I'm a student of the game of football and a film junky. I enjoy breaking down film, dissecting schemes, and making projections based on the research. I've coached my two nephews over the past 6 years through each of their 6th, 7th, and 8th grade seasons (they are 3 years apart in age), and have been a UGA and Falcons fan since 1980.

Over on some Falcons boards we like to get into some technical discussions and of course every off season we breakdown the depth chart and make projections. Some folks asked me to try and explain Dan Quinn's run and pass rush defensive schemes and I did, and thought some of you might enjoy reading about it over here as well.

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There's been quite a few changes this off-season to our front 7 (or actually 8) and there are enough articles and quotes out there now coming directly from Quinn and the coaching staff that they can be broken down by position and likely number of snaps pretty accurately. I'll separate them by base and nickel and show pictures of each from last year and then explain where the changes have happened, along with making some snap count projections based on researching last year's snap breakdown as well as analyzing Seattle's snap breakdown when Quinn was there.

We ran around 1,000 snaps on defense total last year, so I'm going to use this to base snap percentages on since it's a nice round number. Understand that we ran about 30% of snaps in our BASE, about 60% in Nickel, and 10% in other's like dime or goal line or some type of hybrid redzone formation.

Here is a reference for gaps and techniques:

This is our BASE 4-3 UNDER formation. It looks very similar to a 5-2 except it varies quite a bit in gap/technique placement and job duties, so it's simply labeled differently. We are in this defense about 30% (~300) of our snaps. Typically on 1st down and sometimes on other's depending on down, distance, and circumstance. This defense is mostly designed to defend the run, but there is no rule that says an offense can't pass when we're in our Base defense. Offenses actually throw on us about 35% (~100 of 300 snaps) of the time we line up in this formation.

As you can see, Dallas is in a two-TE set. There's technically not a strong side (SS) or weak side (WS). But as you can see in this picture, Trufant is in the second layer behind Stupar. That's because the two WR's are on the wide/open side of the field and Tru essentially becomes a box safety in this case, containing the short/closed side run and zone pass coverage around his side.

Our base formation last year consisted of:

LEO: Beasley/Biermann in the 9T on the open/weak side.
WDT: Hageman/Clayborn/Jarrett in the 3T on the open/weak side.
NT: Soliai in the 1T on the closed/strong side.
SDE: Jackson/Babineaux/Clayborn in the 4T on the closed/strong side.
SAM: Stupar/Schofield in the 9T on the closed/strong side.
WILL: Durant/Wheeler in 2nd layer on open/weak side.
MIKE: Worrilow in middle 2nd layer leaning open/weak side.
SS: Moore/Ishmael in 2nd layer on closed/strong side.

And this year's likely depth, approximate snap count, and formation priority at each of these will likely be:

LEO/9T: Reed (150) | Clayborn (150) - 1. contain edge run, 2. rush passer
WDT/3T: Jackson (150) | Shelby (150) - 1. B-gap contain run, 2. B-gap rush passer
NT/1T: Jarrett (200) | Mbu (100) - 1. A+A-gap contain run, 2. A-gap rush passer
SDE/4T: Hageman (200) | Babineaux (100) - 1. B+C-gap contain run, 2. B-gap rush passer
SAM/9T: Beasley (150) | Upshaw (150) - 1. contain edge run, 2. rush passer, 3. pass cover TE
WILL: Spoon (150) | Campbell (100) | Wheeler (50) - 1. contain run flow, 2. zone pass coverage
MIKE: Worrilow (150) | Jones (150) - 1. contain run flow, 2. zone pass coverage
SS: Neal (200) | Ishmael (100) - 1. follow run flow, 2. zone/man coverage

Notice Reed moving from SLB to LEO. Clayborn moving from DT/3T to LEO. Jackson moving from DE/4T to DT/3T. Jarrett moving from DT/3T to NT/1T. Hageman moving from DT/3T to DE/4T. Beasley moving from LEO to SAM. And Spoon taking over at WILL. Plus the additions of Neal taking over at SS, Jones who should split pretty evenly with Worrilow in the middle, and Campbell who will get some snaps at WILL, especially with the injury-prone Spoon there.

This post was edited on 5/24/16 at 10:20 am

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Posted by BeefDawg

Atlanta

Member since Sep 2012

4747 posts

Posted on 5/24/16 at 10:10 am to BeefDawg

This is our Nickel formation. We are in this defense about 60% (~600) of our snaps. Typically on 2nd and 3rd down, but sometimes others depending on down, distance, and circumstance. This is a passing league and the average ratio for pass to run in the league is 61% to 39%. That's why we spend so much time in this defense. However, offenses do run on us while in this defense about 33% (~200 of 600 snaps) of the time we line up in this formation.

As you can see, Dallas is lined up in a spread shot gun set with 4 WR's and no TE. As a result, yet again there technically is no strong side. Each tackle has a DE, each guard has a DT, and the center and RB look for any stunts or blitzes from the interior->out.

Our nickel formation last year consisted of:

LDE: Beasley/Biermann in the wide-9T standing on the open side.
LDT: Clayborn/Hageman/Jarrett in the 4T on the open side.
RDT: Babineaux/Jackson in the 4T on the closed side.
RDE: Schofield/Stupar in the wide-9T on the closed side.
WOLB: Durant/Wheeler on the open side.
MLB: Worrilow in the middle leaning closed side.
SS: Moore/Ishmael in the flat covering the slot or WR4.

Note that the SS in this formation floats to the strong side usually unless there is the unusual circumstance like this one where there are 4 WR's and no TE. The SS will very often be in the box in this picture ready to cover the TE coming off the line or RB out of the backfield, or turn into a LB on running plays, and sometimes even blitzing/stunting.

And this year's likely depth, approximate snap count, and formation priority at each of these will likely be:

LDE/9T: Beasley (500) | Upshaw (100) - 1. edge rush passer, 2. contain edge run
LDT/4T: Shelby (300) | Jarrett (300) - 1. B-gap rush passer, 2. B-gap contain run
RDT/4T: Babineaux (300) | Hageman (300) - 1. B-gap rush passer, 2. B-gap contain run
RDE/9T: Clayborn (350) | Reed (250) - 1. edge rush passer, 2. contain edge run
WOLB: Spoon (250) | Campbell (200) | Wheeler (150) - 1. zone coverage, 2. A-gap contain run
MLB: Worrilow (300) | Jones (300) - 1. zone coverage, 2. A-gap contain run
SS: Neal (450) | Ishmael (150) - 1. zone/man coverage, 2. follow run flow

Notice Clayborn moving from LDT to RDE opposite Beasley. Shelby and Jarrett splitting snaps at LDT. Babs and Hageman splitting snaps at RDT. Worrilow and Jones splitting snaps at MLB. And Campbell will slowly but surely take over more snaps at at WOLB as the season progresses, especially if Spoon gets injured, which is very likely.

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Now i'm going to add 50 snaps to each player to account for the 10% of dime and goal line snaps, then tally up the overall defensive snap counts per player this year compared to last year:

LDE/SAM: Beasley - 700 (539)
LDE/SAM: Upshaw - 300 (799 - Baltimore)
RDE/LEO: Clayborn - 550 (523)
RDE/LEO: Reed - 450 (345 - injured part of season)
SDE/RDT: Babineaux - 450 (549)
SDE/RDT: Hageman - 550 (419)
WDT: Jackson - 200 (453)
LDT/WDT: Shelby - 500 (836 - Miami)
LDT/NT: Jarrett - 550 (267)
NT: Mbu - 100 (64)
WOLB/WILL: Spoon - 450 (126 - Arizona, injured)
WOLB/WILL: Wheeler - 250 (96)
WOLB/WILL: Campbell - 350 (0 - rookie)
MLB/MIKE: Worrilow - 500 (873)
MLB/MIKE: Jones - 500 (0 - rookie)
SS: Neal - 700 (0 - rookie)
SS: Ishmael - 300 (375)

If you go look at the breakdown of Seattle's defensive snaps in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, it was split up very similar to this. Quinn kept a 2-man rotation at virtually every position and essentially flip-flopped them between starting in the base and starting in the nickel. Avril, Clemons, and Irvin each averaged about 70% of total snaps between the LEO, SAM, LDE, and RDE. The rest of the starters averaged between 40-60% of total snaps, which confirms a very healthy rotation, especially on the interior.

I also wouldn't have normally put the 4th round rookie OLB with so many snaps, but I'm pretty confident Spoon won't see 500, and Wheeler didn't even get 100 last year, so I'm not going to assume he gets a ton either. In fact, I think there's a chance that UDFA Ivan McClennon makes the team and might even get some play time at OLB and maybe even LEO if we have any injuries in the linebacking corps.

Things I'm most interested in seeing are Beasley going up against TE's quite a bit on that strong side in the SAM rather than facing a tackle every down at LEO. I also really like the idea of Shelby in the 1-gap penetrator inside 4T role. Dude is really athletic and quick for 6'3 275 and has gotten much stronger since entering the league. I think he's going to give OG's fits on the inside. I'm also really hoping Clayborn and Reed coming off the edge in pass rush will be an improvement over Biermann and Schofield. Although I'm much more skeptical about this move than any of the others. Quinn is insisting that a healthy Reed looks great in pass rush and Clayborn is more natural coming off the edge, so we will see.

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Posted by WG_Dawg