All four of the rookies that played in Sunday’s loss against the Colts logged their highest snap count totals of the season. For Frazier, that is just because the offense ran more total plays. For Payton Wilson, he appears to be getting worked into the defense more, at least in certain game plans, as his previous snap totals were hovering around 20-25 per game. Mason McCormick got his first full game of action in his first career start. He rotated in a week ago against the Los Angeles Chargers but got the start over Spencer Anderson and is now the guy moving forward with James Daniels’ season-ending injury. Beanie Bishop’s increased involvement makes sense with Cory Trice Jr. on IR and Darius Rush not suiting up for the game.
Today, we will take a high-level look at each rookie’s performance, including some clips from their play breaking down what they did well and what they can improve on.
Week 4 – At Colts
C Zach Frazier
Snaps: 70 on offense (100-percent)
Pro Football Focus Grades: 74.7 overall, 78.6 pass block, 72.4 run block
Many will remember this game from Frazier for the unfortunate snap miscue that ended the comeback attempt. Whether you want to blame it on Frazier, Fields, the guards operating the silent count, or a combination of the three, that is now a handful of these premature snaps in the preseason and regular season. Having veteran OG Isaac Seumalo back next to him should help with some of the silent count issues and any possible communication breakdowns. I am not going to show the botched snap clip, because there isn’t much to look at, but there was another QB-C exchange issue in this game.
Again, I don’t want to put the blame on Frazier here, but he needs to get these things figured out with Fields as the exchange issues have shared blame in most cases. He was pulling and stepped on Fields’ foot. His first step was a bit deep, but Fields probably could have gotten out of the way as well. Somehow Frazier still managed to bury the defensive lineman even with losing his feet because of the mishap.
In terms of the positives, this is nothing new at this point, but his use of hands and his grip strength are just so good. On this play, he locks his right hand to the defenders chest to prevent the swim move from working and then works his other hand back inside, which allows Justin Fields enough room to escape to make the throw.
ILB Payton Wilson
Snaps: 37 on defense (56-percent)
Pro Football Focus Grades: 74.0 overall, 72.5 run defense, 78.5 tackling, 81.6 pass rush, 55.9 coverage
Wilson played the most snaps of his career and held up pretty well overall. One of the things I would love to see more from the defense, specifically using Payton Wilson, is getting the inside linebackers involved with blitzes. Wilson was one of the best in college football, and Patrick Queen and Elandon Roberts are also adept at blitzing.
On this rep, Wilson timed up the blitz well, swam over Jonathan Taylor and pressured the quarterback. If Flacco wasn’t so darn good at getting the ball out quickly, he could have sacked or even stripped the quarterback. He may have been part of the reason Flacco didn’t see Joey Porter Jr., who nearly intercepted the ball in the end zone.
This has been an ongoing issue for Wilson, but he tends to run past plays at times. He took himself out of the play and made it too easy for the lineman to block him in space. Credit to him, though, for spinning back and getting in on the tackle on the second effort.
OG Mason McCormick
Snaps: 70 on offense (100-percent)
Pro Football Focus Grades: 54.2 overall, 67.8 pass block, 56.0 run block
McCormick was supposed to rotate with Anderson, but an injury to James Daniels kept him in the game for all 70 snaps at left guard. He showed some improvement in pass protection, and had a couple really great reps against Raekwon Davis. Davis is 6-7, 325 pounds and has a lot of length to deal with. McCormick showed exactly what he needed to on the below rep. He landed his punch to Davis’ chest, and used quick, choppy steps to prevent giving up much ground.
On 3rd and 1, you really want to see your offensive linemen imposing their will. On this play, McCormick stops his feet and gets stood straight up. Najee Harris converted, but it probably didn’t need to be as hard as it was and part of that was because McCormick lost his pad level and got stuck on his heels.
CB Beanie Bishop Jr.
Snaps: 46 on defense (70-percent)
Pro Football Focus Grades: 57.9 overall, 47.6 run defense, 29.2 tackling, 74.7 pass rush, 58.1 coverage
Bishop played a ton on Sunday. He notched his first half sack in this game, blitzing from the slot. He came in with a full head of steam and ran through the block attempt from the running back to wrap up Flacco and split a sack with Cam Heyward.
