Latest / Disguised Coverage / What to Expect from James Cook as the Buffalo Bills RB1 | DC
Transcript
- 0:00And thirty eight. All Bills can win it here, Mike puts it down,
- 0:03the kick is on the way out and he's got on the bill.
- 0:06Good one one one they won Party one thirty eighth incredible. What a combat
- 0:18by my Bill Jackson Bills perfect record on the line right here, keeping eide
- 0:31touchdown, Kyle Williams touchdown. Amazing. I'snbelievable. They put in william who's
- 0:54hats the full back, and he scores a touchdown. It's wealthier to face
- 1:00tackle. What's good, folks, Family Friends, loved One's Enemies for Enemies
- 1:11Wizards which is Muggles, Mudd Bloods, people of Middle Earth. To Another
- 1:15episode of Disguise covers the only podcast in existence that gives you an equal amount
- 1:19of blueberries in each muffin and presented by the best pizza in Buffalo, New
- 1:23York, that is One Pipe Pizza. Find the online menu in the episode
- 1:26show notes below, whether here, on YouTube or anyone of the podcasting apps
- 1:30or platforms. I'm your host of this show, Anthony pro Haska. Find
- 1:34me on Twitter at pro Underscore Underscore ant that's Pro two Underscores. A nt
- 1:40into night's episode of Disguise coverage, diving into a little bit of James Cook
- 1:47as the Buffalo Bills anticipated RB one here in twenty twenty three. The run
- 1:52game has been something I've been speaking about for the past couple of years.
- 1:57I'm a big proponent of it. I know the current state of football and
- 2:00the NFL is a passing league, and it's quarterback driven and yadi YadA and
- 2:04so on and so forth. But I believe you know I have for the
- 2:07past several years, so the run game was still important as a jumping off
- 2:10point and as a balanced piece and as a pivot piece for offenses. But
- 2:15then even more so as defenses started to switch to these two high looks and
- 2:20these light boxes, and coverage tendencies changed and personnel tendencies changed, and we're
- 2:25always in this battle between offenses and defenses where you know, the offense swings
- 2:30the pendulum their way, the defense counters and takes the pendulum back, but
- 2:32eventually the offense always brings it back their way. And I think, with
- 2:38again the rise of these two high coverages and defensive tendencies and personnel groupings and
- 2:43box counts and things, the way defenses are playing today in the modern NFL
- 2:46run game pieces are kind of coming back in vogue and are becoming more important
- 2:51than they have in previous years. And with that being said, last week
- 2:54we spoke on the Josh Allen Run game, which if you haven't checked that
- 2:58episode out, please go and do so. The link for it is in
- 3:00the episode show notes here. Don't check it out right now, finish this
- 3:02episode and then go and check it. We looked at the Josh Allen Run
- 3:06game last week, the Design Run game for twenty twenty two and how it
- 3:09compared to years prior Scrambles versus Design Runs. We took a look advanced metrics,
- 3:15We took a look at game tape and broke down some film. We
- 3:17really pinpoint the struggles, the successes, the house and wise of anything and
- 3:22everything to do with the Josh Allen Run game. And then the next piece
- 3:25is to dive into what James Cook brought to the Buffalo Bills offense, especially
- 3:30down the back end of the stretch last year from weeks eleven and on,
- 3:35so weeks eleven through the divisional round. James Cook, I'm not gonna say
- 3:38feature back, but he saw a significant uptick and carries and usage right and
- 3:43we saw we saw success overall with the Bills offense in terms of their running
- 3:47game down the stretch last year. It was something that I was really excited
- 3:51for and I wanted even more of. And not only did we see success
- 3:54in the run game overall, but a lot of that started to coincide with
- 3:59using James Cook Moore and what his skill set offered to the offense last year
- 4:02and what it good offer this year in twenty twenty three. So that's gonna
- 4:04be the focus of tonight's episode. We are going to dive into some advanced
- 4:09metrics. I made a graphic for tonight's episode. I'm really proud of myself
- 4:13because I'm not good to doing any of that kind of stuff, but it
- 4:15made a graphic. If you think it's awful, please don't judge me.
- 4:17Only you know, positive encouraging words for my artistic skill or lack thereof.
- 4:21So we got a graphic to talk about some advanced metrics and put things into
- 4:27perspective. So I'm not just reading a whole bunch of numbers. We're going
- 4:29to go through some things that really put his performance in the Bill's run game
- 4:32into perspective on the year as a whole last year, but especially once they
- 4:36started to inject more James Cook into this offense and into the run game.
- 4:41And then we of course are going to dive into some game tape to highlight
- 4:45again James Cook's skill set, what he brings, how he makes things easier
- 4:49for an offense, particularly the offensive line, and also how we progressed as
- 4:54the year went on. He came into the league as an explosive, speedy
- 4:57Birstie kind of running back, and there some other parts of his game that
- 5:00I had questions about and that needed development, and he started to show development
- 5:04and progression in those areas as the season went on. So that's where we
- 5:09are going to be diving into in tonight's episode. As always, questions,
- 5:13thoughts, comments, concerns from everybody in the live chat feel free to throw
- 5:15them up. I say it all the time whenever I do the solo shows
- 5:20here. It's always nice to have as much engagement from the live chat as
- 5:24possible because it makes me feel like I am not alone in this world,
- 5:27and I greatly appreciate it. It's diving right now, just the tippy can
- 5:31do, what to do, what to do? What's something they appreciate you
- 5:33being here. R J says, I bet Cook will play great when they
- 5:36move Spencer Brown to tight end three. You're still on this, RJ.
- 5:41I respect it. I respect it. RJ says, yeah, I bet
- 5:44Cook will play great when they move Spencer Brown to tight end three. Sorry,
- 5:46it's my new Edmonds to edge. Though it's like five percent more believable.
- 5:51I don't know if it is five percent more believable, but I appreciate
- 5:55you sticking to the gimmick and stick into the bit. I respect your dedication.
- 6:00Good evening, and and bills mafia what to do. I appreciate your
- 6:03being here. Thank you very much, Thank you very much. As always
- 6:06again, questions, thoughts, comments, concerns, throw them up into the
- 6:09chat as we go. If you are watching this postlide, that's cool.
- 6:12Feel free to leave a comment on the actual episode, not live, just
- 6:15leaving in the regular comments. I try to circle back, usually for as
- 6:19long as the episode is running for the next several days and going out into
- 6:24the next week, to try and answer anything and everything and respond back to
- 6:27folks who engage with the episode. If you're enjoying this content, or if
- 6:30you are enjoying this episode, or if you are enjoying the channel, please
- 6:32please please drop a likeke on this video. I know it's corny, but
- 6:35it goes a long way towards helping us to track and trend in front of
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- 6:50please, please, please, and thank you, drop a mike on this
- 6:55video. Let's dive into it. Title this episode what to expect from James
- 6:59Cook as the Buffalo Bills RB one. So the first piece we're gonna talk
- 7:02about here is, and I mentioned it earlier in the intro to this episode,
- 7:09is his usage right down the stretch. So early on, you know,
- 7:12we know his first touch was a fumble, and he was kind of
- 7:14in the doghouse a little bit, and we saw a lot of Devin Singletarry
- 7:16throw out the entirety of the year, But early on it was some Devin
- 7:19Singletarry, and then it was some Zach Moss and as the season went on,
- 7:24especially when Zack Moss got traded, it became more and more each week,
- 7:28a little more James Cook, a little more, James Cook, a
- 7:30little more, James Cook. He had one hundred and six carries in twenty
- 7:33twenty two regular season and postseason combined, but seventy three of those carries came
- 7:40from week eleven and on, So from week eleven through the division around,
- 7:44basically like the back nine of the season. Granted they didn't play the Bengals,
- 7:48so that kind of throws off the even number aspect of it, but
- 7:53basically the back nine of the season. So the first nine games he had
- 7:56thirty three carries, the back nine he had seventy three carries, so all
- 8:00over one hundred percent increase for his not even just snapshare or snaps on the
- 8:05field, like him getting actual touches and not you know, in the past
- 8:09game, like actual, true legitimate running back touches, actual carries, actual
- 8:15run attempts one hundred and six total in twenty twenty two, but seventy three
- 8:18of those coming from weeks eleven and on, whereas he only had thirty three
- 8:22carries in the first nine games of the season, and if you piece that
- 8:26together with how the Bills started to perform as a rushing offense in twenty twenty
- 8:31two, they the Bills finished eleventh overall in rushing dv away. That's an
- 8:35efficiency metric I love da I talked about it all the time. That includes
- 8:37Josh Allen runs, which was and is a significant piece of the Buffalo Bills
- 8:41run game. But the Bills finished twenty twenty twenty two overall eleventh and rushing
- 8:46dv away. But big difference in those time frames that aligned with the James
- 8:52Cook increase in usage, increase in carries. So weeks one through ten,
- 8:56the Bills were sixteenth in rushing d v AWA. Weeks eleven through the division
- 9:01around again where seventy three of James Cook's one hundred and six carries came,
- 9:07they went from sixteenth in rushing DVOA to sixth in rushing dv away. That
- 9:11is a significant jump. Again overall finished eleventh and rushing dv away. They
- 9:16had a good running attack last year. That rushing dv away score again will
- 9:20include Josh Allen whether design runs, scrambles and Allen's legs are a big piece
- 9:24of the Bills running game. Whether by designed or you know, based off
- 9:28the fly of him, you know, scrambling, extending the player and breaking
- 9:31the pocket and making something on it. Nothing but overall weeks one through ten
- 9:35sixteenth in rushing dv AWA, weeks eleventh through the divisional round coinciding where James
- 9:41Cook with James Cook getting seventy three of his one hundred and six carries,
- 9:43the Bills jumped from sixteenth in Rushing DVLA to sixth in Rushing dv AWAY.
- 9:48Now if we take a look at things even further and start to look at
- 9:52the advanced metrics and break it down for what the Bills were in certain areas
- 9:56on the entire year, what they were in weeks one through ten, and
- 10:00what they were in weeks eleven through the divisional round, things start to get
- 10:05interesting when you put all those pieces together. I do see some of Actually
- 10:11I'm want to scrub some comments here just so I don't get a backlock too
- 10:15much more motion in the past game with Cook and Hines. Actually have a
- 10:18clip later show on that, so that'll be interesting. Ooh, face of
- 10:22the Bear says kind of terrified. That will miss singletary. I think this
- 10:26is one net isn't being mentioned now. I'm not saying it doesn't deserve to
- 10:30be mentioned or shouldn't be, but it could potentially be a big loss for
- 10:35this run game. Devin Singletary his production and efficiency increased down the stretch as
- 10:41well, along with Cooks. I've always been fine with Devin Singletary. I've
- 10:45said it on the show A bunch bunch. I don't think he's not really
- 10:48bad at anything. He's just not a plus matchup in any one area.
- 10:52Although his broken tackle plus miss tackles per attempt percentage wise year over year has
- 10:56been pretty impressive. He's kind of got some of that ability to kind of
- 11:00make him miss in a foam booth, that type of elusiveness to his game.
- 11:03But he's not the biggest, he's not the strongest, he's not the
- 11:05fastest, he's not the most agile, he's not doesn't have the most burst.
- 11:09But he's above average and everything he was like you're looking at all of
- 11:13his pieces of his skill set and his traits on a scale at one in
- 11:16ten, he's like a six point five to a seven, and like everything
- 11:20which isn't sexy and isn't amazing, but it's effective. And he was an
- 11:22effective running back. I think he best works in a tandem. I'm really
- 11:26excited to see what he does in Houston with Damian Pierce, who I love.
- 11:30I love Damian Pierce, but yeah, I'm interested to see what Singletary
- 11:33does and then again the impact that it has on this Bill's offense. What
- 11:37I do think is is going to mitigate the loss of Devin's Singletary is the
- 11:41addition of Damien Harris and or Latavius Murray. Both those guys I think can
- 11:45pick up the slack that Singletary kind of leaves behind. In addition to giving
- 11:50James Cook more carries because of what he offers this offense, which we are
- 11:54going to dive into and breakdown as we go forward. Well, this is
- 11:58a good comment. I love that gasp of breath when Cook hits a hole
- 12:01because he does have that burst to pull away in open space. We are
- 12:05absolutely absolutely going to break down. Oh what does Nick say? Definitely need
- 12:11more Cook in the slot twenty two personnel with digs knocks Kincaid Cook and then
- 12:16Gilliam and then up tempo, no huddle offense. Fingers crossed. The more
- 12:20presnap motion, the better some of that preesnap motion stuff in motion in general
- 12:26was a latle misleading with how the Bills were in twenty I know they got
- 12:28digged a lot from people on Twitter saying they don't use enough and play action
- 12:31rates and this, and that they were a lot closer to what they were
- 12:33in twenty twenty one under Brian Dable than they were last year in Ken Dorsey.
- 12:37I think there can be some list leading pieces, but I am always
- 12:41down for pre snap motion shifts, changes, condensing the formation, changing things
- 12:46for the defense and making them have to show their hand and or throwing them
- 12:50off balance a little bit. I love it, and I'm a big fan
- 12:52of pro personnel. Give me two tight ends, give me a running back
- 12:56in a fullback, especially if you've got athletic, versatile pieces like like Kincaid,
- 13:01like Cook, like Gilliam and all of a sudden, Yeah, if
- 13:03you get a defense and a certain look and you're rolling, you go up
- 13:05tempo and you force them to have to continue to play with that personnel package,
- 13:09and you can get them into a bunch of disadvantageous looks based on what
- 13:13you want to lean into because you've got players who can allow you to lean
- 13:16into the run game. You've got players who can allow you to lead lean
- 13:20into the passing game, or a spread passing game or a power run passing
- 13:24game. Like, there's a lot of possibilities. Charles saying Cook and Harris
- 13:26is a nice one to push. I agree, I agree, I agree.
- 13:31Oh RC three says, Hey, Aunt, there's something I wanted to
- 13:33get out there. What if last year they grabbed Josh more control over the
- 13:37offense to see where he was at mentally, and since it was Dorsey's first
- 13:41year, this year, we might see more, say from Dorsey, at
- 13:46least on the field. You know, that's one of Like there's been a
- 13:50multitude of storylines involving Josh and Ken Dorsey with you know, did Dorsey needs
- 13:56to do better to rain Josh in and how much autonomy did Allen have in
- 14:00this offense? And also, you know, going back to the appointing of
- 14:03Ken Dorsey as offensive coordinator, which ninety nine percent doesn't happen unless Josh Allen
- 14:09is on board with it. I think my big thing with the Dorsey Allen
- 14:13relationship last year is I'm not as hard on Dorsey schematically as as others are.
- 14:20Although I mean I did start to criticize some pieces of the offense in
- 14:22early October with how much he was putting out a Josh Allen's plate. But
- 14:26I think I'm a bit higher on Dorsey than others are. Not to say
- 14:28that I'm not critical and he doesn't deserve some criticism, But my biggest thing
- 14:33with Dorsey is he has an aggressive mindset. He wants to go for the
- 14:37throat, just like Josh Allen does. My biggest wordy is when they get
- 14:41behind the eight ball a little bit and Josh wants to press and he's up
- 14:46there right, and I've said on the show a bunch of like what he
- 14:48wants to go for the throat? Sometimes you need to be like, well,
- 14:50like a horse, like yo, you got a chill bro like pull
- 14:52on the reins a little bit, settle that like horse down. I think
- 14:56Dorsey, he and Allen vibe on the wavelength of they both want to go
- 15:01for blood. So whereas Josh with Dable may have been like, I want
- 15:05to take a shot now, I want to go for the throat, and
- 15:07day Ball might have been like, all right, calmed down, And if
- 15:09Josh didn't, Dable would call some plays to kind of calm him down.
- 15:13I think Dorsey is a bit not a complete antithesis of that, but I've
- 15:18been on the opposite end of the spectrum where he's like, yeah, yeah,
- 15:22let's go for the throat, let's do it, let's attack now again.
- 15:24Some of that is mixed in with Allen's decision making and pieces like that.
- 15:30But this is an interesting theory from you. I won't completely say it's
- 15:31not a thing. I don't know how much I put into it, but
- 15:35I'm always open to any potential theories, conspiracy theories, signaling or not.
- 15:41But there'll be interesting pieces. Oh r J said they did a lot of
- 15:45things under dable. I miss hearing giving Josh the answers to the test in
- 15:48the film room breakdowns. Yeah, we said that a lot under dable.
- 15:52I think last year was more. You would have liked to see more easy
- 15:56buttons and layups baked into the offense from Ken Dorsey for Josh Allen. That
- 16:02being said, they improved in almost every efficiency metric, even down the stretch
- 16:06when they struggled offensively and their passing game wasn't great, they were still a
- 16:08top ten offense from an efficiency standpoint. They finished second overall in the league,
- 16:11second in passing in terms of dB away for both of those respective pieces.
- 16:17So there were a lot of things to build on from last year.
- 16:18But yeah, I think there could have been more easy buttons and layups baked
- 16:22into the offense to give Josh a bit of a breather, right, so
- 16:26he doesn't always have to drop back and read the coverage. And especially when
- 16:30your offensive line is having issues, he's got to avoid pressure. He's got
- 16:33to scramble, he's got to step up in the pocket, he's got to
- 16:36break a tackle, he's got a stiff arm a defensive end or a defensive
- 16:38tackle just to try and complete a six or seven yard throw. I think
- 16:42you could have had more easy buttons and layups built in or baked into the
- 16:45offense. But we will see, we will see. Everything is Ken Dorsey's
- 16:51fault and Zach nailed it. It was a little hot today. Ken Dorsey's
- 16:53fault again. Absolutely absolutely, absolutely, absolutely so I want to pull up
- 17:00this graphic. Now we got a little sidetrack on the Ken Dorsey talking.
- 17:03I feel like it happens every single episode, like Ken Dorsey's a hot button
- 17:06topic. Might just do an episode purely on Ken Dorsey and the Bills offense.
- 17:08But that would probably need to be like a three hour episode because there's
- 17:11so much to say, and I know people are gonna have a ton to
- 17:12say in the comments. I'm getting further off track. Let's pull up the
- 17:15graphic. I'm super proud of this graphic. I made it from scratch,
- 17:18and I'm horrible at making graphics, so let's bring it up. I'm also
- 17:22going to pull down the banners so we can fully see. So again,
- 17:23this graphic showing advanced metrics Bills running back carries in twenty twenty two. So
- 17:29these are purely running back carries. These have no quarterback carries, so no
- 17:33Josh Allen, no Isaiah McKenzie jet sweeps, so no wide receiver carries.
- 17:37These are purely just running back carries. And if you look each metric here
- 17:44is the same going across. So the first line for each piece for the
- 17:47entire season in all weeks or weeks one through ten. In weeks eleven through
- 17:49the divisional round, that first line is all EPA per attempt, The second
- 17:53line is total EPA, third positive play percentage, fourth yards per attempt,
- 17:57fifth yards after TA per attempt. After that you have first down percentage,
- 18:03broken tackles plus miss tackles per attempt, and then yards per game. Again,
- 18:07the piece I want to continue to reiterate is James Cook one hundred and
- 18:12six carries in twenty twenty two. Seventy three of those carries came from weeks
- 18:18eleven through the divisional round. That's how I decided to break up the segments
- 18:23here, so you have the entirety of twenty twenty two in that first column
- 18:26weeks one through ten, where James Cook only had thirty three carries, in
- 18:30the weeks eleven through the divisional round where he had seventy three. Now,
- 18:33as a disclaimer, I want to put it out there just because James Cook
- 18:37got more carries doesn't mean he was the sole driver or the sole reason that
- 18:41the Bill's run games saw significant improvement and saw some drafted turns in several advanced
- 18:45metrics. But I do think he was a piece of it, and it's
- 18:48because of his skill set, it's because of the traits, it's because of
- 18:52what he offers, which we're going to talk about here from a metric standpoint
- 18:55before we dive into the tape. As we befoward here in this episode.
- 18:57So let's look at that first line, the first line EPA per attempt.
- 19:02I talk about EPA a lot on the show. EPA is expected points added.
- 19:07The easiest way to think about it is whatever you do, how close
- 19:11or farther away, doesn't move your team towards points. So if you have
- 19:15a positive EPA, that means, again you're expected points added. What you
- 19:19did on a play, how much closer did it help your team towards getting
- 19:23points on that play? Right? And so EPA per attempt is literally you're
- 19:27total EPA divided by your attempts. There, so the entirety on the year,
- 19:33Bills running backs twenty fourth in EPA per attempt, And you see there,
- 19:37negative is bad. So if you literally having a negative EPA per attempt
- 19:41means on an average attempt, you hurt your team's chances of generating points.
- 19:47So that's like, that's literally what that means. Now, when it comes
- 19:49to running the ball, it's harder to generate positive EPA than it is if
- 19:55you're doing so through the air, which is another reason why you know,
- 19:59people lean more toward of the passing game than the run game because the advanced
- 20:02metrics show that on any given attempt, whether it's a given run attempt or
- 20:06a given past attempt, usually the odds are in favor of you generating a
- 20:11higher percentage of EPA or generating more EPA overall by passing the football. So
- 20:15to kind of give that little breakdown for everyone there, But if you look
- 20:18on the year, so all weeks they were twenty fourth in EPA per attempt
- 20:22at negative zero point zero seven weeks one through ten thirty first so from the
- 20:26Bills running backs alone there carries, they had the second worst EPA per attempt
- 20:32in weeks one through ten at negative zero point one six. Fast forward to
- 20:36weeks eleven through the division round again where James Cook saw seventy three of his
- 20:40one hundred and six carries. All of a sudden, the Bills are at
- 20:44zero point zero three EPA per attempt, which is fifth in the entire NFL.
- 20:48A drastic difference, And that those weeks eleventh through the divisional round again
- 20:52where the Bills were fifth in EPA per attempt at that first line there they
- 20:56were one of only seven teams with a positive EPA per attempt in that stretch.
- 21:02So again big difference, second line, that's the total EPA, so
- 21:07we've taken it from a per attempt basis and just looked at it total.
- 21:10All weeks they were eighteenth in total EPA for the running back carries, again
- 21:15in the negative. Not great weeks one through ten, though huge difference,
- 21:19huge difference in total EPA weeks one through ten and eleventh through the divisional round
- 21:23negative twenty three point three two EPA, which was twenty eighth in the league,
- 21:27So bottom tier weeks one through ten, but all of a sudden,
- 21:32the top five EPA total metric for the Bills weeks eleventh through the divisional round.
- 21:37Positive play percentage not too much difference from a percentage standpoint, and from
- 21:41a ranking standpoint. Positive play percentage is just the percentage of plays that generate
- 21:45positive EPA yards per attempt. This one, I thought was pretty interesting.
- 21:49Fourth on the entire year, so pretty good, but a lot of that
- 21:53was driven what they did again weeks eleventh through the divisional round. So if
- 21:57you look at that breakup again, weeks one through ten, four point six
- 22:00yards per attempt good for sixteenth. If you look at five point two yards
- 22:06per attempt, which was third in the league, weeks eleven through the division
- 22:08round, so point six almost close to being almost a full yard difference on
- 22:14that too close kind of more like midline, so more than a half yard
- 22:17difference per attempt. That's legitimate, and that's why the Bills jumped from sixteenth
- 22:19to third in the league down the stretch there important again. First down percentage
- 22:25again another one with significant differences from weast one through ten through verses eleventh of
- 22:30the divisional round. So on the year, they had a twenty four point
- 22:34one first down percentage, which was eighth in the league, so which is
- 22:37pretty good for the year. But again it was carried down the stretch because
- 22:41weeks one through ten twenty point one first down percentage which was twenty fourth,
- 22:45whereas eleventh through the divisional round jumped up to twenty seven point nine first down
- 22:51percentage, which was second. That first down percentage is literally a percentage of
- 22:56carries that are going for first downs. That ties into the play calling,
- 23:00the play design, the timing of plays, the effectiveness of the run game.
- 23:04That's a nice little piece to show things are really clicking from a play
- 23:07call. Everything from the play call perspective to the design perspective to the timing
- 23:11of the play call to the execution on the play, like you're winning in
- 23:15key areas and you're calling good run plays or keeping a defense off balance to
- 23:19take advantage. There's a lot of positives that you can speak to when you
- 23:22look at that first down percentage metric. And again another huge jump from weeks
- 23:27one through ten verses eleventh of the divisional round twenty point one weeks one through
- 23:32ten, twenty seven point nine from the weeks eleventh through the divisional round,
- 23:36So almost a full eight percentage point increase. That is huge, Like it's
- 23:40not easy to go up two or three percentage points, let alone almost a
- 23:44full eight percentage points there. And again it's reflected in the ranking. They
- 23:47were twenty fourth weeks one through ten and all the way up the second weeks
- 23:49eleventh through the divisional round. Broken tackles plus miss tackles forced per attempt Not
- 23:56too much difference here, tenth on the year, fifteenth weeks one through ten
- 24:00and eighth weeks eleventh of the division round, and not much change in the
- 24:03overall metric fifteen point eight on the year, fourteen point six one through ten,
- 24:07and seventeen percent weeks eleventh through the division round. This is one of
- 24:11the areas I would love to see the Bills improve in. I think Damien
- 24:15Harris could potentially help in that regard. I don't know how much James Cook
- 24:19will. This is a piece we're gonna talk about a little later when it
- 24:22comes to the film, because I don't think with his body type and frame,
- 24:26I don't think he's ever going to be a strong broken tackle artist or
- 24:30broken tackle machine at the running back position. And it's hard to have it
- 24:33all, and it's understandable, like he flows, he's smooth, he's fluid,
- 24:37he's athletic, he's bursty, he's sudden, he's decisive. It's hard
- 24:41to be all those things and also be a rock with a great low center
- 24:45of gravity and tremendous contact balance, contact balance and power and broken tackle ability
- 24:51is something that I think he did show improvement as the year went on.
- 24:55But I think that metric is something that will always be interesting to watch even
- 24:57when the Bill's offense is rolling in a run game, especially if James Cook
- 25:00is that RB one, because I don't anticipate him being a big broken tackle
- 25:04plus miss tackles force guy more misstackles. I think you could see his elusiveness
- 25:08in short areas or in space's ability to make defenders miss, but the broken
- 25:14tackle piece, I think that's always going to be a little harder for him.
- 25:17And then if we look at the piece on the bottom yards per game
- 25:19again just from running back, So this isn't Josh Allen carries, this isn't
- 25:23Isaia McKenzie carries. There's a purely running back carries on the year for that
- 25:29first column, eighty eight point six yards per game twenty first not bad,
- 25:32but again a huge jump and difference from one through ten verses eleventh through the
- 25:37divisional round weeks one through ten seventy three point one yards per game, which
- 25:41was twenty ninth weeks eleventh through the divisional round one hundred and eight point six
- 25:45yards a game, which was good enough for ninth in the league down that
- 25:49stretch, just a huge jump thirty five point five more yards per game on
- 25:56the ground, And it's the difference between being a top ten yards per game
- 26:00generating team with your running back carries versus being one of the bottom again in
- 26:04that bottom tier, in that bottom quarter, bottom four, bottom three,
- 26:08bottom five, bottom six, like where they were in several other metrics.
- 26:11So again, I might bring this up later just to reinforce it. But
- 26:17a lot of times I read through the advanced metrics as we go through in
- 26:19these episodes, and I think sometimes it's a bit of an information dump,
- 26:22and it's to sit there and hear them. When there's a lot, it's
- 26:26easy to get lost in all of them. So I wanted to put them
- 26:29into this beautiful Picasso style graphic that I made here to really drive home the
- 26:34points of everybody. So you guys can sit and just focus and look at
- 26:38these numbers, and again, the difference is telling. Every single metric is
- 26:41the same across the board in terms of you know what is being measured,
- 26:45and you can see again the legitimate difference how it all balances out in that
- 26:48first column for all weeks for the entirety of twenty twenty two versus looking at
- 26:53one through ten, verses eleven through the divisional round, and you can see
- 26:56just how much in the majority of these advanced metrics, just how much week's
- 27:02eleventh through the divisional round carried their entire yearly average. That's why it's also
- 27:07important to break down specific aspects of the season, because if you look at
- 27:11just how they finished overall, you're like, oh, okay, we see
- 27:15these metrics, and the Bill's running game was decent, not great man kind
- 27:18of man. But if you look at how they finished the year and again
- 27:21that coinciding with more usage for James Cook and more snaps and more touches,
- 27:26you can see the significant, significant, significant difference there. And I really
- 27:30wanted to drive that piece home with this graphic. I'm probably also going to
- 27:33tweet it at some point too, because again, I really think it drives
- 27:37home a lot of pieces here. Now, oh, let me grab some
- 27:41comments here from the chat. Charles says Cook can legit threaten the edge,
- 27:45which changes how the defense has to play. Whoever has edge responsibilities has to
- 27:49hold a little longer. I second that notion. Just the Tippy can News
- 27:53says if we get eleven hundred plus scrimmage yards from Cook, I'll be happy.
- 27:57I think his uptick and carry will be a factor, but I could
- 28:00see him getting thirty to five to forty catches for easy touches and screens.
- 28:04I would take some manufactured touches. I would take some again the checkdown game,
- 28:10I don't think the Bills are ever gonna be a good screen game.
- 28:11Part of that is due to Josh Allen. That's not a Ken Dorsey piece.
- 28:15Josh Allen has not been a good screen quarterback since Dable, Like that's
- 28:19not a thing. Also, it's a little tough when you know, defenders
- 28:22always have their eyes on Josh Allen because he's so mobile. Defenders aren't really
- 28:26selling out to try and attack Alan. So when you have defenders that aren't
- 28:30selling out up front, they can kind of sit and slow play the screen
- 28:33a little. They're not committing to the rush so hard that Alan can just
- 28:37drop it over the top of their head and then they're caught out and then
- 28:40they're, oh my god, what do we do? I look for Cook
- 28:42to be very effective in the checkdown game where Alan drops back and Cook doesn't
- 28:47have anyone to block, so he just leaks out two or three yards over
- 28:51the center and Alan just checks it down and it's an easy seven yards.
- 28:53Maybe he makes a man miss and he turns it into ten eleven, twelve
- 28:56thirteen, something like that. I look for more of those aspects to the
- 29:00past game. I would love for it to get to a point where Cook
- 29:03is put out into the slot or Cook is flexed out wide and we're going
- 29:06you know, three by two when we're going full spread, and you can
- 29:10create mismatches with Cook in a variety of ways. But I think even just
- 29:12something with his electricity and the nature of the Bill's offense, I think it's
- 29:17even easy just to you know, call pass plays or go play action,
- 29:19or go with a two by two and then just have Cook leak out and
- 29:22you just drop it down to him in space and see if he can make
- 29:25a guy miss or use that speed and that burst to chew up the free
- 29:29yards that's given to him. And just even if he just takes what's given
- 29:32to him, it's like five six seven yards based on how defenses may play
- 29:34the coverage. So very fair point, Zach says, Cook flowed through the
- 29:41line like buttah Ant. How often do you think they would do both twenty
- 29:44one and twenty two personnel along with twelve. They were one of the leaders
- 29:48last year in twenty one personnel, which is what muddied the twelve personnel usage
- 29:55rating because they're one of the lowest in the league last year and twelve personnel.
- 29:57But then if like you're really try to split hairs, like okay,
- 30:00Reggie Williams a fullback, but he's also kind of a tight end, so
- 30:04like, what do you do? They did use some twenty one personnel last
- 30:07year. I think you could see that, especially if their running game starts
- 30:11to work, and some of it I've said it before, might continue to
- 30:14say it's some of that. Some of it I think is tied to Osiris
- 30:17Torrance and whether or not he wins that right guard spot. I think if
- 30:19he wins that right guard spot, it increases the odds of seeing more of
- 30:23a physicality to this offense, both in terms of run scheme and run design,
- 30:29but also personnel groupings. Now, just because you go heavier personnel with
- 30:33you know, twelve personnel or twenty two or twenty one, that doesn't mean
- 30:37you're necessarily going to be a physical team. You could put two tight ends
- 30:40and two backs on the field and they might have softer type skill sets,
- 30:42but usually those type of personnel groupings lend themselves towards more physical aspects or bigger
- 30:51styles of play. So I think Osiris Torrance potentially winning the job could push
- 30:56the needle a little bit in that direction. But honestly, I could see
- 31:00it based on what Gilliam does also, maybe even the opposite, you know,
- 31:04maybe you're getting some true pony personnel with Hines and Cook. Maybe they
- 31:08go with a little bit of the different dynamic with Cook in singletary, But
- 31:14I think Cook and Hines could be some fun pieces. Putting them both in
- 31:17the backfield and then you know, you know, you fake the snap and
- 31:19you reset, and all of a sudden you put them both in the slot.
- 31:22It becomes a spread look. You know, you have kind of like
- 31:23a one by two look with Hines and Cook in the backfield, you know,
- 31:26kind of book ending Josh Allen and Alan alerts and all of a sudden
- 31:30they go out of the slot, and so it becomes a three by two
- 31:33or four by one or whatever. I think you have the opportunity to get
- 31:37a bit creative. We'll see what Ken Dorsey does. I like the overall
- 31:40dynamic of these skill positions for the Bills this year. I don't think they're
- 31:45you know, full of studs, but I like the different sizes, the
- 31:48different frames, the different skill sets, the different traits that the Bills have
- 31:52combined for the skill positions wide receiver, tight end, and running back.
- 31:56I do like all the pieces together, Coach Chapman, My man, what's
- 32:00up? Coach Chapman says, and improved oline will give him a chance to
- 32:04cook. I see what you did there, will play. If you can
- 32:06get him to the second level clean, he has home run potential. He
- 32:08has to be productive on twelve to fourteen carries and three to four catches.
- 32:13Absolutely, I agree with everything you said. And if you can get him
- 32:15the second level clean, he has home run potential. We're gonna look at
- 32:17that on some film in a bit. And I like your kind of prediction
- 32:21for what he has from like a touch rate or a usage rate. Saying
- 32:23that he has to be productive on twelve to fourteen carries and three to four
- 32:28catches. I think that's an important piece. Stefan Diggs is going to command
- 32:34his targets. Dave Davis is going to get looks down the field vertically.
- 32:37I don't think he'll ever be a target monster. And then I think you're
- 32:40going to legitimately see either like number two target or number three target combination numbers
- 32:49from Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox. I think collectively they're your option two or
- 32:52option three. So where does that leave James Cook, right, I think
- 32:55he's gonna get probably the lions share of carries and lion share in today's NFL.
- 33:01I'm thinking like sixty sixty five percent. Maybe depending on the matchup.
- 33:06Maybe they want, you know, some more hammer on some weeks and so
- 33:07it's Damien Harris or maybe O'tavius Murray or something. But yeah, he's gonna
- 33:13have to be efficient with his touches. But I think with the nature of
- 33:15the offense and defenses want to want to give want to be giving them light
- 33:20boxes and two high looks, I think Cook has that skill set to churn
- 33:23up that space and eat those yard yards and make defenses pay. Again.
- 33:28Another piece they're going to take at take a look at with some film here
- 33:30like where your head is at, Coach Chapman, and I appreciate you being
- 33:34here. As always, some run game tendencies for the Bills. These are
- 33:38last pieces we're gonna talk about again, not too much of a number dump
- 33:42and then we're gonna jump into some film and they talk about some more metrics
- 33:45on the back end. So on the year, the Bills were a forty
- 33:49one percent gap usage rate team when it came to the ground, which was
- 33:52fifth most in the league, and then fifty three percent zone, which was
- 33:58thirtieth weeks one through ten, forty four percent gap, fifty one percent zone,
- 34:04so pretty in line with how the year went on. And then again,
- 34:07James Cook, seventy three of his one hundred and six carries last year
- 34:10came from weeks eleven through the divisional round. If you look at weeks eleven
- 34:14through the divisional round, thirty nine percent gap, fifty four percent zone,
- 34:21so a bit of a drop two and one percentage point drop, but as
- 34:23you go further the zone run scheme usage goes up every single I'm almost like
- 34:30every two weeks. So they were fifty four percent zone weeks eleven through the
- 34:34divisional round, weeks thirteen through the division round, fifty seven percent zone,
- 34:38weeks fifteen through the divisional round, fifty nine percent zone usage. Right,
- 34:43and again those are based off of their yearly rating of a fifty three percent
- 34:46zone rate and a fifty one percent zone rate weeks one through ten, So
- 34:51again driving home the notion as James Cook got more carries his skill set,
- 34:54he works really well in zone. I'm gonna show some gap runs to show
- 34:58what he learned and progressed and when it came to those type of run schemes
- 35:01as the year went on. I'm going to show some of those pieces.
- 35:04But he's got a really fun scheme or skill set for zone scheme. He
- 35:07showed it in college. He again, the whole notion or idea behind these
- 35:13zone schemes are Oh I got to stop. Oh that's awesome. Thank you
- 35:17very much. Deva devor here joining us and give them throwing up the super
- 35:21chat. Thank you very much. That's awesome. I appreciate you. Thank
- 35:23you very much for being here and for the super chat and the donation.
- 35:25That's that's awesome. I really appreciate you for that. Thank you very much.
- 35:30Zone schemes. Sorry, I taken it back by the super chat.
- 35:32Thank you very much again. Zone schemes. Again, there's no you have
- 35:37an idea of where the run wants to go. But if you're a running
- 35:38back, you're flowing like water, which is the thing I'm going to say
- 35:42a bunch when it comes to James Cook because that's his running style. For
- 35:44me, he's very much Bruce Lee be like water. That's what he is
- 35:47when he runs, and that's what it is for a running back. In
- 35:50his zone scheme, you are trying to find whatever crease, whatever crevice,
- 35:53whatever daylight develops, that's where you are going. A gap scheme run is
- 35:58hey, this run is supposed to go between the garden tackle cool. That's
- 36:01where it's supposed to go. Everybody, when it comes to the blocking team
- 36:05is trying to make space for that hole for the running back to go in
- 36:08that space zone scheme. All the offensive linemen or blockers in general and surface,
- 36:13depending on if you have a six man seven man surface, they're all
- 36:15usually stepping in unison in one direction. No music joke intended using some sort
- 36:21of double teams at some level or on the first level climbing to the second
- 36:24level. And then the running back is flowing wherever he finds space and wherever
- 36:29finds daylight. You know, he could be going outside to the right and
- 36:31all of a sudden he cuts it back and hits it up the gut or
- 36:34cuts all the way back across the green. So Cook's running style and skill
- 36:37set lends itself more to a zone scheme, which makes sense that the Bills
- 36:44again as Cook got more carries as the season went on, it makes sense
- 36:47that they started to use more of a zone run scheme to compliment his skill
- 36:52set and his traits. That doesn't mean he can't do gap like we're going
- 36:55to show or I'm going to show on the back end of this episode.
- 36:59But yeah, that that zone scheme really speaks to him. Last couple numbers
- 37:04here as we start to move forward, James Cook again. Weeks eleventh through
- 37:08the divisional round, there were fifty five players, not just running backs,
- 37:13fifty five players in total weeks eleventh through the divisional round that had at least
- 37:15forty carries. Cook was tied for seventh in EPA per attempt. He was
- 37:19tied for tenth in total EPA. He was eighth in first down percentage.
- 37:25Devin Singletary was seventh at first down percentage by the way, and he was
- 37:29third in terms of being having the lowest hit at the line of scrimmage percentage
- 37:32which carries on which the ball carrier was contacted at or before the line of
- 37:37scrimmage, So third lowest for that. If you want to take just running
- 37:39backs, from weeks eleventh through the divisional round, there were forty nine running
- 37:43backs with at least forty carries. Weeks eleventh through the Divisional Round. Of
- 37:47those forty nine running backs, James Cook fourth in EPA per attempt, eighth
- 37:52in total EPA, tied for second in yards per attempt at four point six
- 37:57fourth in first down percentage. Van Singletary was third and James Cook was second.
- 38:02He had the second lowest hit at the line of scrimmage percentage at twenty
- 38:07three point two percent. So, no matter what you're looking at from an
- 38:09advanced metric standpoint, James Cooks weeks eleven through the division round very very very
- 38:15very very strong. A good performance, an exciting performance, and something that
- 38:22kind of gave you more encouragement for what twenty twenty three could be. As
- 38:25he enters his second year and gets another it gets a full offseason in an
- 38:30NFL workout program, maybe he has a little more speed, a little more
- 38:32twitch, or a little more muscle. Maybe changes up his diet a bit.
- 38:36Maybe instead of being from like one hundred ninety pounds, maybe goes up
- 38:38to like one ninety seven, adds a little bit of thickness, and he
- 38:43had an exciting end to the year. It's a piece that's been talked about
- 38:46a bit. I think it deserves more shine because I think the Bill's run
- 38:49game will be more important to their offense this year in twenty twenty three,
- 38:52and I think it needs to be given the struggles we've seen at times and
- 38:57the pivot that they need to have present in order to be able to counteract
- 39:00what defenses are doing and be able to throw rock paper scissors at any time
- 39:04they want based on whatever their opponent is throwing. Now the fun time.
- 39:08Oh let me grab some comments here. R J says Cook also had those
- 39:13numbers more consistently. More consistently. It wasn't like he had one game that
- 39:16skewed the numbers. That's exactly correct. He had. I pulled two games
- 39:21here that we're going to look at, the Bears game and the Browns game,
- 39:22but I really could have pulled like clips from a bunch of games from
- 39:28you know, week eleven and on. He had highlight reel plays, He
- 39:30had plays that were indicative of what we're talking about as a whole here.
- 39:37So it was it was an exciting thing to go back and see awesome comment
- 39:42here from Charles saying, hopefully year two with Chromer will help the old line
- 39:45Gel absolutely, absolutely absolutely, And Nick says, is it crazy to be
- 39:50concerned that if the Bills did actually de hoop, it could hinder the creativity
- 39:52potential of the offense. I think there's always something to be said for the
- 39:58whole like, if it's not don't fix it type of thing. I just
- 40:01think DeAndre Hopkins would add another element. Now, if you can the whole
- 40:05key is if you can add more great pieces and everybody can play selfless and
- 40:10the team wins, usually things work out. But there's always some concern with
- 40:15strong personalities and top tier players that if things start to hit the wall a
- 40:19little bit, do things start to go off the rails a little bit?
- 40:22But no, I think adding DeAndre Hopkins, I think it just turns the
- 40:27dial a little bit, or move some of the needles. Like I think
- 40:29you would lean more into the passing game given what his skill set would provide.
- 40:32With a one two punch of Stefan Diggs and DeAndre Hopkins, then all
- 40:37of a sudden, your twelve personnel package just becomes really really interesting. You
- 40:43know, you've got your five offensive lineman. You've got Josh Allen, that's
- 40:45six. You've got Dalton Kincaid that's seven. You've got Dawson Knox that's eight,
- 40:50Hop and Diggs are nine and ten, and then you've got James Cook,
- 40:52like, oh boy, like that's a really fun eleven to put on
- 40:55the field. And then you can rotate in Gay Davis, you can rotate
- 41:00in Deonta Hardy and Surefield, whatever the hell you want to do. So
- 41:02I think, you know, I get where you're coming from. It could
- 41:05be, but I think how his skill sets slots in with what the Bills
- 41:08need and what the Bills do. I think it would give them more creativity
- 41:13potential. But I feel where you're coming from. Let's go, okay,
- 41:21okay, let's dive into the film, shall we. I'm going to take
- 41:25a drink as I start to present my screen, make sure I mute myself
- 41:37because that will be awful if I went on and was muted and wasn't able
- 41:42to see what was going on in the chat. So first play here that
- 41:45we are going to look at for James Cook is versus the Chicago Bears.
- 41:52Christmas Eve. I believe this game was if you're living in the Buffalo area,
- 41:55we got hit with a ridiculous snowstorm that canceled and ruined Christmas plan for
- 42:00a lot of us. It was pretty intense around that time. But nonetheless,
- 42:04this is the first play we're gonna pull up here, so it is
- 42:07a garden center pin and pull. This is a gap scheme run. I
- 42:09wanted to lead off with this one. This one's kind of a positive mixed
- 42:13with some of the negatives. You are going to see the smooth the smoothness,
- 42:17the fluidity, the quickness of James Cook, but you're also going to
- 42:20see an opportunity for him as he gets brought down by an arm tackle.
- 42:23Granted it's a big arm from a very big man. Like I mentioned earlier,
- 42:28he ran with power in twenty twenty two, more power, i should
- 42:30say, than I thought he would. But this run shows again some of
- 42:35his strengths and his skill set, but also some of his limitations, which
- 42:37again are okay. Given his speed and fluidity and burst. I don't think
- 42:40he's ever going to be a strong broken tackle guy or a big power guy,
- 42:44and if he does, you might lose some of the speed and burst
- 42:46and fluidity in all those pieces. Right, It's hard and uncommon to have
- 42:50everything, which is why certain unicorns like Saquon Barkley and Bjean Robinson go in
- 42:57the first round and I guess even Jamir Gibbs. But let's take a peek
- 43:00on this play sideline angle. First, James Cook in the backfield there.
- 43:07Oh as it's loading. Oh, you're absolutely killing me. So again,
- 43:12smoothness, fluidity, quickness for James Cook on this play once it loads and
- 43:17stops, making me look like an absolute fool. Maybe let's go to that.
- 43:22Let's go to this all right, cool, Now we're going to go
- 43:24back to play six. Embarrassing. There we go, okay, cool,
- 43:29So see we get this is a game too. Let's remember I don't one
- 43:31case anybody gets confused, Mitch Morse was out for this game. So you've
- 43:35got um, oh, that's not what I want. There, you've got
- 43:38mister Ryan Bates here at center, and then everyone's favorite at left guard,
- 43:45Roger Staffold, pro bowler, Roger Staffold. So let's go fast action here.
- 43:50See him pull, set it up, arm tackle at the end.
- 43:54Again, smooth, fluid, quick, Watch him just follow where everything's going.
- 44:00Head, head is up when he makes the carry, he knows where
- 44:01he wants to go. You just see him get out and this is where
- 44:04he's good. He's got decisive feet. You'll see this a lot in these
- 44:07clips, and it's not just cherry picked like this is what he showed on
- 44:09the year. You see him put that foot in the ground and then get
- 44:13up field again. But it's smooth. It's not necessarily herky jerky, which
- 44:16isn't bad or good. It's just indicative of his style. Smooth, quick,
- 44:21fluid. But then watches he gets through smooth all right there by that
- 44:27arm tackle and he almost gets through but he just doesn't have enough. So
- 44:30again smooth and fluid, but he gets brought down by the arm tackle.
- 44:32Watching from the head zone angle watches he presses a horizontally. He initially it
- 44:37looks like he eyeballs here this spot, but thinks better of it and it
- 44:45ran and rightfully, so keeps pressing it outside. Saffle does a good job
- 44:49getting outside, pushes his man, widens the hole and Cook gets through.
- 44:52And again this is where and I don't know how much he can improve in
- 44:57this area, because again fluidity burst speed usually lends itself to having more of
- 45:04a wiry frame, a little bit more of a flexible frame, and again
- 45:08just more mass doesn't necessarily move as fast with speed and bursts, So if
- 45:13he upticks in that area, he might see a downtick or a downturn in
- 45:15some of that speed or burst or flexibility. But you see big man right
- 45:22here gets a paw on him, and this is where you would you'd like
- 45:25to see him get through that hand. Granted, some of his cut here
- 45:29is obstructed. He's not really able to bring his full body through it because
- 45:32brisker impacts Ryan Bates right there, so it kind of takes his leverage and
- 45:37his lower body out of it a little bit here. But you just like
- 45:40to see him shake that and get through that hand right here, get through
- 45:45that hand. I don't think he's gonna house it if he does, but
- 45:49you see the hand up here and the hand up here, and it's enough.
- 45:52Granted, this is a big defensive tackle when Cook isn't the biggest guy,
- 45:55and he's still a rookie, but he just gets brought down. And
- 46:00if you look at it from the sideline angle, again, I don't think
- 46:01he's necessarily housing it, but that's where he gets contacted. Who knows,
- 46:07maybe he gets down to the fifteen or maybe he presses it a little bit
- 46:10and safety over pursues and he's able to cut that back and bend it and
- 46:14take it in who knows. But again some of his strengths and areas of
- 46:17opportunity in one play with this one where again flowing like water, smooth,
- 46:23fluid, quick, Coach Chapman says here love pin and pole, great quick
- 46:29edge attack running scheme. Absolutely and then if they overcommit to the edge,
- 46:32you bang it up inside real quick and you get north and south and get
- 46:35vertical. I mean, I'm a big fan of a run game in general,
- 46:37but yeah, pin and pole traditionally has been good for the Bills.
- 46:40That goes back to twenty twenty one under Brian Dable, especially with the QB
- 46:44pinn and Pole game, although not so much for Josh Allen as we last
- 46:47year that we broke down in last week's episode. Again just showing this from
- 46:51the end zone angle, smooth, fluid, quick, get a field,
- 46:54just can't break that tackle. Now let's go to the next on the docket
- 47:00here. So this is a piece I'm gonna show two back to back plays
- 47:06for James Cook here and as I have a highlighted here, this is a
- 47:09two high look from the Bears and they have a light box. This is
- 47:13a six man box on a first in twenty so on that previous play we
- 47:16just showed, the bills were called for holding, so that run technically didn't
- 47:19count. Bills get backed up. So now we have a first in twenty
- 47:22with a six man box and a two high safety look. I have the
- 47:25two high safeties both highlighted, and then in case I'm gonna be horrible at
- 47:30being able to draw straight lines, but this is not good at such a
- 47:32kind of decent. Here's your little box there. So one, two,
- 47:37three, four, five, six. I'm gonna say this a bunch.
- 47:39I don't care how much of a passing offense you are if a defense presents
- 47:44you this kind of look, and they can vary. Sometimes the safeties are
- 47:46back further than this. Sometimes a six man boxes even more exaggerated and it's
- 47:51more like a five man box or a five and a half man box.
- 47:53I want to take advantage of this all day you. This isn't necessarily gonna
- 47:57be what the blocking scheme is, but you literally got a hat on a
- 48:01hat, and that is huge advantage for the offense. That means somebody on
- 48:06defense has to win their matchup or not get impeded or obstructed by the offense.
- 48:10So if you get a look like this. For me, it's a
- 48:13very advantageous run. Look, it's something defense is it done to the Bills
- 48:15the past several years. We talked about it with Mitch Morse last year in
- 48:19the Cover one film room, where he felt in twenty twenty one, defenses
- 48:22dared the Bills to run at them by presenting looks like these, and the
- 48:27Bills that necessarily capitalize on it. This was an example of how the Bills
- 48:30did capitalize it, not only in this game, but down the stretch.
- 48:34So too high look with a six man box on first and twenty Bills run
- 48:38a draw. The first thing I want to point out isn't James Cook related.
- 48:43I want to point out Roger Staffold and Ryan Bates right here because I
- 48:46think this is a really cool piece before we even talk about Cook. Watch
- 48:51how they execute their double team and they work together and then climb to the
- 48:54second level. Watch Bates right here as this play goes forward, and he
- 48:59puts his hand on Saffold to communicate for Saffold to go and climb to that
- 49:04second level, so then Bates can pick up sixty four. And if we
- 49:07look at it real quick from the end zone again, this is partially from
- 49:10still from our cover one film room. Eric and I highlighted this and so
- 49:14Eric had this queued up, so appreciate the assist there. Watch the piece
- 49:16here taps him right there. You can't see it. We saw it on
- 49:20the silent angle, not from this angle because Saffold is a big man and
- 49:22shields him. And then watch the seamlessness and the transition. Very nice.
- 49:27So I wanted to call that out for Baits and Saffole because that was very
- 49:30nice. But the highlights here for James Cook. His vision. He immediately
- 49:34sees and feels the space outside, puts his foot in the ground, and
- 49:37he goes. He also shows good patience and blocks set up on this one.
- 49:40We're gonna watch him use Roger Saffold to make Jaquan Brisker number nine go
- 49:45outside. And then, as is the theme with James Cook, he flows
- 49:47like water back inside. He gets through and he pulls away for some extra
- 49:52yards. So I like this run from Cook. Can watch him get it
- 49:55and you can see we're gonna look at it from the end zone angle,
- 49:58but you see here as he gets it, he starts to get that linebacker
- 50:02commit Boom puts that right foot in the ground, gets a field, sets
- 50:06up, his block gets through just so quick, so fluid, so smooth.
- 50:10I don't want to say, Devin Singer Terry doesn't make this run because
- 50:14he had a couple of big runs in this game and down the stretch.
- 50:15But he's just so easy for Cook to pull this off and execute this piece
- 50:21really nice. Now let's look at it here again, some of the pieces
- 50:23I talked about, Right, Okay, Boom got the ball. Now he's
- 50:28sitting there and he's reading what's going on in front of him. So he
- 50:30immediately sees and feels that space outside. He knows it's there, steps forward
- 50:36a little just to get this linebacker to commit a bit, and then he's
- 50:39gonna put that right foot in the ground. Bank gets outside, so he's
- 50:44already done step one. He set this man up on the inside. His
- 50:46blockers have leverage. This guy is going to have a real tough time getting
- 50:50through to make a play on the ball. Now here comes that next piece.
- 50:52Right, he put his foot in the ground and he goes watch the
- 50:55patients and the block set up. Watch how he uses Roger Staffold to impede
- 51:00Jaquan Brisker here on the outside. A good running back doesn't necessarily need a
- 51:07pancake block every time from his offensive lineman doesn't necessarily need the most picture perfect
- 51:12based block or formed up perfect hands and drive and control. But he can
- 51:15set up defenders and make them wrong just by having them set up in a
- 51:20way that allows his blockers to impede their progress. And that's what Cook does
- 51:22on this one. And Saffle does pretty good job out in space. So
- 51:27watch here we go, watch him press outside. His head is outside,
- 51:30he's pressing outside, and watch how Brisker responds. Brisker's already turning his hips
- 51:36and opening up as if he's about to drive backwards, like he's anticipated Cook
- 51:40going this way, and so that's why he's matched his path here, because
- 51:45he sees the speed and he sees the angle. Cook his head and he's
- 51:46like, oh, I got to open up my hips and get kind of
- 51:50get deeper a little bit so I don't get beat around the corner here.
- 51:52But Cook presses that outside to use saffled and then Bang cuts it right back
- 51:58up inside. Brisker has completely around, and then because he gets completely gets
- 52:04turned completely around, Saffo puts him right on his butt boom. Good set
- 52:08up there. But then this is the piece too. Right. Watch his
- 52:12cook goes through, Watch how he pulls away, and then even a pretty
- 52:17tough run. Right if we look at Hi from the sideline angle, watch
- 52:21him get hit by the safety here carries him for another three four yards.
- 52:25Good momentum, good speed, good finished there on the run. But this
- 52:29is a nice piece. Again. You have the you have the vision to
- 52:31immediately cut it to where you need to go. But then the patience here.
- 52:35And it's patience, but it's not slow played. He's not running slow,
- 52:40he's not trotting like he's running. But it's the patience to let the
- 52:45play develop. Some of the pieces for him at Georgia were him hitting the
- 52:50hole almost too quickly, and sometimes it worked more often than not because he
- 52:52was one of the fastest players on the field and Georgia was loaded. But
- 52:57you can't always just get it intoe hundred miles an hour. You have to
- 53:00pace your run a bit at times. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you have
- 53:01to go ten percent or fifteen. It could just mean instead of going one
- 53:05hundred, go eighty five, go ninety, go eighty. You know,
- 53:07like receivers do like Stefan Diggs does, like some of the best rout runners
- 53:10do. They're not always one hundred miles an hour one hundred percent of the
- 53:14times. There's pacing to your route. There's tempo, and you can tempo
- 53:16and pace your run as a running back on an actual carry. This is
- 53:21one of my favorites, just again because of how he sets this block up
- 53:25Boom puts Brisker in a bad position and he gets pancaked. Really nice piece
- 53:30and could finish again from mister James Cook. Now let's go to another play
- 53:37for mister Cook. This one is another draw for James Cook, and let's
- 53:46pull here. I'm going to grab this absolutely pops out a pancake. Coach
- 53:51Chapman saying movement blocking schemes will be better from a govern morest bits, better
- 53:54on the move, good against linebackers, more of wall off blockers than moving
- 53:58bodies. Absolutely more shepherds and obstructors than they are people movers. But they're
- 54:01athleticism, they're fluidity in space. You want to get them on the move.
- 54:05You want to get them to the second level. You want to get
- 54:07them out in space and let them flourish, which is part of the reason
- 54:09again why I'm interested to see what happens with Ocyrius Torrence because he's not a
- 54:15bad mover. He's not immobile, but his strength is not pulling. His
- 54:19strength is not climbing to the second level and getting out in space. You
- 54:22want him anchoring. You want him getting those vice grip pause, legitimate pause.
- 54:25He's got like bare sized pause with tremendous strength for axel gloves I saw
- 54:30for myself at the Senior Bowl. You want him just getting his hands on
- 54:32dudes and mauling him and mashing them right away. He's not unathletic and he
- 54:37doesn't have you slow feet, but he's definitely a different skill set type of
- 54:40player than McGovern morrise and Bates, who again are better on them moving better
- 54:45in space. Very fair, very fair point. Oh morning, mind saying
- 54:47thanks for the great show, Anthony, I appreciate, thank you for being
- 54:50here, and thank you for the very kind words. Now let's go back
- 54:53to the tape. Like I mentioned earlier, we saw the draw on the
- 54:58previous play for a two high leve versus a light box. We have another
- 55:01one here on this play, but this is even more exaggerated what we have
- 55:07right now and this is the first down. Look how deep these safeties are.
- 55:08Look how deep both of these safeties are. And then again we have
- 55:10our six man box here. That's not really a box, that's more of
- 55:14an art that I drew. But you get the point six man box,
- 55:17nickel personnel with your nickel corner and the two ye safeties. This is a
- 55:22juicy rum. Look, this is a defense daring you to run. And
- 55:25again I know it's a passing league, but if you can run it,
- 55:30if you can run the ball, and I want to say if you can,
- 55:32I mean if you can execute. I'm running the ball here all day
- 55:36because either one or two things happens. You either run the ball and you
- 55:38get easy or easy yards, almost gimme yards in this scenario, because again
- 55:43the defense is daring you to take advantage of what you're getting. And even
- 55:45if you get six or seven or eight, that's a win let alone if
- 55:47you break it off for more. So you either get easy yards. You
- 55:51either get those gimme yards or you and you consistently do it, or defenses
- 55:57recognize what you're doing and then you force them out of these two high looks
- 56:01and then you attack them with either you know, a straight up pass or
- 56:05a play action pass or RPOs. The run game can do so much for
- 56:07you. It either gives you the ability to churn up yards and the clock
- 56:13and take advantage of what defenses are doing, or set up your passing game
- 56:16later. That's the big piece for me, right you need to have that
- 56:19pivot. I want versatility, I want multiplicity. I think it's the way
- 56:22in the nature of what NFL offenses need now, even the most pass heavy
- 56:27teams or teams that have tremendous quarterbacks. I either Kansas City Chiefs. It's
- 56:30it's crazy. It's crazy how all of a sudden they started to bring more
- 56:34power run game to their team this year. And Isaiah Pacheco was a great
- 56:37addition for them with his running style. But I don't think you know Pacheco
- 56:42and his emergence definitely I think led to them running a bit more. But
- 56:45I think that was a conscious effort and decision because if you have a Chiefs
- 56:47offense and they're dangerous with the run and they also have Patrick Mahomes and Travis
- 56:52Kelsey and Andy Reid in in the pass game, what are you gonna do?
- 56:54Like, because you can't just sell out to stop the pass. So
- 56:57again, when you have a run a look like this, this is the
- 57:00defense daring you to run the ball. I am running against this look every
- 57:04single time. In this instance, it's a first and ten and it's a
- 57:07draw and it gains sixteen yards and we'll watch James Cook makes some things happen
- 57:13on this one. Who whoop. Good feet, good feet, good finish.
- 57:17What I like about this one is, again, like I mentioned it,
- 57:21good feet from James Cook. Here. His feet are quick and clean
- 57:24as we see here on the end zone angle. You're gonna see fifty five
- 57:29crash inside and then his cook avoids him. He's going to see the outside
- 57:34leverage of the defensive tackle here, and just watch watch how quick and clean
- 57:38and precise James Cook's feet are. His movements are decisive, His steps are
- 57:45sudden and clean and quick and decisive. He sees fifty five crash inside,
- 57:50he cuts left, then he sees ninety six with outside leverage, so then
- 57:52he cuts back inside, gets to the hole, and he finishes strong.
- 57:54Again. We're watching in SlowMo. First boom, fifty five crashes inside on
- 58:00Dawkins. So let me stop, let me jump and watch how fluid jump
- 58:04cut here, boom, all in one motion, right the jump cut to
- 58:09avoid fifty five one motion, plants on that left foot, avoids ninety six,
- 58:15get through the hole, and then good finish. I want to highlight
- 58:19that from the sideline angle so you can really get an appreciation for how much
- 58:22extra yards he got when he was contacted. Watch him go here, So
- 58:25where's he getting contact. He's getting contacted at the twenty five twenty four,
- 58:29puts his shoulder down by himself, takes it down to about the eighteen nineteen,
- 58:36stays up on his feet, pushes the pile, I'm sorry, puts
- 58:39on his own about twenty one twenty two, and then carries it down about
- 58:43the eighteen nineteen. Again good feet, quick and clean. Watching it fast
- 58:46motion, you get more appreciation jump cut, plant upfield one two bang.
- 58:52He changed those moves together, right. That's like a fighting game chain right
- 58:57there, like you're transition and moving bang, bang, get through the hole.
- 59:00That's something that is part of his skill set, that is part of
- 59:05what he is. That fluidity, that quickness, that sharpness, that burst.
- 59:10He's fluid, but he's also got some again sharpness and suddenness to his
- 59:14game. Especially in his feet. He's got those good quick feet. There's
- 59:17not a lot of wasted movement. He puts his foot in the ground and
- 59:20he goes this play. Again. We've seen others leading us up to this
- 59:22play right so far in this episode where we've just seen fluidity, we've seen
- 59:27flow, we've seen quickness, we've seen burst. This one. I don't
- 59:30want to say so much technicality as I want to again just say that suddenness
- 59:34and that sharpness, good quick, clean feet. It's part of the reason
- 59:37he's able to run good wide receiver quality routes as a running back because he
- 59:42has those quick, clean feet. And again this is paired with his visions
- 59:45and his ability to read the play and see what's going on. Nice,
- 59:52nice upfield, get through the hole, finish, nice run, especially on
- 59:58a cold day. Right second quarter. You want to make you want to
- 1:00:01make this. You want to make your defense and your opponent. No like
- 1:00:05kind of what's going to be good for the rest of the day here,
- 1:00:07and also like two again, this is this is simple, but this is
- 1:00:09fundamentals. He gets that ball, his head is up, he is already
- 1:00:14reading what's happening in front of him, right, and the Bills did a
- 1:00:17good job here, said the two minute warning. It's first and ten.
- 1:00:21They get this too high look with a light box again, advantageous run.
- 1:00:25Look. You have the ability to put a hat on a hat, body
- 1:00:28on a body. Why would you not want to run the ball, so
- 1:00:30they do. Cook is already diagnosing what's going on here, So by the
- 1:00:35time he fully gets this ball from Josh Allen, he's already in position to
- 1:00:37make the cut. And then his ability to just read this quickly and then
- 1:00:42move physically to match what he's reading mentally, bank bank upfield real pretty real
- 1:00:46clean, good succinct, sharp movements, good, quick, clean feet.
- 1:00:52Now another piece I wanted to mention as I stop sharing the screen just for
- 1:00:58a minute, as I want to read some stats here, some advanced metchic
- 1:01:01pieces. We're gonna go right back to the film. So those last two
- 1:01:04clips that I showed, both of those plays were draws for James Cook in
- 1:01:07the Buffalo's offense versus a two high safety look and a six man box.
- 1:01:13The Bills get six man boxes a lot, so a light boxes six men
- 1:01:15or less. There were twenty nine running backs that had twenty attempts versus light
- 1:01:22boxes in twenty twenty two down the stretch. So again weeks eleven through your
- 1:01:30divisional round for James Cook, when again got seventy three. I'm gonna keep
- 1:01:34saying it just a case people who joined us late. James Cook one hundred
- 1:01:37and six carries in twenty twenty two. Seventy three of those carries came from
- 1:01:42weeks eleven through the divisional round for James Cook. So down the stretch there
- 1:01:47were twenty nine running backs who had at least twenty attempts versus light boxes.
- 1:01:53And again that's from weeks eleven through the division round. So weeks eleven through
- 1:01:57the division around twenty nine running backs had at least twenty attempts versus light boxes.
- 1:02:00James Cook in that ranking fourth in EPA per attempt, six in total
- 1:02:07EPA, third in yards per attempt at seven point two seven point two yards
- 1:02:12per attempt versus light boxes. That's phenomenal. Again, think of it.
- 1:02:16On first down he gets the ball versus lightbox seven yards. Now at second
- 1:02:20and three, the world is your oyster. Twelve in first down percentage at
- 1:02:22twenty three point one percent, fourth lowest hit at the line of scrimmage percentage
- 1:02:28at nineteen point one. That means two things. One the play timing,
- 1:02:31the play calling, the play design, the execution upfront, but also Cook's
- 1:02:35ability to set up blocks and take advantage and then also use his speed and
- 1:02:38burst and fluidity. And then he also had the third lowest stuff percentage at
- 1:02:44three point eight. A stuff is a carry which resulted in zero or fewer
- 1:02:47yards, so tons of EPA or a good amount of epa good amount of
- 1:02:53EPA per attempt, not getting hit at the line, not gaining zero or
- 1:02:59less yards, gaining seven point two yards per attempt. James Cook represented that
- 1:03:04offensive ability in the run game to take advantage of these looks that defenses are
- 1:03:08giving the Buffalo Bills offense. Defenses want to play the Buffalo offense and passing
- 1:03:13offenses in general. You want those two high shells. You want more numbers
- 1:03:15in coverage. You want to play with light boxes, so you have the
- 1:03:20numbers advantage in coverage versus whatever the offense has in the route distribution. So
- 1:03:25now you take that piece and all of a sudden you're like, okay,
- 1:03:29cool, you want to give us those two high looks. Okay, you
- 1:03:30want to give us those light boxes because you're worried about Josh Allen, you're
- 1:03:34worried about Stefan Days, and you're worried about Gabe Davis. Vertically, Okay,
- 1:03:37cool, We're just gonna run the ball against those light boxes. And
- 1:03:40it can work with other running backs. But when you have a back with
- 1:03:44speed and pace and fluidity and who's smooth and who's got good vision and who
- 1:03:51can set up their blocks, they take advantage of that space. When you
- 1:03:53have a six man box, there is space there to take advantage of.
- 1:03:59There's not like this isn't this is just spatial occupation. There isn't a ton
- 1:04:02of people in the box who've got more room to operate within that box.
- 1:04:06And when you have that space, take advantage of it. Get on him
- 1:04:11early. And if so there's four yards a cushion, Cook has that speed
- 1:04:15where he could eat up those four yards quick and it's just four yards out
- 1:04:17and nothing. He doesn't even have to do anything, and he's already got
- 1:04:19like four yards. Then if he makes a man miss, or he gets
- 1:04:23a good block, or he sets something up all of a sudden, that
- 1:04:26turns into five, six, seven, eight, fifteen, sixteen, twenty
- 1:04:30yard runs. So Cook's skill set Again, that speed, that burst is
- 1:04:33something I talked about last year going into the season. His skill set is
- 1:04:38built to allow him to take advantage of these juicy run looks that the Bill's
- 1:04:42offense gets when defenses play them with light boxes and or two high shells.
- 1:04:45So very successful again down that stretch. From that perspective, what a coach
- 1:04:53Chapman's coach Chatman said, draw is difficult to block against the bad front seven
- 1:04:56that really doesn't get up field like the Bears. So the Bills did good
- 1:04:58blocking it, and Cook's burst was on display. Abbs solutely, let's go
- 1:05:03back to the tape because I like showing the tape. All right, Now,
- 1:05:09let's go to our next play. Here, We're gonna go to play
- 1:05:14thirty eight from my notes in this game, touchdown for James Cook on this
- 1:05:19play. So we have a mid zone run on third and two. Again,
- 1:05:24shout out to Eric Turner for having this still in our huddle group from
- 1:05:27when we did the cover one film m back after the Bills beat the Bears
- 1:05:30during the regular season. So mid zone run from Cook on third and two.
- 1:05:35Here, mid zone runs they aim for the inside leg of the offensive
- 1:05:40tackle. What you're gonna see from Cook here. You're gonna see the speed
- 1:05:42and burst to get through the hole. You're gonna see vision and agility and
- 1:05:45athleticism to pull away from the defense for the touchdown. The Bills again,
- 1:05:50whether no disrespect to Singletary, no disrespect to Moss. And I know Singletary
- 1:05:55had a big touchdown run in this game as well, but the Bills haven't
- 1:05:58regularly had a back with this capability on any play, like Coach I think,
- 1:06:01Coach Chapman, you said it earlier, like if he gets to the
- 1:06:03second level clean, like, he's got home run capability. So it's something
- 1:06:09that's just really threatening. And that's what you want from every single person on
- 1:06:15your team, right offensively, defensively, whoever you put on the field,
- 1:06:17you want them to pose a threat to the opponent. So the opponent has
- 1:06:20to count for them or acknowledge them in some way, shape or form.
- 1:06:25And I love this comment from Pete saying I love this run. A home
- 1:06:27run on third and short is sweet. Absolutely, it's third and two when
- 1:06:30you take this twenty seven yards of the house, really pleased, all right,
- 1:06:33So let's watch this run here. I'm just gonna let it run at
- 1:06:35first. Again, see all the pieces, the burst, the vision,
- 1:06:40the athleticism, the fluidity. I highlighted that linebacker because we're talking about him
- 1:06:46specifically in a minute. Watch the cut at the second level, Like this
- 1:06:49isn't necessarily a super sharp cut, but watch how he sinks his hips.
- 1:06:54Look at the lean and the ankle flexion he leans into this cut. Look
- 1:06:59at the body lean. His upper body's leaning right, but his hips and
- 1:07:01a specifically his left hip has already turned inside as he's opening up and putting
- 1:07:05his right from the ground like he's turning his hips to get up field,
- 1:07:08which is the reason he gets by his man. Like, that's some good
- 1:07:11athleticism, that's ben that's flexibility, that's fluidity. That's good strength and burst
- 1:07:15in speed and vision, athleticism and all that. But that's also good core
- 1:07:19strength and also good flexibility and your joints in your muscles. That's a nice
- 1:07:23piece how he leans into that there. Now, I highly did this linebacker
- 1:07:27because he gets blocked quote unquote by Ryan Bates. Bates doesn't get in Bates
- 1:07:30as at center here right here again morsels out for this game. So just
- 1:07:34in case, one of the highlight bits there. Bates doesn't get a good
- 1:07:39piece of forty five here, He just kind of impedes or obstructs him.
- 1:07:44But the speed of James Cook punishes false and or inefficient steps from any defender.
- 1:07:49And that kind of speed and burst makes it easier on your offensive lineman.
- 1:07:54They don't have to like I talked about earlier. They don't have to
- 1:07:56get as clean or as perfect of a block or as much of their man
- 1:08:00in order to make a run work. All they need to do is impede
- 1:08:03or obstruct a defender sometime, or just kind of literally just getting their way
- 1:08:08a little bit and provide some obstruction, and it can lead to big gains.
- 1:08:11So watch forty five here, watch Bates climb against him. We'll go
- 1:08:15and slow moll first, speed it up a bit until we get the handoff
- 1:08:17bank. Okay, So Bates gets up field forty five already cuts inside.
- 1:08:24All he does is cut inside that one little bit. It's over. Cook
- 1:08:27is gone, and you see how he closes the gap like it's close.
- 1:08:30Even the man here on Spencer Brown, like they could him in forty five
- 1:08:34kind of converge on this whole. But the speed of Cook makes it a
- 1:08:38non issue. Watch it again from if we watch it from the sideline angle,
- 1:08:42this is forty five right here. Watch how he jumps inside and you
- 1:08:46see Bates react, but then forty five reads it and gets back out.
- 1:08:50It's too late, like it's literally just two or three false steps as he
- 1:08:57comes forward to honor his fit on a position and he's got no shot and
- 1:09:00he stumbles to get back not even close. And again, Bates, I'm
- 1:09:06not trying to say this the you know, crap on Ryan Bates. Here
- 1:09:10he is, but again this is tough for him, Like he's trying to
- 1:09:12move this way. His man comes in, puts his foot in the ground
- 1:09:15and just gets back right like that's it happens from time to time. But
- 1:09:18Cooks speed, even though forty five doesn't really get blocked. Cook speed makes
- 1:09:23it a non issue. He punishes those false steps. He punishes any poor
- 1:09:27angle that you take, if you are inefficient with your footwork and the angles
- 1:09:30that you take. We showed it earlier, right when when he cut off
- 1:09:33of Roger Saffole, when he set up Brisker. Brisker was already opening up
- 1:09:36his hips to kind of get down field a bit more because he thought Cook
- 1:09:40was going to turn that corner, and he had to honor that speed.
- 1:09:43And Cook sees that and skirt cuts it back inside and Saffole gets himself a
- 1:09:45pancake again. Vision plus agility plus athleticism to pull away from the touchdown,
- 1:09:51the speed and the burst to get through the hole, and the type of
- 1:09:56speed to make it easier for your offensive lineman. I'm just gonna let her
- 1:09:59run. Here, I take another drink of water. Man, I ain't
- 1:10:06thirsty. It's the hardest thing about doing these solo shows. Little little peek
- 1:10:11behind the fourth wall. Here, peek behind the curtain. You're just talking
- 1:10:15all the time. They get thirsty, and they got trying to find a
- 1:10:15way to fit a drinking boom. Forty five jumps out of position, done,
- 1:10:19cut up field, touchdown. It's fun, man, it's really fun.
- 1:10:25And again part of it this time and this time right, what do
- 1:10:29we talk about? Earlier we talked about the bills running against these two high
- 1:10:34and light box. Looks now you've got a single high safety and you don't
- 1:10:40really have a light box anymore. Now you've got a regular box. You've
- 1:10:43got a seven man, you've got the four down lineman, The two second
- 1:10:45levels and then your extra dB. It's kind of almost attached to the fit
- 1:10:48here with Dawson Knox attached and a condensed look. So okay, cool.
- 1:10:54And what I also like about this one too, kind of the front side
- 1:10:57the strength of the run. The Bills are able to kind of run this
- 1:10:59to the unquote like week side, like where less men are. They just
- 1:11:01take advantage of the look. Bears get caught in some man coverage here.
- 1:11:05Watch the defender right there on Knox takes with him. He gets pulled out
- 1:11:11of the look, gets pulled out of the fit. Nice attack, nice,
- 1:11:15nice, nice attack. Again. All you need to do, Ryan
- 1:11:23Bates at center, just impede or obstruct your man. You don't have to
- 1:11:26get the perfect block. You don't have to pancake and we go and have
- 1:11:28to put him on the ground sometimes just getting his way. Bates is in
- 1:11:32his way right there enough that instead of being able to come this way,
- 1:11:35I don't even know if he technically could, but he has to kind of
- 1:11:38take this upper angle. It doesn't matter. Touchdown, fun, fun,
- 1:11:43fun, fun, right, I think that's fun. So now now,
- 1:11:47now, now, now I appreciate your coach, Chapman coach ham says,
- 1:11:51Unfortunately I have to go peep, so hit those lights. Aunt and cover
- 1:11:54one work hard to bring us great content. It's a thank you and shows
- 1:11:57appreciation. Thank you, Aunt, Eric and cover one. I appreciate your
- 1:11:59coach. They give much stopped buying for the kind words and the insight and
- 1:12:01also the like aspect. Please please, please, and thank you. If
- 1:12:03you folks are enjoying this content, please drop the like on this video.
- 1:12:06As I mentioned earlier, I know it's corny to ask for it, and
- 1:12:09I know it's corny to say that. I know it's corny, but it
- 1:12:11goes a sincerely long wait to it's helping us to track and trend and influence
- 1:12:15the algorithm to get us pushed to the front of YouTube and all of those
- 1:12:17pages and pieces. Now I'm gonna stop sharing for a minute as where I'm
- 1:12:23going to pull up the next piece of game footage for us here, which
- 1:12:30is the Cleveland Browns game, which again we keep talking about specific aspects of
- 1:12:35this season. James Cook really kind of changed things with his usage Ray from
- 1:12:42weeks twenty one and on at weeks twenty one, weeks eleven and on,
- 1:12:45and the Bills played the Cleveland Browns in week eleven. So this kind of
- 1:12:48was, you know, potential start of things, maybe an impetus of sorts.
- 1:12:54Before we dive into that, we want to plug the sponsor. You
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- 1:13:11And one of the examples I always get or give, you know, I
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- 1:13:33They're also really good people, just all the drives and initiatives they do for
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- 1:13:43And I've been going through some stuff recently and they were tremendously kind to me
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- 1:13:49and the kindness they share, the kindness they've showed me. And it's not
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- 1:14:01episode show notes, whether they're here on YouTube or anyone on the podcasting apps
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- 1:14:09in Buffalo. I give you my ordered and official stamp of pro Vole.
- 1:14:14Now let's stop talking like this and let's pull up some more game tape.
- 1:14:18Let me remove the banner so we can see the bottom. Okay, good
- 1:14:24piece here again, still left over from our film room. You see the
- 1:14:27alert call from Josh Allen on this first play based on the look from the
- 1:14:30Browns and what we're going to get on this play. We're gonna get a
- 1:14:33crack toss on third and one. So I diagram this. It's the most
- 1:14:38beautiful, clean diagram of assignments you've ever seen. You're gonna get Gabe Davis
- 1:14:43over here. He's gonna crack on this man. You're gonna see the heem
- 1:14:46Hines obstruct the linebacker here. I have a line drawn form. It's not
- 1:14:49the cleanest block, but again, all you gotta do is just impede obstruct
- 1:14:54your guy. Cook speed and vision and burst will take care of the rest.
- 1:14:57And then we get Dion Dawkins looping around here and getting matched up on
- 1:15:00a corner out in space, which is a nightmare for a corner, especially
- 1:15:03now, because you can't cut offensive lineman out in space unless you're within that
- 1:15:08tackle box range, which as a defensive guy, I think that sucks and
- 1:15:12it's not fair, but them's the rules, unfortunately. So we get a
- 1:15:15good block from Gabe Davis. Hines does just enough, and Dawkins show some
- 1:15:19of this movement and athleticism in space. The big key and important piece here
- 1:15:24is how quickly James Cook gets downhill and generates pace. I don't want to
- 1:15:29show you that from the sideline angle. That's the big takeaway here watching he's
- 1:15:31already as soon as he gets this toss, as soon as he gets the
- 1:15:34ball, he's already starting to get a field. He's already carrying it.
- 1:15:39He's not going horizontal, he's already starting to slightly turn his body so he
- 1:15:44can get up field. And then once he fully has the catch, here
- 1:15:45we go boom. He's already getting the field, takes advantage and again this
- 1:15:48is a third and one, and this game goes for seventeen in a hurry,
- 1:15:53quick hiccup bang. Good job from Gabe Davis, Good job from Dion
- 1:15:59Dawkins. Find enough job from the him Hines quickly take advantage and just look
- 1:16:04at it, even if like I don't even want to like narrate it,
- 1:16:06just like just watch how fast Cook is. There's so much speed from the
- 1:16:13end zone angle. When I wanted to highlight so I've got safety John Johnson
- 1:16:17highlighted here. So he's lined up head up on James Cook right now if
- 1:16:21we're looking at it from this perspective, right like there he is, he's
- 1:16:25lined up head up on James Cook. Now on the snap, he's gonna
- 1:16:27move slightly to his lap, so it's gonna put him in a bit of
- 1:16:30a different alignment from a head up perspective. But John Johnson, as you
- 1:16:34saw on the silent angle, he gets just barely enough of Cook to force
- 1:16:40him out of bounds. But at the start of this play, Johnson is
- 1:16:42line head up on Cook. But what happens is much like we saw in
- 1:16:45that previous touchdown against Chicago on that third and two where we saw some false
- 1:16:49steps. And again, what does Cook do if you have false or inefficient
- 1:16:53steps? James Cook makes you pay. So what you get from John Johnson
- 1:16:57here is he's lined up head up on Cook, but he closes down a
- 1:17:00bit early and Cook's speed makes him change his angle. So Johnson's gonna come
- 1:17:05up, then he's gonna go flat, and then he has to drop back
- 1:17:10and open up because of Cook's speed, and all he can do is forced
- 1:17:14cookout. It's actually a nice recovery by Johnson in my estimation. You know,
- 1:17:16he squeezes him to the sideline. It's a nice recovery, but it
- 1:17:19happens, and he's forced to recover because Cook gets on him in a hurry.
- 1:17:24Again, watching the slow motion, keep your eyes on Johnson. Okay,
- 1:17:29here we go here comes the toss. Johnson is coming downhill on an
- 1:17:32angle right as he should coming downhill, coming downhill, watch him. Now,
- 1:17:38he's starting to flatten because he's gonna go this way, a little bit
- 1:17:43flatten. But then he gets to hear and he's oh, and he has
- 1:17:46to open up and his angle has to change and go this way because if
- 1:17:50he stays flat or goes angularly from a downward perspective, Cook's beating him around
- 1:17:56the corner. So now he has to open up and get up a field
- 1:17:58and all he can do. And oh, it's a good play. But
- 1:18:00look at Cook. Even the core strength there, and I'm not trying to
- 1:18:03make too much out of it, especially at one hundred and ninety pounds that
- 1:18:06Cook is listed at. Look at the core strength. He's almost able to
- 1:18:11bend this and stay in bounds and get up the sideline. But if we
- 1:18:15watch it full speed, you'll see it again. Good execution on the outside
- 1:18:18gave Davis, fine from Hines, good from Dawkins, just that speed,
- 1:18:23just that little bit. And this is to the short side of the field.
- 1:18:25Right, they're already lined up on the left hash. So let's look
- 1:18:29at it from a sideline perspective. Granted, this is still a good amount
- 1:18:32of space, but this is the short side of the field. This is
- 1:18:35towards the boundary, and Cook still has the speed that he almost beats this
- 1:18:41around the corner from a safety who's coming from depth and should be able to
- 1:18:45have that angle. But again, what happens. Speed changes angles, burst
- 1:18:49changes angles. If you are not efficient and proper with your angles in your
- 1:18:53pursuit and your footwork. James Cook has the type of speed and burst and
- 1:18:57athleticism that will punish you for those false steps. He will punish you for
- 1:19:01your inefficiency with how you fit the run. This is a really good call
- 1:19:04on third and one, good alert from Alan third and one gain of seventeen
- 1:19:09for James Cook on this play. Now going to go to another one here,
- 1:19:16bum bum bum, Let's go to play forty five. Okay, this
- 1:19:26one is dart of from the Buffalo Bills. This is a play that myself
- 1:19:30and Erica broke down a bunch, especially after the Bills Saturday night win against
- 1:19:33the Miami Dolphins in Buffalo, that snowy game that kind of decided the division
- 1:19:39title. It's a run that we've showed a bunch in the film room.
- 1:19:42It's a run. I've showed a ton on Twitter that dart action or tackle
- 1:19:46rap. They use it with Dawkins. Spencer Brown is really good at it
- 1:19:48because of his speed athleticism. Basically, just think of it in this instance,
- 1:19:51like the tackle is going to pull across and then sometimes based on what's
- 1:19:57going on, sometimes he'll fit in between the garden to ackle, or sometimes
- 1:20:00you get down blocks, down blocks and you'll get him wrap all the way
- 1:20:03around. This instance, you're gonna get some motion pre snap here, boom,
- 1:20:11we get some motion from Hinz. Then you're also gonna watch Shakir across
- 1:20:15the face of Josh Allen, all this eye candy just to try and slow
- 1:20:18down the defenders at the second level, getting them look at it different stuff
- 1:20:21so you can hit him quick with what James Cook can do. A wooster.
- 1:20:25Quarmo actually does a good job jumping this, but more reacts appropriately and
- 1:20:30forces them out. Cook it's the ball. I'm gonna run this in fast
- 1:20:33motion from the sideline first, and then we'll go and fast and then break
- 1:20:38it down. Man If from from the back end from the sideline, it
- 1:20:44just looks like, oh he's like hesitating and doing stuff. When you watch
- 1:20:45it from this angle, we'll watch it fast and then we're gonna break it
- 1:20:47down slow. I feel like that's a song oh oh done in a good
- 1:20:53finish again from this back angle here, so you get the multiple motion pieces
- 1:20:58to flow, to slow down the pursuit again, just make guys have to
- 1:21:00think a little bit. Which if you're thinking too much, you're not reacting.
- 1:21:03You're not playing ball. So Cook reads the run fits and then he
- 1:21:08gets up field. He has the patience and vision to find the hole and
- 1:21:11the speed and burst to get through it. This play again, I didn't
- 1:21:15want to show just all zone plays or draws in in this episode. I
- 1:21:19wanted to show that again he can succeed on some gap runs and he's not
- 1:21:24just a zone runner, although I do think his skill set lends itself towards
- 1:21:28being, you know, a heavier zone team, you know in terms of
- 1:21:30what scheme you're leaning into. But he can succeed on gap runs. Like
- 1:21:34I mentioned earlier, a big thing for me with his gap runs. He
- 1:21:36needed to work on his patients with gap runs in terms of letting the play
- 1:21:41develop, letting his blockers get into proper position, get into proper form and
- 1:21:45then hit the hole instead of just getting his hands on the ball and turn
- 1:21:47it into sound like the hedgehog and going one hundred miles an hour. You
- 1:21:50can't always do that. You have to let the play develop, kind of
- 1:21:53give it a little bit of room to breathe before you turn on the jets
- 1:21:56and hit that hole and go through. You need to let the plays develop
- 1:21:59a bit. But he kind of does here. He's forced to a bit,
- 1:22:01and then he finishes strong on this one. So again, let's undo
- 1:22:09the whole the pieces there, but watching me outside. So he gets this
- 1:22:13ball and the first thing he does he goes to turn. You see him
- 1:22:17turn here because this is where this play is going. He wants to follow
- 1:22:19Dion Dawkins. But he turns and he sees the chaos that is this mess.
- 1:22:25Myles Garrett crashed hard, the defensive tackle came down, Joe Bates into
- 1:22:30the backfield, got full extension. This is chaos. So he sees it,
- 1:22:34and I was like, oh, okay, let me peep back inside
- 1:22:36this way because the right side is kind of crappy. Peeks here and sees
- 1:22:41again as a quaramoa pauses for a minute shakes and then watched from he's from
- 1:22:47like a square position where his feet are level to just upfield first, and
- 1:22:55a big piece for me is the strong finish on this. I'm gonna srow
- 1:23:00from the sideline angle just to get a piece because there's another little aspect again
- 1:23:04just good recognizing the chaos and being able to get out of it. Oh,
- 1:23:09this is what I was supposed to be up. Let me make something
- 1:23:10on nothing. Okay, boom, there we go. But the sideline piece
- 1:23:13again that I wanted to highlight here the finish watch where he goes through,
- 1:23:16watch where he gets contacted. Boom. It's kind of like the thirty one
- 1:23:26finishes at about the thirty four. It's about forty yards after contact. And
- 1:23:29again this isn't him and push. It like the pile being pushed and he's
- 1:23:31just staying on his feet. This is him putting his head down, he
- 1:23:34lowers his pad level, goes through some arms, and he carries some guys
- 1:23:39a bit. That's encouraging to see because we know that he's I hate using
- 1:23:44the term like finesse player because I think people think it means like soft,
- 1:23:47but his skill set is more finesse base again smooth, fluid, athletic,
- 1:23:51birsty, speedy. This is nice to see finish that run. Beat tough,
- 1:23:57especially down the stretch. Guys have been playing already ten twelve, ten,
- 1:24:00eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen weeks of ball. Like dudes are
- 1:24:03sore. Dudes are beat up. Everybody he is probably hurt or injured in
- 1:24:08some way, shape or form, and they're trying to gut through it however
- 1:24:11they can with treatments or rest or whatever. Like it's you're tired and then
- 1:24:15esupposed to be specifically in this game. You're in the third quarter, there's
- 1:24:17a minute thirty seven left, Like you're tired in this game, You're tired
- 1:24:20in the season. It's week eleven, like you've been playing a lot of
- 1:24:24ball. Like, dude start to falter a little bit, and so to
- 1:24:27have this element to his game of you know, some physicality and some nastiness
- 1:24:30to kind of lean on guys a little bit more. It's nice to see.
- 1:24:34Nice to see from James Cook on that play and next play we're going
- 1:24:39to show here play there turners talk about a ton and again we've broken down
- 1:24:43a ton in the film room. So a mid zone run for James Cook.
- 1:24:46This is a mid zone week. Big thing for me with this is
- 1:24:49James Cook flowing like water on this one. You're gonna see Miles Garrett off
- 1:24:54the right edge. He gets up field in a hurry versus Spencer Brown.
- 1:24:57So Cook as soon as he gets the ball here already starts looking inside.
- 1:25:00As soon as he takes the handoff, watch where his eyes go. Watch
- 1:25:03him see this two eye right here split the double team. So you're gonna
- 1:25:09watch Garrett get upfield. You're gonna watch this two eye cause some havoc here.
- 1:25:14And as that happens, watch where James Cook's eyes go. And then
- 1:25:17he sees the whole develop and he gets the field. So again this type
- 1:25:20of run. I love weakside runs in a variety ways, especially from his
- 1:25:26own perspective. This is partially possible, because not even partially possible, but
- 1:25:30it is possible because of the surface that you have. So you don't just
- 1:25:33have five offensive lineman. You've got one, two, three, four,
- 1:25:38five offensive linemen and two tight ends. So you have a seven man's surface.
- 1:25:42When you have that seven man's surfaces is something Nate Tyson I talked about.
- 1:25:45I don't remember which episode because he's been on the show a bunch.
- 1:25:49When you increase that surface count, it gives you the opportunity to get two
- 1:25:54more in the run game, and weak side runs is one of those pieces.
- 1:25:58So watch it in real time. Ben zone angles is best for this
- 1:26:01point they get some speed. I love when the camera has to go why
- 1:26:05because that means a big play is happening. So let's watch in SloMo now.
- 1:26:11So Cook gets this handoff. As he starts getting it, so he's
- 1:26:15eyeing where he ideally wants to go. Again, the game point on these
- 1:26:17mid zone runs is the inside leg of the offensive tackles. So he's trying
- 1:26:23to go where I have this arrow pointed like that's where he's trying to go
- 1:26:26right, So he goes there, but he sees what's going on. One
- 1:26:30he sees the man start to fill this spot is cut off, and then
- 1:26:34he sees that two eye starting to come across, and so he splits the
- 1:26:39double and so immediately he knows, oh, I can't go to where I
- 1:26:44thought I was going to go on this play. So again head up watching
- 1:26:48what's happening as he's receiving the handoff, diagnosing the play as he's getting his
- 1:26:54hands on the ball, go forward and is again the smooth transition from getting
- 1:27:00the hand off the ball here. Watch as soon as he gets the ball,
- 1:27:02the ball is here. He's getting the ball and already starting to make
- 1:27:08his cut. He's already setting up his move before he gets the ball.
- 1:27:13Bang. So as soon as the ball is fully in his gut and he's
- 1:27:15got possession, the move happens. He's getting the ball right here. He
- 1:27:21can already see him change his gate and change his steps, kicks his feet
- 1:27:27up, bank foot in the ground, gets a field so now gets that
- 1:27:30lean turns, doesn't have to worry about all this mess anymore. Now this
- 1:27:33is where the next piece comes. So he's cut back and he's missed that
- 1:27:35first wave. This is the nice flow like water piece right on zone runs.
- 1:27:43You go wherever the blocking dictates. You flow like water, like Bruce
- 1:27:47Lee said, you'd be like water. You would just wherever it goes.
- 1:27:49If one hole opens up, cool, you flow to that hole and you
- 1:27:53go through there. If it was where you initially attended, fantastic. If
- 1:27:56it's backside, if it's up the gut, if it's all the way back
- 1:27:59across the ground and outside the other tackle. Cool, that's where you go.
- 1:28:00Whatever happens happens, cuts across, gets a field, and then as
- 1:28:06develops, so he starts cutting back, but then all of a sudden,
- 1:28:11another hole develops right here. So what do you do? You'd be like
- 1:28:14water, put your left foot in the ground. You see that lean.
- 1:28:17Let's get up field and then what happens again? Safety comes up, but
- 1:28:21he sees the speed. He's got to open up because that speed is real.
- 1:28:28Corner does a good job on the outside cutting off that angle, kind
- 1:28:30of force into the help a little bit so they can corral him again.
- 1:28:32Just watching in real time, I'm replay a bunch the flow flow, flow,
- 1:28:36flow, Go wherever the hole is, go wherever the blocking leads you.
- 1:28:41But in order to get there, you have to have the vision.
- 1:28:44You have to have the athleticism, you have to have the feet, you
- 1:28:45have to have the fluidity, you have to have the burst right, all
- 1:28:50of these pieces that add together, and there's multiple other things that go into
- 1:28:54it as well. But long story short, like he consistently pulls off these
- 1:28:57kind of runs because the skill set he has, the body type that he
- 1:29:00has, and how this run game fits him. This is a very exciting
- 1:29:03thing. I expect more runs like this again, myself and Erica have talked
- 1:29:06about it a whole bunch mid zone runs in particular, but I expect more
- 1:29:11zone runs with James Cook, more zones, more draws. I do again,
- 1:29:15they run a really good dart scheme, like I showed those tackle rap
- 1:29:18blocks that I've shown a bunch here on the show with Dawkins with Brown,
- 1:29:23like, they do really good with those movement pieces, and they are a
- 1:29:26good pin and poll team as well. I expect just if Cook is getting
- 1:29:29the lion share, I expect him to get an uptick in gap runs as
- 1:29:32well. But these zone pieces where he can just be like water just flows
- 1:29:43and it's so funny to watch when you see his safety come up and then
- 1:29:46immediately have to get on his heels because of what you present. So Johnson
- 1:29:51comes up and then it was like, oh, and when they have to
- 1:29:55turn and get that angle and go up field where they stop going this way
- 1:29:59or they stop going this way, that's when you know the speed is real.
- 1:30:02That means they didn't anticipate that speed, or they didn't see it,
- 1:30:05or they didn't read it, or they've done something again a false step or
- 1:30:09they've made an inefficient move given the path of the running back and it's led
- 1:30:13them into kind of but not great spot. And I truly think if twenty
- 1:30:20three isn't here, I think it's Martin Emerson. If he's not there on
- 1:30:24the outside, I think Cook beats Johnson upfield for a house call. Maybe
- 1:30:29not but real pretty again, I watch you to here be like water something
- 1:30:45I am very excited to continue to see for this Buffalo Bill's offense. Oh
- 1:30:51burning Bob and helsays, this film is so confusing with Bills and Browns and
- 1:30:56line logos, lins logos altogether. Yeah, I actually completely forgot about that.
- 1:31:00Would that be in the weird game with the snowstorm, and I mean
- 1:31:03just a whole weird season from the Buffalo Bills in general, with everything that
- 1:31:08happened on the back end in a multitude of ways. But yeah, I
- 1:31:10can actually completely even when just watching it right now, I completely forgot until
- 1:31:13you said it, Yeah, that the snowstorm happened in this game got moved
- 1:31:15to Detroit. Just oh, it's just it's just been a there was a
- 1:31:20multitude of things happening to the Buffalo Bills down the stretch there, but it
- 1:31:26was what it was again, just to what to wrap it all up here,
- 1:31:30what we can expect from James Cook as the Buffalo Bills Harby Won.
- 1:31:32I do expect more zone usage for the Bills again on the year. Last
- 1:31:36year as a whole, they finished where are we here with a fifty three
- 1:31:42percent zone run rate last year, which was thirtieth in the league. They
- 1:31:45were forty one percent gap, which was the fifth most. But like I
- 1:31:48said, as the year went on, weeks eleventh of the division, around
- 1:31:51fifty four percent zone, Weeks thirteen through the division, round fifty seven percent
- 1:31:57zone, weeks fifteen through the division around fifty nine percent zone. So as
- 1:32:00James Cook became more of a focal point in the run game, we saw
- 1:32:04more of a zone scheme usage rate for this Bill's offense. Now that could
- 1:32:09completely change. They've kind of gone up and down in terms of their gap
- 1:32:13in zone usitrates these past several years, So we'll see what happens. But
- 1:32:16I expect more zone runs. But I don't think they're gonna be zone exclusive
- 1:32:21with Cook. I don't think they're gonna tip their hand that much. I
- 1:32:26think you will see a good amount of zone. But I think you're gonna
- 1:32:29see him get an uptick in those gap carries, and I'm excited to see
- 1:32:30what he can do again, those those quick hitting runs, those those darts,
- 1:32:34or those pin and polls where he can get out in the edge or
- 1:32:38if the defense feels like they have to honor the edge too much and they
- 1:32:42have to win in that area. He's got that speed where if he sees
- 1:32:44a little sliver in daylight on the interior, you know between the tackles and
- 1:32:47you've wivercommitted a bit to that edge or you've will recommitted to a bit outside.
- 1:32:50He puts his foot in the ground and he gets north and Salas and
- 1:32:53all of a sudden it's five ten fifteen and a cloud of dust. Potentially
- 1:32:57with what he can do, his speed has burst, his agility, his
- 1:33:00athleticism. It's a boon for any offense, but especially the Bill's offense led
- 1:33:04by Josh Allen in this passing attack where defenses are going to want to play
- 1:33:10you with light boxes and nickel personnel and two high safeties. If you get
- 1:33:15those juicy run looks like we showed in this episode, Cook can take advantage
- 1:33:19of those looks again, it's one of the things I was most excited about
- 1:33:21with him coming in last year, and to highlight it again, weeks eleven
- 1:33:26through the divisional round, forty nine running backs had I'm sorry, no,
- 1:33:32yeah. Weeks eleven through the divisional round, there were twenty nine running backs
- 1:33:38with at least twenty attempts versus light boxes, and of those twenty nine,
- 1:33:42Cook was fourth in EPA per attempt six and total EPA, third in yards
- 1:33:45per attempt at seven point two, twelfth and first down percentage, fourth in
- 1:33:49fourth lowest hit at the line of scrimmage percentage, and the third lowest stuffed
- 1:33:53percentage. He ate against light boxes weeks eleven through the divisional round and he
- 1:33:58ate overall, but you really saw him take advantage of those two high safety
- 1:34:01looks in those light boxes. If you've got James Cook in the game,
- 1:34:04the defense has to honor it. And then all of a sudden, they're
- 1:34:06bringing the safety down and now they're vulnerable to the play action game, They're
- 1:34:11vulnerable to RPOs, they're vulnerable to a multitude of other passing pieces. Like
- 1:34:14you can start to theme of this offseason that we've talked about with twelve personnel,
- 1:34:17but this time in a different way. You can start to dictate two
- 1:34:20a defense when you're that multiple with your pass and your run and then your
- 1:34:25personnel packages on top of it. Then you add in what James Cook can
- 1:34:28do as a receiver when you can motion him into the slot, or you
- 1:34:30can line him straight up outside into the boundary and he can run a slant
- 1:34:34and go, or he can run a legit hit, or he can run
- 1:34:36in nine, or he can run a dig, or he can run a
- 1:34:39drag like or even you want to you maybe run like a smoke screen or
- 1:34:43a little bubble to him in the slot or something like that. There's there's
- 1:34:45a lot of fun things that you can do with him with his skill set.
- 1:34:48And I know with how the season ended and the big focus was Alan
- 1:34:55and Dorsey and digs in the offensive line, rightfully so, and I still
- 1:34:58think Spencer Brown is the biggest story line for this offense going into the regular
- 1:35:01season. But from a positive side of things, I think James Cook and
- 1:35:04what he can be. I think he can be a legitimate RB one for
- 1:35:08the Buffalo Bills. I think I don't know how many touchdowns he's gonna put
- 1:35:12up, especially with what Josh Allen does in the red zone, especially what
- 1:35:15Damien Harris potentially adds. But between the twenties there's a lot that you can
- 1:35:20do with James Cook. I like the idea that Coach Chapman put in earlier.
- 1:35:24I think it was Coach Chapman. If it was someone else, I
- 1:35:26apologize for getting like twelve or fourteen carries a game, you know, three
- 1:35:29to five catches and it doesn't have to be designed, you know, real
- 1:35:31routes for him. It can be because he has that in his bag.
- 1:35:35But just give me those checkdowns where he's slated into block and no one rushes,
- 1:35:40so he just releases out in front of the center and he catches it
- 1:35:44with his back to the coverage and turns around and already has four or five
- 1:35:46yards before he's even gotten going, and if he makes a man miss that
- 1:35:48turns in seven, eight, nine or ten. Like, he can eat
- 1:35:51up so much space in a hurry, which is why he works against those
- 1:35:55light boxes and two I safety looks. But he can also do that in
- 1:35:58the past game as well, if defenses are going to play that off or
- 1:36:00play that back and give them that space. So I think it's I think
- 1:36:04it's extremely encouraging to see what he can do. Oh. I like this
- 1:36:10coming here from Pops. Pop says, the more clubs and the golf bag,
- 1:36:13the more options you have, absolutely, and the Bills have a pretty
- 1:36:15good golf bag. You got the driver, you got the three wood,
- 1:36:17you got your nine iron, you got your putter, get your sand wedge.
- 1:36:20I don't know any other golf clubs because I'm not a big golf guy,
- 1:36:23but yeah, more clubs the better, absolutely, abs sosolutely. Oh.
- 1:36:27Good comment from Rob saying, just need the caddy to give you the
- 1:36:30right advice and when you use them. Door sees that caddie. We'll see
- 1:36:32what he does after having an overall successful year last year. While while needing
- 1:36:36some improvements and needing some tweaks, Pop says, a thousand yards rushing for
- 1:36:41James Cook. Oh, I'm gonna say no because I don't think he's gonna
- 1:36:45get the carry enough carries to warrant it. But I could see him living.
- 1:36:50He finished with five hundred and sixty last year. I think nine hundred
- 1:36:55is a safe range for him. I think he'll have over a thousand total.
- 1:36:58I could see him having like eight hundred rushing or nine hundred rushing and
- 1:37:01then like two hundred or three hundred receiving or something like that. Like I
- 1:37:04think he's a guy who could do eleven hundred, twelve hundred, thirteen hundred
- 1:37:08total yards and that would be my big thing. If he gets a thousand
- 1:37:12yards rushing, cool. I want to see him more from a total yardage
- 1:37:14perspective. Give me. I'm not saying he's album Kimara. I'm not saying
- 1:37:16that at all, but I love that with Kimara's game where he might have
- 1:37:19fifty yards receiving and fifty yards rushing, but it's one hundred total because he
- 1:37:23could be used in a variety of different ways. That would be that would
- 1:37:27be fantastic. Like what Pete says here, McGovern is the Shurst improven along
- 1:37:30the old line Torrens and Browner hopes. Yes, from a known quantity perspective,
- 1:37:34absolutely, Torrens, Yeah, I think it's fair point. Me.
- 1:37:40He's a rookie. He hasn't stepped on the field, so that's a fair
- 1:37:42point. Spencer brown is a big hope for me. I hope, Like
- 1:37:45I didn't even say it, there's like pun intended. I hope that the
- 1:37:48roller coaster stops with Spencer Brown, but we will see what we get from
- 1:37:53him. That's gonna do it for us on this episode of Disguise coverage.
- 1:37:56I appreciate you folks for riding with me on this episode. Oh I gotta
- 1:38:01stop here, coming here from Pete, says Chandler's of Alin never gave up
- 1:38:05a sack. To watch Torrenson tell me he doesn't get beat. I would
- 1:38:09say this all the time. I think it's somebody in the chat. Don't
- 1:38:12go off of sacks given up as a metric of good offensive line play.
- 1:38:17Do not use that as your standard. Don't look at someone and be like,
- 1:38:20oh, he gave up ten sacks, he sucks, or the opposite
- 1:38:24and be like, this guy gave up zero sacks, he must be awesome.
- 1:38:28That's not how it works, especially when you have a quarterback like Anthony
- 1:38:30Richardson at Florida who when you get beat and you're wrong, he can make
- 1:38:33you right. I'm not saying Osyrius Torrens had bad tape, but he got
- 1:38:38beat enough to give up some sacks, but his quarterback made up for it
- 1:38:43and helped him out, just like Josh Allen does, and it's not just
- 1:38:45because of when Anthony Richardson did, but Josh Allen does that a bunch for
- 1:38:47his offensive line, like the biggest the best pass protector for the Bill's offensive
- 1:38:51line these past several years has been Josh Allen's elusiveness in the pocket and pocket
- 1:38:57manipulation. So that can be a deterrent for sacks. So don't if you're
- 1:39:00ever trying to think of what an offensive lineman is. It's nice to not
- 1:39:03give up sacks, but don't think that means they're a great pass protector or
- 1:39:09pass protector by going off of how many sacks they've given up or haven't given
- 1:39:13up. That can be misleading. We'll see what happens is what we get
- 1:39:15from mister o Cyrus Torrens, but we kind of know to a decent degree
- 1:39:18what we're going to get from James Cook based off of what we saw in
- 1:39:21twenty twenty two, and I hope you folks got that in this episode.
- 1:39:25The graphic that I brought up earlier, I think really drives home a lot
- 1:39:29of those pieces. If you didn't see that you join this episode late.
- 1:39:31I know we got a lot of significant viewers and the numbers went up big
- 1:39:34as we got to like the forty five minute and hour minute of this hour
- 1:39:38mark of this episode, I suggest you go back and watch that graphic I
- 1:39:42think it was on the twenty thirty minute mark. Really puts it in perspective
- 1:39:45how you can break up how this season went from a run aspect for the
- 1:39:49Bills running backs James Cook included, and how it aligns with Cooks emergence in
- 1:39:54the Bills backfield. So I thought that was very helpful in addition to the
- 1:39:58film and all the other advanced metrics that we pulled through. I hope you
- 1:40:00folks enjoyed this episode. If you did, please please, please and thank
- 1:40:03you. Drop a likeke on this episode before you go. It is greatly
- 1:40:06appreciate it. I want to thank everyone who joined me live on this episode.
- 1:40:10As I always say, especially when I'm solo, it's always awesome to
- 1:40:13have a bunch of live viewers and engagement, whether it's myself or with the
- 1:40:15chat. It just again, it sounds stupid, but it's nice to not
- 1:40:19feel like you're doing a show alone for nobody and nothing. So it's pretty
- 1:40:23awesome to have that kind of back and forth. Even when I don't have
- 1:40:26a guest, so thank you very much to everyone who joined me live on
- 1:40:28this episode. Was greatly appreciate it. They give very much a debor for
- 1:40:30being here and for the super chat earlier. That's tremendously appreciated as well.
- 1:40:34If you weren't here live, that's cool. I appreciate your post live,
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- 1:41:08Disguise Coverage, and check out all the other great content that Cover one provides.
- 1:41:12I appreciate the support that comes from you folks in any way, shape
- 1:41:15or form. Word of mouth is always helpful too, and one of the
- 1:41:17best pieces. So if you enjoyed this show, especially with all the nonsense
- 1:41:21that happens in the national media. And I'm not trying to say that I'm
- 1:41:24better than the national media, or the cover one is better than national media
- 1:41:27or whatever. But there's a lot of a lack of detail when it comes
- 1:41:31to the bigger box coverage people, and even some within the niche game of
- 1:41:35content creation. So if you thought this show was insightful, and you thought
- 1:41:40it was good, and you regularly stop by and you watch your live or
- 1:41:43you watch post live, whatever have you, or you listen, you know,
- 1:41:45word of mouth is always awesome if you know a Bills fan or a
- 1:41:47football fan in general. I like to think the show is enlightening from a
- 1:41:51Bills perspective perspective, but also from just an xss NO schematic piece for football
- 1:41:56knowledge as well. So if you enjoyed that, word of mouth is alway
- 1:42:00tremendously appreciated. I appreciate all the kind words coming through for me now and
- 1:42:04some of the claps. I appreciate you folks. Anthony, we got the
- 1:42:08same name, He agrees, He says it was a beautiful graphic. I
- 1:42:10thank you. You know, I'm the Picasso of my time. You know,
- 1:42:15I'm the songbird of my generation. I think I'm the Picasso of my
- 1:42:16generation, maybe in the van go but with both ears type of thing.
- 1:42:20So I'm glad the artistic value from that graphic was really appreciate it, So
- 1:42:27thank you folks, I greatly. I greatly appreciate it, and I appreciate
- 1:42:30all the kind words also coming through. I don't like to pull up too
- 1:42:33much because I think it's corny to pull up like things like that, but
- 1:42:35I do see all the kind words and they sincerely mean a lot to me,
- 1:42:39So thank you very much. And I love the comment from Beta Jim
- 1:42:42saying I can't wait to watch it back from the beginning. Yes, that
- 1:42:45is where your head should be had. I appreciate you, and I appreciate
- 1:42:46everybody who stopped by, live view, post, live view, listen,
- 1:42:50watch, download, whatever have you. Your support and generosity and whatever way
- 1:42:56it comes in is greatly appreciated by myself and the entire team, So thank
- 1:42:58you very much. It means more than you know. I hope you and
- 1:43:01your family and friends and loved ones are all doing well and staying safe.
- 1:43:03Be kind to one another, take care of one another. You also should
- 1:43:09know or do know, that I'm one of the co host or the Cover
- 1:43:11one Film Room Live every Wednesday at seven pm Eastern. Tomorrow night, Wednesday,
- 1:43:15June twenty first, Live at seven pm Eastern, myself and Eric Turner
- 1:43:18will be sitting down with Bill's second year corner kaire Elam to break down some
- 1:43:23game tape and talk some xos and nose and ball and stuff like that.
- 1:43:26So that'll be a really fun episode of the Film Room. So bang it
- 1:43:30back here live on the Cover one channel for some Cover one Film Room Wednesday,
- 1:43:34June twenty first, for kayre Elam. And if you're watching this at
- 1:43:36the end of the week and you're like, oh man, it's already June
- 1:43:39twenty three, that's cool. Just go to the Cover one Film Room channel
- 1:43:42and watch that episode of the Film Room. It's going to be a banger.
- 1:43:45I'm gonna go eat some olive garden breadsticks and go to sleep. I
- 1:43:48appreciate your folks, godspeed, be kind to one another, take care of
- 1:43:53one another. I will see you next week Tuesday, nine pm Eastern for
- 1:43:58another episode of Disguise coverage. Until then, godspeed, take care, be
- 1:44:03safe, and as always, go Bills