For part one of our Emulating McVay series
Drew Sample Cincinnati Bengals Jersey , let’s examine how the Bengals can get more efficient production out of John Ross like the Rams got out of Brandin
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McVay: How to raise John Ross to Brandin Cooks’ level New,18commentsFor part one
of our Emulating McVay series, let’s examine how the Bengals can get more
efficient production out of John Ross like the Rams got out of Brandin
Cooks.EDTShareTweetShareShareEmulating McVay: How to raise John Ross to Brandin
Cooks’ level “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can
pay to greatness.” - Oscar WildeCopycat league. The deadlines for progress for
NFL franchises (well... most of them) seem to be days in comparison to years for
organizations in other major sports. In LeBron James’ HBO roundtable discussion
program The Shop, James compared the NBA and the NFL like so:“The difference
between the NBA and the NFL, the NBA is... what we believe he can be, like, the
potential. In the NFL, it’s like what can you do for me this Sunday, or this
Monday, or this Thursday. And if you ain’t it... we movin’ on.”The NFL is unique
due to its parity between all teams: any given Sunday. It’s this levelness
coupled with a sheer aggressiveness to evolve for the sake of strategic
advantage that creates the whirlwind we know and love every Sunday afternoon in
Autumn. Realistically, not every team can be at the forefront of evolution. Some
teams adapt.The Bengals are trying to adapt.The Los Angeles Rams have become the
cream of the crop in the apple orchard of outdated offenses; making Sean McVay
the Johnny Appleseed of simplistic innovation. With the hiring of McVay’s former
quarterbacks coach Zac Taylor, Cincinnati’s plan is simple: allow Taylor to
build his own evolution of McVay’s system. Of course this can’t happen
overnight, not without talent that’s comparable to what Taylor was exposed to in
Los Angeles.Luckily, the Bengals have comparable talent, with the emphasis on
comparable, and talent.This three-part series hopes to shed light on integral
pieces in the Bengals’ offense and how they can be maximized in similar ways
seen in the McVay offense.For part one
Drew Sample Jersey 2019 , we’re going to look at Brandin Cooks and John Ross.Comparing apples to more bruised applesCooks and Ross entered the NFL very
similarly. In his final year at Oregon State, Cooks accounted for 35% of the
Beavers’ passing yards and 42% of their passing touchdowns. Cooks then blazed a
4.33 40-yard dash at the NFL combine at 5-10 189 pounds and wound up becoming
the 20th overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.Three years later at another PAC-12
program, Ross didn’t quite hit Cooks’ marks (32% passing yardage market share
and 36% touchdown market share) in his final year at Washington, but his 4.22
40-yard dash at 5-11 188 pounds shot his draft stock into the top-10. Entering
2019, Cooks is on his third team after being traded for a first-round pick twice
and has found a home with the Rams. Ross is, well, not exactly valued that
high.Using NFL.com’s Next Gen Stats and a couple of metrics from
PlayerProfiler.com, the difference between Cooks and Ross in 2018 is stark in
more ways than one.Cooks vs. Ross Advanced StatsNAMEAVERAGE CUSHIONAVERAGE
SEPARATION AVERAGE TARGETED AIR YARDSTEAM AIR YARDS %RECEPTIONSTARGETSRECEPTION
%CATCHABLE %YARDSYARDS/ PASS ROUTETOUCHDOWNSYARDS AFTER CATCH/ RECEPTIONEXPECTED
YARDS AFTER CATCH/ RECEPTIONEXPECTED YARDS AFTER CATCH/ RECEPTION +/-NAMEAVERAGE
CUSHIONAVERAGE SEPARATION AVERAGE TARGETED AIR YARDSTEAM AIR YARDS
%RECEPTIONSTARGETSRECEPTION %CATCHABLE %YARDSYARDS/ PASS ROUTETOUCHDOWNSYARDS
AFTER CATCH/ RECEPTIONEXPECTED YARDS AFTER CATCH/ RECEPTIONEXPECTED YARDS AFTER
CATCH/ RECEPTION +/-The first numbers that stand out have to be the percentage
of team air yards relative to average targeted air yards. Ross averaged just
over one air yard per target more than Cooks but accounted for almost 12% less
of his team’s total air yards. This is a testament to the Bengals’ willingness
to look for Ross down the field, but failure to get him the ball in those
situations.The discrepancy in reception percentage gets put into proper context
by seeing the catchable percentage alongside it. Cooks saw one less air yard per
target on average but 24% more his targets were catchable. That’s a monstrous
difference. Explains the whopping 1.84 difference in yards per pass route as
well.Expected yards after the catch also showcases a sizable gap between the
two. Cooks’ film isn’t a collection of short passes with Cooks in space, but
with slightly more average separation, Cooks was able to do more damage with the
ball in his hands. Ross dealt with noticeably more contested situations and less
room to operate.Ultimately, a vast difference in efficiency is revealed with
this data, and the film can show us why. I went through all of Cooks’ touches
during the 2018 season and extracted three main themes for how the Rams’ offense
made him an even more productive player.Route concepts that create meaningful
spaceFirst off, Cooks is an extremely impressive receiver, especially for his
size. He was asked to win in contested spaces a lot more often than I expected
with the Rams and his physicality at the catch-point genuinely surprised me.
With that said, his speed and fluidity was put to great use when McVay dialed up
effective route concepts with him as the primary read (yes
Color Rush Drew Sample Jersey , I accidentally referred to Robert Woods by his teammate Josh Reynolds).There’s not much separating the route running abilities
between Cooks and Ross. When given space to operate, Ross can reach his
landmarks in plenty of time. All he needs is an accurate ball.Play action to
allow ideal timingYou can’t talk about the Rams’ offense without covering their
use of play action. Building off the concept of creating space for the
receivers, play action can do just that as well as slow down a pass rush. You
can definitely expect play action to make up a good amount of the Bengals’
passing game this season, and no, you don’t need to establish the run to set it
up. Defenses already have to fear Ross’ deep speed, anytime they have to account
for the threat of the run, it makes it even more deadly.Screens and
sweepsGrowing up I played youth basketball with my dad as our offensive coach.
We often practiced the three-man weave but in-game, he always preached to never
“weave for the sake of weaving”. The Bengals attempted plenty of screens for the
sake of attempting screens without maximizing the specific situation they were
in and the defense they were facing. You can throw in jet sweeps in that
category as well. McVay has complete situational awareness when pulling tricks
out of his sleeve and Cooks’ athleticism was an ideal asset for these simple but
effective concepts.It’s the little wrinkles that seem so easy to implement after
the fact that make the most difference. The hope is that Taylor brought the
wrinkles with him from the west coast.What’s the base for Ross?The plan is all
laid out, but football is best when it’s simple. Logical. We’re not trying to
re-invent the wheel, and the more we can build instead of reconstruct, the
better. It took some digging, but there were positive examples of the Bengals
utilizing Ross’ strengths in 2018, and it didn’t just happen in the red
zone.Player comparisons, specifically pro-to-college player comparisons,
represent risky business because it’s difficult to commend one party without
diminishing the other. Ross is two years removed from being drafted but his time
in the NFL hardly makes him an established veteran. Any conversation that
involves his outlook primarily involves his potential, and right now
Cheap Drew Sample Jersey , he belongs nowhere near where Cooks should be discussed in regards to the league-wide landscape of wide receiver play. That doesn’t mean he
isn’t capable of providing a similar impact to that of Cooks, and the physical
similarities only enhance his case. Taylor can put Ross in great situations
every week, but it will still be on Andy Dalton to deliver him a catchable ball.
We’ll eventually cover Dalton in this series, but not before we first go over
Joe Mixon and how Taylor can maximize him like Todd Gurley. That will be
arriving shortly, so stay tuned. One door closes, multiple doors open.Without
hours of being fired by the Dolphins, free-agent coach Adam Gase already had
been linked to “a majority” of the open jobs. With seven other jobs currently
open, that means at least four teams are interested in Gase.The Cardinals
clearly are; they’ll interview him on Wednesday. The Broncos clearly aren’t —
and Gase likely wouldn’t be interested in returning to Denver after getting no
consideration for the head-coaching job after John Fox was fired.That would
leave the Browns, Jets, Bengals, Packers, and Buccaneers as the other
potentially interested teams. All, including the Cardinals, need someone who can
work with a quarterback. Gase, from his work with Tim Tebow to Peyton Manning to
Jay Cutler to Ryan Tannehill (pre-ACL tear), has shown he can work with
quarterbacks.Some (maybe many) in the media don’t see it that way
Drew Sample Jersey Womens , leading to a disconnect between how some (maybe many) reporters view Gase and how some (maybe many) owners and General Managers
view him. (Fortunately for Gase, only the latter opinions matter.)The critics in
the media point to the fact that Manning basically ran his own offense, but does
anyone think Manning would have tolerated a coordinator who couldn’t keep up
with the quarterback’s OCD ways, encyclopedic knowledge, and supercomputer
recall? Browns owner Jimmy Haslam surely didn’t get to the point where he badly
wanted to hire Gase in early 2014 without getting a strong endorsement from
Manning, whose connection to Haslam goes back to Manning’s time at
Tennessee.Will it be easy to sell Gase to a fan base or local media based on the
last two years in Miami? No. Does he need to be balanced in an organization by a
strong voice that will, for example, counsel against cutting Mike Pouncey or
trading Jarvis Landry or blindly and stubbornly sticking with Ryan Tannehill?
Yes. But nothing wins people over like winning, and that’s what the Dolphins
were doing in 2016 before Calais Campbell went low on Tannehill, and before the
Dolphins found themselves in a stew of challenges and adversities in 2017 and
2018.That doesn’t guarantee that Gase will get a head-coaching job, but he’ll
undoubtedly land somewhere as an offensive coordinator — and he’ll likely do
enough with that offense to inevitably become a head coach, again.Regardless of
what the critics think.
