The Pass Protection
Going against Chandler Jones wasn’t exactly a gentle start to Greg Little’s NFL career, but Little actually handled himself very well – there are three things in particular I think worth highlighting about his game, both positive and negative, that are worth looking for going forward.
The first of these is the way Little dealt with inside moves, with this play possibly being the best example from Sunday’s game:
Here, Little does well to locate his hands inside the frame of the defender, preventing quick penetration and then using his good foot speed to work back inside and minimize the leverage advantage, allowing Allen to easily avoid the rush and throw the touchdown. That’s the good bit.
The bad bit is the way in which he allows the defender to get inside leverage in the first place. Little has excellent foot speed, as he shows in this play, but he needs to do a better job of using it at times; here, he could do a better job of forcing the defender to take the long way around the outside and trusting his elite foot speed to work him around the edge of the pocket.
The next play is a great example of what he can make every play look like:
There are things he could do better here, but this is a really nice pass blocking snap against one of the NFL’s very best pass rushers.
Finally, let’s look at a couple of plays where, by staying in front of his defender, he forces the defender to resort to trying to bullrush him. The first is one of his worst plays from Sunday, as while he demonstrates some really excellent foot speed, and pre-contact, his weight distribution is also really good, he straightens his legs far too much and as a result raises his pad level and in so doing, makes it easier for the defender to work him off balance and leads to him almost getting driven back into the quarterback:
By contrast, on this next play he shows better knee bend, which allows him to keep his balance effectively and so when he is able to counter the punch of Jones, something else that is really noteworthy, he is then able to drive him wide of the quarterback:
This is a rookie in his first game in the NFL going toe to toe with Chandler Jones – who leads the NFL in sacks over the past three seasons – and holding his own. Of course, Little will have to prove his worth week by week for the rest of this season, but if he is able to continue to develop while still showing the same talent he did on Sunday, the Panthers might have finally found a left tackle who can stick around for more than a season – perhaps for much longer.
