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Seth has this one out for free on his blog so thought I'd share it. Patrick Mahomes Week 5 review: Pocket presence, pressure, and brilliance On what was overall a spectacular day, Mahomes' happy feet and the offensive line's struggles held the offense back Seth Keysor 1 hr 4 Patrick Mahomes was awesome against the Raiders. Patrick Mahomes had some pocket presence issues against the Raiders. The offensive line had some serious protection issues against the Raiders. Penalties and drops were a problem against the Raiders that robbed Mahomes of even more great plays. All of those sentences are simultaneously true, which makes last Sunday’s game against Las Vegas an interesting one to talk about. The day was filled with spectacular plays made and franchise quarterback throws by Mahomes when the rest of the offense had some issues against a good Vegas gameplan and with self-inflicted wounds (dropped passes, untimely penalties, and the like). An easy example was the late 2-point conversion that brought the game within reach. This is the precise sort of play that makes Mahomes an impossible quandary to solve. The Raiders initially play excellent coverage here and have a linebacker assigned to pursue Mahomes if he gets out of the pocket. That linebacker gets pressure quickly, and should by all accounts collect a sack here. Instead, he’s left grasping air and Mahomes finds Williams in between a pair of exasperated defenders. However, this game also contained some lows for Mahomes in one specific area: pocket presence. This snap is an example of an issue Mahomes had multiple times against the Raiders: Rather than climbing the pocket and continuing to survey the field utilizing more subtle movements, he tries to bail out around the edge and alters the angle of the rushers/blockers to the point that he creates pressure on himself. The end result is a forced throw-away to avoid a sack. After Sunday’s game, there was a great deal of talk about the offensive line, which I discussed in detail soon thereafter, and the pressure they were allowing on Mahomes. Later on in the week, there was a lot of discussion about Mahomes’ pocket presence and whether he was the bigger issue by failing to utilize his blockers due to depth of drop or starting to scramble around rather than working the pocket. If you’re into deeper analysis of the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, this is the place for you. This article is free, but there’s a LOT more you could be reading for the price of TWELVE BUCKS A YEAR. I’ll never raise the price on you if you subscribe under that amount. To do so, just click below and let’s go! Get 60% off forever The reason this has been such a hotly-contest issue is that the reality is that both things were an issue against the Raiders. Let’s look at the numbers (if you need a primer on what the terms I use mean and how they gauge quarterback play better than stats, check out the Week 1 review). Otherwise, let’s look at some numbers. There are a lot of numbers to digest here, but first thing to note is that Mahomes made a bunch of really incredible plays on Sunday. His 9 “franchise throws” were even more than he made against the Ravens a few weeks back in what the most dreamily perfect game of his career. He created 125 yards of offense on plays that were looking like they failed, some of which were the sort of typically spectacular plays we’ve come to expect. On this touchdown throw to Sammy Watkins, Mahomes finds himself under pressure from multiple directions, with an edge rusher able to corner (to an extent) against Schwartz to get pressure deeper in the pocket, and both Fisher and the interior line letting the pocket get crushed to prevent him from stepping up. Mahomes shakes off a potential tackler and then does is thing, dragging the play out to the sideline and finding Watkins open after managing to Jedi-mind-trick the defender into jumping inside. It’s a spectacular play made despite the protection failing him, and that happened more than a few times Sunday. It’s also worth noting that Mahomes lost multiple big plays due to penalties and/or drops. Two of his better plays of the season didn’t count. The first came on the first drive of the day (which notably ended in a punt). It’s important to see the all-22 version of this throw to see just how far it travels in the air (nearly 65 yards) and how precisely it lands into Hill’s hands. Also, note the way Mahomes climbs the pocket in order to buy an extra moment and step into the throw. A holding penalty on Osemele called it back, though, and wiped the play off the board. Another exceptional throw didn’t count later in the game, this one a crucial drop by tight end Nick Keizer on 3rd and 20 with a little under 5 minutes remaining in the first half. This was an exceptional throw that hit Keizer (who is a player I do like, by the way) in the hands. It would have converted the third and long with about four and a half minutes left in the first half and the Chiefs leading 21-17, and put them in the driver’s seat to score before the half while keeping the ball out of Las Vegas’s hands. Instead, the Chiefs gave the ball back and the Raiders scored to take the lead a few minutes later. It was arguably one of the biggest swing moments of the game, and Mahomes had nothing to do with the drive ending. In short, Mahomes made multiple massive plays to drag the Chiefs down the field (and ultimately put up a very respectable 32 points) on a day where the offensive line was having a really hard time protecting him consistently, some poorly-timed penalties wiped out big plays and put them behind the sticks, AND drops were worse than normal for the Chiefs. And make no mistake, the pressure was there and was coming from everywhere. The interior line, and Andrew Wylie in particular, have taken a lot of heat for failing to protect Mahomes. And there’s a great deal of truth in that. Wylie had multiple “instant pressure” snaps on Sunday and was the primary culprit, but Remmers struggled as well filling in at guard (Reiter was the least culpable of the three). However, pressure wasn’t just coming from the interior. Eric Fisher had a poor day in pass protection, and even Schwartz lost at a higher rate than normal (to be fair, his “normal” rate of losing is practically non-existent and he’s been added to the the Chiefs’ injury list with a back issue). On this 4th quarter snap, both tackles lose quickly and Mahomes has to check down immediately. There weren’t as many bad snaps from the tackles as the interior, but they were problematic and killed several plays very quickly. The Raiders had a pretty good coverage plan against the Chiefs and were hassling Mahomes throughout the day, which is an incredibly difficult situation for a quarterback to deal with. That is partly why he had three potential picks (well above his career average) and actually threw an interception (a 4th down heave under pressure where he just was trying to give the offense a chance at converting, with no one actually open). So why did I start off as being critical of Mahomes’ pocket presence if there was so much going wrong around him and he did so much himself? well, because he did (I’m guessing in part due to some of the pressure he was seeing on various snaps) create a lot of pressure on his own as well. His seven “happy feet” snaps (and the resultant four “missed shots”) are significantly higher than he normally has in a given game. For example, in 2018 Mahomes averaged 1.9 “happy feet” snaps per game. Multiple times against Las Vegas, Mahomes ran himself into trouble by trying to scramble around rather than keeping his movement simple in the pocket, even if the protection was more than adequate. This is the sort of play Mahomes has been so good at avoiding throughout his career, and moments like it are the reason Sunday’s game against the Raiders doesn’t go down as one of his best despite making so many big plays. Mahomes is facing four rushers here, which the line does a good job handling. There’s nothing resembling pressure early, and he has plenty of space to step up and continue to go through his reads (probably a full 2 seconds before anything would develop as real pressure, an eternity in the NFL). Had he done so, Mecole Hardman comes open in a vacant spot in the zone. The call is good and the protection is good, but Mahomes gets happy feet and tries to bail out. This allows the interior rusher to disengage from his blocker and pursue, and the play ends in Mahomes being stopped for no yards. Mahomes’ seven happy feet snaps were more than Weeks 1 and 3 combined by a large margin, and even more than he had against the Chargers, when I wrote about a similar issue. It was a legitimate issue that compounded the problems they were already having in pass protection. While it’s somewhat understandable that he was getting antsy given the pressure he was facing, most games Mahomes is still able to decipher when to bail and when to hold firm or move around the pocket. Against the Raiders, Mahomes and the offensive line took turns (though the OL failed more frequently) causing pressure. It’s easy to see why Mahomes thinks he should bail out, because so often he’s able to make something incredible happen. This was a 3rd and 15 conversion in which Mahomes made an absolutely spectacular throw. However, he also bailed out of a pocket where the protection was there, forcing a more difficult play. Had he remained in the pocket he could have continued to survey, as the pressure only started once he’d broken to his left and opened a pursuit angle. It’s a play that shows both the best and “worst” (I use italics because his worst isn’t really that bad) of Mahomes’ game. In addition to some happy feet, Mahomes was a little late to some checkdowns against the Raiders that might have made his day easier in breaking up their coverage and pass rush. His hesitancy caused a few inaccurate throws as he went there late, as well as a couple of occasions where the gain was shorter than it could have been. Here, Mahomes doesn’t have any looks he likes and so checks down to Edwards-Helaire, who is open due to what appears to be a late-arriving zone defender. There’s some room for CEH here and the opportunity to be 1x1 in space. However, rather than getting the ball out immediately and in rhythm, Mahomes hesitates (perhaps he thinks a rusher will get a hand in the way, but it really doesn’t appear that should be an issue) and double clutches. By the time he releases, the defender has closed and CEH has had to stop. Overall, Mahomes’ performance against the Raiders was at a significantly higher level than most quarterbacks will ever reach. He made multiple exceptional plays in a tough spot. However, he wasn’t perfect, and his happy feet emerged for the second time this season and in part led to some of the Chiefs’ offensive issues, particularly in the second half. With the Bills defense looming, it will be interesting to see how the Chiefs look to address the problems they had against the Raiders. It’s generally simple execution stuff, not a situation where the Raiders really had them “figured out,” so there’s every reason to be confident Mahomes and the rest of the offense will tighten up from the mistakes that plagued them last Sunday. And it’s worth remembering they still scored 32 points despite all this. So waiting a moment to hit the panic button would be wise, particularly given all the plays Mahomes made on a day that was less than his best.

As expected the incentives are NLTBE and will be charged on next years cap if earned. That means, for this year, the cap charge will be less than 100k over the min salary for a 2nd year player. The impact on the cap actually could give us some money back as he replaces another salary on the top 53. Veach continues his Faustian deal with Beelzebub, but at least he uses his Sorcery for the betterment of society.

Honestly this is such a low risk, potentially high reward signing it doesn't matter. We can cut him with no ramifications. KC gets a 3rd down back, can further open up the playbook and adds another potential weapon. There's really not much downside. Bell is here only to chase a ring and signed on to a situation where he knew he wouldn't be the featured back. I can't see him raising hell about usage with this coach and locker room.

Game is on Fox at 5pm est 4pm cst??? Who decides this crap? Anyways. Injury reports: Mecole better step up if Sammy's out.

I assume the incentives are not likely to be earned. They'll go on next years cap if so, and if he earns them. Likely no or minimal change in this year's cap.

Disclaimer: I have no idea what Bell has left in the tank but I do know that Gase is a shit coach and the Jets are a dumpster fire. EXAMINING LONG LIST OF PLAYERS WHO'VE IMPROVED POST-ADAM GASE BY: KYLE CRABBS JULY 2ND, 2020 THE DRAFT NETWORK Photo: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports They say that one of the best qualities of a good head coach is consistently putting his players in the best position to be successful. It extends beyond X’s and O’s, too—sports, like the business world, is all about relationships. Those who can connect with their players, or at the very least encourage buy-in from their players, are going to have a better chance to produce results on the field. Consider this quote from longtime NFL coach Bum Phillips: “Don Shula can take his’n and beat you’n, and he could take you’n and beat his’n.” Indeed, it seems like a common quality amongst the best head coaches in the history of the game. They’re simply capable of getting more out of their players and people than the average coach. There are great coaches, there are good coaches and there are average coaches. And then there are coaches like Adam Gase. Gase’s career as an NFL head coach to this point reads like Phillips’ quote about the great Don Shula, but with a slight twist. “Adam Gase can take his’n and lose to you’n, and he could take you’n and lose to his’n.” Sporting a 30-34 career record as a head coach, Gase has been the epitome of average to this point in his career. But it isn’t just the average record—there are plenty of coaches with modest or worse records as the leaders of their teams. It’s how Gase has lost (he has 3 more wins than he does double digit losses) and how he has managed to alienate good players that is most incredible to consider. Gase’s teams have had some good talent—and they’re almost all universally better immediately after moving on from playing under his watch. Consider some of the players jettisoned out of Miami during Gase’s three-year run with the team. WR Jarvis Landry — Landry’s story is the most famous falling out in Miami. Landry was one of the NFL’s most productive players, but his two seasons under Gase in Miami were highlighted by 112 receptions in 2017 for less than nine yards per reception. Landry insisted his talent was more valuable than serving as a check-down option, but talking to Gase about his concerns wasn’t an option. "When I’d go to talk to Gase about (expanding my route tree), he’d curse me out," said Landry. "'Why are you telling me how to do my job?' It got to the point where the environment was just awful." Nearly half of Landry’s 161 targets that season came within three yards of the line of scrimmage. So Landry was traded to the Browns, a destination where Gase reportedly threatened to trade other Dolphins players for poor performances in the past. In the two years since Landry was traded from Miami to Cleveland, the receiver has seen his yards per catch swell from 10.3 yards in two seasons under Gase to 13.1 in two seasons without him, including a career-high 14.1 yards per receptions in 2019. DT Jordan Phillips — Phillips was a former second-round selection for Miami in 2015 and was cut by Gase four games into the 2018 season; Gase’s final year with the team. By the end of the 2019 season, Phillips had logged 9.5 sacks last year for the Buffalo Bills, the team that claimed him after he was cut by Miami. OG Billy Turner — Turner was an early third-round selection for the Dolphins in 2014 and was unceremoniously cut by Gase midway through his third season in Miami, his first under Gase. Turner turned in a bad performance and was cut just days after being the team’s starter on the offensive line. And while Turner’s play has still been up and down in the three years since, he did play well enough as a starter in Denver to command a 4-year $28M contract with the Packers ahead of the 2019 season. Gase gave him away for free. RB Damien Williams — Williams spent two years under Gase and logged 296 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns over that span. Williams, while still in a complementary role, has logged 754 yards and nine rushing scores in two years in Kansas City. In all, his yards from scrimmage and total touchdowns (13 in two seasons with the Chiefs) doubled as well. What hurts the most about this one? Gase effectively gave Williams the cold shoulder, first telling Williams that Miami intended to bring him back to the team in 2018. But Williams underwent shoulder surgery that offseason and Gase went on that offseason to never return his phone calls, leading him to sign in Kansas City. “That really hurt,” said Williams. “I was there four years and gave Miami my all. I still have not spoken to him to this day. That hurt me because me and Gase were cool.” And yet, despite the mismanagement of talent being kicked to the curb in Miami, the players who remained in South Florida after Gase had been relieved of his duties (a decision that prompted reactions from both Landry and Phillips on social media when it was announced) and played under new management in 2019 is an even more damning indictment of Gase as a coach. Four key skill players who were supposed to thrive under Gase in Miami enjoyed their best seasons (by far) as pros in their first season without Gase calling their plays. QB Ryan Tannehill (w/ Tennessee) — Tannehill’s career revival in Tennessee is well documented. After starting the season as the backup to Marcus Mariota, Tannehill commandeered the Titans offense midway through the year and unlocked the team’s passing game with impressive efficiency. Tannehill posted a 70% completion percentage, tossed a touchdown on 7.7% of his pass attempts, and led the NFL in yards per attempt (9.6) and quarterback rating (117.5). His play under Gase wasn’t necessarily bad from a statistical standpoint, but the Dolphins offense always felt like it was playing with one hand tied behind its back and Tannehill, who endured a relentless pounding under previous head coach Joe Philbin’s watch, was hurt frequently under Gase, missing 24 of a possible 48 starts. There’s plenty of blame for Tannehill’s tenure in Miami that doesn’t fall at the feet of Gase, but it is also quite convenient that Tannehill is thriving at the first possible stop after getting out from underneath him. RB Kenyan Drake (w/ Arizona) — Like Tannehill, there’s plenty of blame for why Kenyan Drake never lived up to his potential in Miami that extends beyond Gase. But Gase chose Drake to be his heir to the running back position after the team unceremoniously traded RB Jay Ajayi mid-season in 2017—who was another player Gase discarded because of perceived effort and preparation issues. Drake was supposed to take over the mantle, only for Gase to defer to veteran RB Frank Gore instead. Drake, despite a promising 4.5 yards per carry and plenty of upside in the passing game, started just seven games in 2018 and only rushed the ball 120 times on the season. Drake struggled to start the year in 2019 without Gase in the picture due to the Dolphins’ stripped-down offensive line that could best be described as “offensive.” But a trade to Arizona allowed Drake to thrive as he surpassed his 2018 rushes in just eight games with the Cardinals and came within a single yard of his previous career high over a full season in those same 8 games (643 yards & eight scores). As it turns out, Drake’s talent has always been there, but his opportunity was not. WR DeVante Parker — Parker enjoyed a promising second season in 2016 in Gase’s first season, logging 744 yards and four scores over 15 games. But the next two seasons saw Parker spend the vast majority of his time in Gase’s dog house; including one odd stretch that saw the Dolphins leave Parker inactive while Gase claimed he was not fit to play. The assert was met in force by Parker’s agent, Jimmy Gould. "I find the decision to make DeVante inactive today by Coach Gase incompetent and insulting," Gould was quoted in a statement. "It's also just not true and I am sick of hearing him say my player is not healthy. This is the third game this year that DeVante should have played in when you include the Jets and Patriots….What a horrific decision by Coach Gaze and he needs to take a very long look in the mirror and make himself inactive." Parker stumbled through the final two years of Gase’s tenure without any support from his coach before coming alive in 2019 without Gase’s hands all over the offense, posting career highs in starts (14), targets (128), receptions (72), yards (1,202), and touchdowns (9) under the watch of a more player-friendly coach in Brian Flores. TE Mike Gesicki — Gesicki is perhaps the best case of mismanagement of talent throughout Gase’s tenure with the Dolphins. Miami drafted Gesicki, a flex tight end from Penn State, with a second-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and the Dolphins proceeded to line him up with a hand in the dirt of 60% of his snaps his rookie season. On 31% of his reps, he was asked to run block. The Dolphins charged him with pass protection on 20% of his reps as a rookie as well. It shouldn’t have been this hard. The Dolphins drafted a seam-buster at tight end and asked him to play with his hand in the dirt and block for more than half of his reps as a rookie. It’s no wonder he was Pro Football Focus’ 107th ranked TE in pass protection and 131st ranked TE in run blocking that season. It’s also no surprise that, with Gase out of the picture, Gesicki magically posted more than double the receptions (51), yards (570), and five more scores in 2019 than he did under Gase in 2018. Gase’s struggles to manage his team have extended into his tenure with the Jets already after just one season. He botched handling an injury to starting guard Kelechi Osemele that spiraled so violently out of control that Osemele was cut by the end of October in Gase’s first season with the Jets. The relationship fractured in part because Gase went weeks without speaking to one of his starters on offense because “(Osemele) hasn’t asked to speak with me.” Gase managed to alienate both prized free agents of 2019, RB Le’Veon Bell and LB C.J. Mosley, within his first three months on the job when it became public in the aftermath of the Jets firing GM Mike Maccagnan that Gase did not want to spend the money necessary to sign both players in free agency earlier that offseason. Things were so bad for Bell last season that the veteran back probably wishes he’d already joined the club and been traded by Gase. During his time in Pittsburgh, Bell was routinely one of the most productive backs in football. He averaged 86.1 rushing yards per game over five years with the Steelers and logged an average of seven rushing touchdowns per season. His 2019 year with the Jets? Bell carried the ball 245 times and averaged 3.2 yards per carry—logging a grand total of 311 total touches for just 4.0 yards per touch and just four total touchdowns. The Jets paid Bell just short of $15 million in cash last season—the first of a four-year, $52M contract. And now, in a span of eight months, star safety Jamal Adams has gone from expressing his desire to be a “Jet for life” to demanding a trade from the team. It should be a surprise to no one that Gase is reportedly a large reason why. We have enough of a sample size of who Gase is to know which side of that conflict the Jets should be ready to take. Will they? Or will they simply allow Gase’s growing list of talents to thrive more than ever after moving on from his leadership to include Adams, who is one of the brightest young defensive stars in the game?

yeah Gruden did a great job of game planning us and exploiting some coverage tendencies. I think we maybe got busted looking ahead.

265 of their total yards came in just 6 plays. Spags got caught playing their tendencies and Carr was determined to go downfield when in the past he has not. Half those plays they caught us in cover 0, which was a great job by Gruden in finding our tendencies and setting us up. It was about half bad scheming and half communication breakdowns in those 6 plays. That is why we lost. We have issues, sure. Every team has them. The rest of the NFL teams would swap issues with us in a heartbeat though.

Just one?

He'll be the 3rd down back as well. Great blocker and receiver.

Yep, any amount we pay him gets taken off what the jets owe him, meaning he won't see any new dollars unless we pay him more than 6 mil which ain't gonna happen. I would assume bell signed for a vet min exception.

Here ya go tradeheads... proposed trade that makes sense. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30115789/nfl-trade-deadline-offers-13-proposals-players-get-dealt-2020-including-sam-darnold-dwayne-haskins-zach-ertz Bengals trade Billy Price to Chiefs Kansas City Chiefs get: C Billy Price, 2021 seventh-round pick Cincinnati Bengals get: 2021 fifth-round pick The Chiefs are thin on the interior of their offensive line. They lost Laurent Duvernay-Tardif before the season when the doctor opted out to work with coronavirus patients. It seemed like the Chiefs had found a bargain when they signed former Ravens star Kelechi Osemele to replace Duvernay-Tardif, but Osemele tore tendons in both of his knees on Sunday, and he is expected to miss the remainder of the season. Former Panthers and Giants tackle Mike Remmers, who was the team's swing tackle, will kick inside to play guard. Kansas City should look to add at least one offensive lineman to supplement its depth. In 2017, it targeted a disappointing former first-rounder by sending a fifth-round pick to the Browns for Cameron Erving, who spent two years with the team. The Chiefs could make a similar move in going after Price, who has taken only 68 snaps across five games for the Bengals despite the inconsistent play of their starters in front of Joe Burrow. Price, the No. 21 overall pick in the 2018 draft, has just under $3.2 million in guaranteed money left on his deal over the next two years, so if the Chiefs can turn the former Ohio State standout into a viable utility lineman, they'll come out ahead on this deal.

He also started getting some snaps on passing downs this week for the first time. Its a good start.

They are. Willie Gay total snaps on D (% of total D snaps) Texans 0 (0%) Chargers 6 (8%) Ravens 9 (17%) Patriots 24 (32%) Raiders 32 (48%) They obviously are letting him learn on the job.

You don't have to be an expert to mock Gase. How that dipshit got hired over Bienemy I have no idea. You could see he sucked in Miami too. Look at how well Tannehill has done after leaving Miami; oh but Gase is good with young QBs! Yeah well Andy's ass has forgotten more about developing QBs than Gase will ever know.

Yes I think this is whats happening. I don't remember Bell ever being a LR cancer. His holdout did not work out well for him but I don't blame him. He was very much underpaid.

Andy has to get more creative with the RB routes. They've been using CEH as a dump off option but the whole reason he was such a good fit was his route running. So let him and Bell run some real routes and not just be a dump off or the 4th read. He needs to dig into some of Pats college tape as TTech ran some great 2 RB concepts.

Big difference between a guy like Bell who gets pissed because his team sucks and Brown who's just a headcase. Winning shouldn't be a problem. The guy wants to win and get paid. Nothing wrong with that. Every good player feels that way. Gase is an awful coach so I dont really blame Bell in that situation. Jets are a mess.

The only reason you'd ever catch me anywhere near Oakland is to go visit my man Gil. Otherwise my ass ain't getting near that place.

Still the latest... no change so far.

It shows on fox on my guide

Word

I mean we danced with him a bit when he was a free agent last time but he wanted the payday. I actually wouldn't be surprised if we kick the tires again.

I'm gonna have to watch it on the DVR. Somebody tell the internet to not give away the score.