Must read (Burrow and the Back-Shoulder Throw)

[membengal]

I know most of you don't have The Athletic, so let me drop as a holiday present Dehner's piece on Burrow and back-shoulder throws here - it is a fantastic read - 

 

https://theathletic.com/4003309/2022/12/15/joe-burrow-bengals-back-shoulder/

 

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Joe Burrow’s back-shoulder throw mastery: ‘He might be the best to ever do this’

by - Paul Dehner Jr.  Dec 15, 2022

CINCINNATI — Joe Burrow will drop back once or twice a game and make a throw toward the sideline at the back shoulder of one of his receivers, who turn to snag a first down or chunk play fading out of bounds that will elicit three reactions.

The first, a cornerback having to pick himself up off the ground, ripping his mouthpiece out in frustration wondering what exactly he’s supposed to do to defend this pass.

The second, Burrow casually acting like he just tossed a check-down for three yards.

The third, a definitive message from the color analyst calling the game.

This past Sunday against the Browns, it was Denzel Ward, one of the best cover corners in the NFL, having to take the dejected trek back to the huddle, mouthpiece still swinging under his face mask, the latest victim of a perfectly executed back-shoulder throw to Ja’Marr Chase for a first down.

The analyst was former defensive back and CBS color commentator Adam Archuleta.

“This is just unstoppable,” Archuleta said. “It doesn’t matter how good of a reaction Denzel Ward has, when they operate with that kind of timing, it truly is almost impossible to stop.”

Announcers know it. Coaches know it. Cornerbacks undeniably know it. Burrow loves it.

“If we throw it on time and to the right spot,” Burrow said, “it’s not really a defendable route, in my opinion.”

It’s an opinion shared in the game-plan meetings, quarterback headset speakers and beyond because few in the game more often throw on time and to the right spot than Burrow. The back-shoulder throw uniquely features Burrow’s elite strengths.

Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan and head coach Zac Taylor stood in the tunnel just off the field inside Paycor Stadium on a Monday afternoon following a recent win and racked their brains when asked if they can come up with a quarterback on the same level as Burrow executing this unique throw.

Aaron Rodgers when he was with Davante Adams? Drew Brees might have a case. Patrick Mahomes? The list was short and starry.

“Better than anybody I’ve ever seen before,” said Callahan, who has coached NFL quarterbacks for over a decade, including Peyton Manning in Denver.

Others might be great at throwing the back-shoulder on occasion. Or with a specific receiver. Burrow has thrown it to nearly every skill position player on this team. Starter or backup, running back or tight end, first quarter or game-defining third-and-long, everyone on the offense knows they better be prepared.

Burrow will unleash this tool at any point.

“It’s an advantage,” Callahan said. “He has such a great feel for the timing. It’s a weapon for us.”

How does it work? What does he do to create chemistry? What does connecting on it in a game mean to the receiver? How does it change the dynamic of the offense? And, more simply, how the hell is he so good at it?

I talked to Burrow along with 10 others with specific knowledge of this skill to understand the anatomy of the not-so-secret weapon that’s among the most unstoppable plays in this league.

“It’s almost like shooting a free throw for him,” said JT O’Sullivan, former NFL QB and creator of The QB School. “He might be the best to ever do this.”

‘One a year, maybe?’
The answer from nearly every Bengals receiver when asked about the success of the back-shoulder pass starts in the same place.

“Him and Chase,” Tee Higgins said with wide eyes. “He’s been doing it ever since college. Their connection is crazy.”

Burrow and Chase first got together at LSU in 2018, experienced the summer of 10,000 catches the following offseason and took off to create one of the great connections in college history the following year. All before joining up in Cincinnati to produce a Super Bowl berth and Offensive Rookie of the Year award for Chase.

So, how many back-shoulders would Chase guess have they ever connected on?

“S—, estimate a guess?” he said, laughing at the absurdity of the question. “About 200?”

As Chase exploded on the scene in 2021 with a series of go balls creating a Bengals season featuring the most 50-plus-yard plays in more than 30 years, it was at the midpoint in the campaign when Burrow started catching defenders scared of the deep pass with back-shoulders to Chase. Right then, his complete game began to overwhelm the league.

“I think it gets overlooked sometimes when he throws it to Ja’Marr because it looks so seamless,” backup quarterback Brandon Allen said. “Him and Ja’Marr do it so effortlessly all the time.”

With hundreds of connections in the books and a route completely dependent on feel and chemistry in the moment, has there ever been a time where this seamless, effortless connection was off?

“Yeah, actually,” Chase said.

Once. One time. At least, according to Chase’s mental records.

“I think it was the Cleveland game last year,” he said, placing the moment. “He threw it back-shoulder but I wanted it over the top. I thought we were even.”

Chase’s math essentially checks out, according to his fact-checking quarterback.

“Every now and then,” Burrow said. “One a year, maybe?”

Good luck to defenses playing those odds on an otherwise uncoverable chemistry route.

There’s a lot to dissect in how Burrow does it, but why has Chase become the perfect match to this skill? You know, outside of the fact he seems to be the perfect match for every skill.

“Instinct. Skill. Mindset,” Chase quickly rattled off. “Bro, I’ve been doing it for seven years playing football and a split of 0.2 seconds I have to know what I’m doing. Literally. I got 0.2 seconds to know if it’s back-shoulder or over the top when I’m getting checked. We been doing it forever.”

‘Holy s—, this guy trusts me!’

Watching Burrow and Chase connect serves as the example of what can happen. The art of spreading it around to the rest of the roster has been the improbable accomplishment in Burrow’s evolution.

The foundation for the success of this skill starts where most do with Burrow.

“One of the things that makes him special about it, though, is that he spends a ton of time working on it,” Callahan said. “It’s something he invests time and energy on perfecting. He tends to be able to do that when he is putting time and energy into things.”

Burrow arrived in Cincinnati with a different way of approaching the concept. Most teams practice the deep ball and anything back-shoulder is a reaction off that. Burrow brought the idea of two different routes: the primary go ball and then a conversion route where the possibility of the back-shoulder is a part of the play.

“Most places I have ever been, it’s run to win deep and react to a back-shoulder,” Callahan said. “But it’s really not how it works. That’s the true throw — the go ball, 50-50. The secondary route is we are trying to throw back-shoulders, which is, to me, different than anywhere I’ve ever been or ever heard it taught. That was really Burrow’s thing. He likes that.”

He liked the idea of creating answers to new questions in the NFL. His success with the play with Chase at LSU created an opportunity to use it amid a new landscape.

“When you come into the league, you have to figure out how to make throws work,” Burrow said. “In college, you are going to have guys open, a lot of zone coverage, seeing the same defense basically the whole game. You come into the league and they are mixing up coverages and the defenders, there’s a lot of tight windows. You have to figure out how to find completions, really. As a quarterback, you have to learn how to make different kinds of throws and understand when those throws need to be made against certain leverages and different coverages. That’s one of those we came up with to kind of combat that.”

There’s an art to understanding the concept that had to be taught and manicured. The key is the precise moment that requires a peek into the backfield mid-route to see what’s coming. Burrow and the receiver have to read the defensive positioning on the throw, which essentially always comes against a basic press-man coverage (corner tight on the receiver at the line, one on one).

“You never know,” Higgins said. “You can peek expecting the back-shoulder and he will throw you down the field. Some of those you expect but you have to react to how he throws it to you.”

There’s a long list of factors at play during the split-second decision and Burrow credits the instincts and body control of his playmakers for why he’s proven so adept at it.

“That throw is so much more about — maybe more than any throw — about just being on the same wavelength with the guy you are throwing the ball to,” quarterbacks coach Dan Pitcher said. “In terms of when he expects their eyes, a lot of it is being able to perceive the body language of the DB and where he is in phase with the receiver. Is he in control and even? Is he panicked and trying to recover and even? Is he in the back hip but running full speed to where if we slam on the brakes we can still get it? Is he in a body position where the ball has to go over the top?”

Burrow missed a few back-shoulder throws with Higgins against Dallas in Week 2. With Higgins, in particular, Burrow knew the importance of hitting these. He was far earlier in the chemistry-perfecting process in comparison to his weapon on the other side, Chase. The deep threat and sprawling catch radius of the 6-foot-4 Higgins should make the back-shoulder an accessible weapon if perfected. It wasn’t yet. Time arrived for Higgins to take that next step.

The issue sent Burrow and Higgins into extra work on the route the following week.

The next game against the Jets, on the first third down of the game, a third-and-9, Burrow dropped, eyed Higgins in man against D.J. Reed and ripped a 22-yard back-shoulder. Jumping out to a quick start in that eventual 27-12 victory was cited as a major reason for beginning the dig out of the 0-2 start to the season.

“That’s the perfect example of it,” Higgins said. “We wasn’t connecting on those that week. We talked about it next week in practice and went over it in practice then in the game it came natural. (Burrow and Chase) got it down pat. This year, I feel like me and him are starting to get it down pat now and you’re starting to see it. It’s a nice little complement.”

Making that type of play in a game is nothing new for Chase and Higgins, but for this throw to be effective down the depth chart, it required the most valuable currency in the Bengals offense.

“It’s a trust thing,” tight end Hayden Hurst said.

If Burrow trusts you, only good will follow. That happened with the rise of Trenton Irwin in the absence of Chase for four games. Conversely, receiver Mike Thomas was let go after a few failed moments and a notable drop in a Monday Night Football loss at Cleveland.

 So, when Hurst came to Cincinnati and learned firsthand about Burrow’s love for the back-shoulder, he knew he had to build the chemistry to where his quarterback would be willing to throw it to him in a game.

They worked in OTAs, through camp and practice, but Hurst was still feeling his way through his new quarterback and role in the offense.

So, on a second-and-6 in the second half of a tight game against Baltimore in Week 5, when Hurst lined up outside in press-man against cornerback Marcus Peters, he ran the conversion route not knowing how Burrow felt about a tight end-corner matchup.

His QB fired a back-shoulder high and outside near the sideline. Hurst flipped his hips, went airborne, snagged it, stood up and spun the ball in confidence.

This wasn’t just an eight-yard gain. This was monumental in their relationship. Since that game, Hurst is third on the team with 34 receptions. He remembers his instant reaction like it happened yesterday.

“Holy s—,” Hurst said. “This guy trusts me. This is pretty cool.”

The coolest for Joe Cool. Nothing compares with trust. He loves accessing tight windows by trusting his guys. That’s at the core of why he loves this route so much.

“Yeah, that is the ultimate trust route,” Burrow said. “You are throwing it expecting they see the same thing you see because we are getting it out so fast, they’ve got to get their eyes around understanding the leverage of the corner they are going up against. If they beat him over top, it’s going over top, you really have to be on the same page. We got the guys that understand what we are trying to do.”

‘OK, this is not quite what I expected from you’

When Irwin was promoted off the practice squad in the absence of Chase, Burrow and the Bengals knew there could be situations where he ends up one-on-one as teams focus doubles and shades to Higgins and Tyler Boyd.

Burrow trusts Irwin. The receiver’s constantly living in the playbook and hanging around the building was nearly legendary as he’s grinded away on the practice squad for three seasons.

Few have been a bigger champion for Irwin than Burrow, who was visibly as frustrated as any when replay took his potential first career touchdown away against Carolina. Burrow then was the most boisterous in celebration and praise when the first one came a week later in Pittsburgh.

But Burrow had to find trust and chemistry on the back-shoulder with Irwin in case they needed it. Leading up to a critical game at Tennessee in Week 12, receivers coach Troy Walters specifically put conversion routes for Irwin in the practice scripts to fast-track the chemistry.

He ended up throwing one. It connected.

With only one rep, the learning curve needs to go beyond the physical practice. Burrow’s meticulous development of personal relationships helped expedite the process.

“The thing he does a really good job of, too, is communicating between reps with those guys in practice,” Pitcher said. “‘OK, this is not quite what I expected from you, this is what I need from you.’ You see it in the film later, ‘Know what I told you on the field? What you did was actually OK.’ There’s constant feedback there. There’s not guesswork involved. He’s going to tell you — yes you did or no you didn’t.”

Sure enough, on third-and-12, on a season-altering touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, Burrow went to his tool belt and banked on his trust with Irwin coming through. For his lone reception of the day, Irwin dove toward the back-shoulder against rookie Tre Avery and hauled it in despite a replay challenge from the Titans.

Burrow threw the 27-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Higgins on the next play.

“He just feels it out and puts it there,” Irwin said. “It’s just always an option because of the way he can throw it. The thing about is, there’s no answer.”

Burrow paused and pondered when asked if there’s a favorite back-shoulder throw of his career.

“There’s been so many of them,” he said.

He then pushed all his star receivers aside figuring out his favorite. It was Irwin against Tennessee.

“Just because me and Ja’Marr work on it so much. Me and Tee work on it so much,” Burrow said. “Then me and Trenton had that rep during the week in practice and we hit it in practice. That was the one rep we got of it and it shows up in a big-time situation against the Titans on the road to really win the game.”

‘I can put the ball wherever I want’

Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo has seen his fair share of back-shoulder conversions going against Burrow in camp and practices for three years. He agrees with the consensus that with Burrow, it’s essentially unstoppable. It comes down to a matter of defensive philosophy.

Want to give up the deep ball or allow a first down? One of the two is happening. Either way, the defense is worried about both and that makes both plays that much more effective.

The combination of strengths in Burrow’s game, mental, physical and emotional, lend themselves to the success rate.

There’s a bravery to it. He’s willing to throw to the small window. He’s willing to throw the receiver open. He’s willing to buzz the ball by the earhole of the corner if he sees the back of his helmet. He’s willing to trust.

“It’s just confidence that the defender can’t see what’s going on, so he knows I can put the ball wherever I want,” Pitcher said. “Not only that, there is a difference between accuracy and catchability. He has both. I can be the most accurate guy in the world and sit here and fire the ball at that brick wall and I might be able to hit 10 targets, but if I can’t change the trajectory or pace to make it a catchable ball based on who my target is — you can’t throw the same ball to a running back you can throw to Ja’Marr.”

Oh yeah, don’t forget, there’s no discrimination by position. He’s thrown a back-shoulder to Joe Mixon. At Cleveland, Burrow had running back Chris Evans streaking one-on-one down the sideline with a linebacker and opted to throw a back-shoulder.

“I’ve seen him do it to running backs this year, which I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone else do,” O’Sullivan said.

The 26-yard connection to Evans was a prime example of adjusting the type of throw necessary for the specific target.

“For me, once you feel the trajectory, that’s when you feel if it’s going over or coming right at you,” Evans said. “We have that route up and that route is always practiced being over the shoulder. Versus Cleveland, it just happened to come back-shoulder and I had to adjust.”

Sure, the pinpoint accuracy is critical. Yes, understanding the necessary pace matters. Of course, knowing the spot each particular player prefers and succeeds will determine its success.

The freakishness seen from Burrow is working all that math mid-stroke.

“It’s something you see as you are throwing,” Pitcher said. “It’s the ability to make minute adjustments as the ball is leaving your hand. You get a sense as he draws to throw what the relationship is with the defensive back and the receiver but up until the last second, the ball leaves your last finger, there is the ability to pull down on it a little bit or let it go a little bit and that might be the difference between here or here.”

The difference between here and here equals the difference between good and great.

“That’s not a route that you go out there and are like, ‘This is going to be a back-shoulder throw,'” Burrow said. “It just depends on the kind of leverage you are seeing from the receivers. Our receivers, they have great body control. It’s something we’ve worked really hard on and put a lot of emphasis on and it’s showing up on tape.”

It’s showing up nearly every week. It’s eliciting the same reactions. He’s made the defense defenseless, one shoulder at a time. Until they give up.

“Ultimately,” Callahan said, “it usually forces them to play off coverage and then you take all the other stuff.”

 

 

[ArmyBengal]

Holy shit that’s a great read.

Thanks Mem !!

[Stripes]

It's gotten to the point that when I see Joe throw the back shoulder to either Chase or Boyd, I think it's an automatic completion. Clearly the other skill players have made those plays too, but those two specifically have really mastered the timing with Joe. I think it's been a major development this season for Boyd especially.