This post is a breakdown of every pass of Kyle Trask's NFL career thus far; all nine attempts from the Atlanta game earlier this month. I think this needs to be done for a few reasons, first and foremost of which is that Trask is currently the only quarterback on the roster. I also think that he's the betting favorite to be our starting quarterback come September, but that's just a hunch. In any case, doing a more detailed dive on his game, for good or ill, against NFL competition in a game with some stakes, would be for the good I would think, instead of just relying on blind faith that he has "it" or falling back on the tired joke of calling him "Kyle Trash."
So without further ado, grab a beverage, pull up a chair, and let's talk ball. Warnging; this post is over 3000 words, so forgive the length, but that's the entire damn point.
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First of all, let's set the stage. Kyle Trask took over the offense with 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and most of the guys on offense are backups. The Falcons were still playing most of their starters, mind you.
Play 1 -
Here we are on his first NFL pass attempt. It's 2nd and 6 after a four yard run by Vaughn on first down. Of note, the Falcons starters are still in. We come out with 11 personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end, and 3 wide receivers). Breshad Perriman and Scotty Miller (blue triangle and purple arrow) are bunched on the right with Cameron Brate (red square) in tight on the line just inside of them. This gives the defense a trips look, so obviously the passing strength is to the offensive right. Devin Thompkins (yellow circle) is all by his lonesome on the left, being covered by their best cornerback AJ Terrell. Ke'Shawn Vaughn (green star) is in a sidecar left.
The Falcons match with basic nickel personnel. The two corners are playing high-low to the trips side, AJ Terrell is by himself off to the top of the screen, both safeties are playing it safe and deep. Both edge players are standing up, a hint at possible zone coverage. One linebacker is threatening a rush off the left edge, the other is lined up over Vaughn.
Just prior to the snap, Scotty does a short motion towards the offense to be just inside of Perriman. The corner over Perriman slides inside to now be over Miller. This is a tell that the defense is going to play zone, and Trask was looking at it. Good awareness.
Here's our playcall. Both Thompkins and Perriman carry the defense vertically. Scotty Miller run a deep cross over the middle. Brate helps out in a six-man protection, chipping #92 before releasing into his route to the right flat. Vaughn gets open as an outlet on the left. Both Brate and Vaughn are just safety valves here.
The idea of this play is to put the weakside safety (orange circle) in a bind, and Scotty and Thompkins are the ones turning the screws. If he stays high to help out on Thompkins, that means that Scotty will have favorable leverage over the middle against either a linebacker in the box or the deep safety directly across from him, either of which is a win for the offense. If the orange safety goes low to help out on Miller, then that leaves Thompkins 1-on-1.
Here we are at the point of the throw. We see the defense that the Falcons are in, and reasonable people can disagree here. My interpretations are written in black. We have a five-man rush scheme, which we do a pretty good job of blocking up. We have a pair of hook/flat defenders, reading the QB and in decent position to deal with our safety valves. The orange safety we highlighted earlier has keyed in on Miller, which given our preclivity to run crossers to Godwin out of the slot isn't too surprising. The safety which started out the play just outside the hash marks is now playing deep-middle. Both cornerbacks are carrying the number 1 vertical threat deep.
On the snap, Trask stared down the middle of the defense, not giving anything away. He saw the orange safety drop down to cover Miller, his first read, so he fired the ball to Thompkins. Thompkins to his credit had a great outside release, causing AJ Terrell to flip his hips. Thompkins then immediately went inside and released vertically.
Look at Thompkins, the yellow circle. Dude has leverage on his corner, and the deep safety is so far away that he can't help out. That's NFL open and Trask knew it, so he let fly, leading him high and inside so that only Thompkins has a chance at catching the ball. AJ Terrell, that sneaky sneak, gets away with a hold on this one, grabbing Thompkins with his left arm and pulling him so that he can't jump up to make the play. Incomplete ball, sneaky (but good) defense by Terrell.
A cynic may say that Trask didn't play the matchups here and it was incomplete, so Trask sucks, right? Wrong. Trask made the read correctly, and he put the ball where it needed to go in a place only his guy could have made a play on it. Is it his fault that he was throwing to a backup wide receiver who is 5'8"? I say no. Is it his fault that there wasn't a flag on the play, also no. And even despite that sneaky defense, if the intended receiver was perhaps a taller player who wouldn't have needed to leap for it (like Mike Evans), or a stronger player who would have made the play despite the illegal defense (like Chris Godwin), then this is a 25 yard gain. It goes down in the play log as a loss, but this was a good rep by Trask.
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Play 2 -
Here we are, 3rd and 6. Same 11 personnel as before, same players on the field, but shuffled around a bit. We again have a bit of a stack on the right side, this time with Miller (blue) and Thompkins (yellow). Perriman (purple) is in the short split on the left of the formation with Brate (red) immediately inside of him. Vaughn is in a sidecar right. Passing strength is to the offensive right, because there are three receiving threats to that side.
The Falcons stick in nickel. Two corners over our stack on the bottom of the screen. One deep safety, middle of field closed (MOFC). AJ Terrell is playing off of Perriman with flat feet. Seven dudes in the box including the strong safety, linebackers are threatening a double-A gap blitz.
Scotty again does a little motion inside, the Falcons shuffle again. Another zone tell. Trask looks that way to watch it just prior to the snap.
Here's the playcall. Similar to what we just dialed up, but with a different focus. Here we see Scotty Miller is again running that same deep crosser from the same split looking for space, Perriman is running a clearout on top, Brate helps out the tackle but on the other side this time before releasing into the flat as the safety valve, and Vaughn looks to help out in protection. Where the playcall differs is that we are looking to attack the corner across from Thompkins, who is again the yellow circle. You see, instead of looking to attack the middle and put that safety in a bind, we hope that the outside corners immediately drop back to respect the deep threat as they did with the prior playcall, but now we attack them with a quick out to convert the six yards needed for a first down. All we need to do is wait for that corner to turn his hips, then Thompkins cut for the sideline, and it's a simple pitch-and-catch. Right?
Well it should have been smooth. In fact, the ball was incomplete to the intended man. A dull person would say dammit Trask, you've gotta hit that. This guy sucks. Quarterback of the future? No way.
Here we see the Falcons defense. Another five-man pressure, again well-blocked. Three underneath defenders, the same deep middle safety, and both outside corners again respecting the vertical releases of the outside corners.
I took this screenshot shortly after Thompkins made his cut to illustrate a few points. Firstly, the corner across from him is beat -- flat footed, hips out of position, grasping at air; he's going to need to make a hell of a play to defend this out route. Secondly, look where Thompkins is. He made his cut at the 37 yard line, and he's already rounding out to the 38 and 39. He ends up finishing his route at the 41.
But does Trask throw the ball at the 41? No. He throws to where Thompkins should have been, not where he was. If Thompkins doesn't round out this route (and it's a cardinal sin to round out an out route, as that's how you get undercut for a pick-6), this is an easy completion for a first down. Again, had a more experienced or dare I say better wide receiver ran this route, it's again an easy completion for a first down.
Long story short, Thompkins makes his cut at the 37, then rounds out his route to the 41. The ball hits the turf at the 38. Ball placement was good, outside where only Thompkins coulda got it. Trask made a good play here, but negative nancies will say that he didn't because they don't understand what they're looking at.
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Play 3
The Falcons had just scored a field goal, there's four minutes left in the game. Here we are on first and ten. We come out in the same personnel grouping (11), same five skill players. Trips right with Perriman in purple, Scotty in blue, and Brate in red. Vaughn in his green sidecar, Thompkins all by himself in yellow. Falcons respond with appropriate nickel personnel, two deep safeties (middle of field open or MOFO). Seven dudes in the box, which is a bit much when you have the worst running game in the NFL, but what do I know?
Here we are halfway through the play. The Falcons are in the same cover-3 look as we've seen already three times now, not exactly mixing up their calls.
We can see that our outside receivers are selling the deep routes then coming back on curls, but they're afterthoughts on this one. Vaughn is in the backfield doing pretty solid in pass pro. The person we're attacking is the hook defender, circled in orange again for the sake of consistency. How we're attacking him is by sending Brate in red on a seam route and Scotty underneath on a very shallow in. If the hook defender carries the seam, Trask needs to hit Scotty. If the hook defender sits on Scotty, then Brate is wide open. Trask reads it routinely and hits the open man, Scotty gets 8 easy yards, though honestly the hook defender looked a bit lost and he coulda hit Brate if he'd wanted to.
Another good play by Trask. 3 outta 3, as far as I'm concerned.
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Play 4
Second and two now. I drew up our routes on the same picture for the sake of time. Thompkins in yellow runs a clearout, Brate in red runs a hook, Vaughn goes to the left flat. Miller and Perriman run a pair of ins on the bottom of the screen.
Looking at the larger picture, we see 11 personnel again versus nickel, which isn't exciting. The safeties are again deep, middle of the field is open (MOFO). What IS different from what we've been seeing is the corner over Scotty in his traditional blue; see how he's leveraged inside and paying Miller no heed? Blitz alert till proven otherwise. Trask sees it, and that's what screws up the play.
Here we are shortly after the ball was thrown. What do we see? Another Cover-3 look from the Falcons, who apparently just can't be bothered running a different defense.
Trask is in a clean pocket, but you'll notice that he drifted WAYY to his left. That's because of that corner over Scotty that we noticed presnap (the orange circle on the left in the above image) made him scared, so he drifted left to buy time.
Now what Trask expected to happen is that he could drift left and Vaughn would be there for him in the flat. What he didn't expect was the defensive end on that side to drop into coverage, which is exactly what he does. Vaughn as you can see isn't even looking for the ball and has no chance to catch it.
This one is a bit of a stinker. Trask did well to identify the blitz, but that identification made him nervous and caused the wasted play. He had open guys all over the place (primarily Scotty and Brate), but he didn't look for them much less find them because he was seeing ghosts.
It was a ghost, Kyle, but not a scary one. Credit to the OL for blocking up the blitz well here.
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Play 5
3rd and 2, same personnel all around. We are in a trips right with Brate, Scottie, and Perriman in a bunch. Vaughn is in a quick motion to the right on the snap, the Falcons corner is flying up to respond, a zone tell. MOFC safeties. Enough of that boring shit, I hear you say, show me some routes and defenses! Fine.
The Falcons decided to make Trask actually read a defense and so decided to run something other than Cover-3. Here we see a somewhat ugly cover-2.
Against it, we have Thompkins in his yellow circle running an up-and-out, which he wins late for what could have been a big gain, but that wasn't where the ball was designed to go for the first read (which was open) so it's rather a moot point. Vaughn's green star runs to the right-sided flat. Brate's square runs a hook.
But the money on the play is putting another defender in conflict, this time this hook defender within the orange square. It's a high-low concept; if the defender plays deep enough to cover Scotty's blue triangle running yet another deep over route, then the ball goes to Perriman's arrow underneath. If the defender plays shallow, then the ball goes to Scotty. The defender plays deep, the ball goes to Perriman who gets some YAC for a gain of nine yards. First down. Another good play for Trask.
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Play 6
Shotgun, same personnel all around, MOFO safeties. Thompkins and Brate on the left, Scotty and Perriman on the right, Vaughn in the backfield. Let's see what we've got.
The Falcons are in Cover-3 again, and we're running this concept. Seems familiar, doesn't it? Scotty in the slot is running another deep crosser, but there's two hook defenders lurking dangerously underneath. If given enough time he can uncover, but Trask doesn't wait for it. Thompkins in the yellow is covered AF. Both Vaughn and Brate chip the edge defenders before releasing into shallow routes.
But Perriman? Dude has room to work towards the sidelines, and the corner had inside leverage against him. If Trask can put the ball towards the sidelines, where Perriman can shield him away from the ball, the middle safety wouldn't have time to get there. If Trask can place it right, that is.
Trask does, but Perriman can't complete the catch and gets bodied by the cornerback. If I'm quibbling, I would say that this ball was a bit underthrown, but not so much that it wouldn't stop a better player from making the catch. Someone who has made a career out of winning 50-50 balls like this, some tall dude with great hands who posterizes people on the regular. To pick a name out of a hat, maybe a dude like Mike Evans or something, I dunno.
This could have gone better but it could have gone worse.
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Play 7
Shotgun snap, 2x2 formation, stack to the right as we've seen before. Scotty runs a speed-out and Trask fires the ball to the open man, but Isiah Oliver does a hell of a job to regain ground after he was initially beat and made a play on the ball.
Look at that defense as the ball is coming in. The ball was placed well, and maybe a larger/stronger/better receiver could have walled off Oliver and complete the catch, but I ain't gonna get that upset. Trask didn't do wrong here, the Falcon just made a good play.
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Play 8
Shotgun snap, 11 personnel, nickel, yaddy yaddy yadda. We run a variation of the same "outside guys go vertical and Scotty runs a deep crosser" concept by having the outside receivers run comebacks, but everyone is covered. Trask does the sensible thing and dumps it off to the back for a gain of 6. Nothing too exciting here, so no pictures, sorry.
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Play 9
Trips left with Perriman outside, Miller in the slot, Brate next to the tackle. Runner in a sidecar right, Thompkins in a short split to the right. Falcons in nickel, MOFC (middle of field closed), one safety walked down onto Brate in his red square, both linebackers threatening a double A-gap blitz. Man till proven otherwise.
Against that we seem to have a Levels concept on the left, though it gets muddled very quickly on the snap with just alot of bodies in the same spot. On the right, Thompkins runs a post and Vaughn runs to the flat. What does Trask do?
And here we are with the ball out. As we can see, it was indeed man coverage, Cover-1 with one deep safety. The levels concept on the left side of the formation is all congested. Trask has pressure in his face, but he makes the correct decision to throw it to his man Thompkins, who has outside leverage and a clear path to the football.
Unfortunately, as we can see it's just a bit shallow and outside. Thankfully the defender can't make a play on it, but neither can Thompkins. Had Trask made this throw deeper, this could have been a big play on fourth down. As is, the ball hit the turf and that was curtains for the Kyle Trask show.
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And that's it, all nine throws of Trask's regular season career.
Does he deserve the moniker Kyle Trash? I certainly don't think so. He wasn't perfect to be sure, but outside of that zone blitz that rattled him he made sound decisions throughout. He needs to work on some ball placement, but that would be worked out with real reps with the same guys over and over, such as if/when he becomes the starting quarterback of this team. Give him the majority of reps in training camp with the 1s, and I wouldn't foresee this being a problem, particularly as that was a strength of his in college. As I pointed out not too subtly, I think that some of those incompletions are completions with better quality receivers.
I see a smart guy. I see one who knows how to operate within the frame of an offense, even without many live reps in it. I see a guy who (outside of one zone blitz) played smart. And most importantly, I see a guy we can build on.
So, what do you think? Love it? Hate it? A great gnashing of teeth? Spam your comments and/or vitriole below!
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