Monthly Archives: August 2019

Pre-Season Stops and Starts

29 Thursday Aug 2019

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There’s only one place to start this week’s post and that is the retirement of Andrew Luck. No one was expecting that the latest ankle/calf problems that had been troubling Luck though the Colt’s off-season activities and had stopped him from taking a snap in pre-season would be the tipping point for him to step away from the game. The video of him walking of the Colts field to boos resounding round the stadium when the news broke was a tough watch, and a clearly emotional Luck spent most of his retirement press-conference talking about other people to further demonstrate what a good person he seems to be.

The constant cycle of pain and rehab is Luck pointed to as the reason he was stepping away from the game he loved, and given how tiring chronic pain can be it should not be as surprising as it is that Luck chose to walk away. In fact, as awareness of head injury has grown we have seen more players unwilling to stay in the game once they have made their money. I have heard many coaches and players talk about how they love football but football does not love you. The injury rate is basically one hundred percent. It can be a brutal sport and there are many reasons to play it but for Luck, a career spent battling injuries since 2015 saw the start of his shoulder problems was too much. He is a man of many and varied interests (what other franchise QB founded a book club) and so whilst the league will be poorer for his absence, I hope he finds peace and fulfilment away from the game. I suspect he will.

What I Saw

On the field the week started with me watching the Bengals fall to a narrow loss to the New York Giants in their first home game and leaves me worried about the upcoming season. We know it is the first year of a new regime and the optimist in me wants to see a quick improvement, but we now know several starters against the week one opponents will be rookies who will have to go into Seattle to face the Seahawks in one of the league’s most hostile environments without AJ Green. More worrying for me is that for all the camp buzz about a better defence, it has looked decidedly fragile up the middle again and whilst I’m not suggesting that it is as bad as last season’s bottom of the league group it does not fill me with confidence.

I have always been resistant to the complaints about pre-season, but the increasing removal of starters has made it a tough watch for anyone barring your own team. Having been following the Bengals as usual I have my eye out for players throughout all four quarters but even with a bit of reading around the Packers and following the Raiders on Hard Knocks the games aren’t quite grabbing me as they have in the past. They are still as important for the players at the bottom of the roster but coaches are playing very vanilla and with them very much working the bottom of the roster it is hard to latch onto things. I may be personally happiest about the success Ryan Finley has had this pre-season, but probably the most impressive team I have seen this pre-season has been the Baltimore Ravens who I saw for a second time this week as I watched them play and beat pretty handily the Philadelphia Eagles. For all the talk of how good the  Browns are and the Steelers being better through subtraction, the Ravens are going to be difficult opponents again this season and I think will be challenging for the AFC North.

What I Heard

I’m on holiday this week so not as plugged into the NFL media as I usually am, but the fates stepped in for me whilst I was double check something on ESPN and I suggest you read this: – No distractions: An NFL veteran opens up on his sexuality

What I Think

I was thinking again about Jay Z’s deal with the NFL again. I understand what the NFL are trying to do with the deal and time will tell if Jay Z has answers to those that are criticising him for the move. I don’t think we are beyond kneeling, but I also don’t believe Jay Z has just jumped into this business partnership only for commercial reasons. He does too much philanthropy of his own and is too smart to just provide expedient cover for the NFL and help them book new artists for the Super Bowl half time.

The reason that this is cropping up again in my brain is the nexus around sports and politics. I understand why those who want sports to be an escape want nothing to do with politics and I’m not unsympathetic (believe me, with the state of British politics I get it), but there is undoubted power in bring a wide selection of people together through sport and if there’s a way for Jay Z to co-opt the institution of the NFL to further that then I’m all for it.

What I Know

That this time next week I’ll be excitedly prepping for the first game of the season and I have not done any of the spreadsheet work that I was planning to this off-season for the picks competiton…

What I Hope

I’m hoping that all those who don’t make a team after the final pre-season game tonight get another shot if that’s what they want. I know not everyone gets the chance to walk away on their own terms like Andrew Luck but it would be great if all those who don’t get to make the league can at least feel like they gave it their best shot.

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What is a Routine Anyway?

22 Thursday Aug 2019

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It should not be a surprise to me that none of my NFL blogs have lined up on time over the course of the pre-season. I have been exceptionally busy and unlike those paid by the NFL, a team, or a media company to cover the NFL, I must fit this blog round everything else, but enough whinging – football is coming.

What I Saw

I started off the week two pre-seasons games watching the Cincinnati Bengals travel to Washington in a game that seemed to have all the penalties. Certainly, the second look at Andy Dalton didn’t do much to build up hope for the season as he struggled with third and longs caused by repeated offensive line penalties. Things did settle down as the game went on but it was the defence and special teams that got the Bengals a 23-13 win that was helped by Alex Erickson taking a punt return back for a touchdown. The protection from the offensive line still looked good when they weren’t committing holds and the number of holding penalties are apparently up across the league but that won’t matter if it the refs are calling the game like that at the start of the season. This was something that Zac Taylor mentioned in his weekly press conference so hopefully it is tidied up a bit against the Giants this week. The good news is that there seems to be a real competition at receiver behind the injured AJ Green and John Ross but we really won’t know anything until the teams are putting in full game plans. There are already whispers amongst some fans that rookie quarterback Ryan Finley is looking good enough to start, but don’t expect Dalton to be going anywhere unless the season nose dives completely.

Whilst we’re talking Bengals we had the horrible news this week that former running back Cedric Beson died in a motorcycle accident. There’s a nice piece by Geoff Hobson on the Bengal site and it is that reminder that life is short so grab what you can when you can.

Moving back to football, I next watched Hard Knocks and the next Raiders game against the Arizona Cardinals. It is slightly awkward seeing Hard Knocks three days later as whilst watching their coverage of the game against the Rams I’m seeing some of what I though in the previous week’s game confirmed, other things come up and now I’m writing up their game against Cardinals.

I did get an interesting message from Dan this week:

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Dan went on to comment that it was something about his leadership style that was rubbing him the wrong way and that if he had tried it on Dan that it would have the opposite effect on him. It amused me as I was having similar thoughts. There are many ways to lead any group effort, and I think one of the most important facets is to stay true to yourself. Nothing will hold up buy in more for a group than for you trying to lead in a manner that is not natural to you. The thing that I wondered was all Gruden was doing was encouraging the backup quarterbacks to be more like him. I can see that the players need to take control of the huddle, but they must do it in their own authentic way. Neither Derek Carr, Mike Glennon or Nathan Peterman can be Jon Gruden in the huddle, but if they are properly prepared then they should be able to lead that offence as long as they are in command of what is going on. To me it is about setting a standard and holding everyone accountable with real consequences. We all handle stress differently and I wonder how coaching and management might change as the nature of the players continue to change. The days of screaming disciplinarians may not be over, but I think we’re heading that way. I’m reminded of a conversation I had on Twitter the other day when discussing leadership in space missions (pretty on brand for me I know):

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Back to the team and the headlines have all been about Antonio Brown, and it has become abundantly clear why the Steelers have traded away a player who when playing was arguably the best receiver in football. The Raiders’ GM Mike Mayock issued a statement that whilst they appreciate the issues, they are at the stage of the season where they need him to be all in. The latest is that Brown has filed a second grievance about notice regarding an old helmet but he has practised in a certified helmet. More on Hard Knocks tomorrow and in the coming week I am sure.

The final game I watched was the Green Bay Packers take on the Ravens in Baltimore and perhaps unsurprisingly lose given that the Ravens coach John Harbaugh is one of the coaches that focuses on winning in the pre-season whilst the Packers did not play Aaron Rodgers due to him having a bad back. I’m still getting used to watching the Packers, and I will confess to being a little frustrated at not seeing Rodgers so here’s hoping he gets a good run out in game three against the Raiders in.

What I did find interesting was that for all the talk of the fullback I swear I didn’t see one used until the second half. Now I’m not grinding coaching tape at this point so I will confess I’m watching rather than recording every single play so I could have missed it, but it is so hard to know how this team is going to do in the regular season. Particularly as Rodgers has been strongly stated that the best work he’s been getting is in practice, including going against another team’s defence. I think the thing to take away when people complain about pre-season is that it really matters to the people fighting for a roster spot, but perhaps these games really are for your football obsessed fan.

What I Heard

I wanted to highlight something I heard on Ross Tucker’s podcast with Greg Cosell last week that I thought was particularly interesting. He was talking about preparing quarterbacks in the pre-season and was saying that he’d been told you shouldn’t worry about turnovers in the pre-season as now is the time to work out if you can make a throw or not. Much better to try and make the play now and find out it won’t work than fail in the regular season. Cosell also suggested that for mobile quarterbacks the pre-season was the perfect time for them to work on their pocket presence and mechanics as the scrambling improvisational plays will come anyway during the season.

What I Think

I understand why many people might think it would be a bad idea as you wouldn’t want him near your brand, but I still can’t help but think the Antonio Brown situation is an opportunity for someone in the helmet business to get him fitted with one of theirs. After all, if Brown complains about it, given all that’s gone on this season do we really think you as the helmet maker would get blamed and maybe you could be someone to engage with him in a way where he could hear a positive no i.e. polite and firm so as not to pander, but a healthy this is the situation and here’s how we can deal with it type of interaction that he possibly hasn’t had for a while.

What I Know

I need to figure out why Dan and his dad have signed up for the picks competition but I can’t see them in the group, but it will be happening and so keep an eye out as we would be more than happy to have you in the competition this year. If you join before the start of the season then perhaps you can come out top and the blog will be in your NFL team’s colours next season.

What I Hope

I am going on holiday next week, and I am hoping to watch and post relatively normally, whilst having a relaxed fabulous time. Once back I’ll be preparing for the new season, which really feels quite surreal to think about even though I’ve been in preseason mode for weeks.

Delayed Again

15 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by in Hard Knocks, Pre-Season

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Somehow it has been a week already and despite having watched all that I intended to in time, I had one of those days at work yesterday that meant there was no chance of getting a blog out on schedule, but there’s just time to read up ahead of the start of the pre-season week two games.

What I Saw

The first game I watched last week was the Houston Texans visiting the Green Bay Packers. In a move that is becoming increasingly common neither team actually played their starting quarterback but while the Texans gave Joe Web the entire game the Packers played three different quarterbacks as the Packers held off a late surge by the Texans to win 28-26. We all know that pre-season results don’t really matter, what is important is staying healthy and putting players in the positions the coaches want so they can evaluate them. However, there is an increasing narrative that coaches actually get more out of the combined practices that are becoming increasingly common across the league, although don’t tell Aaron Rodgers that. Rodgers made news by offering up some criticism of a kicking drill, but I’m not sure how much to make of this given that player safety is a genuine concern and everything Rodgers says seems to be dissected to death by the media these days. I’m not sure anyone outside of the team has enough information on how the relationship between Roders and his new head coach Matt LaFleur is, in fact I shall be following the Packers news more closely over the next few weeks as with so many starters resting it was hard for me to identify names and performances that jumped out of this game so let’s quietly move on to the next thing I watched.

Hard Knocks is a staple of the NFL pre-season and a lot of it hit familiar beats, although I don’t think we’ve seen the undrafted player grinding to make the team get cut in the first episode before. We didn’t get much detail of Antonio Brown’s foot injuries, and we seem to be predating his concerns over his helmet but we met plenty of characters and as ever a huge part of the flavour of the show is set by the head coach. I wasn’t that fussed by Gruden’s whole ‘eveyone has dreams but I want to give people nightmares’ speech, but that’s just me. I did warm to him across the episode then and I am interested to see Derek Carr get some playing time and how the series develops. This week we’ll get to see their join practices with the LA Rams and their game that the Raiders won 14-3.

The Raiders defence did a really good job of containing the Rams offense without any spectacular plays but looked really solid and is something to watch going forward to see how much it holds up. There is competition between Mike Glennon and Nathan Peterman for who will backup Derrek Carr and it was one of those tough ones where Glennon often looked good but threw two interceptions where as Peterman got a touchdown pass and a fifty-six yard run whilst throwing no interceptions but his average pass yard was 5.5 and this is a player who has looked good in pre-season before and thrown five interceptions when he has started. An area that looked obviously strong was the Raiders receivers, who even without Antonio Brown had three receivers with plays longer that fifteen yards and Carr will be hoping that he has even better chemistry when he gets to play. It’s hard to say too much about the Rams given they were resting starters all over the team as Sean McVay really doesn’t put much stock in pre-season and they went pretty well last year. Still, I’m sure fans of the Rams would like to see a little more production on offence this season.

So finally we have the Cincinnati Bengals traveling to the Kansas City Chiefs and getting beaten badly. Both teams actually played their starting quarterbacks in the first quarter and they moved the ball effectively. However, the Chiefs offence continued to roll, helped no doubt by two botched special teams returns that set them up with great field position. Special teams is one of those areas of football that often gets overlooked and yet is particularly relevant at this time of year as any player fighting for a spot on the roster is going to get a boost if they can contribute on special teams. Because I have been following the offseason reporting I was able to spot  rookie free agent Stanley Morgan Jr catch several balls in the last quarter and I wonder if he’ll get a chance earlier in the game this week. In fact whilst there were one or two concerning drops, there were a number of sold receivers looking to take advantage of the playing time currently vacated by AJ Green. It also has to be said that Morgan Jr might have benefited from playing with rookie quarterback Ryan Finley who looked to outplay incumbent backup Jeff Driskel who has been running some routes as a receiver and been in special teams meetings having approached the staff about adding extra value. I don’t know if the Bengals are eyeing up a similar role to the Saint’s Taysom Hill but Driskel is an impressive athlete. For the most part the Bengals offensive lines held up well despite mixing and matching lineups and a couple of holding penalties. The worrying part is the defence, and we know that the Chiefs are a stern test but they missed some tackles and apart from second year defensive end Andrew Brown no one particularly caught my eye other than the Chiefs’ rookie receiver Mecole Hardman who looked really dangerous and the pairing of him and Tyreek Hill are going to cause serious problems this season if Hardman can contribute to the level he looked capable of this week.

As an additional Brit-centric plug, if you have somehow missed Christian Wade’s touchdown run for the Buffalo Bills then take a look at this play as it’s impressive. He still has a lot of work ahead of him to impress a team enough to give him a roster spot but that’s a memory he will always have.

What I Heard

We still have the ongoing training camp chatter of players on the bubble, stock rising and falling as if this isn’t also people chasing difficult dreams that a good third will fail to achieve or maintain.

The discussion of Ezekiel Elliott’s contract has given way to speculation that the Cowboy’s quarterback Dak Prescott has turned down a $30 million a year contract as he seeks a $40 million year one. There are many ways to create a roster and it is interesting to look into this but it always seems a bit odd to speculate so heavily over contract numbers.

What is interesting is things like the Packers having to find a third fullback in a hurry due to both players they currently have carrying injuries and there are not that many fullbacks ready to just step up to the roster so it will be interesting to see how Tommy Bohanon plays having been signed on Monday and went straight into take reps with the first team offence.

What I Think

I understand why there are questions about the pre-season and there are times where there is objectively bad play. I find it interesting that coaches feel they getting better work in the controlled environment of joint practices, but I do like following the pre-season and going blogging about it for the sixth year in a row I do wonder what form it will take in the coming years.

What I Know

Given how busy the next couple of months look this will not the last time I have to modify my blog schedule but I will do my best to stay on top of it and the picks will still go up ahead of the games as I really would like to get the blog back in Bengals colours, and I know Dan thinks the Dolphins’ version of the logos look particularly fine, but then he might be biased.

What I Hope

That the Bengals defence looks better this week and that I start to get a better feel for the Packers roster as they look to implement the new names and system.

Now I’m off to try to catch up with all the things I’m behind on!

I’ve Been Away Too Long

08 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by in Gee's Thoughts, Pre-Season

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I’m a day late thanks to work, but with our first pre-season game in the books, Hard Knocks airing in the States and a full set of games incoming it’s time to get into pre-season mode.

What I Saw

I watched the Hall of Fame game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Denver Broncos with interest rather than being enthralled. I got my first looks at Drew Lock who looked every bit a rookie who needed time to develop both missing throws and holding onto the ball and so giving up sacks. It can be hard for a lot of positions to catch the eye when watching the broadcast version of pre-season games. It tends to be offensive skill players, pass rushers or a flashy linebacker play that gets your attention and for the Broncos this was running back Khalfani Muhammad who picked up fifty yards on seven carries and got a touchdown whilst looking like he had an extra burst of pace. That said, I have seen plenty of running backs catch my eye in pre-season over the years and not have it translate to the regular season. I wouldn’t place too much emphasis on pre-season for predicting the coming year, in fact I don’t tend to place too much stock in predictions full stop but it is still an important time of year for the players involved.

Even at this early stage Matt Schaub struggled to move the ball effectively and it looked for all the world that Kurt Benkert was making a good start to win the backup quarterback job when a toe injury took him out the game and he has now been placed on injured reserve. On such fates entire careers can turn so fingers crossed he at least gets another shot at some point.

I’m currently catching up with last of Amazon’s All or Nothing series that followed the Carolina Panthers, but so far I’ve only seen the first episode where we get introduced to Cam Newton who is pretty peak Cam smoking a cigar in the barber’s chair. We’ve already seen Greg Olson re-injure his foot and it will be interesting to see the rest of the season play out and what we get to see of Cam’s shoulder problems later in the year.

What I Heard

The NFL media had something of a lull post the draft and OTAs but is now in full swing. The Eagles have a daily podcast following training camp and obviously the news starts to churn as we get the endless hopeful updates out of camp and the injuries start to mount.

There’s been quite a lot of talk about the various running back holdouts and whether Ezekiel Elliot is worth the money he’s asking for or not. The prices of a player is going to be set by the market, but the current CBA is not working for running backs, particularly those selected in the first round. If you have a first round running back like Elliott then you can pick up their option for a fifth season, franchise them for two more and by that time the player is likely coming to the end of their career given how hard it is to play the position. For a quarterback the money is so high and the career is so long that you can manipulate your way out of a bad situation eventually, but the running back has so little leverage thanks to the their shorter careers. You can speculate all you want about the fairness of this and putting in an exemption for the running back to take into account the wear on their bodies, but the owners are going to want to be given something to negotiate for that and I can’t see that it will be a priority come the CBA negotiations as what do the players have to give other than playing more games?

What I Think

I’m going to allow myself a little worry here as what I think is that the Bengals have overhauled a lot in the off-season having moved on from Marvin Lewis. I think a lot of fans forget just how bad the team was before Lewis was hired and improved things dramatically. This is all up in the air right now and losing your first round draft pick to injury, a second offensive lineman to a medical retirement, and AJ Green to torn ligaments on a college field the team were playing on as part of the centenary celebrations is not exactly a great start. I was worried already, and whilst I’m not sure that the Bengals are as non-competitive in the division as most seem to think (there is still a lot of talent on the roster) – I’m not at all confident of a good record, in fact I’m gearing up for a tough season of watching. I just hope the rest of games are good.

What I Know

This pre-season I will be watching the Bengals as usual, the Oakland Raiders as they are on Hard Knocks, which could be very interesting given the roster moves and Antonio Brown’s sore feet that was apparently caused by a Cryotherapy mishap, and the Green Bay Packers as I’m intrigued to see how they look under a new coach.

What I Hope

I’m hoping that the Bengals manage to put a season together than can be built upon even if it doesn’t result in wins, that we get good entertaining games, and that more teams play good football. The higher the quality the better for all.

 

And that’s it for my first weekly column of the 2019 season. I’m not going to count how many weeks to go as it will likely give me a certain degree of panic but in no time at all the picks competition will be in full swing, and Dan’s Dad will likely be stumping us again with more NFL trivia.

This is not a drill, football is coming!