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My two favorite quarterbacks will be played Sunday afternoon in Baltimore: Kyler Murray, first choice of the NFL 2019 draft, and Lamar Jackson, the last choice of the first round of the 2018 draft. Both come from spectacular performances of the week 1 ; Jackson erased the Dolphins for 324 yards and five touchdowns in a 59-10 loss, and Murray caught the Cardinals after a 24-6 deficit in the fourth quarter to secure a 27-27 draw against the Lions. (Yes, I was excited by the tie.) Both athletes are also spectacular athletes who have won the Heisman Trophy and who still have to deal with skeptics who do not know if they can play the quarter- back in the pros.
A dynamic runner (and expert in jukes and obstacles) who was sometimes fragile with his precision, Jackson saw his throwing skills questioned throughout his academic career and during the selection process, despite the making of throwing shots like this, and this. Longtime NFL General Manager Bill Polian has infamously stated that Jackson should be promoted to the wide receiver position as a professional, and a Chargers scout asked Jackson if he would perform receiver drills at NFL combo 2018.
Although these are marginal opinions, these are opinions that other Jackson's QBs have not been subject to, and the assumption that Jackson was a first quarter runner whose skills went to pass had been capped certainly affected his interim stock. He was the fifth quarterback taken in 2018, behind Josh Rosen, who might not be in the league next year at this rate, and Josh Allen, a Pro Bowler according to the good people of the West from New York and no one else. Jackson turned a 4-5 team into a 10-6 playoff team as a rookie and has now registered one of the most effective statlines in football history during his first sophomore outing.
Suffice it to say that Murray's story is less common. From time to time, I remember that Murray is the starting quarterback of an NFL team, knowing that at the same time last year, he was almost certain that he would honor him. a multi-million dollar contract to play baseball for the Oakland A's, who had taken him. with no. 9 choices in the 2018 MLB project. Have you forgotten what happened? It looks like another life. But for a while, it really seemed like Murray would be in the minor leagues right now. After all, which NFL team would use one of the best picks on a 5-foot-10 quarterback?
Fortunately, it became clear in Murray's only academic season that he was a unique football talent, and the perception of the importance of the pitch of the quarter has changed. And Murray had a fan at Kliff Kingsbury, the Cardinals coach for the first year, teaming with the project number. 1 choice.
The athletic traits of Jackson and Murray were once considered more valuable than their passing skills. Now, both have found coaches who accurately see their mobility, not as a demerit against their throwing ability, but as a force multiplier that makes them all the more valuable. But that's where their stories diverge. Jackson and Murray are the stars of two very different approaches to smart football in 2019.
The Ravens have exploited a trend of intelligent analysis more than any other team of week 1: the passes. Last year, the percentage of NFL bystanders out of the game reached 24%, the highest score in the history of the league, with the Rams leading with 36%. Last Sunday, Ravens used the game action on half of their passing games. Fifty percent!
It was a crazy success. Jackson made five touchdowns in 20 assists and averaged more than 16 yards per attempt. This is the first touchdown pass of Jackson's day, a pass option in which Jackson pretends a transfer to Mark Ingram and casts a tilt at rookie hyperfast Hollywood Brown. (He was Kyler Murray's favorite target in Oklahoma!) Because the Dolphins linebacker and his free sprint come out of the middle to defend the fake, Brown is able to run 47 km to the end zone.
Jackson has only 20 assists in Miami, so that number is expected to fall by 50%. And he did it against the dolphins, who currently charge as it is the battle of Kursk.
However, when Jackson replaced Joe Flacco as quarterback Baltimore last season, the Ravens have become one of the most successful teams ever, with a total of 17.1 assists per game. On Sunday, Jackson had three races. If the way the dolphins bit on this RPO is an indication, they still thought that containing Jackson's racing abilities was a top priority in defense.
The wisdom of conventional football has long suggested that the game action is more effective when fouls establish the race. The analyzes show that it remains effective even if the offenses are not committed often enough or well. In Jackson's case against Miami, both things were true. Jackson did not need to throw the ball for the game to be effective, but after his efforts in 2018 and a dead season during which coaches in Baltimore spoke of his abilities, the Dolphins expected that he runs the ball. It would be an ideal plan for Jackson: to have the defenses to stop according to his reputation as a runner, then dissect those opponents with a continuous dose of action.
The Cardinals led the league in a totally different category in the first week. Arizona played 55 shots on 10 staff, which means they played with four receivers, a running back and a tight end. While the action is trying to sell defenses under the threat of a race, 10 staff members report to the defense that there is no chance that hell will come. The rest of the league ran 44 combined catches of 10 staffers during the first week. No NFL team has made more than 47 total catches on 10 staffers last season.
This is the air raid, the system in which Murray won the Heisman in Oklahoma. In the fourth quarter of week 1, where he was operating almost exclusively, he racked up 15 of 19 passes, scoring 154 yards with two goals. Murray's first touchdown, a 10-man series in which running back David Johnson advances vertically to a linebacker, while half-defenders and safes handle the four receivers spread out on the field:
Here it is the reader who misleads Murray's game. Not all games use 10 people – some are understaffed, which includes five large receivers. What is strange with such an offense is that it turns around and makes football effective again. Look how much space Murray has on this designed area, read:
After the game, Kingsbury insisted that the abundance of 10 people was an aberration, since the team was lagging behind and had to score quickly. That's right: 22 of the Cardinals' fourth quarter shootings came from 10 staff members as they returned from 18 points to force players to work overtime. But Arizona also ranked in 10 people 50% of his offensive games in the first quarter, significantly higher than anyone in the league. The mantra of the air raid is to inflict the most effective offense for an entire match, not just when a team needs offenses – and the Cardinals have clearly been the most effective on 10 members of the staff.
One of the drawbacks of the rise of sports analysis is the increase in homogeneity. As leagues develop a downward focus on maximizing efficiency, they create players capable of performing only specific tasks. Baseball formations are now filled with players who excel in house strikes and comic strokes; the era of the median god in basketball is over.
In football, it has become clear that passing the ball is much more effective than passing the ball. This could put sport at risk. It would be boring if every NFL team had pretty much the same offensive philosophy.
But that's great for players like Jackson and Murray. They show that diversity can still exist in a world that aspires to efficiency. Passing is too broad a category to be uniform. Some shifts can be effective by achieving a high percentage of short passes; there are QBs that can be effective in making a smaller amount of bombs; some shifts can be effective by taking advantage of their ability to run. The old standard of sport – in which most quarterbacks were about 6 feet 5 inches and the teams felt it was mandatory to run the ball between tackles 20 times per game – represented the peak of the homogeneity of the game. soccer.
Jackson is the new king of the NFL game, a mobile threat that can take the fear of his legs against his opponents and punish them for forgetting his arm. Murray is airing the air raid revolution among the pros, and he will cross the holes left open by the defenders who will attempt to cover his receiving body from the line of scrimmage to the end zone and the sideline to the sideline.
Jackson and Murray are particularly well placed to be excellent in their football world and are ready to give their show on Sunday. It's a match that makes us dream of a unique football future.
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