Film Room: 3 Coveted Elements KJ Hamler Brings to Broncos' Offense
Last week, when the Denver Broncos took wide receivers with back-to-back picks to open the draft, marking just the seventh time that's ever happened in NFL history. Many expected the Broncos to use two picks in the first three rounds on the position, but to use the first two picks took a second to sink in.
GM John Elway revealed after the draft that KJ Hamler was the guy they wanted in the second round no matter how the first round unfolded for the Broncos. After watching Hamler's film, I can understand why.
The Penn State product brings something to the Broncos' offense that has rarely been seen in Denver. His quickness, long speed, vision, and just overall play-making ability should lead to a lot of big plays moving forward for the entire offense.
Hamler can open things up for everyone on the field. Today's film breakdown scrutinizes his game against Michigan this past season. The Wolverines were a top-5 pass defense in college football.
The fact that Hamler could do this to such a potent passing defense shows the possibilities of what he could bring to the Broncos moving forward. Here are four plays from that game that all showcase a different element of how Hamler could be used this upcoming season, most of which are good, some of which are concerning and will need to be coached up.
Body-Catching No Nos
As I like to do with film breakdowns, I start with the concerns and build to the exciting aspects of what a player can bring. Here, Hamler finds himself in his usual spot in the slot. At the snap, he pushes up the field then does a fake step to the inside like he is going to run a slant. The defender falls for the inside step, leading to him becoming flat-footed and Hamler runs by him at full speed. Hamler then fades a little to the inside to keep separation from the safety running across the field trying to break up the play.
I do recognize that the quarterback underthrows this pass. If he hits Hamler in stride, he is off to the races for a touchdown. The ball is underthrown, allowing both defenders to catch up to Hamler a bit. So, the failure on this play does not fall completely on to Hamler.
What I want to point out is something that I see Hamler do quite often in wanting to catch the ball with his body rather than his hands. The replay shows the ball hits Hamler in the helmet. He tried to jump up and have the ball hit him in the chest but didn’t time his jump well. If he had gotten his hands up instead, his catch radius would have been larger and he would have improved his odds of coming down with the ball.
Hamler had 12 dropped passes this past season for an astounding 17.6% drop rate. There are many reasons for the drops. Sometimes he tries to do too much and turns his head early before he secures the catch, but his desire to catch the ball with his body is the biggest issue. This is something that can be cleaned up to a point by NFL coaching, but it is something to monitor moving forward.
I've always been one that preaches when watching WR prospects is paying attention to how they catch the football. Some players, like Courtland Sutton, are very natural hand catchers where others like to see the ball get into their body (Emmanuel Sanders). There are two reasons this is a big deal.
The first is that body-catchers usually have a much higher drop rate, but the second is that it decreases the catch radius of a player. The advantage of all that speed can be eliminated by creating a smaller window where a player can catch the football.
Hamler has shown at times a willingness to jump up and snag the ball out of the air. I just need to see that on a more regular basis as he moves forward in this offense.
Speed Kills
I keep seeing this narrative that speed doesn't matter as much since plenty of fast players have failed in the NFL. Yes, there's a list of speed-demons who've busted in the NFL, but it was not because of them having speed.
Most of them struggled to figure out the little nuances of the game. I’ll reveal later why Hamler has already shown some advanced nuances to his game that suggest he is more than just a speedster.
However, this play is all about speed. I wanted to highlight one play that was all about speed just to show why this is such a coveted trait and needed for the offense. Hamler cannot be covered one-on-one when he runs a deep route.
The defender was late getting over and as the saying goes, 'if you’re even, you’re beat', to show no one is catching Hamler in a foot race down the field. The fact that defenses have to worry about Hamler beating them over the top means one less defender in the box on almost every play.
Pro Football Focus has shown the analytics revealing that a deep threat like Hamler means more to the ground game than even having a great running back. One less defender being allowed in the box is such a huge bonus for the entire offense. It also helps open up the underneath passes when a safety cannot come crashing down.
The Broncos absolutely needed speed injected into this offense. Defenses could compact down with very little fear of getting beat over the top, bogging down the run game with multiple defenders within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. No longer will that be the case.
The other player that really benefits from this is Courtland Sutton. Most teams like to float a safety over the top towards the best WR. Hamler won’t be the top WR on the team this coming year, but he will dictate coverage based on his speed alone.
Utility Knife Unafraid of Contact
Again, Hamler is so much more than just speed. He is a play-maker. Broncos OC Pat Shurmur requires WRs that can create on their own to make a play and get themselves open. A lot of his offense is the quick-hit passing system. This makes life easier on the entire offense, but it does mean you need players who can make an individual effort turn into a big play.
On this particular play, Penn State is backed up and trying to close out a close game against 16th-ranked Michigan. Penn State has a 3rd-&-short and if they move the chains, they can close out the victory.
Hamler motions into the backfield to become a RB on the play. Teams want to get the ball into the hands of their best players and this was an easy way to make sure Hamler was the one with an opportunity to make something happen. He shows incredible awareness of the moment, not just trying to use his speed to get to the edge, but using the one-cut system of planting his foot and getting north down the field and charging headfirst into a pile of players to pick up the first down.
One thing that has stuck out about Hamler is he is not afraid of contact. He reminds me a lot of Phillip Lindsay in playing much bigger than his 5-foot-8 size suggests. The Broncos will be able to use Hamler is similar fashion at times to make teams have to prepare for plays just like this.
The Kansas City Chiefs have used that to their advantage with Tyreek Hill in putting in unique plays. You can then build on this by motioning Hamler into the backfield and running play-action with a pulling TE Noah Fant being open out in the flat. A player like Hamler opens up so much of the playbook and makes it hard to prepare for everything the Broncos' offense could throw at a defense on any given week.
Variation in Speed to Exploit Coverage
This play exemplifies almost every reason why the Broncos drafted Hamler in the second round. He is lined up in the slot just like he will be on most plays for the Broncos. Next to him is one of the best TEs in college football Pat Freiermuth. This type of formation with both the TE and WR in the slot is something I can see the Broncos doing on a regular basis with Fant. That level of athleticism being next to each other is a matchup nightmare for any defense in football.
Hamler shows something on this play that is not talked about enough — his variance in speed on routes. Everyone wants to talk about his incredible top-end speed, but what makes that so much more dangerous is when a WR can vary the speed throughout the route to catch a defender off-guard and a bit flat-footed.
Hamlre pushes up the field early in this route towards the defender, but it is easy to see he is not going full go. He does a quick step to the inside making the defender pause for just a second before he turns on the boosters and runs a fade route to the corner of the end zone. The variance in speed and the little step inside were able to get him the separation needed for an easy touchdown.
In the NFL, separation is the name of the game. There are a lot of fast players that cannot get separation because they do not know how to set up defenders early in the route for later success. The Broncos got two of the best in the draft at doing just that with Jerry Jeudy and Hamler.
Part of what is needed for the Shurmur offense to have success is players that can win one-on-one battles and get early separation. Shurmur can set players up to have advantageous matchups like Hamler here getting man coverage with no safety help over the top, but it is still up to the player to win the battle.
Over the last few years, the Broncos have not had the players to dictate like this. Hamler shows on this play he brings so much more than just speed to this offense. He is a dynamic play-maker that understands how to get himself open by more than just running fast. The acceleration as this route develops shows why he was one of the best play-makers in college football over the last few years.
The Takeaway
All these plays happened in one game. It would be easy to find plenty of highlights throughout Hamler's career, but I wanted to focus on showing how Penn State liked to use him to showcase his strengths as a play-maker.
Something not shown here is the fact that Hamler can be used as a returner on special teams. If the Broncos need a big return to ignite the offense, he has that ability to go back and do just that.
Honestly, the more I watch Hamler, the more I really like the pick and understand why the Broncos went back-to-back WRs. We at Mile High Huddle were big fans of the idea of Denver adding a player like Alabama's Henry Ruggs III because of what that kind of speed does to change how defenses must defend the offense.
Hamler brings a lot of what Ruggs would have, but as a second-round pick. Hamler needs to clean up his drops and I did notice a few missteps on routes, but he should be a day-one impact player for the Broncos’ offense.
Follow Carl on Twitter @CarlDumlerMHH and @MileHighHuddle.
