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 Michigan – Interviewed 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 2^nd – early 3^rd 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 3^rd or 4^th 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 1^st 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 5^th 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

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.

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 15^th 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 1^st 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 19^th 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