The Latest on the NFL owners meetings : 0xbt

The Latest on the NFL owners meetings

    chenyan94
    By chenyan94
    PHOENIX (AP) — The Latest on the NFL owners meetings Tuesday (all times EDT):6:45 p.m.There’s nothing on the football field Jon Gruden likes more than a big-time playmaker.His Raiders’ trade with Pittsburgh brought to Oakland one of the game’s most dangerous scoring threats in wideout Antonio Brown.“You have to know where he is Rashaan Melvin Jersey ,” Gruden began. “He can help your running game. Put a safety over the top to double that guy, that helps you run the ball, I tell you. It helps the other guy on the other side. That’s why getting Tyrell Williams was huge. Somebody that can take advantage of some one-on-one looks.“It’s also nice to have a receiver who couldn’t care less what the coverage is. I remember Jerry Rice one year, he was so good. I used to see Jerry break the huddle and three (defensive) guys look for him: ‘There he is. Don’t let him catch the ball.’ Then at the end, Jerry had eight catches for 140 yards. He did it every week.“It is great to have a guy who can win. We have to do our part. It is a great responsibility for us to help Antonio Brown be one of the great Raiders of all time.”Gruden took a moment to catch his breath, then spoke about Brown’s skills at freelancing when a play breaks down. He believes that will provide a huge help to quarterback Derek Carr.“It’s huge. That’s where the great ones … that’s the true measuring stick of what makes a receiver great,” he said. “Because they are disguising coverage not just to fool the quarterback, they are disguising coverage to fool the wideout. Boom, they rotate to him. What are you going to do?“Some guys don’t see it and react as quick as others. The great ones, they see it and they can do it at full speed. It’s awesome. When you watch Antonio play, a lot of his production was on scramble plays.“Hopefully we can get Derek to create more on his own, maybe a little better protection Marcus Gilchrist Jersey , maybe he can buy a little more time and let Antonio go over there, then go over there, then go over there and make a play or two.”Derek Carr put Raiders in ‘manageable situations’ in loss to Broncos, Jon Gruden looking for ‘more big chunk plays’ In one regard, Derek Carr’s stat line last Sunday was stunning. I mean, completing 29 of 32 passes is incredible. Over 30 passes with just three incompletions seems hard to believe. What is also a bit hard to believe about those completion numbers is the yardage total. On 29 completions, he had just 288 yards. That’s less than ten yards per completion.Welcome (back) to the West Coast Offense, folks. It’s basic tenets are to dink and dunk defenses to death. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a you can see by Derek Carr’s stat line, even near perfection in completion percentage wasn’t enough to pull out the win with it. At least not with the defense failing to hold up their end.You’ll recall, Gruden and Rich Gannon had a great deal of success in such an offense back around the turn of the century. It’s a conservative offense and that’s how Derek Carr has been approaching it.After the first week, Gruden said he wanted to see Carr push the ball down the field more. While Carr was reluctant Dwayne Harris Jersey , saying he didn’t want to force it. The game plan didn’t do him a lot of favors either, with just two play action passes the whole game. One sign things are changing is that number went up to eight in the second game.“Play-action, you’re holding the ball for a long time. The rush is coming and trust me I know that from experience,” Carr said. “To stay on schedule, you hear coaches say that all the time, you have shot plays and sometimes you have to check them down to get six yards, well third-and-4 is a lot better than third-and-10 for a missed shot. . . We have certain plays that we like versus certain looks that sometimes, it’s hey, ‘get us in this manageable situation, we like these calls and this grouping.’ I could go on for hours about that kind of stuff, but you know. I think that taking eight play-action shots against Denver was pretty aggressive and we were able to do some good things against him.”Short passes to put the Raiders into more manageable was hit or miss Sunday. He had 12 passes for 7 yards or less that weren’t to get the first down. Exactly half of those (6) they were unable to take advantage and get the first down, resulting in a stalled drive. One of those Emmanuel Lamur Jersey , he opted for a short pass to Marshawn Lynch for a loss of four yards, while missing a wide open Amari Cooper in the back of the end zone.There were some deeper throws in this game from Carr. And more deep completions than in the opener. Despite Jared Cook catching four passes of 27 yards or more, only one of those was a deep pass. The others were short passes with yards after the catch. Carr had six passes go for 20 yards or more in Denver, three of which were deep passes, with one being the laser touchdown pass to Seth Roberts.The increase in bigger plays this game makes it even more surprising Carr was unable to surpass ten yards per completion. Which just goes to show you how many short passes there really were. Short passes aren’t the issue, really. It’s about finding the right receiver and putting it right where it needs to be to gets the most yards out of it.“I just want to be productive when we throw it,” said Gruden. “I think [TE Jared] Cook averaged 20-yards a catch in the first game. Throwing the ball on-time and accurate is a big part of winning football. We hope to get more big chunk plays. We are making an attempt to do that, and I think you will see some more of that as the year unfolds.”That’s how Gannon became a Pro Bowl passer under Gruden; By being a smart quarterback who almost always made the right decision. In those four seasons in Gruden’s offense (one after Gruden was gone) Gannon averaged over 26 TD’s and 11 INT with 11.5 yards per completion. And from a yards per catch perspective, Tim Brown had his second and third best seasons. Which means despite the dinks and dunks, there was plenty of deep shots as well.Follow @LeviDamien