Greg Cosell on Jordan Mason: 'He's a difficult guy to tackle'

well this is quickly becoming like one of our favorite times of the week uh we'll do it every single Wednesday and I know you and I dibs are both kind of chomping at the bit here to go not player by player we not going to go through the entire roster we might but maybe close you know the man's got info now got the knowledge well he is senior producer NFL films and he's joining us on the rivers uh River Islands guest line as he will do every single Wednesday at 3:00 to break down the film like no other it's none other than Greg coell hey Greg how you doing this week I'm doing great I'm just curious was that lead in song representative of your younger days or are we okay with that um I'm completely okay with that um but so I'm gonna say maybe both Greg how about that can I can I answer that way you can answer anyway you like okay that's what the fil that's what the film says uh GRE so uh so that's what that's what we're going to go with um all right where to start I I guess Jordan Mason is is the best place to start so first and foremost just what did you see with his evening but but maybe more important how did it progress like what did he look like when it got to the fourth quarter and he was north of 20 carries yeah I mean I think there's a lot there that uh with the Run game um but if you're just speaking about him you know I think that was evident even early on but it was clear as the game progressed how physical a runner he is and there were some clear examples where the Jets defense later in the game was not particularly thrilled with having to tackle him um you know he's one of those Runners that you wouldn't say he's Shifty and Elusive he's a downhill velocity Runner he has natural power um there's a physical presence to his running style um he has just enough lateral quickness where he can work effectively and conf find space and and as I said he's got really good finishing traits he's he's a difficult guy to tackle and probably not a lot of fun to tackle I can't imagine it and it seemed like he got to the second level at nauseum against the Jets defense those holes were gigantic they were did they go about the Run scheme differently Greg because it seemed like there was less use check and more just straight ahead Zone power with Jordan Mason yeah there were there were multiple Run game Concepts as there always are um with the 49ers you know I think when you play the ners you're very conscious of having to defend the SE Gap that's where uh you know so people can kind of visualize that you know right next to the center the offensive Center is the a gap you go over one it's the B Gap you go over one more it's the C Gap that's kind of where their run game is foundationally built um but obviously they do more than that um but so they did a number of different things uh the key thing was that he ran almost exclusively out of what we would call Base Personnel when use Che was on the field when there were two tight ends on the field field when there was both used Che and two tight ends 23 of his 28 runs came in these base Personnel packages Greg I'm I'm curious to know if you saw them running to the right more often than in the past because famously they loved to run behind TR Williams but it it it looked like they were running to the right more often than in the past is that so you know I didn't chart it so I don't know the exact answer and I don't want to make something up but I didn't get the sense that they were only working to one side died I felt like it was pretty multiple um you know it's funny sometimes the shorter runs are the really cool runs like I thought that his 5-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was just a an example of great design and execution I thought that uh you had an unbelievable double team by the center brenell and Banks the left guard and it was on uh quinnon Williams who's obviously a really good player I love the way KD inserted as a lead Blocker on the Stacked linebacker Mosley and then Samuel came in from the right side of the formation and kind of crack back on on the safety Clark I thought you know that was just one of those runs obviously it was a touchdown but it wasn't a long run necessarily but it was just beautifully designed and executed just a clinic in the Run game I I can't help but get my eyes on Dominic Poney over there in the Right Guard making his first start what did you see on the film from Dominic yeah he he looked really good you know I didn't to be honest with you I didn't watch a ton of preseason football uh I'm being honest it's not my favorite thing but I thought yeah I thought that he showed early in the game and then throughout the game both strength as a run blocker um I thought he was good at one-on-one pass protection you know there's two blocks that in the Run game more than two but two that you have to be able to execute in the NFL or as a guard in particular or you're not going to be a starting guard one is the backside cutoff block so if the Zone Run game goes away from you you have to be able to execute the backside cut off block then in the zone Run game when it goes to your side you have to be able to execute the front side reach Block in other words the reach block is a case where the player is just outside of you and you have to get outside of him to to seal him to the inside those are two blocks that you have to be able to execute one on the back side one on the front side and I thought that he did that very well in this game and he's going to have to continue to do it well senior producer NFL films Greg Co is with us here on Willard and dibs as he will be every single Wednesday afternoon on 957 the game Greg people for a while now have been running out of of questions to ask about Brock pie but one of the ones that was still remaining was boy I wonder what he would look like without Christian mcaffrey so Greg what did he look like without Christian mcaffrey well I mean to me those two things are mutually exclusive I mean obviously mcaffry is a great player but I mean what when when Pie has to drop back and throw a ball that's not necessarily a function of Christian mcaffrey I thought pie was kind of pry he was efficient um he made good throws he's got enough movement that he can move around and make plays um you know it look I don't know if we discussed this last week I can't remember you know I'm old guys I can't remember what we discussed last week but uh but you know py is is the scheme and the system and P's ability to execute it at high level all go together and you know there's some great examples of that K the 26 y to start the second quarter field goal Drive was a beautifully designed what we call a flood concept it's a three-level stretch concept KD ran the intermediate route beautiful design I'm sure you guys remember use che's 34 yard reception uh which was a a Kyle Shanahan classic because what he likes to do is put a second level Defender who has both a run and a pass responsibility he likes to put that player in uh conflict and that's exactly what he did on the Q check 34 yard reception that was beautiful design when I saw that play on the coaching tape you know I got excited that's what I love about football um but you know pie just executes what he's asked to execute at a really high level and I think people lose sight of how that diffic how difficult that is to do play after play after play week after week after week and they view him well he's just running a great system you know that's really hard to do and he does it at a really high level yeah it was a clinical performance from Brock and yeah he didn't have to overwhelm to go out there and have a pretty lopsided victory for the 49ers I want to ask you about the defense because other than the early Drive in the first half they had their way with Aaron Rogers and the Jets offense what did you see on the film as to why the Niners D had such an edge well I think they're dine I mean you could argue that that that uh the main D line obviously they they sub and have a rotation but when you have Bose and Floyd on the edge and hard gra and Collins inside um and I think we talked about Collins last week Collins has always been a really really good player and I think 49er fans are going to really like this guy and it showed up the other night but their their uh defensive front is really really good um and it's just really difficult to block and then there's Fred Warner who I've been saying for years is just the best linebacker in football I mean his ability to play in side out with speed and range and his ability to diagnose things instantly I mean there's no one as good as as Fred Warner at the linebacker position in the NFL um so you know and they've got the thing that I think is overlooked now too is they have tremendous length at linebacker because when they're in their nickel and it's Warner and Campbell you've got 63 and 64 and those are traits people might not think about that but that kind of length that those are traits so Greg here here's a question that comes up a lot with 49er fans there's this thought that whatever Steve wils was calling last year just wasn't in alignment with you know the defensive line and the and and the and the secondary and and whatever Kyle Shanahan likes to run the idea this year was they were going to get back to who they were before the hiring of Steve wils with Nick senson and Brandon Staley Callin plays what what did you see what can you explain to our our audience with regard to the new regime you know and I'm going to be totally honest here those are hard questions and I'll tell you why because you'd have to be there in their meetings to understand how things are taught what they're specifically asked to do I mean I think when all said and done like in this particular game they hardly rushed more than four I think twice on what Rogers have maybe 23 or 24 dropbacks I think twice they rushed five you know my guess is that this is going to be a defense that's going to rely predominantly on their p on the fourman pass rush now there are things they do um in third down and and sort of pure pass situations with what we call loaded fronts where they line up three defensive linemen to one side of the center often Fred Warner will walk up uh to the guard opposite that load side and they'll do some pressure schemes from that but I think this is going to be a defense that relies a lot on the fourman pass rush as long as it's being effective and in most weeks it will be you know there's always some weeks you know that things don't work exactly the right way um you know I think from a coverage perspective um we saw in this game multiple coverage Concepts on third down out of their nickel they don't play dime they're a nickel sub defense we saw cover two cover one cover three um you I think you'll see these kinds of things depending on the opponent um by NFL standards I don't think they'll be overly detailed now having said that if I was sitting in the meetings it I probably have a different view but I don't think they're going to be one of those teams that does a million things I think it's going to be more um execution based and heavily scheme based that would be my sense yeah the stats indicate that they played out of the nickel 76% of the time and just 24% with the three linebackers and the second linebacker fans are concerned Greg about dandre Campbell he was Garden Wilson a couple of times in that first touchdown drive it didn't go well does he have the speed to hold up in this defense when they go to the nickel just two linebackers yeah I mean he's got length he can move I mean obviously he's not going to be covering wide receivers manto man there are sometimes the offense through formation through motions can get a wide receiver on a linebacker that does happen in the league and there's really very few linebackers that can match up so that's not a knock on Campbell I mean if anybody saw the Chiefs in the Thursday night opener the way they got rice matched up on on linebackers and good linebackers then you know that happens they got got him matched up on on Roan Smith who I think most people would agree is a pretty damn good linebacker so that's not a knock on Campbell the fact that maybe Wilson beat him one son and and I don't remember the specific play but I mean you know that that's not the way you're going to evaluate Campell by his ability to to defend wide receivers um obviously there's been a ton of talk the last handful of weeks about Brandon iuk and we loved what you had to say last week when when you talked about his fit in this system because he's being eased in yes there was at least one maybe two dropped passes how would he dropped he dropped a touchdown dro the touchdown how how would you compare what we saw from Brandon in this game to what you're used to seeing from him well I think he's played enough games in the National Football League that we know what he is I mean obviously he had that touchdown drop which I'm sure he'd make that catch nine out of 10 times um I think there was another one where he uh I think it was a quick slant that went off his hands you know it it it's probably a rust issue no matter what you do and what you do in the off season if you're not in Camp and you're not going through the whole process it's it's different when you get into a real game I mean I don't think there's any reason to be worried about Brandon auk he's played a lot of games in the league he's been a good receiver we talked about him last week he's not all of a sudden going to be a bad receiver you know he just he had a he had a bad drop he dropped a touchdown it was very visible it's a national TV game you know so it happens Greg you're officially our pivot point in the week where we go from looking back to looking ahead and the Niners getting ready to head to Minnesota Sunday morning game on the the fake field up there in Minnesota what have you seen on the film from the Vikings that 49er fans should keep an eye out for on Sunday morning well let's look at the Vikings defense they were very interesting this past week and it could have been a function of who they were playing obviously the Giants do not have a great offense but one of the things that Brian Flores did a year ago which was F fascinating and you rarely ever see this in the NFL is it was a team that had the most thre man pass rushes in the league and the most six-man pass rushes in the league now against the Giants they stayed pretty basic with fourman pass rushes and played a lot of coverage behind it again I'm not Brian Flores I don't know what he'll do against the ners but that three-man versus six-man pass rush deal is was fascinating to me watching their tape a year ago because you rarely see that kind of thing in the league and then of course on offense and we can talk about this you guys can jump in you got your old buddy Sam darnold who looked very good last week well what' you see like what you know because he was here but we didn't really ever get to see him play so yeah what what did you see from Sam I'll tell you what I saw and I think this is where coaching comes into play Kevin oconnell obviously coming from the Shanahan and McVey tree you saw darnold with really clean footwork really understanding uh the connection between his drop and the route Concepts you saw some really well schemed well-designed play Concepts that really presented him with clean defined reads so that he could hit his back foot and if it required him just to hit his back foot and deliver he'd do that if it required a hitch he did that really cleanly he looked extremely comfortable now it's one game no one's going to sit here after one game and say man this guy's on his way to a great year but if if we're talking the same way after six or seven games then to me you really have to talk about the coaching element cuz don't forget he was coached last year we know with the ners even though he didn't play and now he's with Kevin okono who's really really good so sometimes that's the difference because you're dealing with a kid and you know this big kid physical kid throws the ball well there's nothing from a physical trait standpoint that he can't do he always had other issues um including mechanical and including what he was seeing but he looked very comfortable this past week looked like they were moving the ball around too to the various weapons Justin Jefferson was not too much of an isolated Target I'm curious about the Run game from what you saw from Minnesota looks like a little bit of a committee and they use the fullback a little bit too don't they oh they play a lot out of 21 personnel as well with ham uh I I can't off the top of my head remember how many snaps he had but they did that last year they do it now um yeah they have a run game with the fullback as well and they've got Aaron Jones who's a really good back and a very good receiver got to be careful about that um you know last week's game obviously was such that they got ahead it was evident the Giants weren't really going to move the ball so it didn't really require them to be probably as diverse in multiple offensively as as they could be as they probably went into the game with but didn't need it so uh we'll see how it goes you you'd assume this will be a closer game but keep in mind as I started this conversation this defense did give the ners some problems a year ago uh it's a difficult defense to play against um and they can really pressure you so that's something that the the 49ers and and Kyle Shanahan will really have to be aware of um Chris forer one of the best line coaches in the league they'll be working on that you know trying to understand all their pressure concepts with different Personnel on the field because that's the last thing for any quarterback to start a game where you feel like you're under pressure well let's talk about that a little bit Greg coell senior producer NFL films with us here on Willard and dibs and that's to say this yes it's the same concept defensively but a lot of new Personnel their defense line is almost completely different right I'd wonder if you could compare that group though to to to like the Jets group like what's Brock P facing this week versus last week I think he's facing a lot more diversity in in in pressure Concepts um you know the Jets are not really a high pressure defense and when they are um their their particular concepts are uh I don't want to say they're basic that's not the right word but they they're not they don't have a ton of them whereas Minnesota has a a lot of different looks Minnesota often lines up with six or seven uh on the on the ball on the line of scrimmage so you don't know who's coming who's dropping out they make it difficult to try to figure that out because you have to make sure you protect you can't just say well I think that guy's going to drop out you can't do that so you have to protection becomes a really critical issue protection first you you don't have a pass game if you don't have protection in Minnesota with a couple of really vaunted players in the secondary Stefan Gilmore and they got Harrison Smith how do you like those matchups Minnesota secondary against the likes of Debo and assuming Brandon IU can play more Brandon auk yeah I mean you know they're not a heavy man coverage team that's the thing surprisingly even when they pressure they play more Zone Concepts now zones always have a matchup element to them but they're not a heavy straight man-to-man team so it's not so much hey this guy's going to have Samuel this guy's going to have auk that's not really the way they play um so we'll see how it plays out um you know obviously they've got some different players they signed van GLE who's a really good player from Miami um he showed up this past week they signed Blake Cashman from Houston who was very good for Houston a year ago before he got hurt um and what they basically did is they swapped out um Hunter denil Hunter for Jonathan grenard Hunter's a little better but gard's a very good player as well Greg before you go I'd like to ask you this even though I you know look it's it's only been one week and and this might feel a little speculative but based on what you know and what you saw this week what what kind of a of an Outlook and optimism would you have for this 49er defense as a whole and and it's standing within the league well I think their front let's talk in terms of playing nickel because you end up playing nickel more than you play base I think their front six is among the better front sixes in the league we talked about their down for we talked about Warner being the best linebacker in the league Campbell in my view will be fine um obviously it's safety I don't know if Huang is coming back you guys might know that better I don't know what his status is um obviously they played odm who throughout much of his career has been a a high level special teams player and a spots daughter um they used Odum and jir brown kind of interchangeably they both played on the back end they both played in the Box um Wards a really good Corner um the question becomes the other two corners spots when they're a nickel lure goes into the slot and they played ym on the outside um you know I don't know if that's going to stay all year I don't know what their feeling is about Renardo green he's a player I really liked coming out of Florida State um Florida state was a man heavy defense played a ton of press man and I really loved green I don't know how he did through training camp so I can't answer that but I think that's where I don't want to call it a concern I would just say that's what we'll be looking at to see how that plays out when they play play against really good passing offenses and and really good receivers Greg we're going to do it every Wednesday and you just showed everybody why fantastic stuff thank you so much appreciate it guys thanks look forward to it next week indeed so do we that's Greg freaking coel right there senior producer NFL dang films dropping knowledge uh Greg you may want to pick that up you just drop some knowledge over there