By Nick Shook
NFL.com
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Melvin Gordon‘s rookie campaign in 2015 was disappointing, almost as much as the lack of civility in the current presidential campaigns, which ended Tuesday. But unlike the nasty battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Gordon has proven those early ugly moments weren’t signs of things to come.

A year after failing to reach the end zone and receiving alarming reps as a kick returner in training camp, Gordon is, as Gregg Rosenthal wrote, a far superior back. Gordon has moved well past his 2015 season yardage total (641) and taken his career touchdown total from zero to nine, thanks to his most recent game, which happened to be his best performance as a professional. Continue reading →

By Nick Shook
NFL.com
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Carolina hasn’t had a great start to battling the Super Bowl loser hangover. The Panthers opened the season with a loss to Denver, and notched just one win over its next five games. A date with the Arizona Cardinals didn’t look any easier for Carolina. But a shift in approach on offense changed the outcome for the first time since Week 2.

Instead of trying to hit the home run deep, the Panthers focused on carving up the Cardinals‘ pressure-focused defense by connecting on short passes. Carolina varied offensive formations, running out of the shotgun and pistol with decent success, and turning to the play action out of offset I formations to complete quick throws on a few occasions. Many of those quick passes went to Ted Ginn Jr., who utilized his toe-dragging ability along the sideline on multiple occasions. Continue reading →

By Nick Shook
NFL.com
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Jay Ajayi stunned the NFL by becoming the first 200-yard rusher of the 2016 season in Week 6 against the Steelers. A week later, he did it again against Buffalo.

Ajayi went from rushing for 117 combined total yards in Weeks 2-5 to 418 in his last two. Ryan Tannehill remains a question mark, but one thing is for certain: Ajayi is the bell cow in Miami.

The biggest surprise of it all is the simplicity with which Miami is helping Ajayi gain all of those yards. Continue reading →

By Nick Shook
NFL.com
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Ezekiel Elliott was a near-consensus pick for Rookie of the Year at the start of the season. When considering the offensive line he’d run behind and the collection of talent around him in Dallas, it’s tough to disagree. But no one saw this — a league-leading 546 yards and five touchdowns on 109 carries — coming.

So how is Dallas, beyond its stellar offensive line, helping Elliott eat up so many yards? Well, against Cincinnati, personnel groupings and formation strength didn’t exactly help tip whether Elliott was due for a carry. Of his 15 carries, seven came in 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two receivers), and seven came in 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three receivers), according to Next Gen Stats. On his touchdown runs, one was a run up the middle in a formation with a strength to the left. The other was a 60-yard scamper off the right guard, coming out of a balanced formation.

What makes the difference for Elliott is the small creases — created by both long blocks from tight ends and receivers in motion, and second-level seals from his linemen — and the running back’s rare acceleration. Give Elliott a small amount of room to work and he darts through it like the finest sports car off the line. That 60-yard score was a prime example of this. Continue reading →

By Nick Shook
NFL.com
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We’ve all taken a look at the box score from Atlanta’s surprising win over Carolina. Was it a changing of the guard? It’s too soon to tell. But it was a day to remember for Matt Ryan and Julio Jones.

Ryan exceeded 500 yards passing and connected on four passing touchdowns in a high-scoring affair. Three-hundred of Ryan’s 503 yards belonged to Jones. Numbers like that command attention and explanation, and it grabbed ours. Continue reading →

By Nick Shook
NFL.com
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Minnesota is the miraculous darling of the league after three weeks. The Vikings lost their starting quarterback, traded first- and fourth-rounders for Sam Bradford, trotted out Shaun Hill in Week 1 and somehow, are 3-0.

Much of the credit is due to the Vikings‘ defense. The unit faced its toughest task of the young campaign: take down the reigning NFC champion Panthers by ending their 14-game home winning streak. They needed to look only two weeks earlier — to Denver’s 21-20 win over Carolina — to see how it could be done.

The Vikings just upped the ante by five more sacks.

So how did they do it? It wasn’t a tale of blinding speed that allowed the Vikings to get to Newton eight times, but was instead rooted in how much head coach Mike Zimmer and defensive coordinator George Edwards trust their front four. The faith looks to be unshaken, as Minnesota went with a nickel package to defend the pass (four defensive linemen, two linebackers, five defensive backs) on an astounding 54 of 72 defensive snaps (75 percent), according to Next Gen Stats. Continue reading →

By Nick Shook
NFL.com
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Typically, one of the first aspects of the NFL about which rookies comment is the speed of the pro game. It’s tough to truly understand from the television camera angle, but once at field level, it can be startling.

Another way to comprehend the elite level at which these players move is through quantifiable numbers. It’s 2016, and thanks to the beauty of the Information Age, we have Next Gen Stats.

This week’s look at Next Gen Stats starts with the speed of the NFL’s true burners. They’re often seen as the players lined up wide and sent on “go” routes, but this top-end acceleration exists in all parts of the game. Before we get to the less-glorified speedsters, we’ll first turn to the positions often referred to as “skilled.”

Thursday Night Football’s first Color Rush night of the season featured plenty of monochromatic blurs, but none was faster than Buffalo’s Marquise Goodwin. A decorated track and field athlete, the former Olympic triple jumper hit a top speed of 22.25 mph and zoomed right past Darrelle Revis on his 84-yard touchdown reception, which was good for the fastest recorded speed of any ball-carrier in the 2016 season — until Sunday night. Continue reading →

By Nick Shook
NFL.com
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Entering Year Two of the Todd Bowles era, the Jets‘ defense figures to be as formidable as ever. Just don’t tell that to A.J. Green.

Matched up against the famed Darrelle Revis, Green went to work, catching all 10 of his targets for 152 yards and a touchdown. It was startling to see Revis, known so much for his prowess in one-on-one situations, failing to effectively cover Green in such scenarios.

To Revis’s credit, it’s impossible for a cornerback to cover a receiver forever, so what about that Jets‘ front seven that’s supposed to be getting to Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton?

Well, they did their fair share. But after holding the Bengals back early, Cincinnati adjusted. Continue reading →