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Reviewed the All-22 tape from the Panthers Game. Only focused on offense since that is where we need improvement.
Quick Overview before I dive into a little more detail:
Milton: Was it impressive on tape? Nope. More bad than good
Offensive Line: Chukwuma Okorafor is 100% the starting Left Tackle, Mike Onwenu should be the right tackle. The interior will be OK. I honestly do not see how anyone but those 2 starts at the Tackle spot, it’s dumb not to. It’s complete incompetence if they don’t.
Receivers: Baker was open quite a bit but Polk, as advertised doesn’t separate but can beat the zone and willingly blocks and does the “dirty work”.
Polk route running needs refinement if he is to become a #2. Very rounded cuts, needs coaching, not a starter today.
Baker, Bourne and Thornton on the outside with Douglas on inside should start with the most reps.
Boutte on tape was OK
Reagor was complete trash, Osborn did not look good either.
Should be cut: Anderson and/or Lowe(I guess we need 1 of them?), Reagor, Wilcox
Best PR not named Marcus Jones: David Wallis, really impressive on returns.
More detail:
Quarterback: After this tape review the decision to play Zappe that many snaps was a horrible decision. I thought it was dumb but the tape made it worse. He hurts the development of the receivers and the line. He probably made the wrong read/play at least 50% of the time. He had Baker open multiple times but never looked at him. Panicked at first sign of pressure. One of the sacks he had open guys, a clean pocket and put his head down and fell into the lineman being blocked 2 yards in front of him. I did not watch tape last year but if he was this bad……how bad was Mac Jones?
Brissett was bad and showed his limitations in just a few plays. He made the unfortunate decision to throw high to Wilcox, bad throw but Wilcox is horrible. He showed lack of arm strength to TT, had a TD with leading him, was flat footed and didn’t step into throw enough, but lacks arm strength. As you ALL KNOW QB’s always throw with bad mechanics during the game because of pressure, the great QB’s have the arm strength to overcome (like Mahomes), Brissett does not, and he actually had time to step into the throw. Let’s count the missed TD’s by the QB. If Mahomes or Allen or Herbert were QB. ONE to TT so far. We will keep counting.
Maye made a high throw, not as bad as Brissett, hit Reagor in both hands, Reagor did not come back for the ball, Maye could have thrown a fraction sooner. Timing with Reagor is off but Reagor is terrible, THIS is why Maye needs all the reps he can, to get timing down with the receivers that will play. If he had run this play the 5 times Zappe did it in practice the timing would have been better between the 2. Otherwise, he’s still the only starting NFL caliber QB on the roster. And it is not EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE!
Milton: Poor Milton, great stats, 2 highlight scrambles, all this praise but modern technology can record and play back what happened. Oh, the hype was good while It lasted. His completed passes, ummm, Mac Jones would have made, they were at guys with 5 yards minimum of separation. So far, on completed passes he is as good as Mac Jones. His throw to Boutte almost pick 6, Mac would not have thrown, the TE was open to the same side, easier throw, Mac probably makes that, Milton made a bad decision and lucky it did not go the other way. The throw Boutte dropped, both Mac and him don’t complete that. Was a little hard and high on the pass, Boutte should have caught it, Reagor should have caught Maye’s. Wilcox should NOT have caught Brissett’s, was just too high AND was the easiest throw of the 3. So far Mac Jones would have outplayed Milton in the passing game. No real question there but pretty much anyone would have made those completions, except that terrible Panthers 3rd string QB.
Onto the scrambles and runs. They ended in positive plays but they were not good quarterbacking. In addition he took hits that he didn’t need to take.
The first scramble he had a TD twice on the play. He also never needed to scramble because the dump off was open immediately. He then slid headfirst while getting tackled instead of sliding feet first. The initial rush came from his right, right in his face, I think he should have earlier stepped up but he escaped going backwards. If he did nothing but look to his outlet right away he’d have dumped it for a couple yard gain and moved on but eyes were solely on the rusher. He escaped right, Baker came open around the 10 after he shook the rushers but for some reason he looks left all the way across the field and never sees him straight ahead on the same side of the field as him, a leading pass to the endzone or sideline is a TD, I give him a pass on that 1. He then rolls left and nobody within 10 yards of him, Baker now is working back left at the 5 while Milton is at the 40. Safety then moves toward Milton leaving a TON of space for Baker behind him with a 2 yard separation from the CB, Milton never looks up. No Offensive Lineman is down field. Touchdown #2 that Mahomes/Allen/Herbert make. They do get a FG on the drive.
Second scramble, he escaped the immediate pressure, then had a clean pocket. He had 2 guys to the left, only 1 defender. Instead, he looked middle, 5 defenders to 2 receivers. Somehow pump fakes a throw that was in between all those defenders, was he really thinking of throwing that pass? Then escapes pocket to the left and NEVER looks up to pass again. Bell is WIDE OPEN 10 yards downfield waiving 2 hands in the air and probably gets caught 30+ yards downfield but beats a safety might score. This is the one photo I had to include below, Maye, based on last year also escapes the pocket but keeps his head up and sees that guy and off to the races. I’m saying he makes the safety miss and we have Touchdown #3. Anyway you look at it we missed 17 points minimum on 3 long plays because of the QB play being poor. Regardless of how the drives ended up. His touchdown on the double move he actually had a TD to the other side as well, made the right read to the wide open guy and then almost missed the throw.
He only completed to wide open first reads, had good pocket movement but then did not keep his head downfield, does not read the entire field well at all and misses open guys. That’s the tape, he’s not ready to start an NFL game and based on his age you have to think he never will. It is Maye or nobody on the current roster.
On the offensive Line: Okorafor looked great, until he didn’t. Was too tall on Mayes last pass and got beat, weird false start as it was like he forgot the count. Otherwise, he looked competent, picked up a stunt nicely, stonewalled some guys. He at least looks like an NFL player. Calvin Anderson is a complete disaster. He makes Vederian Lowe, also bad, look like he might be OK. Anderson was just beat OVER AND OVER again. He’s not an NFL tackle. Michael Jordan was bad. Leverett was a mixed bag, not a starting center but will do, maybe in a pinch as backup. Layden Robinson will be a good run blocker, he’s completely lost on the nuances of the game, he needs a year to learn how to play the line, he just looked lost on who to block multiple times, even blocked his own guy in the back on one play. Wallace will be an NFL player, I highly doubt he’ll be a left tackle. He seems to get pushed back by not setting the best base but he’s amazingly good at sticking with it as he slowly gets pushed back. Better run blocker than pass but also completely whiffed on 1 run block. Wallace will be an NFL starter next year, if they need him this year he should be at RT and you hope he improves his technique just a bit. They need to play Okrofar this year and then draft or sign the LT next year. Pray Okrofar doesn’t get hurt, he's the only guy that can be adequate at LT unless Wallace improves faster than expected. They have enough solid guys inside they can push Onwenu to RT, it is either Wallace or him there and Wallace has a month to improve enough to do that, not sure that’s going to happen. They CAN put together a competent Line, with little depth. But no injuries the line will be fine enough. Vederian Lowe also stinks but they may just need to keep him for depth since Anderson looks toast.
Receivers/TE/RB were interesting. Douglas, Bourne and Henry did not play. Starters were Osborne, JUJU, Wilcox, TT. Interestingly Tyquan was the best looking of the bunch. Was open twice, 1 should have been a TD, the other he was not the first read. Wilcox is complete trash. The guy plays hard but can’t catch or block. Bell played a bit and showed some potential, raw but a keeper over Wilcox, man that guy is just bad. Osborn was not good, ran some bad routes, both him and Reagor looked bad as punt returners also. Baker, Bourne, if healthy and Pop are the top 3 easily. I want to see more of Tyquan, I hope Osborn just had a bad game. Boutte was not impressive but wasn’t bad, just meh. Baker was open way more than he got the ball. Him and Tyquan got separation. Problem is if you don’t start Maye the strength they have is down the field and Jacoby can’t throw those. You need Maye to play to maximize the receivers. People will complain the receivers suck, then Maye will come in and people will think the receivers just needed some time. Polk is an enigma. He’s going to be a zone receiver, he can’t separate 1 on 1. Which is fine, you have Pop and Baker for that strength. Baker should have been 2nd round and Polk 4th round based on the tape. The making of a well rounded adequate receiving core is there but will not reach anywhere near their potential with Jacoby at QB. Hunter, Pop, Bourne, Baker, Tyquan and Polk with Osborn maybe checking in. Austin Hooper needs to play well behind Henry because nobody else is ready at TE. Running Back, nobody stood out, nobody flashed, hope Rhamondre and Harris can carry the load but learned very little, Gibson was meh, Hasty and Jenning were nothing to write home about. Wallis is probably not a Receiver, but he needs to be practice squad in case Jones gets hurt again, or I think he could be the primary returner. On 1 punt he had 5 unblocked guys coming at him and still beat them to the edge. Dude can play the role at the NFL level. Had some receiver plays but not enough to see anything worthwhile.
If they keep 6 receivers: TT, Pop, Polk, Baker, Boutte, Osborn
If they keep 3 TE: Henry, Hooper, Bell
QB’s: Maye and Brissett are locks, keep Milton so can hopefully trade him in a year. Maye is the only NFL starting caliber QB on the roster.
Lineman: Andrews, Onwenu, Okorafor, Leverett, Wallace, Sow,. That ends the current NFL talent portion of the line. They need 3 more lineman, Robinson must be 1 and then hopeful someone cuts a lineman or they take one of the Anderson/Lowe crap fest and maybe Mafi who has shown a little something but Anderson/Lowe are not NFL players.
This is one group of plays, some happened on the same play, but these were consecutive plays:
Pettway falls down at top of rout
Anderson beat easily at LT
Zappe, that’s all I’m going to say
Layden Robinson completely got lost on a switch off
Jordan and Leverett both miss blocks on run play
Wallace picked wrong guy to block on run play
Polk and Boutte nearly collided on crossing route.
Have concerns about AVP. Multiple plays a couple guys were together on routes. Boutte and Polk almost collided on a crosser. The lack of motion in the modern game seems wrong. His play-action bootlegs worked multiple times, unfortunately Zappe was QB for some of them so were wasted but again, a good QB, more plays would have worked. On Maye’s first throw he had both edge rushers chipped to help the tackles. I Liked that. Another play, they had Zappe QB, had 8 stay in and only 2 routes, didn’t like that, Jordan almost got beat for a pressure anyways. Just seems a dumb play call. Not sure he’s scheming guys open but was the first pre-season game so gets a pass.
But still a QB can make all the difference: Between Jacoby and Milton they missed possibly 21 points. Yup, Without Maye they are going to struggle on offense but a great QB makes everyone better.
Below is the wide open guy Milton did not see on the scramble.
Quick Overview before I dive into a little more detail:
Milton: Was it impressive on tape? Nope. More bad than good
Offensive Line: Chukwuma Okorafor is 100% the starting Left Tackle, Mike Onwenu should be the right tackle. The interior will be OK. I honestly do not see how anyone but those 2 starts at the Tackle spot, it’s dumb not to. It’s complete incompetence if they don’t.
Receivers: Baker was open quite a bit but Polk, as advertised doesn’t separate but can beat the zone and willingly blocks and does the “dirty work”.
Polk route running needs refinement if he is to become a #2. Very rounded cuts, needs coaching, not a starter today.
Baker, Bourne and Thornton on the outside with Douglas on inside should start with the most reps.
Boutte on tape was OK
Reagor was complete trash, Osborn did not look good either.
Should be cut: Anderson and/or Lowe(I guess we need 1 of them?), Reagor, Wilcox
Best PR not named Marcus Jones: David Wallis, really impressive on returns.
More detail:
Quarterback: After this tape review the decision to play Zappe that many snaps was a horrible decision. I thought it was dumb but the tape made it worse. He hurts the development of the receivers and the line. He probably made the wrong read/play at least 50% of the time. He had Baker open multiple times but never looked at him. Panicked at first sign of pressure. One of the sacks he had open guys, a clean pocket and put his head down and fell into the lineman being blocked 2 yards in front of him. I did not watch tape last year but if he was this bad……how bad was Mac Jones?
Brissett was bad and showed his limitations in just a few plays. He made the unfortunate decision to throw high to Wilcox, bad throw but Wilcox is horrible. He showed lack of arm strength to TT, had a TD with leading him, was flat footed and didn’t step into throw enough, but lacks arm strength. As you ALL KNOW QB’s always throw with bad mechanics during the game because of pressure, the great QB’s have the arm strength to overcome (like Mahomes), Brissett does not, and he actually had time to step into the throw. Let’s count the missed TD’s by the QB. If Mahomes or Allen or Herbert were QB. ONE to TT so far. We will keep counting.
Maye made a high throw, not as bad as Brissett, hit Reagor in both hands, Reagor did not come back for the ball, Maye could have thrown a fraction sooner. Timing with Reagor is off but Reagor is terrible, THIS is why Maye needs all the reps he can, to get timing down with the receivers that will play. If he had run this play the 5 times Zappe did it in practice the timing would have been better between the 2. Otherwise, he’s still the only starting NFL caliber QB on the roster. And it is not EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE!
Milton: Poor Milton, great stats, 2 highlight scrambles, all this praise but modern technology can record and play back what happened. Oh, the hype was good while It lasted. His completed passes, ummm, Mac Jones would have made, they were at guys with 5 yards minimum of separation. So far, on completed passes he is as good as Mac Jones. His throw to Boutte almost pick 6, Mac would not have thrown, the TE was open to the same side, easier throw, Mac probably makes that, Milton made a bad decision and lucky it did not go the other way. The throw Boutte dropped, both Mac and him don’t complete that. Was a little hard and high on the pass, Boutte should have caught it, Reagor should have caught Maye’s. Wilcox should NOT have caught Brissett’s, was just too high AND was the easiest throw of the 3. So far Mac Jones would have outplayed Milton in the passing game. No real question there but pretty much anyone would have made those completions, except that terrible Panthers 3rd string QB.
Onto the scrambles and runs. They ended in positive plays but they were not good quarterbacking. In addition he took hits that he didn’t need to take.
The first scramble he had a TD twice on the play. He also never needed to scramble because the dump off was open immediately. He then slid headfirst while getting tackled instead of sliding feet first. The initial rush came from his right, right in his face, I think he should have earlier stepped up but he escaped going backwards. If he did nothing but look to his outlet right away he’d have dumped it for a couple yard gain and moved on but eyes were solely on the rusher. He escaped right, Baker came open around the 10 after he shook the rushers but for some reason he looks left all the way across the field and never sees him straight ahead on the same side of the field as him, a leading pass to the endzone or sideline is a TD, I give him a pass on that 1. He then rolls left and nobody within 10 yards of him, Baker now is working back left at the 5 while Milton is at the 40. Safety then moves toward Milton leaving a TON of space for Baker behind him with a 2 yard separation from the CB, Milton never looks up. No Offensive Lineman is down field. Touchdown #2 that Mahomes/Allen/Herbert make. They do get a FG on the drive.
Second scramble, he escaped the immediate pressure, then had a clean pocket. He had 2 guys to the left, only 1 defender. Instead, he looked middle, 5 defenders to 2 receivers. Somehow pump fakes a throw that was in between all those defenders, was he really thinking of throwing that pass? Then escapes pocket to the left and NEVER looks up to pass again. Bell is WIDE OPEN 10 yards downfield waiving 2 hands in the air and probably gets caught 30+ yards downfield but beats a safety might score. This is the one photo I had to include below, Maye, based on last year also escapes the pocket but keeps his head up and sees that guy and off to the races. I’m saying he makes the safety miss and we have Touchdown #3. Anyway you look at it we missed 17 points minimum on 3 long plays because of the QB play being poor. Regardless of how the drives ended up. His touchdown on the double move he actually had a TD to the other side as well, made the right read to the wide open guy and then almost missed the throw.
He only completed to wide open first reads, had good pocket movement but then did not keep his head downfield, does not read the entire field well at all and misses open guys. That’s the tape, he’s not ready to start an NFL game and based on his age you have to think he never will. It is Maye or nobody on the current roster.
On the offensive Line: Okorafor looked great, until he didn’t. Was too tall on Mayes last pass and got beat, weird false start as it was like he forgot the count. Otherwise, he looked competent, picked up a stunt nicely, stonewalled some guys. He at least looks like an NFL player. Calvin Anderson is a complete disaster. He makes Vederian Lowe, also bad, look like he might be OK. Anderson was just beat OVER AND OVER again. He’s not an NFL tackle. Michael Jordan was bad. Leverett was a mixed bag, not a starting center but will do, maybe in a pinch as backup. Layden Robinson will be a good run blocker, he’s completely lost on the nuances of the game, he needs a year to learn how to play the line, he just looked lost on who to block multiple times, even blocked his own guy in the back on one play. Wallace will be an NFL player, I highly doubt he’ll be a left tackle. He seems to get pushed back by not setting the best base but he’s amazingly good at sticking with it as he slowly gets pushed back. Better run blocker than pass but also completely whiffed on 1 run block. Wallace will be an NFL starter next year, if they need him this year he should be at RT and you hope he improves his technique just a bit. They need to play Okrofar this year and then draft or sign the LT next year. Pray Okrofar doesn’t get hurt, he's the only guy that can be adequate at LT unless Wallace improves faster than expected. They have enough solid guys inside they can push Onwenu to RT, it is either Wallace or him there and Wallace has a month to improve enough to do that, not sure that’s going to happen. They CAN put together a competent Line, with little depth. But no injuries the line will be fine enough. Vederian Lowe also stinks but they may just need to keep him for depth since Anderson looks toast.
Receivers/TE/RB were interesting. Douglas, Bourne and Henry did not play. Starters were Osborne, JUJU, Wilcox, TT. Interestingly Tyquan was the best looking of the bunch. Was open twice, 1 should have been a TD, the other he was not the first read. Wilcox is complete trash. The guy plays hard but can’t catch or block. Bell played a bit and showed some potential, raw but a keeper over Wilcox, man that guy is just bad. Osborn was not good, ran some bad routes, both him and Reagor looked bad as punt returners also. Baker, Bourne, if healthy and Pop are the top 3 easily. I want to see more of Tyquan, I hope Osborn just had a bad game. Boutte was not impressive but wasn’t bad, just meh. Baker was open way more than he got the ball. Him and Tyquan got separation. Problem is if you don’t start Maye the strength they have is down the field and Jacoby can’t throw those. You need Maye to play to maximize the receivers. People will complain the receivers suck, then Maye will come in and people will think the receivers just needed some time. Polk is an enigma. He’s going to be a zone receiver, he can’t separate 1 on 1. Which is fine, you have Pop and Baker for that strength. Baker should have been 2nd round and Polk 4th round based on the tape. The making of a well rounded adequate receiving core is there but will not reach anywhere near their potential with Jacoby at QB. Hunter, Pop, Bourne, Baker, Tyquan and Polk with Osborn maybe checking in. Austin Hooper needs to play well behind Henry because nobody else is ready at TE. Running Back, nobody stood out, nobody flashed, hope Rhamondre and Harris can carry the load but learned very little, Gibson was meh, Hasty and Jenning were nothing to write home about. Wallis is probably not a Receiver, but he needs to be practice squad in case Jones gets hurt again, or I think he could be the primary returner. On 1 punt he had 5 unblocked guys coming at him and still beat them to the edge. Dude can play the role at the NFL level. Had some receiver plays but not enough to see anything worthwhile.
If they keep 6 receivers: TT, Pop, Polk, Baker, Boutte, Osborn
If they keep 3 TE: Henry, Hooper, Bell
QB’s: Maye and Brissett are locks, keep Milton so can hopefully trade him in a year. Maye is the only NFL starting caliber QB on the roster.
Lineman: Andrews, Onwenu, Okorafor, Leverett, Wallace, Sow,. That ends the current NFL talent portion of the line. They need 3 more lineman, Robinson must be 1 and then hopeful someone cuts a lineman or they take one of the Anderson/Lowe crap fest and maybe Mafi who has shown a little something but Anderson/Lowe are not NFL players.
This is one group of plays, some happened on the same play, but these were consecutive plays:
Pettway falls down at top of rout
Anderson beat easily at LT
Zappe, that’s all I’m going to say
Layden Robinson completely got lost on a switch off
Jordan and Leverett both miss blocks on run play
Wallace picked wrong guy to block on run play
Polk and Boutte nearly collided on crossing route.
Have concerns about AVP. Multiple plays a couple guys were together on routes. Boutte and Polk almost collided on a crosser. The lack of motion in the modern game seems wrong. His play-action bootlegs worked multiple times, unfortunately Zappe was QB for some of them so were wasted but again, a good QB, more plays would have worked. On Maye’s first throw he had both edge rushers chipped to help the tackles. I Liked that. Another play, they had Zappe QB, had 8 stay in and only 2 routes, didn’t like that, Jordan almost got beat for a pressure anyways. Just seems a dumb play call. Not sure he’s scheming guys open but was the first pre-season game so gets a pass.
But still a QB can make all the difference: Between Jacoby and Milton they missed possibly 21 points. Yup, Without Maye they are going to struggle on offense but a great QB makes everyone better.
Below is the wide open guy Milton did not see on the scramble.
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