[Elvis]

https://theathletic.com/792157/2019/01/ ... -patriots/

C.J. Anderson’s brain — not his frame — turned him into an invaluable piece of the Rams’ offense

By Lindsay Jones Jan 30, 2019 9

ATLANTA – Enough with the fat jokes.

Yes, C.J. Anderson is bigger now than he’s been at any other time in his NFL career, 235 pounds, he says, up about 10-15 pounds from his previous playing weight earlier in his career. But he’s not here in Atlanta with the Los Angeles Rams preparing to play in his third Super Bowl in seven years because of his body. He’s made himself an invaluable member of the Rams’ offense over the past month because of his brain.

To understand how Anderson created a role for himself on the Rams in just four games, you’ve got to go all the way back to the start of his career, to 2013 when he was an undrafted rookie buried on the depth chart of a record-setting Broncos offense.

All those weeks that Anderson wasn’t playing, he was learning. In breaks between his running back meetings and offensive team sessions, Anderson invited himself into the defensive meeting rooms. He’d slide into a chair and watch how the pass rushers and cornerbacks studied film, studied the way defensive players would try to beat offensive linemen and attack wide receivers.

“It was a sneaky way to get to talk to Champ Bailey a lot more. He’s a childhood hero,” Anderson said of the former Broncos’ cornerback, whose final season of a likely Hall of Fame career coincided with Anderson’s rookie year. “When you get in and try to learn the game and see what he sees, see how he breaks down schemes and systems and understands what routes receivers are running based off learning the splits, that helps you when you’re on offense to see if you could catch any tendencies.”

Anderson would sit down with the offensive linemen, in their own meeting rooms, to learn the blocking assignment for all five positions. If he was going to be expected to find the hole and make a cut, he wanted to know where it was coming from, and why.

“The No. 1 thing that great running backs do that does not show up on the stat sheet is they use offensive linemen and predict how their OL are going to block a defender, and then they run off of that,” former Broncos left tackle Ryan Harris said. “I was lucky enough to play with Jamaal Charles and Le’Veon Bell, and C.J. does that just as good as both of those guys do. The only way you learn that is from studying film. As a running back, yeah you have blitz responsibilities, but the great running backs study how their offensive linemen are going to handle a block and then they play off it.”

And, perhaps most important, he began pestering Peyton Manning, peppering the veteran quarterback with questions, hovering near Manning’s locker after film sessions to find a way to ask one more question. By the time Anderson and Manning reached their second Super Bowl together in February of 2016, Anderson was the starter who had earned Manning’s trust. He was a peer, not a pest.

“With those two, they were on the same page all the time,” said former Broncos running back Juwan Thompson, who backed up Anderson from 2014-2016. “I’ve seen times where he’d get Peyton’s attention and be like, ‘No, no, no, you’re supposed to check here, or check there.’ He had the courage to tell Peyton he was wrong. It’d be like, ‘It’s OK if you do it wrong, but you’re wrong in that situation.’ He was a second pair of eyes for Peyton, and Peyton didn’t mind him saying that, because CJ had earned that. It was like, shit, he knows (every) damn thing he needs to know before that ball is hiked.”

These were the type of stories Rams running backs coach Skip Peete heard when he started calling around in late December to gather background information on Anderson, who signed with the Rams before Week 16 as an emergency fill in for star Todd Gurley, who was had suffered a knee injury and needed to rest for the playoffs.

Peete’s first call was to Eric Studesville, Anderson’s former position coach with the Broncos, and the next was to Raiders running backs coach Jemal Singleton, who had coached Anderson for just one week earlier this year. Peete had watched Anderson from afar in recent years, but he wanted to know if Anderson, who had been released by three teams, the Broncos, the Panthers and Raiders, in 2018, would be mentally ready to play on short notice.

No question, Peete was told. Within days, Peete saw why.

Anderson’s first day and a half at the Rams’ facility in Thousand Oaks, Calif. was spent working with Peete, translating the Rams’ offensive playbook from the language Anderson was familiar with from his five years in Denver and his stints earlier this year in Carolina and Oakland, to Sean McVay’s verbiage. Five days later, he was on the field in Arizona, rushing for 167 yards (and a crazy 8.3 yards per carry) in his first game action in nearly two months. He followed that debut with 132 yards against the Niners in Week 17, and 123 yards and two touchdowns in a divisional round playoff win against Dallas.

“Very, very sharp. First week, maybe one or two [mistakes], but he doesn’t make very many mistakes,” Peete said. “To me, he is a role model for a lot of running backs, here’s a guy who has come full circle.”

The Rams’ running game sputtered in the NFC championship game — Anderson had just 44 yards on 16 attempts, and Gurley had rushed for just 10 yards — but his biggest contribution came on the sideline, as he talked Rams quarterback Jared Goff through things he was noticing about the Saints’ defense. This week Anderson said he recalled prior film study on the Saints (he never played New Orleans during his time in Carolina, but there were common opponents, and he faced the Saints while with Denver in 2016) and helped Goff make second-half adjustments based on things he remembered about defenses coached by Dennis Allen.

“I think the experience helps with that. Football don’t change,” Anderson said. “I’ve got great respect for Bill Belichick, just like I have respect for Dennis Allen and Matt Patricia, but some of these coordinators, I don’t want to say they’ve had the same system forever, but some of these coordinators get comfortable, you can kind of understand what it’s going to be, and when you watch the tape over and over and over and over, there might be subtle adjustments during a game, but when you watch the tape over and over, you know what Dennis Allen can potentially do in this time. If you see it at the right time, take advantage of the opportunity.”

Indeed, that’s what these past six weeks or so have been for Anderson, the chance to capitalize on an opportunity he thought wasn’t going to come in 2018. The Broncos released Anderson in April to both free up cap space and clear a path for younger, cheaper running backs. He signed with the Panthers in May, believing he’d share carries with Christian McCaffrey. That split never happened. McCaffrey emerged as the Panthers’ top offensive player, and the Panthers cut Anderson in mid-November. He went on to spend one week with the Raiders, but his time with his hometown team was short lived, and he hit the open market once again when injuries forced Oakland to sign two offensive linemen.

“It wasn’t cause of talent. I don’t want to overbeat it, but it wasn’t a talent issue,” Anderson said. “It’s timing and circumstances.”

He figured that was probably it for 2018. He followed through on plans to relocate to Houston with his pregnant fiancée and started focusing on 2019, when he assumed he’d sign a new contract with a new team and welcome his first child, a daughter, later this spring. But then came Gurley’s injury, an immediate need for a veteran running back on a playoff-bound team, a flurry of social media commentary of his new, thicker physique and those back-to-back-to-back 100-yard games and another trip to the Super Bowl.

“At the end of the day,” Anderson said, “you have to believe in your talent and what you can do.”

[Hacksaw]

What a find. We really scored when it really mattered. It would be cool to hang on to this big cat.

[RamsFanSince89]

I’m thinking he’ll get more money elsewhere and we have a poor man’s version in Malcom Brown. If he isn’t hurt too, we’d be seeing the what Brown can do in the spotlight.

[Hacksaw]

I’m thinking he’ll get more money elsewhere and we have a poor man’s version in Malcom Brown. If he isn’t hurt too, we’d be seeing the what Brown can do in the spotlight.

True this. I'm a Brown fan too but one would have to go. We don't need all 3.

Side note: It's a shame for good guys like Brown and Kupp to miss playing in the big game.

[PARAM]

Side note: It's a shame for good guys like Brown and Kupp to miss playing in the big game.

That just serves as incentive for those two in 2019 as well as their team mates desire to get there "for them".

[ScottyD]

Heard him on some recent interviews and the guy is really sharp-it would be nice to re-sign him for sure!

[BobCarl]

https://theathletic.com/792157/2019/01/ ... -patriots/

C.J. Anderson’s brain — not his frame —

I'm calling BULLSHIT on the article.

C.J. doing his homework is what every RB in the NFL is supposed to do.

CJ's frame and his brawn and physically asserting himself during contact is where his part of the equation comes from.

The real brains comes from McVay, not the "half-time adjustments" that CJ made for Goff. When CJ's career on the field is over, he will do even better on TV. He is a very bright guy.

The invaluable part of this equation is McVay putting CJ in position to succeed. The design of plays that are called. McVay's genius is to not expect CJ to be Todd Gurley.

McVay can coach the finesse run game, he can coach the speed running game, and he can coach the physical running game. And he can switch it up throughout the game. Not many coaches are that versatile.

The credit for C.J. goes to McVay for maximizing CJ's physical talent.

[Neil039]

He had some down times in Denver. Although always positive reports about him as a teammate. Doesn’t hurt to have played with Peyton Manning either.

[Hacksaw]

I'm calling BULLSHIT on the article.

C.J. doing his homework is what every RB in the NFL is supposed to do.

CJ's frame and his brawn and physically asserting himself during contact is where his part of the equation comes from.

The real brains comes from McVay, not the "half-time adjustments" that CJ made for Goff. When CJ's career on the field is over, he will do even better on TV. He is a very bright guy.

The invaluable part of this equation is McVay putting CJ in position to succeed. The design of plays that are called. McVay's genius is to not expect CJ to be Todd Gurley.

McVay can coach the finesse run game, he can coach the speed running game, and he can coach the physical running game. And he can switch it up throughout the game. Not many coaches are that versatile.

The credit for C.J. goes to McVay for maximizing CJ's physical talent.

I don't think the 'brain' reference was to CJ's ability to draw up plays, or even to be a smart runner, rather it was in reference to CJ being able to pick up our system so fast. His physical abilities then took over.