Tag: 2023 season

This isn’t the first time the Saints have tried to sign Ben DiNucci

This isn’t the first time the Saints have tried to sign Ben DiNucci. Last year he passed on the chance to join them after Derek Carr was injured:

Someone in the New Orleans Saints pro personnel department is  big fan of Ben DiNucci. The Saints signed the veteran backup quarterback on Tuesday after a hand injury put Derek Carr’s status in doubt, reinforcing the depth chart behind Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler. It’s been a long time coming.

The Saints tried to sign DiNucci last year when Carr suffered a shoulder injury, but it was reported that he wasn’t open to leaving the Denver Broncos practice squad just to sit on the bench somewhere else. Here’s what we wrote at the time:

But DiNucci didn’t see a better situation on the Saints’ 53-man roster than he already had in Denver. The Saints signed Jake Luton from the Carolina Panthers practice squad and rostered him for three weeks while Carr played through his injured throwing shoulder; when rookie quarterback Jake Haener returned from a six-week suspension to start the season, Luton was waived.

That wasn’t the case this time. DiNucci hadn’t been on an NFL roster since August, when he spent a few weeks with the Buffalo Bills. Without a viable alternative, he was obviously more willing to go be a backup on another team. Hopefully he can help the team get through this rough patch while Carr is on the mend.

[lawrence-auto-related count=5]

Sorry, Baltimore: Steelers know exactly how to stop Derrick Henry

Pittsburgh has consistently contained Derrick Henry, with wins over him in 2017, 2020, and 2023—a testament to their resilience.

King Henry may rule in Baltimore, but he has bowed several times to the impressive display of determination and resilience that the Steel City represents. The Pittsburgh Steelers have faced a Derrick Henry-led offense three times during his career—in 2017, 2020, and 2023—and emerged victorious each time.

In 2017, the Pittsburgh defense limited Henry to 32 rushing yards on 7 attempts. In 2020—a season many consider one of the greatest by a running back, with Henry averaging 5.4 yards per carry on 378 attempts, rushing for 2,027 yards, and scoring 17 rushing touchdowns—the Steelers once again tamed the king in their Week 7 matchup with the Titans, holding him to just 75 yards on 20 attempts. When the teams met again in 2023, Pittsburgh held Henry to the same 75 rushing yards.

The Baltimore-based king is one of the greatest running backs of his era, but his lack of production speaks volumes about HC Mike Tomlin’s ability to scheme effectively and prevent him from taking over the game. While Henry is an elite player in the NFL, make no mistake: just like the Baltimore Ravens over the past few seasons, Pittsburgh will have his number once again in Week 11.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Saints’ initial 53-man roster age has plummeted compared to 2023

The New Orleans Saints have gone for the younger approach to team building this year, dropping their average team age by half a year in one offseason

Last season, the New Orleans Saints had the oldest initial 53-man roster age of any NFL team, starting off at 27.4 years old. Per Nola.com’s Luke Johnson, the roster is now down to an average age of 26.9. Nearly a half of a year decrease in age a season later, with some of the older players still remaining on the roster and one year older (like Cameron Jordan, Demario Davis, Taysom Hill, Derek Carr, Tyrann Mathieu, and so on) this shows how much the roster turnover really aimed for younger players.

The Saints ended up with four undrafted free agents making the roster, as well as all but one of their draft picks in 2024 making the roster (Josiah Ezirim was added to the practice squad), that explains much of this youth movement. These players are:

  • Taliese Fuaga – 22 years old
  • Kool-Aid McKinstry – 21 years old
  • Spencer Rattler – 23 years old
  • Bub Means – 23 years old
  • Jaylan Ford – 22 years old
  • Khristian Boyd – 24 years old
  • Mason Tipton – 23 years old
  • Matthew Hayball – 27 years old
  • Dallin Holker – 24 years old
  • Rico Payton – 24 years old

Additionally, Kendre Miller and Bryan Bresee are both still 22 as well, dragging the average age down even further. While they may still end up being in the upper half and on the higher side of the age groupings, they have most definitely looked to go younger this year as opposed to last year’s theme.

[lawrence-auto-related count=5]

Commanders QB Jayden Daniels wins ESPY for Best Men’s Collegiate Athlete

Jayden Daniels wins another award.

Jayden Daniels is still winning awards for his performance as quarterback for the LSU Tigers in 2023. Heading into Thursday night’s ESPY awards, Daniels already won the Heisman Trophy, Walter Camp Award, AP College Football Player of the Year, Sporting News College Football Player of the Year, Davey O’Brien Award, Manning Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and SEC Offensive Player of the Year.

That’s quite the list. At the ESPY’s, Daniels added the 2023 Best Male College Athlete Award to his list of accomplishments.

Here’s a look at Daniels at the ESPY Awards.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9ThYy8pHYC/?hl=en&img_index=1

Daniels completed 72% of his passes for 3,812 yards, with 40 touchdowns and only four interceptions. Daniels also rushed for 1,134 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Commanders would select Daniels second overall in the 2024 NFL draft.

Since his arrival in Washington, Daniels has already won over his coaches and teammates with his work ethic and humble nature. Daniels will begin his first NFL training camp next week.

NFL shares highlight reel of Saints’ top 10 plays from 2023 season

The Saints’ dynamic receiving tandem of Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed make up the 7 of the Saints Top 10 plays of 2023:

The NFL shared a highlight reel of the New Orleans Saints’ 10 best plays from the 2023 season on social media, which included a large presence of Rashid Shaheed and Chris Olave. Of the 10 plays, the Saints’ leading receivers accounted for seven of them.

This goes to show just how dynamic the Saints wide receiver tandem is. Olave made an appearance in four plays including the top two spots and Shaheed showed up three times. One of Shaheed’s appearances came on special teams, as well.

All of the offensive plays were passing plays. Juwan Johnson made an appearance with a catch from the Week 17 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a season best for the tight end. Demario Davis’ strip fumble was the lone defensive play on the list, and a Nephi Sewell punt block capped off the Top 10.

Two plays immediately jump to mind that didn’t make the cut. Tyrann Mathieu’s pick-six against the New England Patriots should have been a candidate. His 74-yard interception return likely would’ve made the cut had he not chose to go down early. It was surprising to not see the “Shid run” play from the Tennessee Titans game.

The problem with putting a play on the list is you’d have to take one off, so let’s just call these honorable mentions.

[lawrence-auto-related count=4]

Here’s how bad the Bears were in the fourth quarter in 2023

Warren Sharp broke down just how bad the Bears were during the fourth quarter last season.

It’s no secret the Chicago Bears struggled in the fourth quarter during the 2023 season.

Chicago lost a total of six games by one score last season, which included three contests where the team gave the game away in the fourth quarter. The Bears blew a 21-point lead to the Denver Broncos in Week 4; they blew a 12-point lead in the final minutes to the Detroit Lions in Week 11; and they blew a 10-point lead to the Cleveland Browns in Week 15.

Warren Sharp broke down the Bears’ performance last season, highlighting how bad they were closing out games in the fourth quarter even beyond those blown leads.

If you look at Chicago’s performance in the first three quarters alone, they would’ve finished with a 10-6-1 record, which would’ve been the eighth most wins in the NFL. The Bears also outgained opposing teams by 430 yards and ranked 10th in total line of scrimmage EPA (offense and defense) through three quarters.

By comparison, the fourth quarter was a disaster. They had -50.7 total EPA (worst in the NFL), 14 turnovers (most), 10 interceptions (most), were outgained by 446 yards (second worst) and ultimately finished with the worst record in the NFC North (7-9).

Bears coach Matt Eberflus will certainly be under the microscope this season after his team failed to pull out close games in 2023, especially after the team opted to stick with him at coach following a rough first two seasons.

While it’s unfair to compare last year’s squad with the current roster, it’s clear Chicago needs to learn how to close out games if they hope to contend for the postseason. And that starts with their head coach.

Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown are the most underrated QB-WR duo in the NFL

Lions film room: Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown are the most underrated QB-WR duo in the NFL

When talking about Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jared Goff, there’s a lot of misconceptions. Some say that Amon-Ra is a slot only receiver and he’ll always be limited. Others will say that Goff isn’t mobile or doesn’t have a strong enough arm to be a successful quarterback consistently in the NFL.

Say what you want but this quarterback and wide receiver duo is the most underrated pairing in the NFL. Since they’ve been paired together in 2021, Goff has completed 294 passes to St. Brown for 3,368 yards and 19 touchdowns in 46 games played.

Looking into last season, St. Brown was ranked 3rd in the NFL with 1,515 receiving yards. Meanwhile, Jared Goff was 2nd in the NFL with 4,575 passing yards. While you can say that Patrick Mahomes or Justin Jefferson are the best all-around players at their positions, there’s no denying the production and chemistry between Goff and St. Brown. Let’s look into some tape to go over why this duo is so good.

The first play I want to highlight is from week 16 against the Minnesota Vikings. Looking at the play above, the Lions come out in ’12’ personnel (one running back and two tight ends) with quarterback Jared Goff under center. On this play, the Lions will run a stick-arrow concept

Prior to the snap, Goff sends wide receiver Jameson Williams on a motion towards Amon-Ra St. Brown, who is aligned as the ‘X’ receiver. While St. Brown has a tighter split, the cornerback and safety aligned over him need to honor and value the ability that St. Brown has to win vertically down the field. Obviously, as Jameson Williams motions over, they have to honor the deep ball even more.

Once the ball is snapped, Goff fakes a hand-off to David Montgomery out of the backfield. Off this play-action, Montgomery will free release into the flats and Williams will get vertical on an outside release. As for the tight ends, they look to pass protect but one of them will sit before releasing up-field to become the check-down.

As for St. Brown, his body language sells that he could be running a post or corner route or even a post-corner route. But he runs a 10 – 12 yard hitch route. Meanwhile, St. Brown is so good at understanding spacing and the zone coverage drops by defenders. He knows he needs to get depth on this route and he does exactly that. This leads him to be wide open in the middle of the field for an easy pitch-and-catch between him and Goff.

Getting away from some of the coach speak for the next clip, I just want to focus on how St. Brown being able to run after-the-catch. During the 2023 season, St. Brown was 2nd in the NFL with 668 yards after-the-catch. The only receiver with more was CeeDee Lamb with 680 yards.

Looking at the play above, you can see St. Brown motioned to the left of the formation. Once the ball is snapped, he has a delayed release up-field and as he gets 4-to-6 yards up-field, he explodes off his outside foot and breaks to the middle. This forces the linebacker (Quay Walker #7) to open his hips towards the sideline and it leaves himself wide open on the slant route.

As the pass is delivered from Jared Goff, you can see terrific run after-the-catch ability from St. Brown. According to PFF, he forced 17 missed tackles after-the-catch. He’s strong enough to shake off arm tackles but explosive enough to make defenders regret any poor angle they take to tackle him.

Lastly, the next play I want to focus on is from week 2 last season against the Seattle Seahawks. On the play above, the Lions come out in a shotgun formation with their ’21’ personnel (two running backs and one tight end). Aligned to the right is St. Brown and as the ball is snapped, he’s faced with a defensive back playing man coverage.

That’s not going to slow him down though. As the linebacker goes to cover the flats, this opens the middle of the field like the Red Sea being parted. Attacking that area of the field with a beautifully ran whip route is a wide open St. Brown.

Prior to delivering the pass, you’ll see Goff start his read to his left towards Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta. However, he quickly flips to the right and delivers the ball to St. Brown.

https://x.com/RussNFLDraft/status/1802663480316535074

Many people will say that these plays show St. Brown primarily aligned in the slot. However, the data tell a different story. St. Brown had 1,346 receiving yards against press coverage last season, per PFF. That tied for 3rd best in the NFL with Puka Nacua and only trailed CeeDee Lamb and Tyreek Hill. Meanwhile, St. Brown was the fourth-most productive receiver in the league when aligned outside, per PFF.

The Lions quick passing attack has been strongly developed due to the abilities of St. Brown and Goff. Like I said, you can call this tandem whatever you want but together they’re automatic. Statistically it shows and on tape, the trust developed between the pairing is undeniable.

This ‘disappointing’ preseason forecast nailed Derek Carr’s final passing stats

We said this preseason forecast would be disappointing for Derek Carr, but Bleacher Report nailed their predictions for his 2023 passing stats:

Opposing defenses weren’t the only ones who found the New Orleans Saints to be too predictable last year. We described the predictions for Derek Carr’s final stats from Bleacher Report as disappointing, but B/R’s Alex Kay had it down almost perfectly. And as we said at the time, this performance from Carr was a disappointment. We had higher expectations for him.

Still, here’s a hat tip to Kay for getting it right. Here are Kay’s predictions compared to the numbers Carr finished with in 2023 in parentheses:

  • 68% completion percentage (68.4%)
  • 3,901 passing yards (3,878)
  • 25 touchdown passes (25)
  • 13 interceptions (8)
  • 30 carries (32)
  • 118 rushing yards (40)
  • 1 touchdown run (0)

So Kay had Carr’s passing numbers down almost perfectly, though they overestimated how many times he’d turn the ball over. Carr was risk-averse to a fault last year and left some big-play opportunities on the field while being too eager to check down to Alvin Kamara or other receivers underneath coverage. Kay also expected Carr to make more plays with his legs than we actually saw.

But this doesn’t mean Carr can repeat this performance in 2024. It’s encouraging that he finished the season so strong; in his last five starts (where the Saints went 4-1), Carr completed 114 of 154 passes (74%) for 1,117 yards and 14 touchdowns, with just 2 interceptions. Extrapolate those averages over 17 games and you’d be left with 3,798 yards and 47 touchdowns against 7 interceptions. It isn’t realistic to expect 47 touchdown passes (the record in a 17-game season is 43, set by Tom Brady in 2021) or a 74% completion percentage but the yardage lines up with what we’ve seen before.

The point is that Carr needs to improve on those numbers. Extending the red zone efficiency he found late last year would be a big plus. Stepping up to make better throws under pressure between the 20-yard lines and playing like a quarterback his team can lean on would be massive. He averaged the second-fewest passing yards per game in his career last season. That can’t happen again. If he continues to underwhelm in a new offensive system, he might just be who he is. And that would be another disappointment.

[lawrence-auto-related count=4]

WATCH: NFL showcases Patrick Mahomes’ top 10 plays from 2023

The NFL showcased #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ top 10 highlights from Kansas City’s 2023 season.

The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII by the skin of their teeth, due in no small part to the heroic efforts of Patrick Mahomes, who has been a rock for the team since taking over as its starting quarterback in 2018.

Mahomes has one of the longest highlight reels of any quarterback in the NFL and has three Super Bowl rings to show for his incredible tenure under center in Kansas City.

The league showcased his top 10 plays from 2023 in a post to social media this week, giving fans across the country a chance to re-watch some of Mahomes’ most exciting moments.

Few players can rival Mahomes’ ability as a playmaker, and these highlights served as an excellent reminder of what the Super Bowl LVIII MVP can do on the gridiron.

Though the 2024 regular season is still months away, one thing is clear: There is never a bad time to re-live the history that the league’s preeminent quarterback has already made.

Cowboys CB DaRon Bland earns bonus for record-breaking season, nearly doubling 2023 salary

From @ToddBrock24f7: The CB earned $759K based on the league’s Performance-Based Pay system, designed to compensate lower-earning players for heavy playing time.

DaRon Bland had an exceptional sophomore season, etching his name in the NFL history books, earning a trip to the Pro Bowl, and being named a first-team All-Pro.

Now he’s getting a substantial financial bonus as a reward, one that nearly doubles his salary for a record-breaking year.

The Cowboys cornerback will receive an extra $759,756 on top of his 2023 salary as part of the league’s Performance-Based Pay program, a fund set up by the Collective Bargaining Agreement to provide extra compensation to lower-earning players who end up seeing heavy playing time.

Bland earned a base salary of $870,000 last season, plus a signing bonus of $76,197. In return, the fifth-round draft pick led the NFL with nine interceptions and established a new all-time record by returning five of them for touchdowns. He started 15 of 17 regular-season games and finished second on the team in defensive snaps, appearing on the field for over 90% of the Dallas defense’s plays.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

Bland’s PBP bonus was among the top 20 in the entire league for the 2023 season.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01hsy8gc4yy77p5bm4me playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01hsy8gc4yy77p5bm4me/01hsy8gc4yy77p5bm4me-439ff1b62520dc30388bbd3e6a3345b7.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]