Everybody loves the inside zone.

Great piece from Ian Boyd about how the inside zone running play can be deployed effectively in almost any kind of offense you can think of.

… the inside zone running play is undoubtedly the easiest play in football to tweak in order to feature different players from different formations. There are hundreds of different philosophies on how precisely to execute the play but the underlying principle is very simple. The OL will take a quick drop or lateral step and then move downhill looking to clear a quick, vertical path for the RB to pick his way through. There’s at least one double team that the RB will be reading and the hope is to create “vertical displacement” meaning that defensive linemen are driven backwards off the line so that creases will develop as a result of successful push at different points along the line.

Since the play technically aims to hit between the tackles it can work from big or spread formations so you tend to see it from offenses of every philosophic persuasion.

Spend a couple of minutes and read through.