Explain Fran Brown's Defense

[boog7]

Yes you got it. The Jack is a OLB/DE hybrid. The Star is OLB/Nickel hybrid. These two positions adds flexibility to the defense. Enables the defense to adjust and defend mutliple formations and groupings without substituting. The Jack might drop to flats, or drop in coverage during fire zone blitzes.

So I see you explained it here. Got it. Thanks for the football knowledge.

 

[Xanadu]

Why does a NT have to be 6-3. Isn't that a position where leverage is important?

6’3” is just the average of 6’2”-6’4”. There’s no hard and fast rule but difficult to find someone at 330 that can move well under 6’2” and difficult to find someone with leverage as you say above 6’4”.

 

[money3189]

Both end's are playing 4i. They occupy the B gaps. The 1 tech has strong A. The ILB #2 primary responsibility is the weakside A. Im assuming the Jack is to the right of that formation, playing the field. He will have the QB or the SS will have him

shu 49 my bad. I meant to say the star is to the right of the formation. Sorry if I confused you.

 

[Chip]

Both end's are playing 4i. They occupy the B gaps. The 1 tech has strong A. The ILB #2 primary responsibility is the weakside A. Im assuming the star is to the right of that formation, playing the field. He will have the QB or the SS will have him

 

[MikeSU02]

money3189 is on a heater in this thread.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

You and Moses Malone.

I may be the only one who even gets the reference - and I don’t care. Go Sixers!

It was a good joke.

 

[SWC75]

That was Spanish in English.

 

[shu 49]

shu 49 my bad. I meant to say the star is to the right of the formation. Sorry if I confused you.

No i got ya.

 

[cusefan88]

It's definitely a niche for this board but would love to see the asst coaches and coach Brown have social media posts about schemes.

Interesting for fans and obviously helpful for coaches and players. Don't need to reveal all the secrets but base concepts and explanations I think would be a fun series. "Coaches Classroom" get a sponsor and boom.

 

[Ringostar57]

Always liked hunting more than fishing.

 

[David332]

It's definitely a niche for this board but would love to see the asst coaches and coach Brown have social media posts about schemes.

Interesting for fans and obviously helpful for coaches and players. Don't need to reveal all the secrets but base concepts and explanations I think would be a fun series. "Coaches Classroom" get a sponsor and boom.

I miss the days of John Madden teaching viewers about football formations and assignments etc. There’s so much to football that the vast majority of fans (myself included) don’t know about.

 

[721Comstock]

Always liked hunting more than fishing.

Well, it certainly sounds a lot more badass.

Always hated “read and react” (aka - fishing, in this example) D’s.
Force the O to react to YOU.

Don’t wait to see what they wanna do and then react, you’ve already given them the edge that way.

 

[blizz]

A few points of clarification to build on what money3189 has laid out: keep in mind that the terms "Buck" (or "Bandit"), "Sam'", "Will", "Jack", "Mike", "Star", and "Money" (or "Monster") can mean different things in the context of different systems. The term "Jack" goes back to the days of running a 7-man box with a 3-4, where the Jack was the inside linebacker on the weak side. A Jack in a base 3-4 is quite a bit different from what we think of today when we use the term, being closer to a "Will" in a base 4-3 or nowadays in a 4-2-5.

A related tendency is for the terms that were used in 3-4 systems to be preserved in the systems that evolved from them and vice-versa for the systems that evolved out of the base 4-3 front. So the Jack being a 3-4 concept, systems that bear coverage responsibilities similar to a 3-4 tend to preserve the nomenclature. The same holds for 4-3 concepts, "Sam" usually denotes the strong side linebacker in a base 4-3. A great example is in a 3-3-5, the coverage responsibilities of the linebackers is nearly identical to the 4-3, so the backers in a 3-3-5 tend to carry the same descriptors: "Sam", "Mike", and "Will".

Hope this helps.

 

[blizz]

On that pick the right or weakside DE is on inside shade of tackle so he doesnt have contain and if im correct he should be QB's read. the 1 shade is on strong sides i or a gap as 3 shade is man up. im thinking this is their version against zone. How close am i Money and who would have contain if qb kept ball or does he play qb so he would have contain.

Both end's are playing 4i. They occupy the B gaps. The 1 tech has strong A. The ILB #2 primary responsibility is the weakside A. Im assuming the star is to the right of that formation, playing the field. He will have the QB or the SS will have him

The beauty of that 50 front (0-nose-Mike stack & 2 4i's) is you can play it a bunch of different ways. The playside (strong) end can spill or contain or he can even stick and 2-gap the tackle (pretty sure this is what Philly was doing with Cox lined up at 7). Same with the nose, he can 2-gap the center or rush if he sees pass, and if the call is 2-gap that would free up the mike or will to blitz if he sees the dropback. The only guy who is really locked into contain is the Jack/9, but that guy's MO is almost always "kill the ball" so it works out well.

 

[shu 49]

The beauty of that 50 front (0-nose-Mike stack & 2 4i's) is you can play it a bunch of different ways. The playside (strong) end can spill or contain or he can even stick and 2-gap the tackle (pretty sure this is what Philly was doing with Cox lined up at 7). Same with the nose, he can 2-gap the center or rush if he sees pass, and if the call is 2-gap that would free up the mike or will to blitz if he sees the dropback. The only guy who is really locked into contain is the Jack/9, but that guy's MO is almost always "kill the ball" so it works out well.

i thought i knew stuff. U and money know waymore than i do. I love it. Always learning. So in my head we are gonna run more man than zone on the outside but what about inside. 2 man and 1 deep Zone safety or high man.

 

[tep624]

Wondering as we talked this out, where does a guy like Maraad Watson at his size fit? Has to be NT right? That’s why I still think we’re going to have NT as part of the DL scheme.

He’s 6’3 285 and you work him up to 320ish and he’s prototypical NT size.

 

[CPark Orange]

We want to HUNT

 

[shu 49]

Wondering as we talked this out, where does a guy like Maraad Watson at his size fit? Has to be NT right? That’s why I still think we’re going to have NT as part of the DL scheme.

He’s 6’3 285 and you work him up to 320ish and he’s prototypical NT size.

He can still be a nt. usually the difference is nt is a plugger or 2 gap player and a 3 shade although these guys may move them around a bit is a big athlete that can stop the run and get the qb. Aaron Donald is the guy i think of as a perfect 3.

 

[tep624]

He can still be a nt. usually the difference is nt is a plugger or 2 gap player and a 3 shade although these guys may move them around a bit is a big athlete that can stop the run and get the qb. Aaron Donald is the guy i think of as a perfect 3.

Yeah it will be interesting to see how the line develops over time. If it looks a little different this year than it does in say 2-3 years as the staff continues to recruit specific to this system.

 

[CbusCuse]

Yeah I was thinking similarly about Watson. Think he will get bigger and be closer to the prototype NT. I think the staff would take a good 320 lb NT right now from the portal if he was available but may roll with basically another DT type there in 2024.

This is still a lot more beef on the DL than we have been playing with and should be fine against almost all of the teams we play. Once you play teams like OSU, UGA, Alabama, and Michigan with elite OL size/talent though not having a true NT would hurt a bit.

 

[721Comstock]

Yeah I was thinking similarly about Watson. Think he will get bigger and be closer to the prototype NT. I think the staff would take a good 320 lb NT right now from the portal if he was available but may roll with basically another DT type there in 2024.

This is still a lot more beef on the DL than we have been playing with and should be fine against almost all of the teams we play. Once you play the OSU’s, UGA’s, Alabamas and Michigans with elite OL size/talent though it having a true NT would hurt a bit.

Agreed 144%.

Ideally we’d have that massive, athletic dude at NT.
But we prolly won’t this year, unless Fran, ERob et al pull another rabbit out of the hat.

We now have a BUNCH of dudes in the 275-290+ range tho -
Which is a lot more than what we’ve had for over a decade.

I’m sure ERob & NickWill can work with that, until they’re able to get all of the type of guys they’d want.

 

[007]

Agreed 144%.

Ideally we’d have that massive, athletic dude at NT.
But we prolly won’t this year, unless Fran, ERob et al pull another rabbit out of the hat.

We now have a BUNCH of dudes in the 275-290+ range tho -
Which is a lot more than what we’ve had for over a decade.

I’m sure ERob & NickWill can work with that, until they’re able to get all of the type of guys they’d want.

Massive athletic "dudes" at NT that are able to anchor against double teams AND still be able to shed and effect the QB are unicorns, even for the bluest of blue bloods. Instead, it looks like the staff is targeting athletic 6-4 290 types that can play anywhere on the DL.