Latest / Disguised Coverage / Stefon Diggs, Buffalo Bills Mandatory Minicamp, & the Josh Allen Run Game | DC

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Stefon Diggs, Buffalo Bills Mandatory Minicamp, & the Josh Allen Run Game | DC · Disguised Coverage

0:00
And thirty eight. All Bills can win it here, Mike puts it down,
0:03
the kick is on the way out and he's got on the bill.
0:06
Good one one one they won Party one thirty eighth incredible, what a combat
0:18
by my Bill Jackson Bills perfect record on the line right here, keeping eide
0:31
touchdown, Kyle Williams touchdown. Amazing, unbelievable. They put in william who's
0:54
hats to full back and he scores a touchdown. It's wealthier to face tackle.
1:08
What's good, folks, Family Friends, loved One's Enemies for Enemies Wizards
1:12
which is Muggles Mudblood's People of Middle Earth. To another episode of Disguise.
1:18
Disguise Coverage, the only podcast in existence that gives you an equal amount of
1:21
blueberries in each muffin, and presented by the best pizza in Buffalo, New
1:26
York, One Pipe Pizza. Finally online menu. In the episode, show
1:27
knows whether they're here on YouTube or anyone of the podcasting apps or platforms.
1:32
I'm your host, Anthony pro Haska. Find me on Twitter at pro Underscore
1:34
Underscore Ant. In tonight's episode, we're going to dive into some Josh Allen
1:41
advanced metrics and game tape. When it comes to the Josh Allen run game.
1:45
That was the original topic and focal topic for tonight's episode, and it
1:51
still is. But I don't know if anybody heard today. It was a
1:55
kind of a story that was swept under the rug, not really given a
1:57
lot of attention local or nationally. But Stefon Diggs was not present at day
2:02
one of Bill's mandatory mini camps. We're going to lead off with that in
2:07
the front portion of this episode. There actually, surprisingly, we're a decent
2:13
amount of details that started circulating once the story broke. You add national media
2:19
members speaking about Ian Rappaport, Adam Schefter broke some pieces. We had comments
2:23
from Josh Allen, we had a comment or two from Sean McDermott, and
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there's a lot of breadcrumbs and a lot of puzzle pieces to potentially connect a
2:32
lot of you know, Charlie Kelly from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, connecting all
2:38
the dots, trying to figure out who Pepe Sylvia is. That's the kind
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of situation that we're at right now and tomorrow, with this time twenty four
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hours from now, help twelve hours from now, this could all be a
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moot point. Stefandis could show up at day two, he could practice,
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he could give us a phenomenal answer that makes everybody feel nice and warm and
2:53
secure and comforted. Or we could be in the same position that we're in
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right now. So again, back half of this episode, I got some
3:00
game tape for you folks, some advanced metrics for a topic like the graphic
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shows the Josh Allen run game. It's one that always gets talked about every
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single year leading into the offseason. You know, like, should you weaponize
3:13
Josh Allen? How much should he run? When should he run? I
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feel like that's always a focal point, but not enough is broken down in
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terms of what kind of runs work, and how to break things down into
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buckets and categories and why they work, the thousand why is all of those
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things. So we're gonna get into that on the back half of the episode,
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But in the front portion, like I mentioned, we're going to lead
3:34
off and talk about Stefon Diggs's absence from day one of Buffalo Bill's mandatory midi
3:38
camp. And as we do here on the show, for those of you
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joining me live here on this episode, you know we love the engagement here
3:45
on this show. So any thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, anything
3:50
and everything that you folks have on your mind. This goes for the back
3:53
end of the episode, but especially in the forefront topic of this episode with
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Stefon Diggs. Anything you got on your mind at all, theories, the
3:59
last of these ideologies, maxims, whatever, throw them up into the chat.
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I want to make this front portion as interactive as possible. I'm huge
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into the interaction piece with a live chat here on disguise coverage, especially with
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the topic as Muddy and Murky, an important and high profile as Stefan Diggs
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missing a mandatory camp in conjunction with him not reporting to voluntary offseason activities.
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So anything you folks got thrown up into the chat and we're going to dive
4:28
right into it. And as always, before we get started, if you
4:30
are here live or if you're watching later not live, please please, please
4:32
and thank you, drop a like on this video. It goes a long
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way towards affecting the algorithm to help this episode get pushed to the front,
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track and trend in front of more eyes and ears help the brand to track
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and trend in front of more eyes and ears. So, if you're enjoying
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this content, or if you're excited for this episode, or if you're excited
4:48
for the Bills, or if you're sad or anxious about the Bills, whatever
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you got going on, drop a likeke on this video. It goes a
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long way and it's sincerely appreciated by myself and the entire team. Let's get
4:59
into it. So, von Diggs act absent from day one a mandatory mini
5:02
camp and where's the comment here? So comment from Justin Justin's here. Very
5:10
early before we went live. Justin said, so, I'm guessing Diggs's frustration
5:13
is with the direction of the offense. Justin followed that up later with if
5:16
it's not football related, what is it about? This is funny from Humble
5:21
Bills fan Diggs wanted to be on the cover of Men. He'll get over
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it. That's fair. Commentary from Oozy saying Diggs is already at the facility.
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So and then Justin followed up and said, but why did he leave
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practice? So again, I'm gonna recycling through all these comments, thoughts,
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anything and everything we got going on. Also, general rules of the show
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for those who don't know or who do just a little refresh. I try
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to pull up anything and everything that I can. Super chants do get priority
5:45
one because I respect the monetary donation too, because the color literally attracts my
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eyes and alerts me and pulls me away from my notes. So again,
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a lot of questions, a lot of thoughts, anything and everything with sefon
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Diggs being absent, and again to tie it into a timeline of this offseason
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for those who don't know or who do, just to kind of put things
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in a perspective, Diggs is not attended the voluntary portions of offseason activities leading
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up to today. But that's not really out of pocket or out of sorts
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for him with what he's done previously and everything. I'll be honest too,
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like I didn't really think anything of it. I was kind of kicking the
6:23
can down the road in terms of, you know, Tea works hard,
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he grinds, he is a true professional when it comes to honing his craft
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of being a professional wide receiver. So anything and everything that was related to
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Diggs not showing up at voluntary OTAs and all that, I kind of just
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kept kicking it down the road, and I was like, he'll be there,
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at mandatory Mini caamp. He'll be there for mandatory Mini Caamp. He'll
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be there for mandatory Mini Caamp. He got the extension that he wanted last
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offseason. Majority of holdouts or frustrations that lead to not attending mandatory mini camps
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majority of them, heavy heavy. Majority of them are either monetarily driven or
6:58
contract driven in some way, shape or form. Player A feels underpaid,
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player A wants more term on their deal, something in that way, right,
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And we don't have any of that with Stefon Diggs. Yes, I
7:08
know he's volatile. Yes, I know he was yelling at Josh Allen in
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that Bengals game, which I'm not completely against. I think it's fine for
7:15
someone to hold someone accountable. I guess I could have been better from an
7:18
optics standpoint, you know, if people want to say, like, oh,
7:21
it would have been better in the locker room, it would have been
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better this and that, blah blah blah. When you're a competitor and you're
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battling on the field, like and you want to win a game, like
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sometimes logic and being like, what's the most politically correct way for me to
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you know, kind of give my teammate a kick in the ass. How
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can I do that right now? That doesn't go through your head. Diggs
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is the fiery competitive guy. He's one of the leaders on this team,
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and so everything in conjunction with itself and with one another. I didn't really
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think anything of it with Diggs's potential frustration going into this offseason, to him
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not attending the voluntary portions of camp. But lo and behold, here we
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are mandatory mini camps starting today Tuesday, June thirteenth, and Stefan Diggs is
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not present. So his agent and speaking with Ian Rappaport again, we're going
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to go through all these details to kind of put pieces together. I got
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quotes from Josh Allen, I got reports from national media, piece and and
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puzzling all these things together. So Stefan Diggs was at the facility yesterday,
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he was there this morning, and then he left this morning and was not
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there for practice, which is weird in and of itself. And then Stefan
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Diggs's agent reportedly found Sean McDermott's press conference answer, to be quote a little
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odd considering the conversations that were happening behind the scenes, including an in house
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situation that they are quote on the way to resolving after Stefan Diggs met with
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Sean McDermott and Brandon Bean and his new wide receivers position coach, so a
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couple of things to unpack there. Sean McDermott went asked about and this is
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a piece too right, Sean McDermott went asked about, like, as he
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concerned about Stefan Diggs being there practice. I figet what the exact verbiage from
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the question that he was asked, But Sean McDermot was just like, yeah,
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I'm very concerned. That can be taken in a multitude of ways.
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He could be concerned about Stefan Digs the person, he could be concerned about
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Diggs attending practice. I feel like that's a little bit of a fuel to
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the fire answer from Sean McDermott. But people are really running with that.
9:15
But that was the comment that Diggs's agent found quote to be a little odd
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considering the conversations that were happening behind the scenes. And then you go further
9:24
from what Stefan Diggs's agent said, and he again he mentions the in house
9:28
situation that they are on their way to resolving. Now. I mentioned it
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earlier. Most of these in house situations that you resolved from camp time our
9:39
contract related. Player thinks they're underpaid, player wants more term and more security
9:43
in their contract, some kind of something, right. It's usually financially or
9:46
monetarily driven in professional sports, that's usually what it is. We don't have
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that with Stefan Diggs. He is very, very, very well paid.
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I would feel like he's pretty happy with this contract. Considering the extension he
9:58
got was last offseason. It bumped him up big time in terms of what
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he was getting. And now we haven't seen any other receiver deals come forward
10:07
to kind of trump his positioning that maybe might make him feel underpaid or not
10:13
properly financially compensated. Now, maybe that is in his head somewhere, but
10:16
I don't think that's it. His agent also came forward and said it's not
10:18
anything financial. So you have the comment from Diggs's agents saying an in house
10:24
situation that they are on their way to resolving. Then you have several quotes
10:28
from Josh Allen and his pressor who I don't want to say he'd looked nervous
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and shaky with his body language, but he reiterated some things over and over
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again, was a bit forthcoming with some information and also kind of contradicted himself
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at times. But so quotes from Josh Allen in regards to Sefon Diggs.
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He said, quote, we're working on some things that are not football related.
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End quote. Then another quote from Josh Allen saying, I've got no
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doubts that will figure out what's going on. End quote. I found was
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too very interesting. You know, the first was right off the bag.
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He gets asked about the Stepon Digg situation. He says, you know,
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we're working on some things that are not football related. So it seemed like
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he knows what's up, right, there's something going on, it's not football
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related. You know, we're working on it. But then later he says,
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I've got no doubts that will figure out what's going on. Again,
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could be just people are in the moment, they're letting it fly off the
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hip. Maybe they're not using the proper verbiage anything and everything. It's hard
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to really dissect someone's verbiage from a live answer from a live interview and their
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live answers. But again, working on some things not football related then later
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Josh Allen says, I've got no doubts that we'll figure out what's going on.
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Then another piece from Josh Allen saying, quote, there's some things that
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could have gone better last year and didn't. I think we're just as an
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organization, maybe not communicating the right way, which again, very interesting comment.
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I think we again quote, I think we're just as an organization,
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maybe not communicating the right way. Then some further pieces from Josh Allen on
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Stefan Diggs's absence from Mini Camp quote, I know everybody in our locker room
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loves him, and I don't think we're going to see this as anything different
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other than a guy that wants to win and somebody that we need to incorporate
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a little bit better in what we're doing around here, and I got no
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doubt that we will. I found the quote incorporate a little bit better in
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what we're doing around here. I found that part very interesting because from on
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the field perspective, Stefan Diggs is an integral piece of the offense week in
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and week out, regardless of opponent, regardless of scenario. He's a focal
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point of the offense. Granted his target share and target rate will drop from
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time to time for certain games, and I know on the back end of
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last year his targets decreased. I believe Eric Turner put out a tweet earlier
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today. I think his targets went down to like six point six per game,
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which I think was fifth teh down the stretch. I don't remember what
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specific game range, but this is the player who, year in and year
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out, is towards the top of the league when it comes to overall targets.
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If we're looking at the twenty twenty season when the Bills kind of broke
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out offensively. If you're looking at the regular season plus postseason, Stefan Diggs
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led the league with one hundred and ninety three targets. Davante Adams was second
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with one seventy, and Adams was a target monster in Green Bay. We
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go into season twenty twenty one, Stefan Diggs was fifth in targets with one
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hundred and sixty eight. We go to last season twenty twenty two, Stefan
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Diggs was fifth in targets with one hundred and sixty six. Now, yes,
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that will EBB and flow, and we'll wax and Wayne and Like I
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mentioned, the overall rate dropped a bit down the stretch. So maybe maybe
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there's something too Diggs wanting to be wanting more consistency with his involvement or his
13:52
usage in the offense, or maybe he wants more targets when it matters most
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we know he showed some frustration in the Detroit game, and I think rightfully
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so, the Bill's offense was kind of plotting along at that point. Diggs
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wanted to be more involved in the offense. And what happened. Diggs got
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more involved in the offense and that Detroit game and the Bills offense picked it
14:09
up. He scored a touchdown and the offense kind of took off from there.
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All these things are possible when you're in speculation season like we are now.
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But I say all that to say Alan saying again the quote unquote,
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incorporate a little bit better in what we're doing here with Regardless Stefon Diggs,
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it's hard to incorporate him more or a little bit better from an on the
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field perspective, given his snapshare, given his use of Drake, given his
14:35
targets. He's a focal point of this offense. Ken Dorsey moved him around
14:39
a lot last year, put him into the slot. More. Part of
14:41
that was due to not having the consistency at the slop position that Cole Beasley
14:46
afforded them in prior years, but he was moved around a bunch. His
14:50
still top five in targets regular season in postseason combined, he had a strong
14:56
year again, a productive year again for Stefon Digs. So if you're looking
14:58
at the okay, like, if you're trying to read between the lines,
15:01
how can you incorporate him a little bit better? From an on the field
15:05
perspective, it seems to go to Justin's common from earlier. If it's not
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football related, what is it about? That's the big question? And again
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Josh Allen saying we're working on some things it's not football related. I've got
15:18
no doubts that we'll figure out what's going on as an organization. Maybe we're
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not just we're just not communicating the right way. And then again saying about
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Diggs, it's he's somebody that we need to incorporate a little bit better and
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what we're doing here, and I got no doubt that we will. Maybe
15:35
he's unhappy with Chad Hall leaving, even though that was more Chad Hall's decision,
15:39
and he's unhappy with the new wide receivers coach. Maybe he's unhappy with
15:43
the direction of the offense this year. Maybe he's unhappy that he's hearing about
15:48
the Bills going after DeAndre Hopkins. Maybe he wants to feel like more of
15:52
a focal point when it comes to the roster construction or the draft pick decision.
15:58
Maybe he wants to know, again this is pure speculation. Maybe he
16:00
wants to know, like, hey, we're targeting Dalton Kinkaid in the first
16:03
round or something like that. It could be anything. My point with all
16:07
of it is, if it's not money related, money is complicated in and
16:11
of itself. Right, When someone wants a contract, a new contract,
16:14
or more money and they're holding out for it that I'm not saying that's the
16:17
easiest thing in the world to resolve, but it's straightforward, right, player
16:21
wants more money or better pay. Organization wants to keep that player at at
16:26
as affordable a price as possible without over extending themselves. They either agree or
16:33
they don't. Player gets traded or released or cut. We see what happens,
16:36
right, Not that that's simple put, it's straightforward. We know what's
16:40
going on, right opposite sides meet in the middle, or they don't.
16:42
It is extremely murky when you have a player who's sitting out and all these
16:48
different pieces are being said by his agent, by the quarterback of the team,
16:52
and someone who in theory is very close to and there isn't a monitor.
17:00
Harry Peace related to this again, as we've surmised, but also as
17:02
Stefan Diggs's agent said, it's so much harder to find a solution when it's
17:08
not a cut and dry problem and we don't know what the problem is right
17:12
now. I'm assuming the Bills do as an organization. I would assume the
17:15
players know, or Josh Allen knows to some degree. To some level,
17:18
maybe he does not, I don't know. But my point with all of
17:22
it is, I do think there is some costs for concern, just from
17:27
again and tomorrow. At this time, everything could be water under the bridge
17:30
and it's all good and we're all harmonious and everything is fantastic. But my
17:33
cause for concern with it all stems from we don't know what the problem is.
17:38
But again, if it's not money, just how fixable is it.
17:44
If he's upset with the new wide receivers coach. Again, I'm just making
17:47
this up. Spit on. If he's upset with the new wide receivers coach,
17:49
okay, cool, do you fire the new wide receivers coach? Like?
17:53
How does he want that result? If he's upset with how the offense
17:57
performed down the stretch last year and he wanted Ken Dorsey gone, but Ken
18:00
Dorsey's back, how do you make Diggs feel better? Do you do you
18:04
fire Ken Dorsey? If he's looking at what the plan is for the offense
18:08
this year and he doesn't like how much he's in the slot or how much
18:11
he's lined up as the Z receiver or how many you know, how much
18:15
twelve personnel they're going to use this year? How do you rectify that?
18:19
Do you give him what he wants? And oh, you want to be
18:22
in the slot more, okay, we'll put you in a slomwere Or you
18:23
don't want us to run twelve, Okay we won't. We won't run twelve.
18:26
Again, I'm just making up all these things. If he's upset with
18:30
Josh Owen in some way anything, how do you resolve these issues? How
18:36
do you make him feel better. It's not easy. Again, if he's
18:40
upset at the direction of the offense, if he's upset at the coaching staff,
18:42
if he's upset with things schematically, do you change those things to acquiesce
18:48
to what he wants, because that also opens up an entire can worms.
18:52
When you start caving to individual player demands that are especially made public, then
18:56
it opens you up to be vulnerable for few your player demands from other players
19:00
or other positions, and then if you don't bend to that player, then
19:03
they understand kind of the hierarchy or where they stand, and now you have
19:07
to figure out, Okay, like, did we've been to this player,
19:08
do we not bend to this player. If we don't bend to this guy,
19:11
we're kind of acknowledging that he's a lower He's a lower tier than this
19:15
other guy who we've been to. Not to mention just the logistics of all
19:18
of it. If you, as an organization agree that you're supposed to head
19:22
in direction A, but you've got a player that thinks direction A sucks and
19:27
he wants to go in direction B. But he's one of your best players
19:30
and one of the best players in the league. Do you go in direction
19:33
B or do you stay the course and try and convince him that A is
19:37
going to work. And then if direction A starts to falter or sow some
19:41
cracks a little bit in the back of your mind, you're gonna be like,
19:44
oh, we didn't square a touchdown on this drive. Diggs is going
19:47
to say something like Diggs is going to be pissed, and I'm not saying
19:49
that's what's going to happen. My point with all of it is is I
19:52
think that's the cause for concern right now, because I don't think his problem
19:57
is a problem that is necessary, really ready to be solved easily, or
20:03
as straightforward or as cut and dry. It's not as simple as hey,
20:07
I want more money and they're like, cool, we can give you more
20:10
money. Or it's the opposite, you want more money, cool, we
20:12
can't give it to you. Boom. That's it. You're dealing with what
20:17
seems to be some sort of personal or internal thing for Stefan DAGs. That
20:23
could be an on the field issue, it could being off the field issue.
20:27
It could be something that we haven't even spoken about yet. It could
20:30
be something personal, It could be something emotional, it could be a multitude
20:34
of things. But at the end of the day, I think because it's
20:38
not monetary related, because it's not financially driven, it's a cause for concern
20:44
because it makes the potential solution that much more complicated. Because the issue itself
20:48
is complicated. Therefore the solution is going to be complicated. It's not cut
20:52
and dry, it's not straightforward, and I think that again is the cause
20:56
for concern. When you're dealing with a moving target and a lot of moving
21:00
parts and you're trying to nail down a solution, that means you got to
21:03
get all those moving parts to kind of settle. You have to get all
21:06
these people on the same page. And depending on how big his issue is
21:11
and how deep his issue goes or his frustrations go, if there are any
21:15
frustrations or issues, again, we could be completely off target here and thinking
21:21
about what has caused to find days to miss Day one a mandatory mini camp.
21:25
Depending on how deep any potential frustrations or issues go, the harder it
21:30
is to solve that problem, the harder it is to patch together a solution
21:34
and rectify the issue that's going on at hand. And when you're a team
21:37
that has championship aspirations, and you're a team that was trying to take a
21:41
jump offensively. Despite the fact that they had a good last year from an
21:45
advanced metrics perspective, and Ken Dorsey did some good things, there were issues
21:49
that needed to be resolved offensively from a schematic standpoint going into this year and
21:53
from a roster standpoint, they helped both are the offensive line a little bit.
21:56
You bring in Dalton Kincaid, you bring in trenchure Field and Deontay Hardy
22:00
and Damien Harris. They bring all these weapons for versatility and multiplicity, but
22:04
the core of the offense is Josh Allen and Stefan Das. You've got one
22:08
of the best quarterbacks in the entire NFL. You've got one of the best
22:11
wide receivers in the entire NFL. Both of them are arguably and probably top
22:15
five at their position. That's what makes the offense go. It churns everything.
22:21
Everything from a weapons standpoint of schematic standpoint kind of branches off and is
22:26
an offshoot of having Stefan days. He affords you a lot of that versatility
22:32
and that multiplicity that you can potentially have. Given the new roster editions and
22:36
schematic tweaks that we anticipate the Bills having this year. He's a focal point
22:40
and a core piece of again, a team with championship aspirations that's trying to
22:45
get over the hump. He just also happens to be an extremely competitive,
22:48
extremely fiery guy, and he's also one of year leaders on and off the
22:52
field. So again, we could be sitting here tomorrow and everything sunshine and
22:59
daisies and bos and all happy, and we can all sleep tight at night.
23:03
But my biggest concern right now is because the problem is not financially driven.
23:08
My cause for concern with that is, Okay, it's not as straightforward
23:11
of a solution. Again, money isn't the easiest thing to resolve. But
23:15
player A wants more money. You can either give it to them or you
23:18
can't. You either give it to them or you don't boom. Those are
23:22
your options. If it's something else, which it looks like it is,
23:26
then you have to figure out what's the problem, how deep does it go,
23:27
and how do you rectify it? And if rectifying it potentially upsets other
23:32
people or other large scale mechanisms or pieces on or off the field, then
23:36
you have to think about the collateral damage and the possibilities of that, and
23:38
so potentially very complicated and or muddied murky problem issue, which means it's complicated,
23:47
muddy, murky potential solution for all those pieces. So who we will
23:52
see? I like what Autumn says her. Autumn says, I just want
23:56
the team to be happy together and playing well and being friends. That's what
23:59
I would love. Everybody, love everybody, like Will Ferrell says in semipro
24:03
justin come in and saying, I mean, I'm confident he'll be back by
24:06
training camp. I know the chat has been blown up, so I'm gonna
24:07
start to bring in a lot of pieces. Now. Oh, we gotta
24:11
stop because we got a super chat. I gotta go to the super chat.
24:14
Where is the super chat? Why Towns King? I appreciate you,
24:18
thank you for being here, and thank you for these super chat Why Towns
24:21
appreciate the hell idea? Why Towns King says, I think he needs therapy.
24:23
Disgruntled multi millionaire. Nobody gets everything they want on their job, especially
24:29
when you're not the face of the team. I think, you know,
24:33
I try not to pass too much judgment on people. Like in their job,
24:37
specially professional athletes, Like I know how well they're paid, and I
24:38
know their celebrity status, but at the end of the day, there's still
24:42
just people who have jobs. Their jobs just happen to make them celebrities and
24:47
famous and pay them, you know, bookoo bucks. But I think of,
24:52
you know, kind of alluding to your point here, like nobody gets
24:53
everything they want on their job. But how many times have people been like,
24:57
you know what, Like, I'm pissed at my job, I'm going
25:00
into work today, I'm calling in sick. Right, how many times has
25:03
anybody done that? Has anybody been, whether it's your career or whether it's
25:07
a job when you first started out anything and everything, how many times have
25:11
you called out for just something that seems like miniscule now when you look back
25:15
on it or even think about it now. Right, maybe Dig's had one
25:18
of those days. He's pissed at his job, so he called out today.
25:22
And I'm not saying that's okay, I'm not saying that's acceptable, But
25:26
sometimes people have those days, like it just duds a human being, and
25:30
sometimes human beings just have those days. But his job just happens to be
25:33
in the spotlight, and in a sport where people demand answers and productivity and
25:40
they demand accountability because they're fans of all those things, and it's a high
25:44
profile business. But you know, I recognize the comment and I see it
25:48
and I feel you on it. Let's go back, man, chat is
25:52
jumping as I thought it would be. Where are we going? Where are
25:56
we going? Oh? Why? Says he'll be there tomorrow. Her his
26:00
agent but said there's an issue. Yes, So his agent did say,
26:03
you know, going back to it, Yeah, there's an in house situation
26:10
that they are on the way to resolving. He said he'll be in Buffalo.
26:12
You know, he'll be present. We'll see if he attends. We'll
26:15
see. We'll see if he's at the facility tomorrow. We'll see if he
26:18
practices again. He was at the facility today and yesterday. He was at
26:22
the facility literally this morning and then left before practice started. So not great,
26:29
not great, not great. Tim saying everybody freaking out is a bit
26:34
understandable. But he was at the facility, met with the head coach,
26:37
and GM isn't in the media taking shots at the organ or teammates. Let's
26:42
all just take a breath, fair point and a bit of levity there from
26:45
Tim. I think on the flip side of it, though, if he
26:49
has been meeting with McDermott and being and has been in town and has been
26:52
speaking about these things and didn't come to practice today, what is holding that
26:59
up? What is the issue? What were they trying to resolve behind the
27:03
scenes, What is that in house situation that they were on the way to
27:06
resolving. And if not him, if he's not at practice today, which
27:10
he was not, did he feel like they're on their way to resolving that?
27:15
Did he not like the way that they're resolving it? Does he not
27:18
think that they're close? Like what did the two sides look like? And
27:19
maybe that's why McDermott said he was very concerned. Maybe McDermott thought, you
27:23
know, everything's gonna be cool. You know, we met, we spoke
27:26
ship shape, we're all on the same page, and then Diggs doesn't show
27:30
up today, and maybe he was surprised by that, and maybe that's why
27:33
he's very concerned. So it's tough. You can look at it on both
27:36
sides. You can panic or you can think everything is sunshine and daisies.
27:40
Oh, it's a tough situation. It's a tough situation. Oh, Stephen
27:44
says, I know, I'm kind of backtracking here as I had said a
27:47
lot of these things. But Stephen saying his Chad Hall part of this conversation
27:49
could be maybe Diggs love Chad Hall. But again, Chad Hall wasn't forced
27:53
out or let go like he went left for another opportunity. I don't know
27:59
how much of that was. Is Paul being unhappy with what was going on
28:02
at the team, and maybe there was some you know, under the radar
28:06
motive potentially for Hall leaving, and maybe Digs is pissed with it. I
28:08
know Diggs was a big proponent of Chad Halls as a lot of the receivers
28:11
were. He was well respected and very well liked within the team, So
28:15
it could be and as Steven says, yeah, I just I just don't
28:18
get the end game here for Diggs. And I think that's the point,
28:22
right, If it is football related or it's not football related, what's the
28:26
issue and what is his resolution? What does he want? And again Josh
28:32
Allen saying, working on some things they're not football related. I don't see
28:37
how it like what the issue would be if it's not football related in some
28:41
way, it's going to trace back to football unless it again is you know,
28:45
not that football is in real life, but like a real life,
28:48
not football related issue. Maybe he's got something going on with himself, family,
28:52
friends, loved one, something like that. Maybe he just didn't feel
28:56
like he was mentally up to practicing today. Maybe there's something going on.
29:02
Could be again we're ring between the lines for a lot of it, which
29:04
again makes it tough. What else do we got? Oh could comment here
29:12
from autumn saying maybe Diggs wants his voice to be heard in the game planning
29:15
and the offense in general. That could be. Maybe he wants, you
29:18
know, again Alan saying, you know, incorporate. You know, he's
29:22
a guy, he's somebody that we need to incorporate a little bit better.
29:25
And what we're doing here, it's just tough because again, if you're putting
29:29
a game plan together, and again, Diggs is awesome. He understands the
29:33
game. We know how he sees it, we know how hard he works
29:34
and how good of an individual player he is. But then what kind of
29:37
future expectation does that set if you haven't If Dawson Knox gets upset next offseason,
29:41
do you have to bring Dawson Knox in to let him be heard in
29:44
the game planning and the offense in general? Like where do you stop once
29:48
you open that door? Not to mention the short term effects of I don't
29:52
know it, Like it's say Diggs did want that? What if he sucks
29:57
in terms of the game planning. What if he's that guy who's thrown out
30:00
ideas in the group and everybody's just like, ah, has to roll their
30:04
eyes because every idea he throws out is terrible. It's again, tough,
30:07
tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough,
30:11
tough, tough. Beta Jim says, he just didn't practice today.
30:14
He was at the facility talking to him. Yes, he was there this
30:15
morning. He left before practice happened. Oh see everybody arguing about the pieces
30:27
of practice. Yeah. Again, it's tough. And we'll see what happens
30:32
in the coming days. For all that we're talking about right now, we
30:34
could be sitting here saying, oh my goodness, like is everything okay,
30:40
Oh my gosh, what's gonna happen? We could be sitting here tomorrow night
30:44
and this could be a non issue. Going forward, maybe it tends practice
30:47
tomorrow, he says, what's up, He talks about why he was absent,
30:49
and we go from there. But until then, speculation. I appreciate
30:55
your billy billy saying cover one my only Bill's dose of reality. Appreciate,
31:00
thank you very much. And yeah, as Justin says here, we just
31:03
need to see what happens from around. This is gonna be what those one
31:04
of those things where we take it one day at a time. Everything right
31:08
now is really speculative, speculative and trying to piece together breadcrumbs and putting puzzle
31:12
pieces together, And especially for someone like me who i'm I'm you folks know,
31:18
I'm XS and os and on the field guy. I recognize what happens
31:22
off the field and how it, you know, funnels into what we see
31:26
on the field. But i'm scheme and XS and os and breaking down what
31:30
happens on the field and connecting all of its schemes, concepts, the house
31:34
and wise behind the game and how it's played. And I respect the on
31:38
the field stuff because again it's an important piece of what happens on the field.
31:42
So I recognize that pipeline and how it flows, but I'm not big
31:45
into the speculation game and you know, reading, listening to a press conference
31:51
and trying to piece together what somebody really meant and reading between the lines.
31:53
But this is a significant issue, especially because say Digs is that, you
31:59
know, unhappy with the organization. It's not like the Bills can just easily
32:02
cut him or trade him given the dead cap that they would incur with his
32:07
extension last year. So if he wants out, or if there's some situation
32:13
where positive resolution is not possible, it's a really bad look for this team
32:19
from an optics standpoint, but also from a nuts and bolts brass tax perspective
32:22
financially, and then again just from the on the field piece of you're losing
32:25
one of your best players on the entire team. So Brian saying, yeah,
32:31
his agent said he'll be there tomorrow, I thought, so we shall
32:35
see. Yeah, he said he'll be present. Or I forget the tweets
32:39
from Adam Schefter. I can actually pull it up right now. There is
32:51
Adam Schefter's tweets. Of course when I want to find it, I can't
32:54
find it. But yeah, Dig's agent alluded to some piece of that,
33:00
saying that Diggs would be present for camp. There it is Diggs. The
33:05
agent said his client is in Buffalo, has been in Buffalo since yesterday morning,
33:07
took his physical, met with the head coach and GM the past two
33:10
days, and the Pro Bowl wide receiver quote will be there for the entirety
33:15
of mini camp. But now, if you want to play Devil's advocate,
33:19
right, the agent just says he'll be there for the entirety of mini camp.
33:22
Okay, maybe he just meant in Buffalo. Maybe he just meant at
33:25
the facility not practicing. Maybe again, we could if we really want to
33:30
split hairs, we could do this all day. I appreciate Brian. Yeah,
33:34
I had this tweet up earlier and then I closed it out, and
33:35
of course I wanted to find it immediately. It took me like five minutes.
33:38
But again, maybe the agent just meant in Buffalo. Again, he
33:40
was there this morning, he was at the facility. He left before practice.
33:44
So and his low points out here being a camp doesn't necessarily mean he
33:49
will he will participate. So that's another piece. Right, If he's there,
33:52
why is he not practicing? What's going on? There's oh Man drama,
33:57
drama, drama, drama, Oh Sarah says, I'm panicking because I'm
34:00
afraid we're going to keep catering to him and digging a deeper and deeper hole.
34:06
That tweet from Schefter was Digs his agent attempt at damage control. Could
34:08
be? Could be? And look at all of us swimming stir in the
34:12
pot in this speculation speculation season around Stefan Diggs. So again, it's gonna
34:17
be one of those things where if you're waking up tomorrow, you're checking everything.
34:21
Was he president at camp? Is he practicing? Is he on the
34:23
field? Is their video of and practicing? And then then it's going to
34:25
be if he's on the field, Okay, what's his body leg which look
34:28
like? Is he is he a full participant? Does he look happy as
34:30
he danced into the music? Like? What's going on? Is he talking
34:34
to players? Who's he talking to? Who's he's not? Who's he not
34:36
talking to? What is he talking to? Alan? Do they seem cool?
34:39
Do him and Allen have a beef? Round and round? We can
34:43
go, But again I don't like to jump on the speculation piece myself and
34:46
Air Turner also spoke about this earlier today we went live when the news broke
34:52
Normally I'm not into the speculation season nuts and bolts, but given the gravity
34:55
of this situation, I thought it was important to lead off the show talking
35:00
about that piece. Now we're going to pivot to the meat of the show,
35:05
the Josh Allen Run game in the Buffalo Bills offense. Actually, before
35:07
I do that, let me bring up a sponsor. I mentioned every week
35:10
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people making great food. Go get yourself some One Pipe Pizza, treat yourself,
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your taste buds, your family to some great food, and also do
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some good for the community while you are at it. Okay, Josh Allen.
35:51
The Josh Allen Run Game in the Buffalo Bills offense. So this is
35:54
a piece again, and I mentioned earlier this was going to be the sole
35:58
focal point of this episode, but then the Digs piece happens, so I
36:01
wanted to talk about it a little bit. The Josh Allen run game is
36:07
something that gets talked about every season going into the season. It gets talked
36:10
about during the season, especially in big games, like how much do the
36:14
Bills rely on and how much of the design run games should they lean into.
36:16
You know, Josh Allen is a unicorn of an athlete. He's big,
36:20
he's strong, he's athletic, he's fast, he's mobile. He can
36:23
shake linebackers in the open field, he can outrun defensive ends, he can
36:29
truck defensive backs and change angles because he's still athletic and speedy. So he's
36:34
one of these unicorn kind of guys. And again, like I mentioned,
36:37
going into the season, preseason, in season, somehow we always get onto
36:42
this conversation and topic of the Josh Allen run game in the Buffalo Bills offense.
36:46
And like I mentioned earlier, so we're going to dive into some advanced
36:50
metrics and some game tape with Josh Allen and the big thing I wanted to
36:53
hit on initially and really going into this episode here is the success rate on
37:01
design runs versus scrambles has been vastly different, and I think rightfully so to
37:07
a degree. So it's not uncommon for a quarterback to have a better expected
37:14
points added EPA per attempt on scrambles than on design runs. Again, it
37:19
makes sense. You know, when a quarterback scrambles, it's a pass play.
37:22
So maybe the defenders have their backs turn to the QB while they're in
37:25
coverage. Maybe the rush lanes breakdown and the defensive line loses pass rush integrity.
37:30
And when a mobile quarterback has either of those things happen, or a
37:32
multitude or other things happen, they can scramble and the payoff can be significant,
37:37
but significant differences between the Josh Allen design run game. So again,
37:43
your quarterback power your QB pin and pulls your quarterback draw versus a QB scramble,
37:47
which is he drops back to pass and for whatever reason he takes off
37:51
and he runs. Those two things need to be put into separate buckets.
37:53
I think a lot of times it just gets talked about as okay, the
38:00
Josh Allen run game like run and run and run and run him, but
38:02
there's a vast difference between what he is on the ground from it as a
38:07
design runner versus what he is as a scrambler when a pass play doesn't work
38:12
or the pass play breaks down. So twenty twenty two alone expected points added
38:15
per attempt on design runs. In twenty twenty two, Josh Allen had a
38:22
negative zero point one five EPA per attempt on forty five design runs. That
38:28
was tenth out of seventeen qualifying quarterbacks. His scrambling EPA per attempt was positive
38:35
point five two on fifty nine attempts. That was fourth out of thirty seven
38:39
qualifying qbs. So that's a huge difference. Design runs negative zero point one
38:45
five scrambles positive point five two. Again somewhat explained by when quarterbacks take off.
38:52
When they scramble mobile socially mobile ones, it's usually really advantageous. Think
38:55
about the plays that Patrick Mahomes makes. Think about Hurts is a bit of
39:00
a different runner because of what he can do in the design run game and
39:02
how the Eagles work. But think about when mobile quarterbacks really gets you.
39:07
Again, Momes is the biggest, the greatest example, he's not having all
39:09
these design runs against the Buffalo Bills. How many times has he killed the
39:13
bills because he drops back to pass and there's nothing there and he breaks contain
39:16
and he scrambles. He does it time and time again, injured ankle or
39:20
not. And so we look at that big discrepancy again. Twenty twenty two
39:24
positive point five two EPA per attempt on scrambles, negative point one five on
39:29
design runs. Twenty twenty one. Similar story, less of a discrepancy.
39:34
Twenty twenty one scrambles, he was a positive point four nine on fifty three
39:38
attempts, which was fourth out of thirty seven qualifying quarterbacks. Again, but
39:43
in design runs in twenty twenty one under Brian Dable positive zero point one six
39:50
on fifty two attempts, So twenty twenty two design runs EPA per attempt negative
39:55
zero point one five EPA per attempt in twenty twenty one this season before on
40:00
design runs positive point one six, so a point three one differential that is
40:06
huge from percentage point standpoint, and that positive point one six in twenty twenty
40:12
one was second out of thirteen qualifying qbs and second in the entire NFL amongst
40:19
eighty two players with at least fifty carries. So the design run game for
40:22
Josh Allen in twenty twenty one under Brian Dable was hitting. And if you
40:25
think about it, go back to go back to that Tampa Bay Buccaneers game
40:31
when they were running QB pinning polls and QB powers and QB bash and it
40:36
was really working and Allen got things going on the ground, which is understandable
40:39
giving Brian Dable's background and just experience overall, but that season was really an
40:45
outlier from a design run standpoint. In twenty twenty, allen DPA per attempt
40:51
on design runs was negative point two zero on forty four attempts. That was
40:54
eighth out of thirteen qualifying qbs. So from twenty twenty through twenty twenty two,
41:00
the three big seasons for this offense and for Josh Allen, two of
41:02
those being under Brian Dable. Josh Allen's EPA per attempt on design runs twenty
41:07
twenty negative point two, twenty twenty one, positive point one six, twenty
41:14
twenty two, negative point one five, So that design run EPA per attempt
41:19
really had a high in twenty twenty one, but twenty twenty and twenty twenty
41:22
two were kind of similar. You look at his scramble rate, you had
41:24
improvement every single year. Twenty twenty he was flat even zero point zero zero
41:30
EPA on scrambles in twenty twenty, which was twenty fourth out of thirty qualifying
41:35
qbs. But in twenty twenty one positive point four nine, twenty twenty two
41:38
positive point five two. Each of those years he was fourth out of thirty
41:43
seven qualifying qbs, and the qualifying metric I used there was ten ten or
41:47
more attempts. So again, Josh Allen has been a very effective runner for
41:52
the Bills. He's arguably and probably been the Buffalo bills most effective runner.
41:55
But a significant portion of that in twenty twenty two was tied to his ability
42:00
to scramble more so than it was the design run game. So I wanted
42:05
to leave lead in with some of those metrics and some of those pieces,
42:09
and then tie into some film that we're gonna go through. No, oh,
42:13
there's a super chat. Sorry, I see it. I have to
42:15
go back to it. Calgary Mafia saying, Anthony, your delivery is very
42:17
natural, well done, appreciate you, thank you very much for being here,
42:20
and take it for the kind words thinking for the super chat. I
42:22
like that thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh when Sarah comes
42:24
in, So this is one before I get to the film. Someone always
42:27
makes this comment in some way, shape or form, not necessarily the one
42:30
that Sarah's making, but kind of the lead into it, saying, yeah,
42:34
Josh got hurt in the pocket. I don't want him lowering his shoulder
42:37
and initiating contact, but you take his legs away and he's a sitting duck.
42:42
Lamar Jackson also got hurt in the pocket for those who don't know,
42:45
And I think this comment is spot on. Like the Josh Allen run game
42:50
is extremely important. I want to see improvement with the design run game,
42:53
which we're going to look at on tape in a little bit. But his
42:57
legs are so important, especially with just with the passing game. His scrambles
43:01
again, his EPA per attempt on scrambles has been tremendous and it's a huge
43:05
part of the offense. It's a momentum killer for defenses. It's another card
43:10
that can be played when the past doesn't work. If the route distribution doesn't
43:15
work, the concept doesn't work. The defense has a covered Josh Handlon kind
43:17
of has that get out of jail free card that can make you right even
43:21
when you're wrong, because of what he can do with his legs. I
43:23
just think, to Sarah's point, he has to get a little smarter when
43:27
he's out in space. It's awesome when he trucks a linebacker, or he
43:30
leaps over a linebacker, or trucks a dB or stiff arms a dB.
43:34
I used it for the graphic here him stiff arming the hell out of Nick
43:37
Scott for the Rams last year in Week one. But even in week one,
43:40
even though it's there's a low percentage of getting hurt and Nick Scott's a
43:44
little guy, maybe you don't stiff arm unless you absolutely have to. If
43:47
it was first and ten and you've already run for thirteen fourteen yards, yeah
43:52
you can stiff arm this guy or run through him and get an extra two
43:54
or three. But maybe just slide and protect yourself. I think he needs
43:58
to learn more of the break glass in case of emergency running aspect of his
44:02
game when there is the emergency, instead of always being balls to the wall
44:07
one hundred miles an hour, one hundred percent of time. It's awesome,
44:09
it's admirable, it makes for great highlights, but there is that risk factor
44:14
involved, as there is with just being on the field at any point.
44:16
Again, to Sarah's point, he got hurt against the Jets because Bryce Hoff
44:21
came around the edge and hurt him while he was in the pocket. So
44:23
you know, we'll see what happens going forward or whatever the a I'm saying.
44:30
I would rather Josh scramble than just stand there and get demolished in the
44:32
pocket. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely else what else? What else?
44:39
Okay? Cool, So let's dive into some of the film here now
44:45
to break down these pieces. So the first piece I want to show is
44:51
we're we're gonna look at the scrambles first. Again, Josh Allen very successful
44:58
from a scrambling perspective in twenty twenty two plus point five two EPA per attempt,
45:02
which was fourth out of thirty seven qualifying quarterbacks and put him towards the
45:07
top of the league in terms of EPA per attempt majority of if you're including
45:12
quarterbacks, the top ten, the top eight EPA per attempt generators last year,
45:19
we're all quarterbacks. So your Lamar Jackson's your Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts
45:22
or Josh Allen these mobile guys and then ten out of the top eleven were
45:30
quarterbacks. So Kyler Murray was in there, Taysom Hill was in there.
45:31
Even though Taysom Hills kind of like, how do you classify him and how
45:36
do you quantify him? Because again, scrambles make a big difference when that's
45:39
again that trump card is that get out of jail free card for offense is
45:43
if you have that mobile athletic quarterback, he can make you right even when
45:46
you end up initially being wrong given what happened from a play call perspective.
45:52
So now let's share the screen here. I'm going to bring up a trustee
45:59
huddle two and so again this first one have it labeled here. This is
46:02
nothing crazy. This is Josh Allen scramble. Right. This is the piece
46:07
that I just wanted to highlight. It gives the basic notion of why scrambles
46:12
generate such high EPA and why they can be a backbreaker for defensive So on
46:16
this one, Minnesota plays coverage. They matches the route, they match the
46:20
routes. But there's a good pocket that's formed and Josh Allen can take off
46:24
and then he's in the open field. Usually when he gets in the open
46:28
field and he scrambles, this is a huge piece for him too. Right,
46:30
he's usually either facing a linebacker that he's more athletic then and he can
46:35
shake or outrun, or a defensive back that he can power through for some
46:38
kind of extra yardage. Here on this one, he powers through linebacker Eric
46:44
Kendricks for about an extra seven yards on this play. So let's go forward
46:49
here, let's watch what we got going on. So again drop back.
46:52
This is when this is a nice pocket. We see what we got going
46:54
on here, nice pocket that's formed there. Alan can sit, he can
46:59
see what's going on, but everything's kind of covered. He's got nothing down
47:01
here. Mackenzie's coming here on this over safety's driving on. It doesn't really
47:06
have anything there covered here. He's got his two underneath options and kind of
47:12
the no cover zone areas for the defense. But as you see, defenders
47:15
are kind of bee lining to both of those guys. So if he's looking
47:20
at this, there's all this space. It looks like for him to scramble
47:24
and then as the play continues and develops. He sees it again. Kendricks
47:30
goes out this way and it is just so inviting for Alan to attack this
47:37
spot. He's got a one on one opportunity on the outside and he takes
47:39
it. This is the picture perfect example of what Alan can do with his
47:43
legs. Outruns the defensive lineman, puts a shoulder through Eric Kendricks carries him
47:47
from seven yards. Boom, big game. Look at it from the end
47:52
zone angle. There is nobody there and this is also a big benefit two
47:55
of what Alan can do with his legs from an offense of line standpoint.
48:00
Just give him a halfway decent pocket. He has very good pocket manipulation and
48:05
navigation to step up, avoid slide. Anything that he can do. He
48:08
can make throws off platforms. So even in the pocket, he can make
48:12
you right even when you're wrong. But in this instance, the offensive line
48:16
did a good job, but guys are covered downfield, which happens right.
48:21
This is also why scrambles can work like sometimes you just get out matched on
48:24
the back of the defense has a great call, or they anticipate the right
48:28
way, or maybe you don't execute properly in the routes maybe it wasn't a
48:31
great play design, maybe it wasn't the right time for that play call,
48:35
whatever have you. But there's good coverage downfield. Again, I want to
48:39
show it from the sideline angle, like I showed. This is good coverage
48:44
from Minnesota. Like you did a good job. If you're the Vikings,
48:45
you're sitting here looking at this and being like, yo, we did it.
48:49
We just gave as a Harrison Phillips right here. I believe he just
48:52
takes that inside route and see it happened all the time. You break contain
48:58
that b gap opens up, but Alan goes around the outside through the sea
49:01
outruns, a man, goes to a linebacker carries him for a little bit.
49:07
Beautiful again one more time. This is why scrambles. You see Lamar
49:12
Jackson do this. You see Jalen Hurts do this. You see Patrick Mahomes
49:15
do this. Kyler Murray does it all the time. Aaron Rodgers used to
49:19
do it all the time. Ben Roethlisberger would do it a bit. That
49:22
ability to just create something off script, and this is why it kills you.
49:28
Also in the perspective of what I mentioned before, right, so look
49:31
when Alan takes off part of the reason why scrambles are such huge generators of
49:37
EPA and or backbreakers or defenses. Look as he starts to run here Kendricks's
49:43
turn and his matching knocks right, because that's his coverage responsibility. Everyone else
49:47
has flowed this way with their coverages and with their routes if they're the Minnesota
49:53
Vikings. So literally between the numbers here, not even between the like on
50:00
this side of the hash, there's literally only one Minnesota Viking defender. It's
50:05
literally only Eric Kendricks. There is no one else. Why would you not
50:08
scramble? So this is perfect. This is what can happen and why EPA
50:13
and why success is generated off of scrambles, especially for someone like Josh Allen.
50:17
Protection was good, you sort through it, Coverage was good on the
50:21
back end. Tip your cap to the defense, escape out the back door
50:23
run. This is why scrambles work. Defenders in coverage have to cover their
50:29
man. They cannot sit there and cover their man and keep an eye on
50:34
the quarterback. Sometimes you have to turn and run with your guy. Sometimes
50:37
your head is turned to the side and all of a sudden you played coverage
50:39
and it worked out, But now you're vulnerable versus a mobile quarterback. That
50:43
is the duality of man. That's not the proper uses there, but in
50:45
a nutshell of why you want this type of quarterback in today's NFL. You
50:50
can create plays off script with your arm from the pocket or outside the pocket,
50:54
or you can just take advantage of again defense playing well. But because
51:00
as they played well in coverage, that makes them vulnerable to a quarterback scrambling
51:04
and running if the rush lanes don't maintain integrity from the defensive line, or
51:08
if the pass protection is great, and then the quarterback takes advantage right alan
51:13
keeps it. There's literally only one player here on the entire side of the
51:19
field to the left of the hash, so he takes off and gets a
51:22
really good game. This is a twenty yard gain on first and ten.
51:27
This was in overtime on that drive that ended with an interception to Patrick Peterson.
51:31
Unfortunately. Now let's go to another play here. Let's go to what
51:40
week are we going to. We're going to the home game against the New
51:45
York Jets, So the Jets game in the back end of the year,
51:47
and we are going to go to the second quarter to break this down.
51:53
So another scramble from Josh Allen, this time against the defense that was a
51:59
very very very very good defense last year in the New York Jets. Even
52:04
when the Bills won in the back end of the year last year, the
52:06
Jets played him tough. But again, here's another example. Josh Allen scramble
52:09
snaps the ball. Look what happens. Everybody's playing coverage. This is also
52:15
third and fifteen, so Alan gaines sixteen yards on this play. But this
52:20
is a third and fifteen. Everybody's playing coverage. They're playing back. You
52:23
watch the Jets start out in a two high shell, looks like they go
52:28
to a single high cover three. Look when you have Joiner here, who
52:31
starts the two eye look kind of buzzes down right here, So it looks
52:35
like the cover three buzz they got going on here. But you watch everybody's
52:39
dropping deep. Why because it's third and fifteen. Everybody wants to protect That's
52:43
a horrible straight line. I don't think I'm not going to draw a straight
52:45
line. So that's as good as I can do. Everybody's protecting the sticks,
52:49
right, so they're dropping back, and then what do you have out
52:52
of the backfield. You have James Cook coming out of the backfield. So
52:55
Quincy Williams right here, he's gonna match James Cook coming out of the backfield.
53:00
And watch that interaction right there. Okay, Cook check releases, he
53:06
goes boom. Look at the space and look where you have going on here.
53:12
So again you have an instance where defenders are flooding to where the most
53:15
receivers are. You've got your single corner on the bottom of the field,
53:21
matching Gabe Davis. But look where his head is. His head is on
53:24
Gabe Davis as it should be in coverage, so he's not looking back to
53:28
the quarterback whatsoever. Williams started going with Cook. He sees Alan start to
53:34
run, but he's already committed to this point. So now when Alan takes
53:38
off, he gets into a one on one situation with LaMarcus Joiner and he
53:44
jumps over him and gets the first down. That's wild. Just so now
53:49
this is the play where like I don't like it because it's risky, but
53:52
also it's third and fifteen and he makes this move. He's not past the
53:54
sticks yet he has to get the first down, so he jumps over him,
53:58
makes the play. But again another example of why scrambles, And this
54:02
is I think is an important distinction we have to make when we talk about
54:05
the Josh Allen run game. It's not necessarily the design runs that are the
54:09
big killer. Again, the EPA per attempt, the expected points added per
54:14
attempt, and in case anybody doesn't know that, I speak about it a
54:17
lot on the show, but EPA expected points added. The easiest way to
54:22
think about it is everything that you do, how closer doesn't move you towards
54:28
scoring, or how further away doesn't move you towards scoring. That's all you
54:31
have to think about. So a positive EPA means, you know, things
54:35
that you did increase the odds of you scoring points on that drive. A
54:38
negative EPA means the things that you did actually hurt your team's opportunity at scoring
54:45
points. So scrambles are a big, big generator of EPA, and especially
54:51
for Josh Allen, his success rate and generating EPA per attempt, like we
54:54
talked about before we started diving into the table, when we just looked at
54:58
the metrics, his ep per attempt significantly higher on scrambles than on design runs.
55:04
That piece has to continue to be talked about. So when we talk
55:07
about using Josh Allen's legs, it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be on
55:09
design runs. We don't necessarily have to see QB draws and QB powers and
55:13
QB bash. We don't necessarily have to see that. Some of Josh Allen's
55:17
mobility and athleticism can be baked into the pass play. Right, you can
55:22
call these plays and if you get proper protection from the old line, which
55:25
we're going to talk about in a bit, you can just take advantage of
55:29
Allen's athleticism by building his athleticism and his mobility into these passing concepts. So
55:37
don't sit there and think, oh, well they got to call more design
55:39
runs for Josh Allen. That's what they need to do. One the EPA
55:45
per attempt is vastly higher on scrambles than it is design runs. And just
55:50
don't underestimate the value of you know, the run game coming from scrambles.
55:55
I know it's a pass play that leads to a run, but it's a
55:59
significant portion. So again it's this last little highlight here Allan taking advantage Again.
56:05
Defenders backs are turned, they're in their coverage responsibilities, and now you
56:08
create mismatches in the open field for Josh Allen, he can either outrun a
56:12
linebacker or he can outrun a dB. He can truck a dB, he
56:15
can truck a linebacker, depending on what your personnel grouping looks like. Again
56:19
here it is again Allan sees the coverage, takes off, makes a play
56:23
boom. First down and one of the Bills needed third and fifteen. He
56:28
gained sixteen yards. Now we're gonna go to a another play here. So
56:34
this one forty seven seconds left. As you see here on the clock zero
56:38
zero, forty seven seconds left in the second quarter. Bills have two timeouts.
56:43
It's first and ten on the Jets forty. Again, Jets are gonna
56:45
play coverage. Jets aren't trying to give up the big play. Jets aren't
56:50
trying to give up a touchdown. This play ironically would help lead to a
56:53
touchdown because of how safe they played it. So we have another situation where
56:59
Jets are playing coverage. They're dropping back, they're not trying to give up
57:01
any deep plays, any chunk plays. They're not trying to let the Bills
57:05
get a touchdown. In this instance, They're trying to hold him to a
57:07
field goal attempt. In this game, and this one effectively works like a
57:10
QB draw because the Jets play coverage given that situation, and again Josh Allen
57:15
takes advantage. So we snapped the ball and watch Allan's reaction. Immediately he
57:21
sees how the coverage is working out against the route distribution and what does he
57:25
see? Space? Just tons of space. Again, he sees that right
57:30
side get vacated. He sees one on one out here and it's all dbs.
57:36
Right. We got a nickel corner, we got sauce gardner, we
57:38
got LaMarcus Joyn or a safety but on the smaller end right and there's only
57:43
three guys out here. So Allan sees it, sees how the coverage matches
57:49
out with the distribution, takes off right away, gets up field, shakes
57:53
a guy slides on this one. Nice play. First and ten games eleven
58:00
piece. This one again effectively works like a QB draw, but it's still
58:02
a scramble. And this is again another benefit. You can have your quarterback
58:07
you call a pass play. Cool. The pass play works out if somebody's
58:13
open right away, if we look at it from the sideline angle. If
58:15
this nickel corner doesn't work out Stefon Diggs this here, maybe he hits Diggs
58:20
right away. Maybe Sauce Gardner misplays on Gabe Davis, he hits Davis on
58:22
the route, or like we see here, coverage works out. So take
58:27
advantage. Run big play first and ten eleven yards a new set of downs
58:37
for the Buffalo Bills. Two plays later, the Bill score a touchdown omni
58:39
passed two Dawson Knox from mister Joshua Patrick Allen. So again that piece wanted
58:47
to make that distinction, the EPA per attempt and the success for scrambles versus
58:52
QB design runs. We have that scramble piece for this Bill's offense, so
59:00
I want to drive him again. It's not uncommon for a QB to have
59:02
a better EPA per attempt on scrambles than on design runs. It makes sense.
59:07
Maybe the defenders had their backs turned to the QB while they're in coverage,
59:09
like we saw with dj Read at the bottom of the screen. Maybe
59:12
rush Lane's breakdown like we saw with the mint Episoda Vikings in the first clip.
59:15
And when a mobile QB has either of those things happened for them in
59:20
their favor. The scramble payoff can be significant. But now we flipped to
59:24
the other side. So the design run game again, your QB powers,
59:28
QB bash, QB draw or whatever, not including kneels and sneaks because those
59:32
kind of make things wonky. The design run game for the Bills took a
59:37
hit in twenty twenty two, so again the EPA per attempt on design runs
59:42
for Josh Allen in twenty twenty one positive point one six, which was second
59:50
out of thirteen qualifying qbs and second in the whole league amongst eighty two players
59:53
or at least fifty kerries. So he had a strong year from a design
59:57
run perspective in twenty twenty one. But like we talked about earlier, that
1:00:00
dropped to negative point one five in twenty twenty two, So a thirty one
1:00:06
a point three one drop and change. That's significant. They went from positives
1:00:09
point one six to negative point one five. Some of that was predictable calls,
1:00:15
some of that was poor offensive line play. I'm gonna share my screen
1:00:21
again and bump, bump bum We're gonna go again too. That new Jersey
1:00:29
Jets game, that home game this year, well this past year, I
1:00:32
should say, in twenty twenty two, So it's second in twenty. Right
1:00:38
now, the Bills game four yards on this play in a QB draw.
1:00:42
I don't think the call is horrible. Necessarily in a vacuum, it's second
1:00:46
in twenty. Defense is gonna think you're gonna try and pass the ball,
1:00:50
get yourself out of this whole backed up in the shadow of your own goal
1:00:52
line. Cool, Let's try and get some easy yards and try and take
1:00:55
advantage of the defense playing coverage or maybe playing softer. Let's call it a
1:01:00
QB draw. But what happens on this play is two things. So One,
1:01:04
the Bills ran this play a bunch in the season. They ran it
1:01:07
a couple of times in this game, and show you two of them.
1:01:09
So you're gonna get the swing look from James Cook out of the backfield.
1:01:15
He's going to come in motion and not motion. He's just gonna swing out
1:01:19
of the backfield. And again the Bills have done that before, so there's
1:01:22
a little bit of predictability there. But they're gonna run Cook on that swing.
1:01:27
Alan's gonna look towards him and kind of pump it and then he's gonna
1:01:30
head right up field. The Bills did this a bunch last season, so
1:01:35
there's some semblance of predictability there. The Jets are ready for it. Quinnin
1:01:38
Williams beats Roger Saffold, And even with the Jets kind of being ready for
1:01:43
this play, if Saffold does a better job with his block, this could
1:01:46
go for more than a four yard gain on this second and twenty like it
1:01:51
goes for But that's the part with the design runs right. More things have
1:01:54
to work. You have to hope the play design is good. You have
1:01:59
to if the timing of the play call works, and then you have to
1:02:02
have the execution from a multitude of players. You need the supporting cast to
1:02:07
work. If one player blows their block, or one player missteps and has
1:02:12
poor execution, that can throw off the entire piece for the play. And
1:02:16
that's what happens a little bit on this one. So again, there goes
1:02:19
James Cook, Here goes Josh Allen. He looks a little bit. CJ.
1:02:22
Mosley. No one is really phased by this piece. Look at the
1:02:25
second level defenders. They're all just kind of sitting chilling, not really threatened,
1:02:30
not really phased. Alan takes off, and here's the piece you have,
1:02:32
Quinnin Williams against Roger Staffold. Like I mentioned, william is already looking
1:02:37
inside and he's just waiting to see where Alan declares shakes makes the play.
1:02:44
Look at it from the end zone angle again, not a horrible play call
1:02:47
design QB run. Alan comes through, Williams is ready for it, makes
1:02:53
the play. So the problem you have on this design run again. Multiple
1:02:59
pieces involved here, a bit of a predictable play call from Ken Dorsey and
1:03:02
the offense, poor execution upfront from the offensive line. Those are your two
1:03:08
in a nutshell on this one, and again, so much more has to
1:03:12
work with a design QB run, the play design, the timing of the
1:03:15
call, of the execution from the supporting cast. Whereas on a scramble you
1:03:19
don't need as much to go your way. As long as your protection is
1:03:23
halfway decent, you can make something out of nothing with an athletic QB.
1:03:28
The route combinations could be awful, the route execution could be awful, but
1:03:31
coverage players, like we saw in the earlier clips on the scrambles, coverage
1:03:37
players still have to honor those awful route combos and those awful routes, and
1:03:42
they still have to cover them, which gives you the opportunity for eyes to
1:03:46
not be on your quarterback, if your quarterback to take advantage of that.
1:03:51
Now let's go to another play here. So this is like we just showed
1:03:58
on that previous play, right that swing action from James Cook, Alan kind
1:04:02
of pumps and look towards it and takes off, so that QB draw again.
1:04:05
Now this is a similar concept and kind of a similar or same design
1:04:11
QB draw as I just showed on the previous play. Cook is going to
1:04:15
swing out, Alan looks towards him and it's a drop up the middle.
1:04:18
Saffold gets beat again on this play, but Alan's able to use that and
1:04:24
Key gains eight on second and eleven. So very very very similar, if
1:04:28
not the exact same play. Call a bit of a different you know,
1:04:30
a bit of a different window dressing here on this play, and you have
1:04:34
slightly better execution, but a better play from Alan overall yields to a better
1:04:40
result. So again, similar play. This is later in the game.
1:04:42
This is third quarter. Here goes Cook instead of being lined up in the
1:04:45
backfield and then going emotion emotions from out wide boom, Alan again looks mix
1:04:54
play gets up field. So again, what do we have on this play?
1:04:58
It works out possibly the Bills this time, but it's similar to what
1:05:00
we just talked about, somewhat predictable play call and then you have to worry
1:05:05
about the execution up front. The one piece on this one that we did
1:05:10
not see on the call towards the goal line that only gained four yards of
1:05:15
the Bills. Watch what the second level does on this one. So you
1:05:18
have CJ. Mosley right here. On the previous play, everybody just kind
1:05:24
of pushed and widened when Cook went on that swing route out of the backfield.
1:05:28
Watch it happens this time. Moseley honors it and kind of steps outside
1:05:31
the hashes. Gives you a bit more to work with on the interior here,
1:05:36
gives you the opportunity for Mitch Morris to climb to the second level defender.
1:05:41
Here, Alan can escape outside of saffole there and you have better numbers
1:05:45
and from a math standpoint in the run and how it works here. So
1:05:49
Mosley gets pulled out slightly from here. In reading the action from James Cook,
1:05:56
Alan takes up on the draw. But again this is Alan still making
1:05:59
a play like the execution still isn't the best from Saffold at left guard.
1:06:03
Here's Saffold. You'd like to see him latch on a bit more here.
1:06:09
Instead he just kind of whiffs, gets beat inside. It forces Alan to
1:06:13
have to be decisive early and make a cut. Morse did a good job
1:06:15
climb into the second level. Really good job from Mitch Morse with his athleticism.
1:06:19
Let's look at it from the end zone angle again, fast forward.
1:06:24
Now we'll go SlowMo. Saffle goals for an early punch. Missus just gets
1:06:28
swiped by that defensive tackle, gets beat inside, but Alan makes him right.
1:06:32
More's climbs at the second level, and there's Alan just breaking a couple
1:06:35
of tackles, carrying guys for some yardage, making you right even when you're
1:06:41
wrong. But again that's the example of more things have to work for you,
1:06:45
more things have to work for you. Here's another one QB pin and
1:06:49
pull for the Buffalo Bills. So on this it looks like Dawson Knox,
1:06:55
who is right up here to act the formation there looks like he's not ready
1:07:00
for the snap on this one. He reacts late and he's not able to
1:07:04
pin down the defensive end right here, Carl Lawson Lawson's able to get penetration,
1:07:11
and he forces Alan to kind of bow this run out and widen it
1:07:15
and go towards the sideline instead of being able to get up field sooner and
1:07:18
hit the corner sooner. But again, this ties into something that we talked
1:07:21
about earlier. One player can make a critical error in the design run game
1:07:27
and the whole play can get blown up. You have a little bit more
1:07:30
flexibility on scrambles, which is why so much of the Josh Allen run game,
1:07:33
I think the focus should be what he could do in the scrambling aspect
1:07:36
of the run game, then necessarily just the design run game, which I
1:07:40
think it's so much of the focus. So again, here's knocks up top.
1:07:44
Let's watch it. You'll see it more from the end zone angle,
1:07:46
but I want to see I wanted you guys to be able to see how
1:07:48
Alan widen's here. So again there goes Lawson, dives inside. Alan wants
1:07:54
to take this here. If Knox can pin down Lawson here, Alan's able
1:08:00
to cut right off his outside leg, right off his butt, He's able
1:08:04
to follow Dion Dawkins. This is a This is a third and three.
1:08:11
They get negative two on this play, So all you need is three yards.
1:08:15
If this works, if Knox can pin down his man and Alan can
1:08:18
take this angle, you've got Dion Dawkins rapping onto a dB. That's a
1:08:24
mismatch. It's an easy first down. But again, like we talked about,
1:08:27
Knox reacts a little late losson gets inside, makes Alan have to take
1:08:32
a wide lane here, and the pursuit comes for the entire Jets defense.
1:08:39
Look at it in real time. Lawson beats Knox inside, makes him bow
1:08:44
it out rally and tackle support. Good defense here again, we'll show it
1:08:49
on this angle. Dawson Knox right here, that's Karl Lawson lined up right
1:08:57
in front of him in a wide alignment. You see Lawson's already diving inside
1:09:03
and he's hard. He's hitting that gap hard. Knox isn't even out of
1:09:06
his stance and before he can even react, Lawson's already through. Blows this
1:09:12
whole play up. One player's misstep or misfiring or miss execution blows this whole
1:09:17
play up. And the Jets read and react and make an absolutely tremendous play
1:09:23
create negative two on third and three. Now, I want to juxtapose this
1:09:28
poor play with a similar call earlier in the year for a touchdown also against
1:09:33
the Jets. So we're going to go to the game against the Jets in
1:09:38
New York that the Bill is unfortunately lost. But I wanted to put that
1:09:42
one with a very similar look that the Bill has just had here. So
1:09:46
similar look again, if you folks can see similar alignment, similar formation,
1:09:50
what you have on this play is a bit different from what we saw on
1:09:56
the failed one. This time Dawson Knox is further attached to the formation instead
1:10:00
of being wider. He base blocks his man and he's able to turn him
1:10:03
and seal the edge. So initially we have Knox detached like we did in
1:10:09
the previous clip that didn't work. Allan checks built in from the play design
1:10:15
and the call from Dorsey. You see Knox up top, he reduces.
1:10:19
Now he's attached to the line. The Jets are matching with man coverage and
1:10:25
this is a nice piece. So what also works with this, like hey,
1:10:28
like I mentioned, is the check from Josh Allen baked in with the
1:10:30
design and the play call from Dorsey the Jets show man. So Alan checks
1:10:35
and instead of the three by one with Dawson Knox detached, you get a
1:10:41
trips look with Knox as the nub tight end into the boundary, which is
1:10:44
a beautiful formation for running the football. I love nub tight end or nub
1:10:47
they three by one nub into the boundary, which is what you have here.
1:10:51
And so that does two things. One, it creates an advantageous look
1:10:55
in the run game with Sauce Gardner still lined up over Dawson Knox because he
1:10:59
has a man for man and now Sauce is forced to be a primary run
1:11:03
defender if there's a run to that side. Second, it creates a numbers
1:11:08
advantage because of the man coverage piece when Singletary goes in motion and pulls his
1:11:13
man coverage linebacker with him, which reduces the numbers in the boss that the
1:11:16
Jets have. So it's a great check in at the line, great building
1:11:20
from Dorsey anticipating man coverage here from the Jets on third down and then using
1:11:26
that against him. And like what we saw on some of the other plays,
1:11:30
this one has that you know, that motion action from Singletary. We
1:11:32
saw the Jets the other clips we showed they were in zone, they kind
1:11:35
of pushed, they passed it off. This time it's in man. So
1:11:39
you're gonna see Mosley has Singletary. When Singletary goes in motion, here,
1:11:44
you're gonna watch Mosley follow him and vacate and you haven't even further numbers advantage.
1:11:48
And this leads to a thirty six yard touchdown for Josh Allen. So
1:11:51
let's watch all of it. Dawson knocks up top, Alan checks, Jets
1:11:57
are still in man. Here comes Knox, he red us down, attaches
1:12:01
to the formation. Jets respond, they're still in man. There goes Singletary,
1:12:05
There goes Moseley, boom cake. Alan makes a move to to make
1:12:13
Whitehead hesitate downfield touchdown. Think of what we just talked about with the previous
1:12:18
play that did not work. Lossing got inside Knox blew this whole play up
1:12:24
and made Alan have to take this wide. And what do we talk about
1:12:27
Knox? You want Knox to pin this man down. So that way Alan
1:12:30
kind of hit that corner on an angle and get up field quicker. Let's
1:12:34
watch what happens again. What also helps the motion Man reduces down so now
1:12:42
makes an easier pen. Look at Knox, Bass blocks him and then turns
1:12:46
him. So that way Knox's butt is into the hole, which is shielding
1:12:50
the defender from Josh Allen, or shielding Alan from the defender, I should
1:12:54
say. And now all of a sudden you've got Roger Saffold on saw s
1:13:00
Gardner, which you know, I don't care what you think of Roger Staffold
1:13:03
or Sauce Garter. That's a huge mismatch, especially in today's NFL, where
1:13:06
you can't cut any more outside the box. Saffold leads him around the corner,
1:13:12
Boom takes out Sauce. Mitch Morse doesn't even have anybody to block.
1:13:15
And then you get Allen in the open field, dead legs a little bit
1:13:19
on Whitehead, makes him stop his pursuit. Touchdown, watching a fast motion
1:13:25
from the sideline angle, and then we're watching from the end zone again.
1:13:30
There goes Knox, reduces down. The Edge is going to respond. You
1:13:33
see the Jets even shifting. Sauce is honoring him. Look how juicy over
1:13:38
run looked at as the outside Boom pin QB pinon poll touchdown with Knox being
1:13:44
the pinner and Saffold and Morse being the pollers. But Morse doesn't have anybody
1:13:47
to block, so again look at here we go from the end zone angle,
1:13:49
you see the check. Watch fifty two on the right side the right
1:13:53
edge here, watch him reduced down at the last moment. Watch him slide
1:13:59
inside. Boom right there makes the pin easier for Dawson Knox. That's what
1:14:01
Knox didn't get to do against Carl Lawson. Base blocks him, turns him.
1:14:06
That edge is sealed and now instead of the edge getting penetration and Alan
1:14:12
having to round this out and trying to get up field by having to go
1:14:15
to the sideline first, he can take a more direct route and just follow
1:14:19
his man right up field. Boom that moving the open field real, pretty
1:14:27
real, pretty. So that's one working for the Buffalo Bills. We're going
1:14:31
to go to another one now to show some success for the Bills offense in
1:14:38
the design run game. This one again against the Jets. Touchdown in the
1:14:43
second game against the Jets later in the year, Little QB GT counter Bash
1:14:51
apt Lee name because you're going to get the run action this way. So
1:14:55
a guard pulling that's the G, the tackle pulling with him that's the T,
1:15:00
and you're gonna get the counter look. And then bash means the back
1:15:03
is going away. From that run action. Look that you're getting from the
1:15:09
offensive line. Real nice block from actually Saffold kind of kicking in and helping
1:15:15
Dion Dawkins. On this one. You see Saffold loop around. He's gonna
1:15:18
hit Franklin Myers and push him in a little bit, and then Dawkins is
1:15:21
going to put him on his ass. The run game for Josh Allen and
1:15:26
the Red Zone was not very successful in twenty twenty two. We've talked about
1:15:30
it before on this show. This one, I think is where the design
1:15:33
run game really needs to see an uptick overall. This is where Alan's legs
1:15:39
should be the most lethal. Make defenses have to account for all these pieces.
1:15:44
So see the back away. Alan keeps it. He's reading the front
1:15:47
side here to the left, he sees he sees the edge kind of surf
1:15:54
technique waiting, so he keeps it. Follows the pullers on the GT.
1:16:00
This is the man here. So Saffold's gonna get a hand on JFM.
1:16:02
Dawkins is going to finish him. Boom boom, real nice, Alan sees
1:16:09
it. Technically, Saffold and Dawkins aren't block blocking anyone right now, but
1:16:13
they're there and so Alan, this is him good vision as a runner,
1:16:16
good athleticism in space. This is him realizing what he can do. He
1:16:19
just follows it, goes straight up field, put his shoulder down, carries
1:16:24
a man for a touchdown. This is again a piece that worked really well
1:16:30
for them. This is where Alan's legs can present the most problems for defenses.
1:16:32
It changes the math for defenses in the red zone. Defenses they don't
1:16:36
have the advantage in the red zone, but it can be harder for offenses,
1:16:40
especially as you get closer to the goal line. There's less space to
1:16:43
work. You're boxed in by the sideline, you're boxed in by the back
1:16:46
of the end zone. There's not a ton of operating space. And then
1:16:49
if the defenses they can just flood that space with defenders and windows get squeezed,
1:16:55
everything gets tight, everything gets harder to kind of execute and live in
1:16:58
that space. This is a nice piece, but again, let's let's this
1:17:02
is one that worked. Let's juxtapose this with what we showed on the scrambles
1:17:06
where the defense was right. Minnesota had good coverage, the Jets had good
1:17:12
coverage. But Alan just read it out and was like, Okay, cool,
1:17:14
I'm just gonna run. He read it quickly a couple of times against
1:17:16
the Jets. He had the one against Minnesota where you let the play play
1:17:19
out, scrambled took advantage in the overtime. These design runs require, again,
1:17:27
good play design, not being predictable, not overcalling a certain play,
1:17:31
good timing of the play call, and then the execution upfront. Like we
1:17:35
showed earlier on the QB draw, Roger Staffold gets beat, play only goes
1:17:40
for four yards, Dawson Knox is a little late on the snap, you
1:17:43
get negative two on third and three. There's so many other things that have
1:17:46
to work. Even we're highlighting Saffold and Dawkins on this play, but really
1:17:51
even just look at the pins from the right side of the line, Like,
1:17:56
look what Morse does, Look what Bates does. You get a good
1:17:59
step down from Morse. Look at the double team you have going on from
1:18:02
Bates and Brown. Here there's execution on that front side for them to wash
1:18:06
everybody down. And then Franklin Myers gets popped. You get a defender who
1:18:12
overpursues a little bit or kind of you know, tries to correct for that
1:18:15
gap. As JFM kicks inside there's so many moving parts that have to work
1:18:20
on these design runs, and if your offensive line isn't of that caliber that
1:18:25
can execute these plays regularly, it makes it a bit tougher. That's part
1:18:29
of the reason why I think the design run game for the Bills will get
1:18:31
better in twenty twenty two, because I think this offensive line is going to
1:18:34
be better just with the addition of Connor McGovern. I think you raise the
1:18:39
floor of this Buffalo Bills offensive line, and then we'll see what happens at
1:18:45
right guard with the battle there between o Cyrus Torrence and Ryan Bates, and
1:18:49
we'll see who wins out at right guard. But I think that design run
1:18:53
game will get better because the offensive line will be better in twenty twenty three,
1:18:58
and I expect Ken Dorsey to be as well from a design standpoint,
1:19:00
play call standpoint, and an overall feel for the offense play calling timing piece.
1:19:08
So if you have better play calling, better design, better timing,
1:19:12
with better more functional offensive line play, I think that design QB game Design
1:19:16
QB run game should get an uptick as well. And if we look at
1:19:24
some other pieces as well, you know, going back to the you know
1:19:27
is Josh Allen the most effective you know, bills runner. If we look
1:19:30
at the EPA per attempt of Josh Allen versus the running back so again on
1:19:34
the year, overall scrambles plus everything QB design runs, sneaks, kneels,
1:19:41
all that kind of stuff, Allen's EPA per attempt was point two two.
1:19:45
He was first on the bills of the players that had at least ten carries.
1:19:49
He was also seventh league wide amongst all players with at least fifty carries,
1:19:54
and again the top eight or all qbs and ten of the top eleven
1:19:57
are quarterbacks. Josh Allen was also first in positive play percentage on the ground
1:20:02
as a runner. James Cook was second on the team an EPA per attempt
1:20:05
at point zero two, twenty eighth out of the players in the league for
1:20:12
the entire league. Motor Devin Singletary was third on the bills negative zero point
1:20:16
zero six EPA per attempt. Zach Moss was a distant fourth at negative zero
1:20:21
point three nine. If we're looking at just QB design runs, Josh Allen
1:20:27
was third on the bills again that EPA per attempt at negative zero point one
1:20:30
five, so he was behind Cook. He was behind Singletarry, but if
1:20:34
you're just looking at scrambles again, that gap widens his scrambling EPA per attempt
1:20:41
point positive point five two. James Cook would be second NDPA per attempt at
1:20:45
this point zero two, So a huge difference of point five difference, almost
1:20:49
a full percentage point difference between Cook and Alan on scrambles. Now, if
1:20:54
you look at the Bills rushing offense as a whole last year, I've talked
1:20:57
about this in previous episodes, but I wanted to put it together. The
1:21:00
Bills were fifteenth in rushing dv away weeks one through nine. They were seventh
1:21:06
in EPA per attempt in these weeks, but a lot of that was due
1:21:09
to Allen. So in weeks one through nine, when they were fifteenth and
1:21:12
rushing dv away, they were twenty seventh in EPA per attempt for running backs.
1:21:17
Weeks ten through eighteen, the back half of the year, they were
1:21:20
eighth in rushing dv away, and in those weeks they were eighth in EPA
1:21:26
per attempt for running backs. So weeks one through nine fifteenth rushing dv away,
1:21:30
Weeks ten through eighteen eighth in rushing dv away weeks one through nine EPA
1:21:36
per attempt for the running backs twenty seventh, weeks ten through eighteen, EPA
1:21:41
per attempt for the running backs was eighth, and a lot of that was
1:21:44
due to James Cook. Again, like I mentioned in a previous episode,
1:21:45
James Cook amongst the fifty seven running backs with at least forty carries in weeks
1:21:51
ten through eighteen, he was ninth in EPA per attemph that includes quarterbacks,
1:21:57
so he was ninth out of sorry out of the fifty seven players or at
1:22:00
least forty carries. Weeks ten through eighteen, he was ninth in EPA per
1:22:04
attempt. Josh Allen was twelve, Devin Singletary was twenty fifth, and if
1:22:08
you're looking at just running backs, weeks ten through eighteen, James Cook was
1:22:12
sixth in EPA per It was six in EPA thirds in yard per attempt,
1:22:16
and he was ninth in first down percentage. James Cook started to really cook,
1:22:23
No pun intended a little bit down the stretch there. The Bill started
1:22:25
to find something there with that mid zone game with him. So I think
1:22:30
the design run game for Josh Allen, like I talked about, should be
1:22:33
better in twenty twenty three, a second year OC and play caller in Ken
1:22:39
Dorsey, what should be an improved offensive line from a quality standpoint with the
1:22:43
additions that the Bills made in free agency and the draft, and then you
1:22:46
have those pieces coming together with what should be a more successful running game.
1:22:53
We'll see what kind of identity that running game has, again, depending on
1:22:56
whether or not o Cyrus Torrance starts. Like we've talked about, he's a
1:22:58
different kind of cat the interior than the Bills have had or currently have on
1:23:01
this roster. So I think some of the play calls and identity of that
1:23:04
run game changes if he starts at right guard, it's that of Ryan Bates.
1:23:09
But the big thing to take away from this is the design run game
1:23:15
for Josh Allen for the Buffalo Bills. That QB design run game, the
1:23:18
Josh Allen designer game, however you want to label it. There's a lot
1:23:21
of moving parts. It takes a lot for it to work. The timing
1:23:25
of the play call, the design of the play call, the execution from
1:23:29
the supporting cast in that play call. There's a lot of things that need
1:23:32
to work. The EPA per attempt took a hit in twenty twenty two versus
1:23:38
twenty twenty one, when Allen was one of the biggest weapons in the Design
1:23:42
Run game on the ground in twenty twenty one, but the scramble rate was
1:23:46
strong last year. The EPA per attempt again is scrambling vast difference versus the
1:23:51
Design Run game one of the best in the league overall. So continue to
1:23:56
realize that distinction. When you are talking about, you know, we need
1:24:00
to use Josh Allen on the ground. We need to take advantage of Josh
1:24:02
Allen's legs. Don't necessarily box yourself into the thought of, okay, we
1:24:06
need to we need to see more QB design runs. We need to see
1:24:11
you know, guards and tackles and centers pulling. We need to see them
1:24:14
leading Josh Allen. We need to see them snap it to Allen and have
1:24:16
them you know direct run you know QB bash, QB power, pin and
1:24:19
pull, all this kind of stuff. You don't necessarily need that to take
1:24:25
advantage of Allen's legs. To take advantage of the Josh Allen run game,
1:24:29
the Josh Allen ground game, the scrambles are a significant part of that.
1:24:32
And if you're looking at it, from a metric standpoint, are significantly significantly
1:24:38
higher when it comes to EPA that were you're going to get from the design
1:24:42
runs on the ground for a multitwo of the reasons we talk about both in
1:24:44
terms of the cons of what the design run game you know, can be
1:24:47
or what it needs in order to work, versus what scrambles need to work.
1:24:51
All you really need for scrambles to work is an athletic quarterback to read
1:24:56
out what's happening in front of them, which the Bills have, and then
1:24:59
you honestly having the defense play good coverage on the back end. You want
1:25:03
the defense to play good coverage to run with their man and turn their head
1:25:08
away from the quarterback and allow your quarterback to take advantage. That's where you
1:25:11
want to see. That's what you want to have, so you can kind
1:25:14
of use the defensive strengths and strong execution or good execution, you kind of
1:25:17
use it against them and flip it in order to have those scrambles yield bigger
1:25:23
results and more positive results. And that's going to do it here for us
1:25:29
on this episode. I know this was again an episode that started out with
1:25:32
the Stavon Diggs piece and culminated with the Josh Allen piece before anyone leaves.
1:25:38
I know, you know, live viewers tend to kind of tune out or
1:25:41
exit at this point. If you had not already, please, please,
1:25:43
please, and thank you drop a likeke on this video. It goes a
1:25:45
sincerely long way to helping myself in the entire team to track and Trent in
1:25:48
front of more eyes. It affects the algorithm pushes these videos and episodes in
1:25:53
the channel to the forefront of the YouTube pages. So please, please,
1:25:57
please and thank you. If you haven't already dropped alike on this video,
1:26:00
enjoy this content. They give very much to White Town's King Calari Mafia for
1:26:04
the super chats in this episode. I appreciate you, folks. And yeah,
1:26:08
a bit of a different spin on this one, you know, with
1:26:13
the Stavon Diggs piece today, thought it was a little important to dedicate some
1:26:18
of the first portion of this episode, or the first third or so of
1:26:21
this episode into that piece, and especially as more news circulated throughout the day.
1:26:27
Myself and Eric Turner again gave an immediate instant reaction once the news drop
1:26:30
this afternoon on the cover one channel, Go and check that out. Kind
1:26:34
of talked about what it would mean for Diggs going forward, what it means
1:26:39
for practicing and for Mini camp going forward, and all those pieces. I
1:26:43
didn't want to rehash that on tonight's episode, but given the press conferences that
1:26:48
happened after we went live with that, given some of the information that started
1:26:53
to come out and be disseminated after we did that episode, I thought it
1:26:56
was important to recap it a bit on the beginning or from this episode,
1:27:00
even despite the fact that I don't like speculation at all, but nonetheless because
1:27:03
that's why we did that in the forefront of this episode in the back end,
1:27:08
something that I'll probably return to as this offseason goes forward and this in
1:27:13
season. I just really wanted to set the tone and foundation for you folks
1:27:17
with this Josh Allen run game piece in terms of making the distinction between the
1:27:21
design run game versus the scrambling aspect of Josh Allen and what that looks like
1:27:27
from a success rate from a metric standpoint, but also putting it together with
1:27:30
what the tape shows kind of giving you folks a complete picture in terms of
1:27:33
why things work the way they do or why they don't work the way they
1:27:36
were intended to. So that's going to do it for us here. I
1:27:40
appreciate the kind words coming in in the comments. Thank you, folks.
1:27:44
I'm glad you enjoyed the content and enjoyed the episode. For everybody who wrote
1:27:46
with me live here on this episode, thank you very much. I greatly
1:27:49
appreciate it. I talked about it all the time, and I say this
1:27:51
that I talk about it all the time whenever I don't have a guest on
1:27:56
the show and I'm solo. It's awesome to see you know, viewers here
1:28:00
and the live the live streaming in the live chat, questions, thoughts,
1:28:03
comments, concerns for myself, for each other, to see the you the
1:28:06
chat just going and going and going for all the back and forth with each
1:28:11
other or the back and forth with myself, it makes me feel like I'm
1:28:14
not alone and like I have you know, however, many other co hosts
1:28:16
with me doing this episode, so I appreciate you folks who joined me live.
1:28:19
Thank you very much for joining me live. If you didn't join me
1:28:21
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1:29:00
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1:29:02
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1:29:06
care of one another. I appreciate you folks bearing with me these last several
1:29:10
weeks, where you two out of the last three weeks, I haven't done
1:29:13
an episode, but I should be back to regularity here on the Sky's coverage,
1:29:16
so I will see you next week live Tuesday, nine pm Eastern,
1:29:21
and until then, be safe, Be kind to one another, take care
1:29:25
of each other. Tell your family and friends and loved ones about how awesome
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and you should look inward within yourself and try and fix yourself and who
1:29:36
you are as a person. I appreciate you, folks, godspeed. I'll
1:29:40
see you next Tuesday, Live nine pm Eastern and as always, go Bills