Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs first began using the single-back as a base offense in order to move defenders off the line of scrimmage. He found that having an extra receiver on the line forced defenses to choose their poison by either defending the pass or the run because they were not able to focus on both at once using the amount of personnel that they had on the field. He also then began utilizing sets of two tight ends as blockers mainly to protect his quarterbacks from Lawrence Taylor. He believed having an extra blocker on the line would make it easier to keep Taylor out of his backfield. By using different formations and motion before the ball was snapped, he also found that he could confuse defenders on whether the play would be a pass or a run.