Category: The All-22

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 3’s biggest matchups

Week 3 of the NFL season is here, and Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, are here to preview the biggest games.

It’s time for Week 3 of the NFL season, and Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, are here to preview the biggest games and the most exciting matchups in the new week.

This week’s games:

New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers: How did the Giants finally find their offense after six very bad quarters?

Buffalo Bills at Washington Commanders: How Sam Howell has impressed just about everybody.

Los Angeles Chargers at Minnesota Vikings: What might Justin Herbert see from Brian Flores’ offense? Based on this year’s trend, it could be just about anything.

Chicago Bears at Kansas City Chiefs: Justin Fields is clearly on the outs with his coaches. How can the Bears put together a functional passing game?

Philadelphia Eagles at Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Where are we with Jalen Hurts’ pocket vision after two weeks, and why is Baker Mayfield looking so good in Dave Canales’ offense?

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: How the Giants finally found their offense again

Daniel Jones’ 58-yard pass to Jalin Hyatt broke a streak of bad offense for the Giants. Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar explain how it worked.

Through the first six quarters of their 2023 season, the New York Giants’ offense did not look at all like head coach Brian Daboll, offensive coordinator Matt Kafka, or quarterback Daniel Jones would have preferred. This was especially true in the passing game. In a 40-0 Week 1 thrashing at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys, and in a Week 2 first half against the Arizona Cardinals in which Big Blue had a 20-0 deficit, Jones completed 24 of 44 passes for 166 yards, no touchdowns, and three interceptions.

Then, in the second half and overtime of the Cardinals game that the Giants won, 31-28, Jones completed 17 of 21 passes for 259 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions.

It was as extreme a difference as you’ll see from any offense from one half to another, and as it turned out, Daboll and Kafka had some great adjustments at halftime to make things right. In the first half — and this may have been a function of wanting to get Jones back in rhythm after the Cowboys debacle — the Giants were running a lot of quick passes without play-action or motion or any other kinds of eye candy. The idea seemed to be to get Jones some easy completions and get him into a rhythm, which was not how it turned out.

Then, at the start of the second half, everything changed. It started with this 58-yard vertical completion from Jones to receiver Jalin Hyatt.

The first thing to notice here is how Cardinals linebacker Kyzir White is indicating a possible quarterback run to the right, based on tight end Daniel Bellinger blocking edge-rusher Dennis Gardeck, and right tackle Evan Neal pulling to the right in a run-action concept. That sucked White in, and Jones’ play-action fake to running back Saquon Barkley did the same to linebacker Krys Barnes.

Then, there was the combination of the route concepts, and how the Giants set everything up with personnel.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys further discussed how the Giants got back on the good foot after such a bleak beginning.

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“One change they clearly made was a personnel adjustment,” Greg said. “There was far more 12 personnel starting in the third quarter, and obviously, they know [current Cardinals head coach and former Eagles defensive coordinator] Jonathan Gannon. Whether he’s calling the defense or not, it’s his defense. So they know him from his being in Philadelphia over the last two years, and they probably felt pretty confrontable… coaches end up coaching against coaches. They probably felt that if they went to 12 personnel, they’d get specific things defensively.”

Greg on the 58-yarder to Hyatt:

“That came out of 12 personnel. Hyatt was the boundary X receiver. They went tight bunch opposite that to the trips side of the formation. And they pretty much knew how that would be played. The Cardinals played Cover-4, and the boundary safety — the safety to the side of Hyatt [K’Von Wallace] — he was looking inside to trips, which he has to as his initial look. Therefore, you get the one-on-one — you get Hyatt running the deep post versus Wilson. And Wilson at that point has no over the top help because of the trips route concepts. So, they knew that. They anticipated quarters coverage with their 12 personnel. You don’t call that play unless you anticipate a deep post without a safety sitting right there.”

It was a brilliant design against the right defense, and it got the Giants back on track, where they desperately needed to be. Now, we’ll see how they try to advance that against the San Francisco 49ers’ top-tier defense on Thursday night.

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.

Justin Fields is unhappy with coaching, says he needs to ‘think less, and play with instinct’

Justin Fields had a lot to say Wednesday about Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, and none of it was great.

Those who have wanted to blame Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy for quarterback Justin Fields’ struggles through the first two games of the 2023 season (which we detailed in depth here) got a whole lot of new ammunition when Fields gave his Wednesday morning press conference. Right or wrong, you will rarely see a player detail his struggles with a coaching staff as Fields did here.

Fields started off with his goal for Week 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs’ defense.

“My goal is to go out there this week and say ‘F-it’ and just play football how I know how to play football.” he said. “That includes thinking less, and just going out there and playing with instinct. Rather than just… with so much info in my head and so much data in my head, and just going out there and playing football. Going back to, ‘It’s a game,’ because that’s when I play my best — when I’m out there playing free and bring myself. Dump all the ‘what I should do’ and all the pocket stuff. I’m gonna go out there and be me.”

When asked why he was thinking too much… well, that’s when it got interesting.

“Could be coaching, I think. At the end of the day, they’re doing their jobs when they’re giving me what to look at. But I can’t be thinking of that when the game comes — I prepare myself throughout the week, and when the game comes, it’s time to play free at that point.”

Fields also acknowledged that his coaches have wanted him to work more from the pocket, and when a reporter brought up the strip-sack by Buccaneers linebacker Cam Gill with 2:19 left in the second quarter, Fields had a ready answer.

“Exactly,” he said. “Exactly. I’m leaving. I’m gone. Time clock [his internal clock], I’m gone out of the pocket. That’s why that happened, because they wanted me to work on staying in the pocket in the offseason, which… there’s times when you do, but when your internal clock goes off, that’s when you need to extend the play.

“So, it’s just kinda like… taking their coaching, and then… it’s not going to work out perfectly every time. Yes, there are times when I could have stayed in the pocket, but on that play, I was in the pocket for a long time. I’ve got to extend the play and do something with it.”

On the play in question, it was third-and-13 from the Tampa Bay 27-yard line, and the Buccaneers up, 10-7. Fields had tight end Cole Kmet and receiver DJ Moore running mesh, and receivers Chase Claypool and Trent Taylor running benders about 20 yards upfield. Fields clearly didn’t want to throw to the mesh, and when the pocket started to break down, his internal clock told him to run through Tampa Bay’s Cover-3.

Would that have worked for a positive play? Perhaps. The larger point here is an obvious schism between coaches and quarterback, and you don’t generally see a quarterback making it this public. Not a great sign for a Bears offense that is already circling the drain.

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Secret Superstars: The underrated players for Week 2 of the 2023 NFL season

From Baker Mayfield to Zack Moss to Ivan Pace Jr. to Deommodore Lenoir to Geno Stone, here are the NFL’s Secret Superstars for Week 2.

Not every great NFL performance is given by a well-known player. Just as often as you see the league’s marquee names ball out, there are those under-the-radar guys who rise up at the right time to add weight to their own names.

It happens every week, and we have collected this list of the most prominent Week 2 performances from those players whose deeds outweighed the import of their reputations.

Here are the NFL’s Secret Superstars for Week 2 of the 2023 NFL season.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions). 

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The NFL’s 12 best interior offensive linemen

From Wyatt Teller to Jason Kelce, here are the 12 best interior offensive linemen in the NFL today.

Of all the players who factor heavily into a football team’s success, guards and centers are often the most overlooked. Unless you’re working with advanced metrics, there are no statistics to speak of, and unless you have access to overhead and (especially) end zone footage, it’s hard to discern what these guys are doing that is so important.

But those in the know, know better. Centers control the entire offense — they make protection calls, they align with their quarterbacks both intellectually and literally on every snap, and they have to take the brunt of the opponent’s decisions to point one or more large angry men in their exact directions.

Guards are often the athletes of their offensive lines as much as tackles are — it’s just a different kind of athleticism. Whether on the left or right side, these big guys had better be able to execute inside and outside zone, man-based snaps in which it’s mano a mano, and all kinds of combinations in which it’s important to coordinate with others.

So, in the spirit of giving these fine gentlemen more play in the court of public opinion. we continue our position lists for the 2023 season with the 12 best interior offensive linemen in the NFL today.

In a recent version of “The Xs and Os” with Greg Cosell, Greg (of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup) and Doug Farrar (of Touchdown Wire) got into the attributes for guards and centers at the elite level.

Centers:

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Guards:

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In addition to this list, you can read all of our position rankings for the 2023 NFL season, on the way to our late August list of the 101 best players in the league today.

The NFL’s top 11 offensive tackles
The NFL’s top 11 interior defensive linemen
The NFL’s top 11 edge defenders
The NFL’s top 11 linebackers
The NFL’s top 11 slot defenders
The NFL’s top 11 cornerbacks
The NFL’s top 11 safeties

And now, the 12 best interior offensive linemen in the NFL today.

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

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Why Muhammad Ali was great in the pocket

Great pocket quarterbacks and great boxers have one thing in common — they have to navigate small areas against controlled aggression.

With all the talk these days about how much quarterbacks must win outside the pocket (and that’s certainly true), one must never underestimate the importance of pocket movement — that is to say, the ability for a quarterback to move around in a pocket the size of a small boxing ring, and create positive plays with chaos all around him.

From Tom Brady to Joe Burrow to Patrick Mahomes, there are a few quarterbacks who set themselves apart with their sense of defenders around them, how they move around that chaos, and how they can expand that boxing ring with that sense of movement and expansion.

In that regard, Muhmmad Ali would have been a great pocket quarterback. While Ali’s opponents like Joe Frazier and George Foreman were all about cutting the rung in halves and quarters to suffocate you and then beat you into submission, Ali reacted to that ideally with his short-area elusiveness, forcing those constriction experts to flail around the ring more than they would have liked.

For Ali’s opponents, the end result was exhaustion. Ask Foreman, who lost The Rumble in the Jungle because Ali rope-a-doped him and forced him to go to parts of the ring to which he didn’t want to travel.

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) discussed the ideal attributes for the modern NFL quarterback, and pocket movement was a point of focus.

“You have to be able to function intelligently and athletically at game speed amidst a lot of chaos,” Greg said of those pocket savants. “You’re in a cauldron of fire. You have to move, but at the same time, maintaining balance, maintaining footwork, and keeping your eyes downfield. You never want to look at the rush. You have to have a feel.

“One of the first things I learned when I started working with Ron Jaworski in 1989 or 1990, and he told me, ‘You never want to see the rush; you have to feel the rush.’ Certainly quarterbacks who are more pocket-driven growing up in the game, like a Dan Marino or a Tom Brady or a Drew Brees… they grow up feeling the rush, because their first instinct is not to leave the pocket. Quarterbacks who are great movers, they may be the best athletes on the field, so anytime they feel anything [pressure], they’re going to leave [the pocket].

“But you want to have the ability to move within the pocket, and I’ve always used the analogy of the area of a boxing ring, but smaller.”

And there you have it.

You can watch the entire “Xs and Os” about building the perfect quarterback 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: Building the perfect quarterback

In this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys discuss the traits that make the ideal NFL quarterback.

Quarterback is the most important position in football, and quite possibly the most difficult position to perfect in any sport. All you have to do to be great at it is to read complex and ever-changing defenses on the fly, hit tight windows on a dime, work through pressure both in and out of the pocket, be on point with every route every one of your receivers are running, and possibly add to the run threat of your offense.

And of course, you have to do all of this while large men on the opposing team are trying their level best to beat the daylights out of you.

No big deal, right?

In this week’s edition 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) discuss in depth all the traits and attributes that lead to excellence at the position. Just as the guys have gone over the anatomies of the perfect secondary, the perfect defensive line, the perfect offensive line, and the perfect receiver corps, here’s the architecture of the perfect quarterback.

You can watch this week’s episode of “The 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 NFL’s 11 best offensive tackles

From Christian Darrisaw to Trent Williams, here’s Doug Farrar’s list of the 11 best offensive tackles in the NFL today.

Offensive tackles have generally been the rock stars of every offensive line through time, and that’s no different in 2023, though the requirements for the positions (right and left tackle) have changed in recent years.

We are no longer in the era of football where quarterbacks are taking seven-step drops, slinging it downfield no matter what, and going to the Pro Bowl with 50% completion rates, and more interceptions than touchdowns. Efficiency matters, and so does quick passing — especially as the run-pass option has become a schematic staple at the NFL level.

Modern tackles have to do a lot of things well to be great, and with the advent of multiple fronts, the difference between right and left tackle has blurred to a large degree. No longer is your left tackle automatically the perfect athlete, while the guy on the right is just good enough to get by. Not in an ideal offensive line, by any means.

So, to make this year’s list of the NFL’s 11 best offensive tackles, you’d best meet the following criteria:

  • Expert pass-blocking in every kind of set — from the quick set to the full vertical dropback.
  • A nearly-full array of techniques to keep defensive linemen at bay.
  • The ability to stone those defensive linemen in the run game; and
  • The acumen to pick up stunts and overload fronts.

In a recent episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” we went deeper into the requirements for every offensive line position, including and especially those fine gentlemen who protect the edges.

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Tape was a huge part of the deciding process here, as well as all kinds of advanced metrics. Along with sacks and pressures allowed, we also used Pro Football Focus’ “True Pass Sets” metric to further delineate offensive tackle performance. Per PFF, True Pass Sets exclude plays with less than four rushers, play-action, screen passes, short dropbacks and time-to-throws under two seconds.

Our list of the NFL’s 11 best offensive tackles is a continuation of our lists for every position, leading up to August’s list of the 101 best players in the NFL today.

The NFL’s top 11 interior defensive linemen
The NFL’s top 11 edge defenders
The NFL’s top 11 linebackers
The NFL’s top 11 slot defenders
The NFL’s top 11 cornerbacks
The NFL’s top 11 safeties

Without further ado, here are the 11 best offensive tackles in the NFL as we head into the 2023 season.

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

The Xs and Os: How modern NFL defenses affect receiver performance

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys detail why modern receivers read defenses just like quarterbacks do.

Receivers in today’s NFL have to deal with more stuff coming at them from a defensive perspective than at any other time in football history. That four-man front coming after your quarterback could actually be an overload front, or everyone could drop out, and all of a sudden, you’re dealing with eight in coverage, flooding all the zones.

And you, Mr. Receiver, could be looking at what you think is Cover-3 pre-snap, but the second safety works back, and now you’re dealing with Quarters coverage. Oh, and this could all be happening in Big Nickel with three safeties. You and your quarterback had best be on the same page with that one!

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 and the USA Today Sports Media Group) get into how the pictures have changed for receivers, and why building the ideal receiver corps (the overarching subject for this week’s video/podcast) must include receivers in every alignment who can read defenses just like quarterbacks do.

You can watch that part of the discussion right here:

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You can watch the full version of this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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And, you can listen to “The Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…on Apple podcasts…

…and on YouTube.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Building the perfect receiver corps

In this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys look to build the perfect receiver corps for the modern NFL.

Over the last few episodes 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 and the USA Today Sports Media Group) have endeavored to build some perfect position groups. We started with the ideal secondary, worked our way to the best defensive line we could put together from current NFL players, and then, moved to the other side of the trenches with the best possible offensive line.

Now, it’s time to switch that focus to the best receiver group that can be assembled, identifying the traits and attributes for tight ends, outside receivers, and slot receivers that are the most important in today’s NFL.

Moreover, there’s the elements of how receivers must develop and improve their modus operandi against defenses that are showing them more disguised looks and late movement than at any other time in NFL history.

“Receivers have to read coverage the same way quarterbacks have to read coverages,” Greg said in this week’s video/podcast. “Because you can draw up routes, and everything is drawn up as a structural ideal. So, if you have a route concept — let’s say for the sake of discussion, a three-level stretch or flood concept — there’s three routes to one side of the field: A short route, an intermediate route, and a vertical route. Now, a vertical route is a vertical route. It could be a straight go route, or it could be a deep post.

“An intermediate route? That functions to some degree based on coverage. In an ideal world, you run it at a certain depth. But if the coverage does not allow you to run it at a certain depth, you must make an adjustment. Because the quarterback will see that the receiver may not be able to make his break exactly in that spot, because maybe the underneath defender went to more depth, or he sunk a little further, so he’s taken away where the intermediate route is supposed to go.

“That’s just one example, but the overriding point is that receivers must be able to read coverage the same way quarterbacks do.”

This 42-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes to Marquez Valdes-Scantling in Week 13’s Chiefs-Bengals game last season was a great example of a winning flood concept. Tight end Travis Kelce ran the flat route short from the formation, and Valdes-Scantling ran the vertical route from the slot. It was up to outside receiver Justin Watson to deduce how the coverage would go, and when he saw slot defender Mike Hilton come down to defend Kelce, and outside cornerback Eli Apple rush to double Valdes-Scantling deep with safety Vonn Bell, Watson knew he’d have an opening on the intermediate route.

Not that he needed it, because Mahomes (as is his wont) was aiming for the big play.

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

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And, you can listen to “The Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

or on Apple podcasts.