RaminExile
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I'm afraid you are absolutely right. I don't like it, but I understand it.
The MMQB Training Camp Tour Blog
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I'm afraid you are absolutely right. I don't like it, but I understand it.
- Joined
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- Peter
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- #42
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/08/28/cincinnati-bengals-training-camp-report
Cincinnati Bengals Training Camp Report
The Bengals are hungrier than ever after four-straight one-and-dones. Can a now-healthy Geno Atkins and Tyler Eifert lift Cincinnati over its playoff hump?
by Robert Klemko
What I saw: Bengals scrimmage at Paul Brown Stadium.
Three things you need to know about the Bengals:
1. They’re hungrier than I’ve ever seen them. I’ve been in the Bengals locker room a number of times in the last three years, and something’s different this time around. To a man, they’re tired of the Andy Dalton questions after four straight years of one-and-done playoff appearances. They’ve owned these playoff failures as a product of the collective.
Perhaps safety George Iloka said it best: “Our playoff losses have been team losses, not on one particular person. There’s no, I lost or he lost. We all lost… When we got to the playoffs, nobody took their game to the next level."
2. It’s obvious, after watching this team with a dominant Geno Atkins in 2013, and watching them with a ho-hum Geno Atkins still recovering from a torn ACL the following year, he is the straw that stirs the drink. If you were to make a list of the defensive players most valuable to their team’s fortunes in 2015, he would be No. 2, right behind JJ Watt. In 2013, Atkins made Michael Johnson look like an all-pro end worthy of a five-year, $43.75 million deal in Tampa that offseason. Johnson was released after one season and finds himself back in Atkins’ good company in the starting lineup. The sixth-year defensive tackle isn’t talking to the media in training camp, but the consensus is he’s back to his 2013 form.
3. Tyler Eifert may be the weapon that puts Dalton over the hump. He’s been more than just a safety valve for the quarterback, who seldom targeted Eifert’s predecessor, Jermaine Gresham. A first-round pick in 2013, Eifert’s been the star of Bengals camp after playing just one game a year ago, dislocating his elbow against the Ravens. A healthy Eifert means a reliable blocker who can be a safe outlet for Dalton, who is not above throwing dangerous lobs to a double-covered A.J. Green when no check downs present themselves.
Player I saw that I really liked: Rex Burkhead. The former sixth-round pick out of Nebraska had a big impact wherever he lined up in practice, whether in the backfield or the slot. He’s got a real mastery of the offense and a quick first step that translates to route-running and running off tackle. A career special-teamer, he flashed some offensive ability in last season’s playoff loss to Indianapolis, totaling 57 yards on just four touches.
Player on the roster that I forgot about: AJMcCarron. How could I forget about possibly the greatest college quarterback of all time? The three-time national champion and fifth-round pick in 2014 has a new attitude, and from the sounds of things, has conducted himself behind the scenes like a big league quarterback this training camp for the first time since his arrival in Cincy.
Five dot-dot-dot observations: I think the coaches like what they see from third-year running back Rex Burkhead, so much so that Burkhead could begin dipping into Gio Bernard allotment of reps behind Jeremy Hill…
Second-year center Russell Bodine’s issues with accurately snapping the football have been an unwelcome storyline at camp, and haven’t waned late in August. Bodine himself chalks them up to an offseason technique tweak…
Defensive end Michael Johnson is progressing as expected with a sprained MCL suffered in early August. There is little doubt about his availability for the season…
Third-round rookie linebacker Paul Dawson has shown flashes of brilliance as a ballhawk in practice, but his off-field maturity remains a bit of a question mark for coaches…
Three years since the Bengals drafted cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick 17th overall out of Alabama, he looks more than ready to be a full-time starter.
What I’ll remember about Cincinnati: George Iloka, laying the wood on helpless Bengals teammates in a scrimmage low on both contact and adrenaline. Iloka is a known striker around the league and doesn't appear to let up too much when the targets share his locker room.
Gut feeling about the Bengals: I could see three playoff teams coming out of the AFC North again (last year, the Ravens, Steelers and Bengals all made it). I could also see the Nov. 1 and Dec. 13 meetings between the Bengals and the Steelers deciding who gets the wild card and who watches from home. My gut says the Bengals sweep that matchup, if anybody’s going to sweep it, but that’s a projection based on several players coming back from injury (Geno Atkins included). Prediction: 9-7.
Cincinnati Bengals Training Camp Report
The Bengals are hungrier than ever after four-straight one-and-dones. Can a now-healthy Geno Atkins and Tyler Eifert lift Cincinnati over its playoff hump?
by Robert Klemko
What I saw: Bengals scrimmage at Paul Brown Stadium.
Three things you need to know about the Bengals:
1. They’re hungrier than I’ve ever seen them. I’ve been in the Bengals locker room a number of times in the last three years, and something’s different this time around. To a man, they’re tired of the Andy Dalton questions after four straight years of one-and-done playoff appearances. They’ve owned these playoff failures as a product of the collective.
Perhaps safety George Iloka said it best: “Our playoff losses have been team losses, not on one particular person. There’s no, I lost or he lost. We all lost… When we got to the playoffs, nobody took their game to the next level."
2. It’s obvious, after watching this team with a dominant Geno Atkins in 2013, and watching them with a ho-hum Geno Atkins still recovering from a torn ACL the following year, he is the straw that stirs the drink. If you were to make a list of the defensive players most valuable to their team’s fortunes in 2015, he would be No. 2, right behind JJ Watt. In 2013, Atkins made Michael Johnson look like an all-pro end worthy of a five-year, $43.75 million deal in Tampa that offseason. Johnson was released after one season and finds himself back in Atkins’ good company in the starting lineup. The sixth-year defensive tackle isn’t talking to the media in training camp, but the consensus is he’s back to his 2013 form.
3. Tyler Eifert may be the weapon that puts Dalton over the hump. He’s been more than just a safety valve for the quarterback, who seldom targeted Eifert’s predecessor, Jermaine Gresham. A first-round pick in 2013, Eifert’s been the star of Bengals camp after playing just one game a year ago, dislocating his elbow against the Ravens. A healthy Eifert means a reliable blocker who can be a safe outlet for Dalton, who is not above throwing dangerous lobs to a double-covered A.J. Green when no check downs present themselves.
Player I saw that I really liked: Rex Burkhead. The former sixth-round pick out of Nebraska had a big impact wherever he lined up in practice, whether in the backfield or the slot. He’s got a real mastery of the offense and a quick first step that translates to route-running and running off tackle. A career special-teamer, he flashed some offensive ability in last season’s playoff loss to Indianapolis, totaling 57 yards on just four touches.
Player on the roster that I forgot about: AJMcCarron. How could I forget about possibly the greatest college quarterback of all time? The three-time national champion and fifth-round pick in 2014 has a new attitude, and from the sounds of things, has conducted himself behind the scenes like a big league quarterback this training camp for the first time since his arrival in Cincy.
Five dot-dot-dot observations: I think the coaches like what they see from third-year running back Rex Burkhead, so much so that Burkhead could begin dipping into Gio Bernard allotment of reps behind Jeremy Hill…
Second-year center Russell Bodine’s issues with accurately snapping the football have been an unwelcome storyline at camp, and haven’t waned late in August. Bodine himself chalks them up to an offseason technique tweak…
Defensive end Michael Johnson is progressing as expected with a sprained MCL suffered in early August. There is little doubt about his availability for the season…
Third-round rookie linebacker Paul Dawson has shown flashes of brilliance as a ballhawk in practice, but his off-field maturity remains a bit of a question mark for coaches…
Three years since the Bengals drafted cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick 17th overall out of Alabama, he looks more than ready to be a full-time starter.
What I’ll remember about Cincinnati: George Iloka, laying the wood on helpless Bengals teammates in a scrimmage low on both contact and adrenaline. Iloka is a known striker around the league and doesn't appear to let up too much when the targets share his locker room.
Gut feeling about the Bengals: I could see three playoff teams coming out of the AFC North again (last year, the Ravens, Steelers and Bengals all made it). I could also see the Nov. 1 and Dec. 13 meetings between the Bengals and the Steelers deciding who gets the wild card and who watches from home. My gut says the Bengals sweep that matchup, if anybody’s going to sweep it, but that’s a projection based on several players coming back from injury (Geno Atkins included). Prediction: 9-7.
- Joined
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- #43
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/08/31/arizona-cardinals-carson-palmer-empty-offense-nfl-2015-preview
Carson Palmer, the Cards and an Offense on ‘Empty’
How Bruce Arians’ system thrives on spread concepts and big plays, and why the return of a healthy Carson Palmer makes them one of the league’s most dangerous offenses again
by Andy Benoit
Have you noticed that NFL teams more and more seem to be lining up in empty formations? With only the quarterback in the backfield, most of these empty sets feature spread alignments, with three eligible receivers to the wide side of the field and two eligible receivers split to the short side.
The tactic seems counterintuitive, if you think about it. Going empty lifts a significant mental burden off of the defense. For one, there’s no longer the possibility of a run (barring a QB draw). Defensive linemen can pin their ears back and prepare to tee-off; linebackers and safeties don’t have to worry about play-action.
These pass rushers teeing off are likely to face one-on-one blocking, too. With nobody in the backfield, there’s nobody to help an overmatched offensive tackle with chip blocks or double-teams. And there’s nobody to pick up an extra blitzer, should one come.
Occasionally a tight end still positioned up on the line of scrimmage can provide some of this help. But that’s usually limited or nonexistent. Often an empty set has the tight end detached from the formation, kicked to either one of the slots or even split out wide, near the sideline. That’s because the main benefit of going empty is spreading the field with all five of your eligible targets. That benefit is a considerable one—otherwise the empty formation would not be catching on like it is.
No team makes greater use of empty than the Cardinals. We didn’t always get to see this last season because their quarterback position was bitten ruthlessly by the injury bug three different times: a Carson Palmer shoulder nerve problem after Week 1; a Palmer ACL tear in Week 10 (just four games after the shoulder healed) and a Drew Stanton knee injury in Week 15. Head coach Bruce Arians retreated from some of the empty sets when Stanton was in there. And he did not employ them as much with Ryan Lindley, either.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
It must have been hard for Arians and his team to not play the “What If?” game after January. What if Palmer had stayed healthy? In the six full contests he played, the Cardinals averaged 275 yards through the air (sixth best in the league) and 25.8 points (eighth). Without him, they ranked 29th in passing and 32nd in scoring.
Palmer is the reason the Cardinals can flourish in empty sets. It’s not that he’s a superstar quarterback (those days are past), it’s that he’s a very professional one. He’s tough and fundamentally sound in the pocket. He’s smart and works smoothly from one progression to the next. Progression reads are the nexus of Arians’ system—Arians calls it a “scratch where it itches” system, meaning it’s not tethered to any one player. Instead, it’s tailored to exploiting a defense’s specific weaknesses via aerial concepts. (This is why Larry Fitzgerald has seen his numbers diminish under Arians, even if his skills have not.)
Many of these concepts include route combinations that attack at the deep-intermediate levels. The empty sets are a great way to do this. In them—as well as in the 3 x 1 formations that have become a staple for Arizona and across the NFL—Arians utilizes a Don Coryell principle: traditional three-receiver route combination on the front side that is designed to move the ball 8-15 yards, and a downfield route concept on the back side that’s designed to hit a home run.
The best example of this came on wide receiver John Brown’s 75-yard, game-winning touchdown against the Eagles in Week 8. On that play, Brown ran a slant-and-go (aka “sluggo”) from the back side of a spread empty set, while the three front side receivers ran flat, curl and seam patterns—the white bread of midrange route combinations.
Brown’s touchdown was not the only explosive downfield play out of empty. Such vertical success here is unusual because, despite the rise of spread formations, most deep shots in today’s NFL still take place out of running formations, where elongated play-action can influence a deep safety. In running formations, you can keep six, and often seven, players in as pass protectors, affording the quarterback and receivers enough time to stretch the field.
That’s not possible with the empty sets, where offensive linemen are mostly forced to block on an island. That’s the reason Palmer, playing behind an athletically substandard front five, sometimes disliked the high volume of empty in Arizona’s scheme early on. And it’s surely one of the reasons GM Steve Keim spent $10.5 million in guarantees last year to sign left tackle Jared Veldheer and $15.75 million in full guarantees this year to bring in ex-Niners three-time Pro Bowl guard Mike Iupati.
Veldheer’s addition helped, and so will Iupati’s (once he’s recovered from a knee injury), but they won’t make the O-line impermeable. Tackle Bobbie Massie is still a liability on the right side. So much so, in fact, that green-but-talented first-round pick D.J. Humphries might finagle a starting job sometime during his rookie year. And at right guard Jonathan Cooper, unable to capture a starting job ahead of middling journeyman Ted Larsen last year, is a major question mark.
Empty will always require a quarterback who knows what he’s looking at, both pre- and post-snap. What Palmer will see in 2015, at least on his side after the snap, are a lot of speedy targets running routes. Fitzgerald isn’t necessarily fast (though he can still run away from certain defenders) but John Brown has wheels. And Michael Floyd is a long-strider who covers ground effortlessly. At tight end, last year’s second-round pick, Troy Niklas, (if healthy) brings more athleticism than the position has seen since Arians’ arrival in 2013.
And then there’s running back Andre Ellington, a big play threat whenever the ball is in his hands. Ellington is an uncommonly natural receiver, both in terms of catching and route execution. When the Cardinals go empty with him and four wideouts (which they do often), they’re essentially playing with five wide receivers against no more than four cornerbacks. If an opponent wants to guard Ellington with a linebacker, he’ll split out. If they want to guard him with a defensive back, you can bet Ellington will shift back to behind the QB and take a handoff.
Handoffs, by the way, were not Arizona’s forte in 2014. With and without Palmer, their rushing attack was putrid. Ellington is dangerous on the perimeter, but he’s not built to provide a foundational between-the-tackles ground game. This further explains the Iupati signing; he has good short-area mobility on pull blocks and brings much needed straight-line power for inside zone blocks.
It also explains why Keim spent a third-round pick on Northern Iowa tailback David Johnson and signed free agent Chris Johnson. With these additions, the Cards are equipped for better offensive balance in 2015. But that balance won’t mean anything if they don’t stay aggressive and creative out of empty.
With Antonio Cromartie gone, the Cardinals have a decision to make on Tyrann Mathieu’s role. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Getty Images)
Cardinals Nickel Package
1. How will the defense look under new coordinator James Bettcher? A lot like it looked under Todd Bowles. Or so Arians hopes. Bettcher, previously the club’s outside linebackers coach, was appointed to the position because his philosophy most aligns with Arians’. Both men believe in an attack-oriented scheme. They’ll have to; even with the second-round selection of outside linebacker Markus Golden, the Cardinals are short on natural pass rushers (unless veteran pickup LaMarr Woodley has an unexpected renaissance).
Alex Okafor showed flickers of pass-rushing prowess during an eight-sack 2014 campaign, but he has yet to show the week-to-week impact that strikes fear in an offense. Expect a continued heavy serving of double-A-gap pressure concepts from this defense.
2. The loss of Antonio Cromartie to the Jets was huge—maybe even a deathblow for a D that’s built on pressure (and therefore, on corners being able to match up in man-to-man). The lanky Cromartie was a stalwart opposite No. 1 cover corner Patrick Peterson (who, by the way, needs to be a lot more consistent this season). Most importantly, though, Cromartie’s presence allowed Jerraud Powers to play the slot, where he’s 10 times more comfortable.
And that allowed Tyrann Mathieu to focus fulltime on safety, where there are fewer change-of-direction demands on his surgically repaired knee. With Powers now the No. 2 corner, Bettcher, Arians and defensive backs coach Nick Rapone must decide whether to take a chance and return Mathieu to the slot in nickel—where, granted, he’s an excellent cover guy and blitzer—or keep him safe back in space and roll the dice with Justin Bethel as the No. 3 corner outside. None of these options are ideal.
3. Expect to see more of Deone Bucannon at linebacker this season. Last year, as a rookie, he played linebacker in Arizona’s dime package, which Bowles employed on a league-high 60% of snaps. There were two reasons for this: (1) Bucannon was sensational. A thick but lanky 210-(or-so)-pounder, he’s good in traffic and can match up in short area coverage against most tight ends. He’s also ferocious on inside blitz concepts. The other reason for the dime: Arizona had an awful situation at inside linebacker.
Larry Foote was extraordinary for most of the season, but by December 13 years of NFL wear and tear had taken its toll, and it showed whenever he was forced into coverage. Kevin Minter often remained sidelined as a major disappointment. Now, Minter is the most experienced inside ‘backer in this scheme. The other projected base starter is oft-injured ex-Falcon Sean Weatherspoon, who has spent his career in a 4-3 and missed most of camp with a hamstring injury. In addition to playing more dime than any coordinator, Bowles also played more seven-DB packages. Bettcher may want to consider doing the same.
4. The Cardinals are very tough to run inside against because of their use of “condensed fronts.” They’ll put both defensive ends over the guards and a nose tackle over the center, commanding interior one-on-one matchups. It will be interesting to see if Bettcher sticks with this tactic now that nose tackle Dan Williams is gone and three-year backup Alameda Ta’amu is in there.
If the nose tackle situation proves O.K., you’ll see a variety of different 3-4 and 4-3 gap concepts from Arizona. They did this last season, and this offseason they brought in two backup linemen in Cory Redding and Corey Peters (the latter since lost for the season with a torn Achilles) who have experience in one- and two-gap systems.
5. Expect tight end Darren Fells to ultimately play a greater role than late-summer pickup Jermaine Gresham. There’s a reason Gresham remained unsigned for so long. Besides coming off back surgery, his mental toughness was not highly regarded by his former club, the Bengals. You can bet word got around the NFL.
Carson Palmer, the Cards and an Offense on ‘Empty’
How Bruce Arians’ system thrives on spread concepts and big plays, and why the return of a healthy Carson Palmer makes them one of the league’s most dangerous offenses again
by Andy Benoit
Have you noticed that NFL teams more and more seem to be lining up in empty formations? With only the quarterback in the backfield, most of these empty sets feature spread alignments, with three eligible receivers to the wide side of the field and two eligible receivers split to the short side.
The tactic seems counterintuitive, if you think about it. Going empty lifts a significant mental burden off of the defense. For one, there’s no longer the possibility of a run (barring a QB draw). Defensive linemen can pin their ears back and prepare to tee-off; linebackers and safeties don’t have to worry about play-action.
These pass rushers teeing off are likely to face one-on-one blocking, too. With nobody in the backfield, there’s nobody to help an overmatched offensive tackle with chip blocks or double-teams. And there’s nobody to pick up an extra blitzer, should one come.
Occasionally a tight end still positioned up on the line of scrimmage can provide some of this help. But that’s usually limited or nonexistent. Often an empty set has the tight end detached from the formation, kicked to either one of the slots or even split out wide, near the sideline. That’s because the main benefit of going empty is spreading the field with all five of your eligible targets. That benefit is a considerable one—otherwise the empty formation would not be catching on like it is.
No team makes greater use of empty than the Cardinals. We didn’t always get to see this last season because their quarterback position was bitten ruthlessly by the injury bug three different times: a Carson Palmer shoulder nerve problem after Week 1; a Palmer ACL tear in Week 10 (just four games after the shoulder healed) and a Drew Stanton knee injury in Week 15. Head coach Bruce Arians retreated from some of the empty sets when Stanton was in there. And he did not employ them as much with Ryan Lindley, either.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
It must have been hard for Arians and his team to not play the “What If?” game after January. What if Palmer had stayed healthy? In the six full contests he played, the Cardinals averaged 275 yards through the air (sixth best in the league) and 25.8 points (eighth). Without him, they ranked 29th in passing and 32nd in scoring.
Palmer is the reason the Cardinals can flourish in empty sets. It’s not that he’s a superstar quarterback (those days are past), it’s that he’s a very professional one. He’s tough and fundamentally sound in the pocket. He’s smart and works smoothly from one progression to the next. Progression reads are the nexus of Arians’ system—Arians calls it a “scratch where it itches” system, meaning it’s not tethered to any one player. Instead, it’s tailored to exploiting a defense’s specific weaknesses via aerial concepts. (This is why Larry Fitzgerald has seen his numbers diminish under Arians, even if his skills have not.)
Many of these concepts include route combinations that attack at the deep-intermediate levels. The empty sets are a great way to do this. In them—as well as in the 3 x 1 formations that have become a staple for Arizona and across the NFL—Arians utilizes a Don Coryell principle: traditional three-receiver route combination on the front side that is designed to move the ball 8-15 yards, and a downfield route concept on the back side that’s designed to hit a home run.
The best example of this came on wide receiver John Brown’s 75-yard, game-winning touchdown against the Eagles in Week 8. On that play, Brown ran a slant-and-go (aka “sluggo”) from the back side of a spread empty set, while the three front side receivers ran flat, curl and seam patterns—the white bread of midrange route combinations.
Brown’s touchdown was not the only explosive downfield play out of empty. Such vertical success here is unusual because, despite the rise of spread formations, most deep shots in today’s NFL still take place out of running formations, where elongated play-action can influence a deep safety. In running formations, you can keep six, and often seven, players in as pass protectors, affording the quarterback and receivers enough time to stretch the field.
That’s not possible with the empty sets, where offensive linemen are mostly forced to block on an island. That’s the reason Palmer, playing behind an athletically substandard front five, sometimes disliked the high volume of empty in Arizona’s scheme early on. And it’s surely one of the reasons GM Steve Keim spent $10.5 million in guarantees last year to sign left tackle Jared Veldheer and $15.75 million in full guarantees this year to bring in ex-Niners three-time Pro Bowl guard Mike Iupati.
Veldheer’s addition helped, and so will Iupati’s (once he’s recovered from a knee injury), but they won’t make the O-line impermeable. Tackle Bobbie Massie is still a liability on the right side. So much so, in fact, that green-but-talented first-round pick D.J. Humphries might finagle a starting job sometime during his rookie year. And at right guard Jonathan Cooper, unable to capture a starting job ahead of middling journeyman Ted Larsen last year, is a major question mark.
Empty will always require a quarterback who knows what he’s looking at, both pre- and post-snap. What Palmer will see in 2015, at least on his side after the snap, are a lot of speedy targets running routes. Fitzgerald isn’t necessarily fast (though he can still run away from certain defenders) but John Brown has wheels. And Michael Floyd is a long-strider who covers ground effortlessly. At tight end, last year’s second-round pick, Troy Niklas, (if healthy) brings more athleticism than the position has seen since Arians’ arrival in 2013.
And then there’s running back Andre Ellington, a big play threat whenever the ball is in his hands. Ellington is an uncommonly natural receiver, both in terms of catching and route execution. When the Cardinals go empty with him and four wideouts (which they do often), they’re essentially playing with five wide receivers against no more than four cornerbacks. If an opponent wants to guard Ellington with a linebacker, he’ll split out. If they want to guard him with a defensive back, you can bet Ellington will shift back to behind the QB and take a handoff.
Handoffs, by the way, were not Arizona’s forte in 2014. With and without Palmer, their rushing attack was putrid. Ellington is dangerous on the perimeter, but he’s not built to provide a foundational between-the-tackles ground game. This further explains the Iupati signing; he has good short-area mobility on pull blocks and brings much needed straight-line power for inside zone blocks.
It also explains why Keim spent a third-round pick on Northern Iowa tailback David Johnson and signed free agent Chris Johnson. With these additions, the Cards are equipped for better offensive balance in 2015. But that balance won’t mean anything if they don’t stay aggressive and creative out of empty.
With Antonio Cromartie gone, the Cardinals have a decision to make on Tyrann Mathieu’s role. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Getty Images)
Cardinals Nickel Package
1. How will the defense look under new coordinator James Bettcher? A lot like it looked under Todd Bowles. Or so Arians hopes. Bettcher, previously the club’s outside linebackers coach, was appointed to the position because his philosophy most aligns with Arians’. Both men believe in an attack-oriented scheme. They’ll have to; even with the second-round selection of outside linebacker Markus Golden, the Cardinals are short on natural pass rushers (unless veteran pickup LaMarr Woodley has an unexpected renaissance).
Alex Okafor showed flickers of pass-rushing prowess during an eight-sack 2014 campaign, but he has yet to show the week-to-week impact that strikes fear in an offense. Expect a continued heavy serving of double-A-gap pressure concepts from this defense.
2. The loss of Antonio Cromartie to the Jets was huge—maybe even a deathblow for a D that’s built on pressure (and therefore, on corners being able to match up in man-to-man). The lanky Cromartie was a stalwart opposite No. 1 cover corner Patrick Peterson (who, by the way, needs to be a lot more consistent this season). Most importantly, though, Cromartie’s presence allowed Jerraud Powers to play the slot, where he’s 10 times more comfortable.
And that allowed Tyrann Mathieu to focus fulltime on safety, where there are fewer change-of-direction demands on his surgically repaired knee. With Powers now the No. 2 corner, Bettcher, Arians and defensive backs coach Nick Rapone must decide whether to take a chance and return Mathieu to the slot in nickel—where, granted, he’s an excellent cover guy and blitzer—or keep him safe back in space and roll the dice with Justin Bethel as the No. 3 corner outside. None of these options are ideal.
3. Expect to see more of Deone Bucannon at linebacker this season. Last year, as a rookie, he played linebacker in Arizona’s dime package, which Bowles employed on a league-high 60% of snaps. There were two reasons for this: (1) Bucannon was sensational. A thick but lanky 210-(or-so)-pounder, he’s good in traffic and can match up in short area coverage against most tight ends. He’s also ferocious on inside blitz concepts. The other reason for the dime: Arizona had an awful situation at inside linebacker.
Larry Foote was extraordinary for most of the season, but by December 13 years of NFL wear and tear had taken its toll, and it showed whenever he was forced into coverage. Kevin Minter often remained sidelined as a major disappointment. Now, Minter is the most experienced inside ‘backer in this scheme. The other projected base starter is oft-injured ex-Falcon Sean Weatherspoon, who has spent his career in a 4-3 and missed most of camp with a hamstring injury. In addition to playing more dime than any coordinator, Bowles also played more seven-DB packages. Bettcher may want to consider doing the same.
4. The Cardinals are very tough to run inside against because of their use of “condensed fronts.” They’ll put both defensive ends over the guards and a nose tackle over the center, commanding interior one-on-one matchups. It will be interesting to see if Bettcher sticks with this tactic now that nose tackle Dan Williams is gone and three-year backup Alameda Ta’amu is in there.
If the nose tackle situation proves O.K., you’ll see a variety of different 3-4 and 4-3 gap concepts from Arizona. They did this last season, and this offseason they brought in two backup linemen in Cory Redding and Corey Peters (the latter since lost for the season with a torn Achilles) who have experience in one- and two-gap systems.
5. Expect tight end Darren Fells to ultimately play a greater role than late-summer pickup Jermaine Gresham. There’s a reason Gresham remained unsigned for so long. Besides coming off back surgery, his mental toughness was not highly regarded by his former club, the Bengals. You can bet word got around the NFL.
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2014
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- 20,922
- Name
- Peter
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- #44
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/09/01/cam-newton-carolina-panthers-rushing-attack-nfl
The Panthers Will Run for Their Lives
The Panthers found their way late last season with a diverse, collegiate style rushing attack. With their top perimeter receiving threat out for the season and pass protection still a major issue, expect Carolina to rely heavily on Cam Newton’s legs for 16 games this year
by Andy Benoit
Bob Leverone/AP
Amidst all of the laughter and ridicule directed towards the downtrodden NFC South last year, many failed to notice that the Panthers’ playoff run—which carried them to the Divisional Round—included a five-game winning streak.
Okay, they weren’t the most glamorous of wins: a blowout over the Saints was followed by victories over the lowly Bucs, a Browns team led by Johnny Manziel (who got hurt in the second quarter and was replaced by Brian Hoyer), the Falcons and their offensive line woes and, most spectacularly, in the Wild-Card round over a Cardinals team that was down to its third-string quarterback. Still, wins are wins in the NFL, and five in a row during the winter months should never be scoffed at.
Propagating Carolina’s hot streak was offensive coordinator Mike Shula’s reestablished commitment to a multidimensional running game. It was a very collegiate approach, almost as if Shula and head coach Ron Rivera had come to terms with what their Panthers really are: a team led by an immensely talented but scattershot quarterback who has the arm talent to make mesmerizing throws but the unrefined mechanics and lack of discipline to eventually offset them. That’s Cam Newton The Passer. There’s also Newton The Runner, a much more stable threat who, like the good side of Newton The Passer, can swing a game.
Shula built around Newton The Runner. That was smart because Newton The Passer was also hamstrung by a lack of speed at wide receiver and a porous offensive line whose struggles were most glaring on the edges in obvious passing situations. Stretching the field was all but impossible. A passing attack that can’t stretch the field is one that doesn’t stress a defense. Or, it doesn’t stress a defense the way Newton’s legs can, anyway.
With zone-read-option at the forefront, Shula constructed a multifaceted, deception-based attack, featuring the threat of Newton, the power and balance of running back Jonathan Stewart, the improved mobility of the interior offensive line (center Ryan Kalil was always stellar; undrafted rookie guard Andrew Norwell got better) and, often, the possibility of a misdirection play design. The misdirections involved tactics like wide receiver sweep options (creating a triple option in the zone-read game), backside tight end screens and, when more aggressive, shotgun play-action.
The results: an average of 197 rushing yards an outing for the Panthers during their five-game winning streak, 94 more than they’d averaged up to the point of being 3-8-1.
Rivera’s and Shula’s acceptance of what the Panthers are seemed to stick over the offseason and was adopted by GM Dave Gettleman. This past June, Newton was signed to a five-year, $103.8 million deal, $41 million of it guaranteed. His receiving corps was not infused with speed, but rather, with another king-sized possession target, 6-4, 230-pound rookie Devin Funchess (a second-round pick), who was set to join last year’s first-round pick, the 6-5 Kelvin Benjamin (now out with a torn ACL).
This also represents a furthered commitment to Newton. Both receivers have the catching radius to accommodate Newton’s vacillating accuracy. Neither is particularly quick, but that’s not a problem because Newton is not a precision-based anticipation passer who hits receivers immediately out of their breaks.
At running back, Panthers brass doubled-down on the gifted but injury-prone Jonathan Stewart by releasing his longtime complement, DeAngelo Williams. Expect Fozzy Whittaker and Mike Tolbert to contribute even more as ancillary weapons; each man runs better than his body type suggests and each can contribute in the short-area passing game (including screens). Last season they combined for 86 touches; this year it will be closer to 150. (The Palmetto and Tarheel states just collectively shrugged.)
As far as the offensive line goes, Gettleman and his staff might think they made an upgrade by signing Michael Oher shortly after his release from Tennessee. Oher will replace last year’s stone-footed starting left tackle, Byron Bell, who was allowed to walk in free agency. If this is an upgrade, it’s marginal at best. Oher struggled mightily in pass protection against both power and quickness last season, and there’s little from the rest of his career that suggests things will suddenly be different now that he’s in Carolina.
Moving from right tackle back to the blind side (sorry) won’t ameliorate his tendency to get too light on his feet and bend at the waist. Plus, right tackle still remains an issue for the Panthers. Mike Remmers and Nate Chandler are battling for the rights to, most likely, be replaced by fourth-round rookie Daryl Williams later in the season.
With the 2015 Panthers offense built exactly like the 2014 offense, Shula must continue to embrace a collegiate style rushing attack, with Newton as the fulcrum. It’s a little surprising the Panthers did not try to amplify this approach by adding a perimeter speed threat to expand their triple-option element. (Currently Jerricho Cotchery, who is just barely faster than you and me, has provided the sweep action. Imagine what having someone like, say, even a Dexter McCluster, would do for this ploy. Maybe the Panthers roll the dice with Ted Ginn here?)
Things look eerily similar to 2014 on defense, as well. Despite needing a pass rusher to give some teeth back to their 4-3 base and nickel zones, Gettleman used his first-round pick on Shaq Thompson, whom the team hopes can become the next Thomas Davis. That’d make more sense if the actual Thomas Davis weren’t still playing at a high enough level to have just warranted a two-year extension. (The punishing hitter will now earn $18 million over the next three seasons; not bad for a 32-year-old with three ACL surgeries to his name.)
In the secondary, the only change was the addition of longtime Bears corner Charles Tillman, who can still compete given that Cover-3 and especially Cover-2 zones don’t require a great deal of quick-twitch and speed. Still, a 34-year-old corner rarely redefines a defense. Because of the nature of their scheme, the Panthers don’t spend much on the defensive backfield. But this brings us back to defensive line, which hasn’t been the same since Greg Hardy left (his final appearance for the Panthers was Week 1 last September). Why didn’t Gettleman make a move to reignite it?
So, for those wondering how much Carolina’s late 2014 surge was a product of their own excellence and how much of it was from a softer schedule, this season will provide an answer. This year’s club is simply a more extreme version of what it already was.
Panthers Nickel Package
1. Tight end Greg Olsen has become the second most important player on offense. Olsen is key in the Panthers’ staple 3 x 1 set, which the overwhelming majority of their intermediate passing game comes out of. In this formation, Olsen frequently aligns as the X-iso—the “1” receiver on the weak side—where he has proven he can beat cornerbacks. Olsen has also become a better run-blocker, particularly when there’s misdirection-based movement involved. Kudos to the ninth-year pro; run-blocking was something even his most ardent supporters didn’t originally believe he could do.
2. The Kelvin Benjamin injury is huge. While he needed a lot of refinement as a route runner (he failed on too many in-breaking patterns as a rookie), Benjamin was still this team’s only viable perimeter receiving weapon. He provided Newton a valuable margin for error, as he could make contested catches on inaccurate balls. This offense has nothing close to a wide receiver defenses must tilt their coverages towards.
3. The biggest difference between the seven-win 2014 Panthers and the 12-win 2013 Panthers was run defense. The ’14 Panthers gave up 25 more yards per game on the ground. Inconsistency at defensive tackle was the primary reason. Star Lotulelei must bounce back from a down year (he got slower off the ball), Kawann Short must maintain 16 weeks of the dominance that he flashed only early in the season, and top backup Colin Cole must improve at holding ground. Luke Kuechly is a great middle linebacker—the game’s best, in fact—but he can’t flourish with D-linemen getting pushed back into him.
4. The loss of Greg Hardy can’t be understated. With Charles Johnson having good (but only good) burst, Hardy was the engine of Carolina’s four-man rush. He was also valuable to the nickel package, something Rivera and defensive coordinator Sean McDermott like to use often as they trust Kuechly and Thomas Davis to cover a lot of ground as the only two ’backers on the field. In nickel, Hardy could align inside, where he penetrated against significantly less athletic guards, set up Carolina’s myriad stunt concepts (which abated in his absence last season) and provide a run-stopping presence that’s critical if you want to play with five DBs against an opponent’s base personnel.
5. If Tillman can be a quality No. 3 corner outside, Bené Benwikere, who should start in the base 4-3, can go back to playing the slot, solving this defense’s greatest problem from a year ago. Given safety Roman Harper’s mediocrity in coverage, the Panthers’ zone concepts cannot afford to have vulnerabilities inside.
The Panthers Will Run for Their Lives
The Panthers found their way late last season with a diverse, collegiate style rushing attack. With their top perimeter receiving threat out for the season and pass protection still a major issue, expect Carolina to rely heavily on Cam Newton’s legs for 16 games this year
by Andy Benoit
Bob Leverone/AP
Amidst all of the laughter and ridicule directed towards the downtrodden NFC South last year, many failed to notice that the Panthers’ playoff run—which carried them to the Divisional Round—included a five-game winning streak.
Okay, they weren’t the most glamorous of wins: a blowout over the Saints was followed by victories over the lowly Bucs, a Browns team led by Johnny Manziel (who got hurt in the second quarter and was replaced by Brian Hoyer), the Falcons and their offensive line woes and, most spectacularly, in the Wild-Card round over a Cardinals team that was down to its third-string quarterback. Still, wins are wins in the NFL, and five in a row during the winter months should never be scoffed at.
Propagating Carolina’s hot streak was offensive coordinator Mike Shula’s reestablished commitment to a multidimensional running game. It was a very collegiate approach, almost as if Shula and head coach Ron Rivera had come to terms with what their Panthers really are: a team led by an immensely talented but scattershot quarterback who has the arm talent to make mesmerizing throws but the unrefined mechanics and lack of discipline to eventually offset them. That’s Cam Newton The Passer. There’s also Newton The Runner, a much more stable threat who, like the good side of Newton The Passer, can swing a game.
Shula built around Newton The Runner. That was smart because Newton The Passer was also hamstrung by a lack of speed at wide receiver and a porous offensive line whose struggles were most glaring on the edges in obvious passing situations. Stretching the field was all but impossible. A passing attack that can’t stretch the field is one that doesn’t stress a defense. Or, it doesn’t stress a defense the way Newton’s legs can, anyway.
With zone-read-option at the forefront, Shula constructed a multifaceted, deception-based attack, featuring the threat of Newton, the power and balance of running back Jonathan Stewart, the improved mobility of the interior offensive line (center Ryan Kalil was always stellar; undrafted rookie guard Andrew Norwell got better) and, often, the possibility of a misdirection play design. The misdirections involved tactics like wide receiver sweep options (creating a triple option in the zone-read game), backside tight end screens and, when more aggressive, shotgun play-action.
The results: an average of 197 rushing yards an outing for the Panthers during their five-game winning streak, 94 more than they’d averaged up to the point of being 3-8-1.
Rivera’s and Shula’s acceptance of what the Panthers are seemed to stick over the offseason and was adopted by GM Dave Gettleman. This past June, Newton was signed to a five-year, $103.8 million deal, $41 million of it guaranteed. His receiving corps was not infused with speed, but rather, with another king-sized possession target, 6-4, 230-pound rookie Devin Funchess (a second-round pick), who was set to join last year’s first-round pick, the 6-5 Kelvin Benjamin (now out with a torn ACL).
This also represents a furthered commitment to Newton. Both receivers have the catching radius to accommodate Newton’s vacillating accuracy. Neither is particularly quick, but that’s not a problem because Newton is not a precision-based anticipation passer who hits receivers immediately out of their breaks.
At running back, Panthers brass doubled-down on the gifted but injury-prone Jonathan Stewart by releasing his longtime complement, DeAngelo Williams. Expect Fozzy Whittaker and Mike Tolbert to contribute even more as ancillary weapons; each man runs better than his body type suggests and each can contribute in the short-area passing game (including screens). Last season they combined for 86 touches; this year it will be closer to 150. (The Palmetto and Tarheel states just collectively shrugged.)
As far as the offensive line goes, Gettleman and his staff might think they made an upgrade by signing Michael Oher shortly after his release from Tennessee. Oher will replace last year’s stone-footed starting left tackle, Byron Bell, who was allowed to walk in free agency. If this is an upgrade, it’s marginal at best. Oher struggled mightily in pass protection against both power and quickness last season, and there’s little from the rest of his career that suggests things will suddenly be different now that he’s in Carolina.
Moving from right tackle back to the blind side (sorry) won’t ameliorate his tendency to get too light on his feet and bend at the waist. Plus, right tackle still remains an issue for the Panthers. Mike Remmers and Nate Chandler are battling for the rights to, most likely, be replaced by fourth-round rookie Daryl Williams later in the season.
With the 2015 Panthers offense built exactly like the 2014 offense, Shula must continue to embrace a collegiate style rushing attack, with Newton as the fulcrum. It’s a little surprising the Panthers did not try to amplify this approach by adding a perimeter speed threat to expand their triple-option element. (Currently Jerricho Cotchery, who is just barely faster than you and me, has provided the sweep action. Imagine what having someone like, say, even a Dexter McCluster, would do for this ploy. Maybe the Panthers roll the dice with Ted Ginn here?)
Things look eerily similar to 2014 on defense, as well. Despite needing a pass rusher to give some teeth back to their 4-3 base and nickel zones, Gettleman used his first-round pick on Shaq Thompson, whom the team hopes can become the next Thomas Davis. That’d make more sense if the actual Thomas Davis weren’t still playing at a high enough level to have just warranted a two-year extension. (The punishing hitter will now earn $18 million over the next three seasons; not bad for a 32-year-old with three ACL surgeries to his name.)
In the secondary, the only change was the addition of longtime Bears corner Charles Tillman, who can still compete given that Cover-3 and especially Cover-2 zones don’t require a great deal of quick-twitch and speed. Still, a 34-year-old corner rarely redefines a defense. Because of the nature of their scheme, the Panthers don’t spend much on the defensive backfield. But this brings us back to defensive line, which hasn’t been the same since Greg Hardy left (his final appearance for the Panthers was Week 1 last September). Why didn’t Gettleman make a move to reignite it?
So, for those wondering how much Carolina’s late 2014 surge was a product of their own excellence and how much of it was from a softer schedule, this season will provide an answer. This year’s club is simply a more extreme version of what it already was.
Panthers Nickel Package
1. Tight end Greg Olsen has become the second most important player on offense. Olsen is key in the Panthers’ staple 3 x 1 set, which the overwhelming majority of their intermediate passing game comes out of. In this formation, Olsen frequently aligns as the X-iso—the “1” receiver on the weak side—where he has proven he can beat cornerbacks. Olsen has also become a better run-blocker, particularly when there’s misdirection-based movement involved. Kudos to the ninth-year pro; run-blocking was something even his most ardent supporters didn’t originally believe he could do.
2. The Kelvin Benjamin injury is huge. While he needed a lot of refinement as a route runner (he failed on too many in-breaking patterns as a rookie), Benjamin was still this team’s only viable perimeter receiving weapon. He provided Newton a valuable margin for error, as he could make contested catches on inaccurate balls. This offense has nothing close to a wide receiver defenses must tilt their coverages towards.
3. The biggest difference between the seven-win 2014 Panthers and the 12-win 2013 Panthers was run defense. The ’14 Panthers gave up 25 more yards per game on the ground. Inconsistency at defensive tackle was the primary reason. Star Lotulelei must bounce back from a down year (he got slower off the ball), Kawann Short must maintain 16 weeks of the dominance that he flashed only early in the season, and top backup Colin Cole must improve at holding ground. Luke Kuechly is a great middle linebacker—the game’s best, in fact—but he can’t flourish with D-linemen getting pushed back into him.
4. The loss of Greg Hardy can’t be understated. With Charles Johnson having good (but only good) burst, Hardy was the engine of Carolina’s four-man rush. He was also valuable to the nickel package, something Rivera and defensive coordinator Sean McDermott like to use often as they trust Kuechly and Thomas Davis to cover a lot of ground as the only two ’backers on the field. In nickel, Hardy could align inside, where he penetrated against significantly less athletic guards, set up Carolina’s myriad stunt concepts (which abated in his absence last season) and provide a run-stopping presence that’s critical if you want to play with five DBs against an opponent’s base personnel.
5. If Tillman can be a quality No. 3 corner outside, Bené Benwikere, who should start in the base 4-3, can go back to playing the slot, solving this defense’s greatest problem from a year ago. Given safety Roman Harper’s mediocrity in coverage, the Panthers’ zone concepts cannot afford to have vulnerabilities inside.
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He’s No Regular Joe
His postseason record is the best among active QBs not named Tom Brady. He possesses top-of-the-line size, arm strength and accuracy, and he’s one of the most astute at picking apart defenses. When will people realize Joe Flacco is one of the NFL’s superstars?
by Andy Benoit
Joe Flacco is the most underappreciated quarterback in football—by far. He’s an elite superstar blessed with all the physical traits you look for: size, arm strength, precision accuracy, and even mobility. Though he’s not “off the charts” in the latter category, he’s much better at moving than his gangly frame suggests. These characteristics enable the eighth-year veteran to fit the ball into the tight windows, a requirement for beating man coverage in the NFL. Flacco is also cerebral, which shows in the way he identifies and picks apart defensive zones.
And for those who believe in the old barroom debate about who’s a “winner” and who’s not, Flacco checks out as strong as any QB in the league. His 10-5 postseason record is the best among all active quarterbacks not named Tom Brady. Seven of those victories have come on the road, an NFL record.
On his way to winning a Super Bowl at the end of the 2012 season, Flacco had arguably the best postseason of any passer ever: 11 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 285 yards a game and a much-deserved MVP award in the end. (The only other similar playoff run was Joe Montana’s in 1989: in three games he threw 11 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, averaging 267 yards an outing.)
Flacco’s biggest problem is one of perception, because he comes across as bland. But if you listen to what he says and not how he says it, you realize that he’s thoughtful, refreshingly honest and eloquent—yet he continues to get overlooked and underestimated. Maybe that will change this season during Super Bowl 50 Media Day. If all goes right, that’s where his Ravens will end up.
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated/The MMQB)
Known for their perennially stingy defense, the Ravens are now coming off the most prolific offensive season in the franchise’s 19-year history. Sure, Gary Kubiak left to become the head coach in Denver, meaning the Ravens will have a new offensive coordinator for the fourth time in four years (dating back to Jim Caldwell replacing Cam Cameron at the end of 2012), but John Harbaugh found the best replacement he could in Marc Trestman.
Like Kubiak, Trestman is a former head coach who, if necessary, can oversee every aspect of his side of the ball. Trestman takes a very intellectual approach to the game and, at least by NFL coaching standards, has virtually no ego. He won’t undo Kubiak’s highly successful zone-based system.
In that zone system, the Ravens ran the ball with regularity and operated out of two running back personnel more than any team last season. By an incredibly wide margin, they had the fewest shotgun snaps in the league. Justin Forsett, who tied DeMarco Murray for the most 20-plus-yard carries, picked up at least 10 yards on 17 percent of his carries, the highest rate in the NFL.
Forsett, who re-signed in the offseason for $9 million over three years, has very good patience and vision, particularly when attacking the perimeter, which is the key to Baltimore’s zone stretch game. From these zone stretches come a litany of misdirection play-action possibilities, which is why the aerial attack is not constructed around the shotgun.
Forsett has a near-perfect zone-oriented front five paving his way. It starts with center Jeremy Zuttah, who at 300 pounds masks his so-so raw strength with good quickness, both off the snap and in his immediate subsequent steps. When Zuttah gets movement, the rest of the line follows. Flanking the eighth-year center is the league’s best guard duo, Kelechi Osemele on the left and All-Pro Marshal Yanda on the right. On the edges, Eugene Monroe is sturdy at left tackle and 2013 fifth-rounder Ricky Wagner is fast becoming a premier right tackle.
While Trestman will maintain much of Baltimore’s existing ground game, he should also work in some of his own innovations. This would come most appropriately through the air, where Trestman is a shrewd designer of downfield route combinations, particularly out of tight receiver sets. He has the diminutive-but-still-lethal Steve Smith and the gifted-but-likely-raw first-round rookie Breshad Perriman (6’2”, 212). Expect to see a little more of the West Coast concepts that Trestman employed in the early 2000s, when he was Jon Gruden’s QB’s coach/offensive coordinator in Oakland.
Second-round rookie Maxx Williams, this draft’s highest-rated tight end, will give the Ravens the seam threat that Crockett Gillmore doesn’t offer (he’s more of a blocker). Both men will see action each week, but if Trestman maintains much of Kubiak’s ground concepts, their action often won’t come simultaneously; one of the tight ends would have to sit in order to make room for fullback Kyle Juszczyk, a tremendous lead-blocker and trustworthy pass-catcher in the shallow flats.
The only concern with this offense is depth at the skill positions, but Flacco’s excellence can offset that. (Slot receiver Michael Campanaro, for example, developed very good chemistry with his quarterback down the stretch last season.) However you slice it, this is a talented Ravens offense, operating in a good scheme, under a very smart coach, and on the shoulders of one of the game’s elite superstar quarterbacks. There’s your Super Bowl formula.
Ravens Nickel Package
1. Rarely does a strong offense alone lead a team to a Super Bowl. Fortunately, the Ravens aren’t relying on just that. GM Ozzie Newsome has once again infused his defense with considerable talent at all three levels. The biggest question is whether the front seven can overcome the losses of Haloti Ngata (traded to Detroit) and hybrid sub-package rusher Pernell McPhee (signed with Chicago). The short answer is yes. Newsome dealt the five-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman because he’d seen enough positive signs from Timmy Jernigan, last year’s second-round pick.
Like Ngata, Jernigan can play multiple positions (except for maybe true nose tackle). As a rookie he flashed an ability to disengage from blocks. As for McPhee’s replacement, fourth-round pick Za’Darius Smith is unlikely to be as versatile or explosive as his predecessor. But with improvements in the secondary, defensive coordinator Dean Pees can expand his pressure packages. Pees may also get more creative with the versatile Courtney Upshaw. Plus, he still has Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil, who haven’t lost a step in their early 30s and combined for 29 sacks last season.
2. Regarding the aforementioned improvements in the secondary, the biggest is the return to health of cornerback Jimmy Smith, who can shadow No. 1 receivers. If not for Smith’s foot injury last November, it very well could have been the Ravens winning that epic divisional round Saturday evening game and not the Patriots.
Assuming Lardarius Webb gets on track (he publicly griped about his job security over the offseason and then failed his physical at the beginning of training camp), the Ravens have options in the slot—a position that, due to injuries, hurt the club down the stretch. Either Webb plays there or offseason pickup Kyle Arrington does. With the flexibility that both offer, Pees can now match his corners on specific wide receivers on a weekly basis.
3. Learn the name Brandon Williams. The 2013 third-round pick has been absolutely sensational at nose tackle. With Haloti Ngata gone, maybe people will now notice.
4. You probably already know linebacker C.J. Mosley, who is on course for stardom. He’s quick in confined areas, athletic in space (expect that to be better reflected in his coverage this season) and has a keen sense for pursuit angles. Mosley benefits from playing alongside veteran Daryl Smith, one of the game’s most professional linebackers.
5. With a dynamic front seven, Pees can afford to keep both safeties back deep, even on first and second down. (This was how he masked the deficiencies of his injury-riddled secondary late last season.) With Matt Elam out for the season (biceps), one of those safeties will surely be Will Hill. He was probably going to start ahead of Elam anyway.
Available to sign last year because of various off-field problems, Hill showed a unique blend of size and physicality for someone who could also cover tight ends man-to-man. And it wasn’t just any tight ends; he gave fits to the likes of Jimmy Graham and Antonio Gates in consecutive weeks.
He’s No Regular Joe
His postseason record is the best among active QBs not named Tom Brady. He possesses top-of-the-line size, arm strength and accuracy, and he’s one of the most astute at picking apart defenses. When will people realize Joe Flacco is one of the NFL’s superstars?
by Andy Benoit
Joe Flacco is the most underappreciated quarterback in football—by far. He’s an elite superstar blessed with all the physical traits you look for: size, arm strength, precision accuracy, and even mobility. Though he’s not “off the charts” in the latter category, he’s much better at moving than his gangly frame suggests. These characteristics enable the eighth-year veteran to fit the ball into the tight windows, a requirement for beating man coverage in the NFL. Flacco is also cerebral, which shows in the way he identifies and picks apart defensive zones.
And for those who believe in the old barroom debate about who’s a “winner” and who’s not, Flacco checks out as strong as any QB in the league. His 10-5 postseason record is the best among all active quarterbacks not named Tom Brady. Seven of those victories have come on the road, an NFL record.
On his way to winning a Super Bowl at the end of the 2012 season, Flacco had arguably the best postseason of any passer ever: 11 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 285 yards a game and a much-deserved MVP award in the end. (The only other similar playoff run was Joe Montana’s in 1989: in three games he threw 11 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, averaging 267 yards an outing.)
Flacco’s biggest problem is one of perception, because he comes across as bland. But if you listen to what he says and not how he says it, you realize that he’s thoughtful, refreshingly honest and eloquent—yet he continues to get overlooked and underestimated. Maybe that will change this season during Super Bowl 50 Media Day. If all goes right, that’s where his Ravens will end up.
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated/The MMQB)
Known for their perennially stingy defense, the Ravens are now coming off the most prolific offensive season in the franchise’s 19-year history. Sure, Gary Kubiak left to become the head coach in Denver, meaning the Ravens will have a new offensive coordinator for the fourth time in four years (dating back to Jim Caldwell replacing Cam Cameron at the end of 2012), but John Harbaugh found the best replacement he could in Marc Trestman.
Like Kubiak, Trestman is a former head coach who, if necessary, can oversee every aspect of his side of the ball. Trestman takes a very intellectual approach to the game and, at least by NFL coaching standards, has virtually no ego. He won’t undo Kubiak’s highly successful zone-based system.
In that zone system, the Ravens ran the ball with regularity and operated out of two running back personnel more than any team last season. By an incredibly wide margin, they had the fewest shotgun snaps in the league. Justin Forsett, who tied DeMarco Murray for the most 20-plus-yard carries, picked up at least 10 yards on 17 percent of his carries, the highest rate in the NFL.
Forsett, who re-signed in the offseason for $9 million over three years, has very good patience and vision, particularly when attacking the perimeter, which is the key to Baltimore’s zone stretch game. From these zone stretches come a litany of misdirection play-action possibilities, which is why the aerial attack is not constructed around the shotgun.
Forsett has a near-perfect zone-oriented front five paving his way. It starts with center Jeremy Zuttah, who at 300 pounds masks his so-so raw strength with good quickness, both off the snap and in his immediate subsequent steps. When Zuttah gets movement, the rest of the line follows. Flanking the eighth-year center is the league’s best guard duo, Kelechi Osemele on the left and All-Pro Marshal Yanda on the right. On the edges, Eugene Monroe is sturdy at left tackle and 2013 fifth-rounder Ricky Wagner is fast becoming a premier right tackle.
While Trestman will maintain much of Baltimore’s existing ground game, he should also work in some of his own innovations. This would come most appropriately through the air, where Trestman is a shrewd designer of downfield route combinations, particularly out of tight receiver sets. He has the diminutive-but-still-lethal Steve Smith and the gifted-but-likely-raw first-round rookie Breshad Perriman (6’2”, 212). Expect to see a little more of the West Coast concepts that Trestman employed in the early 2000s, when he was Jon Gruden’s QB’s coach/offensive coordinator in Oakland.
Second-round rookie Maxx Williams, this draft’s highest-rated tight end, will give the Ravens the seam threat that Crockett Gillmore doesn’t offer (he’s more of a blocker). Both men will see action each week, but if Trestman maintains much of Kubiak’s ground concepts, their action often won’t come simultaneously; one of the tight ends would have to sit in order to make room for fullback Kyle Juszczyk, a tremendous lead-blocker and trustworthy pass-catcher in the shallow flats.
The only concern with this offense is depth at the skill positions, but Flacco’s excellence can offset that. (Slot receiver Michael Campanaro, for example, developed very good chemistry with his quarterback down the stretch last season.) However you slice it, this is a talented Ravens offense, operating in a good scheme, under a very smart coach, and on the shoulders of one of the game’s elite superstar quarterbacks. There’s your Super Bowl formula.
Ravens Nickel Package
1. Rarely does a strong offense alone lead a team to a Super Bowl. Fortunately, the Ravens aren’t relying on just that. GM Ozzie Newsome has once again infused his defense with considerable talent at all three levels. The biggest question is whether the front seven can overcome the losses of Haloti Ngata (traded to Detroit) and hybrid sub-package rusher Pernell McPhee (signed with Chicago). The short answer is yes. Newsome dealt the five-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman because he’d seen enough positive signs from Timmy Jernigan, last year’s second-round pick.
Like Ngata, Jernigan can play multiple positions (except for maybe true nose tackle). As a rookie he flashed an ability to disengage from blocks. As for McPhee’s replacement, fourth-round pick Za’Darius Smith is unlikely to be as versatile or explosive as his predecessor. But with improvements in the secondary, defensive coordinator Dean Pees can expand his pressure packages. Pees may also get more creative with the versatile Courtney Upshaw. Plus, he still has Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil, who haven’t lost a step in their early 30s and combined for 29 sacks last season.
2. Regarding the aforementioned improvements in the secondary, the biggest is the return to health of cornerback Jimmy Smith, who can shadow No. 1 receivers. If not for Smith’s foot injury last November, it very well could have been the Ravens winning that epic divisional round Saturday evening game and not the Patriots.
Assuming Lardarius Webb gets on track (he publicly griped about his job security over the offseason and then failed his physical at the beginning of training camp), the Ravens have options in the slot—a position that, due to injuries, hurt the club down the stretch. Either Webb plays there or offseason pickup Kyle Arrington does. With the flexibility that both offer, Pees can now match his corners on specific wide receivers on a weekly basis.
3. Learn the name Brandon Williams. The 2013 third-round pick has been absolutely sensational at nose tackle. With Haloti Ngata gone, maybe people will now notice.
4. You probably already know linebacker C.J. Mosley, who is on course for stardom. He’s quick in confined areas, athletic in space (expect that to be better reflected in his coverage this season) and has a keen sense for pursuit angles. Mosley benefits from playing alongside veteran Daryl Smith, one of the game’s most professional linebackers.
5. With a dynamic front seven, Pees can afford to keep both safeties back deep, even on first and second down. (This was how he masked the deficiencies of his injury-riddled secondary late last season.) With Matt Elam out for the season (biceps), one of those safeties will surely be Will Hill. He was probably going to start ahead of Elam anyway.
Available to sign last year because of various off-field problems, Hill showed a unique blend of size and physicality for someone who could also cover tight ends man-to-man. And it wasn’t just any tight ends; he gave fits to the likes of Jimmy Graham and Antonio Gates in consecutive weeks.