Cincinnati Bengals Film Room: John Ross
What John Ross Can Bring To The Table
That production could start with Ross. Expectations for rookie wide receivers should always be tempered, and Bengals fans knew not to expect much from Boyd, who came out of Pittsburgh as a polished-but-boring second-round pick. However, we’ve seen wide receivers like Odell Beckham Jr. and Michael Thomas have early success in this league. The key here is that Beckham Jr. and Thomas were two of the smartest players in the country when they were in college.
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It can be difficult to ascertain how intelligent a wide receiver is. In the case of Thomas, he had this innate ability to find space after the catch and was a route-running technician who never wasted movements. Beckham, on the other hand, always managed to play “bigger” than his size dictated, consistently gaining leverage on the defensive back, and his impeccable timing allowed him to be open at the top of his route in just about every case.
This play against Stanford intrigues me, because it’s a case of Ross and quarterback Jake Browning being on the same page to generate an easy first down. This play occurs on second-and-2, with the cornerback initially lined up close to Ross to prevent an easy pitch-and-catch. Throughout the 2016 college football season, Ross would receive massive cushions from defensive backs, because they all knew that he could easily burn them for a touchdown if they didn’t respect his speed. This allowed him to earn plenty of easy first downs, which leads to a problem that I will address later.
So Ross signals something to Browning, and the defense changes its alignment. The free safety moves closer to the line of scrimmage (he does not blitz on this play, though), and the cornerback covering Ross gives him that cushion. What happens is Browning drops back, waits for Ross to make his move, and hits his receiver for one of the easiest first downs you will see.
Washington used this type of Go/Out route option liberally, using one or the other depending on how tight the cornerback’s coverage looked pre-snap. On the one hand, it’s nice to see this type of communication and recognition between both quarterback and receiver, but this highlights the fact that Ross’s route tree was limited, partially because he didn’t need to be a technician in order to get open.
At the heart of the matter is a prospect’s ability to recognize their strengths and how to use them. For example, Mike Evans knew how to bully defensive backs at the catch point, and even good-but-not-great prospect Davante Adams had telepathic abilities on back-shoulder throws from Derek Carr.
So I think this play is more than just, “LOL, that dude fell!” In a way, it reminds me of this oft-clippeded play that Michael Thomas pulled on Kendall Fuller in the 2015 season.
Check out this camera angle of the play. That hard fake inside is just nuts, and I’m not sure any other player pulls this off. It takes a mind-boggling amount of explosiveness to generate that kind of speed after bouncing off of his right leg, especially when he took that long of a jab inside. Usually, a move like this is unwise for most players, but Ross knows he can pull it off. It’s hard not to feel bad for the USC cornerback — No. 18 overall pick Adoree’ Jackson, for what it’s worth — because he basically turned into Jerome Boateng trying to defend Lionel Messi.
It’s so important for a prospect who relies on elite athletic ability to be supremely confident in his natural gifts, and Ross fits that bill. I see comparisons to DeSean Jackson and Brandin Cooks floating around, and Ross is more of a hybrid of the two. He has Jackson’s long speed and explosiveness along with Cooks’ slick ability to cut on a dime. But he might be physically weaker than both of them.
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Because defenses gave him so much space out of fear for his speed, he never had to work in tight spaces. Ross showed little ability at the catch point, his play strength is clearly a massive weakness (he never had to bench during the pre-draft process), and he isn’t adept at breaking tackles.
A lack of physical strength can be a problem for an incoming player, and that will be something to monitor, given that the Bengals likely want a first-year spark from Ross. After all, if Ross’s knee injuries shorten his career, an early impact is a must in order for the Bengals to receive a fitting return on investment for the ninth overall pick.
If Ross’s play strength is an issue, it could make his rookie season more about becoming stronger in the NFL than being a big factor. And yes, a lack of strength at the wide receiver position is important, particularly for a deep threat. Many of Ross’s big-play opportunities will be contested, and small nudges become a factor when a player is moving at high speeds.
For as much as you can criticize Ross for his lack of strength, you can find plays like the one above as counterpoints. I always like to look at plays in critical situations, and a first-down reception on third-and-10 is pretty clutch. Once again, Ross is the only person Browning has eyes on, and he delivers. There are so many plays in which Browning just waits for Ross to make his cut or will even throw it to a spot before Ross makes the cut. On this play, he has to wait to see if Ross can beat the press coverage in the slot, but he wouldn’t have time to fire off a pass if Ross didn’t get open.
A big criticism I have of Ross is the fact that he lacks a “my ball” mentality, which is why I bristle slightly at direct comparisons to Cooks, who was a much tougher and slightly more well-rounded prospect at Oregon State. That said, Ross has even better long speed and short-area quickness than Cooks did, which can make him an entirely different beast.
Most of Ross’s best plays occur when he gets an ample amount of space and can wiggle into a soft zone, breaks loose deep, or starts embarrassing people with his physical tools. Those traits should be evident in the clips I’ve shown, so I won’t inundate you with more GIFs of typical John Ross Goodness.
Instead, I’ll provide you with a final visual aid that showcases two things that give me hope that Ross will translate, despite the fact that he runs simplistic route trees and lucked into pass interference calls instead of making difficult contested catches.
Ross works himself open with his feet, splitting in between both defensive backs. A common theme when watching Washington tape is this: Ross gets open, and Browning simply doesn’t have the anticipation to capitalize. Worse yet for the Huskies, Ross wisely works himself open after Browning misses the initial read, but the quarterback once again fails to take advantage. This play tells me that Ross can use his feet to win in the red zone in the Julian Edelman vein. And it also shows me that, like Josh Doctson last year, Ross is capable of improvising to help his quarterback.