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Arrowheadlines: Chiefs News 5/26

NJ Chiefs Fan, Arrowhead Pride — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:55:02 -0000

Good morning! We have an odd day of Kansas City Chiefs news for you. Today's stories include more coverage of OTAs, a look at last season's stand out defenders, and a former Chief arrested for attempted murder. Enjoy.

If Baldwin wants to use OTAs to communicate more openly with teammates, he should start with Cassel. Following an underwhelming rookie season, the receiver said he studied hours of film and pushed himself in the weight room.

If Monday's circus catch is any indication, Baldwin's preparation will pay off in a much-improved sophomore campaign. But Baldwin's continued improvement will only go as far as his on-field relationship with Matt Cassel.

Continuing to build a quarterback-receiver rapport with Baldwin and his other new targets is one of Cassel's main goals as OTAs progress.

Chiefs Focus On Communication Camaraderie During First Week Of OTAs from The Mothership

In his rookie debut, McCluster set a franchise record with a 94-yard punt return touchdown on Monday Night Football. Two weeks later, he left 49ers LB Travis LaBoy flat-footed in the open field and raced for a 31-yard catch-and-run touchdown.

It was all about matchups with McCluster and the Chiefs were getting the looks they wanted. Especially with Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones fueling what would become the league's leading rushing attack and Dwayne Bowe commanding the attention of opposing defensive backs.

But then, just as quickly as his career had taken flight, McCluster hit a wall.

Bringing Back The "O.W." To Dexter McCluster from The Mothership

KC Star Video: Chiefs Undecided What Role Dontari Poe Will Play

Currently, I am away with my Air Force reserve unit in Fayetteville, Tenn. Our project is a Christian Academy that was hit by a tornado in April 2011. I found a lesson from laying cinder block and building a wall.

First, building something is tough work. It's not easy. It can be hot, sweaty and you ache the next day. But I've learned something with each block. There are several things that go into laying block just right for the one to follow and the one after that...

...Crennel's opening quote hinted toward work to do. Those blocks are still being laid. The grout that will hold the Chiefs together is still being applied.

Chiefs Have To Build Success The Right Way from The Examiner

Almost every sack is a Defeat, so it is no surprise that Jared Allen, with his 22-sack season, led the NFL with 33 Defeats in 2011. Jason Pierre-Paul was second with 32, and Derrick Johnson and Terrell Suggs tied for third with 31.

Johnson was the top player in Defeats who was not a pass rusher. He had a mix of all kinds of plays: seven tackles for loss on runs, two sacks, five passes defensed on third down including two picks, and a number of tackles that stopped the opponent short of a third-down conversion. Johnson had 19 Defeats on third or fourth down, which tied for the league lead with Paul Posluszny and Troy Polamalu.

2011 Defeats from Football Outsiders

Orlando Predators wide receiver Bobby Sippio was arrested Friday after his girlfriend's brother told deputies Sippio and another man kidnapped him, beat him and threatened to kill him.

Sippio, 31, picked up Sergio Moore, 27, from his apartment in Orlando about 11 p.m. Thursday, an Osceola sheriff's report shows. Moore told deputies he thought he was going to help Sippio and his friend Santana Coats, 30, move furniture. Instead, Sippio pulled a gun out of the center console, Moore told investigators. Moore tried to open the door and the windows, but they apparently had been locked on the driver's side.

Orlando Predators' Football Player Bobby Sippio Arrested On Attempted Murder Charge from The Orlando Sentinel

There is plenty more that might be outside NFL rules, but is still seen as part of the game. For example, what happens under the pile -- particularly during a fumble recovery -- often stays under the pile, and it's rare when an offender is called out. Chiefs' fans may remember an incident two seasons ago involving defensive lineman Shaun Smith that just seemed wrong.

"Grabbing a player's testicles is not sports-strategic," Cohen says. "It is clearly just an assault for a malicious purpose."

The Blurry Line Between Sports And Assault from Yahoo! Sports

Sporting News Coach Rankings Not Kind To Leslie Frazier

Christopher Gates, Daily Norseman — Sat, 26 May 2012 01:04:21 -0000

So, the Sporting News. . .which I guess is still a thing. . .has put together their rankings of the NFL head coaches from top to bottom. To say that they're unkind to Minnesota Vikings' head coach Leslie Frazier is a bit of an understatement.

Of the NFL's 32 head coaches, Frazier is ranked at #27. Coaches 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32 are all making their NFL debuts, which means that Sporting News has Frazier ranked as the worst returning head coach in the league this season.

The site put together some incredibly insightful commentary on Coach Frazier as well.

If his second year doesn't go better than his first year, there probably won't be a third year.

With that being the case, I guess it's a good thing for Leslie Frazier that the Vikings will be better in 2012 than they were in 2011. The concern is whether or not they'll be better enough for Frazier to keep his job.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers want to win now

Sander, Bucs Nation — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:06:06 -0000

When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last changed their regime in 2009, it was clear to everyone involved that they were entering a rebuilding year. They jettisoned a number of key veteran players, declared that they were building through the draft and talked about building a lasting contender - in time. There were some half-hearted attempts to win early, as no one wants to lose games, but the signing of Byron Leftwich and the trade for Kellen Winslow were more or less the extent of the "win-now" efforts of the 2009 Bucs. Unsurprisingly, that team won just 3 games as they started a plan to win more games over the next years.

So when the Bucs went through another regime change in 2012, perhaps some expected more of that approach. Overhaul the roster, build for the future, win in time. And while new head coach Greg Schiano has on occasion hinted at building a lasting contender and the difficulty of building a winner, it is clear that this team wants to win - and they want to win right now.

That simple fact should be obvious to anyone watching the Buccaneers this offseason. The Bucs have been extremely aggressive this offseason - arguably more aggressive than at any point since they won the Super Bowl in 2003. They signed two premium free agents in left guard Carl Nicks and wide receiver Vincent Jackson, and added a quality second-tier cornerback in Eric Wright. They shored up depth at multiple positions in free agency, signing backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky, backup wide receiver Tiquan Underwood, backup tackle Jamon Meredith, backup defensive tackle Gary Gibson and tight end Dallas Clark. The Bucs then added three potential three-down starters early in the draft to top it all off.

That's not the slow building of a 'perennial contender' we saw under Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik. It's the swift overhaul of a roster to be able to compete early and often. In that sense, this regime change is more reminiscent of the move from Tony Dungy to Jon Gruden than the move from Sam Wyche to Dungy.

But this kind of mentality brings with it a different set of expectations. Whereas you could hardly fault Dungy or Morris for failing to win many games in their first years of head coaches given the quality of their rosters, you can't say the same for Greg Schiano. The Bucs want to win now, and that means that anything other than a winning record must be considered a failure in 2012. Can the Bucs deliver on those expectations?

With Robert Griffin III The Redskins Bootleg Options Are Endless

UkRedskin, Hogs Haven — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:54:16 -0000

We've heard so much over the past couple of months about how Robert Griffin III is a perfect fit for the Washington Redskins. His mobility and arm strength would appear to work nicely with the high amount of play-action bootlegs traditionally seen in a Mike Shanahan offense. But what exactly can we expect to see from the Redskins from their bootleg game?

This post builds somewhat on the post I did earlier this week about Pierre Garcon playing the X receiver. You guys in the comments and on twitter asked me to build on some of the things the Redskins could do on play-action bootlegs. So here's a look at some of the routes you could see from the Redskins.

First we'll start with the fullback.

This is pretty much the standard bootleg play you'll see from a fullback. It's set up to look like a run, but the fullback slips back across the offensive line and out into the flat. From there, he can continue to run into the flat, or break up the field slightly. Either way, he's likely to run free as the linebacker assigned to him buys play-action. The upside of this route is that it will likely always be an option. However, it will rarely pick up more than five or so yards unless the fullback can break tackles (which credit to Darrel Young, he can).

More after the jump.

Next we'll move across to the X receiver.

The most obvious route for the X to run would be a pure go route. This will only work if the corner and the safety bite on the play-action. If they do, the receiver fly's past them and it's an easy touchdown. If they don't, RG3 will have to check it down.

Maintaining the theme of doing deep with the X receiver, you could call for a post route. I've also tagged on the possibility of a post-corner route. Similarly, you could call for a corner-post, which would look like this:

These two plays give the X receiver a chance to beat the corner or safety should they not fall for the play-action. On a go route, if the defender stays with the receiver, that route is taken out. But with either of these two routes, the receiver has a chance to make a cut, thus giving him the opportunity to cut open downfield. The problem with these routes arises with the amount of time needed to run them. On a bootleg, Griffin will only have so much time he can wait for the receiver to break open downfield and will have to check it down if he has a defender rushing him.

So an alternative for the X? An out or comeback route.

When Griffin roles out to the X receivers side, a nice route for the X to run is an out or comeback route. This is incredibly hard to defend. If Griffin is in sync with the X receiver, then the timing should mean a corner can't make a play on the ball unless he's cheating on the route. These routes will break at 15-18 yards downfield, and should hit the receiver as he makes his cut. That means RG3 will have to anticipate the receiver breaking open on time. But as I said, if he can, it's extremely difficult for anyone but the receiver to make a play on the ball. The downside of this route is that it will rarely go for anything more than the 15-18 yard cut point as the receiver will be tight to the sideline and is easy to push out of bounds.

Moving over to the Z receiver on the far side of the field. On the plays I've drawn up, I have Griffin bootlegging to his left, which means the options for the Z receiver are limited.

The first, and most common, is a crossing route. This can be run at different depths. It could be run just a couple yards off the line of scrimmage, making it an "under" route. Alternatively it could be run deeper, maybe 8-12 yards from the line of scrimmage. That kind of a deep cross would usually be accompanied with another, shallower cross (or under). This could come from the tight end, or even the fullback like we saw earlier. These Z crosses will be second or third on the list of progressions. The deep route will come first, followed by the deepest cross, then an under.

A huge benefit of crossing routes on bootlegs is that they are running against the defense. In the play above, the defense will be initially running to the side of the run. While they are doing that, the Z receiver runs past them. This can cause the corner in coverage to get caught in the traffic of his own defense. Once the defense recognizes the play, they have to stop there momentum and run back in the other direction. But the Z receiver never loses a step and uses the time taken by the defense to change direction to create more separation. This makes crossing routes very hard to cover on bootlegs, hence why we see them frequently.

Here's another option for the Z receiver.

This is a nice deep route to have on the backside of a bootleg. It eventually has the same effect as a post route, where the Z receiver makes a deep cut towards the middle of the field (or the goal post). But here, his initial movement takes him inside, almost as if he's going to run a crossing pattern. If the defender is cheating on the cross, the cut upfield will buy the receiver a yard or two. If you're going to run a deep route on the back side of a bootleg, it has to be something like this to get the receiver into the middle of the field. That way, the quarterback can avoid throwing back across the field too much (throwing back across the field leaves the quarterback very prone to interceptions).

Finally we move to the tight ends. I've switched to a tiger personnel group, where the U (the second tight end) takes the place of a back. Just for the sake of it, I have the bootleg running to the right.

This is an extremely common route off of play-action bootlegs. The tight end blocks down on the defensive end before cutting outside on a quick out. This would be the under route on most plays, but could also be used to get the ball into the hands of Fred Davis and give him the opportunity to get yards after the catch as he does so well.

You can also look for the Y to run the occasional deep pattern.

This is a route I'm expecting to see pretty often this year, particularly with Davis. A corner route off play-action bootlegs can be deadly from the tight end. Davis causes mis-matches as it is, but throw in the factor of play-action and this could be a big play for us. I've drawn on the possibility of a corner-post, but I don't really expect that to be run often.

From this formation, the U will most likely do one of two things.

(Apologies for the shadow on the picture, getting light at 1:30 in the morning isn't as easy as you might think.)

The first thing the U could do is slip back across the offensive line and run into the flat. This is similar to the play we saw earlier from the fullback. It's the kind of route I said I'd expect to see from Niles Paul while he adjusts to the tight end position. Again, it would act as an easy completion for a free couple of yards, or a check down from a deeper route.

The other thing I'd expect from the U man is a cross of some sort.

This could be in the form of a shallow cross, or an in route. Either route has a similar effect and would probably act as the second read in the progressions.

One quick edit that I wanted to throw in this morning before I went off to cricket was something some of you mentioned in the comments. On pretty much all bootleg plays, RG3 will have the option to keep the ball and run himself. I wouldn't want him doing it too often because that would leave him vulnerable to multiple hits and injuries. But on occasion, it would be stupid not to let RG3 run himself and use his mobility to pick up some yards.

That's about all I've got for you guys. Hopefully some of this made sense, but Im writing at 1:30AM right now because I'm busy at cricket tomorrow (don't judge me...). What routes do you like the look of? Which would work best in combination with each other? Let us know in the comments below. Also feel free to leave suggestions of stuff you'd like to see drawn up on the whiteboard next week.

Friday Night Random Live Thread:Victory Of The Week Vol. 16

texascowpunk, The Phinsider — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:19 -0000

Well with another work week in the books we have come full circle again and it is time for the victory of the week post. This is of course where you come and tell us what your victory/accomplishment/ect of the week is. It can be a small simple thing all the way to something huge and life changing.

Remember this is open thread and as such any subject is on the table outside of religion and politics. Please keep picks to a minimum of 2 per person and no GIF's in any of the live threads. Also try your best to keep things as close to PG as possible as we are on the front page.

So tell us what is your big victory and or accomplishment of the week?

Cantor: Browns Win Total for 2012 Season Set at 5.5

Chris Pokorny, Dawgs By Nature — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:17 -0000

Cantor Gaming became the first Nevada bookmaker to release NFL season win totals on Wednesday (hat tip to J.W. for posting about it as a FanShot). The teams with the highest win totals are the Green Bay Packers and the New England Patriots, each of whom were given 12. The Cleveland Browns, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Indianapolis Colts, are tied for the lowest win total at 5.5.

Cleveland Browns Win Total for 2012 NFL Season

Over 5.5 wins Even
Under 5.5 wins -130

Once again, my a disclaimer is that my interpretation of betting odds is still in the learning phase, so correct me if I am wrong. Let's assume that you want to make a profit of $100. If you take the over (six wins or more), you would get $100 back if you made a bet of $100 since that is what you put in. If you take the under (five wins or less), you would have to make a bet of $130 in order to make a profit of $100. In that sense, the odds are saying that Cleveland is more likely to fall in the "under" category.

Will the optimism of having Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden on offense this year be enough to get you to choose the under? Keep in mind that over the past four seasons, Cleveland has finished with 4, 5, 5, and 4 wins.

Poll

First question: Will you place a bet? Second question - over or under 5.5 wins for the Cleveland Browns in 2012?

Golden Nuggets: Smith Vs. Newton? Alright Then

James Brady, Niners Nation — Sat, 26 May 2012 09:00:08 -0000

Hey gang, after a full edition of the Nuggets yesterday, I'm checking in with some really quick links for you today. I finally got down my thoughts on Randy Moss and all of his expectations, so that will be the first link. I urge you to tell me why exactly you have such high expectations for him - I'm always open to such talk, even if I likely can't be swayed from my point of view. At any rate, let's jump right into the links for the day.

The Randy Moss Delusion: Unexpected Expectations For 49ers Receiver (Brady)

Smith vs. Newton: It is soooo on now. (Barrows)

49ers look for new ways to stay fit in offseason (Knapp)

Crabtree seems to be catching on (Branch)

When was the last time Alex Smith was told to pipe down? (Inman)

Impressive offseason pushes 49ers into role as Super Bowl favorite (Maiocco)

NFL Predictions: Skip Bayless Says 49ers Won't Win NFC West (SB Nation Bay Area)

Alex Smith is right on point in criticizing Cam Newton's 'success' (Gin)

Niners paying to keep core of team together (Scout.com)

Recalling Aikman's advice: Just win, Alex (Branch)

49ers' Jim Harbaugh 6th in NFL Coaches Power Rankings (SB Nation Bay Area)

The Alex Smith-Cam Newton Brouhaha (Cohn)

A.J. Jenkins Learning From Rice, Moss (49ers.com)

Miller Continues Fullback Development (49ers.com)

Being a Sheep

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Russell Wilson: SB Nation Guest Correspondent

Danny Kelly, Field Gulls — Fri, 25 May 2012 22:12:58 -0000

SB Nation's guest correspondent Russell Wilson catches up with his former receivers: Nick Toon from Wisconsin and T.J. Graham from NC State.