2012 NFL Scouting: Week Nine in Review

Remember that era in the NFL when it was supposed to take rookies a couple years to adjust to the NFL? That time is now far behind us, as we watched rookies take over and dominate in games in week nine.

Rookies certainly stole the show this week, but they weren’t the only guys to have big games. Who else should be praised for their week nine showings?

In the years past, we could sometimes go entire seasons without witnessing a rookie play like Andrew Luck and Doug Martin did this week. For two rookies to much such an impact in the same week would have been unimaginable – now, we’ve almost come to expect a rookie to break out on a weekly basis. Still, the performances we saw out of these two on Sunday was simply remarkable.

Most weeks, Martin’s showing would have clearly been the highlight of the week. Returning to his home town of Oakland as a starting NFL running back for the first time, Martin had the best game of his young career. His 251 rushing yards and four touchdowns was the best ever game for a Tampa Bay running back, and had Greg Schiano not inexplicably starting using LeGarette Blount Martin would have likely broken the NFL’s single game rushing record.

But in spite of that all that, Martin’s big game was only the second most impressive of the week. Andrew Luck was clearly put up the best performance of week nine, shaking off a couple of less impressive statistical weeks to break Cam Newton’s year old record for most passing yards by a rookie.

Luck is showing a pocket presence that many veterans don’t, and is putting his elite (and under-appreciated) athleticism to use when he needs to. He looks nothing like a rookie, and already has the Colts in contention for a playoff berth. If he continues to develop at the pace he’s on now, there’s little question he’ll finish 2013 as a top five quarterback.

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Recapping the Top Match Ups to Watch

Tennessee RB Chris Johnson vs. Chicago’s Run Defense

The good news for the Titans? Chris Johnson did what few running backs have been able to do against the Bears, rushing for 141 yards. The bad news – pretty much everything else. With the exception of Johnson’s 8.8 yards per carry, Chicago dominated every phase of the game, rendering this game one of the most lopsided of the season.

Furthermore, don’t base your judgment of the Bears’ run defense solely on the box score.  Johnson had plenty of success on paper, but a large chunk of his yards came on one 80 run late in the game. And while it’s not fair to Johnson to take away that run – after all, big plays are what his game revolves around – it’s also not fair to expect the Bears defense to be focused on stopping the run when they are playing with a 4 or 5 possession lead.

So is Johnson back? He won’t ever be the player he was when he came into the league, but he certainly looks much closer to that guy than he did last year. He’s on pace to finish the season with 1,308 rushing yards, which would be the third highest total of his career. But just don’t assume Chicago’s rushing defense had a bad day, either. Their overall performance proved they have nothing to worry about on that side of the ball.

Indianapolis WR Reggie Wayne vs. Miami CB Jimmy Wilson

Andrew Luck got plenty of credit for the Colts offensive performance against the Dolphins, and for good reason. But as has been the case for most of the season, Reggie Wayne was a big reason for Luck’s success.

As usual, Wayne made plays from all over the field on Sunday. He led the team with seven catches for 78 yards and one touchdown. Neither Jimmy Wilson nor the rest of the Miami defensive backfield had much success slowing down any of the Colts wide receivers down.

Wayne told reporters earlier this week that he stayed in Indianapolis to help Luck build his legacy. There’s no way of knowing how much Wayne has left in the tank, but if he can find it in himself to play for a couple more seasons, he just might get a chance to help Luck make a mark in the playoffs as well.

Buffalo DE Mario Williams vs. Houston RT Derek Newton

Mario Williams might have expected a nostalgic welcome from his former fans in Houston on Sunday. If that’s the welcome he was looking for however, he was sorely disappointed. Williams was greeted with a chorus of boos as he walked onto the field, and Texans fans kept that up anytime Williams made a play. Unfortunately for the Houston faithful, that meant they had a good bit of booing to do.

Maybe Williams’ wrist is finally healing, or maybe he just needed to return to Reliant Stadium to get his mojo back. Regardless of what triggered it, Williams looked a bit like his old self on Sunday. He sacked Matt Schaub once and recorded seven total tackles, and generally looked like a player just might be worth the money he got this off season.

Of course, that individual performance didn’t do much for the Bills in the grand scheme of things. Buffalo’s defense was awful again, and Houston rolled over the visiting team without much trouble at all. William’s improvement was encouraging, but the Bills will need to fix much more if they want to turn their season around.

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Rookie Watch

Washington’s RGII and Alfred Morris vs. Carolina’s Luke Kuechly

Robert Griffin III made it look easy the first half of his rookie season. It didn’t look quite so easy in week nine, however. Facing a surprisingly fierce pass rush, RGIII took a brutal (and illegal) hit early in the game and he never really looked comfortable after that point.

Most of the blame for that can be placed on a shoddy performance by the Redskins offensive line, instead of RGII. But even though he himself wasn’t entirely to blame for the loss, you still have to be concerned. Far too often we see rookie quarterbacks knocked off track early in their development as a result of poor protection by their offensive line. So far Griffin has shown that he’s mentally tough enough to handle that – will he be able to keep that up for the rest of the season?

Alfred Morris too struggled behind the Redskins offensive line for the second week in a row. He followed up last week’s 59 yard performance with a 76 yard game against the Panthers. Perhaps though, the Redskins should look to take some of the pressure off of Griffin by running with Morris more. He didn’t eclipse the century mark, but he did average over five yards per carry in spite of the poor play up front.

Luke Kuechly certainly did his part in helping slow down the once potent Redskins offense. He racked up a whopping 15 tackles on the day, and was a factor throughout the game on defense. Still, it’s clear that he’s not totally comfortable as a middle linebacker yet. He struggled from time to time in coverage, and will still look to improve in that area this season and beyond.

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Scouting Notes from Across the League

• Look out, JJ Watt. It looked like the Houston defensive end was going to be a runaway winner for the defensive player of the year award. However, Chicago’s Charles Tillman is going to have something to say about that. His four forced fumbles against the Titans make it clear that he too is one of the best playmakers in the league.

• Miami hasn’t gotten Ryan Tannehill great protection all season, but it was still surprising to see Jake Long struggle so badly against the Colts. It was perhaps his worst game ever as a pro, and it’s imperative that the Dolphins get better play from him moving forward.

• One of the most interesting storylines of the season (to me anyway) is how successful the slew of back up running backs have been in Pittsburgh. It seems as though no matter who they are forced to plug in, they’ll still get an output that is good enough to put them in the position to win. You’d think an offensive line that can run block that well would also be able to give their quarterback some time to throw the ball, but Big Ben is still forced to run for his life more often than not.

• Vontaze Burfict is racking up a ton of tackles for the Bengal, but he’s looking like a huge liability in coverage. Teams will begin to exploit that more and more if he doesn’t get it turned around.