[FULL EPISODE] Everybody Loves Raymond, T-Mac Tape & Are the Browns...Back?

James Koh (0:01)

We've got our Taycan is loaded and ready.

Matt Harmon (0:03)

Absolutely dominant on deep routes, absolutely dominant on short routes.

James Koh (0:07)

The boys are backbanging.

Matt Harmon (0:08)

Excellent separation against Mancoury. This is Reception, Reception, The Show.

James Koh (0:15)

Yo, what's cracking, everybody? James Koh, Matt Harmon here with you. You're listening to Reception Perception, The Show. All right, Matt, beautiful Monday night football game just took place and there's a lot of takeaways on that. On today's show, we're going to be checking in on Tetairoa McMillan. We'll talk about Davante Adams continuing to just assault the league somehow, some way, which is beautiful to see.

I think, man, it's really interesting to see what the Browns are doing, how offensively they are successful. I think I want to break that down here a little bit. But man, talk about Monday night football, brother, and I got to be honest with you, that Kalif Raymond out of nowhere has emerged as a go-to weapon for the Chicago Bears. Is this a situation where, I mean, is it floaky? Is it for reals? Is he an actual part of the offensive ecosystem there in Chicago? What do we make of Kalif Raymond?

Matt Harmon (1:08)

Oh, he is a huge part of the offensive ecosystem there in Chicago. And look, I'm with you. I did not see this coming.

I just, he is the latest player I added to the in-season charting tracker, which is now on the site. Looks really good. It looks different than it did in previous years. I think people will find that really easy to consume.

But by the time people are listening to this, actually there will be more players in there. But for now, Kalif Raymond is the latest guy that I charted. And look, I wrote in the tracker, just quick note for everybody is in there. The first thing I said is that Kalif Raymond has been cooking as the leading receiver in Ben Johnson's offense early this season. That is not what I expected to happen with the Bears offense, but here we are. And it's hard to see him giving away any of this because of the way he's playing on film and his knowledge of the system. Now, he is a 32 year old receiver who is kind of a speed based guy. There's a chance that a player like that just slows down as the year goes on. We see this sometime with the veterans, especially guys who have been role players throughout the course of their NFL career. They start off hot. They kind of fade as the season goes on, give way to the younger guys who are still in year two of a complex offense that asks a lot of its players. A lot of these dudes are super young. All of the players besides Kalif Raymond on the offense are super young. There's just a chance that by the end of the season in December, he's no longer the leading receiver. In fact, I would be pretty surprised if it's wire to wire, Kalif Raymond leads the team in receiving yards. But I say that while noting that this is real. Like this is not a fluke, I would say. Like his performance has been real on tape. Again, I charted the game against the Philadelphia Eagles. And there's so much stuff that's designed specifically for Kalif Raymond. Wow. You know, he is a guy who has played under Ben Johnson's offense before. He's been in the league a long time. You can tell he knows this system really well based on all the alignments that he has. You know, he's primarily a Z receiver, 64% snaps off ball, 30% slot, 11% in the backfield, you know. So he's a motion guy here in this offense. He does run a lot of deep routes.

He ran a nine route on over 20% of his routes that I charted. Wow. And so he's kind of running the clear out stuff at times, opening things up for other players. But then other times, he's running really quick slants, really quick crossers, things like that. And he gets open on those.

He finds soft spots in zones pretty well.

20 routes against zone in this game, 14% successful. Or excuse me, 14 out of 20 successful. Three out of four man coverage reps successful. So he can run away from guys. Good, smart player, knows where to be. And yeah, his 41-yard touchdown in particular, it's a really well-designed play and a good example of how everything works off of each other within Ben Johnson's offense. And I mean, Johnson was just on fire on Monday night.

I said this live at the time during the game. You will never be able to convince me that these genius offensive play callers don't secretly love having a little stint with their backup quarterback. You know, hey, I got one hand tied behind my back. I just got to design a really good game plan. Everything's on the table, baby. Let's go. I remember when Sean Payton used to just get all gassed up about Taysom Hill. I think he, you know, these guys are like masochists. They fantasize about having to do things the hard way theoretically, right? Like, and also, hey, Case Kingdom goes out there, you know, he just executes my system because he executes it as its design. That's not to say anything negative about Caleb Williams or Ben Johnson's like Caleb Williams. That's not what I'm saying at all. But again, on that 41-yard touchdown, Luther Burton goes in motion from the left side of the field to the right side of the field. So when he runs a little hitch route, he occupies two defenders. Cooper DeGene got lit up all night, by the way, has not had a good start to the season for the Philadelphia Eagles defense. He's one of the defenders that goes to Luther Burton. Roman Dinsay runs a quick slant, which he's open. So it brings Quinian Mitchell down with him. And then there's just all this space clear for a post route to Kalif Raymond, who then just outruns Andrew Maccuba to the end zone. Maccuba also had a really rough night.