NFL 2013

[Scott Dolan]

FWIW: "The Indianapolis Colts, for whom Tom Moore served as an offensive coordinator since 1998, won Super Bowl XLI in February 2007. Moore coached the offense under head coaches Jim Mora, Dungy and Jim Caldwell. He oversaw the development of quarterback Peyton Manning for Manning's entire career."

A detailed account of the Moore-Manning offense. The guy says that it's basically simple, and in one sense it is -- many branches off of a basic tree -- but it sure doesn't sound simple to execute properly:

http://smartfootball.com/offense/peyton-manning-and-tom-moores-indianapolis-colts-offense#sthash.t3Fk2NET.dpbs

BTW, a classic example of a genuine system QB (IMO) would be Josh McCown with the Bears last season. An aged intelligent journeyman with moderate skills, McCown took over Marc Trestman's highly systematized offense when Jay Cutler went down and had much success simply because he read every "read" as he was supposed to in Trestman's scheme. Could he have prevailed against a Seattle-level defense? Almost certainly not. But a lot of fans thought that the Bears should dump the clearly more talented Cutler and keep McCown. If McCown plays anywhere next season (he might retire), I doubt that he'll ever have as much success again. He was a system QB in the right system with enough of the right offensive talent around him. He could take you so far but no farther.

Two quick notes here. I'd say that essentially letting Manning call the entire game from the LOS, and allowing him to audible at will, is most definitely a textbook example of "loosening the reins". I have absolutely no idea how you can argue otherwise. He's as close to being a player coach that we've ever seen in the NFL.

Secondly, there is no way to know how McKown would have fared against a defense like Seattle's. Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey are two mammoth WRs who would have posed all kinds of match up problems for that Seattle secondary. And the fans were correct that the Bears should have dumped Cutler and drafted a QB this year while having McKown as a rock solid insurance policy. Or hell, even do it like they did back in the old days and develop the youngster for a year while McKown holds down the fort.