Connor Williams had a solid game against Jets

[DHCBF66]

I agree.

I wonder if he really is 100%..........of course we all were used to him being a road grader. Something doesn't look right with him.

Some people would rather blame CW than admit Freddy is struggling big time!

 

[CCBoy]

Do you have something beyond your word that you can share to substantiate your evaluation? PFF scores? Youtube play review?

He's been credible for a very long time, and you doubting Thomas?

 

[Seven]

Not gonna wanna hear this but Dak his holding the ball way too long on a lot of those sacks.

What were the routes?

I believe Romo stated that the routes were long in development.

A stage of 1.5 seconds is holdin

Some people would rather blame CW than admit Freddy is struggling big time!

Great point......

 

[MarcusRock]

The Teflon Con feelin' the love. Lol. Same as it ever was.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

What were the routes?

I believe Romo stated that the routes were long in development.

A stage of 1.5 seconds is holdin

Great point......

I don't have a break down of all the routes on every play but I watch all but the Jets game and there were both long and short options called. I saw, myself, opportunities to get rid of the ball earlier. I mean, I get it, you want to go for the long ball but that's not always there. Sometimes you have to get rid of the ball and Dak hasn't really done that as often as he could have. It's resulted in sacks on occasion. It's not all on the OL.

 

[waldoputty]

Connor Williams had a rock solid performance in the Jets game.

He had 1 penalty but otherwise his execution was almost flawless.

The penalty was borderline. He took a defender to the ground. That play is allowed in college football.

He does not physically overwhelm defenders but his timing and positioning was terrific.

CW is quite good on 2nd level blocks. Better than average.

Connor Williams is quietly becoming a good young player.

do u think he can play lt?

 

[Dak_Attack_09]

List 5 plays from the Jets game where Connor Williams failed.

Just look at all the plays Dak got crushed by DL.

P.S Nate Newton said he is weakest link on the line, I’m pretty sure he know more than you. Around 45 min marker.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Well, I'll just say that this board is famous for calling out players that may or may not deserve the scrutiny. I'm not trying to say that Williams is undeserving of a lot of this but I will say that from what I've watched thus far, this season, he is not playing all that badly. He's not and All Pro, not saying that but, I am saying that I'm not seeing what everybody else seems to be.

This same thing was happening last season with Collins. This season, when healthy, Collins has easily been the best OL we have IMO. I think we just need to be patient and see where it goes.

That's just my opinion.

 

[xwalker]

do u think he can play lt?

Play what? LG?

Connor Williams might have had the best performance of the 5 OL in the Jets game.

• CW should be a very good Zone Blocking OG.
• If they still had Bill Callahan (2012 - 2014) as the OL coach, CW would likely become an elite OG.
• Note: Jerry tried to get Callahan to stay by money whipping him but Callahan and Garrett hated each other.
• The current OL scheme is a mess.
• Columbo seems like a great motivation type OL coach, but the technical details of the blocking scheme are not good.
• They constantly have OL being required to make reach blocks.
• Reach blocks put the OL at a leverage dis-advantage.
• The idea with reach blocks is to free up another blocker to get to the 2nd level and block a LB.

Example of a Reach Block

• On a run to the inside left, Frederick could block the DL immediately to his right and he would have the leverage advantage.
• The issue is that Martin would not be able to get to the LB flowing to the offensive-left.
• They therefore have Martin reach block the DL who is to his left and have Frederick block the LB.
• In the playoff game against the Rams, the Rams rarely ever attempted to make pure reach blocks.
• The Rams scheme put their OL in situations with the leverage advantage.
• If the Cowboy OLinemen were all healthy and were all playing for the Rams this year, they would be completely dominant.
• The Cowboys OL in 2019 when healthy are physically better at 4 of 5 positions than the Rams OL in the playoffs.
• Connor Williams would be the prototype OG for that Rams blocking scheme.

 

[gimmesix]

There is no question that the OL is hurting. LT/RT out, C recovering from a major injury, RG playing injured, heck, Williams is really the only healthy OL right now. That's definitely a big part of the problem but even still, that doesn't account for the way we've lost. We really should have won every single game from what I've seen, with the exception of the Jets. I didn't see the Jets game.

JMO

Sadly, prime play doesn't always last very long in the NFL before injuries start taking a toll. We've seen the prime of a lot of players come and go under Garrett and it seems like we may have wasted the best years of these offensive linemen as well (although Collins was having his best year as a tackle this year).

Probably 2014-2016 was the prime for our three All-Pros all together, although I believe Smith's back problems started in 2016. Smith had settled in as one of the top left tackles in the game by 2014, Frederick had proven to be a rock-solid player at center and Martin stepped in as a dominant lineman from the get-go.

 

[xwalker]

Just look at all the plays Dak got crushed by DL.

P.S Nate Newton said he is weakest link on the line, I’m pretty sure he know more than you. Around 45 min marker.

Again, if it's that obvious, then post 5 plays where Connor Williams failed in pass protection in the Jets game.

You don't even have to post video. Just post the plays (i.e. 1st quarter, x:xx remaining).

When message board posters have no ability to make a point with regards to the analysis of a play, they either quote PFF or some ex-player/coach.

There were dozens of players and coaches including ex players/coaches in the media that laughed at Jimmy Johnson when he came to the NFL and said he was in over his head.

The list of times ex players/coaches turned media personalities was wrong would be bigger than an Encyclopedia.

The reality is that Columbo is making 10x more money as the OL coach than Nate is making doing those little video shows.

• If Nate was a great mind for OL details, the would be coaching.
• If Nate actually grinds through studying game film, then his opinion might be important;
  • however, it's obvious that does not happen.

 

[waldoputty]

Play what? LG?

Connor Williams might have had the best performance of the 5 OL in the Jets game.

• CW should be a very good Zone Blocking OG.
• If they still had Bill Callahan (2012 - 2014) as the OL coach, CW would likely become an elite OG.
• Note: Jerry tried to get Callahan to stay by money whipping him but Callahan and Garrett hated each other.
• The current OL scheme is a mess.
• Columbo seems like a great motivation type OL coach, but the technical details of the blocking scheme are not good.
• They constantly have OL being required to make reach blocks.
• Reach blocks put the OL at a leverage dis-advantage.
• The idea with reach blocks is to free up another blocker to get to the 2nd level and block a LB.

Example of a Reach Block

• On a run to the inside left, Frederick could block the DL immediately to his right and he would have the leverage advantage.
• The issue is that Martin would not be able to get to the LB flowing to the offensive-left.
• They therefore have Martin reach block the DL who is to his left and have Frederick block the LB.
• In the playoff game against the Rams, the Rams rarely ever attempted to make pure reach blocks.
• The Rams scheme put their OL in situations with the leverage advantage.
• If the Cowboy OLinemen were all healthy and were all playing for the Rams this year, they would be completely dominant.
• The Cowboys OL in 2019 when healthy are physically better at 4 of 5 positions than the Rams OL in the playoffs.
• Connor Williams would be the prototype OG for that Rams blocking scheme.

it does seem there are a lot of reach block attempts.

i was asking whether u thought cwilliams can play LT

 

[xwalker]

Sadly, prime play doesn't always last very long in the NFL before injuries start taking a toll. We've seen the prime of a lot of players come and go under Garrett and it seems like we may have wasted the best years of these offensive linemen as well (although Collins was having his best year as a tackle this year).

Probably 2014-2016 was the prime for our three All-Pros all together, although I believe Smith's back problems started in 2016. Smith had settled in as one of the top left tackles in the game by 2014, Frederick had proven to be a rock-solid player at center and Martin stepped in as a dominant lineman from the get-go.

The Cowboys seem to have excessive problems related player's backs.

• It seems that they might over-train and/or over-lift.
• Doctors recommended back surgery for Tyron but he declined.
  • I'm not certain if the team agreed with his decision or not.
• Obviously Tyron is not out now due to his back, but it was giving him some issues before the ankle injury.

The OL coach was Bill Callahan from 2012-2014.

• His departure had an impact on the overall performance of the OLine.
• They've fired 2 OL coaches since Callahan departed.
• Jerry wanted Callahan to stay but Callahan and Garrett hated each other.
• The years 2015 and 2016 had carryover from when Callahan coached most of the players.
  • Similar to Jimmy's coaching carrying over for a couple of years before things fell apart under Switzer.

 

[Dak_Attack_09]

Again, if it's that obvious, then post 5 plays where Connor Williams failed in pass protection in the Jets game.

You don't even have to post video. Just post the plays (i.e. 1st quarter, x:xx remaining).

When message board posters have no ability to make a point with regards to the analysis of a play, they either quote PFF or some ex-player/coach.

There were dozens of players and coaches including ex players/coaches in the media that laughed at Jimmy Johnson when he came to the NFL and said he was in over his head.

The list of times ex players/coaches turned media personalities was wrong would be bigger than an Encyclopedia.

The reality is that Columbo is making 10x more money as the OL coach than Nate is making doing those little video shows.

• If Nate was a great mind for OL details, the would be coaching.
• If Nate actually grinds through studying game film, then his opinion might be important;
  • however, it's obvious that does not happen.

I got actual job,

Again, if it's that obvious, then post 5 plays where Connor Williams failed in pass protection in the Jets game.

You don't even have to post video. Just post the plays (i.e. 1st quarter, x:xx remaining).

When message board posters have no ability to make a point with regards to the analysis of a play, they either quote PFF or some ex-player/coach.

There were dozens of players and coaches including ex players/coaches in the media that laughed at Jimmy Johnson when he came to the NFL and said he was in over his head.

The list of times ex players/coaches turned media personalities was wrong would be bigger than an Encyclopedia.

The reality is that Columbo is making 10x more money as the OL coach than Nate is making doing those little video shows.

• If Nate was a great mind for OL details, the would be coaching.
• If Nate actually grinds through studying game film, then his opinion might be important;
  • however, it's obvious that does not happen.

I have job to do, but here is one for you with 1 simple glance: Please go to time marker 2:10 -2:30 dude whiffs on #92 .

 

[xwalker]

it does seem there are a lot of reach block attempts.

i was asking whether u thought cwilliams can play LT

Aah. The term lt looks similar to It ( lowercase L vs uppercase i ).

Yes, Connor William can likely play LT at a level somewhere between Cam Fleming and a healthy Tyron Smith.

• CW's best position might be OG in Zone Blocking Scheme like the Rams use.
• In the mess of a scheme the Cowboys are running, he might be better at LT than at OG.

OL coach Columbo played in a power-man blocking scheme.

• They're now running a hybrid of that and a Zone Scheme.
• The hybrid is more Frankenstein than fuel efficient auto...

 

[Dak_Attack_09]

Play what? LG?

Connor Williams might have had the best performance of the 5 OL in the Jets game.

• CW should be a very good Zone Blocking OG.
• If they still had Bill Callahan (2012 - 2014) as the OL coach, CW would likely become an elite OG.
• Note: Jerry tried to get Callahan to stay by money whipping him but Callahan and Garrett hated each other.
• The current OL scheme is a mess.
• Columbo seems like a great motivation type OL coach, but the technical details of the blocking scheme are not good.
• They constantly have OL being required to make reach blocks.
• Reach blocks put the OL at a leverage dis-advantage.
• The idea with reach blocks is to free up another blocker to get to the 2nd level and block a LB.

Example of a Reach Block

• On a run to the inside left, Frederick could block the DL immediately to his right and he would have the leverage advantage.
• The issue is that Martin would not be able to get to the LB flowing to the offensive-left.
• They therefore have Martin reach block the DL who is to his left and have Frederick block the LB.
• In the playoff game against the Rams, the Rams rarely ever attempted to make pure reach blocks.
• The Rams scheme put their OL in situations with the leverage advantage.
• If the Cowboy OLinemen were all healthy and were all playing for the Rams this year, they would be completely dominant.
• The Cowboys OL in 2019 when healthy are physically better at 4 of 5 positions than the Rams OL in the playoffs.
• Connor Williams would be the prototype OG for that Rams blocking scheme.

The play at 3:45 getting pushed back the most out the 3 interior guys, of course Dak releases it on time

 

[cern]

scheme, not individual play, doomed us against the jets. they stacked the box with more rushers than players to block them over and over. we were poorly coached and not prepared. every team is going to stack the box against us in an effort to nullify zeke, forcing dak to have to carry the team. if we can't adjust our offense to counter this, we're doomed. Williams has looked solid, imo.

 

[StuckMojo]

Unfortunately we look weak in the middle of the Oline. CW is below average to my eyes and Fred is not 100% and martin has not looked good due to his back. But there have been times when they look confused and let guys by untouched. it is gonna be tough on QBs and RBs when the middle of the line is getting blown up.

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Good.

We've gone over and over the PFF issue at CZ.

PFF player grades are garbage.

They release grades within 24 hours. The quantity of snaps to be graded is huge. About 53,000 snaps per week to grade.

They hire people with no experience to "grade film".

And you’ve embarrassed yourself continuing to trot out this misinformation. The irony of you trying to shade PFF as hiring supposed unqualified reviewers and yet you have ZERO qualifications, Lool.


Player Grades puts you at the heart of the PFF World. During the NFL season, our team of 300-plus staff spend around 20,000 man-hours of work to grade and analyze every play of the NFL season, from the kickoff in the Hall of Fame game to the final play of the Super Bowl.


Memories can deceive, and highlights by their nature miss out on the vast majority of a player’s game, but PFF covers every player on every play of every gameto give you the most comprehensive analysis of player performance you can find anywhere.

Because of this, sometimes the grades will show unexpected results. Just because a player isn’t a household name, doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of having an excellent game, or even having an excellent season that is just passing by the notice of most people.

In fact, one of the benefits of PFF’s comprehensive grading system is being able to get out in front of talented players on the rise, and spot players performing well before the rest of the NFL watching world catches up to them. PFF was among the first touting the play of Cameron Wake when he was earning scant playing time behind Joey Porter, and we were out front in championing the elite coverage play of Richard Sherman during his rookie season.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Before diving into the results of the system, let’s take a look at how it works.

On every play, a PFF analyst will grade each player on a scale of -2 to +2 according to what he did on the play.

At one end of the scale you have a catastrophic game-ending interception or pick-six from a quarterback, and at the other a perfect deep bomb into a tight window in a critical game situation, with the middle of that scale being 0-graded, or ‘expected’ plays that are neither positive nor negative.

Each game is also graded by a second PFF analyst independent of the first, and those grades are compared by a third, Senior Analyst, who rules on any differences between the two. These grades are verified by the Pro Coach Network, a group of former and current NFL coaches with over 700 combined years of NFL coaching experience, to get them as accurate as they can be.

From there, the grades are normalized to better account for game situation; this ranges from where a player lined up to the dropback depth of the quarterback or the length of time he had the ball in his hand and everything in between. They are finally converted to a 0-100 scale and appear in our Player Grades tool.

Season-level grades aren’t simply an average of every game-grade a player compiles over a season, but rather factor in the duration at which a player performed at that level. Achieving a grade of 90.0 in a game once is impressive, doing it 16 times in a row is more impressive.

It is entirely possible that a player will have a season grade higher than any individual single-game grade he achieved, because playing well for an extended period of time is harder to do than for a short period.
Similarly, playing badly for a long time is a greater problem than playing badly once, so the grade can also be compounded negatively.

Each week, grades are subject to change while we run through our extensive review process including All-22 tape runs and coaching audit, so you may notice discrepancies among grades published in earlier articles compared with those in the Player Grades tool until grade lock each week.

Season-level Player Grades are included with PFF EDGE

• PFF EDGE gives you access to the most popular Player Grades features, and much more.
• Rankings by position, player grades and snap counts for the current season
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• Head to head matchup charts featuring multiple offensive and defensive formations.
• Full grades for each player in the NFL by team roster and position.

RANKINGS

The first thing everybody wants to do when you have graded players is to see where they rank against each other.
Player grades gives you the ability to rank players by position and even by facet of the game.
Want to see who the best pass-blocking tackles this season are? No problem. Or the best run defending linebackers? Player Grades has you covered.

The grades pages allow you to rank players by position, but also filter by teams, to compare the grades of just one team’s cornerbacks, for example. We also combine defensive fronts and group players as either edge defenders, or interior defenders, to save confusion between 4-3 and 3-4 defensive fronts that in today’s NFL are often in exactly the same alignment by defensive techniques, just from either a two- or three-point stance.

It’s important to understand that PFF is not grading talent in these numbers, rather strictly performance on the field. Talented players can have bad games, runs, or even seasons, and often players without nearly as much talent can put together impressive play on the field. We are not necessarily telling you who the best players are. Our rankings are more of a performance evaluation, and a reflection of how efficiently a player made plays in the time he was on the field.

Another key benefit to PFF’s grading system is building a complete picture of a player’s performance.
Even watching a game closely can result in something of a mental highlight reel on a player – remembering the few good and bad plays and making an overall judgement based on the balance of those – but it can be the other 40 snaps in the game that are being ignored that held the true key to his performance. Was he gaining a slight edge every one of those snaps, or was he struggling just to maintain parity?

By recording performance on every single snap, we come to a more complete conclusion and evaluation. Just because a player was quiet during the game does not mean he played poorly, and in certain positions it could mean he played very well, but had little to feature on the highlight reel.

CONTEXT IS KEY

In 2016, Atlanta Falcons edge rusher Vic Beasley led the NFL in sacks in a breakout season for the NFC Champions, but was only the 31st-graded edge rusher in terms of PFF pass-rushing grade. Here are some of the things to note about how Beasley rated in our system:

Not all sacks are created equal
Beasley sacked the quarterback 16 times, but eight of those sixteen were either unblocked or clean-up sacks that owed more to somebody else flushing the quarterback towards where Beasley was than they did to him beating a blocker to make the play.PFF grading takes into account the quality of the play made to get the sack, and excellent plays to defeat blocks will be graded higher than sacks where the quarterback just happened to be flushed past a player as he was being blocked only to get taken down.

Pressures matter
All pass-rushers are trying to sack the quarterback, but even the best will only do so on around three percent of their snaps on the field. Hits and hurries combine with sacks to form a much more robust picture of total pressure generated.

Pressure that does not result in a sack is important too, as just pressuring the quarterback sees an average drop in passer rating of 32.0 points from 94.4 to 61.8 over the past ten years. That’s the equivalent of turning Ben Roethlisberger into Blaine Gabbert just by hurrying him in the pocket.

Beasley led the league in sacks, but was just 18th even among edge defenders, when it comes to total pressures. Compare that to a player like Oakland’s Khalil Mack who led the league with 96 combined sacks, hits and hurries, and Beasley has a significant deficit in total pressure.

When we used our analytics to run numbers to find out just how valuable pressure was compared to sacks, our Expected Points Added data showed that a sack is worth around 2.1 pressures of any other kind. So a player like Mack would only need to have had an extra 11 hits or hurries to have added more value as a pass-rusher than Beasley despite having five fewer sacks over the season. Mack in reality had 40 more pressures, and so had a significantly higher PFF grade than Beasley.

Run defense matters
Mack’s overall grade of 95.2 was also far higher than Beasley’s 74.2 because Khalil Mack was one of the best run defenders in the game, capable of shedding blocks and knifing into the backfield to blow up plays. Beasley wasn’t nearly as accomplished in this area, an area that can get lost in all the talk of sacks, but is counted in the PFF grading.

PERFORMANCE VS PRODUCTION
We aren’t grading players based on the yardage they rack up or the stats they collect. Statistics can be indicative of performance but don’t tell the whole story and can often lie badly. Quarterbacks can throw the ball straight to defenders but if the ball is dropped, you won’t see it on the stat sheet. Conversely, they can dump the ball off on a sequence of screen passes and end up with a gaudy looking stat line if those skill position players do enough work after the catch.

PFF grades the play, not its result, so the quarterback that throws the ball to defenders will be downgraded whether the defender catches the ball to notch the interception on the stat sheet or not. No amount of broken tackles and yards after the catch from a bubble screen will earn a quarterback a better grade, even though his passing stats may be getting padded.

The same is true for most positions. Statistics – as we saw with Beasley earlier – can be misleading. A tackle whose quarterback gets the ball out of his hands quicker than anybody else may not give up many sacks, but he can still be beaten often and earn a poor grade. Receivers that are targeted relentlessly could post big time numbers, but may offer little more than the product of a volume-based aerial attack.

MATCHUP DEPTH CHARTS

The Player Grades tool also offers you a quick glance way to see team matchups and starting lineups. These offer the flexibility to see teams aligned in both base defense and their common sub packages, and likewise cycle through an offense’s most common personnel groups.

Players are shown with their current player grade and color-coded for an easy way to see potential strengths and weaknesses across an upcoming matchup. Each week’s games are automatically shown as matchups on the home page, but you can also create a custom matchup of any two teams if you want to look ahead and scout potential playoff opponents!

 

[blueblood70]

scheme, not individual play, doomed us against the jets. they stacked the box with more rushers than players to block them over and over. we were poorly coached and not prepared. every team is going to stack the box against us in an effort to nullify zeke, forcing dak to have to carry the team. if we can't adjust our offense to counter this, we're doomed. Williams has looked solid, imo.

or was it the defense letting the jests get up by 18 and Gb by 21 right out of the box? that might have led fto it, Jets game missing 4 starters on offense might have led to some of it and yes execution is part of it..