With training camp beginning last night, there will be an awful lot for fans to watch over the next few weeks: a whole new offensive and defensive scheme, a lot of close position battles and, as every year, a number of shiny new players. While free agent additions will obviously attract interest, they enter the team as somewhat known quantities having spent time around the league and so the shiniest of all the players taking the field at training camp are almost always going to be the rookies. Therefore, when rookie faces off against rookie there is always going to be a heightened level of excitement and focus, and this year should provide a number of direct rookie-on-rookie snaps. DJ Moore vs Donte Jackson should provide plenty of action and Rashaan Gaulden might well see some snaps lined up against Ian Thomas, but the battle that has me most excited is between two players battling on the edges of the 53-man roster: Brendan Mahon and Kendrick Norton. I know what you’re thinking, but stick with me. Let me tell you what makes this battle so exciting.
Part One: Brendan Mahon
The Run Game
As much as people want to talk about what Norv Turner’s offense will do for Cam in the passing game, good Norv Turner offenses throughout the past 25 years have all had their basis in a productive and efficient interior running game – that starts with the offensive line. When people think about offensive line play, and especially in regards to the run game, they often think about power, the ability to line up against the man opposite from you and push them backwards. While Mahon does have a decent amount of power, as seen on the play below, the key for effective run blocking lies far more in technique than natural athleticism, especially in schemes which utilize more zonal blocking. It should be noted that all the plays used in this section are from the Penn State game at Iowa last season, where Mahon is playing right guard (#70).
For a start, in order to transfer whatever power a player generates, they need to play with good leverage, as too high a pad level will lead to the majority of the force generated going upwards and so being wasted. On the following play, Mahon shows the ability to stay reasonable low and is able to get under the pads of the defensive tackle and so drives him backwards:
While this good pad level allows for Mahon to move his defender downfield, where this play comes undone, and where Mahon possibly needs to do the most work in the run game during training camp, is in his body control. By trying to exert extra force to drive his man downfield, he puts himself off-balance and so when the defender is able to twist sideways, Mahon is then unable to stop his forward momentum and so removes himself from the rest of the play. As Mahon was able to maintain body control for a reasonable length of time, allowing the conversion of the third down, this cannot be said to be a poor play on his behalf as a whole, but over-leaning and losing body control can be a significant problem if it becomes a habit, especially on first contact.
The other key part of core offensive line technique in the run game is hand usage, and this is something that Mahon does really well, and why the battle between he and Norton will be so interesting, as he locates his hands well inside the frame of the defender and then looks to drive through them in order to generate controlled power, as seen on the following play:
Additionally, when he is not able to get inside location on first strike, he uses a punch to avoid the defender getting into his frame before locating on the second strike:
One thing the Panthers ask their offensive linemen to do a lot, or at least did under Shula, is pull across the line or into space or work up to the second level. Mahon isn’t Ryan Kalil, but he is still highly mobile for an offensive lineman and when trying to locate and block secondary defenders his good hand usage once again comes into effect:
And while it is always going to be somewhat of a mismatch when a lineman ends up blocking a linebacker, Mahon shows the power to not just block players but move them out of the way:
Where he does have some issues is on locating defenders, as can be seen on the following play where he turns the edge only to see the player he expected to be blocking already being blocked and hesitates before identifying who his block should be:
This is hardly the end of the world, but is another thing to watch for during training camp. In contrast to this, Mahon generally shows a very good understanding of running schemes, demonstrating an understanding of not just who he is meant to be blocking but also the leverage required for the play to function. The following play is a good example of this:
Here, the defensive line is shifted to the offensive line’s right, with the 3-tech outside of Mahon, the center being left unblocked and the tight end blocking across the line from left to right on the other inside linebacker; both defensive ends are being blocked outwards. As this play is drawn up, Mahon would look to drive the 3-tech further outside, allowing the tight end to simply kick out the linebacker for an inside running lane, but rather than stepping to the outside gap, the tackle’s first step is inside. Instead of trying to twist his body around and trying to force the tackle back outside, which would likely have clogged the running lane and led to a small or even negative gain, he looks to pivot left and use the tackle’s own momentum to drive him out of the play to the left, allowing the tight end to kick out the linebacker as planned.
This will be especially valuable if the Panthers move towards a even more zone-based running scheme as some have predicted, as here leverage is the basis of the running game rather than the push the offensive line is able to generate. Penn State did run a very zone-heavy scheme last season, and the value can be seen by the blocking on the following play, where Mahon works to the second level and immediately uses his body to seal the outside running lane. With the defensive end being blocked by the tackle, this should (in theory) force the safety to pick between either the inside running lane or the edge, allowing the running back to pick the other to find plenty of rushing room:
UNRELATED: Saquon Barkley is an extremely good running back, but plays like this where he simply ignores the blocking scheme and passes on a perfectly good gain with a chance for a big play if he can beat the safety, will drive offensive coordinators and those blocking for him insane. Good luck, Mike Shula!
Next Up: The Passing Game
