We’re on to Week 2 of the preseason schedule. Last week we provided a primer on how to watch the opening slate of games and had so much fun that we’ll do it again for this upcoming slate. Central to our breakdown are a handful of quarterbacks that we didn’t get to last week, along with some other thoughts from the early preseason trove of information.
Who might win the QB battle for the Steelers? Is it a QB battle at all? Did the 49ers find a non-combine-invitee diamond in the rough? What’s up with my unbridled Joe Flacco enthusiasm?
Let’s find out …
Kenny Pickett works his way up the depth chart
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Before Tuesday, Pickett hadn’t taken a single rep with the first string and worked with the second string only sparingly. He nearly led a touchdown drive with the starters in practice with his first shot. One aspect of training camp battles we often forget about when we’re tracking QB stats: Some of these quarterbacks are throwing to receivers who are going to play football professionally. Others are throwing to camp bodies who will not make it in the NFL. It makes a huge difference.
We reached out to quarterbacks coach Tony Racioppi, who has worked with Pickett for a long time. He said Pickett’s real victory in the opening preseason performance was on a handful of 10-yard, out-breaking routes thrown from the far hash. These are graduate-level NFL placement throws.
“You have to have anticipation, you have to have accuracy, you have to have velocity, you have to have a little touch to put the ball over flat defenders, and you can’t be late,” he said. “There's footwork to that. Watching a QB throw the 10-yard out is a litmus test for their footwork, their balance. And every receiver runs them differently.”
Pickett’s touchdown pass to Tyler Vaughns was one of those 10-yard outs. Those are also typically “alert” routes against Cover 3 defenses and quarters-style coverage, which the Steelers saw heavily against Seattle. This week, the Steelers are facing the Patriots, who typically drop more defenders and try to flood passing lanes. Pickett also excelled in the quick game last week against the Seahawks. If he continues to stack efficient performances atop one another, could we see him take some legitimate reps with the No. 2 offense? Could we see him have the benefit of throwing to training camp megastar George Pickens, who could make a layperson plucked from Cranberry Township look like an adequate quarterback?
Ultimately, we’re watching for when Pickett gets into the game, but also who is still in the game when he plays.
One hot take: As it stands right now, I think it would make the most sense for Pickett to win the No. 2 job out of camp and hang on for a bye-week transition, making his starting debut against the Saints in November. Let Mitchell Trubisky handle the rigors of a brutal opening schedule and pass the baton for a more manageable stretch of football.
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Justin Fields doing the impossible
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Fields was 4-of-7 for 48 yards in his debut against the Chiefs. In the days leading up to preseason games, opposing coordinators and coaches talk. I wondered whether the Bears asked Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to show them some Cover 0 looks at the start while Fields was still taking snaps. The Chiefs came out on the first play and rushed six defenders, presenting man coverage across the board and additional pressure, which was unusual. Fields looked good under pressure at times but bailed early during other moments when defenders crept into the backfield.
I talked to JT O’Sullivan about this. Sullivan, who played professionally from 2002 to ’12, runs his own YouTube channel, The QB School. In my opinion, he’s the best analyst of quarterback play.
How do you teach a quarterback not to bail?
“Intentionally working on trusting pass protection,” he said. “It’s not easy. Coverage recognition and reps help, too. Plus a daily emphasis on [hanging in the pocket].”
This is also a prickly situation for Fields, who started behind an offensive line that could be considered questionable at best. While Braxton Jones, the rookie fifth-round pick who is likely going to be Fields’s opening-day left tackle, actually played quite well, this isn’t what you’d consider a world-class unit at the moment. Fields is going to be pressured quite a bit this year. He was sacked 36 times in 12 starts last year. He’s barely learned to protect himself in the NFL, never mind trust the protection that has let him down with such frequency.
Regardless, the Bears are probably going to watch and see how Fields hangs in the pocket. Will he get rid of the ball? Will he keep bailing? Will another solid performance from Jones change that comfort level at all?
Are we going to see a Joe Flacco renaissance?
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Flacco has become a bit of a punch line since the Ravens transitioned to Lamar Jackson: a symbol of the kind of quarterback play that has largely aged out of the NFL. Still, his raw numbers (6 TDs, 5 INTs, 1,822 yards, 65.3% completions in eight games) in 2019, when he played for the Broncos, were not egregiously awful. Nor were his numbers (six TDs, three INTs) during a four-game stretch when he had to start for the Jets in 2020 while playing for one of the worst rosters in the league.
Maybe it’s too much to make of one training camp practice, but I saw Flacco on Tuesday in Florham Park, and he was great. George Fant walked up to him after an 11-on-11 period and said, loud enough for us to hear on the sidelines: “Dropping DIMES out there!” This would be, without argument, the best receiving core he’s played with since he had both Steve Smith and Torrey Smith in Baltimore. The Jets’ offense is layering in some really cool backfield motion concepts, which should help with Flacco’s lack of mobility.
Garrett Wilson said what we’ve been nitpicking Zach Wilson on all along: He, like any young quarterback, needs to get better at the kind of balls that are easier for receivers to catch. Flacco, by virtue of being in the NFL for this long, can better dictate pacing and placement. In a boot-heavy offense that is designed to get yardage after the catch, could we see better-placed balls leading open receivers to bigger gains while Wilson is rehabbing his knee injury?
I’m not saying Flacco is going to take Wilson’s job as the starter, but a good performance this weekend will allow the Jets to bide their time with Wilson’s return. I don’t sense a ton of “win now” pressure in Florham Park, but there is probably pressure to prove progress. Showing that the offense works as designed would be a good start. Outside-zone concepts have elevated already good players (Aaron Rodgers winning back-to-back MVP awards) and reshaped the careers of passers stuck in neutral, such as Ryan Tannehill. Flacco carries the perception of a demure, content end-of-career backup, but it sounds like he wants to play until he’s close to 40 and could use this opportunity as a potential springboard.
One more Jets note: When will we see Duane Brown?
The Jets are dusting off veteran Duane Brown to fill the spot vacated by 2020 first-round pick Mekhi Becton, who was eager to jump back into a system he ran through his first few years in Houston with the Gary Kubiak crew. Brown will likely work into the fold later this week, but in the meantime, the Jets are going to have to figure out how to foster camaraderie with the rest of the offensive line before Week 1. I’d watch for what they do rotationally against the Falcons on Monday Night Football. Can they sneak in a few reps with Brown? Is it worth risking the health of their soon-to-be 37-year-old left tackle?
Outside zone is predicated on all members of the line moving as a unit. The group is talented individually, and Brown, more than anyone, could slide into a zone system and run the steps well from a technical standpoint. The question is how he’ll blend with the rest of the unit, or whether the Jets will even attempt to foster that cohesiveness in the preseason.
One non-quarterback offensive player to watch this week
Chiefs wide receiver Justin Watson is a 26-year-old out of Penn who was taken in the fifth round of the 2018 draft. He was buried on the depth chart in Tampa Bay thanks to a pretty sterling draft run by GM Jason Licht that included Mike Evans in ’14 and Chris Godwin in ’17. Tom Brady’s bringing in his own ancillary weapons didn’t help.
Watson had a kind of miniature Cooper Kupp–ian performance against the Bears last week and a 22-yard touchdown reception. At the moment, the Chiefs are rolling with Juju Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Mecole Hardman as their standard 11-personnel lineup. However, Hardman was carted off the practice field Wednesday. Skyy Moore is a rookie. We could see Watson working into a slot rotation if the Chiefs are as high on him as we’ve heard. All indications have been that Patrick Mahomes’s search for new options after the Tyreek Hill trade has been an open-minded one. Don’t be surprised to see Watson garnering more buzz if he performs well this week.
One defensive player to watch this week
The 49ers took Sam Womack in the fifth round of the 2022 draft despite no combine invite for the former Toledo Rocket. Then Womack notched two interceptions in his preseason debut against the Packers. Then the 49ers cut Darqueze Dennard, which would seemingly open the door for Womack to take hold of the slot cornerback job out of camp. This is a stunning rise for a player who was described by some scouting services as a high-priority undrafted free agent. He’ll likely be on the field Week 1, snap 1 against the Bears.
