In this new show, Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar is joined every week by the great Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup. Greg has been with NFL Films since 1979, and he and Steve Sabol invented the concept of putting game tape on television with the Matchup show in 1984, so who better to get intricate with the game than Mr. Cosell himself?
Doug and Greg will be discussing all kinds of football things throughout the year, but as the draft is just around the corner, let’s start with the non-negotiable traits and attributes draft prospects must have at arguably the game’s four most important positions — quarterback, offensive tackle, edge-rusher, and cornerback.
You can catch this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os” right here.
For quarterbacks, it's location, location, location.
Greg: “I would say it starts with ball location. If you can’t control the football — if you can’t throw the football where you want to throw it — you don’t really have anything. The word ‘accuracy’ gets used a lot, and that’s a more general term, but if you go back to the Bill Walshes of the world, and some people might say, ‘Who’s Bill Walsh?’ But he was one of the greatest quarterback coaches and teachers the game has ever seen, [and he would tell you] it’s about ball location. I’ve had this conversation with coaches and former quarterbacks. I remember having a great conversation with Troy Aikman years ago, and this was after he retired, and he told me, ‘If you can’t throw it where you want to, then it doesn’t matter what else you can do.’ So, it starts there. Because no matter whether you’re throwing it from the pocket or on the run, if you cannot control the football and place it where you want to, you will not be successful.
“That is really the No. 1 starting point. You can make a list of 15 different traits, and pretty much every quarterback coach and coordinator would have the same 15 traits, and it would just be a matter of what value they ascribe to each one. But my guess is, they would all start with ball location.”
Offensive tackles have to be able to set vertically.
Greg: “There are different kinds of pass sets. There’re the short, quick set, which the quick game normally entails. There’s the 45-degree angle set, and there’s the vertical set — which is for the deeper drops, and which you’d normally get on third-and-long. Unless you’re going to help a tackle with chips or whatever else you want to do… if they’re going to be one-on-one, they have to be able to vertical set. And they have to, in a sense, be able to control the edge, but also not allow the inside counter.
“You can talk about quick game all day long, and clearly the NFL has moved in that direction, but when it’s third-and-9, for the most part, you’re not running quick game. There are always exceptions, but if you’re talking about longer-yardage situations, and let’s say you’re playing a team that’s going to rush four or maybe five, your quarterback is going to take a seven-step timing kind of drop. Three-step drop timing is 1.5 seconds. Five-step drop timing is 2.1 seconds, and seven-step drop timing is 2.6 seconds. So, if you’re going to have seven-step drop timing, you need to protect for at least 2.6 seconds to allow the quarterback to be able to work through progressions. If you’re not going to help your tackles, they have to vertical set. They have to get to a certain spot without turning their body to the sideline. You want your inside foot to be straight for at least your first two kick-slide steps.”
Edge-rushers must win right off the snap.
Greg: “Guards and centers control the depth of the pocket. Tackles control the width of the pocket. When I’m evaluating pass-rushers — let’s say I’m watching college tape — what I want to see is how they do in their first two, three, four steps. I’m not looking at secondary pass rush. Because there’s a difference between rushers and pursuers. There’s nothing wrong with being a pursuer, and getting a sack off of a secondary [reaction] or a redirect, or re-tracing your steps. All sacks, by definition, are good. But if you’re looking to see if a player will be a really good pass-rusher, you want to see how he does in his first two, three, and four steps. That, to me, is the moment of truth for a pass-rusher.
Cornerbacks had better be able to play press-man coverage.
Greg: “You’ve got to be able to play press man. Because if you can’t play press man, there are too many throws in front of you in the quick game. You’re just giving up those throws. Some guys are going to be better at it than others, and there’s two kinds of press man. There’s mirror match press man, in which you do not physically put your hands on the receiver. You allow him to declare his release, and you immediately get in his hip pocket, whether it’s inside or outside. Some people teach it with the shoulder [as the landmark], but whatever it is, you get in the hip pocket or the shoulder right away once [the receiver] declares [his] release.
“And then, of course, there’s physical press man. Some guys are better at that than others. Joey Porter Jr. has 34-inch arms, which is freakish for a cornerback. They have the physical traits with that arm length to be able to play physical press man, and disrupt a receiver off the line of scrimmage. If it’s quick game or shorter throws, the quarterback is going to look away, because the receiver has been disrupted, and the timing with that receiver is done. Those are the two kinds, and it just depends on how you want to play it.”
