NFL Films/ESPN legend — and one of the best talent evaluators in the business — Greg Cosell has gone through a metric ton of 2020 tape to provide insights on some interesting players headed into the 2021 NFL season. Here, he brings you his raw notes and observations from those tape sessions.
It’s a chance to get inside the mind of one of the greats of the industry.
Today’s focus will be on QB Dak Prescott and the Dallas passing game in 2020, before Prescott’s season-ending ankle injury.
DAK PRESCOTT TRAITS
In 2020, Prescott was decisive with his reads and throws. He knew where to go with the ball based on the route concepts versus specific coverages — that stood out through all four-plus games. He was a quick processor.
One area Prescott improved in 2020 was his timing and ball placement in the quick game, both from under center and out of the shotgun.
What stood out was Prescott’s ball placement was consistently precise. He put the ball right on the hands of his receivers – ball location is a trait Prescott has improved as he has developed as an NFL QB.
Two strong traits stood out with Prescott: 1) His poise and composure in muddied pockets combined with his toughness to stand and deliver 2) His willingness to turn it loose when the situation demanded. Prescott played under duress at a high level.
Prescott showed a much better feel in the pocket working through progressions and finding his second and third reads than he did in college and through much of his NFL career. He was much improved as a late-in-the-down pocket QB. It’s one of the better QB evolutions over time that we have seen, with Prescott going from a fourth-round pick to where he is now.
COWBOYS PASSING GAME DESIGN
Michael Gallup was predominantly the boundary X on the back side of trips in 11 personnel. CeeDee Lamb was predominantly #2 to trips, with Amari Cooper the Z. When Lamb is on the ball, he will release vertically a higher percentage of the time.
Lamb was almost always in the slot, in 2x2, 3x1 and 1x3 sets. At times, he was the inside slot to trips. In 1x3 sets, Lamb was predominantly the inside slot with Cooper #2 and Gallup #1.
Cooper was predominantly featured as the movement receiver in the Cowboys’ pass game, especially out of 11 personnel. He would cross the formation from trips to make it a 2x2 set.
One of the Cowboys vertical pass game concepts is double post with a crosser. They often run that combination behind six-man pass protection with the back looking for any leakage – Lamb 33 yards versus Rams.
Another vertical concept is dagger, often out of 12 personnel, with a closed boundary and twins to the field with a six-man core protection and the outside TE chipping and the back looking for leakage before releasing as a checkdown.
The Cowboys quick game from under center and out of the shotgun featured throws outside the numbers – hitches and speed outs.
The Cowboys featured double glance with #3 and #2, and at times triple glance with all three receivers from the trips side out of 3x1 sets. These create rhythm throws for Prescott.
The Cowboys featured minus splits and bunch and stack concepts when they anticipated man-to-man coverage. Overall, they were effective out of minus splits both versus man and zone giving Prescott quickly defined reads and throws.
Against the Seahawks in Week 3 the Cowboys featured snaps with 10 personnel (4 WRs, 0 TEs). In 3x1 sets, Gallup was still the boundary X on the back side of trips – the 10 personnel was gameplanned.
From the boundary X alignment, Gallup was predominantly featured on slant and glance routes, comebacks, and vertical routes.
The Cowboys’ conventional play action pass game on first down with Prescott under center improved in 2020. They featured posts and crossers attacking anticipated zone coverage concepts – I still believe the Cowboys can do more with their first-down run/play action pass game.
The boot-action pass game off outside zone run action was a Cowboys’ staple. It was effective with Prescott booting to the boundary versus defenses that locked the boundary corner on the X receiver in cover 3 and cover 4.
The Cowboys featured outside zone run action as a foundation in their play action pass game with Prescott under center.
The Falcons came into their Week 2 matchup with the Cowboys playing predominantly two coverages: cover 1 and cover 2. They featured disguise and late movement and got to cover 2 in multiple ways with different players as the middle hole defender – Dan Quinn, now the Cowboys’ DC, was the Falcons’ head coach.
The Seahawks played significant snaps of boundary lock in their zone coverage concepts, especially split-safety cover 4. The Seahawks felt good about the matchup of CB Shaquill Griffin on Gallup.
The Seahawks also played snaps of cover 2 versus the Cowboys. They predominantly played cover 2 on third-and-long.
