Brax and Tevin are both looking for contracts this year or right after.
Neither has had a good start that makes you want to pay them. Darnell Wright hasn't looked good either.
I'll add that Wright did have a solid game against the Rams. He struggled in the first two games of the season for sure. In the third game against the Colts he did better, but still had a few bad plays. But on Sunday, the 4th game he looked really good. No sacks, pressures, hurries, but he did have 2 penalties (neither was accepted).
Wright was getting beat, too. Just not immediately off the snap as happened elsewhere on the line. So they, not he, gets charged with the stats.
I'll add that Wright did have a solid game against the Rams. He struggled in the first two games of the season for sure. In the third game against the Colts he did better, but still had a few bad plays. But on Sunday, the 4th game he looked really good. No sacks, pressures, hurries, but he did have 2 penalties (neither was accepted).
Wright was getting beat, too. Just not immediately off the snap as happened elsewhere on the line. So they, not he, gets charged with the stats.
To me he looks like the only legit starter on the OL (considering Jenkins struggles to stay healthy). We may quibble about were his best position is on the OL, but he at least has 1st round talent. He's just starting his 2nd season so he is still learning the game and perfecting his technique. Big powerful dude too... 6'6" 335 pounds.
So the NFL*Pro shows replays of games with the All 22 view from both the sideline and the end zone. It’s great because I can put in "Caleb Williams" and then it lets me select which plays of his I want to watch, just his passes, all his plays etc. I can then even break those down further to down and distance, situation, etc. Just watching the first few pass plays, Braxton is late with his punch ON EVERY PLAY so far. Beyond that his hand placement has SUCKED on more than 1 of them. Just a recipe to get beat. I don't care how much you bench or squat...if you let guys get into your chest first and get leverage, you're not going to beat them.
That’s a good point. What does Brax use as his cue to get out of his stance: 1. Listening to cadence and signal from Williams? 2. Watch the opponent and don’t move until you see him move?
If it is #1, Brax gets off first. If it is #2, the opponent gets off first.
You are right. If that’s the main problem, strength won’t save the day.
I mean it doesn't help if he's late off the ball obviously...but whether he's late off the ball or on time he needs to punch those hands sooner/faster. His lateness with his hands also leads to his crappy hand position. Can't get inside on someone when they're already in your chest. He's got no option than to have his hands outside, where they should not be.
Wright was getting beat, too. Just not immediately off the snap as happened elsewhere on the line. So they, not he, gets charged with the stats.
To me he looks like the only legit starter on the OL (considering Jenkins struggles to stay healthy). We may quibble about were his best position is on the OL, but he at least has 1st round talent. He's just starting his 2nd season so he is still learning the game and perfecting his technique. Big powerful dude too... 6'6" 335 pounds.
He's also in yr 2, he still has a bit more room to grow. He's not the LT. It's just more important for the LT to be good to great, not good or worse. It almost feels like Poles made sure to do just enough to make Fields look like he had enough to show he could be great but really didn't since it wasn't Poles pick. Now I'm wondering just how much of a say Poles had in Flus b/c it's feeling the same as Fields, look at all the pieces, Flus should be doing more; but w/no OL he really is limited in what he can do. Now Poles can move on and get HIS choice at HC now that he has HIS QB. Then in the offseason he'll fix the OL and the team will start to hum w/HIS coach, HIS QB, and HIS team.
That's my tinfoil hat. No I don't think he could have done it last year b/c the team wasn't going to pay Flus the rest of his contract to sit at home.
That's my tinfoil hat. No I don't think he could have done it last year b/c the team wasn't going to pay Flus the rest of his contract to sit at home.
+1 I'm thinking the McCaskeys are willing to eat the one 2025 year (the final year) of the Eberflus contract, but not 2 years. And I'm thinking they sure as heck were not eating 2 years of Eberflus' contract - while paying top dollar for Harbaugh (who makes a lot more than 'Flus). Eberflus makes $4.5mil/yr and Harbaugh makes $16mil/yr. I'm not trying to say the family is cheap, because they do seem to pay out the average in coaches salary (Eberflus is 17th highest paid coach... so in the middle of the pack). But they don't seem to have a lot of cash flow like a lot of the other franchises do. LOL, and that's all a guess on my part.
To me he looks like the only legit starter on the OL (considering Jenkins struggles to stay healthy). We may quibble about were his best position is on the OL, but he at least has 1st round talent. He's just starting his 2nd season so he is still learning the game and perfecting his technique. Big powerful dude too... 6'6" 335 pounds.
He's also in yr 2, he still has a bit more room to grow. He's not the LT. It's just more important for the LT to be good to great, not good or worse. It almost feels like Poles made sure to do just enough to make Fields look like he had enough to show he could be great but really didn't since it wasn't Poles pick. Now I'm wondering just how much of a say Poles had in Flus b/c it's feeling the same as Fields, look at all the pieces, Flus should be doing more; but w/no OL he really is limited in what he can do. Now Poles can move on and get HIS choice at HC now that he has HIS QB. Then in the offseason he'll fix the OL and the team will start to hum w/HIS coach, HIS QB, and HIS team.
That's my tinfoil hat. No I don't think he could have done it last year b/c the team wasn't going to pay Flus the rest of his contract to sit at home.
That's the dirty secret many of us have suspected here for a long time. If ownership is tying the hands of the GM or Pres. of Football Ops that way, it would explain a lot of the dumb coaching decisions and QB-HC pairings they have forced for a long time.
Trubisky-Fox Nagy-Fields Flus-Caleb
None of those made much sense at the time and they made even less sense when the HC was fired a year into the QB's time with the team.
That’s a good point. What does Brax use as his cue to get out of his stance: 1. Listening to cadence and signal from Williams? 2. Watch the opponent and don’t move until you see him move?
If it is #1, Brax gets off first. If it is #2, the opponent gets off first.
You are right. If that’s the main problem, strength won’t save the day.
I mean it doesn't help if he's late off the ball obviously...but whether he's late off the ball or on time he needs to punch those hands sooner/faster. His lateness with his hands also leads to his crappy hand position. Can't get inside on someone when they're already in your chest. He's got no option than to have his hands outside, where they should not be.
Okay, I will watch him this week to see if he’s getting in the first punch. If it’s still happening when gets first off the ball, Morgan or somebody should show him the video and work on it in practice.
I mean it doesn't help if he's late off the ball obviously...but whether he's late off the ball or on time he needs to punch those hands sooner/faster. His lateness with his hands also leads to his crappy hand position. Can't get inside on someone when they're already in your chest. He's got no option than to have his hands outside, where they should not be.
Okay, I will watch him this week to see if he’s getting in the first punch. If it’s still happening when gets first off the ball, Morgan or somebody should show him the video and work on it in practice.
The problem is practice, especially during the season, is no where close to the environment he experiences on game day. Thats why I said Brax is going to have to do some problem solving on his own. Obviously awareness of an issue is critical...so Morgan should indeed be showing him...but I'm sure he's been doing that already. Its gonna take reps and reps of in game experience of Brax to fix it though.
As an analogy, when we do combine prep, we practice and rep every part of the 40 yard dash. Guys will run good times. But our facility is not Lucas Oil Stadium, and we don't have coaches and front office staff from every NFL team watching those reps, and they aren't being aired live on NFL network. The environment of the combine is a whole other animal...and sometimes it impacts guys negatively. They tense up and pop up out of their stance instead project out, their jaws aren't loose and relaxed so all the muscles from the neck through the shoulder are tense and tight and they don't get the arm swing and therefore stride that they should.
Okay, I will watch him this week to see if he’s getting in the first punch. If it’s still happening when gets first off the ball, Morgan or somebody should show him the video and work on it in practice.
The problem is practice, especially during the season, is no where close to the environment he experiences on game day. Thats why I said Brax is going to have to do some problem solving on his own. Obviously awareness of an issue is critical...so Morgan should indeed be showing him...but I'm sure he's been doing that already. Its gonna take reps and reps of in game experience of Brax to fix it though.
As an analogy, when we do combine prep, we practice and rep every part of the 40 yard dash. Guys will run good times. But our facility is not Lucas Oil Stadium, and we don't have coaches and front office staff from every NFL team watching those reps, and they aren't being aired live on NFL network. The environment of the combine is a whole other animal...and sometimes it impacts guys negatively. They tense up and pop up out of their stance instead project out, their jaws aren't loose and relaxed so all the muscles from the neck through the shoulder are tense and tight and they don't get the arm swing and therefore stride that they should.
I understand. I can relate it better to golf. Guys can sink 4-ft putts all day on the practice green with great technique. But with the club championship on the line, not so easy.
There’s also a cumulative effect. Once you start losing confidence after a big failure, you’re sunk. Jordan Spieth is a good example. Back when he could putt, he won three majors, and really hasn’t done shit since 2017. We need to see if Brax can bounce back this week.
+1 I think the Rams game was one of the worst games for him since we drafted him. He is better than what we saw last Sunday. We've seen him play better.
