We’ve got some fresh faces taking the field this week, so I have gone back and taken a look at their work in the preseason. I did this a month or so back with Blaine Gabbert, and I thought it was useful. The general gut reaction was that Gabbert would be a disaster – people were thinking of the youngster who struggled for Jacksonville. But after re-watching all of his preseason throws, it was pretty clear he had a good chance to be an upgrade over Colin Kaepernick. So I have given A.J. McCarron, Christine Michael and Bryce Brown a similar second look.
A.J. McCARRON
With McCarron, I started by going back and re-watching all of his passes from the Pittsburgh game. Then I went back to the third game of the preseason. Most teams play their starters the entire first half in that week – treat it as a dress rehearsal. But as luck would have it, the Bengals decided to put in McCarron at the start of the second quarter. So he got to work with the starters, playing against the starting defense of the Bears.
McCarron looked just fine in that game, completing 12 of 17 for 149 yards, with a touchdown. He also had a 43-yard bomb down the sideline that was nullified because Marvin Jones created a little extra space by pushing off. That throw was probably just a little underthrown. But a real nice game; led the offense to touchdowns on two of his three drives in the first half, working against Chicago’s regulars.
McCarron is a little more mobile than I expected. Carried 4 times for 12 yards in that game.
Looks like he’ll have some problems with holding the ball too long. He was sacked 3 times by the Steelers, and he took 7 sacks in 67 plays in the preseason. So right now, he’s getting sacked about once every 11 pass plays (about twice as often as Andy Dalton).
In his second and third preseason games, McCarron completed 23 of 32 passes for 246 yards, with a touchdown and no interception. That’s 72 percent. Twice on plays he didn’t see anything he liked and eventually threw it away. I liked that – better than tossing them up for grabs. Take care of the ball.
In both the preseason and in the Pittsburgh game, I notice that McCarron has some ability and willingness to throw deep. At times I get frustrated with quarterbacks like Alex Smith, Ryan Tannehill and Teddy Bridgewater, where everything is built around little dinks that don’t go anywhere. McCarron doesn’t have a particularly dynamic arm, but he’s willing to let it fly on deeper balls. In this regard, he might be better than Andy Dalton right now.
In particular, McCarron will throw deep balls down the center of the field, usually on what I would call a post route. Trent Green in the broadcast called them a deep dig route. In the Steelers game, McCarron went 3 of 4 throwing deeper balls to A.J. Green, with the 66-yard touchdown and 16- and 18-yard gains where Green had to leap up to catch them. He completed a 23-yard ball on a similar route to Marvin Jones. Looked very similar to the ball McCarrons threw to Jones for a touchdown in the preseason. He went 1 of 2 on these kind of throws to Mohamed Sanu, with a 23-yard game and one that was overthrown, resulting in an easy interception for the safety.
McCarron isn’t a rookie; he’s in his second year. He looks ready to play. If you back up the dialogue to July, there were some who were wondering if and when it might be the right time to put McCarron into the starting lineup, with Dalton being 0-4 in playoff games.
I am of the school of thought that there probably won’t be a big difference between the two quarterbacks. Dalton is more experienced and knowledgeable, but I think there probably will be some things that McCarron does better. He might, for example, have more success throwing deep to A.J. Green and Marvin Jones. Fantasy leaguers in a pinch at quarterback, I think, could consider using him at San Francisco this week, and also against the Ravens in Week 17. I wouldn’t have any interest in using him at Denver next week.
BRYCE BROWN
He might start at tailback for the Seahawks, so I went back and looked at his preseason carries. He played in two games for the Bills. He missed the other two with injuries, then Buffalo released him (I think) because Karlos Williams looked good enough to be their No. 2 back and Brown doesn’t help on special teams.
Home vs. Carolina.. Brown comes in late in the second quarter. Working with Tyrod Taylor, who’s building momentum in bid to win starting quarterback job.
On first possession, opens with a 5-yard reception. Hands seem fine. Then he has 7- and 16-yard runs between the tackles. Caps drive with 4-yard touchdown up the middle. On all 3 carries, perhaps helped by defense fearing Taylor’s ability to keep the ball and run outside. Ends half with a reception for no gain.
Third quarter. Carries the ball once for 15 yards (his only touch).
Fourth quarter. Has 9- and 1-yard runs, finishing the game with 52 yards on 6 carries.
Away at Detroit. Starts the game. Begins by losing 5 yards on a pass plays. Then he picks up 37 yards on 9 carries. Nothing too notable in there. There’s a 17-yard gain in there, running through a big hole. Most impressive run is his last one, where he uses a lateral move to make a guy miss in the backfield before picking up 4 yards.
Overall he looks the part. The size and speed seem to be there. He seems to be pretty much the same guy who went for 169 and 178 yards in his first two starts for the Eagles back in 2012.
CHRISTINE MICHAEL
Heading into the preseason, the question seemed to be whether Michael would pass Robert Turbin and become the team’s No. 2 tailback. Turbin underwent a surgery that sidelined him for the offseason. Thomas Rawls was just an undrafted rookie free agent rookie. If you go back to the team reports in June and July, you’ll see a few blurbs from beat reporters pointing out that some of the coaches like what they see out of Rawls, and maybe he’ll make the team.
Turbin played ahead of Michael in all of the preseason games, and Michael played ahead of Rawls. Rawls ended up playing well enough that they decided to give him the job.
Denver. I thought he looked pretty good. Came in at the start of the second quarter. Best play came when he was hit in the backfield but was able to spin away and pick up an extra 8 yards. Had a 12-yard run early in the third that was well blocked. Low-light came when he wasn’t carrying the ball securely enough; Shane Ray was able to slap it loose and it went bouncing up field for a big loss. Other 6 carries went for 24 yards.
Kansas City. This might be the game that led to him getting traded to Dallas. He had a couple of decent years, but the ball came out twice when he was going down. Neither play was officially a fumble. He was definitely down on both of them. But he’s had some ball security issues, so that had to annoy the coaches. And the production wasn’t great – 10 carries for 27 yards.
San Diego. Finished this game with 37 yards on 7 carries. Had one really good run, when he bounced outside for 29 yards down to the 2-yard line. Had one remarkably poor run, where he should have put his head down and picked up a short gain (probably 0-2 yards) but instead tried to run backwards and turned it into a 5-yard loss.
Oakland. Started this game. Seemed to play well enough, picking up 39 yards on 8 carries. Had another 10-yard nullified by a hold. But Rawls came in and played better, making the Seahawks comfortable making the trade with Dallas. Michael doesn’t play special teams, and teams don’t tend to keep third running backs who don’t contribute in some other way.
So where does that leave us?
With both Brown and Michael, they seem to have the necessary speed and athleticism. Both have some history of annoying coaches with fumbles, mental mistakes and poor decision making – taking losses on plays where it would be better to simply slam it up the gut and take what’s there.
Neither of these guys have been able to latch on with other teams. With Michael, for example, he would seem to have been a really good fit with Dallas’ big offensive line, but it simply didn’t happen.
But Seattle has its running game going right now, and the schedule is favorable. They’re playing at home this week, and Cleveland has one of the very worst run defenses in the league. The following week they’re at home against the Rams. That’s a notch more difficult; St. Louis usually plays Seattle tough. But the Rams have really slipped in recent weeks, so that game could also be pretty good.
Tom Cable yesterday said the team definitely will leave Fred Jackson in his current role. He’s their third-down back. He says they’ll give carries to all three of their other tailbacks. Brown, Michael and Derrick Coleman. Coleman had one nice power run for 19 yards through a big hole, right at the end of the Baltimore game. But otherwise he’s carried the ball 4 times for 6 yards in his three years in the league. He’s been primarily a fullback and special teams player. He was an unremarkable tailback at UCLA, running for 765 yards and averaging 5.0 yards per carry as a senior.
I believe they’ll be looking primarily at Brown and Michael. If one of these guys hits a couple of plays early against Cleveland, he’ll likely kind of emerge as their No. 1 guy. If neither is anything special, it should be kind of a 50-50 split.
I don’t have a strong preference between the two. Brown has been with the team more recently, and I believe he’s better in the passing game (protection and catching). Michael has more experience practicing in that system and working with those guys. Had Rawls not come along, I think the Seahawks would have been comfortable going with Michael as their No. 2 tailback entering the season.
For fantasy purposes, these guys make sense only for teams that are in dire straits at running back. You need a warm body to plug in for Week 16, you can go with one of these two and hope that he shows up on Sunday with the hot hand. Wouldn’t surprise me if one of these guys ran for about 70 yards and a touchdown on Sunday, but can’t promise which one it will be. Michael, I think, will be just a little higher when our final Week 15 board comes out on Friday.
—Ian Allan
