Film Study: What could Chris Shula’s defense look like with the Rams?

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Film Study: What could Chris Shula’s defense look like with the Rams?

Cody Alexander of the Match Quarters Substack broke down the Rams defensive structures

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Film Study: What could Chris Shula’s defense look like with the Rams?​

For the first time since the 2021 season, the Los Angeles Rams will have a new defensive coordinator. Following Raheem Morris’ departure from the team to be appointed as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, head coach Sean McVay chose long-time defensive assistant Chris Shula to lead the defense.

With Shula being a first-time coordinator, there are a lot of questions on what his defense will look like. This will be the third derivation of the Brandon Staley defense in 2020. At the end of the day, the same structures that the Rams have implemented over the last few years will likely remain the same.

In 2018 when McVay struggled against Fangio, that defensive structure caught his attention and it’s all he’s wanted to run since. Despite McVay being an offensive head coach, it wouldn’t be surprising if he had more say than many realize over how the defense is structured. It is likely one reason why when Morris was hired, he essentially learned and taught the Staley scheme on the fly.

Under McVay, the Rams have had a fundamental understanding of who they are and what they want to be on both sides of the ball. This “less is more” approach that they’ve taken on defense has allowed them to adapt to challenges faster than a lot of other teams in the league, especially as it pertains to the lack of personnel over the last year.

With that said, that doesn’t mean that Shula still won’t implement some of his own twists or make some changes. Shula said as much in OTA’s and emphasized that the scheme will be fit around the players and put them in the best positions to succeed. In his introductory press conference Shula said, “My defensive philosophy is it’s about the players...We’re going to do whatever the players can execute at a high level where they can go out and play fast and play confident.”

Again, it all comes back to what that looks like. Cody Alexander of the Match Quarters Substack broke down the Rams defense and their defensive structures. The 27-minute video is certainly worth a watch as Alexander has written several books about modern NFL defenses.

How the LA Rams' Cover 8 and Cover 6 structures translates through the scheme.

How can the Rams be so diverse on defense? They utilize 'same as' principles to stay away from reinventing the wheel as their personnel changes.

www.matchquarters.com

One of the key things that Alexander mentions is the diversity and multiplicity within the scheme. The Rams run a base 3-4, but they will go also move into 5-1 looks with their nickel in a 4-2-5. Said Alexander,

“Just because they’re a base 3-4 doesn’t mean that they can’t get into a penny look or get into a 5-down look and walk Ernest Jones down when they’re in their 4-2-5 nickel or even when they’re in dime. You can do multiple things, but the coverages are all going to translate.”
Some of the big things that Alexander mentions is that the Rams could work in some more man coverages this year. Over the past two seasons, the Rams have been a heavy zone team, but the reasoning there was that they needed to protect their inexperienced cornerbacks. With the addition of Tre White and Darious Williams, the Rams should be able to mix in some more man coverages.

Last season, the Rams were in Cover 1, or man coverage, on 12.1 percent of their snaps. Comparatively, they were in Cover 3 on 38.5 percent of the time. Now, the Rams will still primarily be a Cover 3 team under Shula, but due to more experienced personnel on the outside at cornerback, more man coverages could be used.

Alexander also brought up how the Rams will adjust in a life post-Aaron Donald. It’s one of the biggest adjustment that Shula will have to work through in his first season as the defensive coordinator. Said Alexander,

“I really think they turned a weakness with Aaron Donald leaving and they’ve really kind of calibrated it to where they can have multiple guys, guys that can keep each other fresh, and then guys that can cause damage if they’re used properly....This is where I think this defense can really grow, especially now with Aaron Donald gone. You can have more guys play inside. Hoecht doesn’t have to play the defensive end, he can move back inside. You can have 2-3 techniques inside that can actually play and move guys around. You can have a big defensive end, you can have two edges out there. This package to me, the nickel package, they started using it a little bit last year, there’s going to be a lot of growth on this defense. They’re going to be able to do multiple different things.”


View: https://x.com/bgrisaktst/status/1811771842635464915?s=61&t=lgp1gRmUcyNSF5v7CIHwMg


Since 2021, the Rams have had an average to below average defense. However, with some of the additions that they’ve made, there is potential to push up. If they can become a top-15 defense, this is a team that could once again make some noise towards the end of the season.

 

[Merlin]

All DCs run the same shit in this league. It's about percentages and situational calls and how the DC elects to solve certain looks and opponents. Morris I think philosophically favors a cautious approach. It feels like his comfort zone. No idea what we're gonna get with Shula, but what we can assume is that the Rams will be all over league trends as per usual while he will call it the way his philosophy warrants and correct as he goes if necessary and as he learns.

One indicator we have is the recent offseason and draft that saw no real effort to upgrade ILB. This tells me our defense shouldn't change all that much in terms of the fronts and usage of safeties to pair with Jones. Given his background I was wondering if they would go get a good young backer for duo with Jones but that didn't happen. Now it could be because they had bigger fish to fry at Edge and DL. Almost surely it was that to some extent. But if ILB was a priority you could bet they would have found one, however the investment was at safety.

Our safety room looks significantly upgraded. Curl is a big upgrade first off, and will play in the pairing. Kinchens meanwhile was taken where I was thinking maybe they take a flyer on an ILB, and his ball skills suggest he's the other half of that pairing. But then you also have JJ returning as depth, as well as Yeast who now has some seasoning added. And you have Lake, who may be available to compete with the safety room if he gets bumped by the corners. Which bears watching, but either way I'd say the safety room is far and away our best room on defense. The deepest group and they also have upside.

So my guess (given the focus in upgrading safety) is we are going to see more quarters calls this year, by percentage, and they of course will come out of the other calls like cover 3. Also I expect we're going to see more blitzes and front end focus on manufacturing pressure. Which means philosophically that I expect Shula is going to be more aggressive as a gameday caller.