Thursday, May 31, 2012

Update 05/31/12

Christ, is it the end of may already? Of course I say that while looking wistfully out of the window and wondering where the time has gone, only to realise that it's only been about a month since the draft took place and that feels like years ago. There was a point to this, but I've forgotten what it was.

Anyway, I have my weekend back, such bliss, which means I should be able to get a good chunk of the work done on looking at the third round picks from the 2012 draft. Sometime next week should be the landing point.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Zone Blitz

(And eventually, here it is. The fabled post about the Zone blitz.)

It's been such a long time since I last did a post with diagrams. So refreshing to get back into some of the "x's and o's" of football. Just hope I can remember how many diagrams I'm allowed to put in and don't run over the limit. That's before we even get into the issues about whether the new blogger interface will permit me to put pictures in? We'll find out I guess.

So in this post I want to take a look at the zone blitz. We often here this name banded about in the footballing world, but what exactly is a zone blitz and why do teams use them?

Well first off it would be a good idea to look at the history of the zone blitz. Unfortunately, like most things in football, that could take years of research to finally sort through all the various claims made by people over the years who say they were the one that invented the zone blitz (or claimed a hefty hand in it). The only claim of any sort that seems to hold any strong, consensus merit, is that current Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau is responsible for popularizing the zone blitz among NFL teams, through his work with both the Bengals and Steelers.

That out of the way, just what is the zone blitz? To understand it we first need to look at the alternative, that being the man blitz.

The man blitz comes in two basic forms; "cover zero/0" and "cover one/1 - man free". Cover zero involves putting a defender man to man on every single one of the five eligible offensive receivers. The remaining six defenders are going after the quarterback! This is where we get the "zero" from, because there are zero deep defenders.

Cover one - Man Free, involves almost the same as cover zero, except one of the six blitzers is sacrificed in favour of a deep defender. He becomes the "one" in "cover one". The fact that the free safety is the logical choice for this role (and indeed almost always is chosen) gives us the "free", though I've heard disputes over this etymology with some saying that they were taught that "man free" meant for the outside coverage defenders to let their man run free down the sideline, but I have to say that seems like a rather bizarre interpretation if you ask me.

Regardless, below I've done a diagram of what a Cover 0 look, erm, looks like. The dotted lines indicate which receiver a defender is covering, while the solid black arrows pointed ominiously at the quarterback represent blitzing defenders;




Now the point of a man blitz is simple; it's a calculated gamble.

You're putting your coverage men in a tight spot by making each of them cover a receiver man to man, but that's compensated for by the extra pressure that you're bringing on the quarterback. You're hoping to either get a sack before he can release the ball, or to cause him to rush his throw such that he makes an error - either in judgement or with accuracy - and throws an incomplete pass, or better yet, an interception.

The key to cover zero is that if all five eligible receivers release into a pattern then that only leaves five offensive linemen to block six rushing defenders. Even if we assume perfect blocking by the offensive line that still means that someone is going to be coming through untouched for a free shot at the quarterback!

The downside of course is that there is no (zero) top cover by a deep safety. If our pass rushers don't get to the quarterback in time or he manages to make a quick and accurate throw, then there is nobody left between the receiver and the end zone. That's only going to end one way and it's not good for our defense. It also allows an alert quarterback to victimise certain corners who are matched up against his bigger, "target man" style receivers (like Larry Fitzgerald) by simply throwing up a jump ball.

That's the gamble you take; extra pressure versus the possibility of giving up a large gain.

The zone blitz is a way of trying to get the best of both worlds. You're bringing pressure on the quarterback while also playing a much safer coverage behind it, so that if the pressure fails to get home then your coverage men still have the opportunity to make a play, and failing that they are at least in a better position to try and bring down the eventual receiver before he reaches the end zone.

Zone blitzes also give the defensive coordinator a degree of flexibility. He can chose different combinations of rushers, perhaps opting for an overload blitz from one side, and he can also mix up the type of coverages he uses on the back end while still bringing the same number of rushers up front.

A basic example of this is demonstrated below;
With the Will and Sam backers rushing the quarterback that leaves the corners holding the 'curl/flat' zones to the outside, with Mike and Ted playing underneath across the middle, and the two safeties each taking a deep half of the field.

Here we're now able to bring five rushers while still keeping a relatively solid coverage scheme behind them. We're still looking to get after the quarterback with extra pressure, but at the same time we're in a little better shape if that fails. Perhaps just as important is that now if the quarterback panics under the pressure and throws a bad pass, our zone defenders will be looking right at him when he does it. They're better able to read and react, pouncing on any errant throw.

This also brings us to one of the trade offs when it comes to zone blitzing. Obviously you can see from the diagram above that the four underneath defenders are going to have a difficult time covering the width of the field between them, not helped by my budget diagram making skills, that have condensed the left side corners zone and given Mike a little bit too much room than he would actually be expected to cover in a real game.

Still, the point stands, there are some quite significant gaps between defenders. A good quarterback with time on his hand will pick a defense like this apart in short order, zinging passes through the wider gaps compared to a 5 underneath coverage that you would have if you only rushed four defenders.

Again it's a gamble, a sacrifice, a balancing act. We're trading slightly larger gaps in between the coverage defenders in favour getting an extra man into the pressure scheme to get after the quarterback. If the pressure pays off and the quarterback throws a bad pass then the wider gaps wont matter, and in some cases may actually result in a pick.

Now, "zone blitz" is a very broad term and the amount of variations of different pressures and coverages is quite vast. But even in that large soup of potential defenses there are a few stand out examples that are worth highlighting, which is precisely what we're going to do. There are two sub sets of the zone blitz that I want to highlight and they are; 1) a zone blitz with a dropping D-lineman and 2) the fire zone blitz.

Number one is an oddity that sees a defensive lineman drop out of the pass rush and instead back track into coverage. Once quite a rare sight in football, it's becoming increasingly common, especially so in 4-3 defenses that are looking for new ways to mix up their coverage schemes to keep themselves fresh and present new problems for quarterbacks.

Let's have a look at an example;
In this case the defensive end on the weak side is dropping out into zone coverage. The Will linebacker moves across to cover behind the pressure and we get a five man blitz from one side of the field. This is also a reasonable example of an overload blitz, as we have 5 rushers against 3 offensive linemen. The tight end might be kept into block, but generally he'll be out as a receiver. You're now relying on your two running backs to pick up the other two rushers, providing they are even both staying in for protection. If they are then you probably don't need me to tell you what happens when running backs try to routinely block fast moving linebackers.

As with all things football there ups and downs to this approach. The plus side is that you can surprise a quarterback and his protection scheme by doing something a little out of the blue. Having watched a whole bunch of tape where that left defensive end rushes every play, and having already seen maybe 20 plays that day where he did the same thing, it can come as quite a shock to a quarterback when he suddenly drops off into coverage. At the same time you have that strong over load blitz coming from the right.

The down side is that you've just put a six foot four, 270-280 pound man who is built for pass rushing out into space to try and cover a zone. Unless the ball happens to be thrown quite close to him, he's less likely to be able to make a play on it than a linebacker would. He's also inexperienced at playing coverage, so he may not get the correct depth or width for his assignment, leaving a big opening to be exploited.

Further more, because we're bringing an overload pressure from one side of the field that means we have to ask the Will linebacker to get across to cover. That takes time, and if the quarterback and the tight end are on the same page we may seem them execute a "hot" throw, where the tight end realises that heavy pressure is being brought from his side and thus stops running his route and instead turns immediately to look for a throw. If this happens, there is no chance that the Will linebacker will get across in time.

Again, and I'm sorry to keep repeating this, but it's a gamble. We're taking a chance with the coverage in the hope of creating a positive play with that overload pressure. It might be worth at this juncture pointing out that taking the odd gamble is actually quite healthy for a defensive coordinator (and offensive coordinators), as long as they understand the risks they are taking and take those chances in a somewhat measured manner. A calculated gamble based on the game situation and the opponent can reap huge rewards, while reckless gambling can often throw away a game that should otherwise have been perfectly winnable.

Moving on now we come to the final blitz that I want to touch on, and that's the Fire Zone blitz. The fire zone blitz is a relatively simple concept that comes in many variations and forms, but all share a commong theme; 5 pass rushers, 3 underneath zone defenders, and three deep zone defenders.

Here's what it looks like;

In the picture above you can see that we still have five rushers, but now the two cornerbacks drop off into deep zone coverages along with the free safety, each taking one deep third of the field. The Strong Safety comes down into a short zone underneath, the Mike linebacker stays in the middle and the Will linebacker goes out into the short zone to the side.

The benefit of this type of coverage is mainly that it a) it's quite unpredictable and b) it gives us good deep coverage. The unpredictability though is the main driver. Because we only need three underneath defenders we can be very flexible about who drops back and who rushes. Given that there are only three deep responsibilities and we have four defenders capable of covering those deep areas, one of them will nearly always be involved in the underneath coverage. That means we only have to strip two of the remaining front seven players to complete our coverage.

This also generally helps to explain why 3-4 teams are much more at home using the zone blitz than 4-3 teams. By replacing a slightly ungainly down lineman with a more lithe and agile linebacker it makes it a lot easier/safer to use schemes that require one of the wider men on the line of scrimmage to drop off.

There are also lots of novel ways to manipulate this scheme to best effect. Teams like the Green Bay Packers have become quite at home with dropping a defensive linemen back into the middle of their defense to cover that middle zone, allowing 3 of their linebackers to rush the quarterback (assuming the other is involved in the coverage). It can be quite a surprise for a quarterback to see a swathe of pressure coming right at him and then looking straight down the middle for a pass to the tight end, only to see a nose tackle suddenly come into your line of sight!

The disadvantages are that again you could be putting a defensive lineman, not ideally suited to the coverage role, into a coverage role. Also, with only three defenders underneath it means there are some gaping holes to be exploited. This is compounded by the fact that some of the underneath coverage men will be running at full tilt to get into position and thus are vulnerable to having passes thrown behind them where they will find it difficult to stop and do a 180 degree turn in time. Again, much relies on the added pressure and the surprise generated by the pass rush to confuse the quarterback into making a mistake.

So there we have it, the zone blitz. Not the most comprehensive article you'll ever see and maybe in the future I'll take a more in depth look at something like the fire zone, but as a primer it'll do. I hope you enjoyed it and can get some use out of it. If so then by all means pass this on to others, click one of the share buttons at the bottom, send it to a friend or just spread the word of mouth. I'd be very grateful.

As for future postings. Right now I have on my "to do list" two things, one being to go through and have a closer look at the third round draft picks, which is something I've already partially made a start on, and the other is to do an article about pass routes and how these can be adapted on the fly by receivers to avoid some of the problems with putting together offensive plays that have multiple concepts in them designed to beat multiple coverages.

At some point this off season I would also like to do a post about just what kind of things NFL teams do in training camp, specifically how they organise their time and how they break down their practices.

Until next time, enjoy the sunshine!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Yet Another Update; 05/21/12

There's good news and bad news.

The bad news I still haven't finished my post on the zone blitz and won't do so tonight (It's nearly midnight here and I have to be up again at 6).

The good news is that I have three days essentially free from the moment I get back from work tomorrow, so I'll have plenty of time for writing. At last.

This blogging thing seems to get harder each year.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Update 05/19/12

Still not done with my Zone Blitz post. The main problem have at the minute is that I also write articles occasionally for a British defence website and just recently the British government has announced its schedule for what it calls "Planning Round 12", which is basically like a budget statement for UK defence in 2012, more or less. That's consuming a lot of my  time right now as a current event, whereas obviously football is in its "dead" time.

I will get it done though!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Update 05/15/12

Half woring on a post right now about the Zone blitz. When that's done, I'll move to round 3 of the draft. There's a long time between now and the start of the season with nothing to do, so expect posts to be drawn out, both to give me more time to do other stuff and to provide a more steady stream of posts that drag out over the summer to fill your football gap.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

2012 NFL Draft: Round Two

Ta da!!! Better late than never, or at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking by it. If the text looks odd it's because I have circumvented the bullshit that is Bloggers interface by simply writing most of the article in Word and then pasting it into the text window, because I'm clever like that. Although I admit just having looked at it in the preview, it looks like shit. I don't even care. I haven't slept for 30 hours. Night, enjoy the article:

(33)  1. Rams select WR Brian Quick: This has been my first look at Quick and I’m sure I’m not the only person taken by surprise by this pick. Overall Quick strikes me as being an average receiver with pretty good hands and good height. He has some serious issues running down the sidelines on deep routes with maintaining the proper distance from the edge of the field and his route running will need some work. With Alshon Jeffery still on the board, this pick was a little surprising.

(34) 2. Colts select TE Coby Fleener: This is a great pick in my view. Fleener has taken a lot of stick for his run blocking but personally I don’t understand that. He was a pretty good blocker on a team that was very good at rushing, so there’s no issue there for me. As a pass catcher is where Fleener really comes into his own. He’s a great route runner with pretty good hands and really he should be considered as an under speed receiver more than a fast tight end. Playing over the middle he’ll provide a great target for his former college team mate Andrew Luck and could ease Lucks entry into the NFL a great deal.

(35) 3. Ravens select DE Courtney Upshaw: The Ravens obviously saw something in Upshaw to take him in the second round, but I don’t see it. I stand by what I said previously about him. He is very average, seems fairly easy to block, is not really that athletic and is almost completely unable to get a sack unless he’s left unblocked. I don’t understand the interest at all.

(36) 4. Broncos select DT Derek Wolfe: I was quite down on him before and watching him again, I’m still down on him. Occasionally he’ll muscle his way close to the play, but it’s a very rare occurrence and just generally he doesn’t contribute much, and this was against talent not even representative of the NFL level.

(37) 5. Browns select OT Mitchell Schwartz: Yeah, I think I’ll stand by Schwartz as a good tackle. He played against some very difficult opponents and came through with reasonably flying colours. He seems to have a few problems at times with picking out who to block on certain plays, but looking at I think it’s probably an issue specific to that scheme and not a general problem with Schwartz. He should make a good tackle in the NFL.

(38) 6. Jaguars select DE Andre Branch: What the Jaguars have desperately needed for a while now has been a pass rush of some form and they’ll be hoping Branch provides it. He’s quick, that much is undeniable. He’s not always the strongest end on the field and that may hurt him in the long run, but he can get off the snap quickly and he can give offensive tackles big problems. He’ll be an interesting and frankly much needed addition to the Jaguars team.

(39) 7. Rams select CB Janoris Jenkins: One of the most highly rated corners in the draft, but really I’m not sure why. His coverage skills are somewhat average, he doesn’t tackle very well at all and he plays far too loose off the receiver, giving them massive cushions. The Rams need help at corner and I don’t think Jenkins is it.

(40) 8. Panthers select OT Amini Silatolu: Not a lot of Midwestern State film kicking about! From what I’ve seen though Silatolu looked a bit 50/50. In the running game he certainly had that element of being a bulldozer about him, albeit against some questionable opposition. In pass protection he looked a little ungainly and slow to me. I’m not sure I’d trust him with my franchise quarterback, especially as he has to adapt to playing guard.

(41) 9. Bills select OT Cordy Glenn: In my initial look at the offensive linemen I was very, very critical of Glenn. Having watched him again I once again find myself wondering how that could be? Like Kalil and Reiff, I see nothing really wrong with Glenn. He’s strong, pretty well balanced and with good footwork. I just really don’t understand what has happened and why I was so off the first time around with some of these O-linemen? I think Glenn would make a good left tackle for the Bills and should really help that offense in the passing game.

(42) 10. Dolphins select OT Jonathan Martin: Seems like the Dolphins saw a run on tackles and went for one themselves! Martin is pretty good having covered the backside of Andrew Luck all last year. I kind of raved about him before and now I won’t say that I’m going to down grade my opinion of him, which would suggest I don’t like him, just that perhaps I was a little too eager the first time. He does his job but he has a few technical flaws that show up every now and again. He’ll likely play as a right tackle for Miami which will take some adjusting to, but generally he’s a solid run blocker and a fairly sound pass blocker.

(43) 11. Jets select WR Stephen Hill: What is it about Georgia Tech producing these tall, thickly built receivers? Maybe more college teams should go receiver scouting in Georgia high schools?  Hill follows very much in the footsteps of Calvin Johnson and DeMaryius Thomas in that he’s a big, athletic target man with a great pair of hands. For the Jets he makes a great counter balance to the smaller and speedier Santonio Holmes.

(44) 12. Chiefs select OT Jeff Allen: Didn’t get a chance to have a look at him first time around. Having now seen him I’m quite impressed. Pretty solid, tough, nice punch and extension of the arms. Footwork is pretty good too. Flip flopped between left and right tackle so has some playing time at both, though it’ll be interesting to see where the Chiefs finally stick him. Not a bad little pick at all.

(45) 13. Bears select WR Alshon Jeffery: The Bears have been crying out for proper receivers for a couple of seasons now. Hopefully the Devin Hester experiment has ended because that was going nowhere. With Brandon Marshall brought in all they needed was a decent number two and they have it in Jeffery. He’s a great receiver, big, pretty quick, great hands and body control. The only thing he really needs to polish up is the top of his routes (the breaking point) which sometimes are a little sloppy. But a good pick none the less.

(46) 14. Eagles select ILB Mychal Kendricks: I was quote negative about Kendricks first time around and on reflection that may have been a bit too harsh because Kendricks does have some great speed. But still, he’s a small kid who gets muscled around far too easily and that’s a problem for a linebacker. He might have had use as a 3-4 outside rusher, but I can’t see what help he’s going to give the Eagles? They need stout, gap scheme linebackers and Kendricks is not that. Maybe they plan on bringing more pressure from the weak side?

(47) 15. Seahawks select ILB Bobby Wagner: Now this one I do stand by what I said. Wagner is god awful. He’s slow, unbalanced and not especially that instinctive. He barely seems to contribute and given that Lavonte David was still on the board at this point I really don’t understand why you would take Wagner. You cannot tell me, even if you like Wagner a lot, that he is better than David. Ridiculous.

(48) 16. Patriots select FS Tavon Wilson: Far be it for me to question the judgement of Bill Belichick but… what in the hell was he thinking? Wilson is a very average secondary man with generally poor coverage skills and poor tackling. About the only thing I can see that might have attracted Belichick is the fact that Wilson has played corner, slot defender and safety, as well as special teams. The problem – as I see it – is that he was no good at any of these. Interesting.

(49) 17. Chargers select DT Kendall Reyes: Hmm. I was pretty down on Kendall Reyes before, even going to the extent of threatening to get on a plane and punch Jim Harbaugh in the head if the 49ers drafted him, but at a second look he seemed much better. He does seem to have a knack for getting between the linemen and getting disruptive penetration into the backfield. Still has trouble coping with down blocks in the running game, but not a bad defensive lineman. Probably make a good DE in the Chargers 3-4 scheme.

(50) 18. Rams select RB Isaiah Pead: I’m going to partially stand by what I said before. Pead is a terrible pass blocker, despite many assertions that I’ve heard to the contrary. He just flat out cannot pass protect. His hands are also a little sketchy, as he seems to drop the majority of the passes thrown to him. But I will take back what I said about his speed. He has a great burst coupled with excellent agility that makes him a real danger when he gets going. Perhaps needs to learn to run a bit more North/South instead of sideline to sideline, but yeah, there’s a lot to like about him.

(51) 19. Packers select DT Jerel Worthy: The Packers took a chance to move up and take Worthy and given the way they set their defense that makes some sense. Worthy is a big body who gets a big push on the first step, but doesn’t really do a whole lot else. His value is as a player that eats blocks and causes some disruption in the backfield, creating opportunities for the supporting linebackers to make play. I still think this is a bit of a gamble for the Packers, but perhaps not as much as I previously thought.

(52) 20. Titans select OLB Zach Brown: I stand by what I said. Brown is pure garbage. He ran a quick 40 at the combine and every now and again as he’s dropping back into coverage someone will sling a pass right at him which he picks off, but generally speaking he is a complete waste. Slow to react, unbalanced, terrible footwork and he tackles like a 3 year old child. Awful. Just awful.

(53) 21. Bengals select DT Devon Still: Perhaps I might rescind my complaints about Still a little, but not a lot. I’ll grant you that he probably does have some utility as a role player perhaps, an extra young body to fill out the rotation and maybe groom for the future, but as a second round pick I don’t understand it. He’s not that good. Turns up the very occasional sack and spends a lot of time getting pushed around by guards. I also don’t think defensive line was especially critical for the Bengals.

(54) 22. Lions select WR Ryan Broyles: Like the Still pick for the Bengals, I’m not sure this was the greatest idea by the Lions. I understand the Best Player Available argument and to a degree I’ve been swayed to it, but really? When your team has so many other issues you went out and got another receiver? Ok. I hadn’t seen Broyles pre-draft and he looks ok. Hands are pretty good, he’s quite quick and he runs well with the ball in his hands. Route running is not a strength though. In the NFL that can cause problems with getting separation. Perhaps a little high for someone of his ability, but you never know. Maybe the Lions can do something with that speed?

(55) 23. Falcons select OC Peter Konz: That’s offensive center and not offensive coordinator, just to clarify. I originally said outside of the first round Konz would be worth a look and here we are! He’s a Wisconsin Badger offensive linemen. That tells you a lot of what you need to know. He’s physically impressive and in the running game has a talent for blowing people off the ball. He’s also athletic enough to pull on power plays and play guard if the Falcons decide to go that way with him. Pass protection needs some work still, but that’s mostly smoothing off the rough edges.

(56) 24. Steelers select OT Mike Adams: Initially I called him a top 10 pick and I think since then I’ve cooled a little on him, so I guess it’s a good thing that I wasn’t sitting in a draft room for your team! Though if I were in such a position I’d have access to a ton more film and all day to watch it so who knows? Adams is still a good pick though. He does need a bit of work with his hands and sometimes his footwork is a little clumsy, but overall he’s a big, powerful young man who has a lot of potential to progress to a higher level.

(57) 25. Broncos select QB Brock Osweiler: So with Tim Tebow gone to New York, the Broncos have selected Brock Osweiler to become the new understudy to Peyton Manning. Of course someone should probably tell the Broncos that Manning’s track record as a mentor for young quarterbacks is pretty abysmal (just ask Curtis Painter). Osweiler should be in familiar territory then because he too is abysmal. He spent the majority of his college career throwing screen passes. When asked to push the ball downfield he did so poorly and there is no real reason to expect that to change in the NFL.

(58) 26. Buccaneers select LB Lavonte David: The Buccaneers traded away their third and fourth round picks to Houston in exchange for this pick and Houston’s seventh rounder. Though they did pay a hefty price (I feel), Tampa got a great linebacker in return. I love Lavonte David. Playing in the heart of the defense he can rush the passer, stop the run, cover tight ends, cover slot receivers and do it all at speed and with relentless pursuit. I feel like David gives you a lot of options with what you can do with him and will give you everything he has on the field. The Buc’s defense got a serious upgrade.

(59) 27. Eagles select DE Vinny Curry: Originally this should have been the Saints pick, but part of their punishment for the bounty scandal left it in the hands of Green Bay, who then traded it along with a fourth round pick to the Eagles in exchange for the 51st selection (a pick with multiple owners itself). The Eagles decided to boost their pass rush by taking Vinny Curry from Marshall. First time around I was incredibly hard on Curry and since then I’ve eased off a little. Still, he struggled against the likes of Mike Adams and didn’t exactly blow up lesser opposition. His bull rush isn’t too bad and he has some moves, he just doesn’t seem able to convert all that into regular sacks. We’ll see, with the Eagles current scheme the ends always seem to do well and Jim Washburn is just about as good a D-line coach as you could hope for.

(60) 28. Ravens select OG Kelechi Osemele: First time I’ve seen Osemele and I think it’s going to be incredibly hard for anyone to project him accurately. First off, he played left tackle in college but is expected to be a guard for the Ravens, so we’re already dipping into murky waters. Secondly, Iowa State’s running game often called for Osemele to make ridiculously long reach blocks to the inside against an interior defensive linemen, which makes it difficult to assess his true potential as a run blocker. Against the pass Osemele did well. He held his own against some good rushers and looked pretty stout. Like I say, tough to predict I think.

(61) 29. 49ers select RB LaMichael James: As a 49ers fan I was understandably very interested in this pick and frankly I find this a bit of a head scratcher. The 49ers already had Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter and Anthony Dixon, and then in the off season they brought in Brandon Jacobs and Rock Cartwright. Adding another running back is very odd. But if you’re going to add a new back then at least make him a good one and LaMichael James certainly is that. One thing all of the previously mentioned backs had in common is that they’re all big, pounding backs, “bangers” as I like to call them. James offers quite a change of pace with significant speed and sharp cutting ability, making him a viable option both at running back and as a slot receiver.

(62) 30. Packers select CB Casey Hayward: I don’t know what to make of Hayward. First look I was very high on him but I think that’s slipping a little now. Tackling, or rather his seeming inability to tackle, is a big worry. The way he plays is more suited to a man coverage corner, whereas really the Packers are more of a zone coverage team. He is good against the pass, getting his head around most (but not all) of the time and finding the football. He’s had a good number of interceptions and pass break ups, but he struggles to control big bodied receivers and has been toasted deep more than a few times. The Packers have a knack lately for developing corners, so we’ll see.

(63) 31. Giants select WR Rueben Randle: I still like Randle and looking at it, this was probably about right for where you would expect him to land. The Giants may even have some starting time for Randle after Mario Manningham left for golden pastures on the west coast. Randle is not a dominant physical receiver in the same sense that Justin Blackmon, Michael Floyd and Alshon Jeffery are, but he is quick, runs very good routes and has excellent hands. He can catch awkward balls right after coming out of his break and makes excellent adjustments under deep balls, which is an art in its own right.

As for the follow on, next is round three but I might interrupt that by doing a post that has been on my to do list for a long time now and that is a post describing the basics of the Zone blitz. I'm also thinking about doing a basics on the ISO running play. If you have any requests, either leave a comment below or e-mail me at keepingthechainsmoving@live.co.uk

The worst I can do is say no. We'll see. Till next time, hold on. It's only four months till the season begins again.

Update: 05/09/12

Like the bad guy in every Scooby Doo episode, my best laid plans have been spoiled again by some pesky kids. Originally my plan was to publish an article about Round two of the draft over the weekend. At this rate the players will be retired and planning their hall of fame induction speeches before I finally get my material out there.

Hopefully (he says) it'll be done in the next few hours.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Update 05/03/12

Two things to address real quick.

First is that I'm still grinding away on my post looking at the second round of the NFL draft. Keep in mind that unlike the TV pundits I don't have all day to watch the film and write stuff up! I'm trying to get a good look at each player during the intervals in my day that are free and it takes a long while sometimes just to cover one player. It should be done and up sometime around the weekend.

That out of the way we need to move on the more important - and sad - news about Junior Seau, who has been found dead in his home. As I write this the reports are that he suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest, which allegedly was self inflicted. He was 43.

Seau played as a Linebacker for USC, wearing the much coveted #55 jersey, before being selected 5th overall in the first round of the 1990 NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers. Seau would spend 12 years with the Chargers and then three more with the Miami Dolphins before being released and announcing his retirement. This announcement proved premature as just four days late he signed a deal with the New England Patriots, whom he played three seasons for.

Finally Seau announced his intention to retire in January of 2010, and although he never officially "retired", he never played again after that. He finished his extensive and highly lauded 19 year career as a 12 time pro bowler, 10 time Associated Press All-Pro, and a 2 time AFC Champion. He amassed 1,849 tackles, 56.5 sacks and 18 interceptions. The only significant honor that eluded him was a Super Bowl ring, but few doubt that Seau was a Super Bowl caliber linebacker.

Outside of football Seau created the Junior Seau foundation in 1992, the purpose of the organisation being to help educate and empower young people through various programs and initiatives. In March of this year Seau's foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Seau himself had three kids; a daughter and two sons.

In more recent years his life has been somewhat troubled, but I've decided not to dwell on that. This is a football blog and I want to focus on Seau's football achievements, and the great things he did outside of football. I'm sure the general press will more than cover every last inch of Seau's life over the coming days.

Rest In Peace Junior. My thoughts are obviously with his family and all those who knew him well throughout his life. If you believe in God, then say a prayer for them.