Category: Greg Cosell

Why the Jaguars’ defense, and the ‘other’ Josh Allen, deserve your attention

The 8-3 Jacksonville Jaguars are getting it done with a defense that may have escaped your attention. It’s time to take a closer look.

Quite under the radar, the Jacksonville Jaguars have assembled a 8-3 record, and they’re currently the AFC’s three-seed, behind the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs. The prime mover for this improvement for a team that finished 9-8 last season, snuck into the playoffs, and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round, is a defense that currently ranks fifth in the NFL in DVOA — eighth against the pass, and first against the run.

And the prime mover in that defense is clearly EDGE Josh Allen — the Josh Allen who’s having the better season of the NFL’s two Josh Allen’s. The 2019 seventh-overall pick out of Kentucky has the league’s fifth-most pressures among edge-rushers, and his 13 sacks ranks third.

Against the Houston Texans last Sunday in a 24-21 win, that defense and Allen in particular made rookie phenom C.J. Stroud as uncomfortable in and out of the pocket as he’s been in his professional career. Per Pro Football Focus, Stroud was pressured on 28 of his 46 dropbacks, and that’s exactly what it looked like on tape.

“They really didn’t do too much,” Stroud said after the game of Jacksonville’s pressure looks. “They sent some pressure, but not as much as they did early on [in Week 3, when the Texans beat the Jaguars, 37-17]. They got us a couple of times in some weird fronts with some pressure looks. I’ve got to be better with throwing the ball high and things like that, but they really didn’t do much different. They’re a sound team. They’re up front. Josh Allen and [fellow EDGE Travon] Walker set the tone.”

Allen’s two sacks in this game showed how defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and defensive line coach Brentson Buckner are dialing things up in subtle ways to affect and upset opposing quarterbacks.

The first sack came with 3:14 left in the first quarter. Linebackers Foyesade Oluokun and Devin Lloyd mugged left guard Juice Scruggs. This made it a six-man pressure look with Olokun dropping and Lloyd occupying left tackle Laremy Tunsil, while Allen came off the left edge unblocked — not a great idea. At the same time, safety Tre Herndon blitzed from the other side on a delay from slot depth.

Allen’s second sack came with 2:24 left in the fourth quarter. Here, Allen was to Tunsil’s outside shoulder, and defensive tackle Angelo Blackson was to Scruggs’ outside shoulder. Blackson occupied Scruggs, and then Allen just made a great play, slipping through Tunsil and Scruggs and chasing Stroud down. This is a defense that can get after your quarterback in multiple ways.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys go deep on this Jacksonville defense, the secret stars that make it work, and how this can set the Jaguars up for success as the season continues.

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You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” featuring all of Week 13’s biggest NFL matchups, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 13’s biggest NFL matchups

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys go deep on Week 13’s biggest NFL matchup with tape and metrics.

It’s time for Week 13 of the 2023 NFL season, including three Thanksgiving games, and the league’s first Black Friday contest ever. Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, are here to get you ready for the most important matchups:

Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys: Can Seattle fix its passing game, and deal with a version of Dak Prescott that might be the best we’ve seen?

Denver Broncos at Houston Texans: The underrated players who are at the heart of Denver’s drastic defensive improvement over the last five games.

San Francisco 49ers at Philadelphia Eagles: How both of these teams set up future plays with current plays, and a throw from Brock Purdy you have to see to believe. Also, Jason Kelce might be playing the best football of his Hall of Fame career.

Kansas City Chiefs at Green Bay Packers: This Super Bowl I “rematch” comes at a time when Packers quarterback Jordan Love is coming into his own as a franchise quarterback.

Cincinnati Bengals at Jacksonville Jaguars: We have not talked enough about the 9-3 Jaguars on both sides of the ball. We would like to apologize, and go deep on Jacksonville’s pressure packages, and how they get their receivers open with scheme.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: C.J. Stroud is a perfect fit in the Texans’ new offense

C.J. Stroud looks like a natural fit in the Houston Texans’ new Kyle Shanahan-style offense. Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar get into all the reasons why.

The Houston Texans made Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud the fulcrum of the offense when they selected him with the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. The Texans also took former San Francisco 49ers passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik to make him their offensive coordinator, so you can expect to see a lot of Kyle Shanahan-style concepts in this offense — boot action out of the pocket, a lot of pre-snap motion, and 21 personnel (two running backs, one tight end, two receivers). Shanahan really didn’t have a guy in Brock Purdy who could roll out credibly in 2022, but there was a reason the 49ers traded as much as they did to get Trey Lance.

Stroud, with his ball placement, ability to read the field, and underrated sense of how to attack defenses while on the move, seems like a natural fit. Two of the top five quarterbacks in EPA in the NFL last season with the benefit of pre-snap motion were Purdy and Jimmy Garoppolo, so that’s obviously a San Francisco staple. 

Per Sports Info Solutions, Stroud in 2022 completed 98 of 137 passes for 1,233 yards, 632 air yards, 17 touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 135.7 — that passer rating led all FBS quarterbacks.

In this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg (of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup) and Doug (of Touchdown Wire) get into all the ways in which Stroud is already primed to succeed wildly over time in that Shanahan-style passing game.

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The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar: Greg’s six favorite draft picks!

In this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” we discuss Greg’s six favorite picks in the 2023 NFL draft.

In this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg (of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup) and Doug (Touchdown Wire’s editor) discuss the six prospects Greg liked the most, regardless of draft pick or position, from among the more than 200 players he watched in detail in the pre-draft process.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify:

Or on Apple Podcasts.

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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The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: The non-negotiables for draftable QB, OT, EDGE, CB

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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