Thursday, January 31, 2013

Is everyone on PEDs now?

Join Jeff and Darren as they try to cram the entire world of sports into your ears in just 50 minutes like Kobayashi does hot dogs! And like any good eating contest, there is bound to be some re-gurg!

http://thesportsnarrative.podbean.com/mf/web/gz65tr/1-30-13.mp3

Draft Nuggets #5


Draft Nuggets 2013: Entry #5

By Jeff Bowers of www.thesportsnarrative.com

Twitter: @sportsnarrative

 

 

Senior Bowl Recap

 

As front offices across the league depart from “The Azalea City” of Mobile, AL and the Senior Bowl, the frantic NFL off-season passes a mile marker and grants a month respite until reconvening in Indianapolis for the Scouting Combine. Players get a chance to learn from the feedback they received and find answers to those questions posed. Scouts go back to the game tape to confirm what they saw in person. And GMs begin compiling lists of draftees and free agents to assemble a strategy to address their roster for the coming season. While the Cowboys front office (aka Jerry) seemingly spent most of their Senior Bowl time interviewing and hiring a new coaching staff, the scouts were showing an interest in a number of players on the field. Here are a few notes on players that help or hurt themselves and who drew the eye of Cowboys scouts:

 

Stock Up

 

Eric Fisher, OT, Central MichiganInterviewed by Dallas Perhaps no single player had a better week than this kid. Translation – Big Bucks! Fisher was dominate in pass and run blocking drills in practice and cemented his spot as the #2 tackle on the board. He almost assuredly won’t make it out of the top 15 of the draft now.

Ezekiel Ansah, DE/OLB, BYU – After just an ok week at practices, Ansah exploded in the game. He led his team with 7 tackles including an outstanding 3.5 for a loss and a forced fumble on Syracuse QB Ryan Nassib. While still raw, his natural athleticism is reminiscent of Jason Pierre Paul and he is quickly rising into the top 20 on some Big Boards.

Marquise Goodwin, WR/KR, Texas – Despite his diminutive stature (5’8 and 179 lbs), Goodwin’s speed and elusiveness have many teams seeing visions of Wes Welker in their minds. Goodwin could easily be a late 2nd – early 3rd round pick in April.

Jonathan Cyprien, S, Florida International - Interviewed by Dallas This product of The Sunbelt conference had a great week at the Senior Bowl and put himself on the map for several teams. This is the type of kid who sends scouts running for game tape. Showed nice coverage and ball hawking skills. Could be a target for the Cowboys in the 3rd or 4th round.

Lane Johnson, OT, Oklahoma – This Sooner made a great accounting of himself in pass drills against a stout set of defensive ends and is now rated as a late 1st rounder for teams with needs at tackle like Chicago, Indianapolis and Dallas.

 

Other Players with Stock Up

Robert Alford, CB/KR, SE Louisiana

Jonathan Franklin, RB, UCLA

Mike Gillislee, RB, Florida

Datone Jones, DE, UCLA

Kyle Juszczyk, FB, Harvard

E.J. Manuel, QB, Florida State

Quinton Patton, WR, Louisiana Tech

David Quessenberry, OT/G/C, San Jose State

Brian Schwenke, C/G, California

Desmond Trufant, CB, Washington

B.W. Webb, CB, William & Mary

Markus Wheaton, WR, Oregon State

J.J. Wilcox, S, Georgia Southern

Brandon Williams, NT, Missouri Southern

Michael Williams, TE, Alabama

 

Stock Down

 

Landry Jones, QB, Oklahoma – Every QB, save for Manuel, had a poor showing at the Senior Bowl but none more than Jones. Seemingly uncomfortable in the pocket the whole day, Jones went 3 for 10 for 16 yards in the game itself and didn’t show much better in practice. Without a much better Combine and individual workout, Jones could slip into the 5th round or beyond.

Robert Lester, S, Alabama – Lester took a beating in pass coverage all week, and a safety that can’t cover is going the way of the Dodo bird in the pass-happy NFL these days.

Oday Aboushi, G/OT, Virginia – While some of the top tackles held up well against a strong stock of pass rushers, a few of the lesser guys really struggled. Aboushi looks destined to play inside after his lack of athleticism was exposed in Mobile.

Chase Thomas, DE/OLB, Stanford – After a pretty solid college career at Stanford, Thomas came in with a lot of hype around him. But a week of being a step slow and swallowed up could have pushed his draft projection into rounds 4 or 5.

Braxston Cave, C, Notre Dame – Cave really struggled in individual drill and was passed by a number of other center prospects. Looks like a late round pick at best.

 

Other Players reportedly interviewed by Dallas

Zac Dysert, QB, Miami of Ohio

Robbie Rouse, RB, Fresno State

Larry Warford, OG, Kentucky

Alex Okafor, DE, Texas

Margus Hunt, DE, SMU

Kawann Short, DT, Purdue

T.J. McDonald, S, USC

Phillip Thomas, S, Fresno State

Thursday, January 24, 2013

ProBowl Pre-Game Show

Join Jeff, Darren and The Mick as they recap last week's exciting Championships games, check in with the Stars and Mavs, finally put the Lance Armstrong crap to bed and then have fun with some entertainment news. And be sure to join us Sunday for our 3 hour Pro Bowl Extravaganza sponsered by www.Gamedaycloth.com

http://thesportsnarrative.podbean.com/mf/web/vnuhgi/PBPre-Game.mp3

Draft Nuggets #4

Draft Nuggets 2013: Entry #4


By Jeff Bowers of www.thesportsnarrative.com
Twitter: @sportsnarrative
Tampa-2
With the hiring of Monte Kiffin, the buzz in the media has been the implementation of the “Tampa-2 defense” and whether the Cowboys have the personnel for it. But just what exactly does that mean? Here is an X’s and O’s look at the Tampa-2 defense from Mohammed Alo of The Football Times from 2006:
Tampa 2 Defense
Mohammed Alo of The Football Times
07/04/2006
The "Tampa 2" is a defensive strategy that was popularized by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was designed by then head coach Tony Dungy, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, and then linebackers coach Lovie Smith. Dungy first learned the Cover 2 while playing for the Steelers in the late 70s and eventually developed this new form of the Cover 2 in Tampa.
The Tampa 2 scheme relies heavily on extremely speedy defensive players and a hard hitting secondary that loves to gang tackle. Further, the Tampa 2 expects everyone to tackle in the run game; the safeties, the cornerbacks, and everyone in between. The Tampa 2 is run out of the usual 4-3 defense, but every player is responsible for his own gap up on the line and drops a middle linebacker into deeper coverage. The design behind the Tampa 2 was to stop the West Coast Offense that became popular and was spreading around the league.
Of course it helps when you have a defensive lineman named Warren Sapp, a defensive end named Simeon Rice, a cornerback named Donnie Abraham, and a safety named John Lynch. These players were extremely fast and reacted quickly to the ball. Eventually these names would be replaced by Ronde Barber, Derrick Brooks, and others, but the system did not change. The secondary always played in a zone defense as you will see below. The Tampa 2 was a very easy scheme and easy to learn and teach. The only requirement was that the players be fast. As long as they were fast, the scheme worked.
In a standard 43 defense, the middle LB stays underneath the safeties and covers short underneath routes and helps in run defense. In the Tampa 2, the middle LB is expected to drop into deep coverage in the middle essentially converting a Cover 2 into a Cover 3. This protects against the deep pass very well and changes the assignments. Every player is now responsible for less area, and the deep routes are covered better. Only the other two LBs and the two CBs have to cover slightly more ground.
Below is the standard 43 Cover 2 defense. The safeties are responsible for 1/2 of the field deep. The corners and linebackers are each responsible for about 1/5 of the field in the shorter distances. This poses a problem, see the next figure.
This type of Cover 2 scheme leaves a lot of soft zones open. These soft spots in the defense can be exploited by teams that have accurate QBs. While there are very few weaknesses to the Cover 2, all zone coverages have weak spots or soft spots. The Cover 2 leaves defenses wide open to deep post patterns, seam routes, medium range hooks, and teams that like to flood a zone. Because of how much ground the safety has to cover, deep passes can easily overload his zone. It's very difficult for a safety to cover an entire half of a field. Offenses like to run a Stop or Out pattern to the sidelines. Once the receiver leaves the zone where the cornerback is covering, he will be open in one of the soft zones below. For the WR, it’s about an 8 yard run, while the safety may have to run about 20 yards to tackle him. It's also a mismatch as most safeties in the NFL cannot cover a receiver effectively. That's why Tamp Bay relied heavily on speedy defensive players and gang tackling. Everyone has to run to the ball and make a tackle. See the soft spots below:
The Tampa 2 attempts to plug up these soft zones and fix this problem. So how does the Tampa 2 plug these holes?
The Tampa 2 coverage scheme attempts to plug up the soft spots in the usual Cover 2. The Tampa 2 emphasizes speed and a quick pass-rush. While the normal Cover 2 has each LB and CB covering about 1/5 of the field, as you saw above, and the safeties covering 1/2 the field deep, the Tampa 2 pulls the middle LB into a middle deep zone coverage as well, making it a Cover 3. What this does is allows the safeties to have to cover less ground, so they can cover the traditional soft zone past the corners more effectively.
Since the middle LB drops into coverage, the other two LBs and CBs each have to cover about 1/4 of the field. Speed at every position is extremely important, because the LBs have to cover more ground than LBs are used to covering.
Back to 43 basics:
The four Xs are your four defensive linemen. The three LBs are your linebackers. LBs are usually named for the position they play. There are 3 main positions; middle LB, weak side LB, and strong side LB. Weak, strong, and middle are also referred to as Will, Mike, and Sam. So a Sam blitz, is when the strong side LB moves up into a gap and blitzes. The strong side is the side where the TE is lined up on.
The CBs are the cornerbacks and the Ss are the safeties. Every player has a specific role based on how the offense lines up and what the defense is doing. The above configuration shows a Cover 2 type of defense. What is Cover 2? You have two safeties covering the deep routes. When you bring a safety up to blitz, or cover a WR man to man, you will end up with Cover 1.
Coverage assignments:
CBs:
The CBs play a short zone in the purple zone as above. They do not follow the receivers if they go too deep or too far to the middle. They stay put in their zones.
Ss:
The safeties cover any WRs that go deep and down field past the zone that is covered by the CBs.
LBs:
The LBs are crucial. They cover the RBs, the TE and anyone else that comes at them. If it is a running play, they go up and make the tackles. If the TE goes out on a pattern, they cover him as long as he is in their zone. Once he goes too deep or too far to the sidelines, they can leave him. Some defenses will chose to cover the TE man with a LB. Find out what your coach wants to do.
Xs:
The defensive line attacks the QB. Each X is responsible for a single gap. There responsibility is to go after the QB and tackle the RBs on run plays. Very simple.
Tampa 2 Coverage assignments:
Very little changes except for the middle LB drops into a deep middle coverage, creating a Cover 3.
In the Tampa 2 each X is responsible for a single gap.
Blitzes:
The Tampa 2 system relies heavily on the pressure generated up front by the defensive line and does not usually blitz.
Exposing the Tampa 2:
A team with a strong running game or a great play-action game can seriously stress the Tampa 2 defensive scheme. If the safety has to stop and think for a split second about a run, the soft spots behind the CBs have opened up again. The Tampa 2 was designed to work against teams that ran a West Coast Offense. Short passes, lots of zone exploitation, and the deep posts, corners, flags, and outs. The Tampa 2 was successful against the West Coast Offense, because West Coast teams don't run as much as they pass. Hence, the Tampa 2 made more sense. The newer types of West Coast Offenses being used by teams like the Denver Broncos, Atlanta Falcons, and Carolina Panthers take full advantage of the run game and play very well against Tampa's defense.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Draft Nuggets #3


Draft Nuggets 2013: Entry #3

By Jeff Bowers of www.thesportsnarrative.com

Twitter: @sportsnarrative

 

Just two teams remain in the pursuit of the Lombardi Trophy. But at this time of year, every team is abuzz with activity. With turnover on coaching staffs, front offices and rosters, the NFL off-season is the time when next year’s champion is made. My name is Jeff Bowers, draft researcher for The Ticket, and this is your home for all the latest news with the Cowboys, The NFL Draft and the rest of the NFL.

The Jan 15th deadline for college underclassmen to declare for the draft has passed and a number of college “all-star” games were played, giving those draft eligible players a chance to show their skills and earn a place in the 2013 NFL Draft on April 25-27.

For the third consecutive year, a record number of draft eligible underclassmen made them available for the NFL Draft. 73 players, including 11 from LSU alone, put their name in the hat for this year’s draft, eclipsing last year’s record of 65. With the new rookie wage scale, this trend will probably continue as players seek to get their “free agency clock” started as early as possible. Last year over half of the 1st round selections were underclassmen, and many of these players will be high draft picks as well. Below is the complete list in alphabetical order:

Number
Player
Pos.
College
1
Allen, Keenan
WR
California
2
Amerson, David
DB
North Carolina State
3
Bailey, Alvin
G
Arkansas
4
Bailey, Stedman
WR
West Virginia
5
Bakhtiari, David
T
Colorado
6
Beckford, Dwayne
LB
Purdue
7
Bell, Le'Veon
RB
Michigan State
8
Bernard, Giovani
RB
North Carolina
9
Bray, Tyler
QB
Tennessee
10
Brown, Terrence
DB
Stanford
11
Carter, Duron
WR
Ohio State
12
Davis, Knile
RB
Arkansas
13
Edwards, Mike
DB
Hawaii
14
Elam, Matt
DB
Florida
15
Ertz, Zach
TE
Stanford
16
Escobar, Gavin
TE
San Diego State
17
Faulk, Chris
T
Louisiana State
18
Floyd, Sharrif
DT
Florida
19
Ford, Michael
RB
Louisiana State
20
Frederick, Travis
C
Wisconsin
21
Geathers, Kwame
NT
Georgia
22
Gholston, William
DE
Michigan State
23
Hankins, Johnathan
DT
Ohio State
24
Harley, Jajuan
DB
Middle Tennessee
25
Hopkins, DeAndre
WR
Clemson
26
Hunter, Justin
WR
Tennessee
27
Jamison, Jawan
RB
Rutgers
28
Jefferson, Stefphon
RB
Nevada
29
Jefferson, Tony
DB
Oklahoma
30
Jenkins, Jelani
LB
Florida
31
Joeckel, Luke
T
Texas A&M
32
Jones, Jarvis
LB
Georgia
33
Jose, Jose
DT
Central Florida
34
Kruger, Joe
DE
Utah
35
Lacy, Eddie
RB
Alabama
36
Lattimore, Marcus
RB
South Carolina
37
Lemonier, Corey
DE
Auburn
38
Logan, Bennie
DT
Louisiana State
39
Maponga, Stansly
DE
Texas Christian
40
Mathieu, Tyrann
DB
Louisiana State
41
Milliner, Dee
DB
Alabama
42
Mingo, Barkevious
DE
Louisiana State
43
Minter, Kevin
LB
Louisiana State
44
Montgomery, Sam
DE
Louisiana State
45
Moore, Brandon
DT
Texas
46
Moore, Damontre
DE
Texas A&M
47
Ogletree, Alec
LB
Georgia
48
Patterson, Cordarrelle
WR
Tennessee
49
Randle, Bradley
RB
Nevada-Las Vegas
50
Randle, Joseph
RB
Oklahoma State
51
Reed, Jordan
TE
Florida
52
Reid, Eric
DB
Louisiana State
53
Reid, Greg
DB
Florida State
54
Rhodes, Xavier
DB
Florida State
55
Richardson, Sheldon
DT
Missouri
56
Robey, Nickell
DB
Southern California
57
Ryan, Logan
DB
Rutgers
58
Sanders, Ace
WR
South Carolina
59
Sentimore, Darrington
DT
Tennessee
60
Simon, Tharold
DB
Louisiana State
61
Sims, Dion
TE
Michigan State
62
Spence, Akeem
DT
Illinois
63
Stills, Kenny
WR
Oklahoma
64
Toilolo, Levine
TE
Stanford
65
Ware, Spencer
RB
Louisiana State
66
Watson, Menelik
T
Florida State
67
Werner, Bjoern
DE
Florida State
68
Williams, Steve
DB
California
69
Wilson, Marquess
WR
Washington State
70
Wing, Brad
P
Louisiana State
71
Wood, Cierre
RB
Notre Dame
72
Woods, Robert
WR
Southern California
73
Wort, Tom
LB
Oklahoma

 

East/West Shrine Game

Played on Saturday the 19th at Tropicana Field, the East/West Shrine Game gave several college players a chance to show their skills under NFL coaching. While most of these players are Day 3 draft picks, it’s this class of players that can provide the precious depth needed to survive the grind of a 16 game season (as demonstrated by the Cowboys this year). Here’s a few of the players that stood out during the game and at practices to keep an eye on:

 

Name
Position
School
Projection
Devin Taylor
DE
South Carolina
3rd-4th
Christian Michael
RB
Texas A&M
3rd-4th
Terry Hawthorne
CB
Illinois
4th-5th
Sio Moore
OLB
Connecticut
4th-5th
Josh Evans
FS
Florida
4th-5th
Demontre Hurst
CB
Oklahoma
4th-5th
AJ Klein
OLB
Iowa State
5th-6th
Brandon Smith
CB
Georgia
5th-6th
Caleb Sturgis
PK
Florida
5th-6th
TJ Johnson
C
South Carolina
5th-6th
Jasper Collins
WR
Mount Union
6th-7th
Earl Wolff
SS
NC State
6th-7th
Gerald Hodges
MLB
Penn State
6th-7th
Kerwynn Williams
RB/KR
Utah State
7th-UFA
Chad Bumphis
WR
Mississippi St
7th-UFA