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 scheme means defensive coaches will find a countermove. It’s a chess match that continues every offseason.
For example, the popularity of outside schemes was met with more oddball fronts with defensive linemen playing more patiently to induce indecisiveness in runners. So last year we started seeing more old-school gap scheme runs from offenses. Defensive coaches are very good at what they do, so the new, shiny trends in offense tend to run out of steam quickly. What are those pesky defensive coaches thinking about heading into the 2024 season? I asked defensive coaches around the league what offensive trends, plays, or concepts they’ve spent time brainstorming.
The Dolphins’ Cheating Move
The most common answer I got was the “cheat” move popularized by the Dolphins and Tyreek Hill. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel unveiled it in Week 1 and it seems like every team has added it to their playbook. The move is simple. A receiver with a tight split sprints to the outside to get a run, and the quarterback quickly snaps the ball while the receiver is still running, before the defense can properly react.
(Drew Jordan/The Athletic)
Cheat motion helps receivers get up to full speed before the snap, similar to how Canadian Football players do it, except NFL players have to do it horizontally. Cheat motion can be used to create friction that is difficult for defenses to adjust to because of how quickly the ball is being snapped.
Offensive coordinators were creative with their use of cheat motion last season. They used it to get receivers both inside and outside, to get receivers open deep or open up space underneath, and combined it with run/pass options (RPOs). It was a pain to defend.
Week 3, 11:56 remaining in the second quarter, first-and-10
Rams coach Sean McVay was one of the best at using motion to create advantages in the passing game last year. Here he invoked an inside variation of cheat motion to free up Tutu Atwell. Atwell initially lined up outside against Bengals corner Chidobe Awuzie.
As Atwell gestured inside, Nickel Mike Hilton had to switch to him to avoid a potential friction.
However, the quick switch left Hilton playing a step or two too far outside Atwell, giving him too much space to work with on the inside. Hilton should have had help on the inside, but the inside defenders were frozen by the play action.
Hilton was unable to retrieve the ball and Atwell was open for an explosive pass.
“A professional personnel executive for a team who was not authorized to speak publicly said that even his coaches, who did not play the Dolphins in 2023, put ‘cheating’ on their scouting team cards because they knew it would eventually come from an opponent who used to be on their schedule,” The AthleticsJourdan Rodrigue wrote in her report on the motion.
Defenders will definitely be better prepared for the movement this season. They will have quick checks and adjustments they can make to better deal with it, and they will use the entire off-season to work with it.
One coach I spoke with wasn’t too concerned about the motion. He feels it’s already overexposed and more about the player being put in motion. Not every receiver can run a diverse route tree based on the motion.
“You’ve got to have guys that run routes that run out of this thing. How many guys can run routes that involve a downfield break of a full-speed motion? And how often do those guys get targeted? It’s not as high as you people would think,” the defensive coach said. “There’s probably 10 guys in the league that can actually run that route fast enough, clean enough, and time it with another receiver off the motion.”
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Movement pace
Cheat motion isn’t the only way teams are getting creative with movement. The pace of the movement and the timing of the snap can also be problematic.
If teams don’t vary the speed of their movements and snap points, the plays they execute based on movement can become predictable. The best movement teams are aware of this and use it as a weapon to make life difficult for the defense.
“If you have a guy running through the formation slowly and then boom, the ball gets snapped and he runs, that’s a pain in the ass to defend and there’s no way to gauge that other than by watching all the plays,” said one NFL defensive coach. “And if you have a guy running through the formation that forces a defensive check, then he gets set up and then the ball gets snapped, that’s a big problem because it just creates a healthy dose of pre-snap conflict where defenders are uncertain on the second level.”
NFC Divisional Round, 8:31 remaining in third quarter, second-and-5
Here the Rams started with three capable receivers on Matthew Stafford’s right side. This side was the passing strength of the formation, so the Lions put their nickel Brian Branch there.
Cooper Kupp then sprinted to the other side and set up. Due to the pace of the move, the defense pushed linebacker Alex Anzalone to the outside instead of allowing Branch Kupp to follow through the formation. While Kupp was getting set up, they had some time to potentially adjust, but chose not to because the Rams could have snapped the ball at any time.
Instead of snapping the ball, the Rams had receiver Puka Nacua move around the formation as well. Still, the Lions kept Branch on the right, even though the passing strength of the formation was completely reversed.
After the snap, Anzalone had to run a wheel route with Nacua. Kupp also ran a route across the formation, holding off the defenders on that side. No one was left in the flats to defend the running back screen, which was set up perfectly.
Over the last five seasons, coaches from the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay boom have effectively used movement to create advantages in the running game and to dress up their play-action concepts. Now they’re getting extremely creative with using movement to create advantages in the passing game. Progressive defensive coaches should have spent the offseason adding counters and tools to their playbooks for their secondary to use on the field against these different types of movements.
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Four strong concepts
It’s hard for a defense to overload one side of the formation before the snap. Especially with so many defenses playing more match coverages where defenders are looking at receivers and trying to match them based on their route stems. Four strong means the offense either lines up four capable receivers on one side or gets four receivers with their routes after the snap.
A 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 be in charge of blocking 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 tough to stop. The 49ers run their four-strong concept on 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end, two receivers) and they run it on 1-back. This is a bit easier on the defense because all eligible receivers are initially squeezed.
LaFleur gets his variety from faster personnel groupings. He also combines the swing with an escort with a downfield concept.
NFC Divisional Round, 1:19 Remaining in 1st Quarter, Second-and-11
Here the Packers run their four-strong concept with a 12-personnel escort (one back, two tight ends, two receivers). Tight end Tucker Kraft is the escort (lead blocker) for the running back swinging out of the backfield. Instead of shorter routes like the 49ers version, the Packers had a concept called the dagger.
The 49ers defenders went deep to protect the passing combination, leaving the pass open underneath.
Kraft took out the flat defender, giving the running back room to run down the sideline.
Counter
As defenses play more lightboxes and odd fronts, offenses have gone back to using more gap scheme plays. The most popular gap scheme play is counter, where the front of the offensive line down blocks while two pullers come from the back — usually a guard and a tackle, tight end or fullback.
The popular Vic Fangio/Brandon Staley system deploys two deep safeties with a focus on stopping explosive pass plays while allowing the run, and the extra defender who must step up to play the extra blockers created by the counter comes from the secondary. That puts a lot of demand on the safety.
Week 14, 14:13 remaining in the second quarter, second-and-11
On this play, the Giants ran a run/pass option (RPO) counter. They were in a spread formation and had a glance concept to the counter (left) side. Quarterback Tommy DeVito read the safety.
The safety stepped down to defend the counter, leaving the field wide open.
One defensive coach said he’s been thinking about ways to defend QB counter options, which he thinks he’s seeing more of in his league than the traditional zone read. 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 the ball off to receiver Wan’Dale Robinson running left with a lead block or keep the ball and block the counter with two offensive linemen pulling 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 off.
If the end were to stay out there, the Giants would have a numerical advantage and could block Barkley excellently on the right side.
Countering is an old-fashioned concept, but as coaches prioritize defending the pass, they will have to figure out ways to limit physical runs, such as countering with lighter boxes.
(Top photo of Tyreek Hill in motion: Miami Dolphins via Associated Press)
