Gonna "bury" this story in here as it pertains a bit to the personnel groupings and will affect how Staley stacks his positional groups. This is a really nice summary and was from last year in prep for his first season with the Broncos.
A closer examination of Vic Fangio's defense in the past paints a promising picture of what the Broncos defense might be in 2019.
theathletic.com
Film review: How will Vic Fangio’s defensive scheme look with Broncos’ personnel?
By Brandon Thorn Sep 3, 2019
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The NFL has eight new head coaches entering the 2019 season, six of whom are offense-minded. Along with the Dolphins’ hiring of Brian Flores, the Broncos were the only other team to hire a defense-minded coach in Vic Fangio. Unlike Flores, who skipped the coordinator role before becoming head coach this year (though he did call the defense for the Patriots last season for the first time), Fangio has 20 years of experience as a defensive coordinator under his belt, most recently coordinating the NFL’s top-ranked defense last season in Chicago, based on Football Outsiders’
DVOA metric.
In
a recent piece by ESPN’s John Keim, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur were asked which coach has the toughest defense to read and attack. Not coincidentally, all said Fangio.
Fangio’s track record of success as a defense mastermind runs deep, with his defenses ranking in the top five in fewest yards allowed in eight of his past 12 years as a coordinator. Seven of those ranked in the top five in fewest points allowed.
His dominance is rooted in his ability to get the most out of his players by putting them in the best position to succeed while tailoring his scheme to the strengths of his personnel.
Cornerback Chris Harris recently offered some insight into the impact Fangio has had on not just Denver’s defense as a whole but also his individual game:
View: https://twitter.com/NickiJhabvala/status/1162122131708231680
For an all-pro like Harris not only to be receptive to a coach telling him exactly what to look for and how to play certain routes but also to disclose he has never had a coach tell him he’s going to be able to intercept passes against certain looks speaks to Fangio’s genius and communication prowess.
But what makes Fangio’s defense so successful? And how will it look in Denver?
Structure and alignment
Fangio runs a base 3-4 defense that has a diverse blend of fronts depending on his personnel and game plan for the week. Offense in today’s NFL primarily consists of 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three receivers), so true “base” for a 3-4 team like Fangio’s is really a reduced front that has a defensive lineman and/or linebacker subbed out for another defensive back or two. So instead of a 3-4, you’ll most commonly see a 2-4, 2-3 or 3-3 front.
This unpredictable nature of which personnel groupings, fronts and looks a Fangio defense presents to an offense makes him a nightmare to prepare for.
The standard 3-4 is generally deployed when offenses come out in 12 (one running back and two tight ends) or 21 (two backs and one tight end) personnel. We will go through multiple fronts over Fangio’s time as a coordinator to showcase some of his structural versatility and what each front looks like.
Week 1 of the 2014 season, 49ers versus the Cowboys: Dallas comes out in 12 personnel with a receiver motioning in-line to add an extra blocker. San Francisco is aligned in a 3-4 “Okie” front that has each defensive lineman aligned head-up across the offensive line with a 2-gap responsibility.
This is a more traditional look for a 3-4 team and one that is more commonly used against offenses geared more toward running the ball out of heavier personnel with an extra tight end. In 2018, 12 personnel was the second-most-used grouping after 11, and it’s something we will likely see more of in 2019.
View: https://twitter.com/MoveTheSticks/status/1157683916498751488
Next, we go to Week 6 of the 2016 season with the Bears against the Jaguars. This is Fangio’s second season with the team, and they’re facing 11 personnel from the offense.
The defense is in a 3-4 “under” look, with each defensive lineman shaded on their man as opposed to aligned head-up over them. Akiem Hicks is in a 3-technique alignment over the backside (right) guard, with Mitch Urein on the front side in a 5-technique over the left tackle, and nose tackle Will Sutton shaded over the center.
This gives the impression that the defensive line would be penetrating upfield at the snap since it is aligned in a gap rather than over a man. But you can see after the snap that each player is immediately stacking their man at the snap and identifying where the ball carrier is going before shedding in that direction (2-gapping).
While offenses used 11 personnel around 60 percent of the time in 2018, Fangio said his Bears defense saw it closer to 80 percent.
One of the Bears’ primary adjustments was to take a defensive lineman off the field and replace him with a corner, effectively playing out of a 2-4-5 front, as seen below. This is essentially what the base defense in Chicago looked like in 2018:
With the Patriots in 11 personnel, the Bears still maintain four linebackers on the field while keeping on Hicks as a tight 3-technique over the right guard and sliding nose tackle Eddie Goldman over to a 2-technique over the left guard. It’s worth noting these alignments oftentimes can oscillate from over either shoulder of the guard or center to head-up depending on the game plan and offensive tendencies, so the look is always fresh and customized based on the opponent.
The defensive line
Having two powerful, jolting defensive linemen inside the tackles is an important feature and where it all begins for the Bears defense. Few teams 2-gap as often as Fangio does, but it is balanced with gap exchanges and movement to keep offenses on their toes. These roles will be filled with Derek Wolfe, Shelby Harris and Adam Gotsis in a rotation on early downs and rookie Dre’Mont Jones coming in on later downs to provide a pass-rush boost.
“It’s just, alignment-wise, it’s like it’s old-school defense, where you line up and you beat the guy in front of you,” Wolfe said. “We’re going to be moving. You beat him, beat him, beat him, and then next thing you know, we’re slanting somewhere and moving around and misdirecting.”
“Moving” means there will be gap exchanges and stunts incorporated into the defense that are geared toward confusing offensive linemen, creating hesitancy that ruins blocking schemes.
This is the same base 2-4-5 front in the screenshot versus the Patriots, only instead of playing a 2-gap technique with the interior defensive line, Hicks slants across the center’s face at the snap toward the backside “A” gap, with linebacker Danny Trevathan scraping over the top to replace him. The center winds up blocking nobody, with Trevathan in position for an easy tackle.
The personnel will be a step down from what Fangio had in Chicago, but that isn’t a rebuke toward Denver. It’s just that Hicks and Goldman were each elite at what they were asked to do.
Wolfe is a good overall player when healthy, with excellent play strength and power; Harris is an extremely underrated, active player who can play multiple alignments; and Gotsis has the physical traits to be an above-average starter but will need to become more consistent with his technique to raise his floor.
Jones is coming to the team from Ohio State, where he learned under defensive line coach Larry Johnson, who is among the best teachers of technique in the nation. It shows in the refinement Jones
displayed on film as a pass-rusher. By not having to man a full-time starting role and be a part of the rotation, he won’t be asked to do too much against the run while still providing an impact in getting after the quarterback.
By being creative and unpredictable with the ability to teach a wide array of technical nuances at a high level, Fangio and his staff will be able to extract the most out of this group and produce an overachieving unit.
The linebackers
The linebacker position is Fangio’s specialty, and he has helped mold some of the greatest ever to play the game, dating back to the famed “Dome Patrol” with the Saints in the early ’90s with Sam Mills, and Kevin Greene with the Panthers, Ray Lewis with the Ravens, Khalil Mack last year, and now Bradley Chubb and Von Miller in Denver.
Linebacker in the 3-4 framework is broken down into two groups: off-ball inside linebackers and edge players who primarily play in a two-point stance. Denver is weaker in the former area and will need coaching to really extract the most out of projected starters Josey Jewell and Todd Davis, with scheme and technical advancements needed to bridge the gap in talent.
Conversely, the edge group is in the running for best duo in the NFL, and it starts with Miller and Chubb.
“We’re going to try to take them both to bigger and better levels,”
Fangio said.
The main allure of Fangio in Denver is seeing what he can do with these two players in place at what are likely the most important positions in the scheme.
“The edge players are very important in this 3-4 defense Vic and I have been running for the last eight years,” defensive coordinator Ed Donatell said. “You need guys that can compress the edge, and then you need somebody who can rush the passer.”
Similar to Mack last year in Chicago, Miller is right there as being one of the two or three best edge defenders in football, so it is extremely difficult to provide either one with many advantages they don’t already have. Nonetheless, Fangio managed to get Mack to play at the peak of his powers last season in his first year under his tutelage, en route to 12 1/2 sacks and a career-high six forced fumbles despite Mack’s arrival a week before their season opener and missing two games with injury.
Miller is coming off a stellar year himself that saw him lead the league in quarterback pressures,
per Pro Football Focus, and notch 14 1/2 sacks.
Chubb, on the other hand, isn’t as explosive or bendy as Miller (not a knock) but brings an element of size (25 pounds heavier) and strength that provides a nice balance on the opposite side of the line. “Compressing the edge” as a run defender is an area in which Chubb made an immediate impact as a rookie.
While it might be a little premature to put Chubb in the same category as Miller and Mack this early as a rusher — even with 12 sacks as a rookie — he is well on his way to becoming one of the most well-rounded edge defenders in the NFL.
For Chubb to take the next step into superstardom, he will need to continue to develop a consistent outside pass-rush move that will keep pass-blockers guessing since the majority of his production as a rusher came with bull rushes, inside moves or effort sacks.
View: https://twitter.com/BrandonThornNFL/status/1064878161626898433
Wolfe has mentioned the “fun pass-rush games that are just different” that Fangio employs, and Chubb noted the creativity in Fangio’s defense last year in Chicago.
“Sometimes they would have Khalil and Leonard (Floyd) on the same side,” Chubb said. “Sometimes they had Khalil at a 3-technique, with Leonard on the other side.”
Here’s Week 5 of 2018, Tampa Bay at Chicago, third-and-10 with Floyd and Mack aligned on the same (offensive right) side of the line of scrimmage:
Dialing up exotic fronts and blitzes on third downs with man coverage behind it were staples of the Bears defense last season. Putting your two best speed-rushers on one side and overloading one side of the line creates confusion and chaos, making it very difficult for blockers to decipher the deception.
Additionally, Fangio designed overload blitzes to isolate Mack on the opponent’s tackle, with the rest of the offensive line preoccupied with the numbers advantage the defense had on the other side. Miller and Chubb could be the beneficiaries of a design like this.
Miller and Chubb give Fangio and his staff an elite duo on the outside that they will be able to move anywhere on the line to manufacture additional pressure and provide them with advantageous matchups. And with undrafted rookie Malik Reed,
who turned heads in camp, and the versatility of drafted rookie Justin Hollins, the Broncos have depth that will help keep Miller and Chubb fresh throughout the year.
The secondary
Fangio and Donatell are entering their ninth consecutive season together. This is the third stint in Denver for Donatell, whose expertise is rooted in coaching defensive backs.
Their collective experience on the defensive side of the ball shows up in how well they are able to disguise their intentions pre-snap as well as mix man and zone coverages on the same play. This is made possible by having intelligent players to carry out a complex scheme, but it has to start from the top with coaches who are smart enough to implement and communicate it efficiently.
Part of the change the new staff will bring to the Broncos secondary and defense will be how it splits up zone and man coverages, with more of the former on early downs and the latter on third downs.
“The way this defense is set up, it’s going to be confusing,” Chris Harris said. “We’re going to be able to disguise, be able to make quarterbacks think instead of just coming out there like, ‘Y’all know we’re in man.’ Now I don’t have to play a guy man-to-man and cover him all over the field like I’ve had to in the past. Now I can read. I think my picks will go way up now because I’m going to have the chance to read the quarterback more. I’ll get to show you a different skill set that I have.”
In the Broncos’ preseason game against the Seahawks, you could see a little of what he was referring to, specifically the increased use of combo coverages that will be implemented on the defense this season.
A combo coverage is essentially splitting the field in half and using different coverages on each side, so zone on one with man on the other or some mix of the two.
On this third down in the first quarter with many of the starters in the game, the Broncos defense showed press man on the boundary side of the field with off-man or possibly Cover 4 on the field side (hard to tell without the all-22 angle):
Even though Harris was in press here, “the chance to read the quarterback more” was presented to field corner De’Vante Bausby, who read the quarterback and made a play on the ball for a pass breakup. These opportunities will be spread out across the cornerbacks, giving them the chance to rely on their eyes and natural instincts rather than simply mirroring receivers and playing off their movements.
This next play is from the Bears’ 2018 season. They’re facing the Patriots in Week 7 with Tom Brady, and the offense is facing a third-and-7 midway through the second quarter.
The defense is in nickel personnel and runs Cover 6, a combo coverage that has the strong side playing Cover 2, with the weak side in Cover 4.
Brady started his drop by reading the strong safety (Adrian Amos) and peeked over to Julian Edelman, recognizing he wasn’t open. So he shifted his eyes to the left side of the field and wanted to work back to Edelman on an in-breaking route over the middle, but Edelman fell into the “hook” zone of the “Mike” linebacker (No. 58, Roquan Smith), with the slot corner (No. 27, Sherrick McManis) maintaining outside leverage over the top.
Amos had his eyes on the No. 2 receiver to his side (running back Kenjon Barner), but once he stayed in to block, it left him free to either cover the deep half of the field and double receiver Josh Gordon or cheat inside to bracket Edelman. Amos chose the latter in what was likely a specific adjustment based on the defense’s game plan heading into the week. This confused Brady and resulted in him scrambling to force a fourth down.
Having smart, instinctive defensive backs who can hide their intentions pre-snap and then transition to man coverage on later downs when pressure is being dialed up in front of them is important, and Denver has it in spades. Harris (5-foot-10), Callahan (5-9) and recently traded for Duke Dawson (5-11) are smaller players who can play outside or in the slot, giving the defense plenty of malleability to appease Fangio’s play calling. Behind them are promising young corners with more size in Isaac Yiadom (6-1) and Bausby (6-2), who offer up a good mix of physicality, length and ball skills.
The Bears put together a brilliant defensive game plan against the high-powered Rams offense last season in Week 14, mixing up third-down coverages between man and zone while clogging running lanes, oftentimes with a 6×1 defensive front the Patriots used as a template for their dominant defensive performance in Super Bowl LIII.
Incorporating Cover 1 or “man free” allows the defense to play man coverage across the board, with a single-high free safety playing the deep middle of the field.
The Rams were held to 214 total yards and 3.5 yards per play against the Bears. On this third-and-4 late in the fourth quarter, the Bears run Cover 1 out of their nickel personnel.
Fangio often switched the role of his safeties so each would get to play as the deep middle or man defender out of single-high coverages. Eddie Jackson is in the latter role here and drives on the ball for a pass breakup to force a fourth down.
For the Broncos, Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson will take the place of Eddie Jackson and Amos, respectively, for Fangio, with Simmons primarily playing the free-safety role with opportunities to switch over and play shallow zones and man depending on the opponent and game plan.
Simmons is an extremely athletic center-fielder-type of safety with tremendous play speed that allows him to click, close and cover ground in a flash. He is really the most intriguing player of this group because he has the most to gain by playing in this scheme, which will allow him to roam all over the field.
Eddie Jackson, in a similar role, elevated himself into the top tier of free safeties in the league under Fangio and Donatell largely due to the freedom he was given, which allowed him to make plays on the ball with his ability to key, diagnose and close in on the football.
View: https://twitter.com/TheScoutAcademy/status/1144604261654945792
“I think the biggest thing is you never know what is coming,” Simmons said. “It’s always a mix-and-match. We’re always moving around.”
Kareem Jackson will serve as another chess piece for Fangio this season while bringing valuable experience (nine years, 124 career starts) as a hybrid corner/safety and a physical, aggressive playing style that has entrenched him as the starting strong safety opposite of Simmons. Kareem Jackson’s sure-tackling, blitzing capabilities and tone-setting demeanor were evident whenever you watched the Texans defense in 2018.
One aspect of Kareem Jackson’s game that will need to be improved upon is his tendency to get grabby with receivers down the field. He was called for four defensive holding penalties last season, a number bested by just three defensive backs across the NFL.
What to expect in 2019
Fangio has mentioned how the defensive side of the ball is in far better condition than the unit he took over upon arriving with the Bears in 2015, signaling he expects this to be a high-performing group from day one.
Given the track record of success that has followed Fangio everywhere he has been throughout his career as a defensive coordinator, in terms of overall defensive production and player development, paired with a talented Denver defense, there are plenty of reasons to be excited.
General manager John Elway hired Wade Phillips as defensive coordinator in 2015, leading to a dominant defense and Super Bowl victory. Attempting to rekindle the sort of defensive magic that led to a championship as recently as four years ago isn’t an unreasonable proposition, especially given the formidable personnel already in place.
Whether the offense can play efficiently enough to win the time-of-possession battle when needed, keep the defense fresh and finish somewhere in the middle of the pack or better remains to be seen. But the Broncos have another defense mastermind leading the way, only this time as the man in charge of the ship.
