I'll clarify that I still want to keep him. But I'm fine with waiting till the end of the season to do so, where his full body of work can be evaluated. We're already edging towards cap hell. Don't want to dish out another massive contract that may not be completely merited.
There's been talk about just how good the defense is, so I wanted to watch the All 22 to see for myself, since I know I already came away from the game with one incorrect impression (having a kid really makes watching the game critically... difficult). I got through the first quarter (two Panthers series) before GamePass crapped out, and reminded me I really should be working. I'll save pasting two pages of my Google Doc notes, and just summarize so far: 16 plays so far. Bears D wins 9, Panthers O wins 4 (including an incomplete that was just a bad throw, should've been a TD early). 3 plays push. There was an offsides flag called on LT intimidated by Quinn, so I guess you could count that 10 out of 17 plays won. 1 loss was early completion at Johnson, 1 was a power run left from gun, 2 were targets at Skrine (1 incomplete as mentioned). - Akiem Hicks is a man. Let's just get that out of the way. I count three wins he's directly responsible for / major part of. You could argue two more. - If you were judging who the highest paid safety was, based on the tape, it'd be fair to assume it's Gipson. He shows up on every play. That's not a knock on Jackson - he's doing his job well and is never challenged. Just a comment that Gipson is everywhere. Now, there were two plays where the safety coverage hangs CB's out to dry, but it's hard to tell where the responsibility lies. On one offensive shift, Gipson signals to EJack, but there ends up being a hole in coverage because of it. On the other, just looks like routes managed to take advantage of a high-risk/reward coverage (all man, zone safeties flip post-snap). - Johnson is getting left on an island on just about every play. I mean, again to the extent that you might assume Fuller was the less capable CB. He is stepping up and covering his man really well on most plays. In fact, I think the reason he had such a "bad game" was because Teddy was targeting him routinely. His first three throws all had Johnson's man as first read, and play broke down when Johnson locked him up. The safety help he would be getting is being otherwise used to cover mid-field assignments from LB's or slot. Johnson is really impressing. I'm eager to see how that unfolds when I go back for the rest, since we know he had rough plays thereafter. - Some really well executed DL stunts changed this game. Quinn hasn't shown up on the stat sheet, but watching the tape shows him having impacts on a few plays due to stunts. That early endzone sack was all Quinn taking out two OL on the stunt. I still don't think he was worth the money, but there is NO QUESTION he's an upgrade over Floyd. The degree to which is still up in the air. - Really basic pre-snap looks. Every play is the same. Personnel changes - a couple 5-2 packages, mostly nickel, one dime look (DHC is the dime CB). And the coverage has mostly been man, but there have been some clever use of safeties / zone, and until the CB's stop winning their man battles, you gotta keep letting them do it. Fuller and Johnson are lights out. I came into this questioning Pagano's use of the safeties. I am now concerned, because nothing here allayed that fear - if anything, reinforced it. When both safeties are covering deep, it's almost always Jackson over Fuller, which means your two weaker coverage guys (Johnson and Gipson) are paired. Now, they're both good, but I wonder what the reasoning here is. More importantly, Johnson just isn't getting regular safety help over the top. I believe that's true for most of the game, but won't say for certain until I watch. I don't really understand that, but... thankfully the kid can play. Gotta say, I think we're gonna owe this defense more credit. They don't take the ball away at the anomolous rate of 2018, but they keep people from scoring, and they're excellent at all levels. Excited to watch more before Monday.
Without Quinn picking up that ball after the Fuller hit the Bears don't win that Buc's game. Fuller should have had the recovery but he skipped right past it on the ground while celebrating the hit, but had to slow his celebration because Quinn crossed his path going after the ball.
I’ve have gone back and watched a lot of all 22 to figure out the safety situation. There was the notion that when Amos left Jackson had to fill the strong safety spot because HA Ha was a free safety. Well if you go back and watch tape of the 2018 D under Fangio and then watch last season under Pagano you will see that there really is zero difference in how the safeties are used. Same when you compare to this season. 99% of the time Jackson will line up depending on where the ball is placed. He will play the larger half of the field. Usually the side with more receivers. To say he played closer to the line of scrimmage more under Pagano than Fangio is pure fiction. Pagano does like to play more man coverage but not that much more. When you say it seems Jackson is almost always over Fullers side it’s due to ball placement on the field. Not Pagano putting him there. And then it depends on coverage. What is interesting is for the first time that I have seen Jackson lined up on the shorter side of the field. Flipping with Gipson. And once it seemed to be done to help out Johnson. One thing for sure Pagano does a good job of hiding the coverage and mixing it up.
Putting Jackson with Fuller is actually genius and the right thing to do. QB's are more prone to throwing towards Johnson and Gipson, statistically speaking. Jackson and Fuller are being avoided. You line them up on the same side and you are taking away half the field from an offense. There have been times this year that I feel the defense is far too vanilla on the back end and I see too little presnap movement. He's done a great job with his linebackers in coverage, IMO. He's making it hard for a QB to see who is rushing and who is dropping. The backend coverage looks simplistic to be on All-22. Not a bad thing because the secondary is doing it's job as well any unit in football to date this season.
I've actually watched a lot of Rams games this year and there is not a doubt in my mind that Floyd is playing better than he was last season. Not that i wish he was still in Chicago, i rarely get hung up on those things, but yeah he's def playing better imo. I believe he already has more TFLs in 6games than he did all last year and he's also on course for the most sacks since his rookie season. And like you say he's still being used in coverage at least as much as last year, he's just showing up more, especially around the line. Rather than always being stood next to a pile when the play's over he's actually being involved in the play now. He's not playing at a pro bowl level and it remains to be seen if he does enough to get a new deal from the Rams at the same level as his current one. $10mil is a lot of money and i wouldn't be paying him that. But he's playing more than well enough to give this joke ass O-Line a tough day.
They've been too vanilla for the last season and a half. There really is no comparison between Fangio and Pagano in this regard.
Late to this, but I appreciate the thoughts, Rob. I tried to get back into the footage, and Gamepass wasn't cooperating, so I only ever watched those first two series. I'm sure the snapshot I saw told a very incomplete story. I'll keep this in mind tonight and look for it - looking forward to talking about it thereafter, hopefully celebrating a win. Fingers crossed Gamepass isn't just outright rejecting my VPN, because that would spoil my football watching for the year...
