JJ Watt: All eyes on Love, Murray in Packers-Vikings opener
Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice is joined by NFL on CBS analyst JJ Watt to look ahead to his first call of the season as the network's top commentator and how the NFC North rivals will approach the opposing quarterbacks. Check out the full conversation on "Football 301" - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
I know you got some prep going on.
What, what, what are you looking at for this first game that you're opening up with as the, the A team with CBS?
I'm very excited, man.
I mean, obviously I grew up in Wisconsin, so I've seen the Packers-Vikings rivalry firsthand my entire life, and so to have this as our first game this year with Jim Nantz, with Tracy Wolfson's gonna be incredible.
I mean, there's, there's tons with this, with this game here.
Kyler Murray and KOC's offense, how is this gonna look?
One of the big things I'm tracking right now in my prep is Kyler spent obviously his entire career, high school, college, pros in, shotgun.
He's done mostly shotgun.
He's never been in the top 25, percentile in the NFL in under center snaps, and KOC's always been in top eight, generally top four in under center usage.
So, how does that jive, and will it unlock a new level to Kyler's game, with some of the play action, move the pocket stuff?
That's I'm really looking forward to that.
I'm looking forward to seeing Jordan Love and the Packers offense, kinda, you know, Marcus Golden moving into that X spot.
See Watson and those guys, Tucker Kraft, hopefully back out there, giving him that weapon again for the first time in a while.
And then Flores' defense.
I mean, I just love watching Flores' defense, just- I know I think he gets a ton of credit for the schemes and everything he draws up and the craziness, but I don't think he gets enough credit for the technique that he teaches some of his guys- Yes on those drops.
It's, it's very impressive.
Yeah, they, they tackle really well.
And I mean, they got a g- a bunch of role player type guys, and I mean that in a good way, but play, they play- Mm-hmm like, m- much better than the tier that maybe they should sit at in any other defense.
Actually that's curious to me, Kyler and Jordan Love, and if you, as a defensive end edge extraordinaire as you were, when you were playing these, if you're playing these two offenses and you watch them now, and I'm gonna get into, and the difference is now studying games maybe as a commentator, maybe as a defensive end, what is, like, your game plan going against Kyler?
What's your game plan going against Jordan Love?
Are you same kind of contain?
Like, you know, Jordan Love doesn't take a lot of sacks, but he doesn't scramble too much.
Yeah.
Kyler scrambles- Right a good amount.
So, like, when you were going into this game, like say as a player, what are you looking at these offenses going like, "This is what I'd be angling for?"
Yeah.
I think you're right.
Obviously, the scrambling difference is certainly there.
You know, I was just watching some film of their game last year, the one Jordan Love played, because he didn't play in the, the final one where they rested the starters.
Yeah.
But when you look at the stats on it, Brian Flores doesn't bring cover zero nearly as much against Jordan Love as he does against other people.
I think it's because of the way he processes it and his handles it, and he had this one play where there's, there's two unblocked guys directly in his face and he just floats it right over the top, because he knew and saw what was coming.
He did see it.
So that processing mind is great, and it's, it's incredible.
So you have to try and confuse him and, and direct him there, and I think Kyler, obviously he's unbelievably talented in the way that he runs around and is capable.
You have to He can drop back out of the pocket, roll around out the outsides and still get the ball off.
I mean, the famous play that I always got to watch up close and personal was that Raiders two-point conversion where it was like a 18-second play- Yeah because he's running all over.
So with him, you have to make sure that all of your rush lanes are legit, not only in front of him, but also around the sides and the back end, because he can do anything once his legs get going.
So it's a little bit more of a player and coordinator combination between these two guys, where you want to try and mix stuff up and confuse them before the snap, but then also, especially with a guy like Kyler, make sure that your rush is controlled and keeping him in the pocket.
