Mitch
Crawled Through 5 FB Fields
1. Kudos to Jake Ballard for being forthright---it could have spared the Cardinals another Todd Heap situation of keeping a potentially good player on the roster but one who from week to week is a question mark. Ballard worked hard and played a small, but productive role for the Cardinals last year.
2. Ballard's decision to retire makes the Cardinals' 2nd round selection of Troy Niklas all the more prescient. Blocking and timely receptions from the TE position in BA's offense are paramount to its success.
3. It will be interesting to see how LT Jared Veldheer does versus Jadeveon Clowney---and---how Jonathan Cooper/Earl Watford do against J.J. Watt. BA said he isn't game planning versus the Texans, but one would think that a double team or even an occasional triple team on Watt would be a prerequisite. Even though Carson Palmer said he wants to get hit some in pre-season, let's hope the Cardinals have a plan for Watt, for obvious reasons.
4. One might wonder whether the Cardinals had a pre-agreed arrangement with OLB John Abraham that because of his age he could miss the OTAs and first two weeks of TC. It seems too odd and out of his nature for BA to be so non-plussed about a player's absence from the team. Just very odd.
5. As good as Deone Bucannon has looked as the "dollar" LB in the sub-packages, it may not be all that surprising if Todd Bowles is concocting a hybrid version of the 34 base that features three safeties, two of which will be SS types moved up into the box. The WILB in Bowles's 34 is so well protected behind Calais Campbell that any good tackler and athlete, such as Bucannon, could thrive at that spot. Sometimes the philosophy is as simple as getting the best 11 players on the field at the same time and therefore, playing to the strengths of the players' talents.
6. It will be interesting to see whether BA makes a conscious effort to unveil John Brown in the pre-season or keep things a little quiet with him. There are advantages to both in that teams already know the kind of splash Brown is making at the Cardinals' camp and if he shows up big in the pre-season games it gives the defense all the more notice that they had better have a good plan for him, which in turn, could take some of the attention off of Fitz, Floyd and Ginn Jr. The thing is---advanced scouting is so thorough in today's NFL that it's pretty hard to sneak a dynamic player through the pre-season, even if the player has a quiet pre-season numbers-wise.
7. In addition, it will be interesting to see what kind of pass coverage the opponents will use versus BA's offense this year. I think that more than ever we will see teams playing zones or combo man/zones versus the Cardinals. Same thing for offenses like the Eagles', Pats' and Saints'. The thing is---when offenses can equally threaten the top end, the middle and underneath areas of the field, it's so difficult to find suitable matchups across the board. What teams like the Seahawks are doing is playing what they call in basketball a "matchup zone." What this means is that whatever receiver comes into your zone, you play him man to man until he leaves your zone and then you switch off coverage with the DB or LB in the incoming zone.
8. So, what offenses like BA's try to do versus matchup zones is the "flood" single zones to one side or to run an array of crossing patterns to drag defenders away from their zones. The point is to send 3 receivers into a 2 man zoned area---which means that if the receivers' spacing is good, one of the three receivers should be wide open. Often times, the key receiver in all of these scenarios is the RB...which is why BA loves to run the "wheel route" to Ellington because when you clear out a side, it's so difficult for a defender to cover a speedy RB up the vacated sideline.
9. This is why today receiving RBs such as Darren Sproles are so valuable---because they are so difficult to defend in a vacated zone. This is why you see a team like the Saints trade up to #20 with the Cardinals in order to draft Sproles's replacement, Brandin Cooks. What gives defensive coordinators the most fits is not defending the deep and intermediate passes---it's defending the speed RB when the other 4 eligible receivers are occupying the deep and intermediate defenders.
10. As you know, I am a huge fan of Chip Kelly because he plays the matchup percentages in both the running and passing games so skillfully. He simply finds way to out number you or to exploit your weakest defender. BA is very similar in this regard, which is why BA has had such success as a play caller. And as refreshing as it is to hear BA's wise and wry little quips in his pressers, Kelly followed suit this week when he said that he could give a sheet about "depth charts." He said the Eagles' DOP made out the perfunctory depth chart this week, because the team is required to, but that the chart essentially means nothing. So true. Secondly, did you catch Kelly's remarks about the NFL Draft? What he is so irked about with regard to the draft is how "hyped up" the whole thing is and how "hyped up" the draftees are, as if some rookie is perceived to be the team's savior. After all, he said, these kids are rookies and the vast majority of them are fortunate just to make a team roster. Plus, and i have always felt this---if you like a player, does it really matter where you take him? All the attention to where players are chosen in the draft is absurd. At the end of the day, it's how you assimilate the players into your system and how you create roles for them and coach them up that matters most---like the way the Cardinals are assimilating Deone Bucannon right now into a key role left vacated by Dansby and Washington. if you saw this week's Hard Knocks, one of the most impressive things Mike Smith said to his team was that over the next six weeks he and his staff were going to clearly define the roles for the 53 players who make the team. Every role matters---like every link in a chain matters. Finding the right players who fit the roles is what free agency and the draft is all about. What I love about BA&SK is that they are 100% committed to that purpose.
2. Ballard's decision to retire makes the Cardinals' 2nd round selection of Troy Niklas all the more prescient. Blocking and timely receptions from the TE position in BA's offense are paramount to its success.
3. It will be interesting to see how LT Jared Veldheer does versus Jadeveon Clowney---and---how Jonathan Cooper/Earl Watford do against J.J. Watt. BA said he isn't game planning versus the Texans, but one would think that a double team or even an occasional triple team on Watt would be a prerequisite. Even though Carson Palmer said he wants to get hit some in pre-season, let's hope the Cardinals have a plan for Watt, for obvious reasons.
4. One might wonder whether the Cardinals had a pre-agreed arrangement with OLB John Abraham that because of his age he could miss the OTAs and first two weeks of TC. It seems too odd and out of his nature for BA to be so non-plussed about a player's absence from the team. Just very odd.
5. As good as Deone Bucannon has looked as the "dollar" LB in the sub-packages, it may not be all that surprising if Todd Bowles is concocting a hybrid version of the 34 base that features three safeties, two of which will be SS types moved up into the box. The WILB in Bowles's 34 is so well protected behind Calais Campbell that any good tackler and athlete, such as Bucannon, could thrive at that spot. Sometimes the philosophy is as simple as getting the best 11 players on the field at the same time and therefore, playing to the strengths of the players' talents.
6. It will be interesting to see whether BA makes a conscious effort to unveil John Brown in the pre-season or keep things a little quiet with him. There are advantages to both in that teams already know the kind of splash Brown is making at the Cardinals' camp and if he shows up big in the pre-season games it gives the defense all the more notice that they had better have a good plan for him, which in turn, could take some of the attention off of Fitz, Floyd and Ginn Jr. The thing is---advanced scouting is so thorough in today's NFL that it's pretty hard to sneak a dynamic player through the pre-season, even if the player has a quiet pre-season numbers-wise.
7. In addition, it will be interesting to see what kind of pass coverage the opponents will use versus BA's offense this year. I think that more than ever we will see teams playing zones or combo man/zones versus the Cardinals. Same thing for offenses like the Eagles', Pats' and Saints'. The thing is---when offenses can equally threaten the top end, the middle and underneath areas of the field, it's so difficult to find suitable matchups across the board. What teams like the Seahawks are doing is playing what they call in basketball a "matchup zone." What this means is that whatever receiver comes into your zone, you play him man to man until he leaves your zone and then you switch off coverage with the DB or LB in the incoming zone.
8. So, what offenses like BA's try to do versus matchup zones is the "flood" single zones to one side or to run an array of crossing patterns to drag defenders away from their zones. The point is to send 3 receivers into a 2 man zoned area---which means that if the receivers' spacing is good, one of the three receivers should be wide open. Often times, the key receiver in all of these scenarios is the RB...which is why BA loves to run the "wheel route" to Ellington because when you clear out a side, it's so difficult for a defender to cover a speedy RB up the vacated sideline.
9. This is why today receiving RBs such as Darren Sproles are so valuable---because they are so difficult to defend in a vacated zone. This is why you see a team like the Saints trade up to #20 with the Cardinals in order to draft Sproles's replacement, Brandin Cooks. What gives defensive coordinators the most fits is not defending the deep and intermediate passes---it's defending the speed RB when the other 4 eligible receivers are occupying the deep and intermediate defenders.
10. As you know, I am a huge fan of Chip Kelly because he plays the matchup percentages in both the running and passing games so skillfully. He simply finds way to out number you or to exploit your weakest defender. BA is very similar in this regard, which is why BA has had such success as a play caller. And as refreshing as it is to hear BA's wise and wry little quips in his pressers, Kelly followed suit this week when he said that he could give a sheet about "depth charts." He said the Eagles' DOP made out the perfunctory depth chart this week, because the team is required to, but that the chart essentially means nothing. So true. Secondly, did you catch Kelly's remarks about the NFL Draft? What he is so irked about with regard to the draft is how "hyped up" the whole thing is and how "hyped up" the draftees are, as if some rookie is perceived to be the team's savior. After all, he said, these kids are rookies and the vast majority of them are fortunate just to make a team roster. Plus, and i have always felt this---if you like a player, does it really matter where you take him? All the attention to where players are chosen in the draft is absurd. At the end of the day, it's how you assimilate the players into your system and how you create roles for them and coach them up that matters most---like the way the Cardinals are assimilating Deone Bucannon right now into a key role left vacated by Dansby and Washington. if you saw this week's Hard Knocks, one of the most impressive things Mike Smith said to his team was that over the next six weeks he and his staff were going to clearly define the roles for the 53 players who make the team. Every role matters---like every link in a chain matters. Finding the right players who fit the roles is what free agency and the draft is all about. What I love about BA&SK is that they are 100% committed to that purpose.
Last edited:
