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What the Buffalo Bills Defense will be in 2023 & Why | DC · Disguised Coverage

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And thirty eight. All Bills can win it here, Mike puts it down,
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the kick is on the way out and he's got on the bill.
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Good one one one they won Party one thirty eighth incredible. What a combat
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by my Bill Jackson. Bills perfect record on the line right here, keeping
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eide touchdown, Kyle Williams touchdown. Amazing, unbelievable. They put in william
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who's hats to full back and he scores a touchdown. It's wealthier to face
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tackle. What's good, folks, Family Friends, loved One's Enemies for Enemies
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Wizards, which is Muggles, mud Bloods, and people of Middle Earth.
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To another episode of disguise coverage. The only podcast in existence that gives you
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an equal amount of blueberries in each muffin, and that is presented by the
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The online menu in the episode show notes what they're here on YouTube or
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this show on I'm Your Host Anthony Proraska. Find on Twitter at pro Underscore
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Underscore Aunt that's pro two underscores a nt in tonight's episode of disguise Coverage get
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a fun one? Well, I guess it depends on what you find is
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phone, but I think it's a fun one, and I hope you folks
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find it is a fun one or find this episode is a fun one.
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So this episode is titled what to Expect from the twenty twenty three Buffalo Bills
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Defense and why We're going to dive into the Buffalo Bills defense as I still
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think it's a hot button topic, the defense as a whole, the defense
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being taken over by Sean McDermott, the departure of Leslie Frasier. But the
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conversation I want to have around this Bill's defense is there are certain pieces I've
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talked about this offseason on this show. There's certain pieces myself and Eric have
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talked about in the film room when it comes to what this Bill's defense was
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missing in Spurts last year, in Spurts throughout previous seasons, and what tweaks
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they could could we would like to see them use or employ or deploy upcoming
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in the twenty twenty three season. And so we're gonna talk about some of
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that tonight kind of wrap it all up in a nice package and neat little
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bow. But I also want to put it into the perspective or within the
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scope of league trends defensively, in terms of what we are seeing from top
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defenses, top defensive coordinators, because there's always and this is something I speak
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to a lot in the show, just that idea of how the pendulum swings
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in the NFL, and what we've seen recently is defenses have started to take
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that pendulum and swing it back in their favor. And like it always happens
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in the NFL, it's a give and take, but the offenses will swing
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that pendulum back in their favor, defenses will counter and swing and just round
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and round we go. And to kind of put it into like a broader
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term example, you know, you've got defenses starting to play more too high
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and light boxes and lighter defensive interiors because they're trying to one gap and penetrate
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and get to the quarterback and trying to stop zone runs. And so it's
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just a matter of time before offenses get a little heavier on the inside and
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use more gap runs and try to physically move around and dominate on those lighter
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defensive tackles and use more passing concepts that attack too high or start to run
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the ball more to force defenses to bring a safety down. And it's just
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those are small examples of it, but it's just the nature of the give
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and take of the eternal battle that is NFL offenses vers NFL defenses. And
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so the conversation in tonight's episode is going to center around who the Buffalo Bills
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have been defensively these past several years under Leslie Frasier, with kind of,
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you know, the hand of Sean McDermott being involved in what they could be
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in twenty twenty three under Sean McDermott, and then putting that into based on
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the quote unquote failures we've seen them have in the playoffs these past years.
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So that's kind of the direction of the show tonight, and it's conversation that
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I think is a good tone setter and table setter as or what now two
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weeks away from training camp, you know, two weeks from tomorrow, training
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camp will be live. And once training camp starts, feels like it goes
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by so fast, and then you're in the preseason and the preseason speeds by
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and you're in the regular season. So another table setting piece to kind of
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get your minds right and get your minds focused on things schematically and from an
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x is an no standpoint and philosophical standpoint, a high level, you know,
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conversation piece on who and what the Buffalo Bills defense has been, could
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be, needs to be, so on and so forth. All of those
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pieces. Appreciate the folks coming in. Zach is here. While Zach says
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let's get jiggie with him, he says it with all caps. I wonder
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how much of a Will Smith fan Zach is and I wonder if you'd know
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all the words to Let's get jiggy with it? And I think I know
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part of the first verse, and I'm it's kind of embarrassed with that.
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R J says, what's up? What's up? Nikki saying, yeah,
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all the whole cruise here. Yeah, you're seeing a lot of people trickle
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and you're seeing the comments Jason saying, oh, it's been a long time
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since the Bills defense has been the question going into the season. I think
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that's an interesting point. I guess I've never even thought of it to that
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degree. Like if you're looking at both sides of the ball. I guess
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the Bill's defense would be the bigger question, not necessarily from a like who's
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going to be better or worse? But I think there are more questions around
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the Bills defense. You're even just starting from a roster standpoint. What are
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you gonna get from von Miller, What do you get from the new aitions,
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What does the linebacker position look like? What does Micah Hyde look like
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coming back from injury? What does Tradavious White look like a year another year
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removed from that ACL tear, and then all of that funneling into the idea
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of Sean McDermott returning to the defensive coordinator position after you know, not really
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seeing full time DC duties since he left Carolina and came to Buffalo. So
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that's a fair point. Yeah, usually there's been a really big for me.
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I still think the biggest question on this entire team exists on the offensive
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side of the ball. But I think if you're looking at everything from you
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know, a holistic defense versus offense perspective, yeah, I think the defense
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probably has more questions or is a bigger question, depending on how you want
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to phrase it. Very fair, Nikki says, time for McDermott to set
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the next trend is what you're saying. I actually like that comment. It
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ties into one of my first points about Sean McDermott and what this bill's defense
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has been. So like where your heads at already, as we do where
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I like to, you know, start to get things matriculating down and grabbing
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comments and opening thoughts from the live chats. If you are rolling in now,
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where you're in now, question thoughts, comments, concerns, ideologies,
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philosophy's maximum serims, whatever you got, throw them up into the live chat
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and do that throughout the entire episode. I try to bring up as many
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comments and thoughts and everything as I possibly can. Super chats always get priority
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because I see the color we want. I respect the monetary donation too.
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I see the color and it pulls me away from my notes. But Andrew
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says, wondering what your minimal expectations are for Boogie and Epinessa this year for
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I'll start with Epanessa because I think I'm higher on EPINESSA than probably a lot
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of people. I think minimally, I think EPINESSA is a strong edge.
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Four. I think he showed improvement last year in a lot of ways that
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he's not getting credit for. I know he gets knocked a lot for the
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mistackles and the poor run defense, but he got better in that area as
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the season went on. But I think he showed better technicality in his past
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rush, better hand technique, better placement, better plan, better movement,
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better transitions. Then I think really he's been getting credit for. So I
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think I'm higher on Epanessa than most. So I think in an ideal world,
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he's your Edge four quote unquote, Von comes back and is good to
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go, and you've got Von, You've got Group, you've got Leonard Floyd,
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and then you've got a j Epanessa. That's my minimal expectation for Epanessa.
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For Boogie, minimal expectation is Edge five, maybe even less. Like
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I was lower on Boogie when he came out from Wake Forest. I didn't
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love the pick and I wanted to be proven wrong. And at this point
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I feel like I haven't given what we've seen from him from an output and
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production standpoint. But I don't really put concrete judgment on any player before year
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three. So I do think Epanessa is further along, and not just because
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he has another year in the league than Boogie. So my minimal expectations for
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Boogie are kind of to put up an Edge five level production or execution with
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the ability and maybe function in as a you know four, depending on how
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the rotation shakes out, or you know, depending on what happens with injuries
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and all those pieces. I love what Zac says here, whispers seductively disguised
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pressures. We're going to talk about that. We are gonna talk about that.
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WHOA Lauren comes in and says, prediction, Doriny and Williams will be
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the mic linebacker down the stretch. That is a very bold prediction and a
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very hot take, and a very bold take. I would for me for
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that to happen a lot of week. He would either two things. Dorny
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Williams has to either hit the ground running and take off like a rocket or
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things fell apart at the linebacker position, and or maybe a bit of both
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in conjunction with one another. But that will be a lot. That would
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be a lot, or just says, I have more faith in this defense.
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They have been consistently at the top of the league. The offense as
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a roller coaster. Oh fair point that was a response earlier to Jason's comment,
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and my name is Jeff, says Frasier's game plans were too inconsistent for
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me. They ranged from brilliant to uninspired, and that is something we're going
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to talk about here on this episode. For those of you just coming in,
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are still in here now, whatever have you watching later, watching live?
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If you haven't already, please please, please, and thank you,
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drop a likeke on this video. I know it's corny, and I know
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it's corny to say I know it's corny, but that goes a sincerely long
10:07
way towards telling myself and the entire team to track and trend in front of
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more eyes than end ears, likes of the lifeblood of these live streams for
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the algorithm. So if you'd be so kind and drop a likeke on this
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video, it's sincerely appreciated by myself and the entire team here at cover one.
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Now we're to dive into our first topic here. And the first topic,
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I didn't really know what to title it because I use like synonyms and
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different words about my notes or the entire piece. But this first piece is
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as you see up on the screen or if you're listening to audio only.
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The first topic here is tweaking the formula with specificity, and you know,
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some of your comments in the live chat here have already kind of alluded to
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this, the inconsistencies or the uninspired piece of what the Bills defense has been
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at times, But I do want to start with some of the positives from
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an overarching perspective. In many ways, the Bills defense has been at the
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forefront of recent defensive trends and movements in the NFL. This notion of changing
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the pre to post snap picture and nickel personnel and light boxes and having the
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numbers advantage in coverage and more too high shells and more too high post snap
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coverages. The Bills have been at the forefront of that movement in terms of
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what they have used, in addition to just being a very coverage diverse team,
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which where you are going to take a peek at in a bit and
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you know, like RJ said, you know you don't have the consistent and
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continued success like the Bills defense has had in terms of being at or in
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or around the top five to ten in DVOA year after year after year.
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If you are a bad defense, being a consistent threat in the entire AFC,
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to go to the Super Bowl, to go to the AFC Championship,
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to be a regular favorite, to win your division, all of these pieces,
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it doesn't happen if you're not a good defense. And so I want
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to put that into perspective right off the bat. I am going to talk
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about some things in terms of improvements or tweaks or dials that need to be
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turned more than they have been in the past. But with all these pieces
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as constructive as it is, in constructive in a positive way, I want
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it taken as that this does not mean the Bill's defense has been a bad
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defense. They could run out the exact same game plan they have the past
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several years. They're probably, at least for a regular season from a regular
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season perspective, probably going to be a top five to ten DVOA defense.
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They're going to be one of the best units in the league and one of
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the best world coach units in the league. Even if they just run back
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what they've been doing previously. They're a good unit. They've been a good
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unit. The problem is that we're going to get into once they've gotten into
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these specific matchups, especially from playoff time, who and what they are and
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who and what they have been has been poked and prodded and holes have been
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developed a bit, and who they are tends to I don't want to say
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gets picked apart because that can be two severe times. But they don't show
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out to the fullest and the way they do necessarily in the regular season.
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And oh, I'd like to come here from Jeff saying I love the half
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man halfs only play at times. I have a clip of that with some
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film ironically, just say saying enough for NICKI coming in saying the league has
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switched to nickel. Now we got to get back to what we do best
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and muddy looks, but we got to start taking away the short throws.
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The timing qbs killed us last year. Fairpoint. So again, in many
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ways, the Bills defense has been at the forefront of these defensive trends and
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movements. Even just like a little example of what we saw the Chargers due
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to the Dolphins last year, what the Chargers did to the Dolphins offense in
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terms of their man coverage pieces and pressed and what they were doing, the
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Bills deployed and employed a lot of those pieces in their Week three matchup against
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Miami. You saw them pressing and disrupting timing a lot against the Miami Dolphins.
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And I feel like, again, there are certain narratives that get put
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through when things don't work out, and when you're sitting there at the end
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of the season and a team is lost and your team puts together a bad
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performance, it's easy to look at the most recent piece and just harp on
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that and think, well, the defense played bad in this last game of
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the season. So the defense was awful all year. How come they didn't
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adjust. You know, they didn't adjust in the game against Cincinnati, and
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that's because they weren't adjusting all year. They weren't they weren't changing game plans,
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they weren't matching up yadi yadas on and so forth. There are certain
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pieces to this defense that we're strong last year. Again, on the whole
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of these past several years, you don't continue to be a top five to
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ten DVOA defense almost every single year since twenty eighteen without being a well coached
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unit and having capability from a roster perspective. Now, oh, and there's
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a comment there from the I'm not gonna say the full word but defense has
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been good. The problem was Frasier played safe in the playoffs, and I
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think that's a common notion that gets put through with this team. So what
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I want to talk about from again this topic perspective tweaking the formula with specificity
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they I want to use a very specific example that the Bills did early in
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the season last year against the Kansas City Chiefs. It was talked about a
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bit earlier by I think my name is Jeff with his comments saying love the
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half man half z own pieces that they use. I want to bring up
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this screen. So this is the very last play of the Bills versus Chiefs
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in week I forget what week, but when the Bills beat the Chiefs in
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the regular season last year, this is the interception from Taron Johnson that sealed
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the game, ended it for the Buffalo Bills. Picks off Mahomes, Bills
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go home a winner, twenty four to twenty. This play is I feel
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like it's so representative of what the Bills could lean more into. Again,
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some of these pieces that this is a big point I want to state right
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now, some of these pieces that we're going to talk about that I would
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like to see more of from the Buffalo Bills. It's just that it's more.
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It's not that they're not doing these things. It's not that they're not
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using these things. It's that they could use them more. They could turn
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those dials more, they could push those button more and further in order to
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increase their multiplicity and their fluidity on defense and the ability to play rock paper
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scissors, which you folks know is one of my favorite things, and I
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think this play encapsulates all of that. So you've got a combo coverage.
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You've got man up top from Dane Jackson here and Sirroon Neil here on the
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running back, and then towards the bottom, you've got zone for the rest
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of your defenders on the bottom half of the field, and really even two
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you know Edmonds is in zone, Terrence in zone, Benford's in zone,
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Hamlins in zone. Players really in zone too. So you've got this like
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five over three type look, and then you've got man up top right.
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So you've got the combo coverage. That's the first piece. The second piece
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is dime personnel. You have a defensive lineman off the field, You've only
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got three, You've got group ed and Von Miller, and then you've got
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Sirron Neil here at the second level lined up in an off ball linebacker spot.
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He's manned up on the running back coming out of the backfield. So
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again you've got combo coverage, you've got nine personnel. And the last piece
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something that myself and Air Turner talked about last year in this game with Ted
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Wayne, we actually broke down this play after the Bills beat the Chiefs.
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The use of that odd mirror front, three down lineman and aggressive spy with
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the idea of someone winning on the edge, in this case Von Miller coming
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and getting inside to flush the QB office spot, and once that quarterback to
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Claire's and gets pushed off that spot, your aggressive spy in this case,
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Matt Milano closes down this piece. All of it was a game plan specific
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piece against the Kansas City Chiefs, even just the odd mirror piece alone,
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right again, that three down front, aggressive spy getting the QB office spot.
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That piece. The Bills weren't running that before with any type of regularity,
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really any semblance of usage. This was a piece for this game that
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they put out into this game. They used it. I would say they
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sprinkled it in from time to time throughout the rest of the year. I
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wanted them to use it more because it was a piece that worked out well
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so well for him in this game. Again, a lot of that was
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tied to von Miller once he went down and kind of changed a bit.
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But this game and this play in particular is just such a good representation of
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what this Bill's defense could lean into more a game plan specific piece. So
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again tweaking the formula with specificity, and we'll roll this place. We can
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see what happens. And here we go. Oh, now it's loading.
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You're gonna make me look like a fool. This is the second time this
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has happened to me, back to back weeks. Maybe the last time it
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happened two weeks ago. Here we go. We're gonna play or now you're
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gonna play huddle trying to make me look foolish. Okay, here we go,
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So on the snap boom, you see, we get the drag from
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over the middle. Actually we'll start with the odd mirror piece because I like
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that. Watch Von Miller to the bottom of your screen. Right now,
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we get the snap von Miller takes off a field cuts inside again, and
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if he can get to Mahomes, cool awesome. But his idea and his
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design on this play is get Mahomes off his spot. So once he gets
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off his spot, you have this athletic, physical player who can match Mahomes's
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athleticism, if not, probably be above that and close down on him quickly.
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You are trying to get him off his spot, get him to declare
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his scramble right his evasion, and then you're clamping down on him. That's
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exactly what happens. Man gets inside, flushes Mahomes off the spot. There's
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Malona to close down. Milano also does a good job of getting you can
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even see Mahomes. Granted he does this a bunch like cocking that side arm
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throw because he has to throw around Milano because Milano was in that window.
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Now let's tie it back to the coverage piece, so he got the odd
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mirror piece up front, gets Mahomes off his spot, Milano closes down.
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Now you've got the man coverage piece on the back end. Dane following sky
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more across the field. But you've got zone here, so Taryn Johnson,
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you can see it already. He's got zone eyes. He's dropped into his
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zone. But he's watching Mahomes. He's keeping an eye on everything coming in
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front of him. He's scanning. Even Christian Benford is doing the same thing.
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Like Benford is dropping almost as like a cloud corner here, and so
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anything that's gonna come underneath, he's going to peel off. He knows he
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has help over the top with Damar Hamlin, so he's not just going to
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cover grass, which is why he sinks here. But when he sees Mahomes
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start to declare his throw, combined with what he's seeing over here, he
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knows this ball is coming out to one of these guys, So even Benford's
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coming out. But we just focus on Taron Johnson right here. Sure,
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let's play everyone's familiar with. Mahomes chucks it, Taren jumps at interception.
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So again, the combination coverage man on the backside or man up top zone
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to the bottom of the screen or the front, combined with the dime personnel,
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combined with that odd mirror look. All of these pieces put together were
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a game plan specific aspect to attack Patrick Mahomes, to attack the Kansas City
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Chiefs like this was a very nice piece watch from this angle again, so
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Mahomes think thinks this is man like. He sees Dane Jackson trailing sky More
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and he thinks, oh cool, I got the drag. He also sees
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Edmonds clamping down on Kelsey, so he thinks, okay, cool, let
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me scramble, let me throw this drag. And then Tern comes out of
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nowhere because he gets full by the coverage and doesn't realize its zone on the
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front side. That piece, again, was that example of what you can
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lean into a bit more of. So that last play of the game,
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the odd mirror, the dime personnel, the combo coverage. The Bills didn't
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change their identity or flip their philosophy on their head for that play or for
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that game, but they had a more curated game plan based on their opponent.
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The Bills needn't need to lean into that on more of a week to
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week basis. And I'll use the team that the Bills lost to to end
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their season last year, the Cincinnati Bengals. You think of the Cincinnati Bengals
21:56
and the reputation that their defensive coordinator Low and a Room has garnered over the
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past two seasons. Really, ever since that AFC Championship game against the Chiefs
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where he utilized a lot of three man rushes and just stifled Mahomes in the
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second half. Each week, lu and Rumo is curating a game plan,
22:15
especially in big games, based on specificity, designed to mitigate an offensive strengths
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and or attack their vulnerabilities, similar to what he did to the Bills in
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that Division Around game this past year or two end the Bill season, he
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was thrown out inverted Tampa two. He was using sims and creepers and delayed
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blitzes. He was confusing protections and using the Bills pass protection rules against them.
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He had speed rushers lined up over Roger Saffold to take advantage of his
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lack of footspeed and lack of side to side athleticism. And the Bills have
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done things like that from time to time. They have dabbled in those pieces,
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simulated pressures, creepers, delayed blitzes, especially early on in the Sean
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McDermott era and even early on in Sean mc leslie Frasier error. So again,
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these are all things that the Bills have utilized from time to time,
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especially coverage diverse pieces. But I think they need to lean more into it,
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move more away from but not completely away from their default settings, and
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have more opponent driven defensive game plans, So more of that rather than leaning
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more into their kind of we know who we are, you know who we
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are, try and beat us. Maybe we'll throw some curveballs in there,
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but even those curveballs aren't too diverse. So moving away from more of that
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and moving into more game plan specific, formulaic specificity type of defense. But
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as I mentioned earlier on the whole who the Bills have been from a large
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scale perspective has worked their overall philosophy these past several years. Of having numbers
23:48
in coverage, getting to the quarterback with four or trying to get to the
23:52
quarterback with four, limiting explosives and forcing teams to be patient and efficient and
23:59
execute insistently in order to beat them. That's a good formula and it's a
24:03
good recipe for success overall. Daring teams to again have to not live by
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the big play and have to live by being patient and efficient and consistently having
24:12
to execute against you. That's a fair game plan, and again the Bills
24:17
on the large have been successful doing that these past several years. Four or
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five years they've been successful. And part of that is it can be risky
24:26
the more specific, the pacific. It can be risky the more specific or
24:32
perfect you try to be. And I put the Bills defense into perspective of
24:37
the Bills defense recently, again in route to a lot of success for them,
24:41
especially from a regular season standpoint, the Bills defense has been more broad
24:45
spectrum antibiotics than specific medicine or specific treatment in recent years, and again they've
24:52
been largely successful being that and doing that. It's given them a high floor.
24:56
It's allowed them to cover a majority of the bases, cast a wide
25:00
net, and build a foundation of education and responsibility for their system and with
25:04
their players casting that wider net. Using that those broad spectrum anibiotics, it
25:11
means you have the ability to potentially cure a wider range of sicknesses, i
25:15
e. To be able to fight multiple game plans and multiple schemes, multiple
25:18
systems. Now, don't get it twisted. From the overall perspective, broad
25:23
spectrum antibiotics work. They wouldn't be a thing if they didn't work. Much
25:27
like again, the Bill system and scheme, they wouldn't be successful if they
25:30
weren't a good defense these past several years, and especially the way the Bills
25:34
have operated, like their version of broad spectrum antibiotics, they've added a little
25:41
more potency to it to help a cure a wider variety of problems. The
25:45
problem is, despite how potent it can be or the little specific elements you
25:49
add to it, sometimes you need a more targeted medicine in order to treat
25:53
it knowness and again that comes with risks, and the piece a risk that
26:00
comes with that is the more specific you go with your game plan, the
26:04
more specific you go with the medicine or the treatment you use, the higher
26:11
variance you can have because you better be sure you know what the illness is
26:15
if you're going for a specific type of medicine. If someone comes if you're
26:18
a doctor and someone comes in and you're and they're sick, you better know
26:22
exactly what it is that they have. If you're going with specific medicine.
26:26
If you think they have, you know, strep throat and you're giving them,
26:29
you know what, a moxicillin or something for it like to try and
26:30
treat that piece, you better hope that's what they have. You better hope
26:33
it's not something else, because if you give them something to treat a specific
26:37
illness that they don't have, you can make the illness that they do have
26:41
worse by either, you know, allowing it to I don't know, maybe
26:44
the medicine makes it worse in and of itself, or just because of the
26:47
idea of you're not treating what's actually wrong, the illness or sickness is able
26:52
to spread, grow strong, or so on and so forth. In this
26:55
case from the bills and from a football perspective, not from a doctor a
26:57
medical perspective. Although I know you're all extremely impressed with this analogy slash metaphor
27:02
slash whatever it is, in this case, if you put it, if
27:04
you put together a curated game plan with specificity, and the offense zigs when
27:08
you thought they were going to zag, you're caught out and you're more vulnerable
27:12
than you would have been if you just went with kind of that broad spectrum
27:15
type of defense. The benefit of specificity, though, the benefit of that
27:19
targeted medicine, that specific medicine, is that you can cure that illness quicker
27:25
and more accurately. Instead of narrowing down the scope of what you're dealing with
27:27
and trying to ascertain what's wrong. So if you come in with a targeted
27:32
game plan designed to knock out or mitigate, or hinder or eliminate whatever an
27:37
offense does best or significantly amplify what they struggle with or what they're vulnerable with,
27:45
it leads to a higher potential potential, the higher potential for a bigger
27:49
success rate. Right, and the Bills again, their broad spectrum antibiotics defense
27:56
has led to large scale success. But letdowns come. Playoff time, Come
27:59
playoff time. We've talked about this on the show before. Who and what
28:02
you are is on tape, your entire resume for an entire season, your
28:07
tendencies, your strengths, your weaknesses, what you like to do on third
28:11
downs, what you like to do on third and short versus third medium or
28:15
third and long, What you like to do on third down in the red
28:18
zone, what you like to do on third down when you have a team
28:22
backed up on the goal line. Anything, what your tendencies are on first
28:25
down, coverages, anything and everything. What you are and who you are
28:30
when you get to the playoffs is on tape, and teams know that,
28:33
and teams know that, other teams know that, and that's where that chess
28:37
match kind of begins. But teams know how to attack you, and so
28:42
you need a wrinkle or two. You need a tweak or two in order
28:45
to be able to disrupt predictability and pinpoint and or pinpoint offensive weaknesses. Again,
28:52
like the Bills did versus the Kansas City Chiefs in the regular season last
28:56
year, a more curated game plan with some wrinkles and tweaks thrown in,
29:00
like the odd Mirror piece, like the dime personnel piece. We know the
29:03
Bills traditionally, you know, are a four down team, not really gonna
29:07
blitz. Odd Mirror is a tweak and a changeup from that. But it's
29:11
not a tweak or a changeup for the sake of a tweak or a changeup.
29:15
It's a curated piece with design, with intent. Same thing with the
29:18
dime personnel. They're not just leaving nickel for the sake of all tendency breaker.
29:22
No, it's designed, it's got a purpose, it has intent.
29:27
And so the Bills curated game plan against Kansas City last year, it was
29:32
still one that stayed within who they were, and it wasn't breaking tendency for
29:36
the sake of breaking tendency because that's a bad that's a bad thing. Let's
29:38
let's also state that I think everybody knows this, but you can't just come
29:41
out and change everything just to come out and change everything. You don't want
29:45
to have a tendency breaker just to have a tendency breaker. We talk about
29:48
it on offense all the time, right, it's a nice tendency breaker if
29:52
on second and long, you know you want to run the ball because you
29:55
think the defense thinks you're going to pass the ball. But if your run
29:57
game sucks, don't even bother run of the ball in second and ten.
30:00
But if you're thinking, man, no, it'll be great because it's a
30:03
tendency breaker. You don't want a tendency breaker for the sake of a tendency
30:07
breaker. You still need to be able to execute. It needs to be
30:10
valuable, It needs to have some semblance of impact. You can't just do
30:14
it just to do it. And you have to be able to run those
30:19
tendency breakers. You have to be able to execute them. And also just
30:22
tying into the bills overall philosophy, again, that broad spectrum antibiotic piece,
30:26
there's also a chance that your broad spectrum antibiotic type of defense will knock out
30:30
whatever the offense has and you can stay in that world. There's times when
30:33
you just have a flat out talent advantage or a straightforward matchup advantage and you
30:38
can just lean into that. That's also possible, right, So there are
30:41
times where guys, we don't have to really curate too much. We're a
30:45
better team, or we've got a big advantage for coverage versus their receiving pieces,
30:49
or are defensive line versus their offensive line. We have the big advantage.
30:53
We can stay kind of true to who we are. We don't have
30:56
to curate too much. We can come out and go with that piece.
31:00
There are times where that will happen as well. So I wanted to mention
31:02
that. And again, on the whole, the Bills defense has not been
31:06
bad. I know they get talked about as being too generic or two vanilla,
31:10
which I really don't think they are supposed to be. How much match
31:11
coverage they play, and especially with how much coverage diversity they have from a
31:15
usage standpoint. On the back end, they have over the past several years
31:18
run and adjustment slash rules based defense with a healthy variety of coverages that operates
31:25
within a base structure that allows them to stay as fluid as possible as plays
31:30
progress. But offenses and offensive talent and offensive skill sets have become so diverse
31:36
and so multiple that they can work the Bills into static looks at times in
31:41
both their fronts and their coverages. And it's very hard in today's NFL to
31:45
stay static and consistently win. You cannot come out and just we're always going
31:52
to play quarters. I'm not saying the Bills do this, but you can't
31:53
be a defense now. We're always gonna play tambatuo. We're always gonna play
31:56
quarters. We're always gonna play cover three, We're always going to play man,
32:00
you know, Cover one or Man two. And especially once you get
32:04
to the playoffs, when your whole season is on tape, when your whole
32:07
catalog is available in teams know who and what you are from a schematic standpoint
32:13
and from a percentage standpoint and a data and advanced metric standpoint, you have
32:16
to have different, different pivot points and different off speed elements to your game
32:22
and to your pitches than just your regular fastball, than just your regular default
32:25
plan that you normally go with. You have to have those tweaks. It's
32:30
very hard again to stay static and consistently win on defense. In today's NFL,
32:35
it's hard to have a blanket answer for everything, even if your blanket
32:38
is really good and really soft and really sound, it's hard to live that
32:44
way. But again with having those pieces, with wanting to see those tweaks
32:51
and seeing more changes, which we're going to get into. From a specific
32:54
standpoint, again, I didn't want to highlight the bills have been at the
32:59
forefront of a lot of these movements from a positive standpoint, and one piece
33:02
I wanted to bring up even just like a coverage diversity standpoint. So this
33:08
graphic and you folks know these past several weeks, been really impressed with my
33:12
graphic game. This one's beautiful. I love the left to right, you
33:15
know, the dark to light blue, you know shade transition. It's just
33:19
absolutely beautiful. I'm again I think I'm the van goal of my generation or
33:22
whichever artists rembrand whatever. I don't really know too many artists, but nonetheless,
33:25
here we are. So on the far left we've got twenty twenty,
33:29
in the middle we've got twenty twenty one, and on the far right we
33:30
have twenty twenty two. I've got coverage snaps listed in red next to each
33:37
year, and then what you see pretty simple in each column there the coverages
33:42
the bills play, the amount of snaps that they have in those coverages,
33:45
and then the percentage of their usage right for those coverages. Again, out
33:52
of how many coverage snaps, So in twenty twenty five hundred and sixty eight
33:54
coverage snaps, twenty one five and thirty coverage snaps in twenty twenty two,
34:00
five hundred and sixty four. So putting those numbers in perspective, and these
34:02
are regular season numbers as well. So if you look and everything is the
34:07
same all the way across. So you've got cover six is the top line
34:12
for each column, Cover four is the second, Cover two is the third,
34:15
so on and so forth, all those pieces. And if you look
34:16
at everything, there are some areas where they've trended differently. And if we
34:21
just go line by line, Cover six has largely been the same, not
34:24
too much variants or changing there. Cover four roughly in the same range,
34:30
you know, twenty three point one percent, then nineteen point two, then
34:34
back up to twenty one point one. Cover two has by far been their
34:37
biggest from an increased standpoint, biggest increase in usage rate over these last three
34:44
years. So only eight point five percent in twenty twenty, up to twelve
34:47
point five percent in twenty twenty one, and then seventeen point seven percent in
34:52
twenty twenty two, again seeing more of that too high look and again two
34:59
high coverages, so in things that have split field safety. So your cover
35:02
sixes, your Cover four, your cover two, even two man, even
35:07
though it's man. Don't think that you know two high just mean zone.
35:09
So two man where you have two split safeties, and then everyone's playing man
35:14
underneath those two high coverages of the Bills leaned into that more. You see
35:19
a big difference there with Cover two two man went up in twenty twenty two,
35:23
especially in comparison with where they were in twenty twenty. It was pretty
35:28
steady increase. And then you see the Cover three numbers, which this is
35:31
the biggest as far as a drop standpoint. You know, the Bills were
35:36
a heavy Cover three team in twenty twenty. It was their number one coverage
35:38
played in both both from a volume standpoint in terms of snaps and of coverage,
35:43
but also from a percentage point standpoint at twenty seven point five. Then
35:46
they dipped to twenty one point nine in twenty twenty one, and then dipped
35:51
further to twenty percent here in twenty twenty two. And that's a similar piece
35:54
with the Cover one numbers, no pun intended. Overall, they did go
35:59
up from twenty twenty to twenty twenty one, but then went down to twenty
36:01
twenty two. Again. You start to see that piece of more of a
36:07
prevalence of two high coverages again as what that that's what the league is doing.
36:13
More two high coverages. You get more two high shells pre snap,
36:15
which the Bills do a lot. That's how you disguise coverage, so on
36:17
and so forth. Though you can disguise coverage with single high safeties as well.
36:22
But you see you see the coverage versatility. You see the Bills ability
36:27
to deploy a variety of coverages. Again, they're not playing a ton of
36:30
Cover six, they're not playing a ton of two man, and they're not
36:32
playing a ton of Cover zero. But that's a healthy amount almost year after
36:37
year of Cover four, Cover two, Cover three, and Cover one.
36:42
You've got four coverages that you can confidently lean into. And again Some of
36:47
these are just regular spot drop zone coverage pieces. Some of them are match
36:52
coverage pieces. Some of them they're in press, some of them they're in
36:58
off and that could go for the man coverage as well. So there's also
37:00
those little tweaks that the Bills employ from an overall structure standpoint or an alignment
37:07
standpoint pre snap and post snap. So there are tweaks in variance pieces the
37:12
Bills defense has leaned into over the past several years. I wanted to put
37:15
these coverages into perspective just for you folks all to be able to see,
37:20
because again, I think with the way the Bills season ended last year against
37:23
the Cincinnati Bengals, and even to a degree, how the Bills defense played
37:27
against Kansas City in the playoffs the year before, I think when the Bills
37:30
struggle, they get this rap of being too simplistic or too vanilla or too
37:36
soft from not from a physical standpoint, but from like where they align right.
37:40
They have more diversity and more variability on the back end than I think
37:45
they necessarily get credit for recently because of the way this past season ended.
37:50
So just looking and seeing all of the coverages that they play again this is
37:57
a healthy amount of variation. This is a healthy amount of keeping offenses on
38:01
their toes. Now, there are going to be pieces from a negative standpoint
38:07
where because you're not really blitzing a lot, because you're not really disguising your
38:09
fronts, teams can kind of dictate to you or anticipate what coverage you're going
38:15
to be in certain scenarios and kind of pick at those holes. But again,
38:19
because the Bills play a good amount of match coverage, they are reacting
38:22
in the moment based on the route distributions, so they're not static on the
38:27
back end. They might be static from an overall coverage standpoint in terms of
38:30
knowing what they're going to be in, but they still have the opportunity to
38:34
remain fluid, which, again on the whole from a large sample sized perspective
38:37
in the regular season is why they continue to be a formidable unit year after
38:42
year, especially even this past year. Right hide goes down, player goes
38:46
down, and then when he comes back, he's not playing one hundred percent.
38:49
They're working Tradavious White in back from an acl they start Christian Benford,
38:53
they have to put in JaMarcus Ingram Against the Miami Dolphins. They're working in
38:58
Cam Lewis at safety, and Jaquan Johnson and DeMar Hamlin, and then kyer
39:01
elam Is in and out, and you have Dane Jackson. You've got all
39:05
these injuries to the secondary last year, and the Bills didn't really have too
39:10
many pain points even against high powered offense or highly skilled players from a weapon
39:15
standpoint. Part of that is the system and the coaching, but again it
39:21
speaks to their ability that even when they're kind of down from a top tier
39:24
or body count perspective, they're still able to lean into a variety of coverages.
39:30
They're they're not hamstrung at the point, well we have to play Cover
39:35
two, Well we have to play Cover four. We can only play this
39:37
one piece. So even in a year where they were banged up a lot
39:38
on the back end, they were still able to function in a variety of
39:42
ways in twenty twenty two again, to be you know, twenty percent in
39:46
Cover four or above twenty percent to Cover four and in Cover three, and
39:51
then being very close to twenty percent and Cover one and and Cover two,
39:54
like you have a pretty almost an equal amount of very across a significant amount
40:00
of coverages that allow you to do a lot of things. So again,
40:05
as I speak going forward now about tweaks, I want and more specificity and
40:08
more variability to this defense. I wanted to put this into perspective because the
40:13
Bills have had variants. The Bills have had coverage diversity and defensive diversity overall,
40:19
which is why they continue to combat a variety of opponents and perform successfully
40:22
and strongly in those areas. But I could come here from John saying nobody
40:29
talks about the injuries we had last year. We're walking mash unit. Yeah,
40:32
started on the back end early with high going down against Tennessee and then
40:37
Benford goes down against Miami. Again, remember in that Miami game, the
40:44
corners for the majority of the first Miami Dolphins game in Week three, or
40:47
Kyer Eelam and Joan Marcus Ingram playing against Jalen Waddle and playing against Tyreek Hill.
40:53
And then in that Miami game they're starting safeties where Jaquan Johnson and DeMar
40:57
Hamlin, and then you're bringing back de Marle Well because you need help at
41:00
safety, like and that's not even taken into account. The defensive line with
41:04
Ed Oliver and Jordan Phillips and Da Kuon Jones goes down in the biggest game
41:08
of the year against Cincinnati, and Von Miller goes down in Detroit, all
41:12
these pieces. So that's a good point there, John, I feel like
41:15
that's a that's a fair point there. Now let's take down the graphic there.
41:20
I want to pull up some comments that coming through less. Brown says,
41:22
is this likely to change with the Germot running the d hope to see
41:27
more aggressive defense than the Bills as year. We're going to talk about that
41:30
in just a minute. Steven says, question, and cover four is quarters,
41:34
right, a version of Cover two. I wouldn't say it's a version
41:36
of Cover two. They're both just versions of two high coverages or split safety
41:40
looks Cover four depending. It depends on the terminology you use. Sometimes right,
41:45
like like I say, when I say quarters, it is technically cover
41:49
four, But when I say quarters, for me, that means like match
41:52
coverage. Cover four is more spot drop like you would see in Madden,
41:55
which isn't played too much anymore, but in essence on large scale, Yeah,
42:00
cover four as quarters, but I wouldn't classify it as a version of
42:02
Cover two. I'm glad Ralph recognized my Vincent Vango reference. Oh and I
42:07
see what you did there, Vincent van Go Bills. Well done, well
42:12
done, well done. That took me back. That was a good one.
42:16
That was a good one. That was a good one. So again,
42:20
that piece, the coverage versatility piece, I think that needs to be
42:24
recognized because again I don't want it being thought. I don't want this Bill's
42:28
defense previously, despite the failures that they had in despite the tweaks, we
42:31
need to see them have this year to quote unquote get over the hump.
42:35
I don't want the thought being well, yeah, it's because they've been too
42:38
vanilla or too generic, or too predictable or all these things. You saw
42:42
those coverage numbers in terms of their usage rates, and again that speaks to
42:46
what you see on tape. That speaks to their formidable nature from a coverage
42:52
standpoint. On the back end, because they can play a multitude of coverages.
42:55
They can play them in spot drop, they can play them in zone
42:59
they I'm sorry, they can play them in match coverages. They can spin
43:04
from too high to single high post snap, they disguise coverage, They change
43:07
the pre to post snap picture like they do so many things well, from
43:12
a coverage standpoint, they play a little bit of everything, which leads to
43:16
this next piece mentioned earlier, like what we would like to see from Sean
43:22
McDermott. So this leads into what Sean McDermott as defensive coordinator means in the
43:28
big picture. So you've got this defense that is very coverage diverse from a
43:31
usage rate standpoint and from a practical application standpoint. Again, you want them
43:37
to play. No one's going to play a ton of every single coverage in
43:39
the book. Again, they've got some spatterings of everyone, but to sit
43:43
there and have healthy usage rates of Cover four, Cover two, Cover three
43:47
and Cover one, then being able to throw combo coverages in there, then
43:52
being able to throw some simulated pressures in there, mixing in press versus often
43:57
a variety of games. Again, you have a coverage diverse group both schematically
44:02
and from a data standpoint when it comes to a usage rate standpoint. Right,
44:09
So how this ties into Sean McDermott as a defensive coordinator. You know
44:17
when I was on lockdown bills, one of the two times I was on
44:21
lockdown Bills in the past month. But Sean McDermott as a defensive coordinator,
44:25
his history, where he comes from as a student learning how to be a
44:30
DC under Jim Johnson in Philadelphia, to what he used when he was in
44:35
Carolina as their DC, taken them to a super Bowl in twenty fifteen.
44:38
Sean McDermott as a defensive coordinator, he's aggressive. He wants an aggressive,
44:44
fast defense that dictates to an offense. He wants more games up front,
44:49
more versatility up front to pair with their versatility on the back end. More
44:53
blitzes, more sims, more creepers, more disguised fronts. And these are
44:58
all pieces that he's employed at different times, and I think he needs to
45:01
lean into more as defensive coordinator. Now, again, you've got a very
45:07
coverage, diverse group on the back end. You need to start to add
45:12
to that in terms of the diversity you show up front, the games you
45:15
show up front. And again they have shown a bit. We've seen the
45:19
Bills use two man games and stunts and twists. We've seen them blitz from
45:22
time to time. We know they use simulated pressures and creeper pressures. But
45:27
lean into those a little more. And I'm not saying become a three four
45:30
team blitz fifty percent of the time, use a simulated pressure on every third
45:35
down. No, it's just sometimes it's just turning the dial from a two
45:38
to a three, or from a three to five instead of just and leaving
45:42
at a one or being a one and a half. Just anything you can
45:44
do to add to your variance, add to your unpredictability, add to the
45:47
variability and multiplicity you have. And with Sean McDermott, you folks are listening
45:54
to the show regularly, you know. I love the Rock paper Scissors analogy
45:57
for those who don't know, or for those who do know and just want
46:00
a little refresher anyway, it's the idea of if you're playing rock paper scissors,
46:05
you need to be able to throw rock, paper and scissors. If
46:07
you're playing rock paper scissors against someone you can only throw rock. That means
46:10
you're only winning if someone throws scissors. If they throw rock, you cancel
46:15
out. If they throw paper, you lose. That means you only have
46:17
a one in three chance of winning. Right, and if anybody knows Scott
46:21
Steiner math, that's not great. So when you're throwing, when you're playing
46:24
rock paper scissors, you need to be able to throw all three with Sean
46:27
McDermott. I think, and I hope there's more rock paper scissors capability for
46:34
this defense. More of, Hey, this is a rock week, so
46:37
we're gonna throw rock. Next week's a paper week. We're gonna throw paper,
46:42
etc. And so on and so forth. So more of that,
46:45
we're going to throw all three. More of this is a rock week,
46:47
next week is a paper week. Less of this is who we are,
46:52
try and beat us. More more of we're going to be whoever we need
46:58
to in order to beat you. And I think that is where successful defenses
47:04
are going. You see the defenses that do well come playoff time, that
47:07
do well from a matchup standpoint, that when they play top to your offenses,
47:10
they're playing these big games, they consistently are able to show up.
47:14
I think, what the what the Saints have done for years. We talked
47:15
about the Cincinnati Bengals, we talked about the Kansas City Chiefs, or I
47:20
have on the show before, not tonight, but you know what Steve's Pagnolo
47:23
has done from his designer packages on third down and how he kind of chokes
47:30
you into a certain point and then picks at you from that spot and what
47:32
he does in big games, and there's variety of other coaches and defenses that
47:37
do that. Nikki's saying, if you throw a rock every time, it's
47:42
a two or three, two out of three chance because you don't lose if
47:45
they throw rock. Yeah, but I'm talking about like a winning standpoint.
47:47
I know that, like if you throw rock, you throw, then they
47:50
throw rocky cancel out. But you can only win if they throw scissors.
47:54
If they throw paper, you lose if they throw rocky cancel So the only
47:58
way you can win is if they throw scissors, and that's not a consistent
48:00
way to win, just only being able to have that piece. RJ gets
48:05
it. So you're telling me we have a one hundred forty one to two
48:07
thirds chance to win in a sacrifice Steiner math one of the best promos of
48:10
all time. Well done, RJ. I appreciate you for that. So
48:14
again, Wichean McDermott, I think it becomes you have more rock, paper
48:16
scissors capability for this defense. Less of this is who we are try and
48:22
beat us, and more we're going to be whoever we need to be every
48:27
week in order to beat you. And they have the roster for that they
48:30
at all three levels, maybe not linebackers much now, but we're going to
48:35
talk about that piece. And again I want to tie this into who Sean
48:37
McDermott is and where he learned defense from. So he learned the basis for
48:43
his four three defensive philosophy from one of the best of all time, former
48:46
Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson. And the whole system is based on pressuring the
48:52
quarterback and pressuring the offense in both the pass and run game. Again,
48:57
it's aggressive, it's fast, you dictate to an offense to attack an offense.
49:02
So and pieces of this came from just different places that I researched,
49:07
and also an article I believe it was on ESPN back when the Panthers went
49:12
to the Super Bowl. We're coming out of it talking about what Sean McDermott
49:15
did in kind of evolving Jim Johnson's scheme. So, Jim Johnson's scheme was
49:21
really built on sophisticated zone blitzes, but kind of putting his own designer tweak
49:25
on it. And Sean McDermott, he calls his defense at that time player
49:31
friendly. He quote builds around the strengths of players and finds ways to cover
49:37
up weaknesses. He doesn't try to turn a three four defensive end into a
49:39
four three defensive end. And there's an important quote here from Sean McDermot and
49:44
his article back, you know, in his Carolina Panthers DC days as they're
49:47
going to the Super Bowl and being a consistently strong unit year after year.
49:52
Sean mcdermots has quote, that's important rather than try, rather than tying up
49:58
your players with intricate schemes and things. We can certainly do that, but
50:01
it's like the game of chess. At the same time, a player it
50:06
has to be able to execute and play fast and be fundamentally sound. Again,
50:08
just reading it the whole thing again, that's important rather than tying them
50:13
up with intricate schemes and things, McDermott said, we can certainly do that.
50:16
It's like the game of chess, but at the same time, a
50:19
player has to be able to execute and play fast and be fundamentally sound.
50:22
I think that's going to be a piece that we see more in this defense,
50:29
more aggression and more attack minded defense, allowing the players to play fast.
50:37
Tying this into the coverage versatility piece that we talked about in the previous
50:39
graphic. There were times where this Bill's defense was playing and on the back
50:45
end they almost had too many checks and too many rules. Again, like
50:47
I mentioned earlier, they were a rules based, adjustment based defense. So
50:52
on this play, you know whoever's first the flat, that's your man.
50:55
If number two does this, that's your man. If number one go in,
51:00
you leave him and you do this. If he goes above five yards
51:02
or out, he's yours, and do this. So there's all these reads
51:05
and adjustments that you have to make in real time. And if you're the
51:08
outside corner, you have to see it that way. The slock corner has
51:12
to see it that way, your safety has to see it that way,
51:15
your linebacker has to see it that way, so on and so forth,
51:17
and teams know that. So teams will use your rules against you. And
51:22
at times then you have information overloading and you're not able to play and react.
51:25
You're not able to read and react. You're almost bogged down with the
51:29
whole what is a paralysis by analysis because you're trying to figure out everything and
51:32
operate with your rules and operate with your adjustments, and you kind of get
51:37
bogged down. But McDermott again wants players to be able to execute and play
51:44
fast and be fundamentally sound and tying them in again with that Jim Johnson piece.
51:47
Jim Johnson was known at the time as a defensive genius. He was
51:52
famed again for his creative zone blitzes, double a gap looks, and exotic
51:57
game plans, a lot of what Sean McDermott used in Caroline and Jim Johnson's
52:00
big thing too, he adapted to his personnel. Some coaches believe in their
52:04
system and if you don't fit that system, they get rid of you.
52:07
Jim Johnson liked doing things a certain way, but he was creative when he
52:12
had a talented player, and the idea was you don't let an offense dictate
52:16
to you. You have to put more pressure on the quarterback and the offense
52:20
and every year try to figure out how to do that. He used safety
52:24
pressures. That was a hallmark of his scheme. He had a fast,
52:28
aggressive, physical, violent attitude type of defense. He was also very big
52:32
and changing the pre to post snap picture causing havoc, causing confusion at multiple
52:37
levels of the defense. Not just changing the pre to post snap picture on
52:40
the back end and encourage, but doing it with your fronts, doing it
52:45
with your defensive line, and where you line up your linebackers, all those
52:47
pieces. And Assante Samuel played under Jim Johnson on the Eagles, and Assante
52:52
Samuel said, one thing I got from being around Jim was his system was
52:58
his system was his system. He didn't change a whole lot from week to
53:01
week. But it was all about finding out what your weak point is on
53:05
offense. His dogs were his dogs, and he was going to cut them
53:08
loose on you one way or another. That second to last sentence was huge
53:12
for me. It was all about finding out what your weak point is on
53:15
offense. That's what Sean McDermott did in Carolina as well, learning that from
53:20
Jim Johnson with his time in Philly. I think, and again part of
53:24
me is me thinking this, and also what I would like them to do
53:28
is see the Bills turn more dials of diversity in terms of their coverage paired
53:32
with their fronts. Again, we showed that graphic and we talked about it.
53:36
They are a very diverse coverage group in terms of what coverages they get
53:39
into and again, the coverages they get into they play them well, they
53:44
deploy them well. They switch back and forth and make you think it's going
53:46
to be single high when it's too high. They make you think it's going
53:50
to be zone when it ends up being manned vice versa. They play games
53:52
with quarterbacks and offense, and they do offenses, and they do a good
53:55
job on the back end. They limit explosives, they keep things in front
53:59
of them. They clogged the passing lanes and the passing windows and make you
54:02
have to beat them with good throws, good reads, timing, and precision.
54:07
But I'd like to see the Bills again turn more of those diversity to
54:13
house in terms of coverage, paired with their fronts making it a realistic idea
54:17
to the offense that a blitz or simulated pressure may be coming instead of just
54:22
and it looks like they're going to show pressure, but no, and then
54:24
they're probably just going to drop out and rush for and play coverage. Again.
54:29
The Bills are already a good defense, and they have a good recipe
54:31
and and or formula for success. They just need a few tweaks here and
54:37
there to become more matchup proof and more fluid and reduce the opportunity for offenses
54:44
to dictate to them already coming into this year, they do a great job
54:47
at disguising coverage nudge nudge, and utilizing a variety of coverages, and again
54:52
not just utilizing them for the sake of utilizing them. They're not just playing
54:55
cover four to play cover four, and they're not just playing cover three to
54:58
play cover three. They play these coverages well, they disguise them well,
55:02
they execute them well against a variety of route concepts and play concepts and route
55:07
combinations and route distributions. But I would like to see them lean more into
55:12
disguising their fronts and using a further variety of fronts and personnel, especially paired
55:20
with their coverages and honestly even with their coverage pieces to a degree, and
55:24
some of that is the nature of today's NFL defenses as a whole, which
55:29
we're going to further talk about in a bit, but a lot of it
55:30
too is because what they have on the roster now, the defensive line editions
55:35
that they have with Gregor Rousseau's progression, with the addition of Leonard Floyd,
55:38
with the addition of Poonaford, with what you have in Jordan Phillips, what
55:43
you have in at Oliver, what you have in von Miller, what you
55:45
have in Da Kuan Jones. You've got the capability to play different fronts.
55:52
You can line up players in different alignments. You can take Poonaford and line
55:55
them up in a zero or a one tech or a four eye or a
56:00
tech or sometimes you can put them in a five. Seattle used him everywhere.
56:02
You can take Declan Jones and line them up in a zero or a
56:07
one tech or a three tech or a four eye. You can take out
56:09
Oliver and put them kind of almost anywhere. You can line up Greg Rousseau
56:13
on the inside. There's all these games that you can play from just a
56:16
pure alignment perspective, from a pure front perspective, instead of just being your
56:21
standard, Hey flour down front, you know two five's three tech, one
56:27
tech, you know four three overfront, pretty static standard or gonna one gap,
56:30
going to penetrate, try to get a field. You don't have to
56:32
live in that world. You don't have to live in that world anyway,
56:37
even if you don't have the personnel for it. But when you have the
56:38
personnel for it, it means you can have diversity up front and actually use
56:44
it. For what it is. Instead of just being diverse to be diverse,
56:46
you can be diverse with a purpose. You can be diverse within tent
56:50
because you've got the skill sets and the body types to be able to execute
56:54
these variety of looks up front. And then you start to pair it with
57:00
you know, mugging a gaps or putting linebackers up on the line of scrimmage
57:02
on the outside, or overloading one side, and then you bring pressure and
57:07
you bring a real blitz or you bring a simulated or you drop out and
57:09
play coverage. The havoc that you can create by disguising your looks up front
57:14
and turning the dials up in terms of what you run and how much you
57:19
run it to add more confusion, to add more thought to an offensive line,
57:24
to a quarterback, and then you start to dictate protection. Then you
57:29
start to confuse qbs an offensive line, and then you create free runners,
57:31
or you create some hesitation in their mind and all of a sudden, they're
57:37
a half second slower because they're thinking for a half second longer. All those
57:39
pieces, you can run more games and stunts up front with who you have
57:44
on the defensive line. If kayre Elam wins the cornerback to battle. You
57:47
can play more man coverage, whether press or off. You can still play
57:51
man with Dan Jackson and Christian Benford, but the ceiling for Kayr Elam again,
57:57
it's really tied to that scheme versatility piece. You can lean even more
58:00
into man coverages in a variety of ways, in combo coverages and press in
58:06
off, in you know, match coverage, spot drop. All these pieces
58:09
you can use more because you've got coverage diverse players on the back end.
58:14
If it's Kaye, Trey White, Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. You can
58:17
also use more sub packages this year if you want to lean into a four
58:22
down front, but three of those are Von Miller and Leonard Floyd and Greg
58:28
Russau. Or early in the year, if Epanessa turns out the way I
58:30
think he could Epanessa and Floyd on the outside and Greg Russo lined up over
58:36
the center or the guard. Or maybe you kick at Oliver out to edge
58:40
and let him rush straight up and try and beat a man around the corner
58:44
with his get off in his speed, or you have him spike inside you
58:45
run a two man game. Maybe you take out your linebacker one of your
58:50
linebackers on third down and leave Matt Milano in there and Taylor Rap someone who
58:52
we continue to talk about on the show. You get that Raptor package in
58:55
there. Shout out to Chris Kaptin from Cover one. Maybe you get to
59:00
Taylor Rap in there as that dime linebacker. You're just running three safety looks
59:02
in general, and then offenses don't know, Okay, are they going to
59:06
be in a two high look? Are they going to be in a single
59:07
high look? Who are the two safety is going to be? Maybe you're
59:10
using Taylor Wrap a bunch as that dime linebacker and lining them off ball in
59:15
the box, and offenses start to think of that a little bit. And
59:17
then you createive on a third down or a known passing down, or even
59:21
early on first and second down, and maybe you spin Jordan Poyer down and
59:25
you have them replaced and take Rap spot. It's almost kind of like a
59:29
robber or a lark type aspect coming from the top, and then you drop
59:31
Taylor Wrap deep and you go to a split high look or a single high
59:35
look. There's all this potential for games, for variation, for masking who
59:42
you are and masking what you're doing because of the personnel that you have.
59:46
So that's a piece as well, a big, big, big, big
59:50
piece as well for what this means coming into this season, what Sean McDermott's
59:54
defensive coordinator means in the big picture, because all the things that I'm mentioning
59:59
of what the Buffalo Bills defense needs to do, quote unquote needs to do,
1:00:02
or the tweaks that they need to use, or what dials they need
1:00:06
to turn a little more, those are all pieces that Sean McDermott has experienced
1:00:10
with has familiarity with, both in terms of him being a student of the
1:00:15
game and learning under Jim Johnson, but also in terms of practical application with
1:00:19
what in who he was as the defensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers in his
1:00:22
time. There all of these pieces that you want to see more more challenging
1:00:30
of an offense, more man coverage, more press coverage, more physicality on
1:00:36
the outside, more okay, who's Russian and who's coming from where? More
1:00:40
creativity in your fronts, more creative blitz packages, more simulated pressures. All
1:00:46
of these things leaning into that is in Sean McDermott's wheelhouse, and on top
1:00:52
of that, the Bills now have the personnel on this defense to lean into
1:00:58
that variability, to lean into that diversity again if sometimes you don't have the
1:01:01
bodies for it, right, I always wanted to have as much front.
1:01:07
We'll use the defensive line as an example. I always want to have as
1:01:08
much diversity in my fronts as possible. I want to you, I don't
1:01:12
want to just be a four three, even if you mainly a four three.
1:01:15
I want to run some under I want to run some bare front at
1:01:16
times. I love the tight front with the four eye, the zero and
1:01:20
the four eye. I love overloading aside and doing different things. You can't
1:01:24
do that if you don't have the personnel for it. It's nice in theory,
1:01:29
but if you don't have the horses that can run the system, then
1:01:30
you're running a system just to run a system, and like that doesn't work.
1:01:34
You have to tailor your game plan like Jim Johnson did in Philly,
1:01:39
like Sean McDermott did in Carolina, and learning under Jim Johnson and Philly.
1:01:45
Like I mentioned in those quotes, you have to tailor your game plan to
1:01:47
the roster you have. But what's nice is again modern NFL defenses are trending
1:01:54
into this world of specificity, of having specific answers for specific situations and specific
1:02:04
play calls, trends moments. Situational football is huge red zone and third down
1:02:08
as your two like low hanging fruit kind of post your child aspects for situational
1:02:14
football. But it's hard, like I mentioned earlier, to live in a
1:02:16
world where you just have a blanket answer for everything. Yeah, we're gonna
1:02:20
come out and we're gonna play Cover three and it's gonna be awesome. Those
1:02:22
things are hard. Seattle was able to do with a bunch, granted because
1:02:25
they lean in some other pieces as well, but they had generational talents and
1:02:30
really tremendous fits for what they were doing, with Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas
1:02:35
and camp chancellor Bobby Wagner and like Michael Bennett upfront, even kJ Wright,
1:02:39
like all of those pieces. But it's hard to sit and just be like,
1:02:44
yeah, we're gonna live in Tampa two, we're gonna live in Cover
1:02:47
three. We're gonna be a you know, a three four zone blitzing team.
1:02:51
We're gonna be a forty six defense team. There's not this blanket answer
1:02:55
defensive structure system in today's NFL like there potentially was in I don't know,
1:03:02
systems passed or generations passed, or decades past. However you want to clap
1:03:07
eras past type of thing. Offenses have so much specificity, there's so much
1:03:12
person even just taking personnel packages, offenses can dictate to you just by being
1:03:16
like, yeah, we're gonna go thirteen personnel. Yeah, we're gonna go
1:03:19
twelve. Yeah we're gonna go spread. We're gonna run the ball this game.
1:03:22
Oh, we're gonna do this. Look at the Chiefs. Look at
1:03:24
the Chiefs that last year leaning into thirteen personnel, leaning into more twelve personnel,
1:03:29
still being able to run spread, being able to run power spread,
1:03:31
being able to run the ball, and then also just have an Andy Reid
1:03:36
dial up whatever he can do when using Patrick Mahomes who was fullest and Mahomes
1:03:39
just kind of create an off script. Granted, maybe they're the extreme of
1:03:43
the example, but the piece of all of that is you've got offenses now
1:03:50
that are able to lean into a multitude of concepts, both in the run
1:03:52
game and in the past game. Having one blanket system answer, it's hard
1:04:00
to consistently live that way. Now. The Bills, their system largely has
1:04:05
worked for them year after year after year. But when it comes playoff time,
1:04:10
we see the foundations start to shake a little bit, start to social
1:04:14
cracks, start to crumble a little bit. And that's the big piece of
1:04:17
why they really need to lean into this rock paper scissor aspect again. I
1:04:23
think that the quote that I really want to leave you all with from my
1:04:28
notes, you know of what Sean McDermot can do with this defense is again
1:04:32
on a week to week basis, having it be less of this is who
1:04:36
we are, try and beat us, and having it be more of we're
1:04:40
going to be whoever we need to be week in and week out in order
1:04:43
to beat you. So if that means this week is going to be a
1:04:45
heavy blitz week, cool. If this week means we're in less nickel cool.
1:04:49
If this is a a a Taylor rap week, cool. If this
1:04:54
is a big simulated pressure week, cool. And the Bills again have dabbled,
1:04:58
They've turned the dials briefly in all these spots in previous years in certain
1:05:02
games. I think it all needs to be ratcheted up. You need more
1:05:06
and as much I should say you need a much versatility and diversity from the
1:05:13
front to the back of your defense weekend and week out. You need matchup
1:05:17
specific defense. You need game plan specific defense. And I'm not saying again
1:05:23
the Bills haven't been developing matchup pieces and matchup game plans and targeting specific aspects
1:05:30
of offense. I'm not saying that. But they need to do it more.
1:05:33
They need to do what we're seeing these defenses do. Come playoff time,
1:05:36
when all of a sudden, you've got a Cincinnati Bengals unit. Again
1:05:40
I'm gonna keep going back to the Bengals, but you've got a unit that
1:05:43
was like, hey, they're an okay defense, and they're like top ten,
1:05:45
and they're like top fifteen, fourteen, fifteen, and all of a
1:05:47
sudden, come playoff time, they're this complete standout unit because they have a
1:05:53
coordinator who uses this matchup specific game planet. Again, the Bills have done
1:05:58
that. I showed that Kansas City tape in the beginning for a reason.
1:06:00
That game is a microcosm of what I'm talking about. You have, and
1:06:04
that might even be a hyper example of it because the Bills lean into that
1:06:11
odd mirror piece which they really had never done before. That was a specific
1:06:15
game plan, wrinkle, tweak, whatever you want to call it, put
1:06:17
in for that game. More of that from this team, more targeted specificity,
1:06:25
more targeted tweaks designed to attack a certain point of an offense. It
1:06:30
could be a coverage piece, it could be a front piece, it could
1:06:32
be more blitzes, it could be mixing an all of it in And then
1:06:36
you get all of that on tape and you show an offense come playoff time.
1:06:43
Man, they can kind of hit a little bit of everything. Oh
1:06:45
man, they have an answer for eleven personnel. Man, they have an
1:06:47
answer for twelve. Oh man. Look how diverse their third down rush packages?
1:06:51
Oh man. And then then you tie it in with who the Bills
1:06:55
defense already is, with all their coverage versatility and their coverage diversity, and
1:07:00
you become a defensive unit that weekend and week out. You can throw rock,
1:07:05
you can throw paper, you can throw scissors. Then you start to
1:07:09
become matchup proof, and then you can dictate to teams almost no matter what
1:07:14
you want. Oh, we're playing a team that's throwing scissors this week.
1:07:15
Cool, we're throwing rock. Oh next week is a team that throws rock.
1:07:18
Cool, we're throwing paper. Oh now we got a paper team.
1:07:20
Cool, We're throwing scissors week and week and week and week, week after
1:07:26
week, weekend and week out. And it could be even adjustments in game
1:07:30
right, Because that's the part two I want to tie in from that beginning
1:07:32
piece. When you go with those game plan specific types of game plans,
1:07:36
when you get more targeted medicine and less broad spectrum antibiotics, you got to
1:07:42
be sure that you know what you're treating. You got to be sure what
1:07:45
that illness or that sickness is, and if you're not, you gotta be
1:07:48
able to pivot quickly. Oh we thought it was this cool. After the
1:07:51
first quarter, we realize they're not doing what we thought they were gonna do.
1:07:56
We gotta pivot, We gotta switch, We have to adjust in that
1:07:58
moment. Having that fluid right, being like Bruce Lee and being like water
1:08:01
and just being able to go wherever you need to. That's that piece and
1:08:05
I think you'll get that with Sean McDermott. You know, it's just going
1:08:09
to depend on how much how much does he turn those dials, how many
1:08:13
of those buttons does he push? But his background speaks to pinpointed, targeted
1:08:18
attacking types of defense, game plan specific defense, defenses, matchup specificity,
1:08:26
and the unit that he has and what he's done already and overseeing this team
1:08:29
the past several years. Again, they've already got the coverage diversity piece.
1:08:32
They just need to lean more into several of those coverage pieces, but especially
1:08:39
tying it into their fronts and more diversity upfront and more variation in terms of
1:08:44
what they put on tape to show that they can get to anything and everything.
1:08:47
So when you get kind of when it comes down to it, instead
1:08:51
of having a like an identifier or this is who we are, now,
1:08:57
who we are is based on who you are, and we're going to be
1:09:00
able to be fluid. If you're a run team, Cool, we're a
1:09:02
run defense team this week. Oh you're a spread team. Cool, we're
1:09:05
numbers in coverage type of group this week. Oh you're a twelve personnel team
1:09:09
this week. Cool, we're a three linebacker team this week. Whatever you
1:09:12
need to do, if they have the personnel for it, they have the
1:09:14
coach for it. And again, this is where defenses are trending. This
1:09:17
is part of why having so many chess pieces. And jack of all trades
1:09:21
players is starting to trend even more in today's NFL and the quote unquote positionless
1:09:26
NFL, so you can have a body on the field and you're not at
1:09:30
a disadvantage when an offense goes into any personnel grouping. So it's like they're
1:09:34
in twelve, we gotta switch, we got we gotta have a different package,
1:09:36
and they're up there in eleven or up there in ten, we gotta
1:09:40
switch and have a different personnel package. That's why so many of these types
1:09:44
of frames and skill sets and positionless quote unquote football is becoming so popular now
1:09:48
so that way you can be matchup proof. It's all tied to this idea
1:09:53
of being able to get to anything and everything whenever you need to, based
1:09:58
on the opponent you have. Because offense is can do that. Offenses have
1:10:01
the ability now to kind of get to anything and everything they want to,
1:10:04
and you've got to be able to match that on defense, both in terms
1:10:08
of your roster, which I think the Bills have, but they need to
1:10:11
have the ability to employ those schemes and those systems with regularity to be able
1:10:16
to show offensive that you can kind of do whatever you want you can match
1:10:19
whatever the hell they want to do. And I think that's what Sean McDermott
1:10:23
means in the Big Pictures defensive coordinator for the Bills in twenty twenty three.
1:10:28
Again, I think it means more. I think it means less. This
1:10:31
is who we are, try and beat us type of defense, and it
1:10:33
means more, We're going to be whoever we need to in order to beat
1:10:36
you type of defense. And I think that comes from his past, the
1:10:40
tree that he comes from, the current roster Bills have on defense, and
1:10:45
then tying it all together with what we're seeing from a trend's perspective amongst the
1:10:48
NFL defenses that are consistently formidable year in and year out, which the Bills
1:10:54
have been, They've just faltered come playoff time with some of their game plans,
1:10:57
some of their execution pieces. And I think part of that is because
1:11:01
they've relied too much on Hey, the systems, the system, let's make
1:11:05
this team beat us instead of being like instead of using more again like that
1:11:11
Kansas City game where they had the odd mirror package and more combo coverages and
1:11:15
dime personnel instead of having those targeted tweaks. And it doesn't have to be
1:11:18
a ton again, it doesn't have to be Hey, this week they need
1:11:23
to run dime personnel ninety percent of the time. Hey, this week they
1:11:26
need to use odd mirror on like seventy percent of snaps. No, it's
1:11:30
going to vary every week. Sometimes it might only be five snaps, sometimes
1:11:33
it might be fifteen. But having the ability to know that, that's where
1:11:38
it comes down to the defensive coordinator right and the game plan piece. We'll
1:11:41
see what we get from that aspect. I know there was a lot of
1:11:45
comments that were coming through White Town's King says. I rewatched the Steelers and
1:11:51
Vikings games recently, and I've seen Tyrell Dotson was always a step late in
1:11:55
the past game. Are we going to be able to hide the middle linebacker
1:11:57
either with a scheme or hide the key? I think my thought right now,
1:12:01
I think Arrol Bernard is the starter for this year, and I don't
1:12:05
think you have to hide him as much. I'm not holistically confident in him,
1:12:10
but I think he can do enough from a coverage standpoint, mentally and
1:12:15
enough athletically that you're not completely vulnerable there. I think Dodson, you have
1:12:19
to change the scheme too much. He's not built for the type of coverages
1:12:23
you want to play in the middle of the field. From a physical standpoint
1:12:27
and a frame and physiological standpoint, you're not getting that with him. Maybe
1:12:30
Dorian Williams can be that guy long term. I don't think he is now
1:12:35
because of and I'll say this because I know there's a bunch of people who
1:12:38
are beckoning for Dorian Williams earlier in this episode. I just think the defense
1:12:43
he comes from is too simplistic, like they run a lot of spot drop
1:12:45
coverages in in today's football world where teams don't really do that, especially in
1:12:51
the NFL. So he's got to work on his processing, his reading,
1:12:56
his diagnosing, how to pick up certain routes in the route distribution, and
1:12:59
how to walk all off three and carry and match this and carry two vertically
1:13:02
and and know everything that he's supposed to communicate. I think that's a lot
1:13:05
from an adjustment standpoint for him. I don't think Client has the legs.
1:13:10
I don't think Dodson has the legs. I think Bernard is kind of the
1:13:15
least of all evils, but you are going to have to mitigate that role.
1:13:18
I expect more single high coverages from the Bills this year, regardless,
1:13:21
because part of the reason why they were able to play so many two high
1:13:25
coverages these pasts over years and be able to have that diversity, and you
1:13:28
know, play Cover two or Tampa two, or quarters or Cover four is
1:13:30
because you had this unicorn in the middle of the field who I know,
1:13:34
everybody rags on him, but he was a deterrent for a lot of things
1:13:38
and allowed a lot of those coverage, those that coverage versatility and coverage diversity
1:13:43
to function because of what he did. Rick say and illuminating aunt man,
1:13:49
I had no idea. Thank you, I appreciate you, thank you for
1:13:51
tuning in. What else what Brando saying? Do you think he'll be more
1:14:03
aggressive than Frasier? Yes, I would expect an uptick in blitz percentage.
1:14:08
I would expect to see more press. I would expect to see more bodies
1:14:14
around the line of scrimmage and known passing situations. Could be on early downs,
1:14:16
could be on third downs, might just be on early downs just for
1:14:18
the hell of it. I would expect more of just the general idea of
1:14:24
man, are they gonna blitz? Are they dropping into coverage. Okay,
1:14:27
they're only gonna rush for, but which four are coming? Like? Who's
1:14:29
dropping into coverage? Are they running any stunts or is anybody looping? Like?
1:14:32
Are they run into delayed blitz? Is it as simulated like I think?
1:14:36
I think what you'll have with Sean McDermott is more rewinding of your TV
1:14:42
to figure out what just happened, both up front and in coverage. And
1:14:46
I think that's a that's a big feather in a coach's cat when you can
1:14:49
say that coach Chapman who says, I think you've seen when Sean would make
1:14:55
defensive calls the bills with blitz and attack more. Frasier has always been to
1:14:58
get pressure with four. Go back to his Minnesota days, rushed for with
1:15:01
mixed coverages. McDermott to would agree, like again, even in Carolina,
1:15:05
he was a four down, four rushed kind of guy. And ideally,
1:15:11
I think I would love to live in that world if you can. If
1:15:14
you only have to rush for to get pressure, that means you always have
1:15:16
seven in coverage, you always have the numbers advantage. I would love to
1:15:20
consistently be in that realm. The problem is you just have to be really
1:15:25
really good up front to be able to consistently live in a world what you're
1:15:29
only rushing for, Like, you've got to have dogs, not even just
1:15:33
in your starters. You need to be like four or five sixty from a
1:15:39
rotation standpoint in order to consistently generate pressure with just four. And you know
1:15:43
McDermott was that to a degree in Carolina. But even with Charles Johnson and
1:15:47
Kawan Shorten that the guys who he had up front, he would put Keith
1:15:53
Lee on the line and Thomas Davis on the line, and Shack Thompson on
1:15:56
the line, and Kurt Coleman on the line and make you think like,
1:15:59
oh, like are they gonna blitz? And they would blitz, or they'd
1:16:01
show seven at the line and they would just drop out in a Cover two
1:16:04
or Cover three or drop out into two man, or they'd run simulated pressure
1:16:09
off that. So I think ideally any defense wants to just be a four
1:16:14
down rush team, and that way you can always have seven and coverage and
1:16:16
play whatever the hell you want. You know, any cover two or I'm
1:16:19
sorry, any Cover two, any split field safety look, any too high
1:16:23
look, any single high safety look. But to your point. Yeah,
1:16:26
I think you will see more blitzes traditional blitzer from mcderham and more like five
1:16:30
and six man rushes. But I think you'll see a lot more simulated and
1:16:33
a lot more versatility from from a front usage standpoint than you did with Leslie
1:16:39
Fraser, who to your point, and like I mentioned earlier, was just
1:16:42
much more static. Like four down, your two ends, a one tech
1:16:45
and a three tech boom. That's where we're going to be over and over
1:16:46
again. One gap penetration, try and get a field, YadA, YadA,
1:16:49
YadA, all that type of stuff. Oh, I love his hands
1:16:55
from John. I know a lot of people like to throw detailed explanations as
1:16:58
to why we lost at the end of the season, but mine is simple.
1:17:00
When nothing else is working, you have to be able to run the
1:17:02
ball. I'm a huge proponent of being able to run the ball. Even
1:17:05
in today's NFL. I don't care how good your passing attack is. You
1:17:10
need some semblance of a run game and the bigger you know, not even
1:17:14
not even galaxy brain, but the bigger pendulum piece. Again, defenses swung
1:17:18
the pendulum in their favor with these two high coverages and defensive fronts and paired
1:17:25
with coverages with the idea of stopping zone runs specifically like outside wide zone runs.
1:17:30
Right defenses, because they started to build themselves that way, they have
1:17:35
inherently become vulnerable to downhill runs at you type runs, especially gap runs.
1:17:41
But it could be inside so anything with vertical displacement or downhill could be duo,
1:17:45
could be inside zone. But give me some pin and pull, give
1:17:48
me some bash, give me gap scheme pieces where you're people moving. Defenses
1:17:54
have become vulnerable to the run because of how they've trended the past several years
1:17:58
in order to combat the past and again it's just simple. Offenses become pass
1:18:01
heavy. Defenses build themselves to stop the pass. So how to offenses counter?
1:18:06
They start to run the ball. Defenses go, oh oh, we
1:18:09
got to stop the run. They build their defenses stop the run. Offenses
1:18:13
build their offenses, stop the pass defenses. So on and so forth.
1:18:15
In round and round we go. Like these concepts that are prevalent in the
1:18:19
NFL, now they're not new. It's the whole time as a flat circle,
1:18:23
true detective rust and cole piece like running the ball will always be important,
1:18:27
it will always matter and I'm going to continue to say that, whether
1:18:30
you have a diverse offense and run game mixed with your pass game like the
1:18:34
Philadelphia Eagles with Jalen Hurts, or like the Ravens do with Lamar Jackson,
1:18:39
or if it's more traditional like the Chiefs of Patrick Mahomes last year, where
1:18:43
when they needed to they would just lean into the run game with Isaiah Pacheco
1:18:45
and just run downhill, physical speed, violence, people move. The run
1:18:51
game is always going to be important. I like it. I like it.
1:18:54
I like it. Billy says, rap or any rotation that works for
1:19:00
the moment, and we also have good rotation across the board. That's fair.
1:19:08
What else? Oh Rick says, This has leading me a really pumped
1:19:11
for the season. Go Bills. Yeah, it's it's a good piece.
1:19:15
What else? What else? What else? Yeah? So I think from
1:19:20
a large scale perspective, again, like that's that's what we need to see
1:19:25
from this Bills defense. I didn't want it to be too negative in this
1:19:28
episode. The Bills defense. Again, they have a strong foundation. They
1:19:31
are a good defense. If they come out right now and don't change a
1:19:36
thing, they're still gonna be a really good defense this year. Like that's
1:19:40
what they're gonna be. Are they gonna struggle at times? Yep? Are
1:19:43
we going to be worried about what's gonna happen on plaoff time? Yep?
1:19:45
But they're still gonna be a really good defense. They're gonna be a top
1:19:48
ten, top five DVOA type unit just with the roster they have, and
1:19:53
even if they employ the same type of philosophy and identity that they have these
1:19:56
past several years. The issue has been when you play the big boys,
1:20:00
when you get it into the playoffs, where matchups mean everything and game plans
1:20:04
mean everything, do you have enough variability and fluidity to be whoever you need
1:20:11
to be that week in order to get to w whatever you need to do,
1:20:15
whether it's changing your fronts a bit, whether it's blitzing a bit more,
1:20:17
whether it's more simulated, whether it's more man coverage, whether it's more
1:20:20
covered too, whether it's more match coverage, anything, whatever dial you need
1:20:26
to turn to win a game, do you have the ability to turn that
1:20:30
dial or are you sitting looking at the button that you want to press and
1:20:34
the light's not on and you're pressing that button but you know it doesn't work,
1:20:38
and you're like, crap, well that buttons out. What other button
1:20:41
can we press? What other dial can we turn? Because the one we
1:20:43
need to lean into, the one button we need to press, or the
1:20:45
one dial we need to have, we don't have for this game. And
1:20:49
again, from the bigger perspective, it's it's harder nowadays to have a cure
1:20:56
all answer for everything. It's hard to be like, get we're a cover
1:21:00
two defense. That's who we are. It'll be great, We're going to
1:21:02
be fine. It's not easy to live that way, especially with how offense
1:21:05
is, what the run game can be now, and how separate and diverse
1:21:10
it is in conjunction with or in juxtaposition with the passing games, and what
1:21:14
route concepts and distributions look like. And then you start to get again into
1:21:16
alignments and personnel packages and play action and all these pieces that offenses can do.
1:21:21
You need to be able to have that versatility and that variability on defense
1:21:26
to be able to combat all of that. Like I showed in the graphic
1:21:30
in the beginning of this episode, the bills have the diversity and coverage from
1:21:32
a you should from a usage standpoint and an application standpoint to be able to
1:21:38
live in two high worlds and single high worlds man and Zone. To be
1:21:44
able to play Cover four and Cover two and Tampa two and Cover three and
1:21:47
Cover one, and be able to transition in and out of them seamlessly and
1:21:51
make them look like one another and not tip your hand is a tremendously important
1:21:58
piece for this Bills defense will continue. They just need to add a couple
1:22:01
more of those wrinkles and sprinkle in some of the tweaks that we've talked about
1:22:04
throughout this episode, again mainly from a front perspective, more diversity in their
1:22:10
fronts, and some more blitzes. Again, not change in the mold.
1:22:14
If you're a twenty five percent blitz team, you don't have to become a
1:22:16
forty five or fifty percent blitz team. But you know, overall maybe you're
1:22:20
twenty five percent, but certain weeks you ratchet it up to thirty seven,
1:22:24
thirty eight, you know, based on what your opponent is. Again,
1:22:27
not relying so much on oh, this is who we are, try and
1:22:30
beat us type of defense, leaning more into we're going to be whoever we
1:22:34
need to beat. We're going to be whoever we need to be this week
1:22:39
in order to beat you again, Rock, paper, scissors, that whole
1:22:43
philosophy. This week we need to throw rock to win. Can we throw
1:22:45
it? Yep? Next week we have to throw paper to win. Can
1:22:47
we throw it yep? Next week? After that we have to be able
1:22:50
to throw scissors. Can we throw it? That's how you got to look
1:22:54
at it. Can you throw all three consistently and with regularity? That's what
1:22:59
a good team teams do, or you know, the teams that win just
1:23:03
throw an amazing rock and they can throw it no matter what. And even
1:23:06
when you throw paper, the rock can bust through paper. But that's hard
1:23:11
and that's rare, and that's that's not something you can consistently expect from one
1:23:16
side of the ball or the other, offensively or defensively. It's hard to
1:23:19
live in that world. Speaking the worlds that we live in. We live
1:23:25
in a world if you live in Buffalo, New York, where you have
1:23:27
access to the best pizza in Buffalo, New York, and that pizza is
1:23:30
one pie Pizza. The online men you can be found in the episode show
1:23:31
notes, whether they're here, on YouTube or any one of the podcasting apps
1:23:34
or platforms that you choose to listen to this show on delicious, sweet Sauce,
1:23:39
pie cup and chart Pepperoni a great cheese and sauce ratio. They make
1:23:42
their own homemade blue cheese. They have a bunch of specialty pies, or
1:23:45
you can just go with you know, a general cheese and pepperoni pizza.
1:23:47
When you get like different toppings and pieces, they chop it all up and
1:23:50
sprinkle it evenly so you get like an even bite of all the toppings like
1:23:54
it truly is the best in Buffalo for me, which is why I partnered
1:23:58
with them. I'm not saying what I'm saying because they sponsor the show.
1:24:00
They sponsor the show because I thought their pizza was the best. I tried
1:24:04
their pizza before I agreed to have them sponsor the show. And again,
1:24:09
like I say every week, they're really good people. They do a lot
1:24:12
for the community. They do a lot for the city, a lot of
1:24:14
different drives and initiatives throughout the entire year in order to support those in need
1:24:18
in the city and community as a whole. So do your taste bloods some
1:24:21
good, do the city and the community some good. Get yourself some one
1:24:25
pipe pizza again online, men, you can be found in the episode show
1:24:28
notes, whether here on YouTube or any one of the podcasting apps or platforms
1:24:31
you choose to listen to this show on. Now I'm gonna throw up the
1:24:33
band of this as tootles folks before before any of you start to leave.
1:24:36
If you haven't already, please please please, please, please, please,
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please, please and thank you. Drop a like on this video if you
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1:24:55
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1:26:03
tuned in live for this episode of Disguise Coverage. I greatly appreciate you folks.
1:26:08
Like I say every every time I do a solo show. Last week,
1:26:10
I wasn't solo. Next week, I won't be solo either special guests
1:26:14
next week. We'll see what comes of that. But anytime I do these
1:26:15
solo episodes. It's nice to have a lot of people in the chat back
1:26:18
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1:26:21
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1:26:25
not alone. It's almost like I have, you know how, very many
1:26:27
co hosts that are riding live. So thank you very much to everyone who
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1:26:32
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1:26:54
Tell your family and friends and loved ones about how awesome this show is.
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Make them watch it. If you thought this show was terrible, you need
1:27:00
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and try and ruin their day with this show. I will see you next
1:27:08
Tuesday, nine Eastern for another episode of disguised coverage. Here again, Tuesday
1:27:14
Live nine pm Eastern. If you are watching right now on Tuesday, July
1:27:18
eleventh, or during the day Wednesday July twelfth, feel free to tune into
1:27:23
the Cover one Film Room Wednesday July twelfth, live at seven pm Eastern with
1:27:27
myself and Eric Turner, where we will be joined by day Kwon Jones from
1:27:30
the Buffalo Bills we had him on in season last year. He'll be coming
1:27:34
back for the Film Room this week, which is pretty awesome, so feel
1:27:38
free to check that out. Check out the previous episodes we've done the past
1:27:43
couple of weeks with Greg Rousseau and Kayer Elam. It's always seek to have
1:27:45
these Bills players jump into the film room with us and break down tape and
1:27:47
go over scheme, instructure and all that stuff. But until next week on
1:27:51
Disguise Coverage or until tomorrow night on the Film Room, this has been another
1:27:56
episode of Disguise Coverage. I appreciate you folks more than you will possibly no
1:28:00
thank you for all the kind words and nice things coming up in the chat
1:28:04
by myself throughout the episode and now is well. I appreciate you, folks.
1:28:08
I don't want to bring it up because I think it's corny, but
1:28:10
I see it and I appreciate it. I hope you and your family and
1:28:12
friends and loved ones are all doing well and staying safe. Be kind to
1:28:15
one another, take care of one another. I will see you next Tuesday,
1:28:18
nine pm Eastern for another episode of Disguise coverage. Until then, I'm
1:28:24
Anthony Prohaska fineman Twitter at pro Underscore, Underscore, aunt God's Speed, and
1:28:29
as always, go bills