Phil Savage and Solomon Willcotts did a show in NFL Radio from Berea as part of their training camp tour. These guys are both high on my credibility list, so I paid close attention to their comments.
Phil said that Ogbah will probably play defensive end more as a rookie than outside linebacker. He cited his unusual strength.
So far, he looks correct. Ogbah has been working there. I just wish I could see it, or that there was a reporter who knows a 3-4 from a 4-3. I had assumed that Ogbah would put his hand in the dirt in Ray Horton's frequent 4-man line looks, but doubted that he would in the 3-4 (really more 4-3 under due to where the players set up).
Hassan is here to play LEFT defensive end (5 technique) in that 3-4. Ogbah isn't as long or tall, and despite his freakish strength, and can't gain much more weight without sacrificing speed and mobility.
I suspect that he's a 4-3 defensive end here. Ogbah is first and foremost a passrusher. Although, (new thought here), in Horton's 3-4, the right defensive end is really a one-gap defensive tackle who attacks between guard and tackle.
Ogbah could do that, and be really disruptive. Phil is a football guy, and might have been talking about that position as well.
Cooper or Hughes are who I expected there. They're bigger guys who should be able to stand up to the pounding over time, but the thought of Ogbah there sometimes is exciting to think about.
Unfortunately, due to amateurish reporting, I'm just guessing here.
Willcotts no doubt shocked the world by saying that every single day, Terrell Pryor "does something special". I know I know, amazing, right? And here we thought he'd need another two or three years to master the complexities of wide receiver!
Chuh. Phil took it from there, saying that he'd expect them to put him in the slot a lot. From here, he's close at hand for the end-arounds and motion plays, but Phil also pointed out what a huge mismatch a super fast 6'5" 230 lb. WR would be for any slot corner.
Really, though...for any cornerback, period.
It's not true that the slot corner is the third-best cornerback on a given defense. It's become a specialty position, usually requiring a shorter, quicker, faster player than those better suited to the outside. That's why I laugh so hard at people projecting Justin Gilbert inside.
Like Brian Hartline, except more so, Pryor is the little nickel cornerback's kryptonite. Any lobbed pass sails over his head, and he lacks the BULK to reroute them, or even get in their way much.
Defenses adapt, of course, by shifting a bigger taller outside cornerback inside against these big slot receivers, but that still forces teams to dig deeper in their depth charts for an alternative outside, or else play the little nickel guy out there instead.
I still expect a lot of Baylor type offense to be run here, with Pryor further outside, but no doubt Hue Jackson is eyeball deep in both big and small slot receivers here, and can run conventional sets as well.
...and I know from the fact that Pryor has burned Gilbert that he's working outside too. No thanks to the reporters, who all seem to think he's a gimmick.
I'm thrilled that Connor Hamlet is making a big splash at tight end. As my crickets know, I'd all but dismissed this guy. I may have been wrong and hope I was.
Hamlet is 6'7" and blocks well; he's a real tight end. He doesn't have Gronk's speed, of course, but back in the day, tight ends were tight ends. You could depend on them to catch a five or ten yard pass, run somebody over, and get swarmed under.
These days, we seem to just sort of ignore five or twelve yard gains. It's really stupid.
IF Hamlet keeps this up, he gives Hue more options. In-line blocking aside, he's a huge, reliable target who mismatches any safety or linebacker trying to cover him.
Hue is doing all he can to make things easy for the quarterback. Solomon and Phil talked at length about motion, and how much of it there is in Hue's embryonic offense.
As Solly (the ex-safety) said, motion exposes coverage. How the defense reacts to the motion indicates zone or man, and who is on who. Bernie Kosar could figure this out without help, but most quarterbacks can't.
These two also talked about the West Coast quick release pass plays they were seeing.
This surprised me a little, because that's absolutely not what RG3 does best. But it makes more sense with all that motion, along with more big, tall targets.
Oh crap I hate this: Yes RG3 is black and I've implied that he doesn't read coverage quickly. I've also said he was a 4.0 student and cited his interviews to describe a REALLY smart guy. Now shut up he's been indecisive and held the ball too long in the West Coast period. I'm colorblind YOU need checked shut tf up.
But speaking of RG3, I also paid attention to the player interviews. All were asked about the quarterbacks, and gave pc answers.
Of course they had to. They can't take sides. But you can still figure things out between the lines.
All of us have a compulsion to express opinions. As we dissemble and change the subject, we can't help but expose something.
Joe Thomas, maybe the most blunt Brown ever, went straight to how early it was, and how the quarterbacks and receivers were still learning stuff.
Well, he was avoiding the fact that to this point McCown is the best quarterback. This shouldn't surprise anybody after 2015. He's actually really, really good, and a 300 year veteran!
McCown's own comments helped as well. You have to study him extra hard, but he still coughs up clues.
I love Josh. I'm not religious like him, but he's just a great person. He trusts God to make the final calls, but meanwhile helps his potential replacements as much as he can. He sort of adopts them, and brings them up like he would his own son.
Josh talked about how great the quarterback room was (including RG3).
RG3 is listening to Josh. That's important. Given RG3's history as an arrogant selfish punk, it means he has been humbled, and has matured enough to take coaching even from an older player. It means a lot.
RG3 might not actually be better than McCown at the point where Hue Jackson names him the starter (which he almost certainly will).
I've heard of trade talks with Dallas in re McCown, and heard a call to NFL Radio from an especially stupid Browns fan citing needs at defensive end, cornerback, running back (I can't go on) and asking which suspended Dallas defensive ends might be involved in a trade.
The hosts (Brady Quinn is the only one that counts for me) told him it would have to be a draft pick and the Browns wouldn't trade for a suspended player. He then pointed out defensive schemes and fits.
He should have called the caller an idiot and hung up on him.
Brady Quinn, I need to tell you, isn't the dumbass pretty boy some (including me) might think he is. He seriously researches every team in depth, and as a bonus grew up a Browns fan. Rich Gannon has left NFL Radio, but Quinn is actually a better analyst than he was.
He went into the motion stuff in Jackson's apparent Browns Offense as well, and how it helps a quarterback diagnose coverage pre-snap, and even pre-determine his target.
It doesn't surprise me that Corey Coleman is humiliating everybody who tries to cover him.
What did tell me a lot is how three different people described one play:
Willcotts and Savage talked about how Coleman dropped a touchdown pass from RG3.
Pat McNanoman mentioned how RG3 had underthrown that pass.
Pat isn't an RG3 fan, and exposed himself here. I'm not bashing Pat here, since he seems to try to be objective, and is pretty smart.
But another unfortunate tendency in us humans is to see what we expect to see. Pat thinks Coleman is terrific, but RG3 not so much.
I haven't seen the film, but from this agglomeration imagine a pass which Coleman needed to reach behind him for, his getting both hands on it, and dropping it.
Pat needs to be taught intelligent analysis. The ex-safety and coach/gm never mentioned ball placement. They just said Coleman dropped it.
Sorry I harp on this, but if you read this blog, you understand that part of my mission here is to teach people to think with their brains, and expose those who don't.
Cam Erving is looking good. Isn't that astonishing? I read another article which asserted that Erving in 2015 sucked at "left and right guard".
That was lazy and dumb. Erving sucked at left guard, but was ok at right guard. The writer should be taken out and shot.
Alex Mack was ranked 13th among centers by PFF in 2015, so in general a lot of fans are panicking over nothing with his loss to free agency. Likewise, Erving was the best center, and considered by some the best offensive lineman, in his draft.
The Browns could take a step back at right tackle (still not sure I grok the Schwartz move see earlier entries), but the overall offensive line should be solid...
In fact, the best offensive line in the AFC North is between the Browns and Bengals.
I love that Hue is giving the older vets days off. They need more reps like they need a hole in the head, and Hue gets to check out and develop their backups and future starters. If you don't see the obvious logic here, you need a brain transplant, even if you played for the Patriots.
Schobert could play more as a rookie than many expect. He's a real linebacker (not a hybrid player), and he fits anywhere in a 4-3 alignment.
Ray Horton uses 4 (or 5 and occasionally 6) man fronts a lot, which puts Ogbah's, Kruger's, etc hands in the dirt. Schobert can blitze, cover, and stop the run.
Scoobie Wright, as I've said, is similar, but Schobert is ahead of him, and I suspect faster.
I'm not alarmed over Gilbert getting toasted by Pryor and Coleman (yet).
Pryor overmatches any cornerback, and Coleman is a physical freak himself. Both these guys will humiliate elite cornerbacks a lot, and my bar for Gilbert isn't set in the stratosphere.
It shouldn't be for you, either. Gilbert is clearly fighting for his future against suddenly excellent competition, and yeah he and Joe Haden and everybody else is in for more embarrassment.
That's right. The Browns wide receivers, even pre-Gordon, are scary. Deal with it.
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