Offenses will figure it out. Then it will be on to the next thing.

Slants and drags.

If you're running that defense, you're not sending extra pressure. And if you're not sending extra pressure, those slants/crossers/etc... will break open. And when they do you'll have guys catching balls underneath with a full head of steam and DBs that aren't allowed to kill them over the middle.

You'll just see more and more teams attack the intermediate/middle of those zones. And as that timing develops over the course of the year, it'll get more and more effective.

I do consider though 2 high safeties sitting 20 yds + back sort of like NBA centers camping in the lane.

Offenses figured it out decades ago.

They just haven't been doing it as much of late. They'll brush off some old tape and get back to what killed it back then. Start using oversized WRs in the slot again and you'll knock guys out of that in a hurry.

Or, like I suggested right before we traded Hill, put speed EVERYWHERE and attack it outside the hashes downfield. And again, with that split cover 2/4 setup, all you have to do is get one of your guys from the Cover 4 side over to the cover 2 side and he's gonna have MILES of grass to run in.

There are several ways to abuse it. Just gotta execute. Right now teams aren't executing terribly well and the entire concept of that defense is being idiot-proof. So you can play it at/near it's highest level and offenses are still trying to find their footing.

Eh.

Hit 'em in the seam with your TE or slot WR. Or run arrow routes with your backs and you'll have a wide open window about 8 yards deep as he comes out of the cut and then again at 12-14 yards as he clears the MLB. As they start to tighten up the safeties, start throwing post-corners at them.

There are just so many ways to beat this thing. It's a defense that relies on bad offensive execution to work. If you execute that Hybrid Cover 6 at the same level as the opposing offense executes, it gets wrecked.

It depends on entirely on the other offense making mistakes. As the season progresses, fewer and fewer of those mistakes will be made.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Week 1 passing touchdowns since 2018:<br><br>61: 2021, 2019<br>60<br>59<br>58<br>57<br>56<br>55<br>54<br>53<br>52: 2020<br>51: 2022<br>50<br>49: 2018<br>48<br>47<br>46<br>45<br>44<br>43<br>42<br>41<br>40<br>39<br>38<br>37: 2023<br>36<br>35: 2024</p>&mdash; Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/SharpFootball/status/1833502009657344473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Fewer practices and pre-season games means offenses are less sharp early in the season.

Kirk with some good thoughts on early bad football.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;September football is becoming what August football used to be,&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/KirkHerbstreit?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KirkHerbstreit</a> said of NFL&#39;s week one. <br><br>Why? A fascinating theory on the quarterback position and how it&#39;s changing from the high school game and beyond. <br><br>*Excellent* This Is Football ahead of Bills-Fins TNF. <a href="https://t.co/OS2OUuihRR">pic.twitter.com/OS2OUuihRR</a></p>&mdash; Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) <a href="https://twitter.com/bykevinclark/status/1833524979763450309?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I think that this season, we're going to see Andy put in a class on how to beat the Fangio defense and they will lead the league in scoring in the process. With Brown and Worthy stretching the field and Kelce and Rice in the middle, along with Pacheco in the backfjeld, that defense is going to get beat like a drum. You can't commit to stopping the over the top plays without leaving yourself vulnerable to the short and intermediate plays. Kelce and Rice are YAC monsters. They will feast now that we have the personnel to exploit it.

Yup.

You saw the gameplan against Baltimore. And once you get Hollywood out there running crossers instead of JuJu running...whatever...you'll see it fully formed.

Being able to create numbers advantages on those drags/crossers that get through the strong side of a hybrid coverage will also be a big deal. So if those backers start to cheat forward on the slants but then have Hollywood running a 12 yard drag behind them but underneath the safeties, those are gonna pop wide open on the back-side of the play.

This defense is NOT going to work against KC. At all.

Nothing worse than watching the other team run 10 minutes of clock to score a touchdown. :(

If you’re a LB or bigger safety with athletic traits that can defend the pass well and be even marginal at tackling you’ll get paid and be very valuable in this league.

Chamarri Conner is this guy at 6 ft, 200 lbs with a 6.91 3 cone and can bench 20 reps. You see why they wanted him.

You need those types of corner/safeties in this league to play in the slot or you’ll get torched like Roquan Smith.

https://youtu.be/7quyQ-N_cYM?si=4QN71ueLLpv91ilj

Give that a look, explains a lot about what happened, it's also funny that it's a year old and a bunch of these guys got fired.

That would be interesting. Mahomes is actually really good vs zone. It may help elite WRs more than elite QBs.

Just more info backing this up. Apparently defenses played 60% two-high safety looks this past weekend. Across the board teams are just playing safe on defense and daring offenses to run the ball more than ever.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;Defenses are making quarterbacks into a bunch of checkdown artists.&quot;<br><br>—<a href="https://twitter.com/minakimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@minakimes</a> on quarterback performance across the league in Week 1 ✍️ <a href="https://t.co/rnvGrngHPs">pic.twitter.com/rnvGrngHPs</a></p>&mdash; NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNNFL/status/1834345647685730651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>