We know Travis would never do this type of thing to showboat. I do wonder if a big part of this was knowing he was hurt and trying to pass off to someone who could run better or take more hits. Or if he just knew the bengals were going to swarm at him as soon as he got the ball knowing they bulletin board posting that they’d knock him around as soon as he got the ball. I’m guessing both. Guy is way too football smart to try this multiple times if there wasn’t a strategy in mind
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It wasn't a real trick play. Jerrick had no idea Travis was going to pitch that ball at him, you can tell in the highlights.

Now, if it was a trick play, a couple things would have to be tweaked, like Kelce would have to be at least 3-4 yards closer to the sideline, basically standing on the numbers. And McKinnon would have to sprint the first part of that wheel route. I know, it wasn't a real wheel, it was just a flat that Jerrick turned upfield when he saw all that green ahead of him. But if they wanted to turn it into a trick play, they'd have to get the two of them closer together and McKinnon would have to hustle through the turn upfield for the timing to work out right.
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I was at the Lions game in 2019 when he lateraled to McCoy for a big gain. It genuinely could be a real part of our offense if it were scripted. And I wouldn’t entirely put that past Reid at some point.
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I liked the idea if used at the correct time. Aggressive good. Running the ball on 1st down bad.
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I was wondering if Andy added that play to get Cincinnati to think twice about bum-rushing to Kelce to hold him up and strip him again. They would be rushing to Kelce leaving the guy wide open down the sideline.

I guess not per the podcast. If he had made a good lateral that was probably gone a long ways and maybe a TD with a move.
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Well yeah, I don’t mean to say it was a designed trick play. It may not have been called that way but Travis was trying to make it a trick play.
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Yeah, I watched the podcast last night, and I was surprised that Kelce said that he had the okay from Andy to try that in a game for awhile now. But after he thought about it (but didn't do it) a little later, Andy pulled him off the field and actually told him to shelf the lateral thing until further notice.
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It had potential but yeah everyone needs to be prepped for it

Like when a team starts a game or a half off with an onside kick, why not try another type of desperate situation play in a non-desperate time of the game to steal a score
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Karma was against the Bengals arrogance or it may have been disaster
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Sure when it works it’s great. But what if the play breaks down? Travis has talked about why he doesn’t throw passes anymore. Because they designed a trick play for him and instead of throwing the ball away on a blown play he threw a meatball interception. This time around McKinnon was far far away but he wanted to try it anyway because he had it in his head that he could make it work. Travis is a lot of great things but he’s probably a liability in these situations where we ask him to do something besides receive and run. He doesn’t have the elite instincts he has as a receiver to shut his excitement down when he is determined to make something happen
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I like the advantage it could bring but it looked like he could use some more practice. First toss was bad, second toss was indecisive... not very inspiring.
So then, do they use practice time for this? I'm not so sure. Maybe send Kelce to baseball camp in the off-season?
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I've always wondered if Andy has a reverse lateral play in that bag of tricks. Something like a trips flood concept, with whoever coming from the other way underneath that flood of receivers that takes the lateral. The flood should draw the entire secondary to the wrong side, so easy TD?

I mean, it's kind of crazy, but we do lateral reverses all the time behind the LoS, so 5-10 yards upfield shouldn't be that big of a deal.
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Was not a fan
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I don’t know if it’s practice. For me it’s more about instinct. I don’t care if a punter played qb in high school, there are so many scenarios where a play breaks down and the punter makes an insanely bad decision with a fake that a fake punt scares the hell out of me. Practice can’t prepare you for all these scenarios when a play breaks down
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Not sure if we'll ever see it, but that really would be the next frontier of football if someone got really aggressive. The same way some NBA teams play positionless basketball. Be able to field a team with 2-3 former QBs out there you could trust to run laterals, double passes, things like that. You'd be able to create some real matchup nightmares.
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