There is a lot going on in this thread as I would expect from a Rah thread I suppose.
I have a question/statement of sorts.
Rah catches S4!7 for playing soft, we have been burned big in press. What are the other viable options? In press you get the chuck (contact) playing off you can read/react. What else is there? It isn't as though the options are limitless
That's it. 2021 and 2022 Rams at very top of not allowing explosive plays. Okay---it looks bad and there are other issues, too. teams get short completions and it frustrates people
2023 some more man and some more quick scores but it looks good but it frustrates people by giving up long TDs on regular basis.
Some folks don't recognize that it's not how close you are to the LOS, it's how close you are to the receiver when ball arrives. Off coverage does not mean the idea is to not break on ball and stop the play. Press ... it has downfalls, too. You can be far away from the
receiver when ball arrives.
Both playing in phase (a man technique) and playing out of phase (top down) have merit and all are used by all teams to varying degrees. Dallas guys like to play in phase. Diggs, Bland, same kind of player and pick a lot of balls. Why don't Rams draft guys like them? No idea. Ramsey likes to play top-down, out of phase. He feels like his break on the ball is the best way to win.
Just for reference
Press lines up 1 yard off (up to 3)
Cloud lines up 4 yards off (up to 7)
Off lines up 8 or 9, etc
Hard coverage is considered 3 yards or less
Soft = 4 or more.
Press -- can get killed with man beaters ... crossing, picks, etc
Then there are zone beaters, but there are safety MOF beaters and 2-deep beaters..
Depth of CBs can be a function of what you are doing with your slot (star) CB and your safeties to match the right routes. So if you play press you cannot play defense where you are reading releases . .. guys helping each other