. There won’t be people pulling at each other.
“We’ll have an advantage working one-on-one and exploiting matchups, which we didn’t do a lot of the last couple years.”
And Portis is well aware what this offense did for Seattle running back Shaun Alexander, who gained 1,880 yards and was named the NFL’s MVP after the 2005 season.
“If he did great in this system, I’m sure I’ll be all right,” Portis said.
Cooley has been a main target since joining the Redskins in 2004. He played in the west coast offense at Utah State. He also learned that system for a week at the Pro Bowl in February. He likes that he can break off routes more so than in the past while playing in a timing-based offense.
“Not to say I didn’t like our old offense,” Cooley said, “but it’s an offense that I think I’ll be more comfortable in. It’ll get me the ball a little shorter and let me run with the ball, which is what I’m best at. It gives me a lot of options. I can look for zones; one of my better assets as a player is finding an open spot or soft spot.”
Cooley said he’s not sure exactly how he’ll be used, whether he’ll be used as an H-back as he was in the past. “I don’t even know what an H-back is; I still don’t.
“What a good coach will do is take advantage of their personnel and what they can do. I do all kinds of things.”
