Greg Cosell's Thoughts on the 2024 NFL Regular Season

A 1-on-1 Interview with the Creator of the NFL Matchup Show

If you want to know what’s going on in the NFL, Greg Cosell is the best person to ask. No one watches more All-22 film than him. I know this because I saw it firsthand while working for Greg on the NFL Matchup Show for 5 seasons.

Greg has been with NFL Films for 45 years and is the creator of the NFL Matchup Show. He’s also currently the Executive Producer and on-air talent for the show. You can find him on Twitter @gregcosell.

Greg was kind enough to speak with me about some of the biggest topics of the 2024 season the other day. We covered Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, the impact Lamar Jackson has on a defense, and what went wrong for Aaron Rodgers and the Jets.

We discussed how important the run game has become for some teams, how Kevin O’Connell and Ben Johnson create opportunities for their quarterbacks, what’s changed in Sam Darnold’s game, and the area where Jared Goff is better than any other quarterback.

Greg also provided his thoughts on how this season went for C.J. Stroud, Jordan Love, and Jalen Hurts.

Check it all out below!

NK: Greg, before we get into the teams that are still playing, I wanted to ask you about one of the biggest story lines of 2024 – Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. It seemed like Rodgers was hit-or-miss this season and it varied from week to week. What did you see from him on film?

GC: I think you have to put his season in the context of the fact that he’s a 40-year-old player who’s coming back from a really significant injury. I think people forget that when they look at his season.

When I watched him play this year, I still saw a quarterback that could throw it as well as anybody. He’s obviously as smart as any quarterback’s ever been.

I thought that his ball placement wasn’t as precise as we’ve seen in the past. I don’t know if that’s a function of his lower body or not because, as I said, coming back from an Achilles at his age is a big deal. It's hard to know how that affected him, and he’s certainly not going to come out and say it did.

I also got the sense just watching the tape that there was a little bit of a dysfunction with how he felt about his receivers. I don’t know what’s in his head, but it just didn’t seem like there was a rhythmic feel to their passing game the way we’ve seen in the past with Aaron Rodgers.

I’m sure that’s why they made the trade for Davante Adams. And obviously, Adams became the guy as the year progressed.

But it was a very up and down season in terms of his overall quality and consistency of play. There were times he looked very good. And other times, he just seemed to miss some throws that we just were so used to him making in the past.

But I just really think that injury is being overlooked by a lot of people. That’s a really significant injury. And when he came back, sure he wasn’t limping around, but I have to believe that the injury really impacted his ability to play the way that we know he’s capable of.

NK: Absolutely. And I’m sure it didn’t help that he kept sustaining injuries to his lower body throughout the season as well.

You mentioned dysfunction in the passing game. In your opinion, is that why Wilson’s targets dropped off a bit once they traded for Adams in Week 7?

GC: That’s the kind of stuff I can’t talk about because I just don’t know. I don’t know what’s in Rodgers’ head when he drops back, so I can’t answer that.

Obviously, he’s had a long career with Davante Adams and he’s very comfortable with him. He hasn’t had that with Garrett Wilson. In a sense, this was his first year playing with Wilson because last year he got hurt in the first game.

NK: Alright, let’s move on to the teams that are still playing. We can start with the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. He had arguably the worst statistical season of his career, and yet the Chiefs were 15-1 with him as a starter. How would you assess the drop off in his production? Was that a result of the players around him and perhaps losing receivers like Rashee Rice early in the season due to injury? Or was there something different about the way Mahomes was playing this year?

GC: I think it’s a combination of things. Mahomes is special in the sense that he has great spatial awareness and he has great vision on the move. I think he’s very comfortable playing that way.

I spoke to a defensive coordinator this year who has played against him numerous times and he told me that Mahomes is not really a great progression reader. That’s not really his game. His game is about “feel.” He kind of sees it and then he throws it. Or if he doesn’t see it, he moves, and he just has such an incredible feel when he moves. He has tremendous vision on the move.

This year, they didn’t throw the ball down the field much at all. He missed some throws. There were numerous examples where receivers were open on routes at the intermediate and intermediate-deeper levels, and for whatever reason he didn’t turn it loose. Years ago, he did turn it loose, this year he didn’t. So their offense, and the pass game in particular, ended up being very condensed.

Yet, they were one of the best 3^rd-down teams in the league. Yet, he still had the third-most drop backs of any quarterback in the league. So, they obviously asked him to drop back a lot, which he’s more than capable of.

He also does not turn the ball over very much at all. He hasn’t thrown an interception in 6 games after throwing several early in the season. And say what you want, whatever the reason is, he does make plays in critical moments. He does do that.

NK: It helps to have a top-5 scoring defense too.

Yes, he was on a team this year that had a really good defense that did not give up a lot of points. So even if they weren’t putting up as many points on offense as they had in the past, they still were always in close games because the defense kept it all together. And Mahomes has that ability to make those critical high-leverage plays when they’re most needed, even if he’s not having a great game.

Josh Allen is very much the same way. There’s no question that those quarterbacks move when they don’t have to move. But that’s just built into their DNA. That’s the way they play.

As a coach you’re not going to change that, nor are you going to try to change that, because that’s just who they are, and that’s how they naturally play. So, are they going to miss some throws within the structure of the offense that are there? Yes, they’re going to. But they’re also going to make plays that not every quarterback can make. And you’ve got to live with that. But they make more good plays than bad plays.

NK: That’s a great segue into my next question. In Allen’s first 10 games of 2023, he threw 11 interceptions. But in the 25 games since Joe Brady took over as offensive coordinator, he’s thrown just 13. What has Brady done, if anything, to eliminate so much of the downside to Allen’s game?

GC: I think what they tried to do with Josh is create an offense where there’s more quick, rhythmic throws so he can get the ball out, he can play more rhythmically, so everything does not become the so-called Josh Allen experience. And I think they’ve done a good job of that.

So now you see him not necessarily leave the pocket as much as he used to. There are times of course where he will because that’s who he is. But there is much more of a rhythm to their offense.

They’ve increased the frequency of the run game too. And by the way, a lot of these playoff teams run the ball on first down 60 to 65% of the time. So, I think they tried to settle Josh Allen down so that the game is not necessarily random.

Now obviously he can still make incredible plays. But you still need to be able to function within structure on some kind of consistent basis to have a good offense, and I think they’ve really worked hard to make Josh Allen play the game more that way.

I think that’s one reason why his interceptions have gone down significantly, because there are so many more quick rhythm throws where the read is defined, the throw by NFL standards is relatively easy, and the ball comes out. That’s good for any offense. And it’s worked out for them. They scored 30-plus points per game this year. And over their last 9 games, they been over 50% on 3rd down.

So, they’ve really become a good offense that scores a lot of points and moves the ball pretty consistently. And that’s without a 1,000-yard receiver.

Another thing to consider is that they brought in Aaron Kromer as the offensive line coach in 2022. He’s been in the NFL close to 25 years and is considered one of the best O-line coaches in the league. He was with McVay with the Rams when they won the Super Bowl. He’s been around the league, and I think they brought him in a few years ago because they wanted the run game to become more of a factor.

The bottom line is that no matter how gifted your quarterback is, it’s tough to play in that kind of random way. As good as a Mahomes is, or as an Allen is, it’s just tough to really be consistent that way. You end up with too many 3-and-outs or too many drives that stall because you don’t get into manageable situations.

NK: Do you see the same thing from Lamar Jackson? We obviously know he uses his legs - he just passed Michael Vick for most career rushing yards by a quarterback in NFL history.

GC: Lamar is a little different than Josh and Patrick.