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PFF: RAMS WANT WR TAVON AUSTIN TO BECOME MORE OF A DEEP THREAT
Austin would have to dramatically alter his game if he wants to threaten deep.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-rams-want-wr-tavon-austin-to-become-more-of-a-deep-threat/
The Rams reportedly want WR Tavon Austin to become more of a deep threat, utilizing his speed more like the likes of Buccaneers WR DeSean Jackson. The fifth-year player will have to dramatically change his game to do so:
Austin’s average depth of target last year was just 7.7 yards down field, second lowest of players with 100-plus targets and almost three times lower than league-leading Sammie Coates (21.6 yards).
Austin has caught just six of 30 targets on post and ‘go’ routes, for 197 yards and two touchdowns throughout his career.
For his career, he has averaged just 6.6 yards per target on go and post routes. Jackson in 2016 averaged almost double that (12.0 yards), scoring four times on 24 such targets.
Which leads to another question–if all goes well, how many potential starters did the Rams get in this draft?
Gerald Everett: starter, down the road. But “starter” becomes a little murky if McVay rotates a lot of different weapons
Cooper Kupp: starter
John Johnson: starter, down the road
Josh Reynolds: future starter…though I am not as sure about him
Samson Ebukam: starter, down the road
Tanzel Smart: rotation/depth
Sam Rogers: depends how much they use a FB, is he a packages guy or a “starter”?
Ejuan Price: packages/rotation guy
Btw if they get 4 starters out of 8 picks with no 1st rounder, that’s quite a draft.
EDIT: I changed it to 5. It was originally 4.
jrry32 wrote:
SOME FOLLOW-UP
We drafted a bunch of small school guys and had no first round pick. The grades aren’t a surprise. We’ll be vindicated in the end imo.
Robinson and Kupp will have very different roles in the NFL. Kupp was drafted first because he’s more pro ready, an easier projection, and better at this point in time.
Reynolds is a deep threat as it stands now. He’s a long-strider who can win in the air. He has the change of direction skills to be a legitimate threat in the intermediate range as well. He’ll need to continue to develop as a route runner. He has a thin frame, and that won’t change. His big issues early on will be adapting to a much more complicated scheme, getting off the LOS against press coverage, and winning in the short passing game. As it stands now, Reynolds’s releases are a bit predictable. He has the quick-twitch athleticism to really develop there. But with his thin frame and play strength issues, it’ll be tough for him early on. He’s competitive, though. He’s a long-strider who doesn’t have a lot of suddenness in the first 10 yards. It’ll make it more difficult for him to separate underneath. That means he’ll have to produce using his frame and ability to win at the catch-point.
Reynolds has a lot of the same limitations that Alshon Jeffery had coming out. I want to make clear that Reynolds isn’t Alshon, but his game is somewhat similar. If he’s going to win underneath, he’ll have to do it by using his body and catching it with a defender on him. However, he has the build-up speed to climb over the top of defenders and win 1-on-1 down the field. Alshon had better hands, a bigger body, and more strength/physicality. Reynolds changes directions better and has more upside as a route runner. Reynolds is probably more of a #2 WR if he develops the way I expect.
In regards to Kupp, he lacks that extra gear to separate vertically, but he has everything else. And he might still find a way to be a deep threat. There are a lot of guys who win vertically in the NFL without using pure speed. Film shows me that Kupp can get over the top of defenses using his skill and savvy, but he doesn’t really do it with pure speed against comparable competition. I trust the film.
This is one route that I saw Kupp run that especially impressed me:
If you look at the opposite side of the field, the route combinations are mirroring each other. Accordingly, you can see how the defense is trying to defend Kupp’s route by looking at the other side of the field. It’s 4th and 3. EWU’s offense is pretty predictable. They love the quick outs and slants. The defense is attempting to take away both. They have two ILBs sitting inside to take away the quick slant or spot route. They have the two DBs squatting at about five yards to jam the WRs and then slide underneath them in their hip pocket to prevent the QB from throwing the quick out. The defensive play-call here is actually perfect to stop what EWU’s trying to do. They should have had to throw over the top, but Cooper Kupp is Cooper Kupp.
What Kupp does here is beautiful. He recognizes pre-snap that they’re squatting on the route and are going to try and jam him. Kupp also knows that they want to keep him from running the quick inside route on 4th and 3. The DB has inside help, so he shouldn’t care about the fake, but Kupp knows that a reaction is a reaction (you don’t think about it). Kupp comes off the ball and throws a quick stutter at about 3 yards. This is the route depth for a speed cut for a quick slant. The DB reacts to the stutter by stepping in the wrong direction (widening his base) and deadening his feet. This serves both to get him moving the wrong way and freeze him right before he’s supposed to jam Kupp. Kupp leverages his vertical stem just a little to the outside to gain him more room to prevent any chance of the DB getting his hands on him. From there, Kupp executes a textbook speed cut on the 9 yard out. After he comes out of his break, he snaps his head and hips around to prepare to aggressively work back to his QB. The ball is a tad inaccurate, but Kupp is still able to make the catch look easy.
Sean McVay said that Kupp always has a pre-snap plan. This is an example of Kupp recognizing pre-snap that the defense is perfectly aligned to win against the play the offense is running. Kupp adjusted how he ran his route to still manage to his offense an easy win on 4th and 3 on a play that the defense won on the white board (if you were to draw the offensive and defensive schemes on the white board, the defense should have won this down). This is a great example of the sort of football IQ, savvy, and techical skill that Kupp offers our offense. He can flip a lost down into an easy win. This is what the Patriots’ offense is built around. They have smart WRs who recognize how to attack the defense, which is why they always seem to be open.
Kupp may be a #1 WR, a #2 WR, or a #3 WR, but I feel confident that he’ll consistently produce. You don’t become more skilled than a significant chunk of the WRs in the NFL while at a school like Eastern Washington unless you have otherworldly work and film habits. I know people haven’t forgotten Wes Welker. That man didn’t succeed because of his athleticism. That man succeeded for the same reasons that Kupp will succeed. He was more skilled, prepared, and intelligent than just about every player he matched up against. Welker was a guy who made prime Darrelle Revis look bad.It’s all about how you scheme and use your WRs. I trust that McVay knows what he wants to do with this WRs. I think they could put Kupp in the slot, Tavon at flanker, and Woods at split end. However, I think it’ll be more fluid. I think we’ll see Kupp, Tavon, and Woods all working at all three WR positions. As for Reynolds, if he’s ready to play, he’ll compete for a job. If he doesn’t earn the starting job, I’m sure he can give those guys breathers.
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Everett is coming from South Alabama, hasn’t played that much football, and is pretty raw. It’s not about playing the traditional TE role. It’s about understanding the nuances of our passing attack and the route tree well enough to see the field. None of us know if Everett will. Say what you will about Jordan Reed, but he played QB at Florida in a pro style offense before moving to TE. IMO, he was more mentally prepared for the pro game. I hope Everett is ready to contribute this year, but I’m not going to convince myself that it’s definitively going to happen.
Everett, once he develops, will be one of the most important players in this offense.(I guess “if he develops”). McVay used Reed in a very innovative way in Washington. Having a guy like that here would do guys like Gurley and Tavon wonders. All those safeties that Fisher kept bringing in all seemed to develop. Safety was Fisher’s position. TE is McVay’s. I trust him to get the job done there. But Everett may not be ready to play right away. TE is a tough position to transition to as a rookie.
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Kromer talked about cross-training our guards at Center. It’s possible that we see Wichmann or Brown as the #2 Center this year. I’d feel good about either there. I feel good about Kromer. He’s turned a lot of nobodies into solid or better starters.
from Guide to N.F.L. Defenses, Part 4: The 3-4 Front
https://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/guide-to-n-f-l-defenses-part-4-the-3-4-front/
Bum Phillips and the 1-gap 3-4
To hear Bum Phillips tell it, developing his version of the 3-4 defense wasn’t rocket science.
“Coaching is pretty simple really. If you don’t got something, find something you do got. Really, we didn’t have but one [defensive lineman] – [Hall of Famer] Elvin [Bethea] – until we got Curley [Culp] in the middle of that season. Then we had two. What we did have was four real good linebackers, so all I done was find a way to get our best players on the field.”
Like the Fairbanks-Bullough 3-4 scheme that was taking hold in New England at the same time, Phillips was looking to contain the run and create mismatches in pass rush. Though Phillips based his scheme on the same concepts that the New England coaches did, he favored a more attacking style. He used a number of one-gap techniques in his front seven, stunting and slanting his linemen to cause pressure and using an OLB – “Dr. Doom” Robert Brazile, who was LT before Lawrence Taylor came into the league – frequently as a fourth pass rusher. In many ways, Phillips’s scheme was a 4-3 with four players in a two-point stance.
That attacking style of play has stood the test of time better than the read-and-react style for much the same reason that the 4-3 with an under or over shift has. It allows players to attack the offense, specifically by disguising the defense’s fourth (and fifth or sixth) pass rusher and the coverage behind. In fact, there are a lot of under front concepts in the Phillips 3-4.
In contrast to the true 2-gap 3-4, there’s no clear “bubble” in a 1-gap front. The strongside end slides down in the guard-tackle gap and the nose tackle slants to the weakside center-guard gap. The weakside end may or may not be head-up on the tackle, sometimes aligning in a 5-technique. Moving the defensive lineman just a few inches changes the philosophy entirely. The diagram above shows an under-shifted 3-4, but over-shifted 3-4 fronts are also common.
By comparing the two 3-4 diagrams, it’s easy to see how the mind-set of the defensive linemen differs between the two flavors of 3-4. It’s clear that the two inside linebackers can be, if the linemen are disruptive at all, better protected from the blocks of interior linemen. You can see the lines of attack for a delayed ILB blitz or how each OLB might get a jump by shifting one defensive end to the outside of an offensive tackle.
The under-shifted 3-4 front, with or without a 2-gap end, is just one of many potential variations a coordinator may align for his front seven. In fact, a coach influenced by both flavors of the 3-4 might be tempted to meld both concepts with traditional 4-3 ideas and create a monster playbook with more than 50 fronts. And pull it off with amazing success.
McVay’s Offense Provides Upside for Jared Goff
The former first overall pick could benefit greatly from his new head coach Sean McVay.
From PFF ANALYSIS TEAM
https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-mcvays-offense-provides-upside-for-qb-jared-goff/
The Los Angeles Rams turned to offensive-minded coach Sean McVay to right a Rams offense that after three years never graded higher than 27th overall. McVay’s progress with his former pupil – Washington Redskins QB Kirk Cousins – shows promise for the Rams and young QB Jared Goff.
Since he took over as offensive coordinator for the Redskins in 2014, Washington’s offense vaulted from a 24th overall grade by PFF, to 18th in 2015 and finally up to sixth in 2016.
Over the last three seasons, Cousins averaged 8.1 yards per attempt in 2016 – third best among quarterbacks. Goff’s 2016 yds/att was 2.8 yards less than Cousins – and dead last in the NFL among 37 qualifying quarterbacks.
The Rams have had only one quarterback throw for more than 2,200 yards since 2012, and only twice has a quarterback thrown more than 3,500 yards since 2010.
Goff’s final year at Cal saw him finish with an overall grade of 87.9 while attempting 531 passes. Cousins has averaged 598 attempts over the last two seasons.
