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Daily Slop – 28 Sep 24: Sam Fortier dives deep on Kliff Kingsbury’s background; Bucky Brooks compares Jayden Daniels and Caleb Williams

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A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East and the NFL in general

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Articles

Washington Post (paywall)

At a low point, Kliff Kingsbury went to Thailand. He came back on a mission.

After being fired by the Arizona Cardinals, Kingsbury was uneasy during a football hiatus. As the Commanders’ offensive coordinator, he’s rejuvenated.

[I]n January 2023, at a low point in his career, the question in Kliff Kingsbury’s head had nothing to do with football.

What was the farthest place in the world from Arizona?

He could disappear, he decided, in Thailand.

So, he went to the beautiful Kimpton Kitalay Samui resort with his beautiful girlfriend and let time wash him clean of the misery and exhaustion. He beached, saw sights, did nothing. It was better than a dream; before his last season, he had signed a contract that would pay him millions over the next five years.

“I really didn’t think I was ever going to coach again,” Kingsbury said. “It was set up so perfectly just to ride off into the sunset.”

“And then one day I woke up and I just felt more anxious than I ever felt and felt more lost and just didn’t have a purpose,” he said. “I hadn’t had that in however many years. I was always working toward something and the goal and being around people.”

Two years later, the Washington Commanders’ offensive coordinator has orchestrated one of the NFL’s most impressive starts by defying the leaguewide trend toward defense, elevating rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and helping his team upset heavily favored Cincinnati on the road on “Monday Night Football.” In a critical, chaotic moment late in the game, he listened to his players and “basically invented” a play on the sideline during a timeout that led to a dramatic touchdown.

Kingsbury’s offense ranks fifth in the NFL in points scored and even better in some advanced metrics.

[H]e feels like a different person than he was when coaching the Cardinals from 2019 to 2022.

“I was just in that cycle just going, going, going,” he said. “Even when I got fired the first time, [I was the] first college coach to ever get fired and become an NFL head coach. So, I never even had to stop and think about it — like, I would’ve done this differently, or even examine why I’m doing it. So, I needed [that] break, I think.”

Quinn and General Manager Adam Peters both knew and liked Kingsbury, whose contract negotiations with the Raiders had stalled.

NFL Network reported that Commanders minority owner Magic Johnson “was actually the one to step in and kind of pull Kliff Kingsbury back.” And on a podcast, Pierce said, “If I’m losing to Magic, I’m okay with that.”

But Johnson was never involved, Kingsbury said.

Kingsbury’s new players found him warmer and more collaborative than his predecessors. Whereas Eric Bieniemy devoted hours to film sessions, Kingsbury held at least three walk-throughs per day, which players said helped them get more comfortable with how the game plan would play out. And in post-practice meetings during camp, he coached every position group, not just the quarterbacks, as he did in Arizona.

So, where is this evolution taking Kingsbury? What does he want?

The Athletic (paywall)

Jayden Daniels in Kliff Kingsbury’s Commanders offense: Why he fits so well

We saw Kingsbury and his offense start off hot in Arizona with Kyler Murray only to hit a wall after relying too much on the shifty quarterback’s ability to create plays. Will his system adapt further in his second stint in the NFL to aid and develop Daniels?

As the Commanders prepare for Sunday’s meeting with the Cardinals this week in Arizona, Kingsbury filled in some of the tinkering plans. He spent that year studying “a bunch of NFL film” and picking the brain of Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who jumped from the same role with the University of Georgia the year prior.

Kingsbury also used his front-row seat with the Trojans to examine Riley’s schemes that were used in recent years with two Heisman Trophy winners, Caleb Williams and Baker Mayfield, along with Jalen Hurts. Being around the college players and getting to be the “good cop” for a season “reenergized” and “remotivated” the offensive-minded thinker.

“I tried to figure out, ‘Hey, if I’m going to do this again, how can we take the next step and be better moving forward?’” Kingsbury said Thursday before practice at Arizona State’s facilities.

“(Jayden) plays with an attacking mentality. That’s what you want, and that’s what this offense is based upon,” Kingsbury told The Athletic following an August joint practice in Miami. “That’s the way he likes to play.”

In three games, Daniels hasn’t attacked the middle of the field often (21st in attempts between the numbers) but he’s been efficient when he has — third in expected points added (EPA) per pass attempt among quarterbacks with at least 50 overall pass attempts, according to TruMedia.

Before Monday night’s game, Bengals corner Cam Taylor-Britt said Washington had a “college offense” and though it could be taken as a slight, he’s not wrong. Of course, “professional” concepts are mixed in, but it’s as close to a college offense as you’ll find in the league. You still have to stop that college offense though and the Bengals did not come close as the Commanders scored on every single one of their drive.

In three games, the Commanders lead the league in no-huddle snaps by a wide margin and McLaurin has lined up out wide to the left on 76 percent of snaps through three weeks, which falls in line with receiver DeAndre Hopkins’ splits when he played in Kingsbury’s Arizona offense.

Kingsbury adjusted and moved him around more against the Bengals. McLaurin only lined up left on the outside on 61 percent of his snaps, the lowest of the season.

Though Kingsbury has a reputation as an air raid coach, he’s built strong, creative run games. Kingsbury’s Cardinals ranked sixth in offensive rushing success rate and the Commanders rank 10th in the same metric this season.

Also, from 2019-2022, the Cardinals ranked second in the league in throws at or behind the line of scrimmage (26.1 percent). This season, the Commanders rank third in the same metric (36.8 percent).

Commanders.com

Five keys to Washington taking down the Cardinals

5. Get a stop

The Commanders have needed to score on almost every possession because their defense has only forced three punts all season.

There’s not much analysis to give here, other than that the Commanders must find a way to get opposing offenses to punt the ball. They have allowed teams to convert 61.3% of their third downs, which is by far the worst number in the league. The Cardinals, meanwhile, are one of the best at moving the chains with a 45.5% conversion rate.

Whether it’s shoring up missed tackles, preventing explosive plays or playing cleaner football, the Commanders need to take the pressure off their offense.

Commanders Wire

Commanders defense dead last on third downs

The defense is not getting off of the field.

Whitt told the media they had cleaned up their communication issues and tweaked some coverage issues. “There is still really the third down, where sometimes we got to understand the leverage and make the plays. Now it is to, ‘how can I help them make the plays’?”

He’s right; the third-down defense has been horrible! No, that is not an overreaction. In fact, the numbers show that the Commanders are the absolute worst in the NFL on third-down defense. Three teams are giving up more than 50 percent of their third downs. However, the Commanders are giving up 61.3 percent conversions on third down!

Upcoming opponent

Revenge of the Birds

Trey McBride is out for the Arizona Cardinals against the Washington Commanders

The Arizona Cardinals will miss their star tight end against the Washington Commanders.

McBride missing the game will obviously be a big loss, and we will see how the Cardinals and Drew Petzing combat that this week.

Will they go more 12 personnel with just Elijah Higgins and Tip Reiman or will Travis Vokolek get some run the week and allow them to use 13 personnel still?

On top of that, Khyiris Tonga will miss the game as well leaving a now thin defensive line rotation with Justin Jones going on IR.

Podcasts & videos

Sam Cosmi + Brian Mitchell talk Week 4 Commanders vs Cardinals | Next Man Up | Washington Commanders

WEEK 4 Rookie Matchup, Tone-Setting in Arizona, Zach Ertz Talks NFC East Return | The Player’s Club

Washington Commanders Plan to Contain Kyler Murray Critical Against Arizona Cardinals

NFC East links

NFL.com

Micah Parsons suffered high ankle sprain in Cowboys’ win; Demarcus Lawrence (foot) out weeks

Micah Parsons suffered a high ankle sprain in the prime-time victory over the division-rival Giants and is awaiting further information on how long he might be out, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported. Dallas also lost four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Demarcus Lawrence, who is expected to miss multiple weeks because of a foot injury suffered in the 20-15 win over the Giants, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported.

Lawrence is expected to be out at least four weeks with a mid-foot sprain and could land on injured reserve, Rapoport added.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy told reporters Friday that Lawrence’s injury is worse than Parsons’, but both were “worse” than Dallas anticipated.

The combined news will likely sideline Dallas’ top two edge defenders until after its Week 7 bye.

Bleeding Green Nation

Eagles opposing coach to stop, Week 4 edition

Bowles will attack Hurts, who has been better against the blitz this season. With Eagles’ All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson possibly out, it makes Bowles’ defensive schemes more potent.

Eagles’ offensive coordinator Kellen Moore got a chance to pour over the leaks in last year’s gameplan when the Bucs demolished the Eagles, 32-9, in the playoffs and had Hurts running for his life the entire night.

“Obviously, they had a pressure plan associated with stopping the run and putting a lot of stress on the protection game,” Moore said. “So, Todd is always going to have his different flavors. He’s going to play us, there may be some stuff that falls back on that and there may be some new components that he’ll pull out and try to stress you in different ways because he knows you’ll be anticipating those.

Hurts has had problems protecting the ball. He enters the game with 26 turnovers since 2023, which, regrettably, leads all NFL quarterbacks in that span. Over the last two seasons, Hurts has thrown an NFL-high 19 interceptions and lost seven fumbles. As a team, the Eagles are minus-4 this season and ranked tied for No. 31 in turnover ratio. Of Hurts’ four interceptions this season, two have come in the end zone.

With the strong possibility of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith out, along with Johnson, Hurts will have his issues relying on Parris Campbell, Jahan Dotson and Johnny Wilson in their places.

Bucs Nation

Buccaneers vs Eagles Q&A with Bleeding Green Nation

Let’s take a closer look at this week’s matchup from the Eagles side of things

3. What type of shape will the Eagles be in for this game injury wise? There are a lot of questions for both teams on this front, but Philly came out of New Orleans very banged up.

“Three players did not practice on Wednesday: A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Lane Johnson. Brown is dealing with a hamstring injury that’s kept him out of two games thus far. I’m guessing the team would like to play it safe and bring him back after the Week 5 bye. Smith is still in the concussion protocol after taking a huge hit to the head; guessing he won’t be available for this game. Johnson attended Wednesday’s practice, so, he might be able to play if he’s cleared in time.

The Eagles potentially being without their top two receivers (and, really, three of their four top receivers with Britain Covey placed on injured reserve) and All-Pro right tackle just isn’t ideal. The Eagles might be left with just Jahan Dotson, Johnny Wilson, Parris Campbell, and John Ross at receiver. That’s not a very inspiring crew. Dotson only has 14 yards so far this season; Hurts doesn’t seem to trust him as a target.

Big Blue View

Somehow, the Giants are scoring fewer points than last year

With upgrades on the line and at receiver that should not be the case, but it is

The [Giants] have have scored 20 or more just once, 21 Week 3 vs. the Cleveland Browns. They punted just once on Thursday night in their loss to the Dallas Cowboys, yet scored just 15 points on five Greg Joseph field goals. The Giants, in fact, are averaging an even 15.0 points per game through four games. That is worse than the 15.6 points per game they scored last season, and which they knew wasn’t good enough.

The Giants are 20 of 56 (35.7%) converting third-down attempts, 19th in the NFL. They are tied for 15th in red zone touchdown percentage at 50%, having converted six of 12 opportunities. They are 14th in the league, again middle of the pack, with 3.0 red zone scoring opportunities per game. The Giants are 11th in the NFL in time of possession.

The lack of a vertical passing attack, despite time to throw and good receivers for Jones to throw to, has been part of the problem.

Jones is just 3 of 15 (20%) on passes 20 or more yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Among quarterbacks with at least nine attempts of 20 or more yards, only Chicago Bears rookie Caleb Williams (3 of 19, 15.8%) has been worse. Per Pro Football Focus, Jones has only two ‘big-time throws’ in four games.

The first couple of weeks, Jones overthrew some deep targets. Thursday, his deep targets — even one completed to Nabers for 39 yards — were underthrown.

NFL league links

Articles

Washington Post (paywall)

In the ‘new’ NFL, passing and scoring are down and running is in style

Through the Week 3 games, the average NFL game this season has had fewer points scored, fewer passing yards and more rushing yards than at the same point last year.

[T]hings appear to be shifting, based in large part on how defenses have modified their tactics. Scoring and passing are down in the early weeks of this season. Rushing yards are up. Defense is back.

“I’m not surprised,” former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky said by phone Thursday. “I kind of saw this coming about two years ago … in just watching how defenses were playing. This was kind of like an expectation of mine.”

He noticed the shifting offensive and defensive trends two years ago as he studied game footage as an NFL analyst for ESPN. He mentioned his observations to a producer and they had the network’s research staff crunch the numbers. When that research backed up Orlovsky’s suspicions, ESPN devoted a segment during a 2022 studio show to the NFL’s changing dynamics.

Through the Week 3 games, the average NFL game this season had 42.3 points, 402.5 passing yards and 238.9 rushing yards. That’s compared to 45 points, 443.5 passing yards and 221.4 rushing yards through Week 3 last season.

[D]efenses have adjusted. They put packages with five or even six defensive backs on the field more often. And they increasingly favor alignments in which both safeties play deep, discouraging long passes and forcing offenses to move down the field more methodically.

“Now you’re starting to see some offenses have the awareness that okay, the defense isn’t allowing you to do the things that you want to do structurally,” Orlovsky said. “So you have to have the counter. And the counter is, ‘Hey, we’ve got to run the football a little bit more. We’ve got to run them out of the two-high defenses a little bit more. We have to be patient with the football more,’ because it’s really hard for some of the superstar physically talented quarterbacks to be patient. And so the play calls are kind of forcing the patience out of them, in essence, by that commitment to run it.”

On Wednesday, the NFL’s football operations department released an analysis saying that passing yards per game peaked at a league record of more than 480 yards per game in the 2015 and ’16 seasons — when rushing yards dipped to 220 per game, the least since 1999. According to the league, passing yards through Week 3 have dropped from 496 per game in 2020 to 491 in 2021, 462 in 2022, 444 in 2023 and 403 per game this season. If the trend continues, the league said, this season will have the fewest passing yards per game since 1993.

The NFL’s analysis said that the percentage of defenses using two-high-safety looks on passing attempts has increased from 44 percent in 2019 to 63 percent this season.

NFL.com

What’s wrong with Caleb Williams? Why is Jayden Daniels thriving? Plus, Brian Flores’ stifling scheme

Heading into Chicago’s Week 4 game against the Los Angeles Rams, Caleb’s passing numbers leave much to be desired: 59.3 completion percentage, 5.3 yards per attempt, 2:4 touchdown-to-interception ratio, 65.3 passer rating. The rookie has taken 13 sacks, playing at a frantic pace that makes it hard for the offense to sustain any rhythm.

Though improvisation is a big part of Williams’ game, the former Oklahoma/USC standout has operated outside of the structure of Chicago’s offense for most of his three-game run. He rarely delivers the ball on time and in rhythm, disrupting the flow of a passing game that is supposed to feature more “catch, rock and throw” concepts.

Studying the Bears’ first three games, though, Williams is not solely responsible for the passing-game woes. The offensive line has struggled with explosive pass rushers racing around the corner. In addition, the interior three have not consistently provided a solid pocket in front of Williams to allow him to step into his throws.

However, the rookie has routinely fled from clean pockets looking for big gains on scramble tosses. While he has produced an occasional splash play, Williams has made more harmful errors while improvising on the perimeter. The mental miscues and inaccurate throws have stalled drives and kept the Bears from playing efficiently. In addition, the reckless plays have led to turnovers that have flipped the field and changed the game’s momentum. Considering these habits were a part of Williams’ evaluation as the top quarterback prospect in the 2024 class, the Bears must continue to work with the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner to help him evolve into more of a “manager” at the position.

With 118 pass attempts, including a whopping 52 in last Sunday’s 21-16 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, the young passer has been asked to carry an offense before he fully understands the pro game.

[I]t’d be grossly premature to [declare that Washington has ‘struck gold’ with Jayden Daniels], clearly, the Commanders are thrilled with the early returns. Daniels is playing like a 10-year vet, exhibiting the poise, confidence and composure to thrive as a franchise quarterback with a unique game.

Daniels has operated like a blackjack dealer, delivering pinpoint passes to perimeter pass catchers on various catch-and-run concepts created by Air Raid guru Kliff Kingsbury. The former Arizona Cardinals head man and experienced college coach has crafted a scheme that enables Daniels to play to his strengths as a rhythm passer while tapping into the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner’s explosive running ability. As a result, Washington has now scored points on 14 consecutive drives (excluding kneel-downs) and remains the only NFL team without a single turnover this season.

The Commanders can torch opponents with a barrage of rhythm passes from Daniels directed to all areas of the field at short, intermediate and deep range, or unleash their first-year quarterback on designed runs and scrambles that force opposing play-callers to tweak their game plans to account for an extra runner in the backfield. Here’s a great nugget from the Washington Post: With 15 rushing first downs through three games, Daniels tied Cam Newton (2015 and 2020) for the second-most rushing first downs by a quarterback through three games. (Daunte Culpepper’s the all-time leader, with 16 in 2000.) Considering how a mobile quarterback can enhance a ground attack, it is not a surprise the Commanders rank fifth in rushing yards per game (153.7).

Daniels has kept the offense on schedule, allowing him to operate in attack mode.

With Daniels unfazed by heavy pressure from opponents attempting to force him into a mistake, the Commanders have been able to take full advantage of these opportunities.

Perhaps his extensive experience as a collegian (55 career starts) prepped him for his role, thanks to the countless practice and game reps at Arizona State and LSU. Despite moving up a level, he appears to see the game in slow motion.

Pro Football Talk

49ers lose Curtis Robinson to torn ACL at practice

Curtis Robinson tore his ACL at practice on Thursday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan announced today. Robinson had been carted off during Thursday’s practice.

Robinson had played 59 special teams snaps this season, the most of any player on the 49ers. He hadn’t played on defense yet this season but was expected to get some playing time at linebacker.

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