It's Ratbirds week, and I'm all a-twitter.
JC Tretter may be ready to start, along with BJ Goodson and MJ Stewart (good slot corner).
Greedy Williams is riding bikes, and a longshot for this game, but Rodney Mitchellfield would start for most NFL teams anyway, so the outside man roles are covered.
Lamar Jackson has leaned hard on his Tight Ends and the center third of the field so far.
Naturally, they're working on improving his timing/touch/accuracy outside, but Ward and Mitchell aren't the best tandem to try to burn that way.
The pundits are all also biting their nails over Jackson's running, but that's not going away any time soon.
Jackson is an exceptional athlete with decent size. He avoids hard hits as well as any Quarterback in the NFL (including lilipution Russell Wilson), and I wish these Pollyannas would quit their hand-wringing but I digress:
Keeping Jackson inside the pocket is obviously a good idea, but it's not that simple. In reality, Jackson does his worst damage running vertically, roughly in the area between Guard and Tackle, on broken passing plays.
In game 1 last season (Browns won), Garrett and Vernon were both there to "hem" Jackson "in", while also messing up his outside passing lanes.
Richardson and Ogunjobi did a good job of staying in their lanes, so Jackson didn't get those inside gaps to run through, and Schobert and the SS did a decent job in coverage. And the blitzes came up the gut.
In the second game, both starting DEs were MIA.
One analyst axed which 2020 Brown has the best chance of stifling Lamar Jackson on the ground.
I don't think Joe Woods will assign any one player to spy Jackson for the whole game (they'd exploit that ruthlessly once that spy's cover was blown), but several guys could take turns doing it:
Takitaki, Phillips, Joseph and the newly acquired Safety) Ronnie Harrison.
The 2 safeties are pretty obvious, but Phillips and Takitaki are run-stoppers first, and probably won't turn their backs on the sneaky bastid. They can come out of short zone coverage and meet him near the line.
The Ravens will run first anyway, so these two will be coming forward a lot as-is.
The Ravens' and Browns' offensive schemes are similar, and the Ravens will run first, and use 2 Tight Ends often.
While you don't always use 3 true Linebackers vs a 12 set, Woods should do that quite a bit here.
MKC sees a Linebacker "rotation".
Nah! Smith and Davis are backups. Why would you take your best Linebackers off the field? Is this one of those "Participation Trophy" things, Mary Kay?
The 4 DTs will rotate heavily, and the DEs almost as much.
The 2020 Browns have better depth at both positions than the team had in 2019 (which had a lot to do with why the Ravens rematch went badly for the homies).
I like the 2020 Linebackers better too, as all 3 of the top guys are reliable tackling run-stoppers first.
The whole front should be much better vs the run in 2020, and that's especially vital vs the Baltimore Ravens:
Joe Woods wants Lamar Jackson in 2nd and 3rd and long situations as often as possible.
The Ravens can't have replaced retired stud Guard Yanda, and I don't buy the Orlando Brown hype---(not in true pass sets vs any of the 5 Browns edge guys.)
Don't get me wrong here: In 2019, the Ravens ran all over nearly everybody, and they just drafted JK Dobbins to go with Melvin Ingram.
Here again, look at the four DTs the Browns wound up with: NONE of them is a true space-eating Nose Tackle.
They're built to penetrate and disrupt inside.
Now, look at the top 3 Linebackers: All run-stoppers first. That's the "second wave". They can fill the gaps the inside penetrators open up behind them (if they're disciplined).
(By the way this goes for Jackson inside scrambles too; Smart Linebackers can anticipate where Jackson has to go, and get there first, even though they're slower and less agile).
The Ravens lost Hayden Hurst, and Nick Boyle is their second Tight End now.
He's no Hayden Hurst. Anderson is a lethal weapon, but the Ravens overall TE corps is weaker than in 2019.
They should be better at WR, as Boykin enters his second season...
This Ravens Offense is kinda the same, while this Browns Defense is better.
Sure, up to 5 starters are new to the team, several others are inexperienced, and the Defensive scheme is new, but the Ravens haven't seen it, either.
Joe Woods knows all about the Ravens Offense (and the changes they'll have to make), and has had the whole offseason to zero in on them.
I'm almost starting to believe the Browns could---
Nevermind okbye
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