Coach Lynn extended

[Leoric]

 

Interesting to extend after a season earning the 7th overall pick. 🤷‍♂️

Edited February 3, 2020 by Boltstrikes

[Zappaz]

Seems like they are giving him a chance to get "his guy" at QB to see how he does. 

[Dr LBC]

Says one of two things to me and I'm not sure which:

1) Dean's not ready yet to blame Telesco, but Telesco realizes his seat may, existentially (i.e. everywhere but in Spanos' office), be getting a little heat, so this is putting up a protective barrier, realizing that Dean would then need to incur the cost of firing both him and paying out Lynn's contract.

2) The organization (your opinion is as good as mine on who all that entails) realizes that the issue/area where improvement is most needed is in the talent acquisition/evaluation department not in the "once they hit the field"/culture department.  This is the thing that I can't help but feel like is a bit overoptimistic on my part.

[BoltsFan937]

I like coach Lynn personally, just not sure he’s an X’s and O’s coach that can match wits with the better coaches in the league.

[Dr LBC]

This seemed as good a place to drop this as any.  The Chargers did something... smart(?!).

 

[Xenos]

8 hours ago, The LBC said:

This seemed as good a place to drop this as any.  The Chargers did something... smart(?!).

 

I wanted Bill Callahan when he was available but Campen isn't bad.

[Xenos]

Color me surprised by the Lynn extension. I thought he was going to play out this year like McCoy did to see how he would fare.

[Duffman57]

Since I’m a huge OL nerd and like to do research on random things, here’s what I got on Campen. 

 

He’s been an absolute monster at developing players. But the question that I have is if the development was more on the side of identifying talent or if it was actual development of skill. Maybe it’s a bit of both, but there’s something there. He supposedly had a huge say in who was drafted in the Packers, and I’m hoping that we give him that chance here. He’s got a huge focus on athleticism similar to Meyer, but has done a better job on figuring out how to develop an anchor. 

 

As someone else had a video on, he teaches a “hug” technique where instead of trying to win inside leverage, OTs actually give up their chest and shoot outside of the frame while squaring up the defender, which avoids a hold since they’re squared up, but prevents them from getting out of being squared up. It’s a really interesting strategy and when it works it works really well. So overall wanting a similar type of player with some different techniques that will hopefully improve the development. 

 

But the biggest thing is the development piece. So let’s take a look at his draft history. 

 

2007

4th: Allen Barbre 

2008

4th: Josh Sitton 

5th: Breno Giacomini

2009

4th: TJ Lang

5th: Jamon Meredith

2010

1st: Brian Bulaga 

5th: Marshall Newhouse 

2011

1st: Derrick Sherrod

6th: Caleb Schrauderhoff

2012

7th: Andrew Datko 

2013

4th: JC Tretter

4th: David Bakhtiri 

2014

5th: Corey Linsley 

2016

2nd: Jason Spriggs

7th: Kyle Murphy 

2017

6th: Kofi Amicha

 

These are absolutely insane results. Really the only person he didn’t get through to is Jason Spriggs. Sherrod has some good moments but absolutely got destroyed by injuries akin to Lamp. Everyone else that didn’t meet/exceed expectations was a 6th or 7th rounder where the expectation is realistically borderline making the team. 

 

But looking all the way into skill set and all of that. You see a theme and it comes with the whole agility thing. 

 

A packers fan and a really good analytics guy (had a great breakdown of what the packers selected in their OL early). So basically we’re looking for blind side protectors with really good agility and ability to get out of their stance quickly. 
 

 

 

Where it gets interesting is that that is the same kind of profile that Meyer drafted for and a LOT of our guys fit exactly that qualification. Lamp, Pipkins, Okung, Schoefield, and Tevi falls BARELY under that threshold with a 7.84 3 cone instead of a 7.7.  Feeney, Quessenberry and Pouncey fit into everything except for playing LT in college. So we have a ton of guys who really fit the scheme. Quessenberry has a crazy similar athletic profile to Tretter, to the point where it’s almost scary. Biggest difference is the arm length and OT background. The other thing that is shown in his draft history is that he hasn’t been afraid to take smaller school guys or projects (Lang, Tretter, Barbre etc), which is also a good sign for Pipkins. 

 

Now onto the fun part....who fits the mold for this year.  Now we don’t have the athletic numbers yet, but there are a couple of guys that make sense if they hit the agility threshold. Along with all of the top OT’s (doubt Becton hits the agility threshold, but Thomas, Wirfs, Willis, Jones, Jackson) saadhiq Charles (who I REALLY want to see work with Campen) Ben Bartch (dame), Trey Adams, Prince, Cleveland, Adenji, Charlie Heck, and my draft crush Cam Clark along with a few other names. But those are the guys that I think have a really good shot at hitting the threshold. So the combine will definitely be something to watch as far as the OL goes.

Edited February 6, 2020 by Duffman57

[BoltsFan937]

That’s great stuff Duffman!

[Duffman57]

After watching some more tape on him.  There isn't a player that fits this scheme better than Saahdiq Charles...He perfectly embodies the technique.  When he's good, he looks like Bakhtiari clone.  When he's bad he's real bad, but those are mostly fixable flaws.  He's a guy that could end up being a top 5 type of OT if he hits, and you can get him at a discount because of those lows.  He has very quickly jumped to the top of my want list. 

[CWood21]

On 2/6/2020 at 11:43 AM, Duffman57 said:

Since I’m a huge OL nerd and like to do research on random things, here’s what I got on Campen.

You got a good one in Campen.  He's probably the only coach from the McCarthy era that Packers fans were disappointed they didn't retain.  He was loyal to McCarthy, so it makes sense that he wasn't going to be retained but it was disappointing nonetheless.  He's one of the best OL coaches in the game.

[Duffman57]

23 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

You got a good one in Campen.  He's probably the only coach from the McCarthy era that Packers fans were disappointed they didn't retain.  He was loyal to McCarthy, so it makes sense that he wasn't going to be retained but it was disappointing nonetheless.  He's one of the best OL coaches in the game.

Yeah he’s done really well and did good with what he was able to with the Browns. Just sometimes you can’t put everything together in 1 season. Really glad we got him. He’s a great hire. Particularly because we’ve struggled drafting linemen in the past and he can be a voice in the draft room. Hopefully he can be a constant for this OL that desperately needs consistency. 

[Duffman57]

Alright so I'm back with my nerdery, and follow up from the above essay.

Thanks to a packers fan, and big football analytics twitter presence (and FF alum), Justis Mosqueda (@justism is a great twitter follower if your my kind of nerd), he basically broke down and found that every OL that James Campen picked from the time he became the OL coach in 2007 through the end of his career with GB in '17 followed the same criteria....which is......

Experience at (blind side, though I think that's coincidental) OT Sub 4.75 Short Shuttle Sub 7.7 3 Cone Sub 1.8 10yd (though this is the one he's broken a few times).

In the top 4 rounds, he's only broken one of those rules (10yd split), once (Sherrod had a 1.87 10yd split). Outside of 4 rounds, every single player has coincided with the agility numbers, but 2 of the players didn't have OT experience (Corey Linsley, and some guy named Caleb Schlauderoff, who were full time C's and OG's respectively in college, though still followed the agility #'s)

And that brings me to "why make another post". And that answer is because the OL ran at the combine today, and what else would I be doing at 10pm on a saturday night than to be analyzing how fast 300lb men can run around cones. So here's the guys to watch out for......

First off, there was only 5 players ALONE, that hit the 3 cone mark, so that already severely limited the group. But what the good news is, is that 4/5 I believe, also hit the short shuttle mark. Those names are...

*Tristan Wirfs * He's just a FREAK all around.....this should be expected. But he's put himself on another level with this athletic testing. We all knew it was coming, but he's not only got the athleticism, but has the play to back everything up. If we go OT early, he's been my choice for a while.

*Andrew Thomas * This one surprised me a little bit because despite what the film shows, he's got a bit of a sloppy build. People have gotten hype fatige on him, but he's just so ridiculously solid. Elite hand usage, and combining that with his elite length, and lateral foot speed just makes him almost impossible to beat in pass pro. He's not the same sort of people mover in the run game Wirfs is, but he's so advanced in pass pro and fits the scheme very well. Honestly I think that if we go OT at 6, he's the easy bet. He didn't quite make the 10 yard split number, but I'm not too worried about that.

*Ezra Cleveland * He's probably the standout of the combine OL group not named Wirfs. And his performance honestly got overshadowed by Wirfs. His agility, speed and really just all around numbers were great. But his agility numbers really stood out. His 7.2 is one of the best 3 cones since 05' (Furthest back I can see on NFL.com). He's an extremely good fit for the scheme and could definitely be a round 2-3 option if we go QB in the 1st. But Tony Pauline has heard that he's getting some 1st round Buzz, just like Dillard did last year. He's a guy that could jump up.

John Runyon Jr.

This was another little bit of a surprise, but not a total shock to me. He was on my watchlist. He'd be a perfect candidate to kick into OG for this scheme. He fits the exact mold, and I wouldn't be shocked to see him in a Chargers uniform in April. He fits exactly the mold that Campen has sought in the OL over his career.

Then there's one guy who hit the numbers without any OT experience.

Matt Hennesey

The Very athletic C fits the mold really well. He's kind of what you'd expect from a scheme that loves guys with lateral agility in spades. He's gotta work a bit on his anchor, and isn't really playing a position that we have a huge need at (since Quess also fits the mold really well, and so does Feeney). So I don't see him being a bigtime candidate. He makes the last guy who hit both of the agility numbers.

While, Yes, there are a very limited number of guys who fit this mold that tested. But that's the big thing that should be starred. THAT TESTED. There's a lot of guys at the combine that I think/thought that would have hit that mark, but didn't test in the agility drills. Some of the guys are....

Ben Bartch, Saadhiq Charles (sprained his ankle in drills), Prince Tega-Wanogo, Jedrick Willis, Nick Harris, Josh Jones, Hakeem Adeniji, Cam Clark, and Jack Driscoll among a few others are all guys who had a legit shot at getting the agility numbers. Not to say that all of them would hit the numbers, but I think they all at least had a shot. Especially the first 3 names, who I think were all but guaranteed to hit the agility thresholds.

There are also the guys who BARELY missed the threshold numbers. THese guys were less than a 10th of a second off of one or both of the 2 numbers.

Danny Pinter (7.76 3 cone), Kyle Murphy (7.8 3 cone), Alex Taylor (7.77 3 cone, 4.79 SS). All of these guys could be considered either in UDFA or the late rounds.

But that just gives us some guys to really key in on for the draft. Thanks for listening to my ted talk.

[Leoric]

Really good stuff Duffman. What’s your thoughts on Becton’s performance? Would really like to see the Chargers double dip on tackles this year with the idea that if Tevi is salvageable one could kick inside. 

[Duffman57]

22 minutes ago, Boltstrikes said:

Really good stuff Duffman. What’s your thoughts on Becton’s performance? Would really like to see the Chargers double dip on tackles this year with the idea that if Tevi is salvageable one could kick inside. 

First off, why are you kicking Tevi inside.  The biggest thing he struggles with is his anchor, which will get massively exposed at OG, and the best thng about his game is how he moves and blocks in space, which will be taken away from his game.  That's going to make it SO much worse.  I'll be curious to see how they try to develop him at OT. Meyer really struggled developing an anchor with guys (Feeney too), so I'm hopeful that Campen can help develop that in Tevi and Feeney and get the best out of them, because they both have really good qualities.

I just don't see the need to double up on OT's.  Pipkins is a perfect fit for Campen, and Tevi would be a perfect swing T with him.  I think we can get 1 very quality starter at RT and not have to even think twice. 

Becton is a massive man, and a great OT, along with the fact that he is an athletic freak.  But I don't think his game fits what Campen (and Lynn) like to do at OT. The guys I think fit best are on that list.  Cleveland, Thomas/Wirfs, Charles, Bartch and Jones (probably).  IMO it's get your guy at QB, and let the OL fall into place and develop.  Thats what you got Campen for, his ability to develop guys in the draft.