Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kendall Wright had his most productive game of the season against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Wright finished the game with nine receptions for 98 yards. While that's not an overwhelming stat line, Wright has played very well this season and been very consistent since Week 1.
Wright is primarily being used on shorter routes and screens by the Titans, but he is always a primary focus of the offense. The soon-to-be 24-year-old is averaging 6.3 receptions per game over the last six games and 70.3 yards per game during that span.
At such a relatively young age, this appears to be Wright's floor rather than his ceiling. His ceiling is tough to see because of his usage, but he appears to quietly be an emerging star in this league. Because Jake Locker is playing excellent football also, Wright's ceiling could be much higher than most of us think.
Wright is lightning quick, very agile and a smart runner. His consistency on screen plays is fantastic, while his explosion allows him to punish the defense for any space it affords him.
On this play, Wright lines up wide left and the 49ers play off-coverage. Because the Titans spread the field with Chris Johnson wide to the right in a receiver position, the 49ers send NaVorro Bowman to that side of the field, leaving Wright and his fellow receiver with just one defender each to their side of the field.
Wright adjusts well to make a hands catch, before showing the patience required for his blocking to get down field. He immediately cuts inside his initial blockers at speed, before showing the awareness to cut inside his second wave of blocking for the first down conversion.
The Titans will normally look to run three or four screens per game with Wright and his talent can often allow him to create big gains on those plays.
When Wright isn't catching screen passes on the edge, he is primarily playing in the slot. Wright doesn't play in the slot because he can't play outside, he plays in the slot because the Titans have so many options outside.
Big receivers such as Nate Washington, Kenny Britt and Justin Hunter, with Delanie Walker at tight end, help to create space for Wright with their blocking, but also the deep threats on the offense spread the field vertically.
The Titans again spread the field with five receivers on this play, and Wright in the slot. Wright is matched up against Carlos Rogers who isn't an exceptional athlete playing in the slot.
Locker immediately focuses on Wright at the snap. Wright initially runs a slant route but he quickly turns it into a double move reversing back into the flat. Wright spins very quickly to create separation from Rogers.
Even though Wright is wide open, the somewhat rusty Locker throws a high pass his way. The young receiver immediately snatches the ball out of the air with relative ease before continuing down the sideline for a big gain. Wright was forced out of bounds by the deep safety, because Rogers had no chance of catching him from behind.
Wright can also line up outside and make plays down the field. The reason he doesn't is because of those other receivers who excel outside and because he is so good underneath.
What really makes Wright an intriguing player is just how smooth and easy his play on the field appears. He isn't phased by whatever situation he is put in and can continually make natural plays on the football no matter how it comes his way.
Nate Washington and Kendall Wright are the Titans' two most important wide receivers.
While Wright and Washington lead the line for the Titans, a very similar type of receiver is making up half of the Pittsburgh Steelers' starting duo. Antonio Brown is further along in his career than Kendall Wright, but few will remember that he took some time to develop into the excellent receiver that he is today.
Brown has 47 receptions, 548 yards and two touchdowns this season. Those numbers don't completely reflect his level of play, as the passing offense didn't play to him during the first two games of the season.
Much like Wright, Brown is used on screens often. He is a very effective special teams returner, somewhere that he has excelled this season, so he is a natural in these situations also.
However, Brown is playing a more expansive game from the receiver position than Wright is at this point. He runs many more routes deeper down the field and is constantly fighting the opposition's best cover cornerback.
Brown is very good at creating separation against defensive backs. He runs crisp routes and is very agile with his short frame. That, combined with a deceptively wide catch radius makes Brown much more than the special teams option he was when he initially entered the league.
The Steelers have a lot of versatility with their wide receivers. Jericho Cotchery primarily plays in the slot, but Heath Miller at tight end, Brown, Emmanuel Sanders and even the emerging Derek Moye offer them varying options.
This allows the Steelers to move Brown around the formation to find different matchups to attack.
Against the Baltimore Ravens, every offense wants to avoid throwing at Lardarius Webb. Webb is an elite cornerback who can line up anywhere on the field. He has struggled somewhat more recently than he did earlier this season, but those struggles are relatively small.
Alongside Webb, the Ravens have Corey Graham and Jimmy Smith. Both of those cornerbacks aren't intimidating, but Graham in particular can be picked on. When the Steelers needed two plays at the end of the fourth quarter against the Ravens, they looked to Brown.
On the first of those plays, he lined up in the slot against Graham, while Webb covered Sanders on the outside.
Against off coverage, Brown is wide open on a comeback route. Roethlisberger was looking his way the whole time and was able to complete a simple pass to his receiver. However, this is where Brown shows off his talent to make the play even more important for his team.
Before the ball even arrives, Brown is already setting his feet to turn and run down the field. That awareness of the incoming defender allows him to evade the defender with ease and escape into the flat. From there, Brown accelerates to get to the sideline for a first down and put his team in field goal range.
While their dimensions are different, Brown and Wright were the two receivers who I was reminded of while watching the Jacksonville Jaguars Mike Brown this weekend. Brown isn't an underneath option or a screen receiver, but he is a very quick receiver who can make defenders miss in small spaces.
Brown is also a developing player. He was an undrafted player in 2012 who spent most of his first season on the Jaguars practice squad. Not only was he undrafted, but he was also transitioning from playing quarterback in college to playing wide receiver in the NFL.
Not surprisingly, Brown didn't register a single reception as a rookie. He had higher hopes entering his second season, but with the regime change, the addition of Denard Robinson, Ace Sanders and a fractured vertebra that was suffered during Week 1 of the regular season, Brown's chances of success appeared short.
Therefore, it is a very pleasant surprise that Brown has nine catches for 169 yards over the last two weeks.
120 of those yards came on five receptions against the San Diego Chargers this weekend. Most of his success came in the fourth quarter, but he wasn't being given underneath passes without resistance. He was making plays down the field when that was the one thing the Chargers were trying to avoid giving up.
For his 43-yard-reception, Brown lined up in the slot against off-coverage on first and 10.
The Chargers drop into a zone coverage, which immediately tells Henne to look for Brown over the middle of the field. Brown gets enough depth in his route to get behind the back of the defender, so he doesn't react to him, before continuing into the wide open window between the two underneath defenders.
Once Brown comfortably catches the football, he is immediately running into space. A deep safety comes towards him, but he manipulates the safety by swerving his run and threatening to cut to either side. That forces the safety to hang back instead of committing to the tackle. After gaining 30 or more yards, Brown is surrounded by the cornerbacks who close from either side.
He cuts back too far instead of being aggressive and just running hard down the field, but he is able to evade the edge tackle and escape to the sideline without losing yardage.
After lining up in the slot again on a later play, Brown breaks off a big run down the left sideline. First, Henne finds him open on the sideline as the Chargers blow a coverage.
Brown makes hard, decisive cuts, but he does so very quickly which leaves the incoming defender in his wake. At that point, he doesn't look to try to do too much, instead he just runs hard down the sideline and finishes the play moving forward.
Both of those plays showed off Brown's talent with the ball in his hands, but neither really showed off his ability as a pure receiver. Unlike others who transition to the position, Brown doesn't need to work at catching the ball. he has natural hands and good length to make plays against defensive backs.
Again, Brown lines up in the slot on this play.
The Jaguars are faking a screen pass, so Brown initially runs perpendicular to the sideline before turning upfield at the last moment. The Chargers don't bite on the fake however, so Brown is well covered as he works down the sideline.
Henne throws a well-timed, accurate backshoulder throw for Brown to go and get. Brown locates the football very early, while the defensive back covering him never turns his head. He leaves his feet and extends his arms to snatch the ball out of the air, well away from the defender.
Brown needs to develop, but he has a lot of talent to burn if he does. With Cecil Shorts and Justin Blackmon also impressing this season, the future seems bright for the Jaguars on offense if they can find their franchise quarterback.
Chip Kelly's offense is averaging 24.1 points per game after scoring just three points against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 7. Kelly's Philadelphia Eagles were without starting quarterback Michael Vick, with Nick Foles taking his starting spot before Matt Barkley played some in the fourth quarter.
The three point game this weekend was only the second time the Eagles were held under 20 points. Critically, both teams who achieved this, the Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs, used the same blueprint.
As impressive as Kelly's offensive design is, it can only do so much with the talent available to him. Both the Cowboys and Chiefs were able to line up in press man coverage with a single-high safety to disrupt the offense. The Eagles couldn't win enough at the wide receiver position, while the quarterback couldn't fit the ball into tight coverage.
It was no surprise that the Chiefs shut down the Eagles, their defense is littered with talent. However, the Cowboys were missing Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Ware, while Jay Ratliff had been released after not playing this year through injury. In spite of those absences upfront, the Eagles were able to consistently beat the Eagles' offensive linemen to contain LeSean McCoy and pressure Foles.
On this play, the Cowboys come out with press coverage underneath and a single high safety. The look they primarily used throughout the game. The Eagles have three wide receivers to the right side in perfect position to run a screen or release into their routes.
The Cowboys do play press coverage and none of the Eagles receivers win on their routes. Sean Lee is running underneath Riley Cooper, who is well covered and drawing Foles' focus.
Foles has nowhere to go with the football and the pocket is about to collapse on him.
There were many plays like the one above in this game. Foles often had nowhere to go with the ball and was put under pressure. Part of that was the quarterback himself not being able to throw accurately with anticipation and even when opportunities came, he didn't take advantage often enough.
On this play, the Cowboys' man coverage works against them as the receivers run across each other. The Cowboys defensive backs blow coverage to allow the tight end running a sideline route to come free. Foles immediately recognises this and throws the ball down the field.
However, Foles overthrows the more difficult throw without ever recognising that LeSean McCoy is wide open in the flat. McCoy would have been able to escape down the sideline, while the throw to him was much more routine for the quarterback than the one Foles ultimately threw.
This happened again later in the game, but this time Foles saw McCoy immediately after the snap.
McCoy was wide open, but inexplicably, Foles didn't throw him the ball and instead worked his way back across the field before overthrowing his tight end. The Eagles struggled to create opportunities in this game, so Foles not taking advantage of the ones he saw was a major problem. There were times when he found the right receiver, but even then he missed too many throws with poor anticipation or accuracy.
The Eagles had many issues against the Cowboys, they didn't win enough on routes, they didn't protect the passer well enough and their quarterback didn't play well enough at all. Michael Vick could reinvigorate the offense, but he will likely only do so much against teams who play this style of defense against them.
Quick Thoughts:
Bryant McKinnie Replacing Jonathan Martin
Jonathan Martin was horrendous against the Buffalo Bills this past weekend. He was constantly being pushed back into the backfield and completely lost Mario Williams on multiple occasions. He did play better in the second half of the game, but didn't improve enough to stop the Dolphins from acquiring Bryant McKinnie from the Baltimore Ravens.
Swapping Martin out for McKinnie is an improvement, but it's an improvement in the same way swapping a picnic basket out for a backpack is when you're jumping out of a plane. In other words, it won't make a difference.
Quarterback Ryan Tannehill overcame the pressure that was put on him after some early struggles of his own, but he can't be expected to continually do that throughout the rest of the season.
The Case of Keenum
Case Keenum's first NFL start was impressive considering the circumstances. He showed excellent poise, mobility and accuracy. He had two passes that should have been touchdowns, but one was dropped and one was well defensed at the catch point. Keenum needed better pocket awareness and play diagnosis in the fourth quarter, but on the whole it was an impressive debut.
Keenum brought the Texans' wide receivers into the game more as he looked to spread the ball around, but most notably, Gary Kubiak also spread his offense around more than he had when Schaub was under center.
While I'm reluctant to make the comparison because there are obvious, but irrelevant connections between the two, Keenum's play on the field was reminiscent of Tony Romo at times during the game. He will be a very interesting player to watch over the coming weeks.
