Dolfan Radio | The Offense
By Brad Michaels • July 10, 2026
Same tree as McDaniel. Different quarterback. Different receivers. Same requirement: the run has to be real or the shot play is just a prayer with better font.
Tua is gone. Hill is gone. Waddle is gone. The old offense was built to throw the ball to two of the fastest players in the league and let the defense choose which fire to put out. This one cannot do that. Malik Willis is the starter. De’Von Achane is the one proven difference-maker left on this side of the ball. The receivers are a young room that has to grow in public. That is the personnel. The philosophy has to fit it, not the other way around.
Hafley said it at the start: he is not dropping a playbook on the table and running it regardless of who is here. He likes being under center. He likes running it so the play-action actually splits the second and third level. Slowik is the Shanahan-tree version of that sentence. Tempo and motion to keep the picture moving. Outside zone and gap to stretch the defense. Play-action and RPO to punish a linebacker who bites. A vertical shot when the safety sits down. None of that is new. All of it dies if the line loses first-and-10.
No-huddle as a tool, not a personality. Wear a front down. Steal a look. Do not run into a loaded box just because the clock is moving.
Outside zone and gap. Achane is the explosive. Wright and Gordon are the committee. Herman is the fullback the scheme asked for.
Play-action that looks like a run. Keepers for Willis. Deep balls only after the safety has to honor the mesh.
Washington, Tolbert, a draft class, Dulcich if he stays healthy. That is not Hill and Waddle. Stop waiting for it to be.
Willis. Live arm. Real legs. Six career starts. The flash and the mistake live in the same series. Designed runs are part of the offense now, not a scramble when the protection dies. If he protects the ball, this philosophy has a chance. If he does not, the season becomes a documentary about the backup.
Achane. Everything else on this side of the ball is a projection. He is not. Health is the whole sentence. A Slowik call sheet that forgets to get him the ball in space is a call sheet that is arguing with its best player.
The line. Paul, Jackson, Brewer, Savaiinaea, Proctor. Two waiver tackles behind that because Sunday’s 53 was not Monday’s 53. You cannot talk outside zone with a straight face if first-and-10 is a loss of two. Watch the first two drives every week before you watch the box score. That line is in the season preview for a reason. It is in this piece for the same reason.
The pass catchers. Motion, jet, seams, the occasional shot. Tight ends who can block and then leak. That is the 2026 version of “speed.” It is slower than the last version and it has to be smarter.
Read this next to the Slowik piece. One is the idea. One is the man calling it. The season preview is what we think the record looks like when both of those meet Kansas City and Buffalo. Four wins is still the weather. The rooms are still the climate.
Does this offense have an identity by Week 4, or is it still a tree looking for a trunk? Leave it in the comments.