Downfield Disparity

[mrcompletely11]

29 minutes ago, CRA said:

All this big time throw stuff and junk from last season always leaves out a very important fact about last season……

actual number of passes completed.  And it wasn’t good then.  Just like his rookie season before or this year. 

But but but pff

[Khyber53]

4 hours ago, Waldo said:

Unhealthy OGs. Playing other bad teams early and having effective rushing attack. Playing from behind with a really bad defense last year while the other teams were in prevent/softer D. 

Ding ding ding! I think we have the winner here, folks!

 

[fanpanther]

so basically byoung is actually really great.  rest of the team and the coach suck and my eyes apparently lie to me 

[carpanfan96]

Bryce doesn't like throwing into the middle of the field unless the play broke down or it's set up to give him a passing lane. 

So because of this issue, most of the passing offense has to be outside the numbers towards the boundary. So you see him throw a lot of dump offs, swing routes, short side out routes, comebacks or deep balls outside the numbers using the boundary as protection of an interception. 

 

Pretty easy for a NFL defense to see this and scheme against it. 

All you have to do is run a shell cover 2 deep dime, LB plays a hook underneath, take the flat away with a blitz/flat zone option for the two inside DB's, outside two DB's play hook zone underneath and carry anything deep. 

 

Pretty much what NO ran to take away Rico while also limiting What Bryce can do as well. 

[bythenbrs]

20 hours ago, GoobyPls said:

He needs to attempt deep throws even if they don’t amount to anything, give your WR a chance to make a play.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take… “

Different sport but same principle.

[OldhamA]

13 hours ago, carpanfan96 said:

Bryce doesn't like throwing into the middle of the field unless the play broke down or it's set up to give him a passing lane. 

So because of this issue, most of the passing offense has to be outside the numbers towards the boundary. So you see him throw a lot of dump offs, swing routes, short side out routes, comebacks or deep balls outside the numbers using the boundary as protection of an interception. 

 

Pretty easy for a NFL defense to see this and scheme against it. 

All you have to do is run a shell cover 2 deep dime, LB plays a hook underneath, take the flat away with a blitz/flat zone option for the two inside DB's, outside two DB's play hook zone underneath and carry anything deep. 

 

Pretty much what NO ran to take away Rico while also limiting What Bryce can do as well. 

Do you know when he stopped throwing the ball over the middle? After his NFL debut where he threw two INTs to Bates because he didn't see him. 

[strato]

23 hours ago, fanpanther said:

so basically byoung is actually really great.  rest of the team and the coach suck and my eyes apparently lie to me 

You have a good two years of it right there. 
 

Edited November 12, 2025 by strato

[Mr. Scot]

On 11/11/2025 at 5:43 PM, Byrdman4real said:

And who was the most productive WR catching long balls last year?

Thielen would be my guess.

[Mr. Scot]

On 11/11/2025 at 5:58 PM, mav1234 said:

I feel like people assume risk-averse QBs with weak arms are great for a WCO...

Not at all.

The ideal type of QB for the WCO could be described as a...

... point guard

Argument basically boils down to saying that the problem is not with system fit.

It's either play calling or execution, and the more I think about it the more I lean toward the latter.

[Mr. Scot]

On 11/11/2025 at 7:11 PM, fanpanther said:

so basically byoung is actually really great.  rest of the team and the coach suck and my eyes apparently lie to me 

Good grief, no

[Mr. Scot]

On 11/11/2025 at 4:31 PM, kungfoodude said:

Well, I took a look at the Bryce "Eras" Tour and it seems like that it somewhat breaks down to.....well he just attempted more passes downfield.

Breaking it down like the author of the Twatter post did in the "This Season" chunk versus 2024 Weeks 8-18 and I also added "Rest of his Career" which is basically all of 2023 and the two games in 2024 prior to Benching. 

Initial Bryce(2023-Week 2 2024)

 Post Benching Bryce(Weeks 8-18 2024 AKA The Glory Games)

Modern Bryce(2025 Season)

 

If you look, during the "Glory Games" era of Bryce his 10+ downfield targets jumped from around 32% over his overall attempts to almost 43% of his overall attempts. Maybe it's as simple as that since he isn't testing them deep, they don't have to worry about him targeting them. 

It's an interesting look at the breakdown of those timelines.

Good work...

Mentioned above, my current lean is toward Bryce being the problem. And it takes me back to the issues we had when Mike Shula was OC.

He had on something for the 2015 season (basically heavy run focus including the QB) which is great, but simply coming up with something that works isn't enough in the NFL chess game.

If you're truly a chessmaster, you know what to do when somebody finds a way to stop it. Hell, some guys even anticipate those adjustments and plan for them.

Shula had no idea how to respond.

Last game, Bryce didn't either.

So now the big question is what happens next game