Before I start today, I wanna send love out to all the people doing weekly analysis/observation threads. I really enjoy reading them in between watching the game 20 times. You guys are awesome, keep it up.
What Do Vanilla Mean?
It’s a term tossed around a lot every preseason and the reality is that it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Twenty years ago, defenses truly were “vanilla” in preseason, meaning they called almost nothing but basic man or zone schemes on defense, and the simplest formations and route combinations on offense. Now, both offenses and defenses run a lot more complex stuff, the big difference being the relative lack of game planning. Teams aren’t spending hundreds of man hours each week in preseason coming up with ways to out scheme their opponent. In truth, a lot of coaches spend more time each week coming up with ways to put specific players in compromising positions just to see how they react/perform. Guys the typically get doubled get to see single coverage, OL that might get help during the regular season will be one on one all preseason, etc. So while there is something to be learned from preseason, so much of it is hard to judge because players are going against schemes they would literally never see in the regular season.
Who Is The Backup?
I said this on both my radio show, and my youtube channel on Friday. Basically, if they put Dak in after Romo and let him play with the 1s, and then pull him as soon as the 2s start rotating in, he’s 100% gonna be the backup. If they leave him in there after the 2s and 3s start coming in, throwing him to the wolves so to speak, there is a good chance they will sign a vet to be the backup. What I didn’t account for was scenario two happening, and Dak still looking like the unholy love child of Tom Brady and Russell Wilson. I think that pretty much locks him in as the backup this season. But what really impressed me so much more than what he did on the field, was this one little shot they showed of him and Romo off of it. You’re probably thinking about the one with the two of them on the bench studying the stills from the game. That’s not it. To me, it was him and Romo yucking it up on the sidelines. The players know. If you watched the Blue Star Series on the mothership about Romo and Quincy, towards the end there is a part with Woodson talking about how he was telling Parcells during Romo’s rookie year that Romo was the best QB on the team. The players know. Romo has taken Dak under his wing in a way he never has with any of the other backups. Dak’s relationship with Garrett probably has a very similar meaning. These guys know when a guy can play.
Morris vs. McFadden
These are two completely different running backs. McFadden is much faster and far more explosive, but has a fraction of the vision and cannot string together moves. So it becomes a question of what you want from the backup. If a play is perfectly blocked up, McFadden will hit the hole with an explosion that Morris can only fantasize about, be on top of the secondary before they know what hit them, and rip off 30+ yard runs. Morris would get 10 before needing to start putting moves on guys and end up with 17. Take that same play and make it only partially blocked up right. McFadden would get 1 yard before needing to start making defenders miss, fall forward for 3 yards. Morris would make the first guy miss, glance off the second, set up a blocker perfectly for the 3rd and grind out 8 yards. Obviously, all these numbers are hypothetical and completely made up, but I’m doing it to make a point. Do you want a steady backup who is basically a less physically gifted version of Zeke, or do you want the “change of pace” guy who can rip off long runs but won’t always get every bit of yardage on every run?
Zeke vs. Jackson
Obviously, there is no contest here. I just wanted to quickly bring up that these two have eerily similar traits to Morris/McFadden. Jackson is fast and explosive but he can’t pull off more than one move in a short area. Zeke doesn’t have that level of explosion, but he is so smooth and can string together moves and make a lot of people miss. It’s funny that those scouting reports on the triplets were released last night. I had already written the above paragraph when I saw them. At the bottom of Emmitt’s report it says something like “can rip off an astonishing number of moves in a small area”. That’s what I see with Zeke. Not saying he’s gonna be 22, but he has a chance to be very special, especially in this scheme.
Chaz Green
This guy needs to work on two things. Conditioning, and mental toughness. And really one hand washes the other with those two traits. We all saw him wear down as the game wore on, that was the obvious part. What was less obvious (at least to me on my first watch) was the lack of mental toughness. Every time he would give up a little pressure or even slightly “lose” in pass pro, his mechanics would go to crap for 3-4 plays. He’d start guessing, he would let his base get way too wide, his punch was late and not violent. Usually within a few plays he would get it back, but you can tell that he was way too much in his own head after even a semi bad play. He needs to understand that the other team has good players too, they are gonna win sometimes. You just gotta get back out there and do better the next play. Assuming he can continue to increase his conditioning, I see no reason why he won’t be the swing tackle this season.
Mo Claiborne
I really focused on Mo this week, and what I saw was exactly what I’ve always seen with him. He literally looks no different to me except that he’s clearly healthy and confident. He’s still not a willing tackler, he’s still not gonna be a turnover machine. If he stays healthy all season, he’ll be good at ball denial, but he’s not gonna bait a QB into throwing his way and then explode into position and pick off the ball. He doesn’t have the athletic ability for that. But he can stick his man and make the QB look elsewhere, especially on intermediate routes. That little bit of health has definitely helped his ability to mirror. He was absolutely smothering receivers in many cases, which means more passes thrown toward Scandrick/Carr. I’m hoping for a huge season from him, but what I’ve seen so far looks like a very slightly improved version of what we’ve seen for several years now.
As always, I’ll stick around for the next 24 hours or so and try to answer questions and respond to comments.
