Tyreek UNCENSORED, Nielsen’s Impact & Coleman's Role | Film Room - The Film Room - Bills Breakdowns and Analysis

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We play against the bill. Those guys you know, typically
played Cover four because they're a bunch of bitches. But
besides that, yeah, like they don't play Man the Man,
you know, so they won't they won't.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
What's good, folks, Welcome to a Wednesday afternoon live little
out of the ordinary edition of the Cover One Always
of the Cover One Film Room, the show that gives
you the hows and the whys behind both the good
and the bad of the Buffalo Bills. I'm one of
your two hosts, Anthony Prohaska, joined us Always by Eric
Turner and Eric. We took a couple of weeks off

(01:04):
things were you know, we're in the doldrums, the sleepy
time of the off season, not much going on, but
there are some conversations being had now and some pieces
that we wanted to dive into for this episode, largely
around some maybe potentially misconstrued narratives and some things that
are being said that might not exactly be factually accurate.

(01:24):
And we brought some stats and advanced metrics as we
do along with the film of course, to talk about
with several topics in this episode. But how you feeling,
how you doing, how's it going?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Good man.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
It's an episode where we don't have a player on,
so it could be better. But you know, we had
a nice little run there having the players on to
break down some film with us. So it took a
little time off and enjoying the beginning of summer and yeah,
you know, some nice weather finally, And so, as you said,
there's some fun little stories that are happening in this

(01:57):
downtime of the off season right before training camp starts,
which we will be there in some capacity next month,
but we wanted to talk about some of the narratives
and topics that have come up over the last couple
of weeks in this again quiet time of the off season.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, and we let off with that intro featuring Dolphins
wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who we're talking about this bit
Dolphin line, Like, I get it that it's technically not man,
even though depending on how you play, it can kind
of play out like man, especially on the outside. But
the big conversation that we'll get into here, I just
didn't realize that cover four was for bitches, Like I
just yeah, yeah, really I wish he wasn't expecting like,

(02:35):
so then then my extension because then he follows it
up by saying, like they don't play Man, so then
is every non man coverage like a bitch coverage in
his mind? I have like since, I sincerely have follow
up questions for him that I need to know aside
from the inaccuracy of what he said, but I legitimately
have follow ups because I was confused.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, it's uh, it was a funny clip.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
I'm not even honestly sure which uh podcast that happened on.
But when that quote was like circulating, initially I thought
it was honestly fake. I thought it was honestly fake
until I saw the video of it, which is what
we'll play here in a second, and yeah, I do.
I think what he's saying is that basically, most of
the teams in the NFL are a bunch of bitches

(03:19):
because not many teams play Man the Man, as you know,
at a high rate. It's this is a zone defensive league.
But if you did miss the intro and you did
miss this quote from Tyreek Hill, I'm gonna play it
here right here first, right now.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Everybody know me as a speed guy, but I feel
like film preparation is important going exactly who you're going against.
And besic coordinator going against every decordinator is different. Whenever
we play against the Bill, those guys, you know, typically
played Cover four because they're a bunch of bitches. But
besides that, yeah, like they don't play Manda Man.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
You know they won't.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
They won't.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
But teams typically play us cover for cover too.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
We rarely see Manda Man. So if you know that,
then you tipically know exactly what you're gonna get in there.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
And again he's not wrong. Most teams when they play
the Dolphins like to play Cover four, Cover two and
the Bills over the years. Honestly, like early on when
this regime came in, they were primarily like a Cover
two Tampa two type team. Then they started playing a
little more quarters two or three years in because they
had the safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer that could

(04:27):
match up against slot receivers when the cover four zone
defense turns to man coverage, especially against teams that want
to run vertical routes on both sides of the field
like the Dolphins do with all their speed.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, and like you also mentioned, it's the NFL isn't
a man to man coverage league. Like you see teams
who will sprinkle it in, but even the teams that
are at the highest clip of man it is sprinkled
like it Now you can up ticket situationally or based
on in high leverage situations, and those are when teams
really kind of lean into it more. But I, like

(05:01):
you mentioned, I liked what I kind of liked the
notion of it just because of what the Bills have
actually played against them, how it rotates in with their
overall defensive philosophy, and it also maybe me kind of
think a little bit and the Dolphins have had offensively
more success against the Bills defense that from a ground
perspective that gets covered enough. But it also made me think, like,

(05:23):
I don't know, is Hill in the passing game, like
feeling frustrated? Is it with the losses against the Bills?
Is it because they tend to put a cap on
things in the past game and make the Dolphins try
to beat them with the run and the Dolphins don't
and eventually take that bait and come back. And it
was it was just I feel like it's such an
interesting nugget in a multitude of ways, aside from the

(05:44):
fact of no one's playing man to man like that.
In the league and all like, you're super fast and
so is Waddel, So who's going to play man and
man against you? But also learn to beat zone coverage.
If everybody's playing the same thing against you, then'll beat it.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
Like, yeah, that's what's funny in his comments really are
a testament or kudos, a tip of the cap to
Sean McDermott and the Bills defense because one if, if
he'll believes that, which we're gonna show you why he
believes that in many ways is really you know, tip
of the cap to those guys on the as far
as scheme goes, because of the ability to disguise coverages,

(06:18):
to make cover two, cover four, cover six, and they
even cover three at times look eerily similar, where one
half of the field it looks like Cover four, but
really it's Cover two and vice versa. So the Bills
started playing a lot more of those split coverages over
the last few years, split field coverages where one side
is playing this and the other side is playing that.

(06:39):
But the reason why, as you said, the Bills play
more Cover two versus quarters coverage or cover four is
because of the run game and the speed and the
creativity behind the Dolphins run game. When you have those
corners up playing Cover two near the line of screamage,
they are they can insert into the run game, they
can set the edge, and they can come down and

(07:00):
make tackles in the run game, which is obviously what
this staff has always preached, the corners better be able
to tackle because of how often those corners are involved
in the run game.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Absolutely, you get that kind of natural force player responsibility
when you're playing that cover two and they're cloud and
on the outside. And it also helps to from a
bill's perspective, who have their corner's been really the past
couple of years, especially since the mid season trade or
the trade deadline trade in twenty twenty three. Rasoul Douglas
and Christian Benford. Both of those guys are very good
run defenders in terms of responsibility and being assignment sound.

(07:32):
But they're also good tacklers. They understand fit, they understand technique,
and so it's a bit of a two for one.
You get that added support against the Dolphins ground game,
but then you also get yourself leaning into the strengths
of some of your corners and the type of guys
that you've gone to, which is another reason this is
a conversation for another time, which is another reason why
we may be question the Max Harriston pick a little bit.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, no doubt about it, man.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
And so we're looking at some of the Bills coverage
rates from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four regular
season and postseason. In the average column, that is the
percentage of including the Bill the games against Miami, but
we wanted to highlight the games against Miami as well,
and you can see in Cover two the average that

(08:18):
the Bills play is sixteen point seven percent of time
over the last two years, whereas when they play Miami
it's thirty six point one percent. But you can see
the quarters coverage percentage as well. On average, you play
at thirteen point five percent of the time versus Miami
only five point eight percent.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
The one that was interesting to me was the Cover six.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
Percentage, and even the Cover one percentage for that matter,
because he's not wrong. The Bills don't like playing Cover
one against the Dolphins, but they will, as we will show,
run some variations of their quarters coverage and their Cover
six coverages. As we'll show with film, which is a
little easier when you get to the film. But what
other things would you like to add about this man?

(08:56):
This was no surprise, But like I said, when we
get to the film, I think the fans and people
that are watching will get a better idea of how
difficult it is for Tua Hill and that Miami offense
to really differentiate the two high split field coverages that
the Bills run.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Absolutely, my biggest takeaway here is I just find it
so hilarious that against Miami, their cover one rate, which
is a man coverage coverage, is higher than the quarters rate.
It's just so funny, it's just so fantastic. And again
it just really I think the coverage versatility and variety
that the Bills have Miami, I think is a good
microcosm of it. Their ability to we know what they

(09:33):
are philosophically and from an identity perspective when we're talking
about coverage and really what they are as a whole
when it comes to the defense, but their ability to
kind of tune things up a little bit based on
the opponent and or like what's specifically happening that week.
I don't think it's talked about enough with the Bill's defense,
and even you know, going back to twenty. This data

(09:54):
is for twenty twenty three through twenty twenty four, even
going back to twenty twenty two. Week fifteen, twenty twenty two,
they had a thirty six point four cover one rate
against the Dolphins in that game, and then you go
into the wildcard game, which tool wasn't there for twenty
seven point five cover two, twenty five point five cover
one again against Miami. So knowing what's going on in

(10:16):
certain instances, you know whether or where the Dolphins are
in terms of their season and how they've been operating,
or weaknesses they pinpointed, or when tool was out, their
ability to kind of flip everything on its head and
lean into what's best for shutting down and mitigating the
Dolphins' best chance to score. I think it's also representative
of what they've done against most offenses, and that him

(10:39):
thinking that and then seeing the data and then seeing
the film that we're bringing up now, I think is
really just a testament to that. Like you said, the
tip of the cap to McDermott and the defense and
their coverage disguises, the rotations, the variations, being able to
hide the pre to post snap change and even watching
it on tape and you still are trying to figure
it out. That's so important in today's NFL.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
It is it's tough because even the charting, the film
charting companies that we use, they may chart a cover
two rep as a cover two REP. And I'm looking
at I'm like that kind of looks like covering.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
How many times have you and I had conversations over
the years and be like, what covers you think this is?
And then we have like a thirty minute conversation because like,
well could be this, well, it could be this, yeah,
but what about this?

Speaker 4 (11:20):
Oh what about It's just and that's just from them, yeah,
And we have that catalog over the years of watching
this team, but also obviously speak into a lot of
the players at these positions. We can get a better
idea than a third party grading system that obviously doesn't
have that type of information and try standardizing things. But again,
you know, I get why the Bills play more cover too,

(11:42):
obviously with the run fits of the corners off the edges,
but also not having hide employer anymore to match versus receivers.
They're going vertically when you're playing that cover too, because
eventually all zone turns demand but more more specifically, when
you're trying to play a Cover four, if you're getting
all vertic go routes, hypothetically those safeties are going to

(12:02):
be matched up with wide receivers running down the field
and that's not what you want, especially when.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
You have guys like Tomorrow Hamlin.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Now you know Taylor rap Bishop and so I understand
why they want to go to more Cover two. And
over the last four games, Tyreek Hill versus Cover two
twelve targets, nine receptions for one hundred nine yards and
zero touchdowns. I'd say that's capping an explosive player for
the Dolphins.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
So good work there. So let's talk about some of
these coverages.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Let's kind of highlight how difficult it is to, you know,
differentiate the cover twos versus the cover fours and Cover sixes.
And we're gonna start with just your basic Cover four
here against the Dolphins from a couple of years ago.
Tyreek Hill is the number one to the bomber screen
and you'll see post snap that they're trying to run
just a little smash concept where he's kind of running

(12:50):
to the corner.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
You're getting a little.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Flat or arrow route to the boundary here, and so
now when he talks about getting capped off, you have
a safety over the top, and now you have a
corner over the top. So he's capped. They're taking away
the top. Same thing on the other side of the field.
You know, you have two guys high over there, too
high to the bomber screen, and then you're having one
guy cover the hook the curl the flats right there.

(13:13):
Same thing with this guy to the bottobafield and usually
where you get stresses over the middle field because that
linebacker has to match up with the running back coming
out of the backfield. So this is really vanilla basic
cover four. Look the Bill's cap tyreek Hill forced to
move on his progressions and it eventually goes incomplete.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Amazing job by balin spector at the middle linebacker just
shut down everything in between the numbers, just locking it down.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Looking look Tremaine edmins.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Oh Man shout out to the goat everyone's favorite Bill
for his entire tenure, with no polarizing nature of that
at any way, shape or form. Yeah, and you know,
not too much to add, just right, I think they
dispersed this, especially to the bottom of the screen. Just
how the Bills play this great job by Cam Lewis.
He's in the nickel in this game. Tarn was banged

(14:03):
up and you have them highlighted their just great job
immediately recognizing the play to the fight. He's even overplaying
a little bit like shading it, anticipating it, stays over
the top, clamps down on it. Tua wants to go
that way, but Cam plays it great and then you
essentially get a bracket on Hill like you mentioned. And
on the backside they're slow playing it a little bit
at the apex have a chance for John who to

(14:26):
get the ball if two is maybe looking there initially
and spits it out right away. But the Bills do
a good job kind of playing this out and covering
up through the route distribution. Ta starts to get on
the move off platform throw, which is not his strength.
Any fighters about a bounds, all.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Right, and so that's a cover four.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
Look, now here's something when when Hill would go into
the slot, obviously when he was in the Chiefs, when
he as you know, when he's in the Dolphins, they're.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Gonna move him around a little bit.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
Well, the Bills have answers, and this is something that's
been so fascinated to watch over the years that the
different answers and different you know, tech techniques and coverages
that they went to. So here is a cover six
looks so to the bomber screen, the running back and
the number one to the bomber screen receiver. They're manned up.
You have hide over the top and then you have
a meg call or a man whereverwhere he goes to

(15:16):
the top of the screen. So it's a man there.
But then you can see right here there's a little
triangle of three over two. So what the Bills are
doing was Hill at that number three spot is pattern
matching those two wide receivers. And so you'll see as
Hill breaks his route off and runs a little stick route,
look at the eyes and vision by everyone on this defense.

(15:38):
He gets the pass and immediately you see everyone rally
to the ball to limit that that play to Tyrak
Hill on second and long.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, I really love watching the Bills and how they
match and how quickly their defensive players, even when you
get the backups in there, their ability to kind of
recognize and trigger and close. And you highlighted that triangle
you got there. So Taron Johnson, he's waiting kind of
the first of the flat and sees who's gonna declare.
Bernard is also eyeing up Hill because he's kind of
walling off on the inside and waiting for whoever comes

(16:07):
into him. So his eyes are initially on Hill expecting okay,
number three if he breaks inside, I gotta close down
on him right away. Both of their eyes on respective
men in their position. Arren Johnson also getting his eyes
through to Hill, through to Tua, and then Tarren just
that ability because Hill is that three like we talked about,

(16:28):
he goes to the flat that becomes Terren's man because
he's responsible for the guy in a flat. Tarren closes
down on Hill and then you get the far side
safety who you have highlighted with the arrow there would
then pick up number two on the vertical while Christian
Benford is manned up against alec Ingold out there so
wait to just kind of burn a body from the Dolphins.
Shout out to them for that. But a really nice
distribution and a stop for a short gain in an

(16:51):
aspect where Miami likes to typically eat.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
And if you guys don't know, Cover six at its
base is a mixture of half the field playing Cover
four half the field playing cover two. This is a
little different. It's not zone based. Obviously, you have a
couple of man calls, so to bomba screen. Essentially, if
you're just looking at half the field, it's cover two
men you have man and man coverage and safety over

(17:14):
the top. But to the top of the screen they
manned the guy out wide and now you're working three
over two pattern matching zone principles. So there are variations
to a lot of these calls, and which is why
there are times where Tyreek may be seeing Cover four
on his side, as we'll show here in a little bit.
But really it doesn't mean you're playing cover four across
the entire coverage, and so the Bills have done a

(17:36):
great job of messing with this stuff, especially these cover
six looks over the year. Here is another cover six looks.
So bottom of the screen where Tyreek Hill is, it's
man and man coverage Rasuell Douglas and man and man
up at the line of scrimmage. He's got help over
the top, Cam Lewis is and man and man coverage
over the number two, and then to the top of
the screen they're running a cover four type looks so

(17:57):
again to the bomba screen, you're getting man and man
look looks for Tyreek Hill. But again you have that
safety over the top and you see that pass breakup
by Raseul Douglas.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, this was man part of me. I don't want
to say like I'm gonn miss Rasoulo Douglas, but when
he was on, he was really on, Like in that physicality,
the ability to use his length when he would be
impressed disrupt wide receivers, and just his confidence in that aspect.
You see it fully playing out here. But yeah, like
you mentioned, aside from the coverage aspect, again something going

(18:26):
on to the top, which is something different going on
to the bottom. And this can be especially when you
get a team like the Dolphins, who you know will
spread you out and go three by two and then
it's kind of like a four strong or it turns
into a four strong, but it's initially a four by one.
They motion, guys, they change the bills. Defense has done
such a good job of kind of having rules based

(18:46):
coverages based off of the alignment and the personnel that
the Dolphins have. And you see that straight up man
coverage from Raseoul Douglas on Tyreek Hill. While you have
a whole lot of different kind of action on the
entire side of the field up top, and you can
even again, you know Bernard and Tarrann Bernard is on
the line, he drops out there. He is there, and

(19:07):
then watch Arran ready to read this route distribution and
pick up who comes. So you get the number two
comes inside, it becomes the three. There's Bernard sitting to
wait and collect him. You've got Ran with eyes on
the new number two, but also kind of peeking at
John who coming across on the drag. Just good eyes
and responsibility and matching from the bills on that side.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yes, great eye is great discipline. And really what the
Dolphins were setting up to the top of the screen
is really just a screen that they did a bunch.
They did it to the running backs as well in
this game. But you see them trying to set up.
These guys are just setting up the block and it's
that just goes to show that the Dolphins had answers
for the covers that were gonna see because this is

(19:48):
gonna be blocked up beautifully. If Tua were to go
straight to John new Smith who's crossed running that crossing route,
but he liked the matchup of Douglas because he knew
that on the backside they're playing man and man, so
there's gonna be a window with cam Lewis carrying that crosser.
But Rasseul executed better on this play. With help over
the top, he's allowed to play aggressive and the Bills
executed better. Again, you can know what coverages every team

(20:11):
plays against you as an offense. As he said, everyone
plays Cover four, a Cover two, but it's not just
a vanilla Cover four, Cover two. There are ways that's
throwing some wrinkles in there, but in the end you
have to execute, and Rasuel executed better on that play.
So here is another Cover six call with some man
coverage on the back end of this again Cover four
to the top and then Manda man coverage on the bottom,

(20:34):
so essentially like Cover two man, this time Hill is
at the bottom as well. Douglas opens up with him
and they're trying to get Smith matched up with Dorian
right here on a Mando man look outside the numbers there,
and the Bills are able to shut down that play
again with very good coverage pre to post snap against

(20:54):
the Dolphins.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, and you'll get this look from the Bills. When
they get a three by one or any local kind
of the solo receiver on the backside, they'll lock that.
A lot of teams do it, you know, that man
coverage that Meg like you talked about earlier. Man everywhere
he goes. And essentially at this point we've got a
three by two. The two is the running back in
the backside. Uh and he is a tight end like
you've highlight and you've also highlighted Rasul Douglas pointing that

(21:17):
out calling out, Hey, repairs in the backfield. This isn't
a normal thing, or maybe it's something they spoted on
film and it's a tell and they recognize it. So
he's calling that out, which is awesome to see from him,
and then he takes care of Hill. Dorian is essentially
locked on John new like you said, and they play
this out really well in a split field aspect again
and even Rasoul kind of just staying underneath on Tyreek

(21:40):
John who gets it a step briefly, but with that
safety over the top. That's the thought that you really
got to drop in the bucket and take it away
from Yep.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
Absolutely, Yeah, it's just it's good stuff and to the
top of the screen. Again you're getting that that four
four over three look, that box type look for a
Cover six, and then you can see these guys hanging
tight to protect the middle of the field.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
But they also have guys deep.

Speaker 4 (22:04):
So again, the Dolphins could have just gone to this
side and checked it down and got you know, taken
what the Bills gave them. But they were attacking down
the field. They were attacking a matchup in Dorian Williams
with John new Smith. But again the Bills scheme and
ability to you know, carry these routes down the field
in the back side of these formations really helped shut
that play down and forcing almost a perfect throw to

(22:26):
keep it away from the safety.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
So here's more of the cover two looks.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Let's get into some of these, you know, Tampa two
cover two looks and how they can look a lot
like the cover four looks or the cover six looks
that we were just showing you. So here is just
a traditional cover two look that can present itself like
Cover four. So bombss Screen two O really wants to go.
They used to run this so often, so they'd run

(22:50):
a guy out to flat. Here they're in a little
stick or curl route right here, and it's a quick
pass out why but you can see the corner and
the nickel do a great job of spacing and kind
of squeezing this route. Normally in cover two, you can
see the depth that specter has on the other side,
you're playing in that wall area.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
But because the Bills know and are prepared.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
Against playing the Dolphins and how they love to do this,
they would hang their linebacker down or hang their nickel
down a little tighter so that they could take this away,
which is what they do here. But this is just
a traditional cover two call. But if you look at
the spacing of the coverage and how it distributes in
many ways, it can look like cover four because again,
you got these two guys right there space just like

(23:31):
you saw in the last play. You got a bailing
corner who could be a quarters player. You got a
safety that could be a quarters player. You have another
safety here that could be a quarters player. But you
can see this guy's tight. So is it cover four?
Is it cover two? By the time to what goes
through his progressions, there's no one open. He gets into
the scramble drill and eventually he checks it down for
like a one yard game.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, minimal, And that's such a great point, Like, especially
with how the route distributions play out. Sometimes they play
out in a way where you're sitting there trying to
kind of decipher what's going to happen. Even you know
where Christian Benford is right there, you're looking at hide
on that side and he's wide, so you're thinking like, okay,
that's kind of like a half field type of depth

(24:13):
and alignment for him. So you're thinking he's playing over
the top like you'd love if the receiver on the
outside the number one, if he sits right at the thirty,
you get a clear declaration. Benford jumps him and they're like, okay, cool,
he's responsible for that. There's a safety over the top.
That's the cover two look on that side. But because
the routes keep gaining depth that we've seen the Bills
Corners do this before. Kyrie Elam talked about it when

(24:33):
we had him on the show. They're not going to
cover grass, so Benford's not just going to sit and
spot and be like, well, I'm supposed to cover in
the flat, so let me sit in the flat. He
is gaining depth along with the route distribution even though
a chan ends up leaking out into the flat there
and then yeah, you see it on the bottom side,
like you mentioned too, like Poyer and also too as
we talk about this, your coverage and your depth and

(24:56):
your alignment for the defense is always in relation to
what the defense is their offense is. So if they're condensed,
like your alignments are going to match them a little bit,
You're not just going to be in some static look.
But the way that plays out to the bottom, yeah,
you see Poyer kind of riding that hash, but then
Dane Jackson immediately racks reacts instead it wrong twice, reacts
to that flat route immediately there. So you're thinking, okay,

(25:18):
he's the cloud guy there. But all of it, if
you're sitting there looking like there are some cover two elements,
there are some cover four elements, like they're matching a bit,
they're hitting like depth and their alignment. And it's even
sitting here knowing we watched it, you can make a
case in a multitude of ways, and let alone in
game when it's happening all the blink of an eye
processing it, it's again a testament to what the Bills

(25:39):
do and.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
Just look at two and how quickly one step and
he's going through two of his reads or progressions already one,
two gone, Okay, three is not even developed yet. Yeah,
that's how quickly the Bills, because of their formational alignment,
the muddiness in the coverage, how quickly they took away
half the field. He's trying to get to his third
read in his progression and he just can't, so he

(26:01):
has to extend to play. And again you said in
the last play, if you're asking him to play outside
the script, off platform, it's really not where he wants
to be. He wants that first read, that primary reader,
to be the go to guy. So another Cover two
play here, very good discipline, safeties down initially, but then
you see as a ball snapped, you see him drop

(26:21):
out and the Bills are matching the coverage heere and
again there's nothing open, and so the quarterback throws it
to the flats and then you see Benford discard the
fullback and go make the tackle. Playing high, high to
low Cover two defense, keeping everything in front of them.
And they do a great job on this play of
minimizing any type of big play down the field.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Absolutely, Yeah, this one based on how the route distribution
plays out. We kind of get that look from the
covered structure that allows you to decipher that this is
cover too. Look how wide Taylor Rapp is on the
top of the numbers there, DeMar Hamlin kind of matching
it on the other side, and then reacting to that
post from the number one, and then you get the
action from both corners being those flats players. Douglas in

(27:05):
press to the bottom of the screen, tries to reroute
a little bit, carries his man, but then turns back,
looks inside, ready waiting to see if anything develops in
the flat underneath. Is somebody coming on the drag something
that he has to be responsible for as he potentially
passes off that vertical to the safety and then Benford
on the other side doing something similar to being responsible
for the flat. I love this play so much from Benford.

(27:27):
It's one of my favorites from this year. We see
that kind of that escort swing get baked into so
many offenses now, and it should be advantage for the
offense because you've got a hat on a hat and
Benford just plays right through alec Engold, who's a legitimate
fullback and makes the stop.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
And this is the type of stuff that's next play
the Cover two with the rotations, the cool rotations post snaps,
so on the snap you really don't know what the
Bills are doing. Here is this more of their Cover six? Look,
you got the safety down, the corner down there in
man coverage. Is the safety or align backer now accounting
for this running back kind of like we saw a

(28:03):
few plays ago. But watch what the Bills do post snap.
Here watch Damar Hamlin come down and become the strong
side rotation, so a strong side passing strength three guys
to the bob of the screen. Here watch how he
drops down on this play and the Bills jump into
a Tampa two look and inverted two. Look, here's your
pole runner the linebacker. Now Hamlin's dropping down from that

(28:25):
deep haf safety spot becoming that wall player along with
Dorian Williams. And you see this the corners are hanging
low as well, and you see Hamlin come up and
make the tackle.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
After a short game.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
I love these type of spins on the snap, just
these little wrinkles to change something a little bit, and
like yeah, highlighted. You get Hamlin coming from depth and
ends up inserting into the hook curl and you look
at cam Lewis, who's right now in that apex to
the bottom of the screen. He kind of screams out
of his stance immediately because he knows he's got to

(28:56):
get to that flat. He's becoming that new flat defender,
that cloud defender, essentially replacing Christian Benford who is now
essentially a deep half safety along with Taylor Rap. And
you see how everything plays out, even Douglas to the top.
He moves initially with number one, but then he sees
the running back settles, so he stops. He sits. We
get a little vertical from number one and Dorian reacts

(29:18):
to that knowing that he has Taylor Rap over the top,
and then we have the pole runner. Inspector just really
a really good job again playing through this route distribution
from the Bills, tying into the good call and being
able to change things pre to post snap when it
comes to the picture on the quarterback, especially a backup
in this instance, kind of put him through hell a
little bit more, but just a really good job of again.
You know, you think one thing's come in and then

(29:40):
post snap it's something completely different, and they're able to
shut down Miami as soon as the ball touches the
receiver's hands.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
And this is the crux of the Bill defense. Force
the quarterback, especially again zone, to go through all of
his progressions and reads. You see initially where his helmet's looking,
he's taken away. Obviously running backs taken away, so now
he's gonna work to the bottom miss screen. He's got
a double China seven, so he's got two inbreakers, and
then he's got this deep corner. So essentially where the
quarterback goes is to his third read over the middle

(30:06):
of the field on first and forever. But that's because
of the you know what's vacated here. But if he
wanted to push the ball down the field, he'd have
to make it to number five in his read here,
which again you got Christian Benford playing a deep half
area and he's got some space and time to break
on that ball. So again making the quarterback, you know,

(30:26):
extend the play from the pocket and go through all
of his progressions. It's something the Bills really where they
hang their hat. Here's one where I think it's Micah
Hyde that is the inverted basically the quasi Tampa two
pole runner of the linebacker. Watch post snap as he
drops into that deep, deep hole there and the Bills

(30:48):
rotate and eventually by the time the ball gets to
Tyreek Hill, the Bills are there to make a play
because the passes not only coming out of structure off
platform from tool, but because to the shorts the field
and so it's such it's much more condensed. Now you get,
you know, three guys closing in on hill, but Taylor
Rap is there to make a play on the ball.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, really nice play from Rap on the ball. And again,
like you said, we get that inverted Tampa two look
or a Tampa two robber as some people kind of
highlight it, and Taron Johnson in his normal nickel apex
order the bottom of the screen he drops as a
DPAF safety. So you've got Taron Johnson and Taylor Rap
as your DPAF safeties and Mike Hyde as that Tampa
player and that quote unquote pole runner. But instead of

(31:32):
playing it from you know, a linebacker depth and carrying,
he's playing it from the top down to kind of
take away that middle of the field, which is, you know,
where that pole runner operates, which is why people talk
about like Tampa two is kind of like a Cover
three even though it's in the Cover two families. So
on and so forth. And then we get the corner
action on the outside. Benford and Dane Jackson relating to

(31:52):
each route, but you can see they're acting as cloud
players there. Dane allows Barrios number zero to go across
on that drag. He sees the tight end settle, so
he picks him up, similar to Benford on the outside
up top sees the little hitch from the running back.
He starts to settle as well, but also does a
good enough job knowing something coming behind him. I like

(32:13):
this job from Benford where he reacts to what's in
front of him, but he still does enough gaining depth
to maybe influence that throw from two and having to
get it over him and allowing michah Hyde Taylor Rap
a couple extra seconds to make a play on this ball.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, just fun stuff.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
I loved going back and you know, kind of watching
that stuff because, like I said, there is some truth
to what Hill is saying, because there are some elements
of if you're combining Cover four and Cover six and
putting him kind of in the same bucket, half the
field could look like Cover FOURD to Tyreek Hill, especially
when he is the isolated wide receiver out wide, because
you're gonna have a safetyal over the top and you

(32:52):
know a lot of times the corner on him, so
he's bracketed in a lot of these calls. And so
you know, I guess the Bills are a bunch of
bitches when it comes to that. So pictures can look
different to you know, with how complex defenses are and
have to be, with the way offenses have evolved, you're
gonna get variations to simple cover two looks like that, right,

(33:14):
You're gonna get sometimes the deep safe, deep haf safety
is gonna drop down and be that poll runner and
rob the middle of the field. Sometimes he's just gonna
be a wall defender and go and make the tackle
like you saw Deamar Hamlin doing the second to last play.
There are variations to these coverages, but a lot of
the times in the Bills scheme, you heard Bill Belichick
say years ago how well the Bills disguise their coverages,

(33:36):
especially pre to post nap, and you could see some
of that and some of those clips we just watch.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, just again, like you hit a testament or a
tip of the cap to McDermott, this defense it's something
that I don't know if it's because they don't do
enough variation or creativity of it, but I creativity being relative.
I don't feel like they really get their flowers when
it comes to the disguised coverage nature of the defense
and how long they've kind of been at the forefront

(34:02):
of that movement, and so much of it was with
you know, Poyer and hide back there, and now that
they've got a changing in the guarded safety, we see
their usage rates change a little bit, especially against certain teams.
They do a good job of knowing who they are
and then mixing that in with trying to mitigate what
an opponent does best. And I think that's a really
good example just what we showed here and what Tyreek

(34:24):
Hill thinks he sees week in and week out for
years against this defense.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah, it's fun stuff, man, and some other fun stuff.
We're talking not just scheme, but some of the detail
and technique stuff. We heard from some of the mini
camp footage about how Ryan Nielsen, who is a consultant
right now, how detailed he is. You heard Terrell Bernard
talk about how detailed Nielsen is and we got to

(34:50):
see it in some of this footage. This as a
courtesy of Cel Capaccio. I'm gonna play this and we're
gonna talk about the level of detail that is being
executed here, and then of course we a couple clips
of the prior teams that he's coordinated Ryan Nielsen executing
some of this. So I want you to watch this
little interior game being executed from camp here. Right there

(35:11):
you see Nielsen getting off by Peel Bernard, you know,
as he's playing the blocker there. So right there you
see the d tackle attack inside. Then go outside, here
comes Bernard on this game or loop boom. He picks
off the hip of that offensive lineman and then he
have freeze up at Oliver, which is always fun if
you can get him free and rushing the quarterback. So

(35:34):
talk about Nielsen, what you like from him, especially from
the Atlanta Falcons film from twenty twenty three, and what
you know, level of detail and why he has so
much detail to even just a little drills like this,
I swear, and a lot of these drills when we're
talking D line or games, you see Nielsen kind of

(35:54):
coordinating the drill and not Marcus West like you see
off to the left side of the screen.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
One thousand percent. First thing I'm with Keya Morty here,
It's gonna take me a minute to get used to
trow Bernard and the number eight like it's thrown for me.
I'm waiting for the forty three. But it's thrown me
a little bit, and yeah it. You know, you and
I have talked a couple times on air off air
about what Nielsen did with the Falcons in twenty twenty three,
and that was a unit that was consistently able to

(36:20):
attack with different games up front five man pressures. You
kind of didn't know who was come and where, who
was going to pick who, who was going to be
the spiker, who's the looper? Is it a two man games?
At a three man game? They're mugging gaps, They've got
linebackers walked up and it was a defense, no disrespect
to anyone. They didn't have a ton of talent on
that defense. He had Grady Jarrett on the interior, but

(36:40):
there weren't a ton of names. There wasn't a ton
of you know, recognition individually for that group, and they
found ways to get creative with their pressure packages, and
it was because of a lot of habit creation up front.
You then, I think the amount of free runners that
they would generate because of picks of the little at
Oliver lay up there as he came thither. That was nice.
The picks that they would create, or the confusion using

(37:03):
offenses protection rules against them creating a man look and
then dropping it or using it to pick someone and
kind of screw up the protection up front. It really
was a good schematic job from Nielsen in that twenty
twenty three Atlanta Falcons year and something that he really
hung his hat on, and you can see pretty regularly
when you go back and watch the tape.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
And when you heard Terrell Bernard talk about it after
practice about the level of detail that he was executing.
Nielsen was showing in that drill and how it involved
the linebackers and defensive linemen executing into your games like
you see there. That level of detail is not surprising
because you got to think about it. As a defensive coordinator,
which he has been for a few years now, that

(37:45):
level of detail is it takes a lot because you're
not only teaching the guys in these drills, but you're
teaching your entire staff, all the positional coaches have to
know how you want it taught, in the details on
what is being taught as far as technique, timing, rhythm,
all those things. So there's a certain level of detail
that Nielsen has that maybe even Bobby Babbage doesn't quite have.

(38:08):
And it hasn't quite gotten there yet because Nielsen has
done it for so long and he's had some talent
and some you know, production when it comes to being
a d C. And the other thing is like, maybe
they brought Nielsen in to you know, for the future
and to be the Aaron Kromer of the defensive line.
Maybe that's true, But right now he's technically what a
senior consultant or something along those lines as far as

(38:29):
title goes.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, but he's doing a lot of consulting. He's doing
a lot of consulting, a lot of ownership.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
And when you're freed up like that in that type
of position, a lot of times you buy your time
by having a certain packages or rolls or you know,
when they divvy up stuff during the week of hey
can you cut up third and seven? Plus we want
you to not only know what you're gonna see, but

(38:58):
come up with the packages to come back at it.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
That's going to help the Bills this year.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
That level of detail as a coach, but also that
freedom that he has as a coach to teach that
technique and teach those little details that make a difference
on these type of games, as we'll show here on
the next two clips. That's going to go a long
way this year, I believe for the Bills.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Pass rush.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yeah, we've talked about it for a couple of years now,
wanting more games up front in a variety of ways.
And if you're going to run that kind of stuff,
the proverbial devil is in the details. Your timing has
to be on point, Your steps, your path have to
be on point. Even the first example that we showed
in the mini camp clip with Bernard and Oliver. Think
of the timing like Bernard has to time that right

(39:41):
so that way he picks the hip of that blocker
right at the time when Ed can come free. Ed
has to be able to see it and feel it
and come free. You don't want to cause you any
type of congestion on the interior with guys bumping into
each other or getting in each other's way. And that's
not even taking into account the other guys upfront who
are trying to distract other linemen and cause chaos for them.
It's a very coordinated dance, and you need everyone to

(40:04):
be on point with their timing, their footwork, and their responsibility.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
And I just love this play from the Falcons again
in twenty twenty three.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Look at the look. It's an odd front look.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
You have a guy head up on the center, you
have several guys up near line of scrimmage. Who's coming,
Who's dropping? They end up dropping out in his zone.
But watched the two guys I highlighted the linebacker and
the nose tackle.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
Watch the timing.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
Remember the clip you just saw from Bernard and how
they were attacking and how they timed it. There's a
linebacker picking off the center and ricocheting back into the
play to get the sack. This is the type of
stuff that the Bills didn't run a lot of last
year as far as defensive looks, but also the stunting
and looping because they just didn't have I don't think
overall they had the tools and the tool shed to

(40:48):
do these type of things. They have that versatility and
agility and timing. Now where if they're working on it
like they are in mini camp already, they can develop
that rapport and that timing. And you can see that
here on this Falcons clip running a foreman pressure, a
foreman rush, but again going from a simulated pressure to
look where everyone's up in their line of scrimmage but

(41:09):
only really rushing four to get the sack.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yeah, and you're gaming up like two really good guys
at center and left guard, and Ryan Kelly and Quentin
Nelson were two of the best their respective positions in
the business, especially at this time, and you highlighted it.
Great timing from the linebacker. He sets up outside initially
and takes that stab and then I really like how
with the angle he takes he crosses face, which yeah,
which brings Nelson fifty six with him, but he's that's

(41:35):
just added candy. He is going to pick Ryan Kelly,
who's number seventy eight, and then that pick allows ninety
to come free. Like you said, the pocket is collapsing
around poor old Gardner Minshew at that point. And I
also like that initial look like we showed here like
and you talked about it like who's coming you've got
starting from the right side, you've got Jesse Bates to
Bud Dupree, so you've got like a safety down there.

(41:56):
You've got an outside linebacker, you've got the the furthering
the out look on the inside with four ey the
center is covered up, and you've got a four on
the other side. And then you've got a wide rusher
and an actual ad rusher in Epaghetty. And then you've
got the apex who's pointed inside showing like he's rushing,
but he ends up dropping and so how do you
account for that as an offense. It's just nice to

(42:19):
watch a defense ask this many questions, or have an
offense have to ask this many questions, and like you said,
it ends up just being a quote unquote simple four
man rush in a second.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
All right, same type of Look here again, different personnel
and look here, uh, the the linebacker Lloyd is really
just sugaring the center here is not obviously a defensive
lineman in a two three point stance. Sugar sugar that gap,
sugar sugar that sugar that and so similar. Look but again,
now this is the jag so it's a different defensive
front again. Nielsen has the ability to kind of play

(42:51):
hybrid type fronts, and especially if you're talking pass rush packages.
But here's a man call versus the Colts. You get
that pick and then you get the free runner of
the defensive lineman and incompletion on the back end, but
you're getting you're heating up the quarterback. You're affecting the
quarterback with a similar interier game there between a linebacker
and a defensive lineman to make the pass going complete.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
And another one where you know, typically when you cover
up the center like that like they are here with
Devin Lloyd, like typically that'll cause that man protection or
that five to zero protection from an offensive line, and
so you see them react kind of looking for their men,
and because you've kind of induced that as the defense,
you kind of and can anticipate, Okay, we're gonna show this.

(43:37):
They're gonna react like this, which means we can execute
like this, and that's what they do. A really good
job from Lloyd to spike and pick that right guard,
which allows Armstead number ninety one to come free. So
a different different look for a different team, but a
similar result, similar ideology and similar path and result, just
with a completely different team.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
Yeah, So that's that's gonna be exciting to continue to
especially when camp starts, you know, seeing what different plays
they can really cook up with the versatility they added
with the personnel, the talent they added with the personnel.
On top of again those down in distance specialties that
Nielsen can bring to the Bills defense to help Bobby

(44:19):
Babbage in those third down situations, because the Bills do
I mean, as bad as you know they were against
the run last year, they did get teams into third
and lungs quite often, they just weren't good at creating
the pressure or getting home to bring the guys down.
So I'm excited to see Neil Nielsen's impact and his

(44:40):
role going forward, especially if you're talking interior games that
include linebackers rushing against you know, out of creeper and
simulated pressures where you're having Bernard rush or you're having
Milano who's healthy rush because Milano's eighty percent of what
he can be. That opens up things for the linebacker
positions and what they can bring because now you don't
have to worry about, hey, Bernard's got he can't rush,

(45:02):
He's got to stay back because Dorian's and coverage, so
there's a little more versatility when it comes to you know,
pass coverage and pass rushing abilities from that linebacker position.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yes, And we've highlighted for years how good Milano is
as a rusher and a gap shooter and like cause
and havoc and one of the things we talked about
the most when Bernard was drafted from Baylor, aside from
how pro ready he was and understanding match coverage and rules,
his ability is a blitzer. He was a heat seeking
missile going after the quarterbacks. Yes, but he would be
that spiker of times where he would just barrel in

(45:35):
and you'd watch him like where you could tell his
assignment was like, hey man, just go try and rock
the hell out of that guard to clear up space,
and he would do it like his One of his
strengths is that ability to blitz and rush and timing
and angles, and we haven't seen him do it too much.
So I would like to see that tapped into a bit.
And it makes sense right with how they've continue to
operate this offseason on the interior. They didn't opt for,

(45:57):
you know, displacement mitigators up front. They into the penetration,
the gap shooting the triggering ability, and I think pairing
that with Nielsen's forte up front and just more stunts
and more games, they're really gonna lean into the you know,
we may get GOP, but we're gonna get you. We're
gonna cause havoc. We're gonna throw off your protection rules,
we're gonna throw off your run schemes. Like you think

(46:18):
you're gonna down block on somebody, but Psyche, that guy's
going somewhere else, and now you're pausing for a minute,
someone's shooting behind you and into the backfield. I think
they're really gonna lean into that type of havoc creation,
which again can get you got at times, but also
will allow you to get others aside from just being
that typical, you know, four down, one gap penetrating type
of front that they typically are, even though they mixed
in a bit more one and a half and things

(46:39):
like that the past.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Year, no doubt, man.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
So another topic that's come up over the last couple
of weeks is the contested catch ability or a lackter
for wide receiver key on Colemas. So I want to
talk about this briefly and get your thoughts on it.
K Maury ads the rewatches on discord with Greg seems
like every other third and long is a conversion exactly,
And you gotta affect the quarterback more and again getting
pressures one thing. Getting home would be even better to

(47:03):
help with feeld position and help.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Say you got to say that before anybody comes in
and like pressure sucked. They don't matter. You need to snack.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
I know, and I know it's still gonna come here.
You know that's not people.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
So that was one less take for us to have
to talk about all them.

Speaker 4 (47:19):
So this I saw this come across the timeline during
the week, contested catchability to key on Coleman bottom left
quadrant there, which is not good. Uh So I wanted
to contextualize that. That's what we do in the film room.
We add some advanced stats to support or disprove a lot.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Of the narratives that are happening.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
We're gonna use the film as well, But I want
to get your thoughts on Coleman's contested catchability. It was
a big thing coming out because I do think that
there were some expectations that were not worthy of being
there when it comes to him being a contested catch guy,
just because of how when he did win, how that
really was perceived. But talk about Coleman coming now when

(48:00):
it comes to contested catch and what you saw from
his first year in the league.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
I choose to believe that that was a very sneaky
play on words. And you said worthy in reference to
Xavier Worthy. I choose to I choose to vie that.
I choose to believe that. So I like that very much. Yeah,
it's and you know this this chart is per FTN
like if you want to go off PFF. Out of
one hundred and ten qualifying wide receivers, Coleman was ninetieth
and contested catch rate, So it kind of however you

(48:25):
track it, it's not great for his rookie year. Right,
there's a heat map which kind of shows a lot
of where he was operating. But I think, you know,
you talked about, you know, be worthy of you know,
certain labels and pieces. We talked about it when he
was drafted because his contested catchability at times was spectacular,
you know, we talked about the ability for him to
dunk on guys was very real in college and we

(48:45):
also saw it in the NFL. This year. He had
multiple contested catches against Baltimore, against Seattle, against Arizona, that
were like WHOA, Like he's you're posterizing dudes and putting
him on a poster. But I think what gets lost
in that is even amazing dunk artists in the NBA
who put dudes on posters, They're not doing that every
time they drive the paint. They're not doing it every

(49:05):
game like it happens. They're more highlight plays. It's hard
to consistently operate in that space. And again we said
this when he was drafted, it's hard to be like
a contested catch winner consistently in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
These guys why separators, Right, Yes, it's tough.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
To These corners are big and long and strong and smart,
and they have good technique and they're probably just as
athletic as you are. A lot of Coleman's winning in
college was because he has the size and frame paired
with the athleticism. Now he's going up against dudes who
also have size and frame and athleticism and better technique
at corner than what he has a wide receiver. And

(49:41):
when you pair that with his limitations and technique, his
limitations as a route runner, and then pairing that with
how the Bills chose to use him, which we're going
to talk about, it creates kind of almost a predictable,
siloed type of role, which makes it even harder to
win at the contested catch point or in that contested
catch which was already hard to begin with.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
Right, and we knew he was going to be the
above the rim type player, like we knew. That's how,
how and why Josh and Brandon Bean liked him. In
the staff liked him. We knew that he was going
to be that type of guy. But they also wanted
a boundary guy. They wanted a guy not just to
stretch down the field and play above the rim in
those fifty to fifty situations, but they wanted someone to
stretch horizontally the field and play outside and play outside

(50:25):
the numbers. We talked about it all last offseason and
leading into the drafts, much so much so last year
he finished with according to True Media this is regular
season and the playoffs, sixty five targets, thirty two receptions
for five hundred and seventy eight yards, and four touchdowns.
Actually not that bad at all things considered with him
being injured. But if we look at the heat map,

(50:46):
we're going to see that it was kind of limited
on how and where the ball was thrown to him,
where he was targeted, and a lot of it was,
as I was just saying, outside the numbers along the boundary,
not a lot of stuff inside. And to contextualize that,
you heard brain of being said a ton after the season,

(51:06):
how young he is a Ken Coleman is. So that's
one one factor to a player's development. But also you
know the role he played and what was asked of him.
They didn't move him around a lot. So if you're
only playing outside the boundaries as an X or Z,
there's only so many routes you can run, and the

(51:26):
route that they asked him run the most were those
go routes.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
Twenty six targets were go routes last year.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
He had seven receptions on those plays, by far his
number one targeted route. Some of those, obviously we're not
gonna go through each of them, but some of those
are not even catchable. Some of those are Bacchoto type
throws where Josh maybe threw deep where he snapped it
off or vice versa. But as you can see from
this heat map, for his total targets. A lot of
that stuff was outside the numbers, and as I said,

(51:53):
you know half of those were half of these passes
went incomplete last year in his rookie year.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Yeah, this heat map does a job of kind of
showing his role in that heat map form, and you
can see a lot of everything is just outside the
numbers and to the sideline. You're not really getting a
lot of work inside in the middle of the field
and the gut of the defense. And as this continues
to play out, if you're a defense, you see how
someone's used, You see what the alignment looks like. You

(52:21):
continue to see that, and there is that element of
predictability from an alignment perspective or a usage perspective. And
then on top of that, if you're a defender or
a defense, you know what kind of route he's going
to be running or how he's used. And then that
pairs also with his limitations as a player where he's
not this big separator. His stem work isn't the best

(52:42):
in terms of, you know, getting in and out of
brakes and deception. So if you're used in this similar way,
which is predictable for a guy who already wasn't the best,
there's a separation guy, and then you're throwing essentially him
like goal balls or back shoulder throws. That's going to
impact your ability to separate. That's going to impact the
contested catch rate because you're not going to have any

(53:03):
room to operate or any margin for error for both
Alan and for Keon. And then you take in this
chart with the incompletions on top of it, that just
kind of puts it even more into perspective of again
how he was used relative to his skill set, but
the type of situations he was put in and how
advantageous or not that was for him.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
I mean, if you're only doing so many things like
you mentioned, it's going to affect separation or how much
you don't separate, but also the contested catch situation. So
these are all the incompletions on targets that were at him.
I mean, it's pretty self explanatory, right, I mean, how
much separation and how much how often were these contested?
I bet you damn near every one of the ones

(53:43):
that are outside the numbers were contested catch.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
I can see these. I granted we watch a lot
of tape. I can see these incompletions in my head,
and just know the route. He's starting out a little
on the numbers, a little outside, he's going up and
you want to hold him to hold the red line
a little bit more. But it's not a great amount
of space or area to work. Yeah, you can just
see it.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
Yeah, no doubt, man, And so uh these are again,
these are This is just context to keep in mind
when we're talking about his play. And of course injuries
played a role. So you talked about the Arizona game
versus you know, obviously the first game of the year,
but then later in the year, injury played.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
The injury played a role with him.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
Obviously he's young. They're not moving him around a lot.
He's got a really niche down role. Just to because
again you hear the staff and this regime talk about
it all the time. They have particular, specific, particular plans
for developing these players. And you could tell it was
a very limited development plan for Coleman. Hey, we need

(54:40):
you to do this, and he actually did it well,
if you're all things considered, for most of the year
until he got injured. But so watch this kind of
outside leverage. Read release by Coleman to the bomb mystery
and how physical he is and then snaps that route off,
throws that guy by and doesn't quite get the first down.
But that's that's another story for another day. But then
this is the last this game of the year. Bottom

(55:00):
of the screen. Look at how he approaches this one,
not as physical, and then there's no push up. There's
no physicality. Again, the injury was playing a factor last
year for him. So just a couple of you know,
clips of the same type of route where you can
see where the same dog wasn't there, you know, if
you're talking from the shoulders up in mentality, but also

(55:20):
the physical wasn't quite there in the first game versus
the last game. As you said, he had a you know,
some really nice plays, especially if you're talking fifty to
fifty balls down the field against Arizona, whereas in the
Patriots game with backup quarterbacks most of the day, they
were just throwing some stuff up, which accounted for a
lot of those you know, those targets on those go
routes down the field that went incomplete.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Yeah, that's a really good point too, Just guys, bit
towards the end of the year there in that Pats game,
just chucking it up and seeing if a prayer is
answered or not. But it's a really good highlight of
the injury. You know, he had that hand wrist injury
that caused him to miss time. He came back and
you saw an impacting him that you know, labeling it
is kind of not that same dog in him. Tracks
like this is the type of route, especially against a
corner with a bit of a thinner frame, you would

(56:03):
expect him to win, Like he understands how to beat
these kind of guys, Like you want somebody to get
into his kitchen with a thinner frame and then okay, cool,
let me chuck you by or run you by and separate.
And you just don't see that. And for a guy who, again,
who's not going to win in this route with tempo
or pacing or gear changes or his deception or movement.

(56:23):
Yet he's relying on the physical aspect and physicality almost
one hundred percent of the time. And if you take
away some of the strength or comfortability in his hand
and his wrist, that's going to impact a lot of
what he's able to do or not do.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
Yeah, and so I got a couple of clips.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
I want to talk about with his drops, because three
of his five drops are over twenty yards twenty three
of his thirty three incompletions to Coleman where versus cover
one or three, So you're getting the one on one
looks outside to him. But again that's why you're seeing
the boundaries painted so much, and again that's why you're
getting a lack of separation, but also contested cat situation.
So here's one that was considered a drop by true media.

(57:03):
Big game for him against the Seahawks, but this is
one where coming off the line, I don't like how
we tempo down right there, he kind of stops in
that window right behind that cornerback. You want to see
him get into this hole between the safety and or
the deep half player and the corner. He kind of
lets up and makes it more contested than it should be.

(57:24):
And then he does the same thing that Kincaid was doing. Right,
He kind of does this basket catch when he probably
could have just attacked it with his basketball background, and
of course that gets dropped.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
And goes incomplete.

Speaker 4 (57:36):
I don't know what it is. Maybe part of it
I imagine. I assume it's Josh Allen and when he
throws these types of passes. He throws him flatter and
he's not really dropping it in a bucket into the
turkey hole there between the deep half player and the corner.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
But some of it is like just framing.

Speaker 4 (57:52):
It properly, whether we're talking Dalton Kincaid or Kean Coleman
on this play.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Yeah, also shout out to Seattle for this that cover
two spin and taking Devin Witherspoon from the apex and
dropping him as a defaf defa deep half player like
you talked about.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
Yeah, I was like, oh, that's Weatherspoon.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
That's not a safety Wetherspoon. Yeah, they're kind of spinning
on the up top too in terms of responsibility. But
you see that cover two look from them, and yeah,
you hit it like It's just there's that little bit
of disconnect in terms of his tempo and timing and
how he runs this route and maybe where Josh is
expecting him to be that combined with the type of
ball that Josh throws like you talked about, and oh,

(58:30):
this goes back to an episode we had several years ago.
If you're going to push the ball downfield, the further
you push the ball downfield, the smaller your margin for error.
Because it's downfield, it's harder to be on the same page.
That's why defenses, you know, will kind of push that
at certain points and Coleman's whether it's his hands or
maybe if he's he's in better position because he didn't

(58:51):
kind of temple that down a bit. Maybe he doesn't
have to extend as much, maybe Josh reads him a
bit better. Whatever, it is, just a missed opportunity there
because of the disconnect and kind of how he stemmed
that route, and then it combined that with how Alan operates.

Speaker 4 (59:05):
Here's one against Baltimore down the field that was bummed
about this one because he had this one in his hands.
As you see from the end zone angle again, big
play down the field. Josh drops it in there right
to Coleman. This is the matchup you want. You're down
the field player against Stevens, who we broke down was
terrible down the field, and then you get Coleman one

(59:25):
on one with him and the ball hits him right
in the hands and chests and goes right through it.
Just one of those plays again, three of the five
drops over twenty yards last year for Coleman.

Speaker 3 (59:35):
This is one of them against Baltimore.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Yeah, this is the one that immediately comes to my mind,
just with the drops and contest to catch stuff, like
you you have a corner that can get beat a
little bit. You know, Stevens maybe gets this his left
arm in there a little bit to dislodge it or
cause a problem. But you got to come down with
this if you're key on Coleman like this, this, I
think for a lot of fans is what like the
poster the microcosmis for like, wait, this is this is

(59:58):
what he's supposed to win on. This is why we
got him. And he drops that and even I like
the way he fights through initially, but again not a
lot of separation. He has to separate kind of with
his hand and some physicality right at the last minute
and kind of go up and get that ball. But
Stevens is really in phase with him for the heavy
majority of the of this entire route. Coleman separates a
bit at the catch point with his arm and actually

(01:00:19):
does a good enough job. Like the timing is good
from Coleman. It's right in your hands. Also does a
bit of a basket catch again, cradles it ball comes out.
These are the ones that if you have a niche role,
you can't afford to be off in that niche role
because these opportunities come few and far between.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
Yeah, so just a couple of things to work on
with him. I agree.

Speaker 4 (01:00:38):
I think Lawrence says swow Coleman season incoming. I think
that strength will, you know, could do wonders for him
because when I stood next to him last year at camp,
He's obviously tall as me, I'm sure so, but he
wasn't thick. He was very he was basketball like body,
very thin, agile, but like just not a thick football player.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
And I'm not a bully, not a bully at the West.

Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
But I do think he has it in him, and
so as his you know, his seasons and career progresses,
I do expect him to get stronger where on that
like a play like that, he's going to create a
little more separation through the vertical route stem so that
when the ball is incoming, it's so much easier to
concentrate on just the catch and not the hand coming

(01:01:26):
up in front of him from that from that defensive
player to make it a contested catch situation.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Yeah, very fair. And I also think too a lot
of this is for me, it's not it's not ideal.
But also if your expectations where Keyon Coleman was going
to come in as a rookie and set the world
on fire, like that's that's your own fault for kind
of setting those expectations. So much of what he was
at Florida State was based on and Michigan State as
well was based on physicality, size, frame, athleticism. He's a

(01:01:54):
young player in general. He's also young to football. He
was playing basketball and football in Michigan State. He just
became like a full time football player two years ago.
He's very green, he's very raw. He needs time on task,
he needs time to develop. And his one area that
he can hang his hat on is an area that's
hard to find consistent success in the NFL, which is

(01:02:16):
being a contested catch guy. So I think a lot
of this needs to and then pairing it with the
context that we put it in here, I really do
think he not needs a pass. But I think there
seems to be a lot of hyperbole when it comes
to him and fans already writing him off as no,
he's terrible. They made a huge mistake. They should have
grabbed worthy, they should have grabbed any other wide receiver.

(01:02:38):
You know, although we did really love Lab mccacky and
would have welcomed Lab mccaky, But if you're making a
concrete decision on Keyon Coleman after year one, you can't
do that. This is a dude who legitimately needs like
two to four years in the league to really figure
out who he's going to become, and for better or
for worse, he might be figuring that out on a
team that has Super Bowl app or aspirations, And so

(01:03:00):
I think that's part of it too. If he's on
the Jags, you're like, Okay, let's let him develop. But
he's on a team that's trying to win a ring,
so you won't have that. You are not afforded that
time and that margin for error with regularity, and I
think a lot of that gets lost in the conversation
and people just kind of see it with blinders, and
that's just not the way to go about it in general.
Would especially give him the context and kind of put

(01:03:20):
his rookie year and performance into.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
Yeah, and when they drafted him, we did the breakdown
on him. You said you could see him lighting it
up in the role that was asked of him, but
at the same time not having a role at the
end of the year either because there was gonna be
such a volatility to his development in year one. But
I think that's why they decided to bring him along
very slowly, and this is the role you're gonna play.

(01:03:45):
It's gonna limit you overall. You're not gonna be able
to max out your year one. We're gonna go long term,
as you said, three to five year plan as opposed
to just throwing you into the fire because they have
such a good team.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
That's the other part of it. So it's kind of
the chicken out of the egg.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
But I think overall it was a successful season for
the player that we knew coming into the league into
the offense that and what they needed in this offense.
I think it was successful. Aside from the injury, we'll
see how year two is. I do expect him to recover.
So one last topic before we get out of here.
There was a clip on a podcast I saw on

(01:04:21):
YouTube that really caught my attention talking about ranking the
offensive lines in the NFL. So I wanted to bring
this up real quick and get your guys thoughts on
the Bills offensive line. They were on the Pushing the
Powell podcast. They were ranking the offensive lines, and one
of these hosts said that the Bills offensive offensive line

(01:04:42):
was elite, but the other one said the following.

Speaker 5 (01:04:47):
Got these guys in sync. But we talked about coach Kromer.
He's got these guys in sync and they work well together.
So when you talk about.

Speaker 6 (01:04:58):
The unit collectively, yes, they play at an elite level,
but I think they're more of a solid group. But
to your point, right, everything flows through this offensive line
when it comes to the run game, where it comes
to Josh Allen and you know this, it's important.

Speaker 4 (01:05:15):
So he doesn't think the Bill's offensive line is the lead.
What's your thoughts on that, Anthony. I know we love
Aaron Kromer, and I think I know where you're gonna
go with this. But are they an elite offensive line?
Are they just a solid offensive line?

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
I think and everything is, you know, relative of how
you define them as being a lead. I do think
they're an elite offensive line with how they operate, just
because the run game diversity, being able to hit gap
scheme and zone, but then the type of gap scheme
that they hit and Again, a lot of that is
due to Chromer setting these guys up for success, and

(01:05:49):
then how they are as pass protectors, like they are
just good in the run and in the past, but
then they're diversified in the run game. I think a
lot of it comes down to For like national guys,
Dean Dawkins is the most name recognition. I think Spencer
Brown might put some people on notice this year, or if.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
They mentioned both those guys in the entire episode of
that and it was like an eight minute clip, but
they did mention Dion and Spencer Brown as being upper
tier guys at their positions.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
I think they they fail from kind of as the
group in terms of being recognized as elite because one,
you have Josh Allen, So I think a lot of
people think, well, Josh Allen does Josh Allen stuff and
bails everybody out. But I still don't think people realize
two things, how much the run game is the foundation
of the Bills offense, even though they have the MVP quarterback.
And also there's just not a ton of Oh, Dean

(01:06:40):
Dawkins is the best left tackle in the league, or
David Edwards is the best left guard, or McGovern or whatever.
Like a lot of times, everybody loves to laud the
Eagles because they have this name recognition in star Power.
Same thing with Detroit name recognition in star Power. So
I do think it's a it's a combination of things,
but I do think this is an elite offensive line.
I don't think they're the best offensive line in football,
but they are just tremendous individually as a unit, well

(01:07:05):
coached the run, the pass, and they are the straw
that stirs the drink. This offensive line is what for again,
Josh Allen, I don't nobody yell at me. I get it.
He's really good and he's the MVP. But the offensive
line is the straw that stirs this drink for the
offense and what makes it go.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
If we're talking about a unit five guys playing together
in the run and pass game and we're ranking them
the bills off of the line versus everyone else in
the league, how can you not consider them elite. They
have great coaching, they have a great scheme. They have
the technique in each technique for each players different And

(01:07:40):
we talked about that with Cromer, We talked about that
with you know, players that have come on here. Each
player gets a certain level of technique and skills developed
and catered and tailored to them. Their communication. We see
it week in and week out on the film. We
hear it from guys coming in like connorc govern blew
us away when it came to the preparation and communication

(01:08:02):
that happens verbal and nonverbal on the field. They obviously
have talent. You said, Yeah, Dawkins and Brown are very good.
Connor McGovern I think is underrated center in this in
in the league. I think he's in his prime right
now and reaching his prime.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Edward unted to all of them, and everybody in the
fan base is even always like, oh we get rid
of Edwards. It's like David Edwards is super good.

Speaker 4 (01:08:25):
He and you heard McGovern talk about how talented he
is from a technique standpoint, how he wins or maybe
it was Osiris, was it. I think it was Osiris
that actually gave Edwards.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
Do you have too many guests that the patter so
the bat will remember?

Speaker 4 (01:08:40):
But I love what you said about the run game,
the array of schemes they can get to gap, you know,
man zone, whatever type of scheme they need to run
versus the defensive scene that week.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
So they can be a chameleon in the run.

Speaker 4 (01:08:52):
Game, but they can also be a chameleon when it
comes to pass protection and run run blocking. They can
be a finesse team if they want to be a
finesse team. If they want to play a zone scheme
outside zone scheme, they can. They have the ability because
of the guys up front, but they want to be
physical and beat you down. They have the nastiness upfront,
the mentality to just drive guys against their will off

(01:09:15):
the line of scrimmage, re establish the line of scrimmage
in favor of the offense, and do what they want
when they the defense knows it's coming. So that's what
I love the most about this offense. Yes, the scheme's great.
Joe Brady called a great scheme last year. Chromer puts
together a really good run game plan. But I love
their ability to be a chameleon as far as finesse

(01:09:35):
versus physicality. And when you have the talent, the technique,
the coaching, the scheme, when you have all these things
come together. To me, those are all the pillars of
a great offensive line, a great offensive line unit, and
why I think they are elite.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
Even going back to the year before, like they've had
you can make the case that they arguably have had
like the best top six offensive lineman the past like
two years, with how good Anderson was last year and
then how good Edwards was the year before. Like it's
just they're just such a good unit together. And I
don't know if it's because they are such a good

(01:10:09):
unit together that they're that sec geness isn't there, Like
there is no Quinton Nelson or Lane Johnson or Jason
Kelce or My Lotto or like the units you always
get talked about from an offensive line perspective being the best.
Even with Dawkins and Brown being upper tier, there's still
not that level of upper tier, and so I think
that knocks them a bit, which is really unfortunate because

(01:10:30):
this but again to go back and not to beat
this just drum too much. I still don't think. I
think people are still grasping their head or wrapping their
head around the run game being the most important piece.
That's why so many people are like, oh, well, what
about the receivers and the receivers and like they don't care.
They're about to put three tight ends on the field.
And go jumbo at the same time and run through
your face like that's what they want to be. They're
not spreading you out and going, you know, ten personnel

(01:10:53):
or three by two like this is what the team
is run by the offense.

Speaker 4 (01:10:57):
That's why it didn't make sense for me when if
you guys want, actually the entire clip of Dousable talking
about how they're just a solid offensive line, he actually
said right after that part where I cut it, he
says that the Bills really don't have many wide receivers.
He even remember Khalil Shakir's name, and so he was
saying they don't really have a true number one, and
it's really Josh Allen doing Josh Allen things. So he

(01:11:19):
was kind of making the case for having a top tier,
elite offensive line without making it. It was so funny, but again,
no hard feelings against him. I just it didn't make
sense to me because it sounded like he was proving
the case for Bills fans when they say their offensive
line is elite, because again I believe that they are.
And right now it's just like I feel like it's

(01:11:42):
the golden age of the Bills offensive line. The last
time I felt this way was coincidentally enough, when Aaron
Kromer was here with Shady and that run game Richie Incognitom,
you know, cooking up pancakes left and right, setting records
in the rushing game. So I do feel like it
is a the golden age of the Bills offensive line,
and we'll look back as this was one of those

(01:12:05):
better offensive lines that we've seen in our in our time, honestly.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
Absolutely, and especially with where we've come in the Josh
Allen like journey with what the line started out as
and then they tried to piece things together, and especially
now coming from like a really good group two years ago,
and then they changed it all in the blink of
an eye with McGovern movement to center and Morse going away,
and we're like, oh man, like they were so good,
what are they gonna do? They stayed just as good,

(01:12:29):
if not got even a little better. Yeah, how they've
developed even how I'm still the thing that sticks in
my mind after we spoke with Osyrus Torrents one of
the clips in the film with us, and he was like, well,
I'm not going to bury this dude, because if I
buried him, it would have gone into the back of
Dion's legs and I could have hurt his knee or
something like. That's how tuned and locked in they are
as a group. They're not only executing assignment wise, but

(01:12:51):
they're also locked into the point of like, I'm just
gonna block this guy, but keep him up because I
don't want to knock him into one of my other
offensive linemen and hurt his knee or ankle.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
Like.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
They're just on point when you're and you see that
execution and that health and that consistency week in and
week out, massive no jinks, fingers crossed for everything I
just said. I want to put that out there. It
came into my mind as I was saying it. Yeah,
this is this is and even if you like I
would have even met okay if he said they're not elite,
but they're like really really really good, Like they're more

(01:13:19):
than just solid like that. I'm not accepting that from anyone.
This is a top tier group for a top tier team,
and they deserve their flowers. Eric anything else on your
mind before we say goodbye to the folks on this
Wednesday afternoon.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
No, I know it's an odd time for us to
go live, but we want to get it out there
and you guys can consume it before you know. Cover
One Buffalo tonight with Brandon Thorn. Go watch and listen
to what he has to say about the Bills offensive line,
what he thinks about that units as overall when you're
comparing them to the league. But thanks for those that
joined us, And thanks to Joe DeRosa, our producer, we're

(01:13:55):
gonna be bringing along one of our new producers, Colin
Richie as well. He's gonna be helping out with a
new show that Sale Capachi and I will be doing
once training camp starts and then once each week following
the game. So Colin will be helping out there. So
he's been hanging out in the background with us today.
So but thank you guys for joining us. We're gonna
do this without you. I'm excited. It's still a few

(01:14:17):
weeks away, but I'm excited to get out to Saint
John Fisher to get out there watching football and watch camp.

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
But we're gonna We're gonna figure.

Speaker 4 (01:14:25):
Out some some topics to kind of hold us over
over the next couple of weeks until we get there.

Speaker 2 (01:14:29):
Yeah, it's that slow time, but you know what, you're
getting from us, we won't. We're not doing an episode
unless we are fully into wit and the topic is
worth it. We're not just gonna put out content for
the sake of putting out content. So we appreciate everyone
who joined us this random Wednesday afternoon. If you're living
in the western New York or Buffalo area, it's kind
of hot but also kind of ugly and muggy out,
so enjoy the day, but also maybe stay inside. Whatever

(01:14:52):
whatever you choose, do you we appreciate you stopping by,
whether live, whether post live, YouTube, Apple, podcast, Spotify, whatever
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form you tuned in. Thank you very much to mister
Joe DeRosa. Thank you very much for Colin hanging out
in the back and chilling with us in this episode
and learning the ropes for some things. We hope you
and your family and friends and loved ones are all
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take care of one another. For myself Anthony Prohaska, For
the founder of Cover One, mister Eric Turner. This has

(01:15:55):
been another episode of the Cover one Film Room. We
will see you when we see you. Godspeed, and as always,
Gobels

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Tyreek UNCENSORED, Nielsen’s Impact & Coleman's Role | Film Room

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Tyreek UNCENSORED, Nielsen’s Impact & Coleman's Role | Film Room