For more than a year, Anquan Boldin has been a player Ravens fans have yearned to see in purple.  The team’s front office believes they got it right – that is an efficient combination of contractual terms and net draft picks surrendered to pick up another piece of the offensive puzzle.

When the Ravens acquire a new player, I like to put aside what I think I know about him already and watch some additional video.  I get a fair number of questions on how I go about this, so I’m going to take you through the steps.  If you’re not interested, skip down past the first set of bullet points.

I archive the Short Cuts from DirecTV each week.  Occasionally I’ll miss a week due to a technical problem or travel, but I have the bulk of the last 4 years’ games available.  NFL Rewind is also a good source if you only need the 2008-09 games, but it comes in pixilated on my computer, which might be a function of bandwidth, the computer’s resolution, or something else I can’t understand, but I have yet to find a way to improve the quality.  Anyway, Short Cuts is a snap-to-whistle condensed version of each Sunday day game.

It just so happens that the defending NFC Champion Cardinals played a number of prime time games in 2009.  Go figure.  But I happen to have 10 games of AB video and I thought it would be fun to review each time he was thrown the ball in those games.  By the way, for those who think this is a big job, it really takes just a few hours.  The steps:

• Download the Gamebook file from each Arizona game played on Sunday, during the day, where Boldin was active
• Search for “Boldin” in those PDF’s and record the quarter and time of each play
• Review the plays using a computer program such as windows media player which allows movement through the video by slide bar (using a DVD player for this would be much too slow)
• Record observations

For each throw to him, I recorded where he lined up, the opposing player most responsible for coverage (judgment must be used with zones, of course), the lane (from left to right on the field (see below), the distance of the throw intended for him (this is where he caught the ball if complete), the yards after catch (YAC), and a qualitative rating for the play from ++ to --.  For lanes I used the following system:

• 1:  Outside the numbers on the left side of the field as the offense faces
• 2:  Between the number and the left hash
• 3:  Between the hashes
• 4:  Between the right hash and the numbers
• 5:  Outside the numbers on the offensive right side

By lane (1-5 as described above), of the 81 times Boldin was targeted:

• 1:  14 of 18, 135 yards, 9.6 YPR, 4.3 YAC
• 2:  12 of 20, 120 yards, 10.0 YPR, 3.8 YAC
• 3:  5 of 10, 72 yards, 14.0 YPR, 6.8 YAC
• 4:  15 of 19, 143 yards, 9.5 YPR, 1.4 YAC
• 5:  11 of 14, 147 yards, 13.6 YPR, 5.4 YAC

I don’t think there is anything warranting a tag of statistical significance, but it’s an indication that the Cardinals would use him just about anywhere.

Of the 81 times targeted, by original set position, Boldin was used:

• As an outside receiver 37 times (16 left, 21 right)
• As a slot receiver on a 2-receiver side 28 times (18 left, 10 right)
• As one of the inside receivers on a 3+ receiver side 15 times (7 left, 8 right)

Once again, I wouldn’t draw any specific significance to the outcomes, but the Cardinals were willing to plug him in anywhere.

A few notes:

·      This Cardinals team played a very easy schedule and most of their solid opponents were in prime time.  The games included were SF, @Jax, Hou, @Sea, Car, Sea, @StL, @Ten, StL, GB.  Oh, to play in the NFC West.

·      The Short Cuts video was not complete for these games with 2 catches lost (W16, Q2, 10:20, which was a 23-yard gain) and (W6, Q1, 9:42, an 18-yard gain)

·      For the 57 catches I have video for, he averaged 10.8 yards per reception (YPR, 11.2 with the 2 missing catches) and 3.9 YAC.

·      The Cards played both Matt Leinart and Kurt Warner at QB.  Not surprisingly, Boldin was better with Warner.  Leinart targeted him 16 times, completing 9 for 97 yards.  He did not have a single YAC of more than 4 yards with Leinart (average YAC 2.0).  By comparison, Warner targeted him 65 times, completing 48 for 520 yards (50 for 561, 11.2 with the 2 missing plays), with an average YAC of 4.3.

·      Boldin has been described as a lot like Mason, but the former Raven he reminds me of most is Shannon Sharpe.  More than any other outside receiver I’ve noticed, he likes to delay off the LoS and look for a hole in the zone to exploit.  The Cardinals played a large number of 3, 4, and 5 receiver sets where he has ample opportunity to find the weakness.  It would not surprise me if some of the Cards playbook called for set routes for Breaston and Fitzgerald, but Anquan would have the ability to pick from several short routes to beat the zone.  The delays off the LoS were as long as a full second, so they are quite noticeable.

·      The Cardinals were fearless with regard to 3+ receiver sets and with using just 5 to block.  Most teams couldn’t match up with all of the weapons they could put on the field, which forced some mix of MTM and zone coverage.  When these packages were in, Boldin was typically in some slot position and looking to exploit a mismatch with a short pattern and delayed break.  The constant 3+ receiver sets forced Cards opponents to play nickel most of the time in a manner very similar to the matchups between the Colts’ offense and Ravens’ defense.

·      Boldin’s physicality allows for more YAC than Mason in similar traffic.  Mason’s signature route is the 10-yard curl near the sideline, but when he makes a catch in traffic, both he and Clayton look to avoid the big hit (and fumble) and often dive to the ground.  By contrast many of Boldin’s first-down conversions came on passes short of the sticks where Arizona depended on him to get up to 5 yards after the catch.  The only receiver the Ravens trust to do this is Ray Rice. 

·      During these games, Boldin ran 7 WR screens, with 6 complete and 9.2 YAC. The total pre-YAC yardage was -8.

·      Boldin’s hands are good, but he’s not Larry Fitzgerald, nor is he Braylon Edwards.  He had some drops, particularly in traffic, but when the ball was thrown on target, he generally made the catch, and he bailed out Cards QBs 3 or 4 times in the 10 games scored by catching a ball that was in a difficult spot.  He fumbled 3 times in 2009.

·      Not all his patterns were short, of course.  When he went deep, he was generally effective getting behind the coverage and Warner had good confidence both to throw an occasional jump ball by the sideline or wait for a deep crossing route to develop with Boldin.

·      With the signings of Mason and Stallworth, the Ravens now have a number of receiving weapons with the draft still to come.  However, I’m concerned that they do not have a proven deep threat.  Stallworth, Clayton, or Williams could fill that role, but each has something to prove after 2009.  With possession options that include Heap, Rice, Mason, and Boldin as well as a lack of size on the outside, I expect Cameron to use Boldin more as a deep threat than he has been accustomed in his last years in Arizona.

The entire table of Boldin plays is available for your review right here!