![\"\"](\"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sam-Darnold-Mechanics-1.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI just want you to look at that drop back, that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n
That is Tom Brady from the Super Bowl last year.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, it hurts to watch them play in that game, but on the bright side, they lost.<\/p>\n The main thing I\u2019m highlighting here is the hop at the end, because it allows for Brady to be better prepared to throw, and you will see this often with him.\u00a0 It helps him stay consistent with his delivery, if given space, rather than turning his head, and then allowing the body to readjust.\u00a0 Brady loves to do the small hop to get himself in position to throw with better force, without waiting for his legs to get under him.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe me? Let\u2019s go see some more examples:<\/p>\n Notice the hop each time he\u2019s turning his head, so when Brady turns and sees an opening, there isn\u2019t a lag.<\/p>\n Here we see more hops, as Brady goes through the progressions.\u00a0 You don\u2019t see him flat footed because that creates a lag to generate torque.\u00a0 Brady makes each of those hops knowing that if a throwing lane opens, he\u2019s ready to throw.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to create this impression that Brady does this on every play, because he doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 There are plays where he doesn\u2019t have time to hop around, so these are just the ones where there is space to operate in the pocket.\u00a0 Furthermore, this quality isn\u2019t limited to Tom Brady, as almost every good QB has the ability to hop around.\u00a0 I pointed this hop mechanism out to ease concerns that Darnold isn\u2019t fundamentally sound with his feet.\u00a0 Darnold does tend to throw passes with open hips, but he\u2019s been fairly accurate in his career.<\/p>\n The second aspect of Darnold\u2019s mechanics deal with his arm motion, as it\u2019s somewhat elongated.\u00a0 \u00a0I don\u2019t have the tools to measure release times, and there have been reports out of camp indicating that he has cleaned up his delivery.\u00a0 Click Here for a Link<\/a> to the Soul and Science show, which measured release time at .44 seconds.\u00a0 According to the show, it\u2019s slightly faster than David Carr, but there isn\u2019t anything at our disposal to dispute this notion.\u00a0 There was an attempt made to slow down video and see if there is a shortened throwing motion, but it\u2019s incredibly hard to discern at available speeds, since frame rates can\u2019t be matched.<\/p>\n Sam Darnold cleaned up his throwing motion during the pre-draft process and it seems to have helped him hasten his delivery.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the perfect throwing motion, but it\u2019s not an abomination either.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely good to see the footwork in the pocket emulating Brady.<\/p>\n 1<\/strong>)\u00a0 I haven\u2019t seen this play broken down from Game 1, so let\u2019s go through it since it\u2019s extremely impressive.\u00a0 You should notice the hops on this one, because you will see the reads that go along with it.\u00a0 Once Darnold drops back, the first read is the middle linebacker.\u00a0 The tight end read is dependent on the middle linebacker, because if that defender blitzes the A gap, then it\u2019s a quick throw to the tight end.\u00a0 The safety would be too far back in this scenario, and it\u2019s an easy pass.\u00a0 If the middle linebacker blitzes, and the \u201cWill\u201d linebacker slides over, then it\u2019s a dump off pass to the running back.\u00a0 Therefore, the first read on this play is the middle linebacker, and notice how Darnold makes the read with the first hop.\u00a0 The direction of that second hop is now based on that read.\u00a0 On this play, the middle linebacker stays home, \u00a0and the will linebacker follows the running back, therefore Darnold has to look towards his right.\u00a0 The slot receiver gets the safety over the top, while the cornerbacks are in zone coverage.\u00a0 You can\u2019t see it on this play, but the slot receiver would be covered to the inside by the safety, and to the outside by the cornerback that was initially on Tre McBride.\u00a0 The Sam linebacker stays in the zone, while the slot cornerback attacks the outside route from McBride.\u00a0 You can see the slot cornerback move towards the outside, while the Sam linebacker looks over to McBride as well.\u00a0 Darnold\u2019s second read on this play is the slot receiver, as evidenced by the second hop.\u00a0 The read on that play is the Sam linebacker, because if that defender blitzes, then the slot receiver can get inside of the cornerback for an open passing lane.\u00a0 Once, the Sam linebacker doesn\u2019t blitz, Darnold has to go to his third read, which is McBride, as you can see with the last hop.\u00a0 It\u2019s very impressive that Darnold went through the progressions in the red zone quickly and got the throw off before being hit.<\/p>\n On the downside, the Falcons rushed 4 against 5 offensive linemen, yet the QB was still hit.\u00a0 The Jets need to work on their offensive line.<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s move onto Week 2, because if you\u2019ve read this far for pre-season film breakdown, you probably read all the film reviews for week 1 anyway.<\/p>\n 2<\/strong>)\u00a0 On the outset, this is not a great play and inconsequential.\u00a0 However, I do think it\u2019s important to break this down, because two things at are work here.\u00a0 The play recognition, and the play calling.\u00a0 The Jets come out with 5 wide look, and notice that 10 defenders are in the box, with a spread indicating man cover including single high safety.\u00a0 Darnold makes a good read, because he sees the linebacker on Tomlinson show blitz.\u00a0 The QB made some sort of audible at the line, and in theory this should be a good call.\u00a0 The defender does blitz, and the middle linebacker slides over to cover Tomlinson.\u00a0 However, the middle linebacker is about 2-3 yards to the inside of Tomlinson, and in a vacuum, that\u2019s a great audible.\u00a0 If you look at the middle linebacker and the pass to Tomlinson, the receiver would easily turn the corner and go for a first down.\u00a0 The play breaks down because the slot defender (guarding Jermaine Kearse) stays home instead of following his receiver, which limits the upside of this play.\u00a0 The Redskins seem to have recognized this play call because the slot defender reads the play before Darnold even makes the throw.\u00a0 If Kearse continues with his route, he will be wide open on the crossing route, but his route is a quick curl.\u00a0 This is where we have the argument of play calling because there is a major difference of opinion for the learning experience on this play.\u00a0 On one hand, Darnold recognizes the blitz from linebacker and calls the perfect hot route for it, therefore you learned that he\u2019s good at diagnosing the play at the line of scrimmage.\u00a0 On the other hand, Darnold audibles to a play without correcting the curl route on Kearse to a crossing route as the back up option.\u00a0 Essentially it becomes a Brian Schottenheimer call, because there are too many receivers and defenders in the same area, short of the first down.\u00a0 Therefore, is this a good read? Or a bad read?\u00a0 The team also needs to take more chances down the field, because defenses are sitting on the short passes.\u00a0 It\u2019s concerning that the Redskins sat on short passes, because they based their game plan on joint practices, and could have picked up on tendencies.\u00a0 I\u2019m calling it now, first series for Darnold in the next game, he will take a shot down the field in the first 3 throws just to re-set defenses.<\/p>\n 3<\/strong>)\u00a0 Horrible play call, and once again the Redskins just aren\u2019t fooled.\u00a0 Darnold does a great job of evading the sack, and the best thing about this play is on the second hop in the backfield.\u00a0 Darnold looks towards Tomlinson again, only to realize he\u2019s covered, and then turns to Kearse running the crossing route as his second read.\u00a0 Therefore, even under pressure, he\u2019s going through his progressions as he\u2019s avoiding the sack.\u00a0 Far too many times, you will see young QBs see pressure, causing them to put their eyes down and escape the pocket before trying to pass again.\u00a0 In this instance, he shows a good ability to focus downfield, while simultaneously avoiding the sack.\u00a0 Great play by Darnold, horrible play call once again.<\/p>\n 4<\/strong>)\u00a0 Watch the right guard on this play, it\u2019s No. 78 Jonotthan Harrison.\u00a0 He\u2019s listed as a center on the team website, and played center in college.\u00a0 He\u2019s at RG on this play, either because of injury or coaching intrigue.\u00a0 Harrison may want to forget this play ever happened, because he gets manhandled by the defender.\u00a0 This is where it\u2019s hard to gauge Darnold\u2019s performance because a subway turnstile with dust on the card reader would put up better resistance.<\/p>\n 5<\/strong>)\u00a0 The broadcast showed two angles of this play, and I\u2019ll take advantage of it here.\u00a0 The first thing to notice is the initial read.\u00a0 Go to the first pass to Tomlinson in this game (should be numbered 2 here) and look at the read.\u00a0 In this case, the Jets call the same hot route with Anderson going on the short route.\u00a0 Remember how we expected the defender on Kearse for that play to follow his man, therefore leaving Tomlinson matched up against a middle linebacker playing well inside of the receiver? Well in this case, there is only an outside receiver, but the Redskins recognize the play and send the safety down to attack Anderson.\u00a0 Darnold\u2019s first read is Anderson, as you can see with his look from the end zone cam, but he moves on when he sees the safety come crashing down. \u00a0Then Darnold makes a great throw to Tre McBride, for the first down.\u00a0 The second angle is great, because it highlights how the first look to Anderson holds the safety in the middle, allowing more space for the throw to McBride.\u00a0 The Redskins defend this play perfectly, but Darnold makes a great throw for the first down.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to see Darnold making a similar read as the first play, and then adjusting when the throw wasn\u2019t there, which shows in-game progression.<\/p>\n 6<\/strong>)\u00a0 This play doesn\u2019t have much to do with Darnold, but I\u2019ve bashed the play calling far too many times in this article.\u00a0 Therefore, I wanted to take this opportunity to appreciate the play call here because it\u2019s a twist on a common play now.\u00a0 Watch the two receivers to the left side of the formation, because that\u2019s where the play set up is important.\u00a0 The slot receiver is really just running a pick route, which is forcing the defender on McBride to go around him.\u00a0 You will see this play every game with every offense across the NFL.\u00a0 However, the twist on this play is the route by McBride, who turns a crossing route into an out route.\u00a0 It might not be visible in the film, but the defender on him had gone around the slot receiver, to fight the crossing route.\u00a0 However, by going around him, he\u2019s now blocked himself off again to the out route, therefore leaving McBride wide open.\u00a0 I just wanted to point out the ingenuity of this route combination here and give props to the coaches for once.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nFilm Breakdown:<\/h2>\n
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