All 22 at Vikes; Rookies

[Nobody]

Had a chance to look at the tape. This is going to be abridged and I'm only looking at the main rookies that are either high draft picks or high snap counts. So that means Kancey, Mauch, Diaby, and Izien.

I've watched Kancey and Diaby, so I'll collate my notes into something legible and post a small review of game 1 for them.

CALIJAH KANCEY: Only 11 snaps, but 2 Pressures and 1 Hit in that span.

The Good: Explosive off the ball with quick cognitive loop. First mover at the snap and most, most depth, and with immediacy. Used orthodox and in Slant & Scrape from 3 Tech. Used as 7 tech on Loop on huge Hit; fantastic change-of-direction twice and explosive downhill. Also good job on QB target area to not draw a foul. Fantastic 1v1 vs RG as 3T; Pressed B Gap into overset > Swim & clean pads for big time and immediate Pressure. Violent, active hands and good extension and decent anchor 1v1 heads up in run game. Lots of ways to use him in subs (even outside of Tackle to Speed Rush but definitely all over the place in Stunts/Loops) that will make the defense have to account for him due to his violence, activity, change-of-direction, and explosiveness. When he crosses the Guards face on a game, its trouble for the apex of the pocket and can maintain balance, keep his feet, and pursue QB (even without angle) in these situations.

The Bad: Guard quick-set that is balanced + first contact win on pads + extension lead to a 1v1 loss and full stall-out. Length issue shows up here.
Will have to create smaller target area/slipperiness/develop hands to shut down that first contact + extension win by Guards in the future. Only 1 in 3 snaps with 4 hands on him lead to a stalemate or a positive run fit. A few losses.

YAYA DIABY: 26 Snaps, no Pressures, no production.

The Good: Shows solid enough snap anticipation and north-south explosion off the ball. Shows motor and "oomph" to generate Speed to Power wins against Tackles; maybe not reliably and needs to win with his hands and keep his pads clean, but its there. Good job working through traffic on a condensed Bunch formation his side, extracting pads from Tackle who initially wins outside on Wide Zone and keeps his contain responsibility. Shows better with his hand in the dirt as a 5 tech than 2 point 6-9 Edge.

The Bad: Easily cut to the ground in backside pursuit. Can't be on the ground too much. Needs to show much better balance and change of direction; this is stiffness showing up. Awkward off ball and in coverage; shows no sense or feel in space or of responsibilities/threats (Edges see coverage in this defense). Either anxious/nervous or actually labored in mental processing (he's got Boot responsibility on a play and its clearly handed off and he's still reading boot for an extra step/beat). Need to see flexion and bend in actual action, generating a win, before I'll be sold he can reliably threaten to win a Speed Rush up the arc. Pad level struggles.

+++++++++++++++++++

All told, pretty much what they both looked like on tape going into this except for the off-ball snaps for Diaby. That experiment likely needs to be kiboshed. Diaby did not have a good showing. A couple snaps were solid in terms of processing, physical attributes, assignment soundness, but there was a lot out there that looked not great in any one of those (or multiple). I'd like to see him play a lot faster, with better pad level, better change-of-direction, and make maximum use of his frame/hands/length. He just looks like a guy who is going to have to be a Long-Arm, Speed-to-Power player in the pass rush game and win mostly via that. Those guys can absolutely stick around and some can be true assets if they really develop that toolkit and a wrinkle off of it.

[real bucs fan]

Kancey definitely popped for me if from nothing else a movement standpoint. Dude is lightning quick for an interior lineman. I think you can scheme him pressures just from his quickness in stunts alone. Seems we are resting him this week but will need him vs Philly.

[Doctor]

I cannot wait for a healthy Kancey. Y'all ain't ready. Great write up Nobody!

[uscbucsfan1]

Do Devin White!

Seriously, his best game outside of the SB run in the playoffs. He looked incredible.

[Snake]

Diaby ain’t it

[Nobody]

CODY MAUCH: Played the whole game. 0 Pressures given up. 10 rushes for 24 yards in his A and B gap; 1 1st down.

The Good: Lots of Quick-Sets in Pass Pro that were impeccable technically and totally effective. Suddenness, base, striking/first contact, extension, anchor. Great in play-action Pass Sets as well. Few stray 45 degree sets against B gap rushes and hand-offs of Stunts that weren't perfectly executed, but that is nitpicking. Really great game 1 in Pass Pro for the rookie.

The Bad: The primary issue that is playing out repeatedly in the Run Game and on the back side of the Screen game is his feet stalling out. He showed a lot of good initial work in Zone and on the backside of the Screen game. But you have to work your axial positioning to seal your player. Its not enough to momentarily win and tie them up uptop. Once you win, you work your base into position to seal them and generate a win. The difference between a stalemate and a play loss is very delicate/fine here. You win initial positioning, you connect with hands on frame/pads. Ok, great. What now. If you lose that positioning immediately rather than either (a) maintaining or (better yet) (b) improving? That turns a potential play win into a loss because your defender either successfully fits their gap or a potential crease is immediately closed down or your assignment turns a would-be play win or even explosive in the Screen game to a play loss or a mere play win.

Mauch had a lot of initial, brief wins (which also featured surprising technical soundness) that require maintaining and/or finishing (which means different things on different plays; work around your man and seal in Outside/Wide Zone or on the backside of Screens and keeping your hips/feet under you and drop and drive in Gap/Man or 2nd level play). He also had some issues at the 2nd level (either angles or attacking defenders in space).

[Nobody]

Do Devin White!

Seriously, his best game outside of the SB run in the playoffs. He looked incredible.

Agreed. His play was nearly spotless in terms of assignment soundness. Brilliant game from him.

Diaby ain’t it

If he's going to be a Speed to Power/Long-arm player (which is what his limits look like to me) a la JPP or early Maxx Crosby (he's way beyond those limits at this point), he needs to deploy that quarter-your-man + north-south explosion/leverage/frame considerably beyond where it is presently, his cognitive loop needs to improve dramatically (JPP and early Crosby were both good processors), and he needs to develop a counter/wrinkle.

Those snaps in week 1 looked very, very limited.

[uscbucsfan1]

Do Devin White!

Seriously, his best game outside of the SB run in the playoffs. He looked incredible.

PFF said he was terrible last week.

I didn't see the same as week 1, but I didn't think he was horrible @Nobody what did you see?

[Bootz]

Do Devin White!

Seriously, his best game outside of the SB run in the playoffs. He looked incredible.

PFF said he was terrible last week.

I didn't see the same as week 1, but I didn't think he was horrible @Nobody what did you see?

When it comes to PFF and DW, if he's not having an elite, standout game, they trash him.

[uscbucsfan1]

PFF said he was terrible last week.

I didn't see the same as week 1, but I didn't think he was horrible @Nobody what did you see?

When it comes to PFF and DW, if he's not having an elite, standout game, they trash him.

They really do. They give him 40s and 50s scores.

[Bootz]

When it comes to PFF and DW, if he's not having an elite, standout game, they trash him.

They really do. They give him 40s and 50s scores.

Looking at the numbers, nothing amazing. 2 total tackles, 1 QB hit, 1 pass defended. I do remember him whiffing on a Khalil Herbert tackle but he wasn't the only one who whiffed there. Lavonte David also whiffed the play before.

Overall DW didn't hinder the D in anyway.

[Nobody]

Do Devin White!

Seriously, his best game outside of the SB run in the playoffs. He looked incredible.

PFF said he was terrible last week.

I didn't see the same as week 1, but I didn't think he was horrible @Nobody what did you see?

I watched the All22, but I didn't have time to do it and take notes nor do I have time to do any write-ups this week. So just a couple of comments conceptually and what I saw on the game:

* In the course of the game the Bears had over 20 play wins (I can't recall the exact number...22ish?) and several explosives. The total wins is actually quite good, but not every play loss is the same. You can have 10 guys doing winning their assignment/playing assignment-sound football and 1 losing/failing...or you can have several guys losing and one key player making a play to make up for several assignment losses. Sometimes, you can have one player dominate so much (typically an iDL winning A or B or a devastating Speed Rush or a back 7 defender making an incredible play in Zone or against a Screen that is about to win big) that, despite a clustereff of assignment losses around them, their singular win dominates the tale of the play.

This week, we had the following:

1) Generally, Coach Bowles had a lot of winners. In the OC vs DC matchup, he beat the Chicago OC so players were in position to win aplenty.

2) Justin Fields was not good. There were multiple plays there to be made in the passing game that weren't made.

3) We actual had a lot of individual assignment losses/unsoundness on D, but enough key players winning their assignments big so the signal of the losses didn't dominate the game.

4) Whenever you've got a layered, read running game that features the threat of a QB like Fields + a Time to Throw extending QB like Fields (despite our wins on blitzes and despite our straight up pass rush wins where Shaq, JTS, and Vita all had a very high Win %), Fields was a ridiculous 3.17 TtT via extending plays. That means (a) guys losing pass rush lanes, (b) guys losing contain or widening running/escape lanes via leverage loss, and (c) a large window for players either (i) not staying sticky or (ii) not finding guys in their zone and getting physical and sticking to them (there is no Illegal Contact...you can get away with a shit-ton in these situations and you should...good back 7 coverage players take huge advantage of this...poor ones do not).

As a result, you routinely see a lot of defender grades being poor when defending these sorts of offenses that feature these dynamics (whether their defense net wins or not).

5) On Devin in particular, this game features a lot of small assignment losses/assignment-unsoundness in all of the ways I've outlined above. This offense is not a good matchup for him. The run game is a lot of Zone Read with climbing Guards and plays possibly getting on the edge where he has Spill or Fill responsibility. So you see him late in fitting/leverage and taking on and losing to Guards B to B gap or late and losing leverage in his responsibility on boundary plays. He and LVD and the escape-side Safety/NCB are involved in keeping Fields from turning the corner when he successfully escapes left or right so those players are in a lot of catch-22 coverage situations where they're having to make a split-second (correct) decision to vacate their coverage and attack or determine that the backside pursuit has enough leverage to force him out of bounds instead of letting him turn the corner. So you see some of that on the tape for him.

The first play is a good example. This is from memory, so you're going to have to forgive me if some of the minor details (like formation) are a little off). That first big play we gave up on their opening drive? They're in 12, Unbalanced Right w/ Wide Stack Left. We're playing 3 Zone here and the only challenge is the 2 verts (double Post/Skinny) from Wide Stack. FS rotates over top of the verts. LVD is over the Stack w/ Dean and in 3 Zone LVD is responsible for the 2nd vert through so he has to match his vert (he does and defends it well).

Devin is the Hole defender in 3 Zone here. Further, he has absolutely no threats from that TE side. This is a max protect play-action. The TE's stay in. There is no responsibility for coverage players that side. So Devin has to (a) read this immediately > (b) get to his Hole responsibility and find work on that Wide Stack side > (c) 100 % he MUST defend the boundary in-cut because Dean is playing outside leverage, 3 Zone technique/responsibility and LVD is matching that 2nd vert so there is no Seam/Hook defender here to bracket the boundary Post/Skinny.

He doesn't. He doesn't even glance at the Wide Stack. He just kind of meanders back to mid Hole-ish territory and covers grass. That boundary Post should be bracketed by White from trail and inside leverage + Dean outside leverage w/ the FS splitting the two verts. However, Devin is nowhere near it, creating a colossal window and a lay-up. So these are the things you see (and there are other examples in this game). And, in terms of grading him on assignment, it doesn't matter whether a coverage player has fiends up front to cover up for their mistake on the back end or whether the pass rush doesn't get there; its still an assignment error and a play loss (that both he and Dean eat, but its mostly on Devin here). Its just that in this case it turns into an explosive play.

This kind of play was all over the place on his LSU tape and was one of the primary reasons why I had major concerns about him as a pro (among several other things processing and discipline and control related). Its just that, at LSU, they dominated so much up front that plays didn't extend to any degree to expose this kind of error. Quick and dominating wins up front just killed plays stone dead so him not even looking at Wide Stack and finding his Hole responsibility vs that boundary in-cut just didn't emerge. But if you extended this kind of play in your head to what it would look like in the NFL, this is exactly what would have happened.

++++++++++++

So no. He didn't have a good game. Also, no, it didn't cost us because Bowles winning the coordinator battle + Fields' poor play + big wins by individuals around him + the offense possessing the football and staying ahead of the gamestate.

He needs to stack games like game 1. Over and over. He needs repeated Kuechly + LVD + Wagner + Warner type of play if he wants that huge contract which means heady, alert, disciplined, assignment-sound play where he makes 2-3 plays a game that other folks can't make (because of that unique omnidirectional explosiveness he possesses and his willingness to be a missile when in Spill/Fill responsibility or in Pass Rush).

But while the Vikings offense is vanilla as hell and not terribly read-intensive, this Bears offense (like a lot of offenses in the modern NFL) is layered in its reads and demands a lot cognitively and physically from both ILBs and whichever DB is activated in the run game/playing overhang on any given play.

[Grahamburn]

Love an “I don’t have enough time” followed by a post that long. @Nobody is the bestest.