This Week's Obsession: Fall Practice Wish List Offense
The Question:
What do you want to hear from 'fall' practice?
The Responses:
BiSB: Did anyone else just involuntarily yell "DEFENSIVE TACKLES?"
Seth: I was planning on having some concern about replacing 80% of the offensive line fir---DEFENSIVE TACKLES
David: So, wasn't there a quote from an opposing coach relatively recently that talked them being good on the OL? Which I thought was interesting, given they lost 4/5 starters...
Alex: Excited to see which Veteran At A Position Of Need Who Hasn’t Done Anything Yet they single out to describe as Having A Strong Fall Practice And Really Growing As A Leader only to inevitably play like 5% of snaps this year.
David: I feel like a number of those candidates transferred, so now it will really be interesting.
Offensive Line
Brian: Honestly despite losing four starters I'm fairly comfortable with the situation on the line? You've got Mayfield, who looks like a burgeoning star after shutting off Chase Young, and Stueber, who was neck-and-neck with him until he got hurt. You've got Ryan Hayes, who looked functional well before he should have last year. You've got Vastardis/Filiaga/Honigford on the interior, and then you've got that six-man line class that's getting talked up extensively.
Add in Warinner and it's fine.
Seth: You didn't even mention Zach Carpenter, whom they say is going to start at center. He was another guy getting the coach talk before it's warranted.
David: He mentioned the six-man class.
BiSB: The floor on the OL seems pretty high.
Brian: That's the one thing I do want to hear about the OL: there is a center and the choice is obvious. The Cole-Kugler-Ruiz rollercoaster really emphasized how important it is to have a C who can get the line calls right almost all the time.
David: Brian, do you remember charting Vastardis a bit? I think he played a couple of drives vs MSU...I thought he was fine?
Seth: The other guy they talk about a ton is Karsen Barnhart. They keep comparing him to Bredeson.
BiSB: Rumler is sitting there, too.
Ace: I’m encouraged that the guys getting hyped from that class aren’t Rumler, whose floor seemed very high.
Brian: Vastardis only got a half-dozen plays so the evidence is thin but he was fine in them.
Ace: I know we have precedent but I’d still prefer they don’t start a former walk-on. I’d like to hear “no walk-ons starting” out of fall. That’d be good.
BiSB: But, to Brian's point, the "this guy is the center" guy isn't as clear cut as it has been.
Brian: One walk-on starting is fine, team-wide.
Seth: (Glasgows not included.)
Ace: I like one walk-on as a key backup better.
[After THE JUMP: the people demand more WHEELs]
Ryan Hayes looked a bit more muscle away from the next Frey-type athlete to prove the Grow-a-Tackle plan works. [Patrick Barron]
Seth: 247 put out their two-deep projection recently:
- 1st team: Hayes-Barnhart-Carpenter-Stueber-Mayfield
- 2nd team: Keegan-Filiaga-Vastardis-Rumler-T.Jones
That seems...ideal?
David: Hayes winning the LT spot would be ideal, I think.
Ace: That does look like the ideal group.
Brian: Sure, the best case scenario is Carpenter just nails the job down and there's no questioning of it.
David: They can even take an injury or two? Maybe?
Ace: Let’s not get cocky, now.
Seth: My OL concern is more that we didn't appreciate last year enough. This looks like a nice row of shark teeth. It's not Onwenu-is-an-All-American.
BiSB: But the continuity of two years in the same offense will mitigate some of that, no?
David: We're MGoBlog, Ace. Isn't cocky our schtick?
Ace: I think it’s the opposite, David.
BiSB: The first half of the year was... not... great.
Brian: I don't think we appreciate the down-to-down blitz pickup reliability the interior line had last year. Best I've ever charted.
Ace: My hope is the drop-off in that regard is mitigated by better quarterback and skill play.
David: Especially after '17.
Brian: It is a shame that line got wasted on a QB who still thought he was at Ole Miss playing 'Bama.
BiSB: The Saints are talking up Ruiz as a savant, which makes sense. That's hard to replace.
Ace: Those blitz pickups often featured Shea Patterson bailing anyway… yeah.
I love watching Michigan’s OL on tape. This is how you handle 5 on 3 pic.twitter.com/Hl1PY6D1qd
— Jon Ledyard (@LedyardNFLDraft) April 16, 2020
Seth: Yeah, so the whole might be better because Michigan got the bare minimum from an offensive line the early '90s guys could only find a little fault with. One of my takes from watching the first-half offense again for HTTV was they were putting too much on the OL, particularly in the run game. You could have five All-Americans and go nowhere if you're running no-read zone reads.
(PSA: don't watch the Army game ever again.)
Brian: So that's thing number two I want to hear: speed in space is real this time. Going to be difficult to separate that from offseason fluff because sometimes you get in the heat of things and revert to lizard brain stuff. But I want to hear about slot receivers.
Ace: It’s going to be quite the game of separating slot receiver praise from defensive back concern. Though both Mike Sainristil and Giles Jackson should be able to do some pretty remarkable defense-irrelevant stuff. I want breathless Josh Gattis tweets about routes.
Seth: I'm dipping into my HTTV feature again here but THIS THIS YES THIS. I think the coaches had a mindset of "if we throw to the slot receiver the OL is mitigated." If you move the action away from the OL their force isn't mitigated it's enhanced!
Brian: The progression of Michigan's gameplanning over the course of the season is encouraging. You went from one of the worst gameplans I've seen against Army to some legitimately innovative and hard to stop stuff in the back half of the season.
David: We seemed to see a lot more evidence toward it being real near the end of the season
Brian: Some scattered "huh, this Sainristil kid" in there yes
Seth: GILES JACKSON WHEEEEL!
David: Add in more C Johnson...
Brian:
That one plays off the expected RPO slant and busts Collins for a 76-yard TD. So I think this is going to be better this year but the offseason stuff I want is Breaston-level talk about a slot.
Seth: This one was even more clever. It plays off the motion they were using with their base counter run.
Brian: All right someone bold something about the defense.
David: We should probably talk QB preference?
Ace: Very on brand for us to forget that.
BiSB: I would prefer one, yes.
Quarterback
Hi, McCaffrey coached by a Harbaugh here. [Barron]
Ace: I think having one is good, too. I can’t say I have a strong preference because McCaffrey seems to provide a solid floor while Milton breaking through probably indicates very good things about him.
Seth: The football bits on this are the same old tropes: Junior with meaningful experience: leading; Soph with scattered snaps: sky's the limit.
David: Right...I feel the same with D-Mac, but if Milton TOOK the job, I would be fine with it.
Brian: I'm not sure what to believe after last year's McCaffrey hype petered out into not much. (The cheapshot concussion had something to do with that, yes, but if you were talking the offseason stuff seriously they should have had a much quicker hook with Patterson.) People were talking like McCaffrey was going to rotate snaps.
Ace: And then Patterson ran away with the job!
[multiple people are typing]
Shut up, everyone, just go with it.
BiSB: That was partly a result of the early season "We're not 100% sure how this machine works" phase.
David: No, you're right. He left the building with the QB job in tow.
Seth: Patterson got hurt on the first play and then they ran the dumbest gameplan of the Harbaugh era for 2-1/2 games rather than put in McCaffrey. The moment it looked like they were fed up enough to bail on Shea, Badger Noggin Removal Services reversed the ruling.
Brian: I had a column about this after they finally yanked O'Korn for Peters. Football coaches are loathe to make switches.
BiSB: I get the feeling we have a true QB battle for the first time in years, and we're rather indifferent?
Brian: I don't think it's a battle. I think it would be a massive upset for it to be anyone other than McCaffrey.
David: McNamara odds?
Ace: …worse than Milton’s, let’s go with that.
Seth: Ideally I'd like to hear Milton showed up having spent the entire lockdown mainlining film and practicing with Giles Jackson, that he's leading in a week from now, and it's a no-brainer by the end of camp. Outside of that scenario, it's going to be McCaffrey.
Ace: It’s going to be hard to figure out what’s meaningful with the quarterback talk because, for one, it’s quarterback talk, and also it’ll all be in relation to how the other QBs are doing, when we have very little to go on with anyone.
BiSB: Especially without ANY spring ball information to incorporate.
Seth: These next two weeks are essentially spring ball.
Ace: Unless someone mentions golf, then it’s time to sound the alarm.
Brian: If golf is mentioned I'm moving to the sun.
David: Don't tempt me...
Brian: My atoms will be one with the universe. Now can we have a bolded thing about the defense?
Running Back
David: It's also a nice feeling that we're all super happy with about 4 different RBs.
BiSB: Or TEs.
Ace: I’d like to hear that Zach Charbonnet is terrorizing the villagers.
Burninating the countryside [Bryan Fuller]
David: How do you feel about Turner if he is RB #4?
Seth: I'm going to stay on this until somebody believes me: RB1 Hassan Haskins is a dude.
Ace: As people keep pointing out during the Remember These Games posts, it’s been so long since Michigan had a dominant running back.
Brian: I dunno, I kind of feel like the RBs were... fine.
BiSB: I think Turner IS #4, at least to start the season.
Ace: Fine is… fine. They have the potential to be much more than that.
BiSB: I think Chris Evans takes a lot of Turner's snaps.
Seth: They're replacing Tru with Chris Evans and adding Blake Corum. Which means they'll be able to throw to their backs this year instead of finding clever ways to make a slot receiver a back when they want to do that.
David: Haha, I was counting Bench Mason...so, uh...we have 6?
Brian: Turner looked great and then disappeared and almost fumbled on his first carry for a while. I appreciate that he's still here and am rooting for him but if he puts the ball on the ground it's going to be a long road to snaps.
David: I expect ZC and HH to be the top 2 and both...pretty good? Then, a utility weapon in Evans. A HAMMER in Mason. This might be the deepest group of RBs I can remember.
BiSB: There might be more snaps to go around? The roster suggests we might see more 21 personnel?
Ace: I’d rather see heavy rotation than a bunch of two-back stuff. It’s 2020.
Brian: The skill positions are going to be Nico Collins and the seven dwarves…er, four.
Ace: Charbonnet and Haskins are big dudes. Otherwise… yeah.
BiSB: But is Charbonnet & Corum really "two back?"
Brian: Nico Collins and a biggish person and some dwarves.
Seth: There will be two-back stuff anyway because Gattis was co-OCs with Mike "2RBs" Locksley and the slots are quasi-RBs. Evans and Corum give them the dimension they didn't have last year; you can run those guys out there with Charbonnet and Haskins to get different skills on the field.
BiSB: Hell, a shiny nickel says Giles Jackson is going to get carries.
Seth: Cornelius Johnson would like a word about the dwarf label.
David: Also, Giles and Mikey in the backfield are just fine, too.
Ace: I should clarify: I’m okay with two-back stuff when one guy is a swiss-army knife.
#EvansInSpace…again. [Fuller]
Brian: I will refer you to the "spread H" concept I've been pumping for years that never materializes. If it is ever going to this is the year.
Ace: I’d like to be able to refer to that position without bringing up haunting memories or a guy who played in 2007, yes.
Seth: Giles and Sainristil were true freshmen last year; it might have been a little much to have them practice RB stuff too.
Ace: They did some RB stuff unless I’m losing my mind.
Seth: End arounds mostly.
David: They did in the Spring Game, last year.
Brian: Jackson took a couple of IZ handoffs IIRC
Ace: I think it was more than that.
Brian: To set up WHEEL
BiSB:
Seth: Shhhhhhh.
/waves hand. Michigan does not hand the ball to nor pass to its slot receivers.
BiSB: 10 carries on the year.
David: So...we're at like 8 RBs
Ace: Okay good I can close my gif folder. There will be odd men out and we’re counting some guys as solid who haven’t done much at all yet. It’s a good group but I’m waiting for someone to break out.
Brian: So do we talk about the defense now?
Tight Ends
Been waiting a long time for this. [Barron]
Seth: Nick Eubanks breakout year who's with me?
Brian: Eubanks is going to average 25 yards a catch on 16 receptions.
David: How many plays will we run?
Seth: They're scaling back on the TEs this year just because of personnel. McKeon was an underrated blocker and they don't really have one of those on the roster anymore. They'll use Eubanks every down and work in All for some fun flex TE things.
David: Too Schoon?
Seth: I'm probably one of like four Michigan fans really bummed McKeon tried the NFL early.
David: I thought Schoon looked plausible once he could get his blocking assignments right.
BiSB: Eubanks averaged less than 10 yards per catch last year. Lowest among regular receiving targets. I would not have guessed that.
Seth: I heard that it got around Eubanks had only one career receiving TD (scissors vs Indiana) up to the Illinois game last year so they drew up red zone plays to fix that. Specifically that Shea asked for this.
Ace: To be honest, I’d be fine with hearing that there are so many talented slots and backs and slotbacks that the tight ends aren’t being used much. I do like All as a giant slot.
Seth: It's a Jim Harbaugh team let's not get carried away.
Ace: He basically got rid of the fullback, dude’s gotta adapt sometime.
David: I agree with Ace...and All has the adaptability to play a couple different spots
Ace: It’s no good being the sorta-MANBALL team. You gotta go full MEAT or play modern offense.
Brian: It's useful to be able to put out 2TE sets and we'll see them, but I think were going to be heavily 1 back, 1 TE this year
Ace: I’m not saying you can’t do that with multiple tight ends, but they’re probably not being used the way Harbaugh has used them. Few things would annoy me more this year than seeing a three-yard run on first down out of 22 personnel.
Seth: The Pin & Pull was their base run the last two years. They'll scale back to more one-TE sets but you don't throw out years of making gaps appear where they shouldn't expertise and I don't want them to. That Jackson end-around is a good example of how spread and meatball concepts work well together when you understand both.
It also matters what personnel we're talking about. If you have BEN MASON plus a running back in the backfield you have something similar to a Y-off tight end.
BiSB: But you can put Erick All there and have a receiving threat. Or Giles Jackson, and have GILES JACKSON.
Ace: Yeah. The best offenses year-to-year tend to have continuity in their concepts while adapting their sets to fit the times and their personnel.
Seth: Anyone else we missed/up-and-comers you want to break through?
Brian: I think we covered it.
David: Schoon! But his snaps will probably be limited.
BiSB: I want to see Blake Corum be last year’s Giles Jackson.
Seth: Ronnie Bell will be underappreciated until the whole stadium claps for him again. Receiver everyone appreciates for being underappreciated is a very historical Michigan position I'll have you know.
BiSB: 173 catches, 2200 yards, 1 TD.
Seth: They'll have one play for Roman Wilson and I'm here for it.
Brian: that Nico Collins guy should get some more targets this year IMO.
David: That's very 2019 of you
Ace: I never thought I’d say this but I’m ready to go back to 2019, so.
Brian: Defense?
-----------------------------
Next week:
DO WE HAVE DEFENSIVE TACKLES AND EDGE RUSH AND CORNERBACKS BUT MOSTLY TACKLES?
I am looking forward to seeing meatball concepts in action.
I think the Defense will be fine. Top 20 unit. If we want to get over the hump, the O needs to become elite. Almost every year, all the playoff teams have dynamic and high scoring offenses with great athletes.
Upvote for what you're saying on O, but I would point to the Wisconsin, OSU, and Bama games as counterpoints to what you're saying on D.
A fair point.
I think there will be quite a bit of addition by subtraction this year. The corners concern me, but elite linebacking play, good safeties and a deep edge rotation mitigate a lot of concerns. If we could just get Mike Martin to play nose, Michigan might win the title.
Martin + Van Bergen/Hurst/Henry/Glasgow...ugh, if only.
Wisconsin and Bama both scored 35 points. That's not bad in modern football (though Wisconsin probably could have scored more if they wanted to). Your offense has to win you some games in the 40s against other good offenses. Not to mention that PSU only scored 28 last year.
Even the elite defenses run into elite offenses such that offense need keep up in a shootout if you're going to be championship caliber.
Just last year LSU won shootouts over Texas (45-38) and Bama (46-41).
Trivia: when is the last time Michigan's offense won a game in which their defense couldn't do much?
Answer: the last game Michigan won while allowing more than 28 points was in 2015 in the IU OT shootout. Once in the Harbaugh era. That is crazy.
Meanwhile the defense wins games in which the offense is anemic all the the time (Army and Iowa just last year).
The offense needs to start carrying its weight. The defense can't hold everyone under 20.
I expect the Defense to be top 5-10 this year.
Hutch and Paye are high motor DEs that are on award watch lists. They play disciplined ball. They rank about as good as any pair in the Big Ten. Kemp should be better. Hinton is key. Is he ready to play like a 5*?. We need him to make a big Sophomore jump. This is not unexpected based on his strong finish last year. We need a jump from Mazi and Speight can provide some good snaps. D-Line will be better than last year.
McGrone is an absolute freak 1st round talent. Paired with Ross they are as good a tandem in the Big Ten. Barrett runs a 4.5 40 and is pretty amazing athlete. I think we are going to be happy with his production. We have speed. LB will be better than last year.
Ambry Thomas is an NFL CB. Vince Grey would start on a lot of teams and has experience. The floor is good here but if one of the younger guys can take the job that might be a good sign. Hawkins is back and we all know Dax Hill could become a generational talent and a game changer. D-Back has more upside than last years team.
Don Brown has to replace Uche snaps but he has shown creativity to do so. Shoop produced top level defenses in the SEC. Let’s hope he can collaborate with DB on how to stop OSU level offenses.....and insure our calls aren’t being stolen. Hinton might be the real key.
But hey I’m a fan and an optimist.
please elaborate on calls being stolen.
A couple of the OSU players claimed they knew what defense DB was calling and were able to play call based on scheme. There was discussion on the board after the game. Maybe Benedict Mattison knew some scoop.
I really appreciate the most underrated thing about this article: a "Carpenter nailing down the job" pun
I really appreciate the most underrated thing about this article: a "Carpenter nailing down the job" pun
RB depth? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
Couldn't agree more about the DCaff comment from Wiscy game last year. 2nd half was the dress rehearsal for the rest of the season before hearing "church bells" for a month! I think Stuebler is too tall for guard, battle will be between him and Hayes at LT and one of the RS FR guys will be lining up next to Mayfield. Even with a new OL, think the O is going to be a major upgrade over last year.
I’d be happy if Stueber was Ben Braden 2.0.
I don’t understand what McCaffrey has done to inspire so much confidence that Milton winning the job would be “a massive upset.” D-Mac is hardly more proven or experienced than Milton at this point. I wouldn’t be surprised with either of them starting.
Agreed. I think Milton is a lot closer than anyone wants to admit.
McCaffrey being the definite next guy up seems like something people believe just because they’ve been saying/hearing it for a long time, as opposed to his play on the field warranting that level of confidence.
He was playing much better than She's until the "Badger Noggin Removal Services" intervened.
At this point in his career, Milton has 1 TD and 2 INT in 11 pass attempts. Seems like it would take a huge leap to get to legit starter.
He looked very solid in the Notre Dame game in 2018 after Patterson got injured. Only thing that concerns me is his durability. Milton has great upside, but his accuracy definitely showed limitations last year
It's not so much a vote of confidence in McCaffrey as against Harbaugh's stodginess. He'll do the right thing if the QB is concussed but otherwise, as a former QB himself, he has a soft spot for QB starters that differs sharply from how he treats the rest of the team. If you're the RB and you fumble the ball, you're in the doghouse for half the season. But if you're the starting QB you could miss a wide open TD by five yards, throw four picks, fumble five times, not throw at all to the most dominating jump-ball WR in the country in a blowout loss, break half your ribs, and throw with your off hand because King Arthur cut off your throwing arm and Harbaugh'll be all, "'Tis but a scratch; get back out there."
McCaffrey is more tenured so we all assume he's being given the job by default.
Exactly my thoughts about QB. Dylan is the junior, so he gets the nod. Whether from a QB competition or not, I just hope he works super-hard to continually improve, unlike (allegedly) Mr. Golfer.
Yummy....footbawwwww!
Gimme some Chris Evans Screen Game
We need more footballs with all of the skill position talent. Nico is going to just frighten the hell out every CB we play. He is going to see a lot of help coverage. This offense will take advantage.
Give us some top QB play and let’s go.
Seth, I’m with you on McKeon. He has all the tools. I think he would have been a dude this year
I think he would have been the same. And that would have limited the development of All, who I think will actually block better assuming he's put on weight. All will crush people because he puts everything into it. Those kinds of blocks make defenders think twice and remember where you're at on the field, and that opens up potential for big plays (because they're looking for you instead of at their gap). McKeon was great at getting in front of people. That beats Iowa. All will whiff more, but he has the potential to have a much greater effect. Frankly I liked Schoonmaker more than McKeon as well, and I'm glad those snaps will be available for him this year.
No Honigford on the two-deep? Wasn't he a backup last year to two guards that are now gone?
QB play has been lacking since Denards soph season. Injuries and changes in off coordinators have hit Michigan at the QB spot harder than most programs. Milton or McCaffrey will be the difference between 2-4 losses n CFP.
Jake Rudock 2015, but your larger point stands.
Why the concern over DT? The whole line is returning and Hinton and Mazi are coming on.
The future Dline is of concern. Next year will be excellent unless injuries. No proven depth.
Your last sentence kinda answers your first one
I don't know that it's reasonable to expect a 2 deep of top performers at DT. If Hurst or Glasgow got hurt in years past, the D would be a been in trouble. Hinton did everything last year you'd want to see - when combined with his recruiting profile - to indicate this year he could break out. Combine that with a good player in Kemp, the potential in Mazi, and I agree with the poster above you.
Let's worry about 2021 next year.
All the DTs returning doesn't inspire much confidence when they weren't very good last year. I think Kemp is what he is at this point. Need Hinton to take a big step forward.
There are 14 skill position guys listed in this article (non OL/QB). Fun game: give each players percentage of snaps they play. It has to add up to 500% between the 14.
What would I like to see? Regardless of which personnel run it, I want a fully operational offense that actually uses all the facets in its design! Two years of Pep Hamilton drawing up game plans (so soon after the Brady Hoke offensive debacle), and then a half season of "which one is the Y button again?” was infuriating. I'd like to see NFL talented receivers on a vertical route with single coverage from the other team's reserve DBs get more passes thrown their way than walk-ons and blocking-first TEs. I'd like to see a rushing offense designed to option off a defender actually have the QB keep the dang ball every once in a while. Execute the MFing offense!
As far as QB is concerned, I'm fine with whoever wins the job. Any buzz from the preseason camp is pure hogwash not worth repeating. However, I think it would be optimal for McCaffrey to start the opener. He has the highest floor while the offense is coming together. And let's be honest, Milton will be getting starts this season. McCaffrey has been injured in both seasons he's played, while getting limited 2nd string snaps. No way he lasts the whole season as the starter, especially with how the other B1G teams head-hunt our QB. I expect McCaffrey to start, and Milton to Wally Pipp/Collin Kaepernick him out of the starting job by late October.
Isn't there a general expectation that whoever loses out will transfer? In that scenario, Milton wouldn't be around to Wally Pipp McCaffrey.
Full-on Fall practice still seems dubious given reality of Governor’s restrictive edicts being delivered to coaches.
Edit - even if allowed college kids are going to test positive and likely shutdown a ton of teams. Likely Michigan one of those teams given liberal campus environment in Ann Arbor.
Your last sentence is soooooooooooooo whack. The fact is that college kids generally have poor discipline in these regards-no matter what their upbringing is. But here the more conservative leaning kids will act much more defiantly-this, I am confident, is fact.
I don't think he's saying the students' political leanings will dictate whether or not they get the virus. He's saying the school's political leanings will dictate whether or not they shut down the team/season in response to students getting the virus. More conservative-leaning schools may just play on even if the virus starts showing up on the team.
During my lifetime, the label "conservative" in the United States has gone from being a coherent political philosophy, to a hodge-podge of largely unrelated and inconsistent positions on specific topics, with an almost fascist level of identification with a particular political party as the binding agent.
The notion that a "conservative" would make a different decision than a "liberal" about how to follow the near-unanimous advice of doctors and epidemiologists about student and staff safety would have been unthinkable as recently as the early 90's.
LT Hayes LG Barnhart. That’s a very athletic left side. Both were pass catchers in high school.
Filiaga seems like a mauler. Maybe best five has Barnhart at LT and Filiaga at LG. And Stueber can play tackle. This OL has options
I want more of that one play where a Michigan receiver went out to block for 2 seconds, then "faked" like he got beat and went out for a route and was WIDE open. That play is money. I forget what game that was. I think it went for a TD. The play was when Michigan was going left on the TV screen and the receiver in question was towards the bottom of the screen.
Cornelius Johnson from Shea. Play was like Lucy yanking the ball from Charlie Brown while he falls on his ass. That was fun. CJ is going to have a good year.
Yeeeeeessssssss! Thanks man!
Watch the killer block Collins puts on the defender in the Giles Jackson TD vs OSU. Puts Jackson in the end zone.
Then watch the effort of Tarik Black on the Alabama wheel route to Jackson, in what should have been an easier angle and block. Keeps him out of the end zone.
If there's anything to the talk of addition by subtraction and maybe a couple of the WRs not buying in or not getting along last year, there's your answer.
I’m convinced Black runs the wrong route on that. If he runs a strong post he takes his guy out of the picture. Instead his guy is over the top of Jackson’s route on the field side and makes the TD saving tackle.
That would make a ton of sense. Yeah it doesn't seem right that they're both running verticals on the same side of the field that close together. Though maybe Black's route is supposed to clear out the top and open it up underneath for Jackson? But it would make more sense to have him run a post in order to do that.
The effort is shit though, the whole way. I mean Black knows what's happening, the DB doesn't. He should sell his route to the point the DB knows it's a decoy, then be on the guy. It's an easy play, keep yourself between your WR and the defender. You don't have to completely own the guy - though Collins did because he's a dog in addition to being exceptionally talented - you just have to stay in front of him.
Of the three Black, Nico, and DPJ, Collins is by far the guy I’m happy is returning. He is just devastating in the college game and does so much for the offense. He will have the best pro career.
DPJ would have been great and I’m pulling for him but Collins is so hard to replace.
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