A peek into what the Phil Snow defense could look like

[vorbis]

The Evolution of the Odd Dime: Baylor vs Oklahoma Pt. 1 – Coverages (2019)

so this is a hugely detailed article that you might need to take a coffee break to read. I'll post a few snippets, but it's quite an exhaustive look at how Phil Snow's defense evolved coming from Temple and adjusting to the zany Big-12 landscape. what do you think, does it maybe give a window into why the defensive roster is being organized as it is?

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Baylor took a chance on Rhule who had an NFL pedigree and a knack for turning programs around. Rhule instantly instilled a degree of discipline and toughness that the Bears desperately needed following the tumultuous roller-coaster ride that was the 2016 season

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Where Baylor was known for their offense under Briles, Rhule shifted the focus to defense. the 2019 Baylor Bears were one of the best defensive units in America, finishing eighth in Defensive Efficiency. There is always a learning curve when entering the Big 12. It takes time to understand the nuances within the conference and adjust the defense accordingly

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Snow’s defenses at Temple were usually in the top third in the country. With ’14 and ’15 ending the year in the top 30 in DEff. Similar to the trajectory at Baylor, Snow’s first year at Temple was abysmal, finishing 100th in DEff. It would take him two years at Baylor to get out of the bottom quarter of DEff in the country. Following the 2017 season, Snow and his staff understood, something had to change defensively if they were going to be successful. Many have fought the change in the Big 12, only losing their jobs in the process.

Snow and staff spent the 2017 offseason looking at the Texas defense who adopted a modified version of the Aranda system that featured up to six DBs on the field at a time. Former Texas DC Todd Orlando used a mix of Odd Dime and 3-4 principles to dominate the Big 12 defensively, finish seventh nationally in DEff in ’17. Coming from a 3-4 background, Snow used the film they had to try and build a “new” base defense. Though the 2018 Bears would feature the same 3-4 Snow had used at Temple (with worse results than 2017: 105th in DEff), the wheels of change were spinning.

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Though it took two years for the Bears defensive staff to fully embrace change, the ability to keep things similar schematically while moving to a completely different structure was key to Snow’s success

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Anytime there is a massive upheaval in a program, and athletes are asked to learn new (and quite different) tasks, there is going to be a learning curve. What is interesting to note is that under Snow, the production on defense didn’t reach pre-2017 levels until the switch to the Odd Stack. 2019 saw the Bears back to their “normal” defensive numbers

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Like many that have entered the league (Big 12), Rhule would eventually shift his defensive approach away from the normal 3-4 his DC, Phil Snow, ran at Temple and in the first two years at Baylor. The numbers speak for themselves. Personnel wise, the Bears used several hybrid-like players to make the transition happen. Instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, the Baylor coaches embraced their roster and molded their defense to fit the hybrid players they had.

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what the Odd Dime asks from the Sam, someone that can cover down and play in coverage but can blitz and insert versus the run if needed. The entire LB corp for the Bears were on the small and mobile side. Soph. Mike ‘backer Terrel Bernard is built more like an OLB (6-1 222), but can run. Sr. Will LB, Jordan Williams, is built in a similar fashion.

Secondary wise, the Bears took two former CBs in Henry Black and Graylon Arnold and moved them to Safety, with Chris Miller patrolling the center of the field as a hard-hitting “rover.” This gave the Bears the ability to be multiple in coverage and essentially field four CBs on the field. This meshed perfectly with the high use of single-high coverages that stress the seam players. Baylor doubled down on putting mobile, athletic players in the back eight and it paid off in a big way.

anyways there's a LOT more and I probably shouldn't give you a hundred quotes that you'll ignore. save the article for when you have a few minutes, it's quite enlightening, especially since we haven't heard a ton from Phil Snow on the subject. this is a great opportunity to begin to see what the new Panthers defense might very well look like. with all the spread offenses invading the NFL, it seems the Panthers' staff is well equipped to anticipate the evolution in offenses, and be prepared for it, both schematically and with personnel.

[Bostonheelfish]

 

what the Odd Dime asks from the Sam, someone that can cover down and play in coverage but can blitz and insert versus the run if needed. The entire LB corp for the Bears were on the small and mobile side. Soph. Mike ‘backer Terrel Bernard is built more like an OLB (6-1 222), but can run. Sr. Will LB, Jordan Williams, is built in a similar fashion.

Secondary wise, the Bears took two former CBs in Henry Black and Graylon Arnold and moved them to Safety, with Chris Miller patrolling the center of the field as a hard-hitting “rover.” This gave the Bears the ability to be multiple in coverage and essentially field four CBs on the field. This meshed perfectly with the high use of single-high coverages that stress the seam players. Baylor doubled down on putting mobile, athletic players in the back eight and it paid off in a big way.

Assuming our defense takes a similar design, SAM sounds like a good fit for Shaq (even better if we drafted Simmons, I do love the Brown pick BTW).  The Rover would be good for Tre Boston or Jeremy Chinn.  

[45catfan]

34 minutes ago, vorbis said:

Secondary wise, the Bears took two former CBs in Henry Black and Graylon Arnold and moved them to Safety, with Chris Miller patrolling the center of the field as a hard-hitting “rover.” This gave the Bears the ability to be multiple in coverage and essentially field four CBs on the field. This meshed perfectly with the high use of single-high coverages that stress the seam players. Baylor doubled down on putting mobile, athletic players in the back eight and it paid off in a big way.

Looks like they have big plans for my man Chinn.  It may be a rough rookie year, but I can see him being a Derwin James type of guy for us gong foward..

[45catfan]

6 minutes ago, Bostonheelfish said:

 

what the Odd Dime asks from the Sam, someone that can cover down and play in coverage but can blitz and insert versus the run if needed. The entire LB corp for the Bears were on the small and mobile side. Soph. Mike ‘backer Terrel Bernard is built more like an OLB (6-1 222), but can run. Sr. Will LB, Jordan Williams, is built in a similar fashion.

Secondary wise, the Bears took two former CBs in Henry Black and Graylon Arnold and moved them to Safety, with Chris Miller patrolling the center of the field as a hard-hitting “rover.” This gave the Bears the ability to be multiple in coverage and essentially field four CBs on the field. This meshed perfectly with the high use of single-high coverages that stress the seam players. Baylor doubled down on putting mobile, athletic players in the back eight and it paid off in a big way.

Assuming our defense takes a similar design, SAM sounds like a good fit for Shaq (even better if we drafted Simmons, I do love the Brown pick BTW).  The Rover would be good for Tre Boston or Jeremy Chinn.  

Boston needs to be the SS.  He's a downhill type of player and is best suited in off coverage when he keeps things in front of him.  Chinn will struggle at first, I have no doubt about that, but has the tools to be effective in man coverage.  Dude has all the athletic ability any coach could ask for, his success will depend on how quickly he can wrap his head around Snow's system and trust what he is seeing without hesitation/over-thinking with these NFL offenses.

[bigdavis]

1 hour ago, vorbis said:

Personnel wise, the Bears used several hybrid-like players to make the transition happen. Instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, the Baylor coaches embraced their roster and molded their defense to fit the hybrid players they had.

The draft and FA moves show this to be a feature once again in their planning.

They've acquired a lot of 'hybrid' athletes to move around in their chess game of Defense.

[theinstrumental]

My biggest takeaway: Rhule and staff had a reputation for bringing in athletes and coaching them into football players, but they are just as capable of learning and improving as their players were. I love the willingness to learn a new scheme and the ability to teach it well and maximize their players. The more I read about Rhule, Snow, and Brady, the more excited I get about the coaching foundation.

[Icege]

Parts 2 & 3 for those interested:

The Evolution of the Odd Dime: Baylor vs Oklahoma Pt. 2 – Fronts and Fits (2019)

 

The Evolution of the Odd Dime: Baylor vs Oklahoma Pt. 3 – Pressures (2019)

[07579394]

6DBs look great in pass,but weak in run,hard to tackle big RBs like Derrick Henry and higher risk to get injured

[Sgt Schultz]

15 minutes ago, theinstrumental said:

My biggest takeaway: Rhule and staff had a reputation for bringing in athletes and coaching them into football players, but they are just as capable of learning and improving as their players were. I love the willingness to learn a new scheme and the ability to teach it well and maximize their players. The more I read about Rhule, Snow, and Brady, the more excited I get about the coaching foundation.

Wait, are you saying we don't just line up our 11 defenders across from the 11 guys on offense and see who wins each play?  This is a revolutionary concept for Panther fans to see.

We are used to watching checkers games, and now we have to figure out how to watch chess?  It is a little like having watched Wheel of Fortune for 25 years, and suddenly turning on Jeopardy.

[shaqattaq]

31 minutes ago, theinstrumental said:

My biggest takeaway: Rhule and staff had a reputation for bringing in athletes and coaching them into football players, but they are just as capable of learning and improving as their players were. I love the willingness to learn a new scheme and the ability to teach it well and maximize their players. The more I read about Rhule, Snow, and Brady, the more excited I get about the coaching foundation.

Me too. I hope we can hold onto Snow and Brady for a couple of years (and yeah, I realize that i am basing this on never having seen them in action together).

[Moo Daeng]

1 hour ago, 07579394 said:

6DBs look great in pass,but weak in run,hard to tackle big RBs like Derrick Henry and higher risk to get injured

The article seems to be talking about the Odd Dime being used in the Big 12 a lot for certain coverages while concluding that the 2019 Baylor defense was a 3-3-5. 

 

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Instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, the Baylor coaches embraced their roster and molded their defense to fit the hybrid players they had.

It will be interesting to see how Burns is used given this statement.

[Khaki Lackey]

So why is Rhule talking about four man fronts and drafting 4-3 DEs? Best smokescreen ever?

[Waldo]

In two years

[bababoey]

The main takeaway I got from the whole story is that it took them a couple of years to figure out what the best way to stop the spread in the Big 12 was,  but once they did they used the guys they had the best way they could and it worked.  It doesn't mean we are going to see this defense for the Panthers next year (or ever really) it just means that Snow will find the best way to use his guys to be effective.  You might see this 3 man odd dime look on a few plays on like 3 and forever but it's not going to be a base defense for us.  Unless everyone in the NFL starts running the spread offense.