Chargers Rookie Jamaree Caldwell Is An Underrated Beast | Film Review

This Los Angeles Chargers are starting to look like legit contenders. And the LA Chargers have an exciting rookie to thank for their defense in Jamaree Caldwell. This young Chargers playmaker is starting to dominate up front.

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All right, welcome back to another one of our film reviews. Today we are talking Los Angeles Chargers rookie defensive tackle Jamari Caldwell. Caldwell is emerging as a great find by the Chargers making more and more plays for this defense. We’ll break down everything he did so well in the Los Angeles Chargers recent victory. As always, in the comments section below, give us any feedback you might have. If you’re a fan of these film reviews and want to help us to do more of them, consider becoming a member. It’s a big help to us. It supports us. There’s a link in the description box below that will take you right there. But without further ado, let’s jump right into the film. All right, let’s open up with a pass rush. And there’s Caldwell right there lined up just behind the goal post. It’s hard to see him. Big number 99. And right here you can see the Chargers. They got one, two, three defensive linemen on the left side of the defense, the right side of the Raiders offensive line. Normally what this means from a defensive perspective, you’re gonna have this defensive tackle. He’s going to go this way to try and pull the center this way. So then you get one-on-one matchups here. guard one-on-one there, tackle one-on-one there. But the Chargers come up with a pretty creative strategy. They actually run a stunt here. They have Calwell take two steps this way like he’s heading that way. They’re going to have this defensive tackle take a couple steps up the field. Then he’s going to go inside and Cwell right here is going to loop behind him. They end up getting a sack on the quarterback. It was a fumbled snap. It was kind of a screw play for the Raiders, but a great design and a great execution here by 99 up front. Let’s check it out. All right, there’s a snap. Ball’s on the ground, but Calwell comes around, gets a sack. Nice play. All right, let’s look how this was structured. You can see 45, two steps up the field. He goes inside, he pulls the guard with him. You can see Caldwell, he takes two steps to the right, pulls a center with him, then he loops around, no one’s there, and he finishes the play. This is really good execution. Now, look, Caldwell’s a big strong force. He does some good things in the pass rush department, but you don’t think ever, if you’re the opposition here, if you’re the Raiders, you don’t think they’re going to run a stunt to unleash 99, right? It’s just not going to happen. Except the Chargers pulled it out. This is really good execution. This is really good design by the Los Angeles Chargers defensively cuz as an offensive line, if you’re a center in this situation, you’re not expecting 45 to kind of go behind you and pull the guard away. That never happens. This is a creative twist to what defenses normally do. And give credit to Caldwell and number 45 for executing at a high level. Turning the corner right here with speed gets Gino Smith on the ground. Nice play. Now for the wide copy, you can see right there Calwell, he’s going to line up right on top of the center. He’s going to take two steps up the field, loop around right there, and he’s right on the quarterback and gets a job done. One of the things I like from Caldwell as he goes in, he hits them right there, right around the hip. That’s the perfect situation. Some defensive linemen, they try and go too high. They throw their weight on the quarterback and we know in today’s NFL, that’s an easy 15. The officials call it, love it or hate it, that’s just the way the NFL is. You can’t go low either because of the Tom Brady rule. So, you got to hit these guys basically right in the midsection. And that’s what Caldwell does there. Again, for a rookie, very fundamentally sound player, nice rep, nice start to the game. All right, how about a little run defense? And there’s Caldwell right there on the right side of your screen, lined up in a two-ey technique on the inside eye of the guard. If he was lined up on the outside shoulder of the guard, we would call that a three technique. If he was lined up on the outside shoulder of the center, we would call that a one technique. Just a quick refresher for everybody. So, right here, what the Raiders are going to try and do is they’re going to try and run an inside zone concept. Working that direction. So, we’re going to get a base reach here from the tackle. We’re going to get a zone double team right here working up to the next level and scoop cut off blocks on the back side of the Raiders offensive line right here. The key play to make has to be Caldwell because this defensive end, this edge player number 50, his job is to set the edge to the defense and force the running back to cut back. That means Caldwell has to have do two things. One, he can’t get reached and he can’t get blown out of the hole. He’s got to hold his ground. He also has to hold up both these offensive linemen so that way Zero or the backside linebacker has a chance to make the play. Calwell does his job extremely well and he ends up making the tackle to boot. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. There’s his own track. The hand off inside. Caldwell makes a play with Zero’s help. Good defense. Let’s look at 99 right here at the point of attack. Again, gets into the guard. Doesn’t give up any ground, right? Maintains his gap. His gap is between the guard and the center. And he holds it the entire time. Right there, he’s still on it until it’s time to come off and make the tackle. Really good. Good fundamentals, good gap integrity. That’s what you want to see. Zero right here. He flows it over the top to his gap. He’s involved in the tackle. This is really good defense here, guys. This is how you play it. This is awesome by the Chargers because I guarantee you the Raiders, they like this alignment, right? They’ve got on the play side the center left guard, left tackle to handle one defensive tackle, one defensive end, and one middle linebacker. They feel like they got a shot with the numbers. But the Chargers, thanks to Calwell, play good fundamental defense and shut the play down. Really good technique, really good pad level. See how low he is? Look where his helmet is compared to the offensive lineman, right? That’s good pad level, good bend, fights off the block, makes a tackle, nice rep. All right, from the wide cop, you can see Calwell right there. Watch him get into this contact, find through the double team. Doesn’t give up any ground. Where’s the line of scrimmage start, guys? What? At the looks like the 38, 39 yard line, we’ll say. What happens to line of scrimmage? It doesn’t move. It’s still at the 39 yardd line. You can make an argument. The guard even went back about half a yard. Not getting blown off the football, holding your gap. This is really good. And then to boot, coming off and making the tackle. All three phases, doing your gap assignment, not getting giving up any ground, making sure the offensive line gets no movement, and then you make the play to finish it off. Really nice job here from 99. All right, going with more pass rushing. There’s Caldwell right there lined up in a three technique on the outside shoulder of that offensive guard right there. So, what the Raiders are going to do, they’re going to do a little play action inside, but it’s going to be kind of standard pass protection and the play side, which is these three guys on this particular play. They’re all going to take the gap to the right. So, the tackle’s going to take this gap, guard’s going to take this gap, the center’s going to take that gap. What that means is we got oneonone on the backside, oneonone there, and oneonone there. And this is a situation for Caldwell where you’ve got a three-way go. You can beat him outside, you can go through them, you can beat him inside, right? And this is a situation where you have to win if you’re a defensive tackle. This is what I call a check the box kind of play. You got to get some pocket push. You got to affect the quarterback. Caldwell does right here. Let’s check it out. All right, there’s a snap. Play action. Quarterback feels a little pressure, throws it up downfield. Broken up. Good D. Good job. Let’s go look at 99 right here. One-on-one on this left guard for the Raiders. Fars out into him and just keeps running his feet. Keeps driving. Keeps driving. pushes right into the quarterback. Nice work. Nice pressure. That’s how it’s done, guys. Push the offensive guard into the lap of the quarterback. You can see Gino Smith, he can’t really strut into that. You see how his feet get all kind of funky? If he could have gotten a little bit more air under this one, maybe thrown it maybe five more yards. You can see right there the receiver at the bottom left. He’s got a little bit of space. If he leads it out in front, there’s a chance this is a big play. But because Caldwell gets pressure right in the quarterback’s lap, this ball falls short and it’s incomplete. Pressure wins. Especially pressure right in the face of the quarterback. When you have a three-way go in this one-on-one matchup, you’ve got to win. You’ve got to check the box. Calwell does that right here. All right. From the wide cop, you can see Caldwell fire into that guard and just walk him back. Walk him back. Walk him back. Just keep running his feet. He doesn’t do anything cute, right? Doesn’t do any swim move, any spin move or anything like that. Just keeps driving his feet and just keeps pushing. You can see the quarterback totally affected. Again, doesn’t do anything stupid. Doesn’t hit him in the face mask or anything like that. Just hits him on top of the shoulder. Again, raises his hand up there, but again, doesn’t get any roughing. Really smart, savvy play. I just love his physical nature walking back this offensive lineman right here. Great rep, great job by Caldwell. All right, let’s go a little shortage run defense. And there’s Caldwell right there lined up in a really tight three technique right here. Like I said, it’s short yardage. And what the Raiders are going to do, they’re going to bring 16 in motion this way to try and get some flow from the linebackers and safeties. They’re just going to hand it off inside though to their young running back and try and get the yardage for the first down. Up front, we’re going to get a double team right here. We’re going to get this tight end trying to cut off inside. just trying to create just a mash of humanity, get some movement at the point of attack and the running back to follow it again just to get the yardage for the first down. But the whole play works only for the Raiders if they get movement on 99. He blows this play up, gets penetration, creates a mass of humanity. Good D from Caldwell. Let’s check it out. There’s the motion. There’s the snap inside run. Not a whole lot there. Good defense from the Chargers. This is how it’s played. Let’s look at Caldwell at the point of attack against this guard. Just jacks him up, blows him up. Oh my goodness gracious. This double team doesn’t really work at all. 74 gets caught in the trash. You can see right here if you’re the running back, look at all these butts in the hole for the Raiders. That’s what you want from a defensive perspective. You want no movement. You see everyone from the Raiders is running horizontally, right? They’re not getting any penetration. They’re not denting the defense, so to speak. And so the running back tries to bounce it and there’s the Calvary to stuff him. This is really good team defense and a really good job by Caldwell. I love the way he uses his hands. He uses them so powerful right there. Good strike, good lift, throws him inside, resets the new line of scrimmage, forces the running back bounce. Nice run defense by 99. All right, from the wide copy, you can see the penetration that Caldwell gets. Remember, they’re trying to dent the defense here and the offense gets dented. Really good. You can see where’s the line of scrimmage, guys? Where’s it start? The 46 yd line, 47. Where’s the line of scrimmage end up with Caldwell? Back about a yard and a half. That’s good football, especially in short yardage goal line. Remember 66, his whole livelihood, his whole career is predicated on getting movement. Instead, he gets blown back. Caldwell, his main assignment is just to not give up any ground. He does above and beyond driving number 66 into the back field, forces the running back to bounce. And now, look, he may have gotten the yardage that necessary. I don’t exactly, you know, I think it was close. I think they stopped him on this play, but this is winning football, guys. This is really good at the point of attack. And this is the thing that will earn you more and more playing time because any interior defensive lineman and short yardage goal line that can not just avoid getting blown off the football and hold his ground, but can dent the defense is or dent the offense, excuse me, is really good. You can see the other defensive tackle here. He does a good job. He doesn’t give up any movement. That’s good work. But compare that to Caldwell. Caldwell penetrating the offense. Nice work here from 99. All right, quick break in the film review. Look, I was taught to break down film by my college coaches at division one level. All the players are. It’s just a fact of playing football at that level. And I want to take this opportunity to give you guys, the average fan, more opportunities to get that insider knowledge of how the game is taught at that highest level call. I created a checklist, a step-by-step guide for you guys, 100% free that’s based on how I was taught to break down film by my coaches and that I use today to create these film reviews. There’s a link in description box below that’ll take you right to it. I really appreciate if you guys decide to get it. Again, 100% free. Just trying to share information to you guys, stuff that was taught to me by my coaches. But without further ado, let’s get back into the film. All right, let’s go back to more pass rush. And there’s Caldwell right there lined up this time in a two-ey technique, but similar kind of structure as before cuz the play side, center, right guard and right tackle for the Raiders are all going to take the gap to the right. Right tackle is going to take this gap, right guard’s going to take this gap, center’s going to take this gap, which means we’re one-on-one right here. Caldwell against number 66 for Las Vegas. You have a three-way go once again. But you got to be careful here if you’re Caldwell because you have a three technique right here in an edge rusher. You have a lot of green grass right here. So you got to do a good job making sure you don’t get washed down that direction or that direction and open up a scramble opportunity for the running uh for the quarterback there. It’s something where you have to be a smart player and you basically have one option, right? If you’re going to use the three-way go, you got to keep it tight. You got to go narrow inside, straight through, or narrow outside. I personally prefer go straight through them, right? That’s the way to go. And that’s exactly what Call does here. Again, affecting the play. Let’s check it out. All right, there’s a snap. You can see the center right guard right tackle. Quarterback feels a little pressure. Kind of awkward throw. Incomplete pass. Nearly intercepted. Look how Gino Smith has to throw this football, guys. Now, I’m not a quarterback guru, but I don’t think that’s a stance you’re supposed to be in, right? No follow through. Kind of all over the place. Can’t get anything behind it. Kind of lollipops up there. You want to throw this on the line if you’re the quarterback, right? You want to try and drop this in really hard. Now, this is good coverage, mind you, right? That’s a tough throw to make anyway, but you don’t want to lollipop that in there, right? That’s how the pass gets broken up. You want to throw this much harder, much more aggressively, so that way the safety can’t make a play. But you can’t throw it that hard when you have pressure. When you have pressure around the side right there and you have Caldwell pushing the guard right into the quarterback’s lap. This is what they talk about about defensive tackles working through straight up. He doesn’t commit to one side or the other. Doesn’t give Smith an opportunity to scramble. Maintains his pass rush lane the entire time and just walks 66 back into the quarterback. It’s not nearly as dominant as some other plays we’ve shown, but it’s just as effective. Again, walking the guard into the quarterback’s lap results in an incomplete pass and a win for the Chargers D. All right, from the wide cop, you can see Calwell right there getting a 66 and just walking back. He’s going the entire time. Again, nothing fancy, no spin move, no swim move, nothing like that. Just walking him back with arm extension, getting his hand up, just doing everything he can to affect the throw. And right here, when the quarterback steps up, he feels that and he can’t step into it. You can see right there, he’s throwing this kind of flat footed, right? You would want as a quarterback to really strut into this, but Juno Smith can’t. He’s got to kind of do it off balance. A little awkward landing. He can’t throw this with any sort of zip. Allows the defensive back to make the play. It all goes back to pressure, guys. It goes all back to winning up front like we see here from Caldwell. A great sign for the future of the Chargers season. All right, going back to the run defense. And there’s Caldwell right there. Line up in a three technique on the outside shoulder of 66 right there. This time Calwell is going to be on the backside. It’s going to be a run going this direction. An inside zone concept. Once again, tackle’s going to base reach there. We’re going to get zone double team right here working up to the next level. We’re going to get backside scoops, backside cut offs here from the Raiders offensive line. Now, if you’re a backside three technique like Caldwell is in this situation, you really have two responsibilities. One, you have to hold your gap, right? You can’t get washed down inside or get reached completely. If either of those things happen, bad things can occur for your defense. But you also have to make sure this guard can’t get up to the next level. You got to allow your linebackers to make the play and flow over the top. Calwell does a really good job here focusing on this. It’s kind of ugly. You can make an argument was it was a penalty, but I like where his head’s at. I like his approach as a team defender. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. There’s his own concept. Not a whole lot to run. Minimal gain. Good Chargers D. Let’s look at Caldwell right here on the backside. You can see the scoop technique by the Raiders. 66 trying to work up to the next level. Calwell is not letting him though. Kind of grabs onto his legs there. Now, I think that’s technically holding. Although refs don’t usually call that very much. They usually only call it when you go up high. This is why low pad level helps because right here if you’re the ref, you have no idea if that’s holding by Caldwell or if that’s just a mass of humanity. So if you stay with a low pad level, good things happen. He holds his gap there. Again, he keeps a big pile right there. So by, you know, just by the way the play worked out, he stays in his gap, creates a massive humanity inside. So nowhere for the running back to cut back to But again, you can see 66 can’t work up to the next level. Linebackers flow over the top and make the play. Again, team defense. This is what the Chargers are all about. Calwell, when it’s his time to win one-on-one, he does it. when it’s his time to win at the point of attack, he does it. But when he’s on the backside, he’s willing to do what it takes to help his buddies out and let other people make the play. Nice rep from 99. Now, from the wide cop, you can see Caldwell again, it looks kind of like he’s getting buried there, and he is a little bit, right? He gets a little too low. This tackle is able to kind of collapse on top of him right there. But when you create a big pile up inside and you don’t allow the guard to get up to the next level, it basically gives your linebacker’s cart blanch to make the tackle, just like we see here. Again, this running back, the defensive end sets the edge. He can’t come back cuz there’s a massive humanity inside. He can only run in one hole and the linebackers are untouched to make the tackle. Again, team defense. This is what it’s all about, guys. It’s not always going to be pretty. It’s going to be ugly at times, especially in the run game, especially against a division rival. But right here, Caldwell and the Chargers, they get it done. All right, let’s know my favorite example of team defense from the Chargers victory. And there’s Caldwell right there. He’s lined up as a three technique on the outside shoulder of 65 right there. You can see the Chargers. They’ve got four guys all the way over here on the offensive right. So you got the center right guard, right tackle, and the running back’s going to come over as well. How it’s going to work out is you’re going to have 45 go inside this direction. And what Caldwell is going to do is he’s going to threaten the guard, but also pick off the center and pull the guard this way aggressively. Three is going to blitz outside. He’s going to take an outside rush to pull the running back this way, and we’re going to bring this defensive end all the way through here where there’s going to be a lot of green grass. Now, normally because it’s a zone protection on the play side, center’s going to take that gap, right guard’s going to take that gap, right tackle is going to take that gap. Running back’s responsibility for that next level man, that number three right there. What ends up happening most of the time is when this guy slants inside, they’re expecting the guard to come and pick him up. But because Cwell fires inside with so much aggression, he pulls the guard so far away that he can’t get to the defensive end. Looping around, results in a sack. Again, great team defense. Let’s check it out. All right, there’s the snap. There’s the blitz. loop around, gets a sack. Nicely done. Let’s look at Caldwell again. You can see fire off inside, attack the guard, but pile into the center, pull the bodies with them. The guard can’t go over to make the play. Again, team defense. Look at where this guard starts by alignment about three yards to the right of the hash. Right? You can see this is his zone. He’s supposed to come around and pick up the stunt right here, but he’s so far to the left that he can’t get there in time. Again, if Calwell doesn’t aggressively throw his body into the center right here, you can see what Calwell’s doing. He’s basically face mask to face mask. He attacks the guard aggressively and then goes into the center. Again, he’s kind of pulling the guard. You can kind of see how he takes his left arm right there and kind of pulls him with him just a little bit. It gets the guard well out of position. Again, you see where the left guard ended up right when it’s all said and done. Right here. He’s all the way on the hash. Where did he start? Where’s he supposed to be? Right about here. Right. So, he’s about two yards to left where he needs to be when it comes to make the block. He’s two yards short. 52 gets a sack. This is team defense. We saw Caldwell do his job one-on-one backside, point of attack, run game, pass game. He’s also a team guy. I guarantee you the Chargers, their coaching staff, they’re going to give this young guy a lot more reps. He’s very quickly in just two games becoming a key part of this Chargers defense that is looking really, really good. Obviously, big win week one, followed up with a good performance on the road against the Raiders. This Chargers team and especially Jamari Caldwell, they’ve got a bright future in front of them. I’m excited to see what they do the rest of the