I’m skeptical of using Berry on offense. One the one hand, there’s definitely value to placing him with Jones on the field at the same time. The dude would be a sweet lead blocker in addition to his ball skills. Heck, a 4-man Single-Wingish backfield with Jones, Berry, Hardesty and Cooper would be absolute dynamite. Add in any two of our tight ends, and you’d have an offensive set that could switch fluidly between a power run kind of game to a spread-’em-out look without having to change personnel. (Or you could place all three tight ends on the field with one in place of either Hardesty or Cooper!) You could run a no-huddle out of that and flip from one extreme to the other, which would place fantastic pressure on the opposing defense.

However, it’s not a sustainable idea unless you remove Berry from the defense. Despite the “there’s an injury risk on every play” theory, it’s not a linear progression of risk. Berry’s already full-time on defense and effectively full-time on special teams. At this point, each added play contributes more than one play’s worth of injury risk due to fatigue and wear considerations. To place Berry on the field for the offense, you now have to limit his plays elsewhere.

If you limit his plays on special teams, that buys you a few plays – but only a few. That’s not enough to warrant a significant offensive package with Berry on the field. You could rotate him in for a play or two (much like the way the G-Gun has been run), but that comes at the deterioration of our already-inept special teams play. There may be some gain, but it’s not going to be what many people are hoping for.

If you limit his plays on defense, you could be more expansive with the Berry-Jone concept. But yeah, you’re taking the best player away from a defensive unit that is effectively holding the team together right now. We don’t know where the tipping point is for the defense from being very good to being mediocre; limiting Berry might be that tipping point.

I believe that the key to getting Berry involved on offense is to first figure out how to keep the defense off the field. If the D can get better at 3rd-down stops and the O can do a better job at sustaining drives then the number of defensive plays will diminish. That is the best place (IMO) for the team to find the margin that allows Berry to play on offense. But even that requires the offense to get better, which is the biggest argument put forward for Berry’s use on offense in the first place. It’s kinda like needed gas in the tank in order to drive out and get gas in the tank.

Any time Berry has the ball in his hands I feel hes never going to stop going. Theres been plenty of players who are used on offense defense and even special teams as well. I think a Berry wrinkle on offense could only put an “uh oh” factor against opposing defenses. However, once again it seems penalties are slowing the offense more than we think. argh!

Berry does look great when he has the ball in his hands, but he is also going up against an offense that just committed a turnover, not a defense that is keying on him.

That said, he is obviously a dynamic player (played QB in college), so I think if there is some way we can intelligently use him on offense, that would be awesome.

QB in highscool.

The main thing I find intriguing about having Jones and Berry both in the backfield on offense is that it puts our two most dynamic players in position to run either direction. The Jones/Foster dive play has worked pretty well, with Foster hitting a 41-yarder against UCLA (I think) and Jones generally doing pretty well when he keeps it instead. Substitute Berry for Foster, and you have dual jets. Which way is it going to go? Whichever way it blasts off, it’s going to go fast. And with wiggle.

Is that we apparently had this package ready to use against Auburn. We desperately needed just a first down or two to put ourselves in position to win. Our “regular” offense was doing nothing effective. And yet we still didn’t try Berry on O. Why not? Pucker factor?