Another Feet-Obsessed Spring
May 8th, 2024
So the chatter about Baker Mayfield’s footwork this week at One Buc Palace intrigued Joe because of what former Mayfield mentor/Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales said on NFL Network about a month ago.
That video is below.
Canales, now the Panthers’ head coach, talked about starting from scratch last season with resetting Mayfield’s footwork and figuring out what plays suited him best based on studying his feet.
Enter Bucs quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis, who worked with Mayfield last season. He said yesterday that May and June will be all about Mayfield’s feet.
“The emphasis this offseason is footwork, you know, footwork, footwork. Just doing the dance with the passes,” Lewis said. “Giving the running backs the lane with the footwork, getting the ball deep, you know, litte things like that to grow in this offense.”
Lewis went on to label “something [Mayfield] can control,” implying it’s an ideal focus of an offseason.
New Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen is a former college quarterback, a four-year starter with a 37-14 record at the University of Massachusetts. Joe wonders what tweaks Coen may be making to Mayfield’s footwork that represents a change from 2023, including handoff subleties that could help Rachaad White be more aggressive.
New #Panthers coach Dave Canales told me the reboot of Bryce Young begins with footwork. So what exactly does that entail? Canales gave a fascinating answer on The Insiders. pic.twitter.com/7Fp21zYzyB
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 26, 2024
May 8th, 2024 at 5:33 pm
Every year every quarterback…
May 8th, 2024 at 5:43 pm
He is not salvage player. Plan 9 of Qb’s
May 8th, 2024 at 6:28 pm
Obviously good footwork is essential, but after listening to Dave Canales’ interview, can’t help but wonder if he might be overthinking this thing a little bit. Both Baker Mayfield & Bryce Young won the Heisman, and had very successful college careers. I suspect both knew a little about footwork by the time each won the Heisman.
Canales used Russell Wilson & Geno Smith as examples of how they used this approach out in Seattle. Not sure that I’d consider either of them shining stars; their success was more about the TEAM they had surrounding them. The same I’d say is true of Baker Mayfield & Bryce Young.
May 8th, 2024 at 6:44 pm
Thinking that Baker knows a lot more about footwork than Coen. Kind of hard to have a text book drop and throw when your O line can’t give you enough time. Luckily Baker can move around and throw on the run, screw footwork when you have an O line like the Bucs last year.
May 8th, 2024 at 6:48 pm
Canales has an impressive track record at helping QBs. If he can help Bryce Young the way he helped Geno and Baker he will really establish himself as one of the top QB gurus in the NFL.
He seems like such a positive guy and a great human being I hope he does succeed as HC in Carolina, at least when they’re not playing the Bucs. The owner of the Panthers better have some patience because it will take more than one year to make that team successful. And Canales will need time to grow into that role as HC, something I don’t believe he’s ever done before.
May 8th, 2024 at 6:55 pm
Uhhhhh…. Trying to change BM’s natural footwork is really puzzling and questionable use of time,IMO
May 8th, 2024 at 7:05 pm
The new Buzzword is concepts. Cool. I guess.
I have good vibe on Coen.
May 8th, 2024 at 7:09 pm
Nothing more boring than listening to a football coach in the offseason talking about the coming season.
May 8th, 2024 at 7:10 pm
I think some of you are making too much of this. He didn’t say they’re trying to completely overhaul Baker’s mechanics or anything, just want to IMPROVE his footwork.
Brady, Manning, Brees, etc., all those guys worked on their footwork every year too. This seems pretty standard.
May 8th, 2024 at 7:17 pm
Perhaps the Bucs should consider hiring Rex Ryan as a consultant with all this talk about feet.
May 8th, 2024 at 8:03 pm
You’ve got to be kidding me.
May 8th, 2024 at 8:05 pm
Mayfield will be able to step into his throws with Barton up front.
But for Mayfield’s footwork to shine he needs a running game and to be able to work off that with bootlegs and play action. Bucs will have to sign another RB to compete with White, Irving, and Edmonds for playing time before training camp rolls around.
May 8th, 2024 at 9:03 pm
LAME …
He literally just said absolutely nothing. The most interesting part of that interview where the breakroom comments from the three guys who had to sit and listen to that idiot. Joe, starting to think you have a man crush on Canales. It’s your site but it’s getting weird.
If you want to talk about former Bucs coaches on other NFCS Teams, there is a Super Bowl winning one on another team that happens to be the Bucs biggest competition.
Or we could talk about something interesting …
SOMETHING ACTUALLY SUPER INTERESTING
Dallas Turner, Edge, Alabama
PFF Grade: 81.5, SACKS 11, HITS 11, SNAPS 647
Chris Braswell, Edge, Alabama
PFF Grade: 81.5, SACKS 13?!!!!, HITS 10, SNAPS 567
WHOA! WHOA! WHOA!
Apon review, PFF shows Braswell recorded 3 more sacks from what the NCAA credited him for (8). He did it in 80 less attempts than Turner. Turner was the 17th pick in the 1st round. Had Braswell played the same number of snaps as Turner, he would have statistically ended up with 15.5 sacks, which would have been 2nd in NCAAF. BTW, 1st and 2nd in sacks played basically for community colleges. CB plays in the SEC.
HOLD THE PHONE …
Did the Bucs get the best pass rusher in the draft? I think they might have. CRAZY!
May 8th, 2024 at 9:03 pm
Defense rules, I think that was a flaw in Canales’ coaching game; he overthought everything. Spot on
May 8th, 2024 at 9:03 pm
His footwork was great last year – right foot left foot run for your life.
May 8th, 2024 at 9:14 pm
Footwork can always improve. I bet Brady works on his to this day.
May 8th, 2024 at 9:45 pm
Footwork is key to timing of the offense. Remember reading about Bill Wash’s offense counting the number of steps in each drop back and how it affected the timing of the offense – it was all scripted.
Each offense is different, my guess is Baker knows what’s in store.
Regarding, Braswell: I’ve seen what everyone says, but he was stuck behind some big names. I think some guys are good off of one edge, because the other edge is just a bit better. I hope he comes into his own with Yaya on the other side after a years worth of experience… it could be a great set up for two bookend edge rushers… I hope we got the steal we all think we got!
May 8th, 2024 at 9:49 pm
You can tell it’s not just his feet work but his head as well. I’ve never seen a QB who plays so nervous and jittery like a squirrel in traffic, ” Which way do I go which way do I go???”. Painful to watch him at times. When he sets his feet and is confident and isn’t rushed he’s good otherwise he might throw a game losing interception. The one thing his feet serves him well in is escaping sacks, running with the ball not so much but scrambling he’s superb, definitely his best football trait.
May 8th, 2024 at 9:55 pm
Absolutely! Which shows how bad Bucs coaches used to be.
When Steve Young was traded by the Bucs to the 49ers, Bill Walsh sat him down after a practice and explained how his footwork was everything because the entire passing offense was based off of timing and if you had rotten footwork, all the timing was thrown off.
Young was floored. He never heard anything like that before. Sort of shows how incompetent Leeman Bennett was.
May 8th, 2024 at 10:25 pm
Leeman Bennett…? careful Joe, you may be dating yourself! …but man you’re SPOT ON!
And I agree, timing is, everything.
As I said, I think Baker knows, and expects the footwork regimen. Doubt he’ll have problem with it.
The offfensive line may be better, which will flow to the running game, which will leverage the passing game.
Now the defense…that should be really interesting!
Can’t wait till this season starts!
May 9th, 2024 at 12:32 am
When you have to take an 11 step drop to see over the line you better get footwork right.
I would rather see some 3 and 5 step drops instead of 7 all the time.
And he needs to slide and keep his feet moving laterally. He runs in place too much and wastes energy.
Saying Baker knows more than Coen about footwork is a Cop Out.
You have to work on it every week.
May 9th, 2024 at 1:40 am
Perhaps this is why the Bucs drafted a big interior lineman first round. So mayfield could do short drops like Drew bees did with the saints? This stuff is higher than my pay grade. Pure speculation….
May 9th, 2024 at 8:19 am
You guys haven’t been watching Baker’s drops closely… last year there were many 2 and 2-1/2 step drops. Did Baker ‘adjust’ his drops, purposely, due to lack of interior blocking?
We’ll find out.
May 9th, 2024 at 8:06 pm
Think Dave Canales is going to be a good head coach. Panthers got a good one. It’s going to talk time for him to develop though.
May 10th, 2024 at 12:11 am
@all_the_way
They have another rb to compete with those guys his name is Sean tucker I am sure he’s going to come back with his mind right and body stronger I think if he is in shape and now built to take nfl hits may be a camp/preseason surprise may even make Edmondson the odd man out