Calais Campbell wasnt really a Def end before Jacksonville. In Arizona He was a 3-4 D end which is more like D Tackle. On nickel downs he played 3 Technique between the guard and tackle. This was Aaron Donald's position, in 2017 hes listed as RDE. But the 3-4 is really a 2-4 since nickel is base and the 2 Linemen who would be lined up as "ends" as 2 gapping head over offensive tackle in the old 3-4 of Pittsburgh...are not playing that way they're usually lined up between OL as "1 gap" penetrators. That's much easier to get sacks. 2 gapping is face up on an OL it's much harder to pass rush. The job is to occupy blockers so LBs can get sacks. Vs the run be immobile, eat a double team.
Being great at 3-4 DE is a huge advantage since the pressure usually just came from OLBs. Got a great 2 Gap DL who can toss his guy and crush the pocket while an OLB is also coming probably unblocked? 86-90 NYG leonard Marshall comes to mind, JJWatt was the absolute best at this. But he did start being placed as a true edge and for some reason modern D coaches like that. Chiefs were putting chris Jones there 2 years ago when they had no grear edge guys.
Im probably not making sense to alot of guys. But the article that taught me everything is gone. Its by jene bramel a 7 part series guide to nfl defense that was in NYT taught me back in 00s. Then reprinted in a fantasy website. It was easy to find and post all these years of commenting online to help guys...gone! Fuck.
About the 0, 1 tech, 3 tech, 5 tech, wide 9. The gaps and the fronts over and under. And the back end the 6 or so basic zones and 2 main man calls. Cover 1 and cover 2 man. In broadcast u can count the defenders and ID if 1 or 2 safeties are deep pre snap and then guess by CB alignment up or off and shaded inside or outside to guess the D theyre in. Know what the QB knows pre snap. Post snap; that shit needs a rewind.
There is STILL extant a "football 101" series on bleacher report by Matt Bowen that also teaches everything D and a lot of offense too.
You're right. I wrote this article quite a bit of time ago. I forget what I actually said about Calais Campbell in here, but he was kind of a half end, half tackle in Arizona yes. It depended on the situation.
I second your point on the placement of defensive linemen sometimes being baffling to look at. Oftentimes they are put in just the wrong positions in my opinion, like you said about JJ Watt. It works perfectly to put somebody like TJ Watt at LB, because he can get blocked one on one by a TE in a lot of cases due to being smaller than his brother, and often out of breath from playing so much. Actually dealing with the big O-Linemen that he can't beat with guile from the inside is beyond his abilities, but putting people who can generate pressure from the inside out to the edge is just a waste of a great talent in most cases, in my opinion.
It's sort of like 1B in baseball. They get a lot of the credit, but you play 1B because you can't play anywhere else. It's not a choice to play 1B. It's similar for edge rushers. They're not unvaluable, but they're not invaluable either.
I think it's easier to pressure from the edge because of all that space to work with. You can go inside, outside, fake the one to go the other with a hand swipe, a swim. The Chiefs left tackle (a guard) was getting bulldozed from Sweat going speed to power something you cant do inside.
Inside you have little space to operate. But Aaron donald looks like an edge sometimes on all 22 with quick hand fighting. He's shorter then the guards he's against. Just swish , bam, he's past him all they can do is latch on for dear life holding. hope they dont see the hold or even if they do because the QB is toast a loss of 10 repeat down is better then loss of 7 and a down and maybe the ball.
Got linked to this one from your most recent post and had to give it a read as a fellow Jaguars fan. That Steelers game is probably my favorite regular season game ever (not that there are a ton of good regular season moments to choose from). It was surreal throughout the season to be more excited when the Jaguars were on defense than offense because even though they weren't going to score, (a) they were more likely to do something spectacular and (b) they might just score, too.
I was out on Bortles pretty early on and was desperately hoping that they took Lamar Jackson with the #29 pick in 2018. The city was already called Jacksonville. Instead we got Taven Bryan, the wheels came off, and Nick Foles got rich.
There's NO WAY you're also a Jags fan. How did I not know this before? Are we the only two Jacksonville fans on this entire platform?
That Pittsburgh game is also one of my favourite things ever to happen in the NFL. Both Pittsburgh games actually, because nobody thought anything about the Jaguars, and we humiliated them twice in the same season. It's also true that the defence was more exciting than the offence, even though the offence was actually pretty good, which is a part that's not remembered enough, and likely the reason why this team is so underrated.
I think the lesson to be learned is that elite offence is not the draw. Elite play is the draw. Elite play is what's exciting. That can happen on either defence or offence. It's just that the NFL legislates to ensure offence is always ahead of the curve, and so we've seen just seven truly memorable defences in the entire new millennium by my count, this one included. 2000 Ravens, 2002 Bucs, 2003 Ravens, 2009 Jets, 2013 Seahawks, these Jaguars, and the 2019 Patriots. That's all. I challenge you to remember any other NFL defence for any reason.
As far as Blake Bortles, it's not his fault. It's true that he was quite bad, even in a 2017 where his talented offensive skill group carried him to some pretty good numbers, but this talented offence all fell apart at once. Every above average receiver on the 2017 Jaguars was gone for 2018, and that was the real cause of this great team never really materialising beyond this one season.
The team's best receiver, Allen Hurns, was cut for contract reasons, so was Marcedes Lewis. Marqise Lee messed his knee up in a 2018 preseason game and was never the same. Keelan Cole stayed, but was awful and could never recapture how well he'd played. Jaydon Mickens broke his ankle and never came back right. Those are not five big names, but five above average receivers is a lot of above average receivers to have. This was a very talented offence, but by 2018 it was all gone.
The teams worst receiver in 2017, Dede Westbrook, became it's best in 2018, but he did so without improving at all. The team just got so much worse around him. Would it have helped for the QB to not be Blake Bortles? Of course, but this ship was sunk independent of him. We're seeing what even Patrick Mahomes can do with a poor offence, which is not very much compared to what he'd been doing, and the 2023 and 2024 Chiefs are of a dramatically better calibre at the skill positions than the 2018 Jaguars. I don't think any QB could've fixed this.
True point, those really were lightning in a bottle years for each of Cole and Mickens (and Lee if you modify what the term means substantially). Even a guy like Chris Ivory (who I mostly remember as one in a long line of busted skill player free agents) contributed meaningfully in 2017 and was gone by 2018, and Fournette either peaked sometime during his rookie season or at LSU.
I thought up some 2023 nominees for "memorable defenses of this millennium" but the fact that I came up with multiple probably means it's more recency bias than anything actually enduring. I think there's a chance that the 2023 Chiefs stand the test of time based on the Super Bowl win, but in more of a "begrudging acknowledgement" way than an iconic "Legion of Boom" or Sacksonville.
Calais Campbell wasnt really a Def end before Jacksonville. In Arizona He was a 3-4 D end which is more like D Tackle. On nickel downs he played 3 Technique between the guard and tackle. This was Aaron Donald's position, in 2017 hes listed as RDE. But the 3-4 is really a 2-4 since nickel is base and the 2 Linemen who would be lined up as "ends" as 2 gapping head over offensive tackle in the old 3-4 of Pittsburgh...are not playing that way they're usually lined up between OL as "1 gap" penetrators. That's much easier to get sacks. 2 gapping is face up on an OL it's much harder to pass rush. The job is to occupy blockers so LBs can get sacks. Vs the run be immobile, eat a double team.
Being great at 3-4 DE is a huge advantage since the pressure usually just came from OLBs. Got a great 2 Gap DL who can toss his guy and crush the pocket while an OLB is also coming probably unblocked? 86-90 NYG leonard Marshall comes to mind, JJWatt was the absolute best at this. But he did start being placed as a true edge and for some reason modern D coaches like that. Chiefs were putting chris Jones there 2 years ago when they had no grear edge guys.
Im probably not making sense to alot of guys. But the article that taught me everything is gone. Its by jene bramel a 7 part series guide to nfl defense that was in NYT taught me back in 00s. Then reprinted in a fantasy website. It was easy to find and post all these years of commenting online to help guys...gone! Fuck.
About the 0, 1 tech, 3 tech, 5 tech, wide 9. The gaps and the fronts over and under. And the back end the 6 or so basic zones and 2 main man calls. Cover 1 and cover 2 man. In broadcast u can count the defenders and ID if 1 or 2 safeties are deep pre snap and then guess by CB alignment up or off and shaded inside or outside to guess the D theyre in. Know what the QB knows pre snap. Post snap; that shit needs a rewind.
There is STILL extant a "football 101" series on bleacher report by Matt Bowen that also teaches everything D and a lot of offense too.
You're right. I wrote this article quite a bit of time ago. I forget what I actually said about Calais Campbell in here, but he was kind of a half end, half tackle in Arizona yes. It depended on the situation.
I second your point on the placement of defensive linemen sometimes being baffling to look at. Oftentimes they are put in just the wrong positions in my opinion, like you said about JJ Watt. It works perfectly to put somebody like TJ Watt at LB, because he can get blocked one on one by a TE in a lot of cases due to being smaller than his brother, and often out of breath from playing so much. Actually dealing with the big O-Linemen that he can't beat with guile from the inside is beyond his abilities, but putting people who can generate pressure from the inside out to the edge is just a waste of a great talent in most cases, in my opinion.
It's sort of like 1B in baseball. They get a lot of the credit, but you play 1B because you can't play anywhere else. It's not a choice to play 1B. It's similar for edge rushers. They're not unvaluable, but they're not invaluable either.
I think it's easier to pressure from the edge because of all that space to work with. You can go inside, outside, fake the one to go the other with a hand swipe, a swim. The Chiefs left tackle (a guard) was getting bulldozed from Sweat going speed to power something you cant do inside.
Inside you have little space to operate. But Aaron donald looks like an edge sometimes on all 22 with quick hand fighting. He's shorter then the guards he's against. Just swish , bam, he's past him all they can do is latch on for dear life holding. hope they dont see the hold or even if they do because the QB is toast a loss of 10 repeat down is better then loss of 7 and a down and maybe the ball.
Got linked to this one from your most recent post and had to give it a read as a fellow Jaguars fan. That Steelers game is probably my favorite regular season game ever (not that there are a ton of good regular season moments to choose from). It was surreal throughout the season to be more excited when the Jaguars were on defense than offense because even though they weren't going to score, (a) they were more likely to do something spectacular and (b) they might just score, too.
I was out on Bortles pretty early on and was desperately hoping that they took Lamar Jackson with the #29 pick in 2018. The city was already called Jacksonville. Instead we got Taven Bryan, the wheels came off, and Nick Foles got rich.
There's NO WAY you're also a Jags fan. How did I not know this before? Are we the only two Jacksonville fans on this entire platform?
That Pittsburgh game is also one of my favourite things ever to happen in the NFL. Both Pittsburgh games actually, because nobody thought anything about the Jaguars, and we humiliated them twice in the same season. It's also true that the defence was more exciting than the offence, even though the offence was actually pretty good, which is a part that's not remembered enough, and likely the reason why this team is so underrated.
I think the lesson to be learned is that elite offence is not the draw. Elite play is the draw. Elite play is what's exciting. That can happen on either defence or offence. It's just that the NFL legislates to ensure offence is always ahead of the curve, and so we've seen just seven truly memorable defences in the entire new millennium by my count, this one included. 2000 Ravens, 2002 Bucs, 2003 Ravens, 2009 Jets, 2013 Seahawks, these Jaguars, and the 2019 Patriots. That's all. I challenge you to remember any other NFL defence for any reason.
As far as Blake Bortles, it's not his fault. It's true that he was quite bad, even in a 2017 where his talented offensive skill group carried him to some pretty good numbers, but this talented offence all fell apart at once. Every above average receiver on the 2017 Jaguars was gone for 2018, and that was the real cause of this great team never really materialising beyond this one season.
The team's best receiver, Allen Hurns, was cut for contract reasons, so was Marcedes Lewis. Marqise Lee messed his knee up in a 2018 preseason game and was never the same. Keelan Cole stayed, but was awful and could never recapture how well he'd played. Jaydon Mickens broke his ankle and never came back right. Those are not five big names, but five above average receivers is a lot of above average receivers to have. This was a very talented offence, but by 2018 it was all gone.
The teams worst receiver in 2017, Dede Westbrook, became it's best in 2018, but he did so without improving at all. The team just got so much worse around him. Would it have helped for the QB to not be Blake Bortles? Of course, but this ship was sunk independent of him. We're seeing what even Patrick Mahomes can do with a poor offence, which is not very much compared to what he'd been doing, and the 2023 and 2024 Chiefs are of a dramatically better calibre at the skill positions than the 2018 Jaguars. I don't think any QB could've fixed this.
True point, those really were lightning in a bottle years for each of Cole and Mickens (and Lee if you modify what the term means substantially). Even a guy like Chris Ivory (who I mostly remember as one in a long line of busted skill player free agents) contributed meaningfully in 2017 and was gone by 2018, and Fournette either peaked sometime during his rookie season or at LSU.
I thought up some 2023 nominees for "memorable defenses of this millennium" but the fact that I came up with multiple probably means it's more recency bias than anything actually enduring. I think there's a chance that the 2023 Chiefs stand the test of time based on the Super Bowl win, but in more of a "begrudging acknowledgement" way than an iconic "Legion of Boom" or Sacksonville.