Category: 2022 scouting combine

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar: Paths to NFL success for top draft QBs

In this week’s “Xs and Os,” Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar map the paths to NFL success for C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, and Will Levis.

In “The Xs and Os,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar is joined every week by the great Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup. Greg has been with NFL Films since 1979, and he and Steve Sabol invented the concept of putting game tape on television with the Matchup show in 1984, so who better to get intricate with the game than Mr. Cosell himself?

Doug and Greg will be discussing all kinds of football things throughout the year, but as the draft is just around the corner, it’s time to discuss the ideal paths for NFL success for the top four quarterback prospects in this draft class: C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, and Will Levis. Not just where they are right now, but what kinds of offenses their coaches will need to construct at the next level to maximize their attributes, and minimize their liabilities.

You can catch this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os” right here.

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2023 NFL Draft: What’s the most important skill for quarterback prospects?

Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup tells us why ball location is the most important attribute for quarterback prospects.

In the debut episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg and Doug discussed the non-negotiable attributes for draft prospect quarterbacks, offensive tackles, edge defenders, and cornerbacks.

When it comes to draftable quarterbacks, it’s a bit like real estate — it’s all about location, location, location.

Greg: “I would say it starts with ball location. If you can’t control the football — if you can’t throw the football where you want to throw it — you don’t really have anything. The word ‘accuracy’ gets used a lot, and that’s a more general term, but if you go back to the Bill Walshes of the world, and some people might say, ‘Who’s Bill Walsh?’ But he was one of the greatest quarterback coaches and teachers the game has ever seen, [and he would tell you] it’s about ball location. I’ve had this conversation with coaches and former quarterbacks. I remember having a great conversation with Troy Aikman years ago, and this was after he retired, and he told me, ‘If you can’t throw it where you want to, then it doesn’t matter what else you can do.’ So, it starts there. Because no matter whether you’re throwing it from the pocket or on the run, if you cannot control the football and place it where you want to, you will not be successful.

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“That is really the No. 1 starting point. You can make a list of 15 different traits, and pretty much every quarterback coach and coordinator would have the same 15 traits, and it would just be a matter of what value they ascribe to each one. But my guess is, they would all start with ball location.”

Top prospects C.J. Stroud from Ohio State, and Alabama’s Bryce Young, each have reams of tape in which their ball location is above reproach, so NFL teams will be starting there when looking for quarterback attributes in the 2023 NFL draft evaluation cycle.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Non-negotiable skills for QB, OT, EDGE, CB in the draft

In the debut of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg and Doug discuss the non-negotiables for draft prospects at QB, OT, EDGE, and CB.

In this new show, Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar is joined every week by the great Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup. Greg has been with NFL Films since 1979, and he and Steve Sabol invented the concept of putting game tape on television with the Matchup show in 1984, so who better to get intricate with the game than Mr. Cosell himself?

Doug and Greg will be discussing all kinds of football things throughout the year, but as the draft is just around the corner, let’s start with the non-negotiable traits and attributes draft prospects must have at arguably the game’s four most important positions — quarterback, offensive tackle, edge-rusher, and cornerback.

You can catch this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os” right here.

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2023 NFL Draft: The top 9 safeties

From Brian Branch to Jartavius Martin, here are Doug Farrar’s top nine safeties in the 2023 NFL draft class.

In the modern NFL, it’s the rare safety who’s paid to be just a safety. Three players classified as safeties finished the 2022 season with six interceptions: Minkah Fitzpatrick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Justin Simmons of the Denver Broncos, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson of the Philadelphia Eagles. Each of those players had more than 100 snaps in the slot last season, and Gardner-Johnson’s deployment may have been most indicative of the ways in which defensive coordinators would like most of their safeties to play. He had 443 snaps at free safety, 202 in the box, and 208 in the slot.

If you are going to be a traditional deep safety most of the time, as Quandre Diggs of the Seattle Seahawks was with a league-leading 1,012 of his 1,221 snaps in the deep third, you’d better be some kind of ballhawk. Last season, only 21 players had more than 600 snaps at pure free safety, and the slot percentages for most safeties have increased exponentially over the last few years. In an NFL where nickel is the new base defense, and most defenses are playing as much or more dime than old-school base, the ways things worked before don’t work now most of the time.

So, when we look at the top nine draft prospects classified as safeties in this draft class, we’re focusing on positional versatility above all, and if positional versatility isn’t the thing, there had best be one mega/alpha skill if you want to make this list.

No matter where they play on the field from snap to snap, here are our nine best safeties for the 2023 NFL draft.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated).

(All prospect measurement percentiles courtesy of MockDraftable.com). 

Post-free agency mock draft: Three-round projections with multiple QB-related trades

Now that free agency has died down, here’s how the first three rounds of the 2023 NFL draft might look in the changed landscape.

Once free agency frenzy has died down in any new league year, it’s fun and necessary to put our minds back in full draft mode, and see how all the transactions might have affected the first round and beyond. Of course, the biggest potential story of the league year so far — Aaron Rodgers’ continued star turn in “Survivor: Green Bay” has not resolved itself yet, and since we’re all pretty much sick of it, I’ll make this short.

For the purposes of this mock draft, the Packers eat enough of Rodgers’ remaining contract to get the first-round pick they want in return. That would be the 13th overall pick, which the Jets currently hold. There, done.

That’s the big trade involving a quarterback in this mock draft if we’re not counting the ridiculous haul the Seahawks got in the Russell Wilson heist, which now starts to bear fruit. Or, the trade the Panthers made with the Bears to go up to the first overall pick. In this case, we also have the Buccaneers moving up a bit with the aforementioned Packers to get their Tom Brady replacement, though it may take a year or two for this particular quarterback to be NFL-ready.

With all that out of the way, here’s how the first three rounds of the 2023 NFL draft might look in the post-free agency landscape.

(Note: The Miami Dolphins, who would have had the 21st overall pick, forfeited that pick as punishment from the NFL for tampering).

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated). 

2023 NFL Mock Draft: Projections after Bears/Panthers trade… and an Aaron Rodgers move

Here’s how the first round of the 2023 NFL draft might look after the Panthers/Bears trade… and a possible trade involving Aaron Rogers.

Now that the Carolina Panthers have jumped everyone else in the 2023 NFL draft following a massive trade with the Chicago Bears, it’s time to reset all our mock drafts and take a new look at the entire first round.

Based on my research, I think the Panthers moved up to take Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud, leaving Alabama’s Bryce Young to the Houston Texans with the second overall pick.

Since we’re re-setting the mock anyway, let’s throw in the Green Bay Packers/New York Jets trade that sends Aaron Rodgers to Gang Green, since that seems to be all but a formality at this point.

As part of that (for now) hypothetical trade, let’s give the Packers the Jets’ 13th overall pick as they head for their own big re-set with Jordan Love as their quarterback.

So… now that we have the ultimate NFL Friday News Dump, here’s how the first round might look under these particular circumstances.

(Note: The Miami Dolphins, who would have had the 21st overall pick in the first round, forfeited that pick as punishment from the NFL for tampering). 

Tennessee OT Darnell Wright explains how to block Will Anderson Jr. and BJ Ojulari

Tennessee right tackle Darnell Wright erased Will Anderson Jr. and BJ Ojulari in 2022. On Saturday, he explained exactly how he did that.

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s not always easy to get anything of import from the player podium sessions at a scouting combine. The 15-minute pressers are generally taken up halfway with various reporters asking, “Did you meet with [Team X],” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” and finally, “Did you meet with [Team X]?”

Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright took care of that during his Saturday morning podium session by pulling out his phone and running down the names of about three-quarters of the NFL.

With that out of the way, it was time to talk about Wright’s 2022 season reps against two of the best edge-rushers in this draft class — Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr., and LSU’s BJ Ojulari. Anderson is a consensus top-five prospect, and Ojulari might sneak into the first round, but neither man did much against Wright. In back-to-back games against LSU and Alabama, Wright allowed a total of no sacks, no quarterback hits, and one quarterback hurry on 81 pass-protection snaps. And at 6-foot-5 and 342 pounds, you know that Wright can get it done in the run game, as well.

But this was about how Wright protected quarterback Hendon Hooker in those two games. He did so to the point where Anderson, in his own podium session this week, said that Wright was the best offensive tackle he faced.

“My sophomore year to my junior year, he had gotten way better,” Anderson said of Wright. “Very athletic, can bend, [and] can re-trace with his steps. If he gets off balance, [he] can sit down on power[-rushes], so it was really exciting going against him this year. He was really great.”

Wright’s game against Anderson was one of the primary series of moments in the SEC last season, because Anderson had just two pressures in that Tennessee game, and he had to get as far away from Wright as possible to get either one of them. When it was mano a mano, Anderson found himself shut out.

I asked Wright how he decided to deal with Anderson, and from there, it’s time to go to the tape.

Tennessee OT Darnell Wright explains how to block Will Anderson Jr. and BJ Ojulari

Tennessee right tackle Darnell Wright erased Will Anderson Jr. and BJ Ojulari in 2022. On Saturday, he explained exactly how he did that.

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s not always easy to get anything of import from the player podium sessions at a scouting combine. The 15-minute pressers are generally taken up halfway with various reporters asking, “Did you meet with [Team X],” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” and finally, “Did you meet with [Team X]?”

Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright took care of that during his Saturday morning podium session by pulling out his phone and running down the names of about three-quarters of the NFL.

With that out of the way, it was time to talk about Wright’s 2022 season reps against two of the best edge-rushers in this draft class — Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr., and LSU’s BJ Ojulari. Anderson is a consensus top-five prospect, and Ojulari might sneak into the first round, but neither man did much against Wright. In back-to-back games against LSU and Alabama, Wright allowed a total of no sacks, no quarterback hits, and one quarterback hurry on 81 pass-protection snaps. And at 6-foot-5 and 342 pounds, you know that Wright can get it done in the run game, as well.

But this was about how Wright protected quarterback Hendon Hooker in those two games. He did so to the point where Anderson, in his own podium session this week, said that Wright was the best offensive tackle he faced.

“My sophomore year to my junior year, he had gotten way better,” Anderson said of Wright. “Very athletic, can bend, [and] can re-trace with his steps. If he gets off balance, [he] can sit down on power[-rushes], so it was really exciting going against him this year. He was really great.”

Wright’s game against Anderson was one of the primary series of moments in the SEC last season, because Anderson had just two pressures in that Tennessee game, and he had to get as far away from Wright as possible to get either one of them. When it was mano a mano, Anderson found himself shut out.

I asked Wright how he decided to deal with Anderson, and from there, it’s time to go to the tape.

All-22 from the scouting combine: Defensive linemen detail their favorite plays

Defensive linemen Bryan Bresee, Keeanu Benton, Keondre Coburn, Gervon Dexter, and Zacch Pickens describe their best college plays.

INDIANAPOLIS — What’s your one defining moment?

Every prospect at the scouting combine has that one play which defines them to a degree — the highlight shot they think about over and over when it’s time to think about their collegiate careers.

As the defensive linemen took the podiums in Indianapolis on Wednesday, I thought it would be interesting to ask a bunch of them for the one play they would show anybody if asked for the real highlight shot. Here are Clemson’s Bryan Bresee, Wisconsin’s Keeanu Benton, Texas’ Keondre Coburn, Florida’s Gervon Dexter, and South Carolina’s Zacch Pickens describing the plays they most remember, with tape examples and further descriptions.

Myles Garrett has an interesting message for draft prospect Trevor Penning

Browns edge-rusher Myles Garrett had a “Goodluck with that” message for top prospect offensive lineman Trevor Penning.

Northern Iowa offensive tackle Trevor Penning upped his profile during a Senior Bowl in which he looked for fight after fight as a blocker, and frequently found them. Penning took his brand further during the scouting combine, when he ran a 4.89 40-yard dash, had a 28-inch vertical jump, a 111-inch broad jump, a 7.25-second three-cone drill, and a 4.62-second 20-yard shuttle.

That’s all good, but what happens when Penning takes his hyper-aggressive style to the NFL, and the NFL’s best pass-rushers and pass-rushing schemes? That’s another matter. Penning allowed one sack and 11 total pressures last season when his toughest opponent was… maybe Eastern Washington? Things get more complicated in the NFL, and even at the Senior Bowl, Penning’s aggressiveness worked against him as much as it helped him — like on the rep where he threw an edge defender right into quarterback Desmond Ridder, essentially creating his own sack.

That’s not to say that Penning doesn’t have top-tier NFL potential — some team is probably going to invest a first-round pick to find out. But Browns edge-rusher Myles Garrett, who had 16 sacks, 15 quarterback hits, and 45 quarterback hurries in 2021, wanted Mr. Penning to know that things are going to be a bit tougher the next time he puts on a uniform, and things get real.

Good luck with Garrett’s bull-rush, or Von Miller’s long-arm, or T.J. Watt’s speed counter? Indeed. That’ll be the next level of Penning’s development, and Garrett just wanted to remind him of that.