Meet the Free Agents: Analysis of Poona Ford, Denzel Perryman and Kristian Fulton Signings

hi I'm Ryan Watkins and this is the pad podcast uh today we're going to be uh doing another film review uh this time looking at the Chargers free agents uh and the defensive ones and how they fit in with Jesse M's defense so we're going to be looking at three people um in particular um so the first person we're going to be looking at is Puna for the defensive tackle uh form at the bills and the the Seattle Seahawks um will get into his player profile but he's quite a squat uh big wide uh defensive tackle that plays inside and does a good job of it he's had AIT a down year last year uh so it's now more about uh how do you revive uh the player he was um just one season ago we're not looking at digging anything too deep um second one is familiar face for Chargers fans so that's Denzel Perman uh inside linebacker formally at the Texans Raiders and obviously the LA and San Diego Chargers um yeah Thumper in side we'll be we'll be excited to see some physicality back in that inside that unit as well as some experience and and Christian Fon the quarterback the most recent Ed Edition he was formerly at the Tennessee Titans for all of his rookie contracts he played that out uh came to not not a very good ending but what what we're going to be uh studying is basically what went wrong and what can we hope to see out of him uh all three guys are role players and we'll be looking at their specific roles both in both out where they were before and in Michigan's defense where would that be reflected so the first one to look at is Puna Ford uh he had a very very quiet year in fact he was inactive a healthy inactive for over half the season um still not made it's still been not been made public as to why that was however when he did play on tape he showed him some some good play uh some good flashes and it's a bit of a mystery to why even his defensive line coach has been quoted as as saying it was just a numbers game I don't know whether they wanted some of the young guys to get more snaps and he was just a safety net but I still think he's got some juice left in him and it's going to be interesting to have a look at him so he last year he had nine tackles one sack and one tfl over those nine games he played he played in less than uh a quarter of the snaps that were available in those games uh however his long-standing career at Seattle for the for the Five Seasons he was there was upstanding he had 191 tackles eight and a half sacks 29 tfls 30 QB hits and 109 pressures over 84 games uh in including a fantastic stretch over three seasons where he got 86 pressures and uh I think it's more about the the fit and the system than it was about the player uh so let's have a look so the first thing to just uh talk about is last last season the bills played almost in exclusively even front they play quite a static uh set of system and allow Their Stars to play Within that um and Puna for was served as a role player within that it was a relief uh for for and especially when the their interior guide to Andre Owens went down um he stepped in and became that hard and nose tackle so the primary role he plays is the nose tackle uh he which is obvious why it's known as a Onex that's what the numbers refer to for those not aware and these are the gaps that they refer to as well so he lines up as a one Tech he can Lear over as a three Tech he I'd say less than a quarter of his snaps in this rle and three quarters in this role um and he he definitely look more comfortable in there because what his best thing is he's 5' 11 310 pound he uses that leverage fantastically he anchors in against double teams and just won't give up ground uh and he just allows his his teammates to get you know their ISO matchups whether that's on run fits or pass uh pass rushing so there can be an off ball linebacker or or a looping uh defensive tackle or a cutting uh defensive end yeah like we're going to have a look at where he can provide that role however his best work was in an a front so this is um Seattle he spent most of his career he he played either the defensive end or the defensive tackle role so defensive end he'd line up in a foury in an eagle front um or he'd play the role defensive tackle and he was absolutely fantastic crashing downwards taken across you know the left guard and the centers are getting across the left card's face taking him with him crashing into the center making sure no neither of them could do anything but to worry about their a gap and the left guard would inevitably slide over allowing you know a defensive attack to loop around and what he would do once he crash there the left guard would obviously panic and try to get back out the center was obviously left in a bad leverage position that is he had someone across his face and there'll be a pins effect on the quarterback whenever anything went right um you know this this is a standard bread and butter St interior stunt from a 34 and he provides like you know the Spiker role this this role here this is mostly as a secondary secondary so just to take away blockers but he fought through it very often um so we look at some plays from P forwards game films so the the the first thing to understand is that like I said he's low squat he can get down anchor up uses low Central ground he put go from play from low to high defensive line coaches will always talk about this um and he's got such a strong lower lower legs that you can anchor in against double teams you just won't give up ground and it's great to see and he keeps fighting through blocks he reads the Run calls very well he's got active hands and feet you know it last season uh again he didn't get a good stretch of uh play time and I think that's a big contributor as to why he didn't show any kind of consistency to his game uh if you're being taken off the field it's hard to build a momentum any any player will tell you that on you know at any level um and he lost his little bit of his a hand hands and feet you know he he was more just just I'm going to take out blocks and just and like you know do my job uh rather than how can I get out of this block and how can I you know keep working across field but he did show that good short area lateral agility whenever he need when he he was asked to he's also surprisingly fast uh getting downfield and he's also able to disengage from blocks which is a skill that not a lot of defensive linemen have a lot of them will get into position and then like you know Jam the jam the uh the offensive lineman push them back sitting their quarters and then they're not able to think of a second move and the running back Clips past their shoulder you know as they're T to do and like he he's able to definitely disengage from those blocks so I'm going to take a look at this first play so he is number 98 he is lined up in the one Tech of this even front and he flows all the way across to the Gap meets him there and Carries On working and drives for a a run stuff but here to go you know 20 yards laterally so I watch that again he's here he crosses the center's face trying to get into this Gap realizes there's no one there running back bounces out and he carries on working and drives him into the floor it's a fantastic rep all around so through that he showed us here you know he he keeps fighting through those blocks he reads the Run con set well because he got to the Gap and kept working across cuz he knows that running back has to bounce that outside and he showed that good short area lateral agility he may not be the most mobile guy but he has that ability to you know step over the bag sideways the next one we're going to see is looking at how he leverages low to high anchors in and has that low center of gravity just absorb contact he is here again in the one Tech rle double team doesn't move doesn't give up up a ground an inch of ground and fires forward for a fantastic rep you'll see that from The End Zone angle in a second he's here again he look there's no one with anywhere anywhere range of him like this is you know quite a standard run fit and but they're relying on puer and Dodson over here to fill these gaps and he manages to give them that time and he keeps fighting all the way through like it's it's what you want to see from your run stuffer as a role uh and what I like personally like is that whil the Chargers have some really interesting Talent at those roles there's no experience there and in terms of the nose tackle that can anchor in and like you know we haven't had that since liverpol Joseph and what I like to see is someone who just is willing to be the secondary guy the not big name uh min of the seaha Seahawks fan group very famous member of the media she is a huge fan of P4 because he is just so selfless and by all accounts including the bills last year it's not an issue of locker room because sh has said that he's a fantastic lock room guy and to be a like you know a block absorbing nose tackle you kind of have to be selfless anyway so the next clip uh is this by the way the P the game against Patriots was his last significant game after that he just was inactive inactive inactive and that's because they got people back from injury and he just fell down to Peck in order so a lot of these clips are try I try always try and go the most recent because no point showing you film from two years ago saying oh yeah this is the guy you're getting you know that's not the guy you're getting you're getting the most recent version of that guy he's not a spring chicken he's 29 I believe so he has got uh you know a lot of a lot of miles on the block but then again he I still feel like he's got a lot left in him so here he shows active hands and feet and impressive Chase Down Speed so he is in the three Tech this time I said he stretches out to this way um to be on the strong side of the field so this time he is in intend going through that Gap he sees it's not there he disengages with a quick swim and he chases all the way down the field fantastic motor and effort I'm going to play that again for us because I just think it's a great rep so he's meant to come in here he sees the the back go Stevenson go to the other side he instead instead of just you know accepting and just saying I'm going to stay here for the cut back he swims over and look at that burst and Tackle it's great stuff and the last clip that we have on P for today is essentially this time he's in back into the nose Tech he keeps fighting keeps fighting keeps fighting and scraping so that's again absorbing that double team but not accepting it you know and that's what we like to see like you know he disengaged from that he got chest to chest but he was still able to get his legs underneath him so chest up in but get his legs planted didn't give give up any ground and you see this repeatedly he just takes these blocks on so uh there is actually a you know a perfect fit for him in Jesse M's defense now uh Min has a uh a match front a hybrid front sorry um whereby he has both an even and odd front he plays him depending on the Personnel on the field depending on what he wants to do he varies it almost randomly and it's you know it keeps people on their toes and what they had in Michigan is a guy called kamam good number 9 UM he was the guy who came onto the field when they were looking at an even front but he also um you know was on in um in odd fronts as well but he was a 40% snap guy 40% of the defensive snap guys number 55 was their Prime R guy kamu was their next so in that role Jenkins always stayed on the field number 94 and that was the defense the defensive line appearing when they had even front it was two of those three so cam good is 6'1 314 so that is you know 2 in taller although his draft profile says that he's 6 foot his Michigan profile says he 6'1 I think we all know what that means and he's only four pounds heavier um he played that rotational role he absorbed double teams to allow ISO matchups and he uses his low squat size and you know big heavy uh legs that can anchor in to leverage against um uh blockers and also create chaos as a Spiker and pass rush sounds familiar right like it's almost like they did their homework and went away and thought who out this free agent class could fill that role for us instead of waiting for the draft you know getting some experience in there as well so as you can see here number 99 he goes under this block here takes on the center and gets straight for a pressure straight away he doesn't wait around uh he you know he flies through a gap that he's meant to you can see here because you've got the Run fit whereby eight got the eight got the outside they're allowing 25 to fill the B Gap from from a bit of an off position because they got a man out here and therefore gives 99 license to just shoot under the center and in for a pressure it's good work so this time uh he is aligned in an odd front as the nose so I feel like uh as much as B for has played that role but it's been less of his majority role uh he played more of the 55 or the 94 rle here so that's a defensive uh you know defensive ends and the def he's instead of the no tackle defensive tackle um so it I I think he does have the profile to play there and I would like to see it um so as you can see here good steps in sees motion time SN steps across plays across keeps flowing across and he fills that interior Gap meaning the back has to flow out so I'll pause it when the the Gap he get he he he's meant to fill this Gap and then if not he's going to slide across the face of uh the the left guard here so he sees everything go against him so he flows over you see crash into his his teammate essentially because he he he's he reads this so early and then he gets across to this Gap here fills that role so now the back cannot go here even though he's going to get double teamed and if 17 fied this more aggressively as the end does he had a pass coverage Ro but he's got to make that that run pass read a little bit quicker if he steps down and then that allows the the the linebacker to step down then you've got a good run fit but this mean he got sealed here meaning this was a big play you've always got to look Beyond like you know the big plays the Finish plays you know when they end up with a sack or a big tackle for loss or something like that you've got to understand what their role is within the defense and if they did it well that's going to be what they get drafted for that's going to be what's going to get the Chargers wins every week so if we go through a summary of Puna our first guy so he's 29 he has had no major injuries and astoundingly he's only missed one game for injury in six seasons he's had plenty of minor niggles that he's just he's worked through he does have a scrapped up shoulder but it's not hindered him so far he hasn't missed a game because of it and he's just always available so the contract he's looking at is we're estimating this but essentially it was reported as vet minimum so that's one year 915k it's almost not you know expendable money you could even like cut him in Camp and it would be absolutely no problem however I don't think that's what their intention with him he is going to be the backup Run f um run Focus lineman you can take on double teams you know absorb blocks in in the Run game allow the linebackers or safeties even to fill give them time uh and he can also create a really nice Spike effect on stunts to flow inside allow our Elite pass rushers now that we've you know retained Ma and boa and we've still got Tully in the door it's it's just an outstanding opportunity just to think okay we've got one position sorted we got a pass rush at the leite you know shed that on a really bad defense last year the pass rush is still absolutely Elite so he's going to allow them to win their ISO matchups and I just think that's a it's a great outs with a lot of upside so it's cheap signing that's positive so we're looking at a cheap signing experiencing multiple roles and multiple systems he's always available so he's going to be on that death chart where the guys around and want him to want him there all he'll be there nothing's going to move him and he has three down upside because he does have a history of being a good pass rush I didn't show it uh in in the bills last last season but in Seattle he was he was there I mean like how how do you go over 100 pressures in a six-year career without being a good pass rusher he has that little burst he can get through a gap and you know keep pursuing up field and you know he's got surprising speed too now the negative is we still don't know why he didn't play um uh the second half of the season and barely played in the first half of the Season even with all the injuries they had um it doesn't seem like as a big negative as in l there's a big red flag outstanding on him uh the Chargers always do their homework on this car that said they wouldn't take a punt on someone uh unless they knew what that was and you know but uh the other negative is as as a solo guy he in terms of is he going to penetrate is he going to create that interior pressure on his own most likely no he needs he's a team player and overall his mobility issues know he's got huge heavy legs he's not going to be you know chasing down sideline to sideline um we showing that he can flow with the gaps that's good and he can cut off back and he's also a strong you guy um same as same as kamam go was in Michigan see more uh more and more alignment between the two and um you know just if we look at it in general I I don't know why play didn't play more but because his tape was positive I've put on three games uh of his and from the samsy was on there's no reason he should have been taken off the field he didn't miss miss assignments you know he didn't make any explosive plays on his own but he didn't miss you know didn't do anything wrong either so I think it's more about the other guys that they had so I think it's it's a worthy gamble overall so the next one we're going to be looking at is Denzel Perman uh you know he was in the he was at the charges for many uh many years uh both San Diego and La before moving to the the Raiders Texans last year and now uh he's back uh back in Southern California so uh last year he had 76 tackles uh half attack 10 Run 10 and a half run stuffs three passes defended over 12 games uh he had some injury problems which we going into uh hence why s tackles for the inside linebackers pretty pretty low especially as he was their starter when he was available um but if you look at his career as a whole he had you know 662 tackles six and a half sacks 55 run I like you know uh nine turnovers and 14 pass defended over a wealth of games over 100 games uh that he's had under his feet so far so Denzel Perman is a a he's that hammer prototypical inside linebacker that you know in days of old like these were the stars and essentially what his job is I'm going to fill the other a gap you know we have in an even front you have your one Tech fill one he fills the other or his one FS there he steps down to the B Gap he always refers the a gap uh and and but he does play he can play either that Michael Sam uh mik middle Sam is strong uh sided linebacker in an even front uh he because of this role because he's either filling in inside or you know playing within the hashes within the tackles even his matchup is usually with the quarterback or the running back so that's that's his other role within this you know in a pass defense as well um so as you can see here he fill the B Gap with a pretty simple run fit you know everyone just lines up and hits their Gap as the traditional 4-3 defense does um but his best work so he was a pro bowler once which was under Patrick went Patrick Graham came across the New York Giants to the Las Vegas Raiders he played the micro in the odd front there so uh the particular Eagle front and he ended up with 154 tackles you know finished top six in total tackles and third in Solo stops um and I I I think this is where he suits it better yeah we'll go into the Texas film from last year but I feel like that year was his best year it might have been just you know where he reached his physical peak uh but it's good to see see that he he has been able to play in both systems that's going to be important for the you know the charges when they get into Jesse Minter harrid fronts you know everything is to match everything is to answer everything is to attack you know like solve your problems of aggression so in this Eagle front his job is to play two roles so the first is that he is going to be lined up in a 20 uh roughly alignment so um for those who haven't uh come across linebacker alignments before you've got the numbers here for the defensive lineman anytime you're going to uh you're trying to work out whether the linebackers aligning you just had a zero at the end of it so that would be 20 30 d0 you know 50 so he is lined up in a you know directly over the guard here trying to play two directional um and he's playing from a20 so he feels the a gap from this role or if the line flows then he flows and he flows over the top and it hacks down the the you know the the alley the the Apex Lane um perimeter is good in this because he has the ability to read early but still play patient and that's something you'll see on his film he sees it but then he'll wait for something to develop wait for a pull out wait for something else he'll even direct traffic which uh which is a really good asset of his as an experienced linebacker and it it means that he can fit the run without over overc committing so he played last season under Matt B the defensive coordinator for the uh Houston Texans and it it bit bit of a shame for me because he was only limited to playing early Downs they kind of took him off the field when they knew okay it's definitely a passing down here so third and long uh or you know two minutes drills something like that he didn't stay on the on the field because they asked their linebackers to a lot but listen you got Christian Harris next to them he stayed on the field especially in their lighter looks when they had you know one linebacker on the field uh in their dime uh dime looks um Christian Harris is younger faster more aggressive and can Blitz where whereas Perman I mean it speaks for itself that he had half sack last season and under 10 sacks in his career which is surprising cuz I seem to remember him uh getting some nice work in the back field but it's probably those tfls on those run stuffs um and so yeah so he is playing here in the mic R of this even front he plays patient he watch the pullers and he hits the hammer and he comes downhill hard he when he comes downhill there's no second guessing there's no waiting so he's he stays here he sees the initial run develop he waits for the pullers to clear and he comes and he executes and that timing is only something that comes with experience you're not going to be able to get that um on your first day in the position because you know most people would overp pursue that and then there'll be a cut back Lane so if he if he did just hammer down straight away as soon as you'd see that he'd hammer down here and then number 79 would have crash him out and then there' be a run alley Where in behind his hips so his biggest weakness has always always been his past coverage I mean I think that's one of the reasons why the Chargers moved on with him on for him in the first placees whilst he provided a nice bit of physicality in the middle like you know Gus Bradley wanted people to play you know in in zones in space and it's taken a while for him like linebacker always Peak so much later than any other position because they just so much the process it's always been a position that I've you know really valued because they have to see both uh both sides of the uh the coin and defense they have to see run and pass just as just as well as not anymore that you take a re step forward then you panic and get her back out to a pass pass alignment uh he has become a better Zone uh uh um coverer and he you know has a bit more Mobility going back then now he's worked on his back pedal quite clearly um so you'll see here that he is in this role here so he's in the mic again he flows over stays with his man comes back over and pursues all the way to take on the quarterback here uh which is Lamar Jackson which is you know no mean fet uh but it's the way that he keeps his feet active he he keeps working over the top he drifts into the space well so he's calling out you know pass protection he lines over keeps inside side shuffles and then Sprints Sprints Sprints Sprint Sprints forces thear Jackson to go out bounce protect himself so that that overall is a really good coverage rep because he did a bit of everything so his fit essentially is going to be uh Michael Barett number 23 for the Michigan defense he's actually a senior be really interested to see if they draft him basically aot you know guys in the same role one experien one one young see what they can do in terms of working a relationship together um and they are essentially the same size Perman is 5'1 240 he is 6 6' 239 um and what he's going to bring to that role though is a little bit extra is that experience Communicator directing uh the guys around him because we whil we have Nick nean in the in the linebacker room that's not someone that has a lot of playing experience he has playing he experienc being on a team special teams especially but he's not got to that point in his career where he's going to be directing you know the the overall picture he could apparently could even wear the Green Dot uh as long as he's he's familiar with the verbiage so um yeah as well uh how he fits in in terms of Michael Barrett but Michael Barrett came off the field in light box Personnel they prefer Junior Coulson to be on the field especially in their Penny fronts but he played both Mike and Mike and Sam and even fronts or Mike and will in off fronts played that a gap took on blockers matched up with the running back it's very familiar and you start to see a pattern they're not pulling these guys together randomly they've all got a purpose so on this one number 23 uh he gets driven back at the End by number 72 decided to take a cheap shot but yeah so he sees that he directs now I want to I want to play this again to make sure that it's understood just how good this is so he when he steps down to this you'll see his arm wave and he waves number 25 over to follow the blocker someone's got to follow the the pulling blocker so he's telling him follow him I'm going to fill this fill the TR so he says okay so kazuk could look like he could wait for the big gap to open and they're trying to slide across maybe get this one open but he sees you know his teammate here he's said I'm going to wait for him to penetrate he's he's penetrating up here but he's got a double team so he knows I'm going to attack into this double team go between them and he stuffs that run you know that that's a good inside linebacker play because he's you know waiting playing patiently but hit is still hitting that hole and not letting up any ground so the the next play so uh he he plays the the the role of I'm going to match with the running back on this one uh and it's a really important rep um so in this front he is in the even front he is playing the uh Sam row on this one so he is flow he's going to flow with the running back that he's lined up to so they're going to motion uh tight end across then they're going to send this guy here Arrow pass but he is just pursuing he's got there before anyone he's got there really quickly to just flow flow flow flow flow and over for no gain despite the amount of space that he had and so that's he's going to be his roller overall he's going to be both the hammer and also he's going to you know match with the running back stay with him he he's not someone who's going to be lined up opposite tight ends and do a great job like I said he can play zone uh he can beat that zone eyes in the in between the hashes uh I think he probably do it better than Kenneth Murray did last season uh he's not up to Kendrick's level uh but he is going to be you know the the other one the other role in the linebacker it's always a tandem always a JY jro now he is 31 it's not too old it's not too young uh you know he's probably passed his absolute Peak um but the bigger concern is the he's had a lot of minor injuries that come with um the territory of the role um but he overall he hasn't missed more than two games in a row since his LC but he's also not played more than 12 games in a season for three seasons now I think it was 11 12 and 12 uh so it he will give up snaps to uh his backups now obviously you got Diane Henley in the room and Mina requires a ton of linebackers operating his system he's obviously going to tweak his system that he did in Michigan it's not a carbon copy but what we will be looking at is essentially a lot of bodies going to be put into camp at the very least you know see who can fill that role because it's not always just like oh yes put them all on the first two days of the draft especially in this class it's not the best class so his contract is one year 3 million cheap affordable temporary and that one year it's always key it's giving guys over to the future seeing what he's got left in the tank so it's a cheap signing in a position of need uh experience in hybrid front so he Patrick was had a really nice quote he said whatever you ask me if you ask me I'm a three4 I am a three4 if you ask me I'm a 44 I'm a 44 if I if you ask me I'm a 43 I'm a 43 because he played everything and that's his philosophy it still is and that's something that me strongly you know abides by uh he he is not necessar from Patrick Graham that might have comeing from same familiar coaching tree however he plays that as well he's going to be I'm going to play what I want to play as we looked at last week um so he also provides that physicality apparently we we remember his hits we've seen them on the other side I think he he had a really nasty hit on Aira a couple of years ago in in Las Vegas and yeah he just he just yeah him not the ball out and it's going to be something that we you know we're going to see again he's going to come downhill um he's not fluent enough though to play anywhere outside the hashes and passing down so in in but M are all protects the hashes he has safeties there he has specific nickel roles uh he doesn't really rely on a linebacker to just buzz out there and just take on take on whatever kind of slot there is the modern offenses are too complicated for that and they have too too much speed and Juice in that area so he's going to be protected within the system but it means that he shouldn't be on the field in lighter look so you know five uh 51 Penny you know or even the the the um the odd fronts where he's asking his linebackers to step down on Blitz he's not that guy either he's not a good Blitzer he he would just sort of drive at a shoulder he's got no moves um but he can occupy blocks when necessary so it means he he can do that matching he can step forward step off the line uh you know sugar Sim as M likes to do but he's not going to be uh correcting Splash plays on his own from that position uh he's slowing down after ref there's no doubt about that uh but he's still got the the the speed to be uh a good part of this defense especially in the beginning when he you just need that experience on the field and as I've said he missed a consistent amount of games every year so uh he might be slowing down he might be not on the field all the time but when he is on the field I think we all know what he's going to give us and that's important now the last one Christian Fulton so he is a uh a cornerback so um on the Tennessee Titans he spent all of his rookie contract there so all four years and um last year he had 46 tackles sack one and a half run five passive Defenders over 11 games now 11 games mean he had an injury which we'll talk about uh and also he was uh uh benched at one point of the Season as well uh sent a message and um between the injuries and the benching it means that he wasn't on the field too much however when he was on the field for for the rest of his career he's got a lot more tackles 150 uh aack two run two and a half run stuffs five turnovers and 25 passes defended and um you know he he's played 41 games uh you know in the NFL that's a a corner he's played 41 games in the NFL uh you know and is still desirable enough to be a free agent uh to still you know be um sought after in the early part of the free agency period is is no mean feat um Fulton spent his whole career in Mike rael's qus heavy heavy coverage scheme um he varable uh ran it 24% of the time which is very high for the NFL in fact 9% above the league average now you got some dinosaurs in the league who aren't going to replay anything this complicated uh he's not going to trust his players that that much however even like the top guys weren't that far ahead of what variable used um now Fon played the right cornerback or left as we're looking at it but right a right cornerback position and he L left there he he only came inside the the the hashes if he was asked to play on against a very tight formation so that's like a a tight end and no receivers on this side um and you know on the odd occasion where he was matched up with the only wide receiver on this side and then there was a fullback or running back out here and they and they put a safety or a linebacker down on him to you know stay true um so coming out of LSU the the the fit was always a strange one for everyone that remembers him being drafted in the second round because he was a press heavy you know down down low um guy you know Just sh 6 foot he played in the SEC so he was tasked with going up some really tough receivers some really tough guys and he was then tasked to go into a Zone quarter system uh but what I think what they look for is the fact that despite you know being slightly undersized to play that outy corner role he he played with an assertiveness an aggressiveness uh and I think R really identified with that um so the quarters coverage though that they played just because I I think it's important to go go over this uh is you have a box to the strong side it's usually meant against three1 formations however these days you know can work against any of them uh a box of a strong side where you got three receivers and a triangle to uh the weak side now essentially anything that comes in the front of the weak side that's going to be this uh Apex players that are sometimes a line backer sometimes it's a a dime uh um uh safety uh and then anything goes over the top of this zone is going to be the responsibility of the weak side safety and anything that goes on the outside is going to be the responsibility of the corner and now on the strong side you've got one more man to deal with this so you become essentially create a box so there are no weak spots you've got the underneath which goes to the Apex the inside underneath which goes to the linebacker the on top that goes to the safety and the on top and outside so you've got quarter go to half so the field here is split into quarters so you've got the strong side quarter anything deepen inside this is the responsibility of the corner anything deepen inside this is within the uh the safeties role um and so the there is a bit of a difference with um the the the quarters rules in terms of the pattern match because uh this is a Zone quarters system same Jesse M just again seeing where their thinking is coming from there looking for people who are experienced in how the reads are going to be made they don't want someone who's got the potential to make those reads they want someone who is going to make the same reads uh now as we saw with Staley's pattern match essentially in a pattern match so the corner is going to be reading all three receivers so he's going to be reading two through two uh two through one to three and he's going to be staying with number one as long as he goes vertical until number two breaks out then he's going to attack down and leave number one to be taken up by here but that creates a whole shot there uh and that's not including the case number three goes deep as well in that case the weak side safety has to roll over and the quarters become muddied by the patter match rules and Jess Andre will both like to play true Zone rules so this is his area this is his area this is his area this is his area this is his area and this channel was his alone so what that means is essentially we're going to be seeing quicker trigger from all of the defense uh and it means that the the the fits can be true to what the concept is so C qu half or C's was created essentially to be M create two on ones so in against this offensive concept um you're looking at a a a vertical threat attacking here attacking here then you've got uh number two trying to drag out this safety out of the way and create a window on this post uh and then alternative you're trying to K conflict here and then lastly as the the last option on the strong side you've got the number three the the tight end that's going to be attacking down here trying to keep this Defender under and create a window here so this is a concept that is actually designed to attack CS that's why I chose I chose it to have a look at so you can understand how the offense is trying to make make this play work and how the defense respond to it and the pass is always the the wheel which is meant to if this corner decides to drag in then this linebacker's got a long way to turn and go out field and the quarterback can go over the top to the sideline uh you see this quite a lot uh especially in um you know uh patn match rules cuz he would go there he would go there that's the rules how the quarter system looks to answer it is essentially everyone's got to respond initially and then readjust readjust so the uh the corner here has got quite a simple jobs here job was to squeeze the post now uh playing with this it might look easy when you're looking at diagrams but it is very difficult to actually do uh so the um the the corner has to play from an outside leverage and attack here now the quarterback could just drop this ball anywhere under here yeah he has to play through the man and come over that now fton uh has shown that he's usually in the right position he is rarely caught out of position whenever he's uh asked to perform any any kind whether that's man or whether that's zone or even Pat match which he has shown a bit of um but the issue is is that playing through through the man has been his his downfall um so essentially when you if I go back to the actual concept of quarters then you're looking at essentially that you're looking to create double teams everywhere so the safety on this one he steps he steps down when he realizes this has come across but then he passes off his Lineback and he gets up to double team the the post route he squee upwards make this throw a lot more difficult cuz the quarterback can't then put it underneath this zone for his uh for his number one receiver to come and get it he has to respect it and if he's going to play it true he's got to hit a deep hole through this and that's where the corner can come back and get over to it um and uh the the other double team so you're looking at uh this safety here so he would go back when he sees nothing deep threatening his area he would hammer down on this and you've also got a really tight window because this this linebackers in between two routs here um so you've got double team here you a triple team double team up here and you got the the where where the offense would look to Target is you know working these these routes but these are the two latest development number three and number two on this side so strong side three weak side two uh those were those are Longs developing and it means that you're giving your your pass rush a chance to get home so fen's understanding of this quarters has developed quite a lot in considering the amount of snaps he's had in in the system uh so he is the corner down on this side so he sees this and he stays with the top route now in a pattern match system he would have been tasked with taking London who's Drake London who's running the out route uh but what he does is he identifies the threat early he stays over the top of it and he flows with it and that's exactly the concept we've just looked at so the the the underneath uh player is start starting to get dep in this one the this player and this player so the the safety and the um sorry the linebacker and the safety of switch rolls he's gaining depth he's trying to get underneath this throw uh uh because of the the uh the root pattern combination is different and the safety here is going to be flowing down into this pocket the hook curl flat uh the hook curl uh so the the Box becomes slightly reversed so instead of this guy being down here uh sorry this guy being up here and creating the a box there he goes down and creates the Box in a very weird shape there's not a box there um but fen's job is important because he has to squeeze from his outside against an interior guy who you know he's fast in pits and the nearest help he's got is over here so he has to be over the top so he does that and there's no angle to throw you know the the you know the quarterback might not be not be a great quarterback in ridd he's already been replaced but like the the he is you know there isn't a window where where he can throw that into so fton has that understanding of coverages but what he doesn't have is naturally the the timing down of how to react to Route exchanges well we'll see here on this play that Fon has the understanding of where to be and what he is meant to do but it's the element of confidence that he he trusts his feet enough uh to be able to drive on the ball and you know not give up the def he stays High uh and doesn't like to attack into certain areas and some coaches really want to cover that because that's something that you know Staley for example would would have loves if if he you know was a bit better in B match then sty would have probably you know tried to acquire him because he stays high he doesn't try to attack uh those outside channels in in anything underneath until you he absolutely has to so you'll see here on this play that he stays high for as long as he can then tries to speed turn out of it and get to it however this is the wrong read so uh we we'll we we'll look at this in a second um so essentially when he sees the route exchange so the this at this point so the number one his man has gone High he's attacking here but he's stemming into his safety now here he's got his eyes you can see his helmet looking straight at the quarterback and he can see straight through the receiver to the quarterback so therefore he should be bailing out of this open him back up to the sideline uh in his in his own turn and what he does do is he carries on high and then tries to loot back around in what we call a speed turn or a baseball turn which is a man turn however it can get you back into position quite uh quite well however he does pretty slowly and he ends up missing the catch Point completely uh and allowing the you know the receiver to get his feet down uh Christian C to get his feet down uh which also shows another side of his game that I think is just U you know something that can be coached and can be helped is just his physicality he he he's not a light player um but my my my problem is that he gets these positions like this plays this play would be great he is on this side here he's uh playing the uh outside corner role he's playing contain he sees London flyer so he comes downhill hits him hard but unless there was a secondary help there then that that would that hit wouldn't have been Complete because he got to the point uh point of contact he met in there he's not the best technique with not much power behind it and he got sat down so it's a matter of how can we if charges coaching staff lift him to to be that to be a guy who can be serviceable um now the big the big story that I mentioned about Fon last season is that he got benched um in week 11 he essentially gave up six catches for well over 100 yards in three quarters against the you know the the Jags who didn't exactly have a lot of success passing the ball last season and uh that that plus the injury injuries have knocked his confidence to the point where he's not far and on the ball anymore ear early and he was seen as quite an up and coming I've read articles you know in major Publications that said that in two seasons ago he might be the next best like Zone corner so it it's it's quite surprising that he just hasn't hasn't been able to carry that on and there there are reasons why it which we will uh you know talk about in a second um that that physicality extends to the passing game as well so this one uh he's down here he's going to be playing the cover to flat so he steps in here you can see the cover standard cover two shell too high far underneath and he sees the route break off and he he meets it you know he's got his arm outside on top in a good position he's got his his down uh downfield arm underneath on the right hand side so he can secure the tackle uh yeah he doesn't either yeah London gets out of that it's only because he gets a teammate teammate otherwise he was firing out of that and F fton you know didn't get the ball didn't get the man didn't either so it's again so close everything's so close it's always close but not quite with with with Fon and it's it's something that I think the charges are trying to take you know a stab at so think about how do you progress like in in the league where you don't have didn't have a lot of cat room to begin with and maybe you want a bit of save that for future future years is you find guys that can f f fill that role now what fton is is able to do mirrors what Josh Wallace is able to do in Michigan Michigan's uh defense now Josh Wallace is probably a a better version within Michigan's defense than Fon was in the Titans defense however they're the same size so again one in more uh taller again that's Michigan's measurements they're probably the same height and and he is 7 pounds lighter than foron he probably plays with a bit more physicality uh however again this is this is the key role for me they keep him in a weak side corner away from the number one receivers now they did this for Marvin Harrison Jr there's not many other and they did this Roman dun there weren't many other receivers that they went against that had true like true number on so they he played the right side in that defense he doesn't play field and Boundary uh there's a lot of like you know found disciples uh uh you know roll out these days uh but Mina decided to try and keep number two on Marvin Harrison and move Josh Wallis away now this could be a way to get uh you know F's confidence up is to keep him away uh and keep him on to the the side of the field where there's a bit more help uh and it might end up you know paying off now the one part I do like about Fulton's game is how he plays the Trap two the flat 2 um and it could be something that uh comes out because MAA has a very different type of scheme whereby the Apex channels are protected like we've talked about you got a guy here got a guy here uh means your apexes are protected so you know when you are playing the flat you're playing the flat you're not trying to play from all the way out here to all the way in here and like attack inwards and then get caught whether you're going to bubble out or go in he just has to play that underneath Zone and like making those zones a bit smaller for him means that you know he can fire off on the ball a little bit you know with a little bit more assertiveness and knowing he's got that safe safety over the top help or he can play that the that deep quarter which he has played you know you know significant Snaps are doing um now Wallace uh on this one shows how you should play a route exchange so he sees the route go in he plays that and he gets to a position where by the you know the the quarterback can't uh can't uh throw that into position he wants and he has to throw outside and shallow he has to rush the throw uh you can see he wasn't on under too much pressure he's got time he still snatches at this because he sees him coming downhill and he thinks I've got to turn turn my shoulder pull this under give my receiver a chance um so it it would be good to see you know this type of DB coaching from from Michigan we're getting a lot of like transition over from the whole defense and just got the biggest coaching staff ever so there's going to be a lot of guys who can focus on volton and try and get the best out of him um and again you look at Josh Wallis this time and the in a run for defense he's down here at the bottom here he peels off and he comes down and this he finishes you know he finishes the The Tackle he gets a bit of help from his flowing flowing linebacker but it means that he he we can play him down low you can keep him on the outside and you can get him into positions where he is able to affect he's got a fair few tackles for loss of someone of his stature um so yeah it's going to be interesting to see how he can develop in in a system that fits him better in my opinion um but also one that you know that has the coaching staff that can give him the time so he's still young he's 25 he's just finished his rookie contract he came out of the draft class you know at the right age um however he has missed 26 games over four years which is you know and and only a couple of them were season ending injuries um like in terms of they didn't happen at the beginning of the Season he didn't miss a whole season at any one point he's just miss consistent amount of games um he has had H ham string issues uh in in both legs now he says that as a positive like oh it's not just one leg that's going it's it's both of them um and it means that he's not been able to be consistently on the field he's had a lot of injuries is if you have to scroll down his injury list despite him only playing four years um his contract is unknown however I I think at this point in the free agency period I don't think he's going to be taking much and if he's going to be taking anything it's going to be a twoe Max in terms of length um now he is a potential starting we side corner right now I say potential I hope he isn't starting this is a guy who I hope is going to be a uh a backup and a role player uh with with upside now I say potential because we don't have anyone s Sam Jr who I'm not the biggest fan of uh and we got Dean Leonard and then we got J Taylor and that is it so it's another position needs heavy investment and the fact that they haven't gone after anyone before Fon means that I feel like they're going to go after a couple in the draft class at least um and in that weak side corner role he can play that trap and he also like you know he he uh can play underneath and Mina loves the the to to roll that that tamper to look out um as a change up especially on third Downs with three safties on the field he can focus on that underneath area and attack it um but also in general coverage he's going to be able to be in position long enough to give the pass rush time to get home and that's what you know as a DB coach what I teach my players is that's your primary job people think it's to cover a receiver shut them down it's not it's to give you time your pass rush to get home so in in in in this system that can be something he does because like I said he's rarely caught out of position um he's a son of depth in my opinion he's got experience in cour system can even teach it to the young guys uh the younger guys he's still young uh he can play man or Zone like I said pray a lot of press man at at LSU and uh it's something that I feel like he can do again um he is however a huge injur risk I I I really don't feel like he's going to uh play a complete season at this point um he was also bench in this season for po play I I still I've watched that game back and I still feel like a lot of those plays were not his fault uh you got your your linebackers biting on play action you your safety's playing too far inside uh for a proper quarters uh uh safety uh I'm not saying he's completely blam cuz he's definitely not show the play where he definitely was at fault uh but all of the all of the benching and the injuries have me his low confidence and he you can see that so uh but in general the biggest downside I have with his game his timing is she he doesn't play off man very well at all um but I I'm quite happy with that because M doesn't play a ton of it either so he sees the game well and you know we've all and we've all seen what Ben Herbert can do with Michigan he makes them all tough he makes them all strong and people can't stop talking about him if he grabs hold of this guy and turns him into you know a guy who's got a few more games this season but also finishes plays then I think it's a it's a it's a good good acquisition overall so that concludes our look at the Chargers defensive additions of free agencies so far uh we also have Troy Dy added however he's going to be primary special teams player for Ryan ticken um and we'll be looking at offensive next so uh thank you for very much for watching the pako podcast uh and have a good day