One of the biggest and most heated debates of the offseason was the drafting of Jake Long to LT, and whether he could play LT. I wrote my analysis of Jake and essentially boiled him down to an “engulfing left tackle” like Flozell Adams, or Vernon Carey. I consider both of these players to be more of an engulfing type of player. What that means to me is that an OT doesn’t have the best feet or quickness as Tony Bosselli did. Rather these types of OT’s like to beat you up and get their hands on you. At that point they maul you with their physical size and strength. Now, don’t get me wrong Adams and Carey have deceptive foot speed and are quicker than you think, but neither has what you would call prototypical feet for a LT. Truly, if you watch Carey he is great at shuffling his feet, rather than really lifting them off the ground. He just scoots along taking little steps, but he covers a great deal of ground. Now, during the great Jake debate of ’08 tempers got a little out of control. But the funny thing is no one said the guy would just flop, rather the debate raged as to which side of the O-line he would be best at. And, as I have stated previously, I think that he can and will play LT in the NFL, although I don’t know if he’ll ever be compared to Anthony Munoz, Jonathon Ogden, Tony Bosselli etc. Jake Long is certainly technically proficient, but I would not call him a technician much like the afore mentioned players were. Due to this debate I thought it would be a good idea to examine the kick slides of both Vernon Carey and Jake Long. To do this I used a stop watch to measure the time it took each to make his first 3 steps of his kick slide in pass protection. Please note that I began the time on the first movement of the player being examined rather than the snap of the ball. I did this as so as to get a basic time for the movement of the athlete only. I wanted to see as individuals, what their respective times were in relation to each other whilst doing the same move on the football field. After all this is where they both earn their pay, and show us, the fans what all the hoopla is about with the LT position. I mean if you don’t have a bonafide LT prospect in the NFL you are probably going to pick highly in the draft really soon. The reason I use the first 3 steps of the kick slide as an example is that the first 3 steps set up the basis of everything afterwards in pass pro. The O-lineman has gotten depth (hopefully) and kept his shoulders square in order to present a large obstacle. Keeping the chest of an O-lineman square is important as it creates the widest possible obstruction for the defender to maneuver around. But, the first 3 steps are usually where you find out whether the defender will try to go inside or out, as it usually the moment just before initial contact between the OT and the DE is made. If there is a 4th step in the kick slide backwards as opposed to laterally, it is usually because the defender is pressuring the outside shoulder of the OT on an up field move. My basic point is this; at the 3rd step the OT is either making contact or will make contact on the next step with the DE. Hopefully, the importance of those 3 steps is not lost on anyone because said before it leads to everything else really. If the OT has a slow first 3 steps chances are he can beaten consistently to the outside, if the OT takes too big a step, or gets too much depth on his drop he opens the inside move up. Now, I have to mention that one, I am human, so I am not going to be 100% to the hundredth of the second accurate, and I will admit I only did this for 60 plays, so the sampling isn’t huge. Also I timed each play 3 times and took the average of those 3 times to get the final time for each play. Then, I took the numbers for each play and did the average of that. I examined the players both in a three point stance and in the shotgun and tried desperately to not include any 3 step drops for the QB as it changes the pass protection some – cut block etc. By the way just for kicks I thought I’d throw the Combine numbers for both out there just to see the tale of the tape so to speak: Jake Long: 6’7” 313lbs 40 YD – 5.22 20 YD – 2.97 10 YD – 1.75 Bench – 37 reps Vertical – 27.5’’ Broad jump – 8’6” Shuttle – 4.73 Cone – 7.44 Vernon Carey: 6’4” 335lbs 40 YD – 5.33 Bench – 30 reps Vertical – 28” Shuttle – 5.0 Cone – 8.10 Now for the numbers that I have accumulated, and please allow for a human error of .04 seconds either way. I think it fair enough to encompass even the most fickle time keepers: Jake Long: 3 point stance – on average Jake did it in 1.00 seconds Shotgun stance – on average Jake did it in 0.84 seconds Vernon Carey: 3 point stance – on average Vernon did it in 1.09 seconds Shotgun stance – on average Vernon did it in 0.95 seconds Looking at that it is plain to see who is quicker in their kick slide. Jake is on average either .08 or .09 seconds faster than Vernon per snap. That may mean nothing if the technique used is bad or not fundamentally sound. But, if Jake can play within himself, and not let the “Charlie Hustle” part of his demeanor kill him by getting his elbows too far out, and taking too big a step in his kick slide - he will get in position to meet the rusher just shy of a tenth of a second faster than Vernon. Not bad huh? To be honest, I was shocked when I saw that, I really was, I went back over Jake a few more times to begin with. Yes, I did have the “yeah whatever” look on my face, but it panned out over and over again. The guy is faster than you think he is - no joke. Honestly, after watching Jake again for a while and comparing him to Carey it is plain to see that Jake is by far the faster athlete. His feet are just much faster and more lively overall. I think Carey plays within himself and did a fine job on the left side for us last year, but even just watching film without a stop watch it was apparent to me how much faster Jake is than Vernon. If it is showing up on film, it is showing up in a game. Please don’t anyone say that I am saying that Jake will play better than Vernon at LT. I hope he does, and think that once he gets the speed of the game down he will ultimately prove to be better than many people think at LT. He really does have a good deal of potential on that side, and honestly his feet look good enough to do the job so long as he doesn’t wait on the defender and sit on his heels. When he does that he looks really bad, as he relies on his punch – meanwhile he is flat footed and looks sluggish coming out of it. If he stays on his toes and doesn’t just rely on that punch he can be a very effective blocker. He isn’t a great mirror, but his arms let him get away with it because they are just so dam long it is hard for most defenders to get away from him completely. I think I know what Jake is, and I am pretty confident in my assessment of him. Now, if I am wrong, then I am wrong. But, to me he looks like a guy who will be just fine at LT with a little seasoning. He’ll never be Richmond Webb, but he won’t be a Wade Smith either, that’s for dam sure.
Nice write up man. When did you time them? Either way, I'd really like to see Big Vern locked up asap if hes not asking for crazy money. Being able to play left or right tackle may make him want to test the market bc hes more valuable. That and I hear he needs some money to replace those $6k rims that dissappeared from his Benz.
this would be the only reason i would REALLY want JT to come back for TC. if anyone can show Jake what game speed looks like, he can.
Fantastic, sir. Did you look at whether both are taking an equal "three steps" in terms of them being big steps, or little steps? I assume they are both covering the same distance and ending up properly set up in the same position. I only say that because being slightly faster isn't as usefu if you aren't getting back and out enough compared to the slower guy. Maybe Vernon takes bigger steps and jake is doing little ones? Other than that, if this is apples-to-apples, it helps me feel a bit better about jake's chances in Pass Pro. Bpk
Great analysis! Next up, a comparison of Carey and Long in terms of run blocking. Although, that one will likely have to wait until Long goes up against NFL caliber run stoppers.
Well Vernon really shuffles his feet as opposed to lifting them high off the ground. Now, obviously everyone will do it slightly differently, as everyone walks different too. But, generally I would say they are similar. I will offer this though, Vernon seemed preocupied with not giving up the inside and seemed to set closer than Jake does. Vernon was much more happy to see the DE go on the outside than try to come inside. Also, Jake appeared to take steps that were more like steps compared with Vernon's shuffling feet, and his feet moved faster to me than Vernon's. Jake being more athletic than Vernon shows up here for me. Jake is more nimble than I thought, and when he doesn't try to overextend and be "Charlie Hustle" he is very quick in his kick slide and he loses the hitch he gets when he tries to hard. Jake must just take his time and trust his mechanics and not wait on his heels and trust in his punch so much. When he does that he lunges and looks sluggish - as does anyone who plays on their heels; just ask Sasha Vujocic about being flat footed. But all in all it is hard to compare exact length of stride, between players. More so to me is the speed in which they get into position, and maintain their fundamentals. Like I said in the original post, going too fast means you might get too deep and leave the inside move open, too slow and the outside is there for the DE. It is more important to get into the right position, and getting their faster. Doing both allows the opportunity to take advantage of the situation, being slow means you are already behind the play.
You guys are gonna kill me by the end of summer. Let alone the start of the season. I have been egged into doing this for some other OT's I can find tape on and giving their numbers if I can, so I will be busy doing that next it appears. When I get it done I'll post it.
