5 arguments for the Eagles giving Kenneth Gainwell more snaps at WR
By Hunter Doyle
We’ve seen demonstrations of this with Kenneth Gainwell already in 2021.
Kenneth Gainwell was used on orbit motions earlier this season especially against the Chiefs. In 2020, Doug Pederson ran that with Reagor a few times and Andy Reid runs it often with Tyreek Hill.
There are plenty of teams who run it every Sunday similar to jet motion. It’s a good way to either get Gainwell the ball on a swing pass with a full head of steam or draw in aggressive defenses and open up the intermediate part of the field. While it is common to see it run out of the shotgun formation, teams will also run it from under center with the possibility of an end-around on inside zone plays.
A counter to orbit motion can be as simple as the orbit return motion: Gainwell runs to the backfield but instead of running past Jalen Hurts for a swing route, Gainwell returns to the side he came from and runs a swing route. Here’s an example courtesy of Bobby Peters:
The first time I saw the Orbit-Return pass was Trestman's Bears in 2014 Week 4. Alabama making good use of it in the low red zone last night. pic.twitter.com/43919KPgyi
— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 13, 2021
Seems easy enough. Let’s continue.