The Ravens had a rotten offensive day on Sunday, mostly because the team was a mess without Lamar Jackson — but one play caught everyone’s attention. In the first quarter we saw a 29-yard pass to right end Josh Cuevas, lined up at left guard, more or less tearing up everything we know about offensive football.
First there’s “Player Positioning by Snap,” which reads:
“Eligible receivers must be on both ends of the line and all players on the line between them must be ineligible receivers.”
The Ravens still had wide receivers eligible, satisfying the first part of the rule — and Cuevas was out on this play, meaning everyone between the two players on the line was ineligible. It also confirmed that Cuevas’ position would not be an ineligible recipient as defined by the rules, because:
“Players who are not at least one yard behind the end of their line or when the ball is snapped.”
Again, Cueva was out of line — making him a legitimate, eligible receiver.
It will catch or not, maybe not. It was a pretty good game of football, but Baltimore OC Dylan Doyle will probably only get a shot or two this season. Sticking hard at the left guard position is just asking for a DT who can pass off the line of scrimmage to absolutely shed the tight end as a blocker, with the play relying entirely on defensive trickery and not knowing who’s up.
Moreover, teams will study this film and their defenses will pay more attention to the positioning of players on both offensive lines – as well as which players will report first as receivers. Believe it or not, this play has been run before in the NFL. It’s not like Declan Doyle invented the game, it just wasn’t used because, again, having five exceptional blocking linemen in the NFL is a very important thing, unless you want your quarterback to be spread in a pancake.
It’s still fun to see and realize how many elements of the NFL rulebook can still be bent.
