2023-2024 NFL Season Thread • Page 1511

I personally don’t understand coming out of that Jags Texans game thinking it was the WRs winning and not the DBs fuckin up

Dell catch looked like it was “between 3 guys” in real time cause of the broadcast angle… but when I saw the replay it was very obvious to me none of those defenders were actually in position to knock down the ball. They were all watching Stroud and not taking Dell seriously enough, by the time Stroud released the ball the angle was hard for any of those guys to get to. Even though they closed in at the last second, that pass was basically “NFL open”, Dell had all the space he needed to make that grab

 

It’s kinda like the full back kick return. Look, I’m sorry, you can be happy for your guy all you want but the Jags BLEW that kick return coverage cause ALL 11 GUYS chased the ball the second it got dropped. No one hung back or stayed on the sidelines to stop our entire kick coverage from getting flanked so basically horrible discipline is what gave up the TD.

That TD wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t catastrophically fail to maintain gap responsibility, just one of those mistakes an NFL team CANNOT allow to happen

 

The Jets Tank is back, baby

 

Nico Collins and Robert Woods were shut down. DBs did alright there. Maybe Dell is actually just good

 

The WR getting open is also a part of being open, idk. Just seems like a dumb argument to dismiss Dell having a good game (and a good game last game and good games in college and)

 

Again the player I’m most impressed with is CJ Stroud. We did throw pressure at him and he was missing some OL but he still managed, in his third game, to have good enough anticipation to be able to look off defenders with his eyes… and good enough patience and discipline not to press the ball downfield, but to wait for us to fuck up and *then* take advantage with big plays.

We thought we were gonna fool HIM because he’s a rookie and all we had to do was watch his eyes, and that’s true of a lot of rookies. But it bit us in the ass because CJ’s more advanced mentally than most rookie QBs… he understands pocket presence and he knows how not to telegraph his throws.

 

But yeah, Stroud has been excellent. Hopefully the lazy helmet scouting narrative can die now.

 

I never said Dell wasn’t good.

I only said to reel it in a bit in response to a tweet that compared him to, idk, two of the best receivers we’ve watched in our lifetimes?

when the Tweet makes that lofty comparison it’s important to consider that Dell was beating bad coverage and that doesn’t make him Andre Johnson. He ran great routes! But I also think we would’ve gave up those same catches to other talented slot WRs the way we were playing.

 

He's surprised me, not because of the helmet scouting aspect but just because of how easily we've seen him fall apart while wearing that helmet in the past

 

I know you are frustrated, and I get it, but this is a weak argument lol

as if coverage breakdowns don't happen on basically every play in every game

 

they don’t?

 

The comparison is to rookie seasons, you're constructing straw men

No one ever said "he is better than AJ80 and Hopkins"

 

It's not a comparison it's a fact

 

He was neck and neck with Bryce for me and it really just came down to Bryce doing more with far less. That doesn't work in the NFL tho

 

One of those days

 

I am so sorry

 

It’s still weird to bring up Andre and Hopkins though.

 

It is not

 

Also, “coverage breakdowns happen on every play” is just not correct. There’s a difference between, the defense mostly did their job but the WR did a lot with a little separation… vs someone fucked up and you got left wide open

 

If it's the same person that's being "left open" though, maybe it isn't a coincidence

 

I don't like the argument that a team only did good things because the other team did bad things.

 

the 49ers were only good because the Giants were bad

 

that’s not quite my argument. We still probably would’ve lost 21-10 without those major mistakes. But Jags absolutely blowing it multiple times made it a lot worse