He can throw comebacks, digs and crossing routes pretty well.

 

Is he really one of the better QBs in the NFL against the blitz?

 

think you've got the right idea padre.
go to cut & paste according to the materials available
& we may make it an interesting season.

anyway you look @ it, got to build around the starter.

 

we will soon know the reality & totality of Chad Henne in this up-coming season
may the offensive coordinator set him up for success & may he give us his very best game

it is what it is, time to get on with the game.

 

Was Henne going downfield against these blitzes or are we talking about hot reads and dump offs?

 

If you're only going of completion percentage. But his QBR was 48 when blitzed. I'm not sure where it ranks in the NFL, but it certainly couldn't be in the top 15.

 

Padre, you've been quite astute as of late.

 

I don't necessarily disagree, but its a hell of a lot better than completion %.

 

I think Bush, Thomas, and someone like Grigsby would be great weapons to use on checkdowns against the blitz. The key is how much Henne has improved against the zone. He won't see a lot of blitzing until he proves he can beat zone coverage.

 

One thing that helps every NFL QB: Throw more on the early downs, move the chains and make 3rd downs easier to pick up. Last year we ran so much on first down, and on second, and found ourselves in third and long too often. If we can be less freakin' obvious, it will help our offense move the chains.

 

Kneel on the first two downs and then hope they blitz?

 

Disagree. QBR has consistently been a harbinger for success.

 

To bad we can't force the D Coordinator to blitz Henne...

 

More seriously, here's what I think...

THINGS CHAD DOES WELL
- Throwing flat trajectory lasers on out routes, comebacks, button hooks near sidelines.
- Any other high-velocity, flat trajectory pass in the 15 yard range.
- Fire the ball to the RB when blitzed (if you can prevent him from telling the RB to stay home and block)

THINGS CHAD DOES SO-SO (BUT IS IMPROVING AT)
- Dropping touch passes into the holes behind the linebackers/1st level CBs in a zone (especially along the sideline. He seems to like his sidelines as if they are lucky charms.
- That means he can throw WR fades along the sideline, or to a slot guy if he attacks the seam (Hartline is best at this from the slot)
- Shifting a little in the pocket to buy more time (mobility/pocket presence and awareness is improving from bad to average)


THINGS HE DOES POORLY (THINGS TO AVOID)
- hitting slant routes (always throwing behind)
- passes inside the ten yard line (waits too long to be sure he's seeing what he's seeing)
- deep touch (accuracy on deep ball over the top of the safeties)
- being decisive and accurate when attacking the middle of the field



So, what kind of offense would I run with Chad?

Well, the biggest problem I'd have is keeping the defense defending the middle of the field. Chad simply doesn;t threaten the middle of the field as confidently as he does the sidelines and fringers (as he is also improving touch passes, he is lofting it into holes better too, though missing that middle hole pass a bunch, like on a missed Fasano TD from inside then ten yard line late last season).

I could easily throw lots of sideline routes (short and intermediate, mix of lasers and touch passes) but eventually the defense will cheat to the sidelines and jump those routes.

To me, the best way to counteract it is to threaten the middle with Bush draw plays and over-the-middle Reggie Bush dumpoffs.

Even then, though, the defense HAS to be pulled away from the short middle. If they don;t fear Fasano and follow him deeper upfield there will be no hole for Reggie to get into.

So, again, my main stumbling block in CONSISTENTLY running this offense on you becomes an effective SEAM BUSTING GUY for Henne.

That's where Clay comes in. I flex Clay out from the line and mix runs where he blocks for Bush/Thomas (off tackle's and trap plays, plus draws, maybe out of shotgun, or pro set if necessary). Or I have Clay run a little deeper route of 12-15 yards in the middle to pull the MLB back so Reggie can creep under. From a flexed poistion I can also motion Clay through the backfield to create possible Jet Sweep scenario, confusing the defense. If I hand it to clay he has sweep, if I hand it to Bush, he heads the opposite direction. If I fake to BOTH of them I can now turn my eyes upfield for Marshall and the #2WR.

That's how I'd handle it with the current personnel. If I could get a better receiving tight end, I might not have to run that flexed out spread look, and could run up the gut a little more traditionally, but for now it'll have to be those neaky runs like draws, traps, HB off tackles, jet sweeps from motion by flexed H-back and so on.

 

What they could've done from the beginning (which they failed to do I may add) is give him progressions opposed to coverage reads. Give him open grass reads and just read leverage. But no, they gave him the entire width of the field immediately.

 

He improved against zone as the year went on. Early in the year he didn;t know how to throw effectively into zone. By the end he was dropping the ball into buckets between defenders for nice completions. I won;t go so far as to say he is GOOD against zone now, but it's not as big a weakness as it was.

I think the HUGE danger for Henne now is that DC's are using his fledgeling zone understanding AGAINST him by mixing man and zone looks. Now that he THINKS he can recognise man AND zone, they can bait him by showing mixed-looks or showing zone then switching to man. That's gonna kill him for awhile this year. Beware the Man/Zone miced coverage Chad!

 

" Where do we go from there? ".....ah a little late for that question most of the were we go from here? has already got and gone lol....

FO efficiency at its finest there like 95% of the time they are to late to the race

reminds me of that movie about the womens baseball team were John Lovitzs tell the girls they have to get on the train because the train station doesn't move....

 

Alen, i think they

1) took a big picture, long term view of his development and decided in the long run it would serve him better to not make it easier up front by avoiding learning full coverages, and that knowing the coverages well would make him MUCH better later.

2) they thought he could take the lumps and get over the hump once the coverages started clicking in his mind (I think they also bet on Chad Pennington's film room time with Henne really helping make this happen)


Clearly, they would have been better off letting him crawl before trying to walk, but Tony has always wanted to make it harder sooner, so it's easier later. They wanted Henne to wear big boy pants.

That said, did this damage his confidence to the point where it would have been better to coddle him a bit more? I don;t know.

 

Justs to get on the same page of terminology here is the possible levels of QB developement are:

So Alen are suggesting they should have him at stage 2 "progression reads w/ coverage keys" instead of stage 3 "Coverage Reads"?

 

Correct.

 

That's kind of hard to do unless you're rolling him out in some way (full or half rolls). That really falls on Chad Henne. IMO it doesn't have a lot to do with the staff.

 

5 WR sets with intermediate stuff, I'd trust him in. Play-action? Not in a million years.

 

I don't really agree with that. You can Gap it or BOB it but with BOB, you'd have to widen the splits which you can't do a lot of in NFL. With Gap, you sometimes end up with unfavorable matchups in blocking.

 

Yeah, that's not always easy. You gotta have the guys to do that. We sure as hell don't here.

 

Great post.

 

Running the ball would help in that area.

Another reason we weren't blitzed much is b/c we used 6 and 7 man protections an awful lot. That discourages teams from blitzing, if we use more 5 man protections and flood the field w/ receivers that should invite teams to blitz more often.

 

Some guys blitz to run fit, actually its becoming more popular. Fire zone the running game and your run game is a little more difficult to achieve success.

 

He can absolutely drill those 10-15 yd outs. With better timing, he could waltz down the field and it would open up the middle tremendously. I think he's okay over the middle. He'll do fine IMO. We'll see soon enough.

 

Yeah, but the only time Vernon Carey drops his weight is when he's about to sit on a toilet.