NFL defensive coaches are focused on stopping these trends this season

The NFL’s offensive masterminds continue to innovate and find new advantages, and the cyclical nature of the plan means defensive coaches will find a counterbalance. It is a chess match that continues every offseason.

For example, the popularity of outside schemes has met on stranger fronts, with defensive linemen playing more patiently to cause indecision among runners. So last year we started seeing more old-school gap schemes due to violations. Defensive coaches are very good at what they do, so the new, shiny trends in offense tend to lose their steam quickly. What are those pesky defensive coaches thinking going into the 2024 season? I asked defensive coaches from around the league what offensive trends, plays or concepts they’ve spent time crafting answers for.

The Dolphins cheat move

The most common answer I got was the “cheat” movement, popularized by the Dolphins and Tyreek Hill. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel revealed it in Week 1 and it appears every team has added it to their playbook. The motion is simple. A receiver with a tight split sprints out to get a running start and the quarterback quickly snaps the ball while the receiver is still running, before the defense can properly respond.

(Drew Jordan/The Athletic)

Cheat moves help get the receivers up to full speed before the snap, similar to how Canadian football players do, except NFL players have to do it horizontally. Cheat moves can be used to create friction that is difficult for the defense to adapt to because the ball is snapped so quickly.

Offensive coordinators got creative with their use of cheat moves last season. They used it to get receivers both inside and outside, to get receivers open deep or to open up the space underneath, and combined it with run/pass options (RPOs). It was difficult to defend.

Week 3, 11:56 remaining in the second quarter, first and 10

Rams coach Sean McVay was one of the best last year at using movement to create advantages in the passing game. Here he mentioned an internal variant of cheat move to free Tutu Atwell. Atwell was initially lined up outside against Bengals corner Chidobe Awuzie.

As Atwell gestured in, Nick Mike Hilton had to approach him to avoid a possible friction.

However, the quick transition caused Hilton to play outside Atwell a step or two too far, giving him too much space to work with inside. Hilton would have inside help, but the defenders on the inside were frozen by play action.

Hilton couldn’t recover and Atwell was open for an explosive passing game.

“A professional personnel official for a team not authorized to speak publicly said even his coaches, who did not face the Dolphins in 2023, had put ‘cheat’ on their scout team cards because they knew it would ultimately stem from an opponent who used to be on their schedule,” The AthleticsJourdan Rodrigue wrote in her report on the motion.

The defense will certainly be better prepared for the motion this season. They get quick checks and adjustments that they can make, which will help them cope better and work with them throughout the offseason.

One coach I spoke with wasn’t too concerned about the motion. He thinks it is already overexposed and is more about the player being set in motion. Not every receiver can derive a varied route tree from the move.

“You’ve got to have guys running routes out of this thing. How many guys can actually run routes that require a downfield breakdown of a full-speed move? And how often are those guys targeted? It’s not as high as you would think,” the defensive coach said. “There’s probably 10 guys in the league who can really run that route fast enough, clean enough, and set the time with another receiver off the motion.”

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Speed ​​of movement

Cheat movement isn’t the only way teams can get creative with movement. The pace of the movement and the moment they snap the ball can also be problematic.

If teams don’t vary the pace of their movements and snap points, the plays they make based on movement can become predictable. The best movement teams are aware of this and use it as a weapon to make things difficult for the defense.

“If a guy is jogging slowly through the formation and then boom, the ball gets snapped and he takes off, that’s a pain in the ass to defend and there’s no way to map that out other than just looking at all the plays,” according to an NFL defensive coach. said. “And if you have a guy sprinting through the formation and forcing a defensive check, he gets set up and the ball gets snapped. That’s like that’s a big deal because it just creates a healthy dose of pre-snap conflict that second-level defenders are insecure about.”

NFC Divisional Round, 8:31 remaining in the third quarter, second and fifth

Here the Rams started with three eligible receivers to the right of Matthew Stafford. This side was the passing strength of the formation, so the Lions drafted their nickel Brian Branch there.

Cooper Kupp then sprinted to the other side and was set. Due to the tempo of the move, the defense bumped linebacker Alex Anzalone to the outside instead of Branch following Kupp through the formation. Once Kupp was done, they had some time to potentially adjust, but chose not to because the Rams could have snapped the ball at any time.

Instead of taking the ball, the Rams also allowed receiver Puka Nacua to move through the formation. Still, the Lions kept Branch on the right side even though the formation’s passing power was completely reversed.

After the snap, Anzalone had to run on a wheel route with Nacua. Kupp also ran a route through the formation, pinning down the defenders on that side. There was no one left in the flats to defend the running back screen, which was set up perfectly.

Over the past five seasons, coaches from the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay tree have effectively used movement to create advantages in the running game and dress up their play-action concepts. Now they are getting extremely creative with using movement to create advantages in the passing game. Progressive defensive coaches should have added counters and tools to their playbooks this offseason so their secondary players could use on the field against these different types of moves.

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Four strong concepts

Overloading one side of the formation before the break is difficult for a defense. Especially since so many defenses are playing more game reports where defenders are looking at receivers and trying to match up with them based on their route logs. Four strong means the offense consists of lining up four eligible receivers or acquiring four receivers with their routes after the snap.

One concept that was mentioned a lot by the defensive coaches I spoke with was popularized by Shanahan and the 49ers. They would flood one side of the field with four routes, but fullback Kyle Juszczyk would have the lead block for the running back on a swing route.

Several teams have copied this concept, but the Packers’ Matt LaFleur has his own version that is particularly difficult to stop. The 49ers are running their four-man draft with 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end, two receivers) and they will run it with one back. This is a little easier on the defense because all eligible receivers are initially compressed.

LaFleur runs his variant from faster personnel groups. He also combines the swing with an escort with a downfield concept.

NFC Divisional Round, 1:19 left in the first quarter, second and 11

Here the Packers execute their four-man concept with an escort of twelve men (one back, two tight ends, two receivers). Tight end Tucker Kraft is the escort (lead blocker) for the running back swing out of the backfield. Instead of shortcuts like the 49ers version, the Packers had a dagger concept called.

The 49ers defenders dropped deep to defend the pass combination downfield, leaving the swing open underneath.

Kraft took out the flat defender, giving the running back space to run down the sideline.

Counter

As the defense has moved to play more light boxes and odd fronts, the offenses have returned to using more gap scheme plays. The most popular play with a gap scheme is counter, where the front of the offensive line blocks downfield while two pullers come from the back – usually a guard and a tackle, tight end or fullback.

The popular Vic Fangio/Brandon Staley system utilizes two deep safeties with an emphasis on stopping explosive pass plays while allowing the run, and the extra defender who must come up to play the extra blockers coming through the counter is created, comes from the secondary. That demands a lot from safety.

Week 14, 2:13 remaining in the second quarter, second and 11

On this play, the Giants played a counter as a run/pass option (RPO). They were in a spread formation, facing the opposite side (left). Quarterback Tommy DeVito read the safety.

The safety stepped down to defend the counter, leaving the look wide open behind him.

One defensive coach said he was thinking about ways to defend QB counter options, which he thinks he sees more of in his division than in the traditional zone. Even with an extra defender in the box, a QB counter is very difficult to stop if the quarterback is a legitimate running threat.

Week 14, 1:00 PM remaining in the second quarter, first and 10

Here the Giants executed a QB counter, with running back Saquon Barkley taking the snap. Barkley had two options: hand off to receiver Wan’Dale Robinson running left with a lead block, or keep the ball and follow the counterblock with two offensive linemen to the right.

Barkley read the defensive end to the right. If he had stayed outside, he would have kept the ball, but because he stepped inside, Barkley made the right read and handed the ball over.

If the end were left outside, the Giants would have a numbers advantage and excellent blocking to the right for Barkley.

Counter is an old-fashioned concept, but as coaches prioritize defending the pass, they will have to come up with ways to limit physical runs, such as countering with lighter boxes.

(Top photo of Tyreek Hill in motion: Miami Dolphins via Associated Press)