the big defense thread

from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2020/11/18/rams-defense-nfl-history-second-half/?fbclid=IwAR2my3kk_SJXFrafTWPamYIziw3ngKgdadRuOqgIAIosHmkGr1MqUyPla60

Rams on pace to have one of the best 2nd-half defenses in NFL history

The fewest second-half points allowed in a 16-game season was the 1996 Panthers, who allowed just 56 points in the second half. At the Rams’ current rate of allowing only 4.0 second-half points per game, they’re on pace to allow just 64 second-half points this season. That would be the second-fewest total ever in a 16-game season, ahead of the historic 1985 Bears team that allowed 71 points in the second half of their games during a 15-1 season.

Me: this is a great vid & a must-watch

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Ram_Ruler

Great video analysis of the Rams defense.

Goes into detail about :

1. How the Rams like to line up
2. Why they don’t need elite linebackers.
3. How they force one on one matchups in the pass rushing department
4. How Jalen Ramsey allows the safteys to play other areas of the field and not just over the top.

…

Cameron DaSilva@camdasilva
It’s hard to believe how ridiculously good the Rams have been against deep passes this season.

They’ve picked off as many deep passes as their opponents have completed

I take a look at the Fangio system (#Rams in particular) & how they are using a light box & a two-high shell to manipulate the offense.#ArtofX
—
➡️ https://t.co/1fzUPqjysr

— @The_Coach_A (@The_Coach_A) December 7, 2020

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The Argument for a Light Box
How a modern defense is using a light box & a two-high shell to manipulate the offense.

https://matchquarters.substack.com/p/the-argument-for-a-light-box

The offensive side of the ball tends to be more forward-thinking and less rigid in terms of trying new things. So it is not surprising that the embracing of modern analytics on that side of the ball has been quick to take hold. Most coaches understand that passing is a much more efficient way of moving the ball down the field (yes, this comes with caveats, but this is not the article for that). The offense has now made RPOs and reading static pre-snap coverages into a science allowing them to attack every inch of the field. In turn, the modern defense has to attempt to cover more space with fewer resources.

At the NFL level, 2018 is the year that broke football. The Eagles had just won a Super Bowl on the back of a back-up QB and “college” like plays. 2018 would see the explosion of the LA Rams offense, ascending of Patrick Mahomes (remember the 54-51 matchup?), and the option offense of Lamar and the Ravens. Defenses were put on notice and offenses started to shift towards early-down passing, play-action, and the use of RPOs. The Spread had finally taken hold of the NFL.

With NFL teams now running RPOs and manipulating coverages like never before, points are aplenty. NFL defenses are struggling to figure out how to manage the risk of packing the box versus giving up fatal shots. High-powered offenses like Kansas City, the Rams, and Green Bay manipulate coverages with motion and alignments, constantly seeking a mismatch (or creating ones).

Outside of RPOs, the growth of the Crossing route in the NFL has challenged the pre-snap alignment of many NFL teams. According to Seth Galina of PFF, 60% of passing snaps over the past six seasons have come against a single-high structure. This makes sense as the league (and defensive football in general) is focused on stopping the run. To do that, a defense stuffs the box and is generally in a single-high structure.

So how have offenses adjusted to the high usage of single-high coverages? Run deep crossing routes. These routes are great against Zone or man because the WR is running across the field either away from their man or into a window opposite the targeted defender. Versus single-high, the deep safety cannot assist with the crossing route because he has to protect the middle of the field from deep. Usually, a Post is complemented with the crossing route to hold the Safety high in coverage. The intermediate space is the sweet spot in every offense (i.e. high percentage throws)

In fact, according to PFF data, 76% of crossing routes are thrown against single-high defenses. Since the NFL, and many of the top college leagues, are dominated by single-high coverage it is no surprise that offenses have adapted. Opponents are eventually going to get good at what they have to combat. It’s simple evolution. NFL defenses now have to counter this onslaught at what was seen as a “stable” solution to stopping the run on early downs.

One trend on the defensive side of the ball has been the use of a two-high shell to “attract” the offense to run. Now, as most people understand, two-high Quarters has been used for decades to stop high-powered passing attacks, and static alignments (and coverages) in the modern game will get you torched. This shift in the attack by modern offenses has forced defensive coaches around the country, and at all levels, to change the way they think about defending modern offenses. The answer isn’t simply “Two-High Quarters.”

An example from the NFL has been the Fangio system which features a two-high shell with a three-down front. What this defense does, in particular, is leverage the fatal shot and give the offense the illusion of a light box. Different than a true four-down, the Fangio system uses five rushers to create man blocking situations and a two-high shell to invite the run, and it’s not even close as NFL Research shows (below).

.@RamsNFL DC Brandon Staley using a similar scheme to Vic Fangio (spent 3 yrs together in DEN & CHI)

Rams & @Broncos – only teams to align pre-snap w/ 2-High safeties (Middle of Field Open) on 60+% of def snaps per @PFF & employ light boxes on 75+% of def snaps per @NextGenStats pic.twitter.com/ddYQQ1LZsv

— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) December 3, 2020

This does not mean the Rams and Broncos are running Quarters on every down. In fact, the Rams utilize a variety of coverages to counter the offense. This is what gives the two-high shell an advantage over single-high. There is a natural layering effect in a two-high system that cannot be matched in a single-high scheme. This is not to say that defenses need to run Quarters. That coverage has its own set of issues, but the illusion of a light box with pre-snap alignments eliminating “gift” reads for RPOs can force offenses into less efficient plays.

The use of Wide-Zone from condensed sets has also led to more teams running a two-high shell. Add in the use of pre-snap quick motions (Jet/Fly) and it is only natural that teams are shifting away from a single-high look. Regardless of post-snap coverage, a two-high alignment allows the defense to shift easier with any motions. Wide Zone is best ran from under center. Utilizing a two-high shell allows the defense to change the picture post-snap when the QB has his back to the defense (play-action). Once the QB returns his eyes to the field, the defense can look completely different.

Along with Wide Zone, the prevalence of play-action Deep Crossing routes combined with play-action has been used to attack single-high looks. Again, these can be negated through various two-high alignments and post-snap rotations. For instance, in a single-high system, the Deep Cross can gain easy access to the other hash. The defenses Seam player is down near the box in a single-high coverage and more susceptible to play-action.

In a two-high scheme, the Seam player can play from the “table” or from depth. So even if he triggers on a run read, he is sinking into the area of the Cross and can leverage the route from the opposite side of the field (think of it as a head start). This slight adjustment can pay dividends versus this popular concept of Wide Zone play-action featuring a Deep Cross.

As stated, in a two-high system, the defense can sink for depth into the area being attacked by a Deep Cross. Depth leverages the defender versus the Crossing route. This can be done running various forms of Quarters or Cover 1 or 3. In the single-high world, this is known as 1/3 Cross or Lurk. This layering effect can be done from either side of the aisle (Quarters or Single-High). The advantage is in alignment, not scheme. Below is an example by the Rams.

GO TO LINK FOR VID

Tampa Bay runs a play-action Deep Cross against what appears to be Quarters coverage. The Safety to the TE will trigger on the run read and pop back out once he identifies pass. This puts him in the area of the Deep Cross. To the top, the Safety stays high and “cones” or doubles the Post with the opposite CB. This is the layer effect that a two-high system can have.

Below is another example from a two-high shell versus Seattle. This time the rotation is weak.

GO TO LINK FOR VID

One of the best examples of a forward-thinking defense in the NFL is the aforementioned Rams (DC Brandon Staley is a Fangio disciple). As Next Gen Stats shows below, LA is #1 in showing a light box at 85% of the time. As of Week 11, they were the only defense to not give up a deep TD and were tied with Pittsburgh for the most interceptions on deep balls. Entering Week 12 the Rams were 8th in DVOA according to Football Outsiders and 12th in Run DVOA. Not bad for a “two-high system.”

The Rams defense has changed their structure under new DC Brandon Staley this season, aligning in two-high safety shells and lighter boxes.

Under Wade Phillips (2019)
➤ Light Box Rate: 62% (11th)

Under Brandon Staley (2020)
➤ Light Box Rate: 85% (1st)#RamsHouse https://t.co/pfjviSxKpC pic.twitter.com/PMIqGyrbAF

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) November 25, 2020

Again, and I cannot stress this enough, being a two-high system does
not mean you don’t run single-high coverages. This is a philosophy that I have talked about multiple times as a known “Quarters Guy.” Living in two-high alignment is a defensive philosophy, not a rigid scheme. In anything, if you are static and only do one thing you are going to get fetched.

Modern offenses have too many tools and answers to static coverage regardless of scheme. There are “beaters” for everything, so the main idea is to keep the offense guessing through slight change-ups that create doubt. What I have termed, Cautious Aggression. Now the question is, how do you stop the run from a light box?

Analytically, running is less efficient than passing. Defensive coaches must understand this. That is not to say that run fits don’t matter, or offenses should only pass. Saying that would be dense and missing the point. If the defense is reactionary and offenses are now primed to read and react to pre-snap looks, why not force the offense to run?

This is what I argued in my last conversation with Chris Vasseur on his Make Defense Great Again podcast. Since the offense is seeking space, why not give them the illusion of it (or lack of it) to manipulate the reads. Or simply, force the offense into a less efficient play by alignment. Force them to run.

The Rams utilize a mixture of five and four-man fronts with their two-shell looks. The five-man front creates one-on-one matchups with their D-line and EDGE players. Staley (DC) uses a mixture of Bear (303) and Under schemes to change the leverage. The use of “flex” players on the edges allows the Rams to keep a two-high shell and “steal” gaps inside.

An example of this is shown below. The away-side EDGE can fold in and take the Safety’s gap. This is taking four-down Quarters principles and hybridizing them in a three-down alignment.

GO TO LINK FOR VID

When running their Nickel package, the Rams use their EDGEs to wall and contain outside runs, or to stunt them inside to steal gaps. Another way Staley uses a light box to his advantage is the use of line movement and pressures from the second level. This has been a common theme in modern four-down Quarters football. To steal gaps, the defense needs to move players to “waste” the O-line.

Below the Rams run a pressure away from the TE and RB. The line will move and read the next O-linemen as they cross-face. This movement plus the addition of a second-level defender destroys the blocking scheme. The static Quarters alignment is unassuming and the inside leverage of the Nickel makes it impossible for the WR to block him.

GO TO LINK FOR VID

With the NFL using condensed formations, quick motions, and running more Wide Zone with crossing routes it is not surprising that two-high alignments are becoming more prevalent. The main defensive family that is using the alignment to their advantage is the Fangio system. This doesn’t mean that they are running solely Quarters. As most DCs understand, static alignments and coverages will get you beat. Everyone has beaters.

Single-high coverage still dominates the league, but Staley and the Rams (and the Broncos) are using a two-high alignment to play with the pre-snap box reads of the offense. The two-high alignments also allow the defense to layer the crossing routes that dominate offensive schemes. This looks like a trend to keep an eye on.

Rams’ playoff hopes now depend upon Brandon Staley’s boundary-pushing defense

https://theathletic.com/2292820/2020/12/30/rams-playoffs-defense-brandon-staley/?source=twittered

When Brandon Staley first met Sean McVay, it didn’t take long for them to realize they were cut from the same cloth. Then the 37-year-old outside linebackers coach for the Broncos, Staley traveled to L.A. last offseason to interview for the Rams’ vacant defensive coordinator job. Early in the conversation with his potential new boss, Staley did his best to articulate the overarching philosophy and value system of the defense he wanted to run in Los Angeles.

“When he asked me, philosophically, as you’re getting into an interview, ‘OK, what’s important to you on defense,’ just from a schematic standpoint, my big belief system is 1-on-1s in the run game and 2-on-1s in the passing game,” Staley told me earlier this month. “It all starts there.”

That may seem like a simplistic way of thinking about the game, but Staley’s core belief in building a numbers advantage on defense whenever possible perfectly aligned with McVay’s own philosophy on offense. “(Football is) 11 on 11, but the best teams week in or week and week out — where it’s offensively or defensively — do a great job of changing up the math and the numbers,” McVay told me earlier this season.

As Staley outlined the specifics of his scheme and described the ways he planned to use Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, and other personnel, it was clear to both men that they’d found a kindred football spirit. If McVay had been searching for his defensive counterpart, as The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue wrote earlier this season, he’d found it in Staley. “That kind of gets to the essence of why our relationship, from a football standpoint, has fit so well,” Staley says. “If we were coaching the other side of the ball, that’s what it would look like. There’s an ultimate respect. And there’s an ultimate collaboration because you’re able to help one another take your side of the ball to its highest potential. We really believe that, because of that creativity and collaboration, we’re able to see the game very similarly.”

For all the chemistry and sparks between the two, Staley was still relatively unknown to people outside the coaching world, and the 30-something, first-team coordinator was set to take over for a living legend in longtime defensive mastermind Wade Phillips. How the Rams defense would look — and play — remained a mystery. And even the most optimistic observers couldn’t have predicted this. Through 16 games, Staley’s defense ranks third in points against (19.3), second in weighted Football Outsiders DVOA, and first in Expected Points Added per play.

By any measure, the Rams have fielded one of the best defenses in the league this season, and they’ve done it by pushing boundaries and testing limits in ways we rarely see at the NFL level. Staley has held to his axiom about flipping the math and taken it further than any defensive coordinator in recent memory. In the process, he’s created a system that could help redefine modern defense in the NFL. With Jared Goff nursing a broken thumb and other offensive starters like Cam Akers, Cooper Kupp, and Darrell Henderson potentially sidelined for a must-win game with the Cardinals in Week 17, Staley’s surging defense now looks like the last, best hope for the struggling Rams to break into the postseason.

Before coming to the Rams, Staley spent the past three seasons as the outside linebackers coach on Vic Fangio’s staffs in Denver and Chicago. The reliance on two-high safety looks is an obvious Fangio influence on Staley’s defense (the Rams and Broncos use them at the highest rate in the league, by far), but the truth is Staley had been fascinated by Fangio long before he ever worked with him.

“I’d studied Vic since I first became a coordinator at Hutchinson Junior College, when he was at Stanford,” Staley said. “I felt like I’d been coaching for Vic since 2010. I joke with people about that, but I’m actually quite serious, because that’s how far back I went studying his stuff. And then I was able to be with him on an intimate level for three years, and then I could kind of pick up more context and learn all the ways that he had been shaping that defense.”

In early 2017, Fangio was then the coordinator in Chicago and looking for a new outside linebackers coach — his area of expertise — that he could train and groom. Staley had recently won a Division III Ohio Athletic conference championship as the defensive coordinator at John Carroll University and wasn’t an obvious choice for an NFL staff, but luckily, his friendships in the football world included a connection on the Bears’ staff. Chicago’s then-quarterbacks coach was Dave Ragone, who, like Staley, was originally from the Cleveland area. Ragone had played at St. Ignatius High School with Tom Arth, a close friend of Staley’s who was the head coach at John Carroll University.

“Dave thought I would be a good fit,” Staley said. “He knew that I had studied Vic. He knew that our defense at John Carroll, there were so many elements of Vic in those defenses. So I was fortunate that I got an opportunity to interview.” After Staley was hired, Fangio initially led the outside linebackers meetings before handing over the reins about halfway into the regular season. “He was a very impressive guy,” Fangio told me. “He’s got very good football knowledge, and he’s a football savant in that he loves the game, loves the historical aspect of the game, loves to research it and be up on all the new things.”

Working closely with Fangio gave Staley the chance to learn every minute detail of a defensive system that he’d long admired from afar. Picking Fangio’s brain about how he structured the defense year to year provided context about why certain aspects looked the way they did, and most importantly, helped Staley understand the importance of shaping a defense around your personnel from season to season. “We worked so closely together,” Staley said. “I was able to say, ‘Hey, going into this opportunity, this is the way I would do it.’ I think that’s something that’s been a hallmark of Vic’s success, is that he was able to evolve and be who he needs to be based on the players that he has. Going from San Francisco to Chicago to Denver, we were different teams. And certainly just when I was with him, our three defenses, we were different every year.”

At the time, Fangio’s defense was a different beast compared to the rest of the league. Pete Carroll’s success in Seattle had made systems with a single-high safety all the rage in the NFL. But as Staley surveyed the landscape, he had his doubts about the staying power of a system that limited the coverage menu a defense could play (namely Cover 3 and Cover 1). “So much of the NFL was trending to Seattle and that scheme,” Staley said. “I knew that it wouldn’t last. I knew Vic was so different, and there wasn’t really anybody like Vic. It’s because of the depth that we play with. And it’s not like Tampa Bay 2, which is way different because there’s too much air in the coverage. We just play with more depth. When you start with that premise, you can really open your thinking to play the way you need to play to stop people.”

The same year that Staley took the job in Chicago, the Rams hired McVay, whose offensive system filled with play action and deep crossing routes was specifically equipped to take advantage of the single-high, Seattle-based defenses that emerged around the league. Without playing a two-high structure, cutting crossing routes becomes a significant challenge, and the Rams (and offenses influenced by them) shaped their play-action systems around that central idea.

When Staley was the defensive coordinator at John Carroll in 2016, he implemented a two-high system heavily reliant on Fangio’s principles, but the motivation for that approach was different at the college level. “In college, with the RPO game, you have to play split safety to get the overlap with the QB running the ball,” Staley said. “You can’t play single-high with the QB as a runner and the running back as a lead blocker. When they have all 11 guys that they can use, and you only have 10 because one of those guys is in the middle of the field, you’re gonna get torn up. That’s why you see the defenses being played in college get exposed.”

A lot of the defensive structures that Staley used at John Carroll (above) look eerily similar to ones he’s used with the Rams this season, only now, the two-high structure is designed to slow down a different aspect of opposing offenses. “Transitioning to the pro game, you know that it’s more about the passing game,” Staley said. “Just taking that same process and applying those principles — with more variation, certainly — to the passing game in the NFL.”

The result has been a defensive approach that looks similar to Fangio’s, with the dial cranked to 11. According to Next Gen Stats, the Rams have lined up with a light box on 83 percent of plays, the highest rate in the NFL. Fangio’s Broncos are second at 78 percent, and no other team is above 72. By consistently lining up in two-high looks, Staley is able to create those 2-on-1 looks in the passing game that are central to his core defensive philosophy. And by playing a variety of coverages out of those looks (and not the static Quarters coverage that sometimes come with two-high alignments in college), the Rams have been able to eliminate some of the vulnerabilities that occasionally emerge with more static zone defenses.

“The more match (coverage) you are, the more the coverage truly splits,” Staley said. ”When you study a lot of people who play quarters, the coverage really splits and you have these independent worlds happening. To me, that’s the easiest way for offense to create matchups. You don’t want that. We want as much overlap in your defense as possible. That’s something that’s a staple of ours.”

Some of the benefits of lining up with two-deep safeties are self-evident. With more bodies deep in the defensive backfield, the Rams are able to insulate themselves from explosive plays in the passing game. According to Next Gen Stats, Rams opponents are just 10-for-44 with five interceptions on deep passes this season (22.7 percent completions, which is the second lowest mark in the entire league). Staley’s unit has allowed just four touchdown passes of 10+ air yards (four less than any other defense) and a passer rating of just 29.2 on deep throws (first in the league). The way that Staley allocates his resources makes it difficult for any defense to push the ball down the field, but playing out of two-high looks also gives the Rams an element of unpredictability that gets lost with single-high defenses.

Even when the Rams are lined up with two high safeties, they often spin to Cover 3 or other single-high looks, making it difficult for quarterbacks to extract much information before the ball is snapped. Take this game-sealing interception from the Rams’ win over the Bucs earlier this year. The Rams are initially lined up in a look that might lead Tom Brady to believe he’d get some sort of two-high coverage. But at the snap, safety John Johnson III spins into the box and rookie Jordan Fuller rotates to the deep middle of the field. Based on his initial read on the alignment, Brady tries to fit a ball to Chris Godwin up the seam — and throws it right to Fuller to end the game. “What it forces the quarterback to do is operate post-snap,” Staley said. “He has to work once the ball hits hands. Being in the shotgun, one thing you do lose is time, because you have to look at the snap. When you’re receiving the ball, if something happens after the ball is truly snapped, we feel like that’s an advantage.”

A reasonable follow-up question at this point is, “Why wouldn’t other defenses try this?” And the answer is fairly simple. Even in today’s pass-happy NFL, most defensive coaches think about their defensive fronts first and coverages second. Playing in single-high looks and a heavy box is the only way to ensure that every gap in the running game is immediately accounted for, and most defensive coordinators will tell you that stopping the run is their first priority. Staley has flipped that thinking, and his defense has benefitted from it.

When I asked Staley why he thought he could get away with playing this style of defense in the NFL, his answer was somehow obvious yet shocking, considering the typical discourse around defense. “I know that the quickest way to lose is to give up explosions in the passing game,” Staley said. “It takes a lot of 4- and 5-yard runs to add up to a 50-yard pass. If you truly believe that explosions are how you lose in the NFL, you really need to start there in your philosophical structure and how you construct your defense.” On its face, that point makes a lot of sense, but for anyone who’s listened to mainstay NFL coordinators talk about defense, it’s still jarring.

The reason that teams have avoided light boxes and single-high structures in the past is that it makes them vulnerable to gashes on the ground, and that’s forced the Rams to get creative with the way they line up and play against the run. At the college level (and for Staley’s defenses at John Carroll), there’s been a large-scale movement to what are known as “tite fronts.” With tite fronts, there are no open B gaps like there typically are with traditional four-man fronts. Defenses line up with three linemen stuffed into the interior, with a head-up nose tackle and two other linemen lined up on the inside shoulder of the tackles.

The approach has been all the rage in college in part because it acts as a deterrent to RPOs, but the Rams have also used them to steal back gaps in the traditional run game. Through alignment and coaching points, Staley and his staff teach their defensive linemen to play a gap and a half in the running game, which allows them to split the difference between a typical two-gap system and a penetrating one-gap defense. “We feel like we can gain overlap in the run game because of our front mechanics,” Staley says. “By doing that, it’ll be really messy in the run game. You don’t want to create a system where runs hit you directly. You want those runs to have to slow down, and what that does is that it allows the second and third level to get there. So it really starts up front with the way we teach our d line and our edge players.”

This 4-yard gain from the Rams’ Week 16 loss to Seattle is a useful example of what Staley is talking about here. Nose tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day and de-facto defensive end Michael Brockers manage to each play more than one gap as they clog up running lanes and provide time for safety John Johnson and others to flow toward the ball. Considering how they distribute their players on defense, the Rams’ success with this strategy against the run is probably the most impressive aspect of their defense in 2020. Despite lining up in light boxes more often than any other team in the NFL, the Rams rank first in rushing EPA/play allowed and third in run-defense DVOA. According to Next Gen Stats, just 26.7 percent of rushing plays against the Rams have been above expectation — the third lowest rate in the league.

When trying to flip the math in your favor and asking your players to play multiple gaps at once, it helps to have guys like Aaron Donald — who’s always the equivalent of one and a half players on defense. During his first conversation with McVay, Staley wanted to communicate the different ways he planned to use Donald and Jalen Ramsey, specifically, as the focal points on his defense.

“Coaches say that, but as you know, they don’t mean it,” Staley said. “They have a system, and they don’t really practice what they preach. I just knew that coming here to L.A., I had a vision for how we were going to use Aaron, Jalen, John Johnson. I really felt like we could mold something unique. Fortunately, Sean believed in me.”

With Donald up front, the Rams have a true queen on the chessboard that can unlock their entire plan. By sending five-man pressures in defined passing situations, the Rams can scheme one-on-one matchups for the best player in football. In other moments, Staley has been able to use the threat of Donald to create openings for other players, like this sack by Joseph-Day on Sunday against the Seahawks. “It’s like, “How are we going to have to defend the run game that particular week, and can we put him in a spot that gives him a chance to be successful?” Staley said. “Create as many different looks to isolate him against a particular player. That’s been a lot of fun to construct.”

Donald may be the best defensive player in football, but Staley says that when he’s creating specific plans on defense, he often starts with Ramsey and works backward. Ramsey plays the “Star” position within the Rams defense, which means that along with playing outside cornerback, he also moves inside to the slot when the situation dictates. “It’s just getting him where the action is,” Staley said. “Where he can impact the game, whether it’s pushing the coverage away from him, or whether it’s getting him closer to the action and make more plays from the slot, impact the game that way by being literally closer to the action. We feel like that’s where we start normally.”

Against teams with a true no. 1 receiver, Ramsey has consistently shadowed that player and been left locked man-to-man on the back side of what are otherwise zone coverages. That’s a typical strategy against 3×1 alignments, but Staley can breathe much easier knowing that Ramsey is the one locked up one-on-one against guys like D.K. Metcalf. Take a look at this incompletion from the first time the Rams played Seattle earlier this year. With Ramsey locked up with Metcalf, the Rams are able to create significant overlap on the back end of their defense and easily thwart a long throw to Tyler Lockett.

Along with flipping the math and pushing limits schematically, the Rams have also done it with the way they allocate their finances defensively. With Donald ($22.5 million) and Ramsey ($20 million), the Rams have two of the eight highest-paid defenders in football by AAV. Their defensive depth chart has become a fascinating study in positional value and how a team thinks about spreading out its resources on defense. By using Ramsey and Donald to create numbers advantages, the Rams feel comfortable skimping on some positions (namely, inside linebacker and edge rusher) in ways other teams might not.

Ramsey and Donald justifiably get most of the attention within Staley’s defense, but the other position that plays a unique role within this scheme is safety. Johnson (who’s hitting free agency this spring) and Fuller might not be household names quite yet, but they’re both brilliant, instinctive players that perfectly fit what the Rams do defensively. By playing so many light boxes (and often taking the nickel cornerback out of the run fit to create even more overlaps in coverage), Staley asks his safeties to pick up a ton of slack in the running game. But the most important demand he puts on that position is the mental work in the passing game. Traditionally, defensive coaches tell their safeties to play one of two ways, depending on the type of coverage. In man or pattern match defenses, DBs are taught to read the distribution of routes and react accordingly. In typical zone coverage, safeties are instructed to read the quarterback’s eyes. Staley asks his safeties to do both. “I think we ask them to see a lot more than most NFL defenses,” Staley said. “I think they’re responsible for seeing more. There’s a coaching saying that says, ‘If you see a little, you’ll see a lot. And if you see a lot, you’ll see a little.’ It’s basically saying, ‘Don’t try to look at everything because then you’ll see nothing.’ Well, I don’t believe that. At all. Especially at safety. The more you see, the more chances you have to affect the game back there.”

Take this pass breakup by Johnson against the Bucs earlier this season. After initially lining up in a two-high shell, the Rams quickly spin to a single-high look with Johnson in the middle of the field. As other guys on the Rams defense key on the route distribution to match coverage, Johnson is fixed on where Brady is looking to go with the ball. The QB’s eyes take him to Rob Gronkowski, and he’s able to easily knock away the pass for an incompletion. “We feel by picking up the QB, especially, you have a chance to make more plays,” Staley says. “Because he’s going to tell you where you need to go. Yeah, we match patterns and we’re aware of the routes and how they distribute. But we’re also aware of where the QB is, and that’s how you truly change the math. You get more overlap.”

Those overlaps, and the subtle ways that Staley and the Rams have been able to flip the numbers in their favor, have made this unit arguably the most effective, cutting-edge defense in the entire league this season. And against the Cardinals on Saturday, with a playoff berth on the line, Staley’s defense — not even through his first season with the franchise — may have to carry the Rams to the postseason.

from Ranking NFL playoff defenses from 1-14

https://theathletic.com/2304699/2021/01/07/nfl-playoff-defense-rankings/?source=dailyemail

1. Los Angeles Rams

Their defense is built around two Hall of Fame-caliber talents — Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey — who are at the peak of their powers. Donald was dominant on a weekly basis in the regular season, and Ramsey was a true shutdown corner. Every team wants to limit explosive pass plays, but no team actually did that better than the Rams. They ranked first league-wide in DVOA on deep passing attempts, according to Football Outsiders. They allowed a league-low 13 deep completions all season. Because of Donald, the Rams don’t have to blitz at a high rate. And no defense was more effective (Expected Points Added per snap) on plays where they rushed four or fewer. On the back end, as The Athletic’s Robert Mays outlined, the Rams play a lot with two deep safeties. They were the league’s best zone team (EPA per play), according to Sports Info Solutions’ charting. While the Steelers’ defense finished first in overall DVOA, the Rams were first in weighted DVOA, which factors in later-season play more than early-season play. In other words, no defense is playing better than the Rams going into the playoffs.