Defensive Scheme Adjustments

[BCJet]

With all of our defensive struggles and comments about Saleh looking lost, I wanted to see what his defense is really all about, and I came across this article from his time in SF.

Fans will remember how Saleh implemented a 4-3 Under, Cover 3 zone-style scheme — a system he was familiar with from his days with the Seattle Seahawks under head coach Pete Carroll and then-defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. It sounded like a good idea. After all, Bradley and Carroll helped engineer one of the most dominant defensive units in the early 2010s, and Saleh was hoping to replicate that in San Francisco. The only problem, though, was the SF 49ers simply didn’t have the talent to make it work back in 2017. And with only some modest tweaks in 2018, it wasn’t working that much the following year either.

In 2018, the Niners defense was respectable enough in yards allowed (5,546 — 13th best) but still gave up a lot of points, not unlike the 2020 squad which dealt with a slew of offensive turnovers regularly putting Saleh’s defense into bad situations. But points allowed his second year (435) was still not great.  They might be quiet now, but many fans after Saleh’s first two years weren’t overly impressed with his efforts and wanted him gone.

One of the problems with Seattle’s Cover 3-like defense is it was designed to essentially stack the box with eight defenders regularly, thereby relying on the pure one-on-one coverage skills of top-level defensive backs. The Seahawks’ former “Legion of Boom” had those players, including current SF 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman, who were all elite in one way or another. As the NFL continued its transition away from a high-number of run-heavy teams towards a more pass-happy league, Cover 3 defenses became obsolete.

Especially if teams didn’t have the back-end talent to make it work.  That’s why so many things changed in 2019 when the Niners boasted one of the league’s best defenses.

Saleh took advice from his coaching staff at the time, including former defensive backs coach Joe Woods along with newly minted defensive line coach Kris Kocurek and his former assistant, Chris Kiffin. Key among the adjustments were moving to a Wide 9 base alignment for the D-line while implementing more traditional Cover 2 schemes with both safeties playing deep.  This was a noticeable transition from the single-high Cover 3 scheme Saleh previously used.

On top of that, to take advantage of linebacker Fred Warner‘s exceptional coverage skills, Saleh didn’t hesitate to use more Tampa 2 coverages with Warner dropping back between the Cover 2 safeties in the middle of the field.

So clearly Saleh, at least as a DC, has shown the ability to make schematic changes and try to fit his defense to his personnel, even though that is clearly not happening here.  I think the bigger issue, and we wont know this until the offseason, is whether Saleh is going to be like Todd Bowles and be too loyal for his own good because if the defense continues to play like this, Ulbrich will absolutely have to be fired.

On top of that, I get that being a CEO is the best way to be a HC, but you can still have input into one side of the ball - you dont have to delegate every bit of responsibility in the building, youre the boss and if your DC isnt making changes, you have to step in. 

As far as the scheme itself, it really seems like there is no cohesiveness with the three levels.  Aside from the terrible substitution patterns (QW has to play more then 60% of the snaps), how are our DL and LBs being roasted by play action, when the Bills cant run the ball well - what exactly were they keying on?  Then you look at Saleh saying that "we dont have one CB follow a WR" - well then you cant stay in single high and not give your weakest CB safety help.  To me that seems like very basic stuff.  

We have an ILB in Mosley who excels in zone coverage, yet hes constantly being used as a blitzer, while we hang our CBs out to dry.  Why arent we using his speed and coverage skills to take away underneath passes so our lack of safety talent can just focus on the deeper part of the field?

Coaching is hard and Saleh has time to improve, but it seems like there are a LOT of things happening right now that need to be solved by him getting more involved and holding his staff accountable.

[LSJF]

TL:DR

This coaching staff has to be less stubborn, stop shoehorning players in your system, with all the injuries wouldn’t it make sense to find out what the remaining players strengths are if any…

And being stubborn in not changing coverage on Stefon Diggs was ridiculous,,

 

[sec101row23]

Robert Saleh is coaching like wins and losses don’t matter.  

[Hex]

Maybe if players showed up like QW and JFM it would be easier to see what the crap is wrong. There's also a slew of injuries, so it would be hard to know what changing up the defense would do when they returned. You have a point, though. The best teams make adjustments when something goes wrong, even something small. The worst ones are scared of changing, and thus they stay the worst.

[Hex]

Just now, sec101row23 said:

Robert Saleh is coaching like wins and losses don’t matter.  

He has said they don't matter, and I understand that, but you're right; he's taken that to another level as it is. 

[hawk]

I dont care what the scheme.  Show you want to be out there.  At the very least, act like to give a **** about being disrespected.

[sciond]

11 minutes ago, sec101row23 said:

Robert Saleh is coaching like wins and losses don’t matter.  

You call this crap coaching?

[BCJet]

18 minutes ago, Hex said:

Maybe if players showed up like QW and JFM it would be easier to see what the crap is wrong. There's also a slew of injuries, so it would be hard to know what changing up the defense would do when they returned. You have a point, though. The best teams make adjustments when something goes wrong, even something small. The worst ones are scared of changing, and thus they stay the worst.

I have no idea what has happened to JFM, havent even seen his name called lately, but QW is not a problem.  QW is currently tied for 4th among DTs with 6 sacks while playing the 31st most snaps.  His sack rate of 1 sack every 63 snaps is first among DTs.

He needs to be playing a lot more then he is currently.

[flgreen]

Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich have run out of excuses

There are no more excuses for Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich when it comes to their roles in the NY Jets defense's historic struggles.

By

 Andrew Golden

 -

 11/15/2021

Robert Saleh, New York Jets, Getty Images, Jet X Graphic

The honeymoon is over for Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich

The 2021 New York Jets defense is currently on pace to finish as the worst unit the team has ever seen. Its per-game averages for points allowed (32.9) and yards allowed (417.1) would be franchise records.

Since Week 4, the Jets defense has let up an average of 461.7 yards per game. Their defense sits in the bottom five across the league in both passing and rushing yards allowed while ranking last in both points and total yards allowed. The Jets are also the first team to allow 45 or more points three times in four weeks since the 1966 New York Giants.

Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills are the latest team to enjoy dismantling the Jets, dropping 45 points and 489 yards at MetLife Stadium in Week 10.

 

 

Buffalo receiver Stefon Diggs was the driving force behind the Bills’ successful day. Diggs finished with eight receptions, one touchdown, and 162 receiving yards, which is his season-high by nearly 50 yards.

On two of Diggs’ biggest plays of the day – a 57-yard bomb near the end of the first half and a subsequent touchdown grab four plays later – Diggs wasn’t covered by the Jets’ top corner, Bryce Hall. Instead, rookie Brandin Echols was in single-coverage on Diggs’ 57-yarder, and backup Javelin Guidry was left alone on the touchdown after Echols left with an injury.

Head coach Robert Saleh and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich have preached patience all year, fairly expecting plenty of ups and downs with such a young team. However, after another blowout loss at the hands of a division rival, patience has started to run thin.

When asked in his post-game press conference why Hall didn’t shadow Diggs, Saleh went back to the same old well he’s been getting water from to douse the now-weekly fires: youth and inexperience.

As Saleh explained, if Hall shadowed Diggs, he would have had to know the responsibilities for each corner position. Considering the Jets’ zone-heavy scheme, Hall would be required to know the various pass-off rules for each coverage in each spot, which is too much information for Hall to handle, according to Saleh.

While avoiding overloading Hall during his second season is sound reasoning, leaving everyone else out to dry is not.

The Jets’ rigid defensive structure, a trademark of coaches descendant from the Seattle “Legion Of Boom” tree-like Saleh and Ulbrich, has been their Achilles’ heel in 2021.

The scheme predicates itself on simplicity. In theory, it allows its players to focus on the offense and less about their responsibilities on defense. In practice, it leads to a defense that is maddeningly predictable, and easily exploitable if the talent can’t compensate. The Jets do not have the talent to compensate, and now that teams have them figured out, the defense is being taken behind the woodshed with seemingly little effort.

Gang Green has been victimized by the same concepts over and over all season long, with each coming team seemingly copying the game-plan of the team before.

Screens, trap and counter runs, and trick plays – all designed to take advantage of the defensive line’s aggression – have killed the Jets all year.

On the back end, New York has become as predictable as the sun rising every morning; Cover-3 and Cover-6 on early downs, and man coverage on third down. At this point, opposing offenses know how to beat the Jets’ defense before they even get to the stadium. If the defensive staff refuses to adjust, why should they try anything other than what’s been proven to work? As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

[LAD_Brooklyn]

The best scheme for this unit to run is a zone blitz. Way to many time I see Hall locked in man coverage and his reciever cracks down to the safety or LBs and he's right there trailing that receiver while the RBs clearly has the ball and attacking the edge. He's  doing so because that his man and his responsibility is pass first. Also the play can very well be play action that why he's ass shadowing the receiver.

[FactsOnly]

Bald Fraud BUM

[BCJet]

1 hour ago, LAD_Brooklyn said:

The best scheme for this unit to run is a zone blitz. Way to many time I see Hall locked in man coverage and his reciever cracks down to the safety or LBs and he's right there trailing that receiver while the RBs clearly has the ball and attacking the edge. He's  doing so because that his man and his responsibility is pass first. Also the play can very well be play action that why he's ass shadowing the receiver.

We ran zone blitzes against Atlanta and Ryan destroyed us in that.

[Vader]

There is cohesiveness between all three units. They are all complicit in being cohesively caved in.

[LAD_Brooklyn]

18 minutes ago, BCJet said:

We ran zone blitzes against Atlanta and Ryan destroyed us in that.

 

I doubt we ran a zone blitz scheme vs the Falcons or any team. Regardless the talent sucks so it doesn't matter what we run. It's pick your poison.

[JoJoTownsell1]

4 minutes ago, LAD_Brooklyn said:

 

I doubt we ran a zone blitz scheme vs the Falcons or any team. Regardless the talent sucks so it doesn't matter what we run. It's pick your poison.

We do not have good talent but I don't think we have all time terrible talent on defense. Quinnen,  Hall, Rankins, JFM, Maye for part of the season. May not be a great unit, but a good DC would scheme his way to a few 3 and outs and a couple of FGs during a game. 

[AZSOJ]

If the talent doesn't fit the scheme, GOOD coaches, adjust their scheme to fit players strengths.  I have not see where this has happened in any game this year...  There scheme is not working, as the article states teams are using the same blueprint to beat this team.....

[CanadienJetsFan]

Thanks @BCJet

[Claymation]

Why force Echols and Guidry into Single coverage against Diggs? It makes no sense.