JJ Watt: All-Pro DE

[Quick II Draw]

Guy is unbelievable. Best Texans draft pick since Andre in my opinion...

[Spled]

Tannehill will be having nightmares tonight.

[Thorn]

Originally Posted by Spled

Tannehill will be having nightmares tonight.

Watt?

[RTP2110]

He's really good at sWATTing the QB's passes down.

[TdotTexas2Step]

JJ Swatt

[False Start]

Without a doubt! I'm so psyched to have a bad ass lineman.

[fiasco west]

Definitely. Only thing stopping him from having a amazing career is injury.

[Dutchrudder]

Tannehill was notorious at A&M for staring down receivers while they moved through their routes. He telegraphs at least half his throws, and that leads to lots of tipped passes. It's also a rookie QB thing to do, so I wouldn't be surprised if the D-line gets less than 5 PDs next week.

[CloakNNNdagger]

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

Tannehill was notorious at A&M for staring down receivers while they moved through their routes. He telegraphs at least half his throws, and that leads to lots of tipped passes. It's also a rookie QB thing to do, so I wouldn't be surprised if the D-line gets less than 5 PDs next week.

In one of the other threads, not to take anything away from "Watt is a beast," I pointed out that Tannehill threw virtually all of his passes low in straight line without any attempt to high takeoff or arc over the Dline. Here is a post from a senior poster at Thephins.com:

Tannehill has an issue with keeping the ball at around shoulder level when he throws. If he has an open passing lane, there is not really an issue with this throwing motion (except for balls floating on him), but unfortunately, passing lanes are not always there.

Using a clock for reference, Tannehill began his throws from about the 9 o'clock position on just about EVERY throw I saw from him today. Now, on deeper throws, this is probably a more appropriate motion. Think about a mangonel catapult. Some of you might have seen them on those pumpkin toss contests on the Discovery channel (the mangonel is the one with the arm and bucket, not the sling and pouch, which is the trebuchet).

The problem with this motion, especially on shorter-to-intermediate passes, is that the ball moves to the horizontal (which most thrown balls will do, but more so in his case), resulting in some passes being thrown high (or float) on these shorter throws (think the throw to Charles Clay that was inadvertently caught by Fasano). It is also an inefficient motion from a physics standpoint, because it takes quite a bit of stored energy to make that motion. This motion does not really transfer to the projectile efficiently. So in essence, he has to use more energy to put a certain amount of velocity on the ball. And this is just an observation, but he had his arm iced up pretty good in one of the preseason games. Does not necessarily mean much, but he may be working harder than he should with this motion.

Forget the fact that defensive lineman can bat down the balls at the LOS, Tannehill had these issues at Texas A&M (just look at the footage). Against Carolina, he had 4 batted passes at the LOS. This is nothing new.

A more appropriate throwing motion with these tall lineman would be from about the level of the top of the head or higher. The best in the business is Peyton Manning.

Unfortunately, I am not sure that this is something that Tannehill can change so quickly. This is HIS natural throwing motion, and something he has probably done for a very long time. It could stem from a number of things as to why he uses this particular motion, but having smaller hands could be one of the natural reasons for not using a higher launch point. Controlling the ball from a higher launch point is much easier with larger hands. I cannot imagine that he has gone through high school and college without ONE coach pointing this out to him.

And going back to the throwing motion and not being able to change it with any real effectiveness. Tim Tebow worked an entire offseason and deliberately tried to switch it without much success. I am not so sure that we will see much change in the motion. Philbin mentioned that the lineman need to do a better job at keeping their hands on the D-lineman they are against. Maybe this point has been made during practices to even the playing field in light of Tannehill's throwing motion? Just speculation with this, though.

[TejasTom]

Originally Posted by CloakNNNdagger

In one of the other threads, not to take anything away from "Watt is a beast," I pointed out that Tannehill threw virtually all of his passes low in straight line without any attempt to high takeoff or arc over the Dline. Here is a post from a senior poster at Thephins.com:

At Wisconsin JJ had 5 batted balls in 2009 and 9 in 2010.

[False Start]

[CloakNNNdagger]

Originally Posted by TejasTom

At Wisconsin JJ had 5 batted balls in 2009 and 9 in 2010.

No argument as to the "beast" label. Just saying that last Sunday a couple of those balls were so low that he didn't need to jump or even raise his hands above his head.

What I worry about is how teams will scheme to counter his bats. I've already read coaches and players mentioning that the Olinemen just need to thump him hard in the chest to have him lose his balance backwards and essentially take him out of the play....a setup for injury. But what I am most worried about is an even more effective counter by Olinemen going low and taking out his knees.

[dream_team]

I have a man crush on JJ Watt!

[Chance_C]

I love him

[Dutchrudder]

Originally Posted by jjjezebel

If anyone can get me a .gif of that little head shake/finger wag he did after knocking that ball away, I would love you forever and ever. I just want to watch that on an endless loop, it was so adorable.

What time/quarter was it?

[jjjezebel]

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

What time/quarter was it?

Oh, man...making me think. I know it was after his first tip, but I can't remember when exactly it was.

[Dutchrudder]

Originally Posted by jjjezebel

Oh, man...making me think. I know it was after his first tip, but I can't remember when exactly it was.

Did it lead to Cushing's INT? Just need something to help pin it down. I'll
Have the broadcast tomorrow.

FYI, if anyone has gif requests, pm me the time and quarter and I can make them fairly quickly.

[jjjezebel]

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

Did it lead to Cushing's INT? Just need something to help pin it down. I'll
Have the broadcast tomorrow.

FYI, if anyone has gif requests, pm me the time and quarter and I can make them fairly quickly.

No, it was just a tip. No one got a turnover from it. I'll check my hubby's pictures when he get's them up...he said he got a picture of it, and I can probably figure it out from there. He's watermarking them now, and should have them up in a bit.

[TheRealJoker]

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_u...?v=P0gsgyY_QW0

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

Did it lead to Cushing's INT? Just need something to help pin it down. I'll
Have the broadcast tomorrow.

It was on quick out to Hartline in the 2nd quarter. It looked close to being a backwards pass. A couple of plays later, Watt tipped the pass that Cushing came up with.