Offensive Coordinator Joe Brady has said that his philosophy on offense is to force the defense to defend every blade of grass and to get his speed in space. True to his word, that’s exactly what the Panthers are doing.

Carolina has some elite speed on offense with Curtis Samuel running a 4.31, Robby Anderson at 4.36, and DJ Moore running a 4.42. Pair that with a running back in Christian McCaffrey who runs a 4.49 and it’s an absolute nightmare for defensive coordinators. But how can you use that speed with a quarterback that can struggle to push the ball down the field in Teddy Bridgewater? You stretch the hell out of defenses horizontally.

Brady is bringing a lot of his spread concepts from LSU and New Orleans and is attacking defenses with trips and a multitude of empty formations. He has diced teams up with the Stick and Shallow Cross concepts. He’ll switch route assignments, dress things up, and force defenses into one-on-one coverage scenarios against a group of skill players that is the second-fastest in the league behind only the Kansas City Chiefs.

Brady has said before that he’s all about putting his players in the right spot to succeed and with these concepts, he’s maximizing his teams’ speed and his quarterback’s accuracy. What’s really interesting though is his adaptations of simple concepts that are eating defenses up in these first four weeks and how his formations are adding to that defensive stress.

Let’s take a look at how Joe Brady is taking the Panthers’ offense to the next level.