NFL Preseason Week 4: Takeaways from Thursday's Action
The preseason is finally behind us. From this point on, every game will actually count, and no starters will exit before the half or be healthy scratches.
But before we put the preseason behind us, let's reflect on its last week of football.
On Thursday, all 32 franchises went head-to-head on the same night. Most of the bigger names in the league sat out, as this run of games is designed to allow teams to figure out how the bottoms of their rosters should shake out to make up the 53-man squad. Instead, the big stories of this set of games came from the second-level players in the league, those young players competing for designated roles or even starting jobs.
Some of the best action of the day came within the first base snap for the team. Sure, the starters were out, but who were the third and fourth cornerbacks on the field?
Others takeaways came later. Which backup passers showed the most promise? Was there anything that should impact your fantasy league?
There were eight takeaways that stood above the rest, based on Week 4 performances.
UDFA Ladarius Gunter Is for Real
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Just before Thursday's games kicked off, Pro Football Focus dropped a list of their top 10 rookies over the course of the first three weeks of the preseason. On it were first-round picks such as Denver Broncos pass-rusher Shane Ray and Oakland Raiders receiver Amari Cooper, but the top name was an undrafted free agent: Ladarius Gunter.
Gunter has plenty of length for a cornerback at 6'2", which is a premier trait in today's NFL. But after graduating from the University of Miami, he ran a poor 40-yard dash (4.69). In the draft community, he was blackballed by some teams just for his poor speed.
He signed on with the Green Bay Packers, whose top cornerback is Sam Shields, another Hurricane who was acquired via undrafted free agency. Gunter has covered plenty of receivers well this preseason, including Antonio Brown of the Steelers, a speed demon whom Gunter shouldn't have been able to stay with, if you believe 40 times.
With Shields and Casey Hayward as healthy scratches, rookies Damarious Randall and Gunter were named starters for the Packers against the New Orleans Saints in Week 4.
Gunter now has a lead on the depth chart over second-round pick Quinten Rollins, who also has shown promise. Giving the undrafted player a nod over the 62nd pick in the draft is a huge statement of praise by the Packers organization.
Tevin Coleman Is Atlanta's Top Running Back
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Atlanta's offensive line, pass-rushing unit and backfield has forced the team which once competed for Super Bowls to fall behind over the past couple of years.
Since the 2014 regular season, though, the Falcons have invested in Adrian Clayborn, Vic Beasley and Brooks Reed to help them out defensively.
Heading into Week 4 of the preseason, the offense was still the biggest question. That was, until rookie running back Tevin Coleman ran for carries of 16 and 26 yards in his first two touches of the ballgame.
At Indiana, Coleman was a high-variance back, going feast-or-famine on a down-to-down basis. Expect the same from Coleman at the professional level. He's going to have games where he might go for 150 yards on the ground, followed by games where he rushes for 2.2 yards per carry.
Atlanta's line is in shambles. It can't just have a back "run the system," because it can't open holes. A passive runner will stall the offense, and Coleman has proved over and over that he can make something out of nothing, even if he's not consistent.
Ereck Flowers Still Needs Work
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It was never the Giants' plan to play Ereck Flowers at left tackle as a rookie. Injuries forced him into that position, but when you draft a lineman ninth overall, there shouldn't be layers of excuses as to why he's not performing up to par.
Against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 of the preseason, Flowers was beat badly in pass protection, to the point where the only way he could keep his man from sacking quarterback Eli Manning was by pulling his facemask. In Week 4 against the New England Patriots, he struggled against Rufus Alexander, who at times bull-rushed him right into the quarterback. He also had another ill-timed facemask penalty.
Flowers can be great. He has the frame to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the league at 6'6" and 329 pounds. At just 21 years old, his best football is ahead of him, but with the Giants staff already on a short leash and Manning being in a contract year, he can't be a liability in 2015.
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Chris Smith Is Jacksonville's Best Pass-Rusher
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When defensive end Dante Fowler, Jacksonville's first-round pick, went down with an ACL tear in rookie camp, everyone projected that its pass-rushing unit would be one of the worst in the league heading into 2015. That still may be the case, but a new top pass-rusher has emerged.
Mike Kaye of First Coast News made the case for Chris Smith to start as the team's hand-up-hand-down "Leo" pass-rusher over the course of the preseason. He's been able to generate pressures by bull-rushing offensive linemen, bend the edge with his speed and natural leverage and clean up sacks when his teammates weren't able to get home.
Smith may be used in a rotational role early on, but he's going to start games down the line for this franchise sooner or later. He was able to come down with another sack against the Redskins on Thursday, extending his tour of success this summer. The best bet is on Smith to lead the team in both sacks and pressures in 2015.
Brett Hundley Is Improving
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There are already fans looking at the 2016 draft class for their savior quarterback. As bad as some passers may look on the professional level, though, the younger ones in college are even further behind.
There are going to be debates to whether or not quarterbacks like Penn State's Christian Hackenberg or Ohio State's Cardale Jones are worthy of first-round picks, but the top available passer just might be one to come off an NFL bench.
This past year, quarterback guru Mike McCarthy, who doubles as Green Bay's head coach, used a fifth-round choice on Brett Hundley of UCLA, who some had ranked as a first-round passer just a year prior.
The narrative around Hundley after the draft was simple: He was raw and had "slipped" throughout the process but may be a worthwhile project for the Packers, who have historically turned backups into starters for other teams in exchange for draft picks. The thought was that the former Bruin was two or three years from being the next Mark Brunell, Aaron Brooks or Matt Hasselbeck.
We underestimated Hundley. Against the Saints, he completed 16 of 23 passes for 236 yards and four touchdowns. Outside of a Week 2 performance in which he only threw five passes, he registered a passer rating of over 100 every week this preseason.
If Hundley keeps it together, he might make that fifth-round choice in 2015 seem like a second- or third-round one in 2016 for the Packers.
Barkley vs. Tebow: One-Sided
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To all those Tim Tebow truthers out there: He probably can't be fixed and turned into some All-Pro passer just because he has the tools. But third-string passers rarely see the field, and Tebow is in a position where he can be valued in that specific role.
Against the New York Jets in Week 4, the Philadelphia Eagles only played two passers: Tebow and Matt Barkley. Both former college stars, it's projected that only one will stick with the team after final cuts; after all, it isn't a given to see a third-string quarterback, let alone a fourth-string one.
Tebow went 11-for-17 for 189 yards and a passer rating of 117. Barkley only completed four of nine passes for 45 yards and a 20.4 mark. This race is over.
Not only has the Florida product proved to be the better passer of the two, which is the best way to explain the battle, but he can be brought in as a hammer quarterback for two-point conversions.
The last thing an NFL team wants to do is use its quarterback like a tool in the red zone, let alone Sam Bradford, who has a history of injuries. Tebow can spell Bradford in these situations where Barkley couldn't.
Barkley's first two throws of the night were at the feet of receiver Josh Huff and then an interception, respectively. He should have started packing his bags after that effort. It was reminiscent of his first game in the regular season of his rookie year in 2013, when he threw three interceptions and another one which was called back.
Tebow mania isn't dead quite yet.
Brandon Coleman: Fantasy Sleeper
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A few years ago, there were debate as to whether Kelvin Benjamin of Florida State or Brandon Coleman of Rutgers was the better of the two jumbo receivers at the time. By the time they declared for the draft, Benjamin had the leg up, landing as a first-round pick with the Carolina Panthers.
Coleman still had that potential but wasn't nearly as refined. He went undrafted, eventually landing with the Saints, who kept him through his sophomore season in the league. There couldn't have been a better fit for the pass-catcher.
He can play in a Marques Colston type of role, and with tight end Jimmy Graham gone and running back C.J. Spiller currently injured, there are receptions to be had in the offense.
Drew Brees will throw the ball around, but if defenses start to lock on Brandin Cooks and Colston, Coleman could see a rapid increase in receptions early. Against the Green Bay Packers, Coleman caught four of his four targets for 85 yards, including a 45-yard reception.
When a 6'6" athlete puts numbers up all over a box score, he's hard to ignore. It's quite possible that the wideout could be the difference between winning and losing your fantasy league this fall.
A Lot of Bad Football
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If Week 3 of the preseason is a dress rehearsal, Week 4 is the cleanup after the wedding. It's no surprise that there was some ugly football played when the majority of starters were healthy scratches in Week 4, but Thursday was something else.
It looked like teams were just playing games for the sake of playing games, which is the truth to some degree. Coaches were putting out basic Cover 2 defenses, refusing to add any creativity to their calls. If you are evaluating personnel to make your regular-season roster, even if it's the bottom portion, wouldn't you try to see how those players worked in specific situations?
And by "bottom of the roster," think "the depths of the NFL." If it wasn't kicker Dustin Hopkins of the Saints slipping on the kickoff, it was the Bills' Matt Simms rocketing a fumble behind himself.
If the NFL is going to put out such a boring and out-of-sync product, why even put it on television? Fans who paid good money to watch Week 4 in the stands should have been scratching their heads as they walked to the parking lot.
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