Bengals Film Review: Analyzing Jackson Carman, Cordell Volson and the Battle at Left Guard

The Bengals' left guard competition continues. Here's how both guys fared in the preseason opener.

Author:
Mike Santagata
Publish date:
Aug 17, 2022 10:25 AM EDT

In this story:

After a disappointing rookie season, Jackson Carman came out and played another lackluster game in the first week of the preseason. Meanwhile, Cordell Volson played a solid game in the second half. After weeks of being the leader for the left guard spot, Carman's job security is in question after the first week of the preseason.

So just how big was the difference between Carman and Volson in this game? Should Volson now be the leader for the starting left guard spot?

Time will tell, but now it's a real battle. Before this game, Carman took nearly every first team rep at left guard and looked to be the clear leader. Now he seems to have a 50-50 shop of starting.

If Volson can repeat his performance against the New York Giants this Sunday and Carman continues to struggle, then the team would have no choice but to make Volson the leader in the clubhouse.

Let's watch some film on both guys.

Jackson Carman

As usual, Carman struggled with the pass protection elements of offensive line play. He showed no progress in what I think is the weakest area of his game: hand placement.

Carman ruins his greatest strength (power in his hands) as a player by continuously missing his hand placement and timing. When he ends up punching the outside or top of the defender's shoulder pads, he is not going to connect with any power. Just think of it in literal punching terms. If you punch someone in the sternum, then they're going to feel the full force. If your punch grazes their shoulder, then they're not going to feel it.

Furthermore, the wide hand placement leads to drive killing holding calls, like this one:

If the offensive lineman stays in control of the block and keeps their hands within the defender's frame, then they will almost never be called for a hold, especially along the interior of the offensive line.

Lastly, this hand placement gives up his chest to the defender.

As an offensive lineman, the chest is similar to a boxer's head. You need to protect it by keeping your hands tight. If an offensive lineman gives up their chest, they'll likely lose the rep. The defender can control him when they get the chest. At the very least, the offensive lineman has to find a way to get their hands off of him with either a Hamilton or snatch trap. Depending on whether or not the defender's hand/s are high or low.

He had other issues throughout the game, but to me the most prominent was the hand placement. However, he was not a lost cause in this game. There were some positives, even in pass protection.

On this play, Carman shows that he is able to remove the defender's hands when they are able to get into his breastplate. Plays like this are going to be a necessity for him if he wants to blossom into a starting level player. He not only got the hand off, but then finished with a snatch trap to put the defender on his face.

That may have been the most dramatic win he had in pass protection, but he had plenty of reps where he looked like a solid player. After charting all of his pass protection reps, it seems as if he does better with an angle set than he does with a jumpset.

When it comes to Carman's angle set, he typically does it at about a 20° angle, such as in the play above. This keeps him fairly aggressive like the jumpset, but gives him proper time and room to react to the defender. When he performed a 20° angle set, Carman only gave up 1 pressure and no holding penalties.

Compare that to when he jumpset the defender which led to three pressures and his holding penalty. This could be due to the lack of reaction time on a jumpset and also the dramatic nature of these sets. Typically if an offensive lineman wins a jumpset, they win it early, but if they lose, then they lose it early as well. Carman should attempt a few more angle sets in the next game rather than his standard jumpset. It could lead to better production while keeping the defense on their toes.

He also did some very nice things in the run game, such as this pull and kick as part of the Bengals counter concept:

You can see why the Bengals like Carman on this play. He shows good enough athleticism to get out wide and the power to dig out the 9 technique. The power is very impressive here because he once again missed with his hands. Yet he’s still able to drive the defender to open up a hole. He had some miscommunications with his fellow linemen, but that's what preseason is for. It would be a bit harsh to hold those against him too much.

Cordell Volson

Meanwhile, Volson played a much cleaner game than Carman overall. He seemed to do a better job at sustaining his blocks and overall showcased himself fairly well/

Volson did a better job of passing stunts and communicating with his adjacent offensive linemen. While Carman's miscommunications can be brushed away a little bit, it is noticeable that Volson was able to pass off his stunt.

This is a noteworthy play for Volson. He was able to kick out the penetrator to Isaiah Prince while taking the looper across the pocket. This kept his quarterback clean and gave him a better window to throw the ball.

Other than that play, Volson was a solid pass protector. He didn't give up any pressures, meanwhile Carman gave up four. Even though the game was not perfect for Volson, he was able to come away with a clean slate in terms of his losses affecting the quarterback. Unlike Carman, Volson uses his jumpset more sparingly. He only used it three times in dropback pass situations. His angle set was much more common on those concepts.

Even considering all of the positives when it came to Volson, the game has to be taken with a grain of salt. The first issue is that it's a small sample size. Whether or not he played well, it was only 34 snaps. Even if he played at an exceptional level on all of these reps, there would still be concern about him facing the talented Steelers' starting defensive line in Week 1.

The second issue is the quality of competition for Volson. By playing later in the game, he mostly went against practice squad guys (although he also faced some of the same players that Carman struggled with). While he looked solid in the game, the quality of competition needs to be talked about.

Volson still gone up against high quality competition. He should get that opportunity this week against the New York Giants. Whether it's Leonard Williams or Dexter Lawrence, Volson will get a shot at going up against one of the best defensive tackles in the National Football League.

Third, there was a stark contrast in the difficulty of the assignment for Volson and Carman. Carman was stuck without slide help on 13 of his 19 pass sets. In those 13 reps, Carman gave up all four of his pressures and the holding penalty. Meanwhile, Volson was only stuck without any type of slide help on five of his 18 pass sets. This is another point towards the small sample size of the game.

The fourth-round rookie wasn't perfect, either.

This is a great example of why the center slide helps Volson’s end of game statistics. He loses to the swim move on this play, but the center is able to come over and pick up his man to help him out. If the center was preoccupied with a head up nose tackle or with helping the right guard, then Volson would need to recover from that position. Recovering after a well executed swim move is a difficult task for an offensive lineman.

Final Thoughts

Jackson Carman, Cordell Volson, — USA Today Images

Overall, Carman played a lackluster game. Four pressures are way too many for an interior guy to give up in a single game. Especially considering that he was mostly facing off against the backups and third stringers of the Cardinals' defensive line. While it was an extremely disappointing game, it wasn't a bad enough to write him off completely.

Volson showed a lot of consistency, while Carman was still only able to flash his potential. It will be interesting to see whether one of these players can step up against the Giants.

Can Carman put together the first consistent game of his NFL career? Will Volson continue his hot start? I know my eyes will be glued to these two players on Sunday night.

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