If someone builds a brick wall in your path, you have two options: you can go around it, or you can go through it. If you have a fleet of horses at your disposal, you’ll probably go around the wall. If you have a set of dynamite and blasting caps, you’ll probably break it down.
Continue reading Shanahan Scheme Analysis: Part 2Shanahan Scheme Analysis: Part 1
So what is it about Mike Shanahan’s wide zone based scheme that makes it so hard to defend? Every team runs wide zone runs (also called ‘outside zone’ runs), so what is so special about an offense based around this play? What is it that made Mike Shanahan tell SI, “if you really believe in the outside zone, if you can use those techniques in the running game successfully, you can adjust against all those defenses. It starts on a day-to-day basis, believing in what you’re doing.”
Biomechanical Impressions: 2021 Preseason Week 1
With NFL Game Pass now having stripped away the option to select specific plays in favor of only showing full or condensed games (at least for preseason), a rigorous biomechanical review of preseason games has become all but impossible. This then is an informal impressions piece, based on scrubbing through preseason week 1 games.
Biomechanical Update: 2021 Drafted QBs
With lateral anterior methodology having advanced significantly over the past few months, it’s time to take one last pre-preseason look at the lateral oriented anterior quarterbacks from the 2021 draft.
Biomechanical Re-Reviews: 2019 Draft
This part of the three-part 2019 look-backs will focus on the reviews of Denver’s 2019 draft class. As with part one, all reviews are quoted in full (with links to the original posts at the bottom), followed by an analysis of the review. This set of re-reviews is particularly intriguing since, in addition to being a chance to review predictive results and compare updated methodology, it’s an opportunity to revisit these players via much higher-quality NFL grade All 22 tape and see how they’ve progressed/ developed since entering the league.
Continue reading Biomechanical Re-Reviews: 2019 DraftBiomechanical Re-Reviews: 2019 Early FA
Before the 2021 offseason makes way for training camp and the preseason, it’s time to take a look back at the player reviews of the 2019 season– 2019 being the year that the analytical methodology underlying these reviews began to mature. This first part will focus on the free agent reviews– Kareem Jackson, Bryce Callahan, and Ju’Wuan James. Each review will be posted in full (with a link to the original article at the bottom), followed by commentary based on how each player fared over the past couple seasons.
Biomechanical Review: Teddy Bridgewater, Bobbie Massie, and Cameron Fleming
To complete our review of Denver’s 2021 offseason, it’s time to look at the final wave of acquired players– Bobby Massie, Cameron Fleming, and Teddy Bridgewater.
Continue reading Biomechanical Review: Teddy Bridgewater, Bobbie Massie, and Cameron FlemingBiomechanical Review: Denver’s 2021 Draft (Part 2)
The second day of Denver’s 2021 draft is where some philosophical differences between the drafting styles of George Paton and John Elway appear to come into focus. While under Elway, the Broncos’ approach to finding late-round value seemed to involve drafting productive players with checkered health histories (Justin Strnad, Netane Muti, Juwann Winfree), under George Paton, the Broncos appear to be targeting quality athletes who, for whatever reason, weren’t always able to produce tremendous results in college or were otherwise overlooked (whether being buried on the depth chart, having holes in their game, a non-football medical issue, etc). And going by the results from this draft, this philosophical shift appears to have been very successful in unearthing late round gems.
Continue reading Biomechanical Review: Denver’s 2021 Draft (Part 2)
Biomechanical Review: Denver’s 2021 Draft (Part 1)
In 2018, work was completed on a detailed biomechanical model of the human body. This model (and the work done to build it) offers the key building blocks for any biomechanical analysis posted to this site. However, this model was not, in and of itself, enough information to be able to correctly analyze NFL players via video study. It served the raw data– the sort of picture on the front of the puzzle box– that enabled analyses based upon it. But the analytical methods still needed to be developed– the analytical jiggsaw puzzle still needed assembling.
Continue reading Biomechanical Review: Denver’s 2021 Draft (Part 1)
Biomechanical Draft Guide 2021 Part 2
(the following is a significant update to part 1 of this series)
Sometimes methodological breakthroughs happen at inopportune times. Like, for example, the day after one has published one’s findings using older methodology. In this case, on Saturday (the day after part one of this series went up), a breakthrough was made seemingly finally enabling reliable measure of the most lateral anterior thoracic pathway. Although it’s only been a few days since then, rigorous testing seems to back up the reliability of this method, with measures correlating strongly with expected results (although more testing is obviously needed).
As such, I went back and applied this measure to the current crop of lateral anterior oriented quarterbacks. And the results were somewhat surprising.