I wonder if zone-blitzing will come back into vogue.

I know it was big for a couple of years, until teams realized that DEs in coverage is usually a bad idea. However, if you go into a nickle package with guys like Houston and Hali as your DEs, you could absolutely sprint those guys out into coverage and do some exotic interior/corner blitzing to really throw things into complete chaos.

I don't think you'll get back to those Carolina Panthers defenses that utilized the lineman zone-blitz scheme as a primary option, but I wouldn't be shocked to see them out of sub packages more often.

I think we ar going to see teams look for corners who have some cover skills, but are also physical and versatile so that they can attack the line on running plays and cover the TEs on passing plays.

A hybrid corner/safety/LB

And I think Nagata is the prototype D-Lineman, who can line up anywhere on the line and make a stop or get after the passer.

Bottom line, I think versatility at all three levels of the defense is going to be the key to playing good defense as the league moves forward, even moreso than it has been in the recent past.

Not to sound like a psuedo-intellectual but Sun Tzu sort of comes to mind, where he talks about "Amorphous Forms" being the best way to configure an army.