Begging your pardon, our OL provided 2.4 seconds of pocket time for the enjoyment of our QB, which is more than these QBs received from their OL:
Big Ben (2.1 sec pocket time, 18.6% pressure)
Rodgers (2.2 sec, 22.3%)
Brady (2.3 sec, 11.1%)
Mahome (2.3 sec, 22.1%) *APC Championship
Burrow (2.3 sec, 24.5%) *superbowl
Murray (2.3 sec, 20,7%)
JimmyG (2.3sec, 18.7%) * NFC Championship
Stafford (2.4 sec, 16.7%) *superbowl champ.
Our OL no doubt looked bad and suffered from VERY HIGH QB pressure (
27%), but hey, what can the OL do when our franchise QB loved to hold the ball? BUT, Wilson enjoyed more pocket time than most playoff and superbowl QBs.
Check out the 2021 NFL Advanced Passing Stats and more on Pro-football-reference.com
www.pro-football-reference.com
There was a segment on Wyman and Bob recently where they talked about how unfairly our line has been critiqued over the years.
They brought up one key point many miss - that if you run an offense where the pass rushers know 99% of the time where the qb is going to drop to, an O line will struggle mightily to pass protect.
Russ has one of the deepest drops in the league, whether from shotgun or less common snaps from under center. We didn't run 3 step or even 5 step concepts much because we couldn't due to his height. Snaps from under center were often play action. And Russ HAD to rely on passing lanes even more to make basic throws over the line.
So picture, on 95% of passing downs, where with other qbs, a LB or DE is trying to predict where a qb is going to be when the ball comes out, or an interior lineman is hesitating slightly to get his maybe stop a rush and get his hands up to bat a ball, with us, they'd have the luxury of pretty consistently rushing to a spot 7 to 10 yards behind the LOS on most every passing play. Our interior O Line had to pass pro against basically a bull rush without mercy on every single pass play. Our tackles had to drop fast and try to maintain leverage against rushers not needing to hesitate even for a moment. Pass pro is already hard. Giving every advantage to the D line on every snap, makes it harder.
And yes, his stature also accounted for a lot of the reason for him holding onto the ball. Russ had to wait for guys to come clean from the mass of bodies in front of him for shallower routes. But that time was reduced significantly by the advantage given the D in knowing where he'd be pretty much every single drop.
There was zero mystery there. Nothing to throw rushers off.
Same goes for the screen game. Ever notice how last year when Geno was in, we were successful running screens?
Think about the concept of a screen - inviting defenders into frame, deep in the backfield to allow your rb room to get the ball, and head up field. By default, our screens were deep + the standard drop Russ already required. And running screens from under center only, pretty much telegraphed the play. Plus, there was no hesitation at thr snap by defenders trying to figure out whether the pass was coming out quick, or whether it be from a deep pocket. They were always going to thr spot a qb would retreat to in a typical screen scenario. With Russ, the play was neutered.
And roll outs? There's a reason we didn't run them often, when we had 3 OCs to try and help Russ get on track - I'd wager it likely had to do with the fact that that majority of the time, our qb was playing on only 2/3rds of the field ( not often throwing to the middle unless on a hook or dig against a zone) . A roll out, while moving the pocket, also then would reduce Russ's options to just 1/ 3rd of the field. A qb who is taller might lose the opposite side of the field with a rollout. A shorter qb with difficulty hitting routes over the middle already and who had a tendency to hold the ball... the field just gets too small too fast. Russ would lose his biggest asset in a rolling pocket ... The ability to escape to either side.
Now that doesn't excuse all of the poor play, but every line we've had here has been handcuffed a bit by the type of play necessitated by the qb.
And that's not all just my conjecture. The majority of it came from a retired player or coach who was questioned about our o line play over the years. He had no gripe with Russ. Was just speaking football fact.