Greg Cosell
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00:00Well, this is quickly becoming
00:02Like one of our favorite times of the week
00:05We'll do it every single Wednesday
00:07And I know you and I dibs are both kind of chomping at the bit here to go not player by player
00:12We're not gonna go through the entire roster. We might but maybe close. Yeah, you know the man's got info now
00:19Knowledge well he is senior producer NFL films
00:23And he's joining us on the rivers River Islands guest line as he will do every single Wednesday at three o'clock to break
00:31Down the film like no other. It's none other than Greg Cosell. Hey Greg. How you doing this week? I'm doing great
00:37I'm just curious was that lead-in song representative of your younger days, or are we okay at that?
00:42I'm completely okay with that Tom, but so I'm gonna say maybe both Greg
00:51You can answer any way you like okay
00:53The film says
00:56So that's what that's what we're gonna go with
00:58All right, where to start I I guess Jordan Mason is the best place to start so first and foremost
01:05Just what did you see with his evening, but but maybe more important?
01:09How did it progress like what did he look like when it got to the fourth quarter, and he was north of 20 carries?
01:16Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot there that with the run game
01:20But if you're just speaking about him, you know, I think that was evident even early on
01:25But it was clear as the game progressed how physical a runner he is and there were some clear examples
01:31Where the Jets defense later in the game was not particularly thrilled with having to tackle him
01:36You know, he's one of those runners that you wouldn't say he's shifty and elusive. He's a downhill velocity runner. He has natural power
01:45There's a physical presence to his running style
01:49He has just enough lateral quickness where he can work effectively and can find space
01:53And and as I said, he's got really good finishing traits
01:57He's he's a difficult guy to tackle and probably not a lot of fun to tackle
02:00I can't imagine it and it seemed like he got to the second level ad nauseum again
02:05Yeah, Jets defense those holes were gigantic. They sure were go about the run scheme
02:11Differently Greg because it seemed like there was less use check and more just straight ahead zone power with Jordan Mason
02:17Yeah, there were there were multiple run game concepts as there always are
02:22With the 49ers, you know, I think when you play the Niners, you're very conscious of having to defend the C gap
02:28That's where you know
02:30So people can kind of visualize that you know
02:32Right next to the center the offensive center is the a gap you go over one. It's the B gap you go over one more
02:39It's the C gap. That's kind of where their run game is
02:43Foundationally built but obviously they do more than that
02:47But so they did a number of different things
02:50The key thing was that he ran almost exclusively out of what we would call base personnel
02:56When use check was on the field when there were two tight ends on the field when there was both use check and two tight
03:02Ends 23 of his 28 runs came in these base personnel packages
03:07Greg I'm I'm curious to know if you saw them running to the right
03:12More often than in the past because famously they love to run behind Trent Williams
03:17But it looked like they were running to the right more often than in the past. Is that so?
03:23You know, I didn't chart it. So I don't know the exact answer
03:25I don't want to make something up but I didn't get the sense that they were only working to one side
03:29I felt like it was pretty multiple
03:32You know, it's funny sometimes the shorter runs are the really cool runs
03:36like I thought that his five-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was just a
03:42Example of great design in execution
03:44I thought that you had an unbelievable double team by the center Brendel and Banks the left guard and it was on
03:51Quinan Williams who's obviously a really good player
03:53I loved the way Kittle inserted as a lead blocker on the stacked linebacker
03:58Mosley and then Samuel came in from the right side of the formation and kind of cracked back on on the safety Clark
04:04I thought you know, that was just one of those runs. Obviously, it was a touchdown, but it wasn't a long run necessarily
04:10But it was just beautifully designed and executed just a clinic in the run game
04:14I can't help but get my eyes on Dominic Pooney over there in the right guy making his first start
04:20What did you look good on the film from Dominic? Yeah, he looked really good
04:23You know, I didn't to be honest with you. I didn't watch a ton of preseason football. I'm being honest
04:29It's not my favorite thing, but I thought yeah
04:32I thought that he showed early in the game and then throughout the game both strength as a run blocker
04:37I thought he was good at one-on-one pass protection, you know
04:41there's two blocks that in the run game more than two but two that you have to be able to execute in the NFL or
04:47As a guard in particular or you're not going to be a starting guard. One is the backside cutoff block
04:53So if the zone run game goes away from you
04:56You have to be able to execute the backside cutoff block
05:00Then in the zone run game when it goes to your side
05:03You have to be able to execute the frontside reach block
05:06in other words
05:07The reach block is a case where the player is just outside of you and you have to get
05:13Outside of him to to seal him to the inside
05:16Those are two blocks that you have to be able to execute one on the backside one on the front side
05:22And I thought that he did that very well in this game and he's gonna have to continue to do it
05:27Well senior producer NFL Films Greg Cosell is with us here on
05:31Willard and dibs as he will be every single Wednesday afternoon on
05:3695-7 the game Greg people for a while now have been running out of
05:40Questions to ask about Brock Purdy, but one of the ones that was still remaining was well
05:45I wonder what he would look like without Christian McCaffrey. So Greg, what did he look like without Christian McCaffrey?
05:52Well, I mean to me those two things are mutually exclusive
05:55I mean, obviously McCaffrey is a great player
05:58But I mean what when when Purdy has to drop back and throw a ball that's not necessarily a function of Christian McCaffrey
06:04I thought Purdy was kind of Purdy. He was efficient
06:08He made good throws he's got enough movement that he can move around and make plays
06:14You know it look I don't know if we discussed this last week. I can't remember, you know, I'm old guys
06:19I can't remember what we discussed last week. But but you know Purdy is is
06:26The scheme and the system and Purdy's ability to execute it at a high level all go together and you know
06:32There's some great examples of that. Kittle, the 26 yarder to start the second quarter field goal drive was a beautifully designed
06:38What we call a flood concept. It's a three level stretch concept. Kittle ran the intermediate route. Beautiful design
06:46I'm sure you guys remember Juszczyk's 34 yard a reception which was a
06:52Kyle Shanahan classic because what he likes to do is put a second level defender who has both a run and a pass
07:01Responsibility he likes to put that player in
07:05Conflict and that's exactly what he did on the Juszczyk's 34 yard reception
07:09That was beautiful design when I saw that play on the coaching tape, you know, I got excited. That's what I love about football
07:15But you know Purdy just executes what he's asked to execute at a really high level
07:20And I think people lose sight of how that difficult how difficult that is to do
07:25Play after play after play week after week after week and they view him
07:29Well, he's just running a great system, you know, that's really hard to do and he does it at a really high level
07:35Yeah, it was a clinical performance from Brock
07:37And yeah, he didn't have to overwhelm to go out there and have a pretty lopsided victory for the 49ers
07:43I want to ask you about the defense because other than the early drive in the first half
07:47They had their way with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets offense
07:50What did you see on the film as to why the Niners D had such an edge?
07:54Well, I think they're D line, I mean you could argue that that that
07:59The main D line, obviously they they sub and have a rotation
08:02But when you have Bosa and Floyd on the edge and hard grip and Collins inside
08:06And I think we talked about Collins last week
08:08Collins has always been a really really good player and I think 49er fans are gonna really like this guy and it showed up
08:15the other night, but they're they're a
08:17Defensive front is really really good and it's just really difficult to block and then there's Fred Warner who I've been saying for years
08:25It's just the best linebacker in football
08:27I mean his ability to play inside out with speed and range and his ability to diagnose things instantly
08:34I mean, there's no one as good as Fred Warner at the linebacker position in the NFL
08:40So, you know and they've got the thing that I think is overlooked now, too
08:44Is they have tremendous length at linebacker because when they're in their nickel and it's Warner and Campbell
08:49You've got 6-3 and 6-4 and those are traits people might not think about that
08:54But that kind of length that those are traits
08:58So Greg, here's a question that comes up a lot with 49er fans
09:02There's this thought that whatever Steve Wilkes was calling last year just wasn't in alignment
09:07With you know
09:08The defensive line and the and the and the secondary and and whatever Kyle Shanahan likes to run
09:14The idea this year was they were gonna get back to who they were
09:18Before the hiring of Steve Wilkes with Nick Sorensen and Brandon Staley call and plays what what did you see?
09:25What can you explain to our audience with regard to the new regime?
09:29You know and I'm gonna be totally honest here
09:32Those are hard questions and I'll tell you why because you'd have to be there in their meetings to understand how things are taught
09:38What they're specifically asked to do
09:40I mean, I think when all said and done like in this particular game, they hardly rushed more than four
09:46I think twice on what Rodgers have maybe 23 or 24 drop backs
09:50I think twice they rushed five, you know, my guess is that this is going to be a defense that's going to rely
09:58Predominantly on their path on the four-man pass rush now
10:01There are things they do in third down and and sort of pure pass
10:06Situations with what we call loaded fronts where they line up three defensive linemen to one side of the center often Fred Warner
10:13We'll walk up to the guard opposite that load side and they'll do some pressure schemes from that
10:19But I think this is going to be a defense that relies a lot on the four-man pass rush as long as it's being effective
10:25And in most weeks it will be you know, there's always some weeks, you know
10:30That things don't work exactly the right way
10:33You know, I think from a coverage perspective
10:36We saw in this game multiple coverage concepts on third down out of their nickel. They don't play dime
10:42They're a nickel sub defense. We saw cover to cover one cover three
10:47You know, I think you'll see these kinds of things depending on the opponent
10:51by NFL standards
10:53I don't think they'll be overly detailed now having said that if I was sitting in the meetings
10:58It probably have a different view, but I don't think they're going to be one of those teams that does a million things
11:04I think it's going to be more
11:07Execution based than heavily scheme based that would be my sense
11:10Yeah, the stats indicate that they played out of the nickel 76 percent of the time and just 24 percent with the three linebackers
11:17And the second linebacker fans are concerned greg about devondre campbell
11:21He was garden wilson a couple of times in that first touchdown drive. It didn't go
11:24Well, does he have the speed to hold up in this defense when they go to the nickel and just do linebackers?
11:31Yeah, I mean he's got length he can move I mean obviously he's not going to be covering wide receivers man to man
11:37There are sometimes the offense through formation through motions can get a wide receiver on a linebacker
11:43That does happen in the league and there's really very few linebackers that can match up
11:48So that's not a knock on campbell
11:50I mean if anybody saw the chiefs in the thursday night opener the way they got rice matched up on
11:55Linebackers and good linebackers then you know that happens
11:58They got him matched up on on roquan smith who I think most people would agree is a pretty damn good linebacker
12:04So that's not a knock on campbell the fact that maybe wilson beat him once on and and I don't remember the specific play
12:11But I mean, you know that that's not the way you're going to evaluate campbell by his ability to defend wide receivers
12:18Um, obviously there's been a ton of talk the last handful of weeks about brandon
12:22Ayuk, and we love what you had to say
12:25Last week when when you talked about his fit in this system because he's being eased in
12:31Yes, there was at least one maybe two dropped passes. How would you drop it? They dropped a touchdown?
12:38How would you compare what we saw from brandon in this game to what you're used to seeing from him?
12:44Well, I think he's played enough games in the national football league that we know what he is
12:49I mean, obviously he had that touchdown drop which i'm sure he'd make that catch nine out of ten times
12:55Um, I think there was another one where he uh, I think it was a quick slant that went off his hands, you know
13:01It's probably a rust issue no matter
13:04What you do and what you do in the off season if you're not in camp and you're not going through the whole process
13:09It's it's different when you get into a real game
13:11I mean, I don't think there's any reason to be worried about brandon. Ayuk. He's played a lot of games in the league
13:16He's been a good receiver. We talked about him last week. He's not all of a sudden going to be a bad receiver
13:21You know, he just he had a he had a bad drop. He dropped a touchdown. It was very visible
13:26It's a national tv game, you know, so it happens
13:30Greg, you're officially our pivot point in the week where we go from looking back to looking ahead and the niners
13:36Getting ready to head to minnesota sunday morning game
13:39On the the fake field up there in minnesota
13:42What have you seen on the film from the vikings that 49er fans should keep an eye out for on sunday morning?
13:48Well, let's look at the vikings defense
13:50They were very interesting this past week and it could have been a function of who they were playing
13:53Obviously the giants do not have a great offense, but one of the things that brian flores did a year ago
13:58Which was fascinating and you rarely ever see this in the nfl is it was a team that had the most three man
14:05Pass rushes in the league and the most six man pass rushes in the league now against the giants
14:11They stayed pretty basic with four man pass rushes and played a lot of coverage behind it again. I'm not brian flores
14:17I don't know what he'll do against the niners
14:19But that three man versus six man pass rush deal is what's fascinating to me watching their tape a year ago
14:26Because you rarely see that kind of thing in the league
14:29And then of course on offense and we can talk about this you guys can jump in you got your old buddy
14:34Sam darnell looked very good last week. Well, what'd you see like what you know because he was here
14:39But we didn't really ever get to see him play. So yeah, what what did you see from sam?
14:44I'll tell you what I saw and I think this is where coaching comes into play
14:48Kevin o'connell obviously coming from the shanahan and mcveigh tree. You saw darnell with really clean footwork really
14:56Understanding, uh the connection between his drop and the route concepts
14:59You saw some really well-schemed well-designed play concepts that really presented him with clean defined reads so that he could hit his back foot
15:08And if it required him just to hit his back foot and deliver he'd do that if it required a hitch
15:12He did that really cleanly. He looked extremely comfortable now
15:16It's one game
15:17No one's going to sit here after one game and say man
15:20This guy's on his way to a great year
15:21But if we're talking this same way after six or seven games
15:25Then to me you really have to talk about the coaching element because don't forget he was coached last year
15:31We know with the niners even though he didn't play and now he's with kevin o'connell who's really really good
15:37So sometimes that's the difference because you're dealing with a kid and you know this big kid physical kid throws the ball
15:43Well, there's nothing from a physical trait standpoint that he can't do. He always had other issues
15:49Including mechanical and including what he was seeing but he looked very comfortable this past week
15:55Looked like they were moving the ball around too to the various weapons. Justin. Jefferson was not too much of an isolated target
16:02I'm curious about the run game from what you saw from minnesota
16:05Looks like a little bit of a committee and they use the fullback a little bit too, don't they?
16:09Oh, they play a lot out of 21 personnel as well with ham
16:12Uh, I can't off the top of my head remember how many snaps he had but they did that last year they do it now
16:18Um, yeah, they have a run game with the fullback as well
16:20And they've got aaron jones who's a really good back and a very good receiver got to be careful about that
16:26Um, you know last week's game obviously was such that they got ahead
16:29It was evident the giants weren't really going to move the ball
16:32so it didn't really require them to be probably as diverse and multiple offensively as
16:38As they could be as they probably went into the game with but didn't need it
16:42So, uh, we'll see how it goes. You'd assume this will be a closer game
16:46But keep in mind as I started this conversation this defense did give the niners some problems a year ago
16:52It's a difficult defense to play against
16:56And they can really pressure you so that's something that uh,
16:59The 49ers and kyle shanahan will really have to be aware of um, chris forrester
17:04One of the best line coaches in the league, they'll be working on that
17:07You know trying to understand all their pressure concepts with different personnel on the field
17:12Because that's the last thing for any quarterback to start a game where you feel like you're under pressure
17:17Well, let's talk about that a little bit greg
17:19Cosell senior producer nfl films with us here on willard and dibbs and that's to say this. Yes
17:24It's the same concept defensively, but a lot of new personnel their defensive line is almost completely different
17:30Yeah, right. I'd wonder if you could compare that group though to to to like the jets group
17:35Like what's brock purdy facing this week versus last week?
17:40I think he's facing a lot more diversity in in pressure concepts
17:44um, you know, the jets are not really a high pressure defense and when they are, um,
17:49Their their particular concepts are uh, I don't want to say they're basic
17:54That's not the right word, but they they're not they don't have a ton of them
17:57Whereas minnesota has a lot of different looks minnesota often lines up with six or seven
18:03Uh on the on the ball on the line of scrimmage so you don't know who's coming who's dropping out
18:08They make it difficult to try to figure that out because you have to make sure you protect
18:13You can't just say well, I think that guy's going to drop out. You can't do that
18:16So you have to protection becomes a really critical issue protection first
18:22You don't have a pass game
18:23If you don't have protection and minnesota with a couple of really vaunted players in the secondary stefan gilmore
18:29And they got harrison smith. How do you like those matchups minnesota's secondary against the likes of debo and assuming brandon?
18:36I you can play more brandon. Iuke
18:39Yeah, I mean, you know, they're not a heavy man coverage team. That's the thing surprisingly even when they pressure
18:45They play more zone concepts now zones always have a matchup element to them
18:50But they're not a heavy straight man-to-man team. So it's not so much. Hey, this guy's going to have samuel
18:56This guy's going to have iuk. That's not really the way they play. Um, so we'll see how it plays out
19:02Um, you know, obviously they've got some different players. They signed van kinkel who's a really good player from miami
19:08Um, he showed up this past week
19:10They signed blake cashman from houston who was very good for houston a year ago before he got hurt
19:15And what they basically did is they swapped out?
19:18Um hunter daniel hunter for jonathan grenard hunter's a little better, but grenard's a very good player as well
19:24Greg before you go i'd like to ask you this even though I you know
19:28Look it's only been one week and and this might feel a little speculative but based on what you know and what you saw this week
19:36What what kind of a of an outlook and optimism would you have?
19:41For this 49er defense as a whole and and it's standing within the league
19:47Well, I think their front let's talk in terms of playing nickel because you end up playing nickel more than you play base
19:53I think their front six is among the better front sixes in the league
19:57We talked about their down four. We talked about warner being the best linebacker in the league campbell in my view will be fine
20:04Um, obviously it's safety. I don't know if fufang is coming back. You guys might know that better
20:09I don't know what his status is
20:10Obviously they played odom who throughout much of his career has been a high level special teams player and a spot starter
20:17They used odom and gier brown kind of interchangeably. They both played on the back end. They both played in the box
20:23Um awards a really good corner
20:26The question becomes the other two corner spots when they're in nickel and nor goes into the slot and they played yodem on the outside
20:34You know, I don't know if that's going to stay all year. I don't know what their feeling is about. Renardo green
20:39He's a player. I really liked coming out of florida state
20:43Florida state was a man heavy defense played a ton of press man, and I really loved green
20:48I don't know how he did through training camp so I can't answer that but I think that's where
20:53I don't want to call it a concern
20:54I would just say that's what we'll be looking at to see how that plays out when they play against really good passing offenses
21:00And and really good receivers greg. We're going to do it every wednesday, and you just showed everybody why fantastic stuff. Thank you so much
21:08Appreciate it guys. Thanks. Look forward to it next week. Yeah, so do we that's greg freaking cosell right there
21:14Senior producer nfl dang films drop a knowledge
21:19Greg you may want to pick that up. You just drop some knowledge over there