The trusty quarterback trending arrow points up for Dak Prescott and down for Josh Allen.

Plus, Brock Purdy is back, people! (Even though he never really went anywhere.) So is Russell Wilson, I think?

And who wouldn’t be excited for some Patrick Mahomes–Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson–Joe Burrow matchups in Week 11?

Here’s my weekly look at how quarterbacks stand using traditional statistics like passer rating, along with advanced metrics like Expected Points Added per dropback, via TruMedia, to provide a number-based outlook of the state of the position.

I’ll also give a sneak peek at the upcoming matchups using EPA per dropback for the quarterbacks and the defenses they will face in Week 11. A warning that there are plenty of unexpected names and question marks throughout that chart.

GO DEEPER

NFL midseason QB EPA rankings: Joe Burrow trending up, Brock Purdy trending down

Nos. 1-8

The San Francisco 49ers passer pulled off the best passer rating of his career in the team’s Week 10 thrashing of the Jacksonville Jaguars. That’s saying something since it’s the third time Purdy produced a passer rating north of 140.0 in 17 NFL starts. Maybe it helped to have Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams back in the lineup.

Prescott is having one of the better stretches in his career. The Dallas Cowboys quarterback led the league in EPA rate (0.33) and passer rating (125.1) during Weeks 6-10 (four games, Dallas had a bye in Week 7). Oddly, he’s done it while being the fourth-most-sacked quarterback in the span (13).

A weird couple of weeks for the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert. In Week 9, he yielded the second-worst passer rating (65.4) and fifth-worst EPA rate (-0.20) of his career against the New York Jets. The Chargers won that game. In Week 10, he put up outstanding numbers against the Detroit Lions. Los Angeles lost that one. Herbert’s Week 10 EPA rate was the highest for a losing quarterback this season.

I promise I’m not trying to downplay the success of C.J. Stroud. He’s helping the Houston Texans become a playoff contender. Take Week 9’s awesome performance away for a second. Stroud’s last four games outside of that, Stroud compiled a 0.04 EPA rate and 85.6 passer rating. The most encouraging aspect of that is how those numbers seem to be his floor.

Things are spiraling for the Buffalo Bills’ Allen, and now there’s a new offensive coordinator in Buffalo after Ken Dorsey was ousted this week. Allen’s Week 10 EPA rate in the loss to the Denver Broncos was his worst since Week 14 in 2019. Allen produced consecutive negative EPA rates for the first time in the regular season since Weeks 1-2 in 2021. The swoon dropped him from third to seventh in this season’s overall EPA rankings.

Nos. 9-16

Lions running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs rushed for nearly 200 yards and three touchdowns and Jared Goff amassed his best EPA rate of the season in the win over the Chargers. A nice bounce-back outing for Goff after the bye. He struggled a bit in Weeks 7-8 with a -0.15 EPA rate and 76.9 passer rating.

Baker Mayfield has left that Week 6-8 stretch behind (-0.11 EPA rate, 77.1 passer rating). In the last two games, Mayfield tallied a 0.29 EPA rate and 111.1 passer rating. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB is easily having his best season since 2020 when he went to the playoffs with the Browns.

Geno Smith rebounded from the worst EPA rate and passer rating of his Seattle Seahawks career in Week 9 to propel the team to a last-second win over the Washington Commanders in Week 10. It was his third 100.0-plus-passer rating performance of this season.

In the last five Green Bay Packers losses, Jordan Love has yielded a -0.10 EPA rate and 67.8 passer rating. Love also possesses the league’s lowest completion percentage at 58.7 percent. All that said, Love has produced a 0.10 EPA rate or better in three of his last four games.

Coincidence that an AFC North foe was the last team to slow down the Baltimore Ravens’ Jackson this season? The numbers from Jackson’s Week 10 outing in a loss to the Cleveland Browns resembled his performance in a Week 5 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers (-0.31 EPA rate, 65.2 passer rating). His 56.5 completion percentage in Week 10 stands as a season low.

I’ve been pretty harsh on Wilson for his empty stats and a career-worst game (in terms of EPA) during this season. Wilson’s EPA rate probably should’ve been higher given how often the Broncos began possessions inside Bills territory in Week 10. But … Wilson looked the part again in a thrilling win. During the Broncos’ current three-game winning streak, Wilson has amassed a 0.05 EPA rate and 115. passer rating.

Nos. 17-24

Plenty of teams could use a Sam Howell-type quarterback right now. Too bad the Commanders squandered very good outings for Howell in Week 8 and 10 losses to the Philadelphia Eagles and Seahawks, respectively. Howell totaled a 0.18 EPA rate and 111.8 passer rating in those two games.

You might not know this, but Josh Dobbs ranked ninth in EPA rate (0.12) and 10th in passer rating (99.4) during the first four weeks of the season while starting for the Arizona Cardinals. So I’m not totally stunned by the success he’s having in Minnesota. It’s more about how quickly he’s acclimated himself with the Vikings.

Burrow and Derek Carr possess very similar overall numbers, and I wouldn’t have imagined that to be the case more than halfway through the season. It feels so much better for the Cincinnati Bengals’ signal caller, though. despite the setback in Week 10 against the Texans. The Carr seemed too unsettled in Week 10 — and sustained a concussion and right shoulder re-injury — despite coming off a 0.22 EPA rate and 119.6 passer rating in Weeks 8-9.

The Indianapolis Colts’ Gardner Minshew made it the ninth time this season in which a quarterback guided a team to a win this season with a passer rating south of 70.0.

The Las Vegas Raiders are 2-0 since Aidan O’Connell took over as the starter in Week 9. O’Connell didn’t set the world on fire in the team’s Week 10 win over the New York Jets with a -0.27 EPA rate and 72.0 passer rating. O’Connell had more success against the New York Giants in Week 9 (0.25 EPA rate, 90.3 passer rating).

Justin Fields is expected to start this week for the Chicago Bears after missing the last month with a right thumb injury. Rookie Tyson Bagent kept the Bears viable with a 2-2 mark as a starter despite posting lackluster rates.

Nos. 25-33

We’re only two weeks removed from the Tennessee Titans’ Will Levis yielding a 0.13 EPA rate and 130.5 passer rating in his first start in a win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 8. Last two weeks for Levis: -0.16 EPA rate, 59.8 passer rating.

Current Falcons starter Taylor Heinicke isn’t passer-rating qualified yet so he’s not listed in the rankings. In three appearances, Heinicke has produced a 0.02 EPA rate and 84.2 passer rating. His Week 10 numbers in a loss to the Cardinals: -0.25 EPA rate, 84.0 passer rating.

No hyperbole here with the Jags’ Trevor Lawrence. He compiled the worst EPA rate and third-worst passer rating of his career in the blowout loss to the 49ers. Quite the way to halt consistency. During Jacksonville’s five-game winning streak, Lawrence tallied a 0.04 EPA rate and 100.2 passer rating.

The Browns and Steelers both stand at 6-3 and are very much in the thick of the AFC playoff race. This despite their respective quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Kenny Pickett continuously near (or in) the basement of these rankings. Watson picked up his biggest win as Browns QB in Week 11 against the Ravens, but now he’s out for the year with a right shoulder injury. As for Pickett, he hasn’t thrown a pick since Oct. 1.

Mac Jones’ time as the New England Patriots’ starter may be nearing an end with Bailey Zappe replacing Jones on the final drive in the Week 10 loss to the Colts.

Would you have ever thought this statistic would exist? So far, undrafted rookie Bagent has pushed the Bears to more wins in four starts this season than 2023 No. 1 pick Bryce Young has for the Carolina Panthers.

I see little point in examining the New York quarterbacks, but since the Giants’ Tommy DeVito doesn’t qualify for overall rankings, here you go: -0.30 EPA rate, 67.8 passer rating vs. Cowboys in Week 10.

(The Cardinals’ Kyler Murray will be ranked once he’s passer-rating qualified. Murray returned from his knee injury with a -0.12 EPA rate and 71.0 passer rating in the team’s Week 10 win over the Falcons.)

Week 11 defense vs. QB EPA matchups

*Injury uncertainty heading into Week 11

(Photo of Dak Prescott; Cooper Neill / Getty Images)

The post NFL QB EPA rankings: Dak Prescott transferring up, Josh Allen transferring down and is Russell Wilson again? appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

There are 11 miles between Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Carnegie Hall. For Brenda Russell, an entire lifetime maps the distance. Music has guided every step.

From vocal groups harmonizing on the corner to her parents’ own musical pursuits, Russell heard music in the air, literally, as a young girl growing up in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood. “We had an elevated train that ran by our house,” she recalls. “There was a drum corps of young guys who used to practice about a block away. I used to sit at my window and listen to them playing the drums. I’d never heard anything like that before. I thought, ‘That is the funkiest stuff!’ I didn’t even know the word ‘funky’, but I know now that it was funky.”

Russell’s return to New York in January 2023 marked a special homecoming. She participated in “We Are Here: Songs from the Holocaust” at Carnegie Hall, a concert commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The program featured theatre royalty like Chita Rivera and Harvey Fierstein, plus a roster of artists and musicians performing songs penned during Nazi-occupied Europe.

Accompanied by New York Philharmonic pianist and conductor Lee Musiker, Russell sang “Wiegala (Lullaby)”, a piece written by author and songwriter Ilse Weber, who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt concentration camp and murdered alongside her youngest son Tommy at Auschwitz. It is believed that Weber sang “Wiegala” to her son as they were led to the gas chamber. Russell embroidered the lyrics with empathy and tenderness, her voice offering a warm respite from the chilly night air. Her nuanced performance seemed to stop time.

It was one of several career peaks that Brenda Russell has experienced in New York. Following the release of her GRAMMY-nominated Get Here (1988) album, she performed her very first hometown solo concert at Radio City Music Hall. Two decades later, her collaboration with songwriters Allee Willis and Stephen Bray helped The Color Purple win a Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Musical” (2016) as well as a GRAMMY Award for “Best Musical Theater Album” (2017).

Throughout every phase of her career, Russell has carved her own niche as a singularly gifted singer-songwriter, whether writing for herself or with other artists. “Brenda Russell came on the scene because we’d heard some of her stuff,” the late Maurice White recalled about her work with Earth, Wind & Fire on the group’s Faces (1980) and Raise! (1981) albums. “Brenda showed up, and it was a nice blend. She’s very musical.”

Similarly, a few years before her passing, Anita Pointer praised Russell’s songwriting contributions to her album Love For What It Is (1987). “I think she’s incredible,” she said. “I love her style. She’s a great songwriter. I just think she’s phenomenal.” Record titans from Herb Alpert to Tommy LiPuma have shared that same view, championing Russell ever since the release of her self-titled solo debut in 1979, an album that introduced songs like “So Good, So Right”, “In the Thick of It”, “Way Back When”, and the modern standard “If Only For One Night” to the lexicon of pop and R&B.

“You’ve got to follow your purpose on the planet,” Russell said during another of her recent visits to New York, where she met with PopMatters for a career-spanning conversation. Russell has explored several compass points over the years, whether visiting Havana and St. Petersburg to collaborate with local songwriters or having icons like Sting, Roberta Flack, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, and Tina Turner record her songs. Slated for release in December 2023, director Blitz Bazawule’s film adaption of The Color Purple musical starring Fantasia, Colman Domingo, Taraji P. Henson, and Louis Gossett Jr. will soon translate Russell’s songs from stage to screen. Indeed, Brenda Russell keeps following her purpose to new heights.

Let’s go back to Flatbush. In what way did music shape your view of the world?

My mother and my father were both musicians. I kind of grew up with the boy groups standing on the corner singing be-bop. My mom would invite some of the singers up, and she’d teach them parts because she’s very musical. She really wanted to be an arranger, but, in her time, Black women didn’t do that. It was in the 1950s. She was a writer, though. I thought all mommies wrote songs. [laughs]

My dad was an unbelievable singer. When Nat “King” Cole heard my dad sing, he said, “If I had a voice like that, I would be rich”. This was way before he became rich and famous. My dad would play in the same clubs as him sometimes. I thought that was the greatest compliment from one of the best singers in the world. That’s how I got introduced to music — watching my mom and dad.

How is the piano an extension of Brenda Russell?

I have a beautiful story about that. I started playing piano as soon as I learned what one was. I was little, and I would go right to the piano and pick out little melodies, all by ear. The older people would say, “Very good, Brenda!” They were kind of surprised that I could hear things and pick out melodies that they knew on the piano.

When I really started seriously writing was in Toronto. I had moved there from New York. I was in the Toronto cast of Hair. It was the Royal Alexander Theatre, and they had a beautiful piano in the upstairs lobby. I used to sneak in there and play and write songs. When the owner of the theater heard that those hippie kids from Hair were playing his piano, he had it locked. He locked the piano!

It was a blessing for me because the Musical Director of Hair was so appalled that I didn’t have a piano to play that he rented me a piano for my home. That was my first piano. I had this really negative thing happen, but it turned out to be an incredibly positive thing because that’s when I started writing songs.

When I interviewed Lisa Fischer, she mentioned how Rufus & Chaka Khan’s Rags to Rufus (1974) was the first album she bought with her own money. On the band’s next album, Rufusized (1975), they recorded your song “Please Pardon Me (You Remind Me of a Friend)”. What was the genesis for that song?

My ex and I wrote that song together. His name’s Brian Russell. We were “Brian and Brenda Russell”. We were both natural songwriters. We were just talking to each other, and we wrote that down. We met André [Fischer] somehow, who put the band together of Rufus. André really liked it, and they recorded it. We were like, “Oh my God! Rufus — one of the best groups around doing our song!” That was our first song that we had recorded by an American artist. Our first song was recorded by Anne Murray [“Backstreet Lovin’”], who’s a Canadian folksinger. Beautiful voice.

That’s how it started in the States when we moved here from Toronto. Everybody thought we were Leon and Mary Russell because they were an interracial couple as well. They used to have billboards on Sunset Boulevard, and people would say, “Oh we love your billboard!” “Thank you!” It wasn’t us, it was Leon and Mary!

What do you hear in Chaka’s delivery of “Please Pardon Me”?

Chaka’s delivery of anything at that point in time was just ridiculous! I can’t even express how exciting it was to listen to that child sing on these songs, and our song in particular, because the range was incredible the power. She inspired a lot of singers, as we know. We were over the moon.

When we first heard “Please Pardon Me” on the radio, we were very excited because we were these young Canadian writers. What did we know? We just fell into something marvelous like that. I now know how hard that would have been had we been trying to do that. The universe worked with us.

You and Brian recorded your own version of “Please Pardon Me” on Word Called Love (1976), your debut for Rocket Records. You’re one of the few people who were signed to Elton John’s record company and also had him play on your album. What’s something you learned about the business in working with Elton that’s remained with you throughout your career?

He’s one of the most brilliant people I ever met, plus he writes the best songs. He hired us to come sing background for him on his first concert that he did when he changed his band. We had to learn 30 Elton John songs! We go to Amsterdam. We’re rehearsing in this stadium. Elton comes in like there’s three or four thousand people out there. He gave it all. 150 %. We’re standing there like, “Oh my God. Is that what you have to do to be a star?” There’s nobody here, but he was just giving it up like everybody was there. That was a good lesson to learn.

A few years after Rufus recorded “Please Pardon Me”, André Fischer produced your solo debut, Brenda Russell (1979). How did he come aboard for that project?

When I got divorced from Brian, I had all of these songs that I was sitting on. “What am I gonna do? Let’s call André, and maybe he could help me with this record that I’m about to make!” He came and helped us. André was always backing me in what I was representing. He would make the musicians listen to me. “Listen to her left hand.” He was so good at that. At that time, women weren’t acknowledged so much in the role of producer/songwriter/arranger. I had a musician come into the studio one day. I’m sitting here, and the musician says to André, “What does she want for the bridge part?” He said, “Man, she’s sitting right there! Why don’t you just ask her what she wants?”

Photo: Sekou Luke Studio / Rebel Media

What kind of vision did you have for your solo debut?

My vision was not to have anyone with a suit interrupt what we were doing. [laughs] If you have a suit on, get out of here! They had people, “beancounters” we used to call them, come in and tell you, “Oh yeah, you shouldn’t have a solo because AM radio won’t …” People wanted to tell you what to do, but if you hire me as an artist, let me do what I do and tell me if you like it. They thought they had to form the artist or re-form the artist, I should say, instead of letting the artist find out who they were.

For me, “In the Thick of It” is the song on that album. The wordplay, the chord progressions, the way your voice makes the melodies swing and soar, these little vocal asides you do. How did “In the Thick of It” take shape as a song?

I have no idea! [laughs] Sometimes you don’t know. Things just come to me, and I start writing. I do know that that song was a big hit in England so whenever I go to London, they’re like [screams] “In the Thick of It”! They have to hear it. [laughs] It’s so great. It makes my heart soar because they love it so much over there. I just love that song. It’s one of my favorite songs, too, that I wrote.

What were your expectations for your first album, and then what was the actual experience like once it was released?

I really didn’t have any expectations because I didn’t know the road. I didn’t know what could or could not happen. I didn’t know there were so many other people involved in making decisions on if you even got heard. Forget about having a hit — you may not get heard if this guy doesn’t run to every radio station and go, “Hey! Check out ‘So Good, So Right’”.

This one guy, Freddie Mancuso, took “So Good, So Right” around. They thought I was white because I didn’t sound like a Black R&B diva. He got them playing it on all of these pop stations, and when the Black stations realized that I was Black, they were like, “Wait a minute! That’s our girl, so we’re gonna play this now!” That’s how I got going with “So Good, So Right”. They didn’t know what color I was because I was an international kind of person. I lived in Canada. I had all of these different fields. I loved all kinds of music, so that’s what came through.

Of course, “If Only For One Night” was introduced on your first album. It’s had such a wonderful trajectory as a song, between your version and then Roberta Flack recording it on her Live & More (1980) album with Peabo Bryson and Luther Vandross turning it into a standard on The Night I Fell in Love (1985). I would love you to describe the life that song has had.

Well, I always think, first of all, that when you write from your heart, people really resonate with that. They don’t even know that you were crying as you were writing it because you were so sad and so brokenhearted. They have no idea, but they feel it. I learned a lot from that. I noticed that people really gravitated towards songs that were painful to write because they felt something — “I know that feeling”. That’s what “If Only For One Night” was like. I was always crying. André and my manager Brenda Dash used to make fun of me, “Oh, here she goes …” [laughs] I was very emotional.

By the way, Luther killed “If Only For One Night”, did he not? It was such a beautiful rendition. I was really proud. I had just come from Sweden. I wrote “Get Here” in Stockholm, but nothing was happening. I was broke. They told me, “Luther just recorded your song”. I thought, Whoa! That’s fantastic. It was Christmastime, and it was the best Christmas present I ever got.

Photo: Sekou Luke Studio / Rebel Media

What did he bring to “If Only For One Night” that distinguished it from what you’d conveyed in your version?

His amazing voice. He just had one of the best voices ever. And he was also a brilliant background arranger. He’d think of things that were fantastic — cascading voices and stuff. He was so brilliant, that guy. I really liked him. When I met him, he came up to me like a little kid. “Brenda, I love that song!” He’s so cute. He was a big fan.

Another one of my favorite songs of yours is actually on your second album, Love Life (1981). What’s the sentiment behind “Rainbow”?

I’ve never been into racism and people not liking each other just for the color of their skin. It’s so ridiculous. I thought of a song, “You see color, and I see a rainbow”. A lot of people resonated with that because they didn’t want to hear about racism either. That’s a nice way to look at it: “You see color. I see a rainbow.”

In between your first two solo albums, you wrote songs with Earth, Wind & Fire, including two of my favorites, “And Love Goes On” and “Song in My Heart”. How did you forge that relationship with them?

I have David Foster to thank for that because he’s a Canadian as well, and we had a little Canadian hub in LA. He was working with Maurice [White] and Verdine [White] and those guys. They needed a lyricist, and he said, “Oh, I know someone — Brenda Russell”. He hooked me up with them.

Maurice White was truly like a prince. When I went to write with him, I was honored to be in his presence. That’s how deep and spiritual and wonderful he was. He’s such a gentleman. He inspired me a lot, and I got to collaborate with him.

I want to tell you something: I never wrote like that before. They do the whole track — horn riffs, guitar, everything — and then give it to you to write lyrics. I’d never written to a whole finished track. Usually, you start out with a pianist and a little piece of the song, and you build together. They had all the horns and the strings. I’m like, “I’ve got to work now!” I escaped to Laguna Hills, which is a beautiful coastal city in California, and I wrote for Earth, Wind & Fire by the ocean. That was the only place to do it. [laughs]

How did Maurice White’s approach to songwriting inspire you in your own work?

We were both coming from the same place — promoting love. That was both of our passions, in a spiritual sense even. I really related to him, and he related to me because that’s where I was coming from. He didn’t really so much push things on you, but he would encourage you. That’s what he did for me. To this day, I felt so honored to be in the same room as he was because he’s like royalty to me.

I’m a big fan, and I know you are as well, of another one of your collaborators: Michael McDonald. How did you first hear about Michael?

You’ll love this. Brian and I used to be friends with Jeff Baxter from the Doobie Brothers. Jeff said, “We got this new guy in the group, so you guys come on over and sing some backgrounds for us. We’ve got this new song called ‘You Belong to Me’.”

They were in this little apartment. Brian and I came in. Some of the guys were set up. Michael’s sitting on the floor in the corner in desert boots. They start to play this tune for us, and he starts to sing. He was so unbelievable. What just came out of that mouth? We were totally intimated. We just froze.

We were shocked, but we had to pull it together to sing the backgrounds for him and Carly [Simon]. We were on the demo. They just needed to put it down to have it to refer to. We were lucky enough to be called over from Jeff to do that. To hear this little guy in the corner with the desert boots open his mouth and sing “You Belong to Me” was just too much! [laughs] That’s how I met Michael McDonald.

How did you and Michael get together to write “Hello People” on your third album, Two Eyes (1983)?

Everybody in the world was asking Michael to do everything. I said, “Michael, why don’t we write something?” He said, “Okay, let’s do that.” We wrote “Hello People” together. The amazing thing about Michael is he’s got this voice that sounds so powerful, but he’s such a soft singer. I never knew that about him until I was right beside him and he was singing it. It was very soft, but it sounded like a roar.

I had this little cassette recorder. I was such a massive fan that I would leave it on just to hear him talk. He was playing. He looked at the recorder, and he looked at me … and I went, Okay, I’ll turn it off. It was so funny. I was like, “Anything you have to say, I want it on tape right now!”

2022 marked the 40th anniversary of the album that Quincy Jones produced for Donna Summer. Take us into the room as a member of the all-star choir that sang on “State of Independence”.

That was amazing. Quincy invited me and this group of people to sing. This is before “We Are the World” (1985). He puts me in between Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson! Then there was Christopher Cross, James Ingram, Lionel Richie, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald … it was ridiculous! I felt like I was in heaven, standing in between these two giant personalities and musicians. It was quite exciting to be a part of that.

Later this May, HBO will premiere Love to Love You, Donna Summer (2023), the documentary that Donna’s daughter Brooklyn Sudano directed with Roger Ross Williams. What do you think distinguished Donna from other vocalists?

She could sing her ass off, and a lot of vocalists can’t do that. She was amazing. She just had power. We had a lot in common. Our families both came from the Boston area. We were both in Hair at the same time. She was in the German cast. I was in the Toronto cast. I just thought she was unbelievable.

She wanted to record my song “Dinner With Gershwin” because the guy from her record company, David Geffen, heard it on a demo that I had done with Stanley Clarke. David Geffen heard it and said, “Oh, we want that for Donna”. I said, “Oh, okay. Maybe … ” He said, “We’ll pay you.” “Oh, okay!” [laughs] They paid me, and they asked me to co-produce it with Richard Perry. That was an amazing adventure, totally amazing. I love both of them. It was really special.

Photo: Sekou Luke Studio / Rebel Media

A year after Donna recorded “Dinner With Gershwin”, you released your album Get Here (1988), which has “Piano in the Dark”. That song is a masterpiece from start to finish. All the elements worked together. The New York Times called it “a sophisticated pop-soul ballad that is one of several outstanding cuts on the album”. I’ve always wanted to ask you how that song came together.

I co-wrote “Piano in the Dark” with Jeff Hull and Scott Cutler, two friends of mine. Jeff Hull is this brilliant pianist. First, they sent me a cassette of the music, him and Scott. They said, “Brenda, we need lyrics.” “Okay!” I played it, and it was so beautiful. I used to keep a book of song titles. They called me one day, impatient, because I hadn’t responded. They said, “What have you got?” I said, “Let me look.” I opened my song titles, and I’m going down the list. “What about ‘Piano in the Dark’”? They both said, “What does that mean?” I said, “I don’t know … but I will know!” [laughs]

I went away and wrote those lyrics and the melody. That’s how easy it happened. We knew we had something good.

If it wasn’t for Herb Alpert, you wouldn’t even know “Piano in the Dark” right now because the R&B department at A&M Records had decided that “Gravity” should be my first single. This is how the universe helps you. I was walking by Herb’s office one day. He’s playing his horn. “Hey Brenda! I was thinking maybe ‘Piano in the Dark’ should be the first single.” They’d already started rolling with the other single, but he’s the “A” [in A&M], so they’re going to listen to Herb.

I was so grateful because I knew that it was a better choice. He’s the one who did that. He did it in the 11th hour and got everybody to stop printing that record [“Gravity”]. “Print this record and put this out.” Mark Mazzetti [A&M VP] ran to San Francisco, played it for the guy at the radio station, the pop station … boom. That’s how it happened.

What goes through your body when you sing that song?

I hope I hit the notes. [laughs] Please let me hit these notes. It’s just an uplifting song. It’s mysterious. You don’t even know what’s going on until you listen.

How were Russell Ferrante [piano] and Joe “Bean” Esposito [guest vocal] brought in to record their parts on the song?

First of all, Joe is one of the best singers that I ever heard. He was in Brooklyn Dreams, and I knew all of them because we did a movie together called American Hot Wax (1978). I thought Joe was going to be great. He should sing this. Russell Ferrante was in Yellowjackets, which is my favorite group. Tommy LiPuma turned me on to them. We used to be on the same label [Warner Bros]. Russell is a genius. I asked him if he would play the piano on “Piano in the Dark”, and he said sure.

I have such luck with piano players. I ran into Joe Sample at this bar when I was in Stockholm. He was in the bar too. I couldn’t believe it! I had just written, “Get Here”. I said, “Joe would you come tomorrow and play on ‘Get Here’, this song I just wrote?” He said, “Yeah, baby, I’ll come!” He came to the studio and played “Get Here”. It was so wonderful. I was so grateful for the exchange.

In talking about songwriting, Valerie Simpson said to me, “You never know when the muse is gonna hit, you just want to be there when it does.” Tell me where the muse was for “Get Here”.

I was in Stockholm in this penthouse apartment, an octagonal kind of room where I had my little electric piano, looking out over the city of Stockholm, which is a gorgeous city. It’s like going back to the 1940s in wartime. It’s just incredible. I started writing “Get Here”. It wasn’t about anyone. It was about someone I hadn’t met yet. That’s what the song is about.

I met Oleta Adams after I recorded it myself. She heard it on the radio in Norway. She said, “I’m gonna record that song!” She recorded it, and my publisher called me up and said, “We have someone recording ‘Get Here’. You want to hear it?” Over the phone, they played me Oleta’s version. I lost it! She was so good. I have goosebumps right now, just thinking about how extraordinary that was that moment.

Photo: Sekou Luke Studio / Rebel Media

You once told me how writing songs is sometimes like a game. What was the game with “Get Here”?

How many ways can you get to a person? You can fly, you can take a train. “Cross the desert like an Arab man” — some of my favorite composers love that line. When I sang that song for the first time in LA, Melissa Manchester, Herb Alpert, and Michel Colombier were all in the audience. When I started singing “Get Here”, they started screaming at me! They were going nuts for that song. Melissa Manchester told me, “Everybody at our table looked like Alice Cooper because their mascara was dripping!”

After I sang it, this gentleman came over to me and said, “I’m working with a new artist right now. We would like to have that song ‘Get Here’ for her — Whitney Houston.” I said, “Oh, I’m saving it for myself. I’m trying to get a record deal.” I’m not sorry that I said that, but I always wanted to hear Whitney sing a song of mine. It never happened. I had no idea who he was talking about because none of us knew who Whitney Houston was. Isn’t that amazing? [laughs]

I know one of your favorite artists is Sting. I love that he won a GRAMMY for a song you co-wrote, “She Walks This Earth”. How did Sting come to record that?

My friend Jason Miles, a record producer, called me and said, “I’m producing an album of Ivan Lins’ music” — he’s this brilliant Brazilian composer — “we need some lyrics for Sting”. [laughs] I started laughing. You need the lyric for Sting? He’s one of my favorite lyricists, like Joni Mitchell. As my mother said, “Never say ‘no’. Just go for it.” He said I had two days to write the lyric for Sting. I did it. They loved it, and he sang it. I was just going out of my mind, and then he won a GRAMMY for it. It wasn’t even a hit song, but he won a GRAMMY! It was beautiful.

What quality does Sting have in his voice that appeals to you?

He’s got that sexy hoarse thing. Nobody sounds like him. His songwriting is what really captivated me. His songwriting is ridiculous, so I became a fan immediately. [laughs] He’s a hell of a writer. He’s done two of my songs — “She Walks This Earth”, and a song called “None of Us Are Free”, a duet with Sam Moore of Sam & Dave. For me to be able to say that makes me so excited. It was pretty special.

How did you first become aware of Sting?

The Police. Musically, they had something special going on there. I got to go to Cuba with Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, and all of these songwriters. We went to Cuba to write with Cuban musicians, which was another episode altogether, but everybody who was there was amazing — Burt Bacharach, Bonnie Raitt. It was so exciting to be with all of these wonderful writers in Cuba! We pulled out of a hat which Cuban writer we were going to write with, so we teamed up. It was so fun.

Photo: Sekou Luke Studio / Rebel Media

You and I have talked about how we share this philosophy from The Remembering Process. How did The Remembering Process help you in writing songs for The Color Purple musical?

Tremendously. The Remembering Process is a great book written by two artists who’ve said, “When you go to create something, don’t go to create it like it’s something new. Go to create it like you already did it, and you have to remember how it goes.

My co-writers Stephen Bray and Allee Willis — God rest her soul, she left us a few years ago — decided that we wanted to try to go for this. The producer of The Color Purple had called Allee and said, “I’m looking for Brenda Russell. She’s been recommended as one of the writers for The Color Purple. She said, “Why don’t you have all of us? We’re all here together, and Brenda’s on her way over right now.” He said, “Oh, okay!” We wrote demos. We did everything. We had the arrangements and the horns. We did three tunes. We knew what time he would get it from FedEx. We’re waiting. He finally called us. He said, “I forgot to call you guys. I love it!” We just knew we had this. I don’t know why we knew that, but we just knew we had it … and we did.

When I was writing Purple, I remembered The Remembering Process. I was like, “How did that go again? What voice do you want this character to do?” I’m talking to the Big Guy [points up]. I had a whole new kind of inspiration coming in — it’s already done! That’s one of the most brilliant things, as a creator, to have in your pocket. It really helps a lot because you take the pressure off. I was no longer thinking about the $14 million they’re putting into this show! [laughs]

Let’s go back to June 2016. Take us through the experience of sitting in this huge theater and hearing The Color Purple win “Best Revival” at the Tony Awards.

[laughs] It was fantastic. I’m a dreamer. I always have been. I always see things in dreams. I saw myself walking onstage with another woman getting an award. I thought it must be Allee because she’s the only other woman I write with right now. I even told her about the dream. That’s exactly what happened. She was sitting with me. When they said “The Color Purple”, we just lost our minds! We were so excited. I had on this long dress. Why did I wear this long dress? I can’t run! [laughs]

I would love you to share the backstory behind a song you wrote and recorded, “Against the Law”. Tragically, it’s still relevant.

When I was nine years old, I used to visit my grandmother, who lived in North Carolina. It was the segregated South at that time, but I didn’t know about segregation because I lived in New York, and we didn’t have that. When I went down there, I was unprepared. We didn’t even have running water for Black people in the area where we were. They didn’t have plumbing. There was an outhouse out in the back. What is that? That’s the way it was for Black people in that area at the time.

All the kids in the neighborhood came to take me to the movies. We walked to the movies, and there’s two lines. There’s a long line and a short line. I get on the short line, and all the kids that were walking with me got on the long line. I couldn’t understand why they were so stupid. They’re laughing at me. I don’t even notice that all the kids on my line are white. I don’t even see that because I’m not used to seeing segregation like that. I’m not seeing color.

I get up to the window. The lady puts her hand on her hip: “Can’t you read, little girl?” I look up, and it says “White Only”, and I’m nine years old. I was more insulted that she thought I couldn’t read than the fact that she didn’t want me here because I was Black. That insulted me because I was a great reader. [laughs]

We had to go up the fire escape at the back of the theater. You can’t even go in the front door. You have to go up the fire escape to the balcony, and then that’s where all the Black people sat. All the white people sat below. I bitched through the whole movie. They would have killed me had I grown up there because I was going, “I can’t believe that they treat you like this.” This mother sitting in front of me looked at me and said, “That’s just the way it is little girl”, and I shut up. I realized this is normal for them.

Cut to 40 or 50 years later, I’m sitting in a therapist’s office. She said, “Tell me some traumatic things that have happened to you.” I described to her just what I described to you. She said, “Well, how did you feel when that happened?” I got up out of my chair, and I said, “I felt like it was against the law to be Black because everybody tells you that you are not worthy, from the state on down.” I didn’t agree with that. I said, “Wait! I got to write that down!” [laughs] I’m in the middle of a therapy session writing “Against the Law”. I told that story in that song. It gave me such a release, to release that energy that I had all choked up inside. All these years later, I was still bothered by that experience.

Photo: Sekou Luke Studio / Rebel Media

Of the songs you’ve written, what’s one in particular that still speaks to you?

I was telling you that I traveled with a group of writers. We went to Russia as well as Cuba. We collaborated with Russian writers. That was extraordinary. We wrote on Stalin’s yacht. Who does that? We took a train from Moscow to Leningrad or St. Petersburg, what it’s called now.

I wrote this song called “Night Train to Leningrad”. I think it’s one of the best lyrics that I ever did because I play a role in this song. I’m one of the writers and poets, and activists who had to leave Moscow because when Stalin came to power, they didn’t want to hear from these people, so they had to escape. In this song, I became one of those people escaping to Finland on the night train to Leningrad. It’s so mysterious and wonderful. I can’t even believe I wrote it! I have a lot of songs like that, like “Way Back When”. Who was I then? Can I go back and write something else like that?

You’ve achieved all kinds of success, from hit songs to the respect of fellow artists and songwriters. How would you define what it means to be successful?

Knowing who you are is a great amount of success, being who you are, and believing in yourself. These are good things that help you get to where you’re trying to go.

Giorgio Moroder, who was producing Donna at the time, invited me to his house. He had heard some songs, I guess, and he wanted to produce me, but I knew in my little 26-year-old mind that he would make me sound like disco. I didn’t want to do that because God gave me this thing to do here, and I have to do this. He was a nice man, but he was amazed that I would not go along with his program. I had the same thing with the Bee Gees. Some people were trying to hook me up with them, but I just knew in my heart that it would not be me. It would be Samantha Sang. She was lovely, but it wasn’t me. I had to do what I was given to do.

Brenda, looking back on your career, what’s something that you would tell your younger self, who’s just about to release her solo album?

What I would say to my younger self is don’t be afraid. Go for it. Fear paralyzes us from doing so many things that we could do really well, but we don’t have the confidence and the network, and the people around you to support you so that you can feel good about going for it. I always tell young writers to listen to yourself because you have a gift. Somebody gave you a gift. Use it. Don’t try to copy what you think might be a hit. You have to be your authentic self, and that’s what usually gets people.

There’s one thing that Aretha Franklin taught me. She called my manager and said, “I want a Brenda Russell song”. They told me, and so I wrote this song like the style of Aretha. She said, “No. I want a Brenda Russell song.” I was projecting what she used to do. She wanted what I did for myself. Just write what comes naturally to you. I took that lesson with me.

Christian John Wikane with Brenda Russell / Photo: Sekou Luke Studio / Rebel Media

The post An Interview with Award-Profitable Songwriter Brenda Russell appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The modern NBA player is a far superior athlete to his predecessors, so the well-worn trope goes. Retired sharpshooter JJ Redick put a new veneer on the argument recently, when he said Celtics legend Bob Cousy “was being guarded by plumbers and firemen” in the 1950s and 1960s.

Watch a grainy highlight reel of Cousy dribbling in circles, and it’s hard not to give the trope some credence. At least one of Cousy’s Celtics teammates was decidedly springier than the average plumber, though, and the hard proof is in the record books of a completely different sport.

Bill Russell, who died Sunday at the age of 88, still holds the University of San Francisco school record in the high jump. It’s stood for 66 years. Russell was fond of telling younger generations he could hang in any era, once telling a group of Hall of Fame centers that he would kick their asses.

In 2020, Kendrick Perkins said that LeBron James was the “Most Athletic Player in NBA History!!!” Russell, possibly the most dignified man ever to yell at Kendrick Perkins on Twitter, responded with a photo of himself clearing an impossibly high bar, and helpfully provided a brief history of his high jumping exploits. “In 56 I could have made the Olympics in high jump but turned it down to play basketball instead we could only play one sport then,” Russell wrote.

“Track and Field News ranked me #7 high jumper in the world, I was ranked #2 in the US @ the time,” he added. (Pretty much: Seventh in the world and third in the US, according to that year’s Track and Field News.) Russell also only rejoined the USF track team in the spring of his senior year, and only because he could skip workouts, since “ he was too tired from the grind of basketball season,” as recounted in James W. Johnson’s history of that era of USF basketball, “The Dandy Dons.”

In 56 I could have made the Olympics in high jump but turned it down to play basketball instead we could only play one sport then. Track and Field News ranked me #7 high jumper in the world, I was ranked #2 in the US @ the time. @celtics @NBA pic.twitter.com/6FqZjiMlhG

— TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) June 17, 2020

At the West Coast Relays in Fresno in May 1956, Russell high-jumped 6 feet, 9.25 inches (2.06 meters) for the still-standing USF school record. He tied that day with Charlie Dumas. Later in ’56, Dumas became the first human being to high-jump 7 feet, and won Olympic gold in Melbourne.

Russell’s school record will not be broken anytime soon, believes USF assistant track and field coach Matthew McGee, who oversees sprints, jumps and hurdles for the USF track program. He was particularly impressed with Russell’s mark considering that it came in the prehistoric era of high jumping, before the sport truly advanced.

“There was a high jump revolution in the late ’60s,” McGee said. “Everyone started using the ‘Fosbury Flop,’ so they’re going backward over the bar as opposed to forward. Russell jumped at a time before that revolution happened; it’s a much more athletically demanding form of high jumping that takes a lot of flexibility and mobility. It’s surprising that he was able to jump as high as he did at his height.”

But as Russell’s own tweet shows, he wasn’t even using the predominant techniques from the time; it almost looks like he was hurdling the bar or doing a “Western” roll instead of the “straddle” roll used by elite jumpers like Dumas.

“Nothing against the basketball players we have at USF,” McGee said, “but there is no one even close to being able to jump that high on the team currently, and this is a team that went to the [NCAA] tournament. … I would guess that a very small percentage of players in the NBA could do that. Just demanding incredibly physically to be able to do that over 2.06 [meters].”

As McGee explained, there’s another reason Russell’s mark will stand: the Dons track and field team is only partially funded, and haven’t recruited a male high jumper in years, essentially sealing Russell’s record in amber. The Dons have excelled in distance events in recent years, with the women’s cross country team even finishing second in the NCAA in 2017. But without a track on campus, or a full complement of scholarships, finding any high jumper — much less one like Russell — is difficult, McGee said. While they have had a select few field event athletes, there hasn’t been a high jumper on the men’s track team since at least 2010, if not longer.

The high jump is a highly specialized technical event, meaning it’s rare to pair it with a second event and takes intense technical instruction. That also underscores how impressive Russell’s performance was, since it came despite minimal practice or refined technique. (Russell’s tweet at Perkins shows he competed at least once with one shoe missing, for an added degree of difficulty.)

“It’s just not something that happens, ever,” McGee said. “It’d be like if a player on the USF basketball team jumped 7-foot-6 today. Unbelievable.”

The post Invoice Russell nonetheless has a College of San Francisco monitor report appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

South San Francisco, CA June 28, 2022 by Ms. Dale (Brown) Amann (daughter)

Russell is pictured here with his Kindergarten Class in front of what we now call Spruce Elementary. Russell is in the top row, 3rd from the left. Who else might you recognize from this photo?

My Dad, Russell Dale Brown, was born in Grand Rapids MN. on 17 June 1925 When he was a little over a year old the family, (Dad-Albert, Mom-Margaret, and 2 years older sister, Allegra), moved to California and bought a home at 1609 B Street in San Mateo.

At that time my grandfather sold insurance. In early 1930, my grandfather changed jobs and became a Prohibition Agent. Unfortunately, in June 1930, he was murdered while trying to close down an illegal bar. Within a couple of months, my grandmother sold the home and they moved into a rental at 657 Baden Ave. in South City, just blocks from my grandmother’s sister, Anna St. Louis, and her husband, Frank. (They lived at 209 Acacia Ave.)

So, my dad went all through school in South San Francisco, and his sister, who was 2 years older, started 2nd grade in South City and graduated with the class of ’41 there. SSF high school was called a junior-senior school when my dad attended. It was grades 7 & 8 in one part, and grades 9 through 12 in another part of the building. Dad was with the class of ’43.

Charles Sellick was the bank instructor. His brother was a barber. His sister was an opera singer who was murdered. Charles was killed when his boat exploded at Sausalito harbor in 1965.

Some of Dad’s high school classmates were Florabele Nelson Powers, Ray Angeli, Jim Franklin, Robert Arrendiell, Emilio Petrocchi, John Noonan, Dante Lombardi, and Mary Louise Newton Bloom. and Dorothy Gabbani Elliott.

The South San Francisco High School basketball team, 1941

DePrado was a teacher in grammar school. Charles Zipfel was one of his teachers. They called him “Zip”. Guthrie was his gym teacher. Laverne __?_ was his 1st-grade teacher, Mr. Gavin in 2nd grade. O’Malley was his Latin teacher. (*Russell attended the 60th reunion of SSFHS Class on 1945 years ago)

Dad couldn’t remember his kindergarten teacher but remembered she was related to my Welte family and was married to a McMills (Al Welte’s daughter, Evelyn, married Wallace McMills; Uncle Al’s first wife, Gladys, was the step-daughter of Dan McSweeney, who was mayor of SSF and an inspector for the Western Meat Company).

When in the 8th or 9th grade a new kid, George Ramsell, moved to SSF from San Jose and he and his family became friends with dad, and then our families were friends as well.

SSFHS Basketball Team photo 1939 –

Elbert “Whitey” Smith was 2 years older than dad but he and dad and our families became lifelong friends. They hunted all over the San Bruno hills as kids. When Whitey married Jane Adler, they and their 2 boys used to go camping and hunting with us. Probably his best friend was Aldo Padreddii. Aldo was a year behind dad in school. They would go fishing and hunting together and just hang out doing what boys did in the late thirties and early forties.

{Dad recently was in touch with Laura Padreddi, who’s 99 and living in Fremont. It was good for both of them to be able to remember about the “old days”, and especially about Aldo. He had to have been a very special person in my Dad’s life because I grew up hearing stories about him, how he was killed in the war, how they hung out as kids, drove around in my Dad’s car, that kind of thing}

Aldo joined the army in Aug. 1944; he was with the 411th infantry and was killed in action in march 1945. His brother, Leo was also a friend of the family as I was growing up. Dad and Aldo used to go across the bay to Niles (Fremont) and shovel manure on the Pessagno property. Aldo and Leo’s sister, Laura, married Gene Pessagno in 1940. Laura is living in Fremont. She was in my Aunt Allegra’s high school class of 1941.

When Dad moved to Baden Ave. a kid down the block on the corner of Orange Ave. and Baden Ave. (123 Orange Ave) that became good friends with dad was Roy Parenti. Roy and his wife Mary were lifelong friends. Another friend was Julio Malone.

Russell pictured in 1939. He played clarinet and was in the SSFHS Marching Band.

My dad played the clarinet in grammar school and was in the band throughout his schooling. He played basketball in school. He bought a 1929 Model A when he was 16 for $49; he turned around and sold it for $50 and bought a 1938 Buick straight 8, which he says was a beautiful vehicle.

He worked at the Associated Gas Station, which was located down by the Bayshore Highway and Baden Ave. He also worked at the California Golf and Country Club cleaning the swimming pool. When old enough his sister, Allegra, worked at the Sanitary Bakery on Grand Ave. (Sad to see they sold after so many decades. I stop there any time I’m in the Bay Area).

South City was a town of about 5000 people when my dad was growing up there. It was a close-knit community and like all small towns, everyone knew everyone else. It’s probably still that way for the core part of town. Many were Italian immigrants who took advantage of the fertile soil and raised various crops on what was called truck farms.

There were also the Swift Western Meat packing plants, a steel plant, and a lumber company where people were employed. The month before Dad was to graduate high school he quit and joined the Army Air Corps. That was in May 1943. He did go back and finish his schooling and got his diploma from South City High in 1947.

Russell is pictured here with SSFHS friends in 1939.
Who can identify this group?

Because it was the depression and my family was in perilous circumstances, what with my grandfather being killed, my grandmother went to work as a domestic for the Henry Haaker family for a while. Henry was VP at the local bank (Bank of South San Francisco I believe) and later had an insurance agency.

Henry Haaker’s son Lee was a friend of my Dad’s and the family insurance agent (Lee’s son lives in Gilroy I believe). Henry’s brother, George, worked in the meat packing industry and he and his wife Maude were best friends with my mother’s parents. My grandfather worked in the meat packing industry with George for years. George’s son, George Jr. was a friend of my mother’s. He died of a stroke in 1963.

Ross and Jack Meyer were related to the Haaker family. Ross was older than dad, was a navy pilot and instructor. After the war he flew for Pan Am. His brother Jack, who was a year older than my dad, was a medic in the service. He died of cancer years ago. He owned a cement business and had 2 daughters..

Other family names that my dad knew, his sister and mother were: Ted Pretzer, Aldo Minucciani, and Robin Castonia married my dad’s cousin Anna Rose St. Louis. Ted was a very dear friend of the family and is very missed.

The South San Francisco High School basketball team, 1941

Ed Kaufman was head of the bank. She then worked at the Tasty Bakery on Grand Ave. The hospital was located on Grand Ave. Pete Linn had a meat market on Grand Avenue and used to deliver meat in a wagon to people’s homes.

There was also a fish monger who used to honk his horn and sell fish up and down the streets in his cart. And there were fruit and vegetable trucks who sold that way also. It was like having Amazon Fresh without the internet.

The dentist they used was Bacigalupi. He knew the Hickey family, WL Hickey & son Jack had a plumbing shop at 369 Grand Ave. There was an Inks Company and a paint company in town too.

The Valencia family were friends of ours. Tony dated my Aunt Allegra at one time, and she became best friends with his sister, Isabel, who was also my mother’s best friend.

After the war, my dad was working at a Shell gas station where my mother always got gas. Mom’s cousin, Homer Gibbs, set up a blind date for my dad at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland and it turned out to be my mother. After 6 weeks he proposed and 6 weeks later they married in South City (Mom was 5 years older than dad and said she wouldn’t marry him until he was 21. He had to get his mother’s permission to marry because in those days you had to be 21 without permission).

My mother was related to the Welte Family; her mother, Marie was sister to Al Welte, the Fire Chief, and Carl “Jazz” Welte, the owner of Welte’s Bar downtown.) After they married they moved to 5th Ave in San Mateo, where we lived until 1964.

###

Today Russell calls Nampa Idaho home and celebrated his 97th birthday on June 17th

We greatly appreciate Russell’s daughter, Ms. Dale L Amann, for the email conversations and her compiling this incredible wealth of the lives and times of her father, and those who lived in South City, in the 30’s and 40’s.

The post Russell Dale Brown Shares 1930-40’s Reminiscences of South San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The NFL offseason is already in full swing. Cap cut season is upon us. The combine is this week. Teams can apply franchise tags.

It’s on.

No matter that the official start of the league year isn’t for two weeks. The business of football is already at the fore. Teams have long decided on their free agent priorities, and which players they are going to cut and which they will ask to take a pay cut. The jockeying for a potential franchise quarterback in the trade market is well underway. Budgets have been set. Many of the most critical meetings – ones that will dictate the tenor and outcome of months of transactions – are already in the past, with the groundwork for those acquisitions hitting another level with the entire league gathered in Indianapolis.

And even for the best teams in football, like the Super Bowl winning Rams, there is abundant work to be done. Getting sufficiently under the cap alone is enough work for some franchises, while others are waiting to try to outpace the market to throw mega-deals around at unrestricted free agents. With that in mind, here is a look at one critical move each organization should make as we head into one of the most fertile roster-aging periods of the year (in order of finish from worst to first):

Rebuild the offensive line. A purge of veteran lineman is underway, and this must be a priority. Get Trevor Lawrence incubated. And with this not being a great OL draft class, the time to start inroads with agents is this week. New coach Doug Pederson saw what a stout unit looked like in Philly … and also what happened to Carson Wentz when things starting falling apart up front.

Complete the purge of bloated contracts (Trey Flowers, etc.), and continue the teardown. Extend TJ Hockenson and resist the urge to do anything splashy in free agency because the timeline doesn’t make sense with how far away you are. Likewise, don’t force a QB selection since you are stuck with Jared Goff for another year, anyway, and next year’s class looks better already.

Prepare as if Mekhi Becton is not the answer at left tackle, and that he just might become a sunk cost. I’d love to see him pick up at the heights of his rookie season, but there’s obvious reason for concern about that at this point.

Move on from Saquon Barkley and shed as many of the excessive recent contracts of the old regime (Blake Martinez, Kenny Golladay) as you can on the trade market. And if there is a market for Daniel Jones, I’d explore that thoroughly as well.

Start having weekly zooms with Josh McCown to keep him apprised of roster moves, philosophies and offseason priorities. He’s gonna be the long-term head coach of this team (unless someone beats them to the punch). Just a matter of when.

Identify a coach in waiting or at least get some back-channeling going early, because this Matt Rhule experiment has an expiration date around Thanksgiving. Resist the urge to trade for Deshaun Watson without full and complete closure on his legal status.

Extend Roquan Smith and try like hell to keep Akeim Hicks from hitting the market. They need that front seven to be an impactful unit to have any chance even in a watered down NFC North.

Washington Commanders

Put together a massive recruitment package together for Ciara. On the down low, of course. No tamping. But if you have any celebrity connections who might know the entertainer, have them pull out all the stops. Maybe create a splashy video she could watch extolling all of the virtues of the greater DC area. Amazing mansions at Mount Vernon. Ridiculous row homes in Georgetown. Just a short train/flight from NYC. World class shopping. A cosmopolitan, international destination beckoning to her and her husband. Oh, and extend Scary Terry immediately.

Trade Russell Wilson. The odds of winning another Super Bowl with him on his current contract are bleak at best. He’s not gonna do an extension. Franchising him in his late 30s is silly. You have no picks and very little talent. It’s time for a reboot.

Check out the suggestion for the Commanders and do the same thing, only for Aaron Rodgers. Let him know how many yoga studios per capita you have, offer to have the new owner do a 12-day cleanse with him if he comes there. Do all of your own research on how amazing the Rocky Mountain region is, and get it into your right hands.

Try like heck to get Matt Ryan to do a realistic short-term extension as a precursor to a trade. Promise to only send him to a winning team. Of course, he’s been accustomed to being among the very highest paid at his position, so he might not be inclined. And the best time to do this was years ago, anyway.

Don’t triple down on Kirk Cousins. Even if you move on from guys like Danielle Hunter and Adam Thielen and Michael Pierce, there is still enough talent to win the NFC North (especially if Rodgers is gone). Ride it out for one more year, seeking to keep upgrading that offensive line. You’re going to have to outscore people to win, anyway. Take the comp pick for Cousins ​​down the road.

Bring in legit competition for Baker Mayfield. I don’t mean Case Keenum, who at this age could hold it down for a month or so. I’m talking someone who could get you through three months if need be. Not sure if Gardner Minshew or Mitch Trubisky or Marcus Mariota is an upgrade, but I might be inclined to find out.

It’d be easy to say extend Lamar Jackson, but that might be unfeasible this offseason with the QB inclined to gamble on himself on a fifth-year option. So I’ll go with rethinking their contract structures, aversion to voidable years and predilection for doubling-down with extensions for injury-prone players they have already heavily compensated. When new team president Sashi Brown – former Browns GM steeped in cap/negotiation – takes over April 1, much of that might take care of itself, anyway.

Sign Pat Ricard, the best fullback/H-back/tight end/emergency tackle in the NFL. Think about all the great stuff Kyle Shanahan and new Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel did with former Ravens fullback Kyle Juszczyk in San Francisco? Now go get the latest hybrid weapon the Ravens created. The run game needs all the help it can get, and that’s McDaniel’s bread and butter.

Don’t trade Carson Wentz just to trade him. He has significant flaws around the goal line (on both ends of the field), and those brain cramps can be brutal… But you gave up two high picks for him, you aren’t convincing a Rodgers or Wilson to go there, and the other options ain’t great. He also produced 27 TDs to 7 INTs, FWIW.

Franchise tag Mike Williams and be willing to be one of the highest spending teams in this offseason. You are already chasing the Rams and suffering in that market and you only have one more year before Justin Herbert can start making the kind of crazy money he is worth. No time to be frugal. Let’s go!

Re-signed Jameis Winston. ASAP. The familiarity and comfort and understanding if there. He was playing his best ball pre-injury. Other options do not abound.

Commit to Jalen Hurts for one more season. Build around him with that bounty of picks. Maybe take a flier on Carson Strong somewhere on Day Two in the draft. But don’t force a QB selection with this murky class of passers.

Make a run at Winston. Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins are not the answer and this team can still contend with sufficient QB play. Winston would unlock the downfield passing game and create some space for Najee Harris in the box. Regardless, you need a veteran QB who has won some games in the league. I’d also promote from within for GM.

Get something close to a no. 1 wide receiver. Whatever it takes. Embrace it. Mac Jones ain’t Tom Brady and he isn’t going to turn journeymen into superstars.

Would Derek Carr interest the Seahawks at all as part of a Wilson package? I’d certainly want to find out. Pete Carroll is nearing the end and wants a winning veteran QB.

Throw around all the platitudes you want to try to make the Kyler Murray/social media thing look like nothing, but hand out top-of-market deals to him and Kliff Kingsbury at your own peril. Still very much that needs to be earned there. The team has the leverage.

Move on from Zeke Elliott and tell Mike McCarthy to prepare as if he might need to assume play-calling duties at some point to save his job. Because things continue to bog down with Kellen Moore in charge. And I suspect that will become a talking point again in 2022.

Offensive line, offensive line, offensive line.

If there is a Day Two developmental QB you like in this draft, grab him. At some point all the impact will catch up with King Henry. Ryan Tannehill has his limitations, and this could be a team that will be transitioning into offensive identity in the next few years.

Stop it with the Blake Bortle’s hype train. Please! We love Bruce Arians, but this team needs a real starting QB with Tom Brady retired.

A year ago you entered into a pact with a future Hall of Fame player that included a bunch of provisions that were basically poison pills in order to allow him to get out in 2022, and for you to move on with a different team-building exercise , opening up a new window with Jordan Love playing for peanuts. Whether or not he’s a starting quarterback remains to be seen, but it’s time to start finding out. Because putting together a Frankenstein team this year when you know it’s all or nothing, after failing to win with a better roster the last two years, is a risk that will only thrust you deeper to the abyss. Putting this genie back in the bottle won’t work

Hold on to Jimmy G. Unless you are getting two second-round picks from a rebuilding team (and thus those picks are high), be careful here. Trey Lance is still a project at this point. That team can win with uneven QB play, but is Lance ready to give them what Garoppolo gave them a year ago?

Franchise Orlando Brown, get rid of Frank Clark and focus on defensive line and pass catchers beyond that.

Franchise Jessie Bates, sign Brandon Scherff and draft nothing but offensive and defensive linemen. I’m not kidding. For reals.

Los Angeles Rams

Add a “no-media til 2025” clause in Sean McVay’s contract? OK, that won’t fly. But landing a starting caliber left tackle is a must, and I’m not against doubling down on Von Miller and OBJ. Stan Kroenke has the cash.

The post One transfer every NFL crew ought to make in 2022 offseason: Buying and selling Russell Wilson, shifting on from Zeke Elliott appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The NFL offseason is already in full swing. Cap cut season is upon us. The combine is this week. Teams can apply franchise tags.

It’s on.

No matter that the official start of the league year isn’t for two weeks. The business of football is already at the fore. Teams have long decided on their free agent priorities, and which players they are going to cut and which they will ask to take a pay cut. The jockeying for a potential franchise quarterback in the trade market is well underway. Budgets have been set. Many of the most critical meetings – ones that will dictate the tenor and outcome of months of transactions – are already in the past, with the groundwork for those acquisitions hitting another level with the entire league gathered in Indianapolis.

And even for the best teams in football, like the Super Bowl winning Rams, there is abundant work to be done. Getting sufficiently under the cap alone is enough work for some franchises, while others are waiting to try to outpace the market to throw mega-deals around at unrestricted free agents. With that in mind, here is a look at one critical move each organization should make as we head into one of the most fertile roster-aging periods of the year (in order of finish from worst to first):

Rebuild the offensive line. A purge of veteran lineman is underway, and this must be a priority. Get Trevor Lawrence incubated. And with this not being a great OL draft class, the time to start inroads with agents is this week. New coach Doug Pederson saw what a stout unit looked like in Philly … and also what happened to Carson Wentz when things starting falling apart up front.

Complete the purge of bloated contracts (Trey Flowers, etc.), and continue the teardown. Extend TJ Hockenson and resist the urge to do anything splashy in free agency because the timeline doesn’t make sense with how far away you are. Likewise, don’t force a QB selection since you are stuck with Jared Goff for another year, anyway, and next year’s class looks better already.

Prepare as if Mekhi Becton is not the answer at left tackle, and that he just might become a sunk cost. I’d love to see him pick up at the heights of his rookie season, but there’s obvious reason for concern about that at this point.

Move on from Saquon Barkley and shed as many of the excessive recent contracts of the old regime (Blake Martinez, Kenny Golladay) as you can on the trade market. And if there is a market for Daniel Jones, I’d explore that thoroughly as well.

Start having weekly zooms with Josh McCown to keep him apprised of roster moves, philosophies and offseason priorities. He’s gonna be the long-term head coach of this team (unless someone beats them to the punch). Just a matter of when.

Identify a coach in waiting or at least get some back-channeling going early, because this Matt Rhule experiment has an expiration date around Thanksgiving. Resist the urge to trade for Deshaun Watson without full and complete closure on his legal status.

Extend Roquan Smith and try like hell to keep Akeim Hicks from hitting the market. They need that front seven to be an impactful unit to have any chance even in a watered down NFC North.

Washington Commanders

Put together a massive recruitment package together for Ciara. On the down low, of course. No tamping. But if you have any celebrity connections who might know the entertainer, have them pull out all the stops. Maybe create a splashy video she could watch extolling all of the virtues of the greater DC area. Amazing mansions at Mount Vernon. Ridiculous row homes in Georgetown. Just a short train/flight from NYC. World class shopping. A cosmopolitan, international destination beckoning to her and her husband. Oh, and extend Scary Terry immediately.

Trade Russell Wilson. The odds of winning another Super Bowl with him on his current contract are bleak at best. He’s not gonna do an extension. Franchising him in his late 30s is silly. You have no picks and very little talent. It’s time for a reboot.

Check out the suggestion for the Commanders and do the same thing, only for Aaron Rodgers. Let him know how many yoga studios per capita you have, offer to have the new owner do a 12-day cleanse with him if he comes there. Do all of your own research on how amazing the Rocky Mountain region is, and get it into your right hands.

Try like heck to get Matt Ryan to do a realistic short-term extension as a precursor to a trade. Promise to only send him to a winning team. Of course, he’s been accustomed to being among the very highest paid at his position, so he might not be inclined. And the best time to do this was years ago, anyway.

Don’t triple down on Kirk Cousins. Even if you move on from guys like Danielle Hunter and Adam Thielen and Michael Pierce, there is still enough talent to win the NFC North (especially if Rodgers is gone). Ride it out for one more year, seeking to keep upgrading that offensive line. You’re going to have to outscore people to win, anyway. Take the comp pick for Cousins ​​down the road.

Bring in legit competition for Baker Mayfield. I don’t mean Case Keenum, who at this age could hold it down for a month or so. I’m talking someone who could get you through three months if need be. Not sure if Gardner Minshew or Mitch Trubisky or Marcus Mariota is an upgrade, but I might be inclined to find out.

It’d be easy to say extend Lamar Jackson, but that might be unfeasible this offseason with the QB inclined to gamble on himself on a fifth-year option. So I’ll go with rethinking their contract structures, aversion to voidable years and predilection for doubling-down with extensions for injury-prone players they have already heavily compensated. When new team president Sashi Brown – former Browns GM steeped in cap/negotiation – takes over April 1, much of that might take care of itself, anyway.

Sign Pat Ricard, the best fullback/H-back/tight end/emergency tackle in the NFL. Think about all the great stuff Kyle Shanahan and new Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel did with former Ravens fullback Kyle Juszczyk in San Francisco? Now go get the latest hybrid weapon the Ravens created. The run game needs all the help it can get, and that’s McDaniel’s bread and butter.

Don’t trade Carson Wentz just to trade him. He has significant flaws around the goal line (on both ends of the field), and those brain cramps can be brutal… But you gave up two high picks for him, you aren’t convincing a Rodgers or Wilson to go there, and the other options ain’t great. He also produced 27 TDs to 7 INTs, FWIW.

Franchise tag Mike Williams and be willing to be one of the highest spending teams in this offseason. You are already chasing the Rams and suffering in that market and you only have one more year before Justin Herbert can start making the kind of crazy money he is worth. No time to be frugal. Let’s go!

Re-signed Jameis Winston. ASAP. The familiarity and comfort and understanding if there. He was playing his best ball pre-injury. Other options do not abound.

Commit to Jalen Hurts for one more season. Build around him with that bounty of picks. Maybe take a flier on Carson Strong somewhere on Day Two in the draft. But don’t force a QB selection with this murky class of passers.

Make a run at Winston. Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins are not the answer and this team can still contend with sufficient QB play. Winston would unlock the downfield passing game and create some space for Najee Harris in the box. Regardless, you need a veteran QB who has won some games in the league. I’d also promote from within for GM.

Get something close to a no. 1 wide receiver. Whatever it takes. Embrace it. Mac Jones ain’t Tom Brady and he isn’t going to turn journeymen into superstars.

Would Derek Carr interest the Seahawks at all as part of a Wilson package? I’d certainly want to find out. Pete Carroll is nearing the end and wants a winning veteran QB.

Throw around all the platitudes you want to try to make the Kyler Murray/social media thing look like nothing, but hand out top-of-market deals to him and Kliff Kingsbury at your own peril. Still very much that needs to be earned there. The team has the leverage.

Move on from Zeke Elliott and tell Mike McCarthy to prepare as if he might need to assume play-calling duties at some point to save his job. Because things continue to bog down with Kellen Moore in charge. And I suspect that will become a talking point again in 2022.

Offensive line, offensive line, offensive line.

If there is a Day Two developmental QB you like in this draft, grab him. At some point all the impact will catch up with King Henry. Ryan Tannehill has his limitations, and this could be a team that will be transitioning into offensive identity in the next few years.

Stop it with the Blake Bortle’s hype train. Please! We love Bruce Arians, but this team needs a real starting QB with Tom Brady retired.

A year ago you entered into a pact with a future Hall of Fame player that included a bunch of provisions that were basically poison pills in order to allow him to get out in 2022, and for you to move on with a different team-building exercise , opening up a new window with Jordan Love playing for peanuts. Whether or not he’s a starting quarterback remains to be seen, but it’s time to start finding out. Because putting together a Frankenstein team this year when you know it’s all or nothing, after failing to win with a better roster the last two years, is a risk that will only thrust you deeper to the abyss. Putting this genie back in the bottle won’t work

Hold on to Jimmy G. Unless you are getting two second-round picks from a rebuilding team (and thus those picks are high), be careful here. Trey Lance is still a project at this point. That team can win with uneven QB play, but is Lance ready to give them what Garoppolo gave them a year ago?

Franchise Orlando Brown, get rid of Frank Clark and focus on defensive line and pass catchers beyond that.

Franchise Jessie Bates, sign Brandon Scherff and draft nothing but offensive and defensive linemen. I’m not kidding. For reals.

Los Angeles Rams

Add a “no-media til 2025” clause in Sean McVay’s contract? OK, that won’t fly. But landing a starting caliber left tackle is a must, and I’m not against doubling down on Von Miller and OBJ. Stan Kroenke has the cash.

The post One important transfer every NFL group ought to make: Buying and selling Russell Wilson, shifting on from Zeke Elliott on to-do listing appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The high demand makes sense. Wilson’s play style and height of 5 feet-10 inevitably affect him when he tries to access certain windows. Seattle, like every NFL team, sometimes has passport protection issues. And on a team that wants to play football, it makes too much sense to use running actions to move the bag and a mobile quarterback.

As with his attempted quick game adjustments, 2020 offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s movement passes ultimately couldn’t get past the Rams when it came down to it: in playoff football. Now comes Shane Waldron, the chief schemer who is supposed to work with Russell Wilson’s elite talent. Let’s get to 2021.

Last week’s preseason matchup with the Broncos already showed an exciting movement of the quarterback out of Waldron’s pocket. But first; Let’s address the benefits and limitations of moving a passerby out of the pocket.

Pulling the quarterback out of your pocket like Waldron did – on a sprint – is less effective than you might originally think.

Yes, it floods defensive coverage with various threats while simplifying the quarterback’s reads and violating the traditional pass-rush distance.

This movement, however, reduces the field for the offensive by half, while at the same time reducing the defensive area of ​​the defensive.

Hence, the defense can flood their pass cover on the game as they would compared to a bootleg or bare move pass.

In addition, there is no real run-fake / run-action from the offensive, so the defense can counter the concept without conflict.

In addition, intelligent play callers can also pick up on indicators that press right into the teeth of the movement, making the concept dead on arrival.

There’s a reason most of the NFL sprintouts take place in the Redzone; Coordinators expect man-marking or aggressive matching and one-read games based on rubs-to-quarterback runs.

What made Waldron’s game intelligent was the design and the game situation.

The Seahawks faced a 3rd and a 13. They returned and shifted their tight end from an 11-person 3×1 set. The pre-snap movement told them they were facing zone coverage as no player was following the tight end.

In order to trigger formations, the Broncos defense, led by Vic Fangio, attempted to weaken the bonus fire zone pressure throughout the game.

In that game, Denver sent 6 men to the quarterback – the sixth man to go weak after the running back fell under cover.

Seattle, however, performed a full slide on its offensive line, letting its running back absorb the heat behind. Rashaad Penny did an excellent job of picking up the most dangerous rusher – the free defender closest to the quarterback. Seattle didn’t need to block the backside edge as it was out of the game due to its broad alignment and path.

The post Evaluation: An Instance of Shane Waldron Shifting Russell Wilson Out of Pocket appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.