National Football League

[movingtarget]

Andrew Luck: Notion that Colts GM Chris Ballard forced retirement decision 'without merit'

Lavonte David blames injuries for Baker Mayfield's struggles in 2025

 

[Nomad]

Didn't read all the link, but that was a good post.

Maybe it will take years for Mendoza to learn how to take a snap under center. It sounds like an extremely difficult thing to learn . Mendoza actually ran a wing-t offense in high school, where the vast majority of his snaps were under center. Maybe it was a miracle he managed to learn how to catch the ball when in shotgun in college and the center hiked it to him.

With such a concern, Orlovsky had me all but convinced Mendoza would be the first rookie QB in NFL history to go from 99% shotgun to taking snaps under center. A little research:

• Jared Goff: Ran a spread system at Cal. Took the Rams to the SB playing both under center and shotgun. Done even better under center in Detroit
• Josh Allen: Mostly played shotgun (couldn't find a %) to a Buffalo Bills offense that uses him under center, often to leverage his size for play-action.
• Jalen Hurts: You assumed he played college under center? Tush push and all? Nope. Adapted from a shotgun-heavy collegiate career to arguably the most diverse offense in the NFL mostly under center.
• Dak Prescott: Another pread system guy in college almost always in shotgun, to a pro-style offense in Dallas.
• Ryan Tannehill: Another spread guy in college, who went to taking significant snaps under center for Tennessee.
• Bo Nix: I know what you're thinking. That can't be right? Well, Nix played a very heavy shotgun set at Oregon (and Auburn). He immediately took to taking snaps under center during the Senior Bowl, and of course for Denver.

Nice research there. Fun fact about Hurts is that he wasn't throwing the ball exceptionally well at Bama (or at least up to the coaching staff's expectations) so there was a possibility of a position change. And with Hurts being benched in favor of Tua, he transferred to Oklahoma to play for Lincoln Riley. Riley who runs air raid offense (played QB for & was a GA under Mike Leach at Texas Tech) transformed Hurts to an elite passer in just one season! (averaged about 275 yds a game, 3rd Team All-American & Heisman finalist!). It was all under the shotgun where he was beating teams with both his arm & legs (added 1200 yds rushing from all shotgun formation).

In fact, Riley's air raid offense has produced 3 Heisman winners & #1 OA picks - Mayfield, Murray & Williams. Riley is currently working with another top QB at USC (Jayden Maiava) who was projected as a 2nd rounder had he declared for the draft this year. Maiava (3rd Team All-Big 10) could become a 1st rounder even push for the #1 OA spot with the continued development under Riley.

And Mayfield & Williams are taking significant snaps under center - especially Williams under Ben Johnson, who's an under center proponent like Kubiak. With Murray, Arizona utilized more shotgun because of the disadvantage he has under center with his height (short dual-threat QBs don't do that well under center).

Even Mahomes, who throughout his career had a shotgun-to-under center play call ratio of 4-1, said he can play just as well under center if Reid wants to move more toward that trend:

Patrick Mahomes makes it clear he doesn’t have a preference regarding an aspect of the offense that could change everything

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs need to switch things up a bit.

atozsports.com

 

[movingtarget]

Report: Giants DT Dexter Lawrence requests trade, not expected to participate in offseason program

 

[Nomad]

NFL ending ‘Monday Night Football’ doubleheaders, exploring adding Thanksgiving Eve game

The NFL will redistribute the five games in standalone windows.

www.nytimes.com

I don't know about you guys, but I liked the double-headers. The 2nd game was always a West Coast or Pacific time zone team hosting.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I like MNF double headers also. Believe it or not, that's where I think Dan Orlovsky does best, as a 2nd color guy in those games. He's compelled to give very brief comments, state facts and get to the point. He can break down and analyze plays well when on ESPN too. But mostly he just stirs things up to agitate people, and it gets annoying. Orlovsky does almost as well as Kurt Warner. The best I think is JT O'Sullivan, but he's only on his own YouTube channel, and he can drone on for too long. But he's very analytical. Very sharp guy.

I'm very confident Mahomes could play 10:1 under center/shotgun, and he'd do fine. I'm more worried about his mobility because of his knee.

That report about Mayfield playing hurt explains a few things.

Most of the UFL games this weekend were good. Very energized crowd in Columbus, though their team (basically an expansion team) is going to struggle, and did.