Staley’s Defensive Scheme

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  • Xenos
    Moderator
    • Feb 2019
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    #37
    Here’s Popper breaking down Derwin’s 5 different roles on the team:

    After the Chargers defeated the Raiders on Monday night, Brandon Staley was discussing Derwin James’ performance — which included a win-sealing interception — when he felt the need to make an important point.

    “This guy’s doing a lot of jobs for us,” Staley said, his voice rising. “The guy’s literally playing, like, five positions for us, and he’s calling the defense. So we’re asking a lot of him.”

    Staley had just mentioned one of the few “errors” James has made all season: a 51-yard completion to Henry Ruggs III in the fourth quarter. James was playing deep-field safety on the play, and he simply got beat by Ruggs’ blazing 4.27 speed. James tipped his cap to Ruggs after the game. Staley, meanwhile, wanted to provide the media with context.

    There is no other player in the NFL doing what James is doing right now, and that is because there is no player in the NFL capable of doing what James is doing right now, physically or mentally.

    When you ask a player to play five positions, all while calling the defense in the huddle — even a player as gifted as James — a mistake is inevitable here or there.

    The more important takeaway: James embodying a Swiss Army knife on the field and making plays at all five of his positions has allowed the Chargers to weather injuries and emerge as a top 10 defense in football.

    “It’s a tall job description, and he’s one of the few guys in the entire world that can do it,” Staley said this week. “The weight of that is real, and I’m sensitive to that because if Derwin James were just doing two jobs out of five, it would be easier for him and you may see more production from him. But it wouldn’t be as good for our team. Him playing five roles for us helps us be the best defense and the best team that we can be. And that’s why he’s amazing.”

    So, what are these five positions? And how do they work within Staley’s defensive scheme?

    Let’s start with a crash course in defensive terminology.

    A package refers to a group of players, or personnel, on either side of the ball. A base package refers to a defensive personnel grouping with four defensive backs: two cornerbacks and two safeties. In Staley’s 3-4 scheme, the base package features three defensive linemen, two edge rushers, two inside linebackers and those four defensive backs. A 4-3 scheme, on the other hand, would feature four defensive linemen and three linebackers with those four defensive backs.

    Here is a look at the Chargers’ base package from the Raiders game. The players marked “DL” are the defensive linemen. The players marked “ER” are edge rushers. Those marked “CB” are cornerbacks, and “S” are safeties. Teams usually utilize their base packages against bigger offensive personnel packages. In this case, the Raiders have only one receiver in the game. Tight end Foster Moreau is lined up inline off the right tackle. Fullback Alec Ingoldis lined up inline off the left tackle. And tight end Darren Waller is lined up left, just detached from the formation.



    When the team brings on a fifth defensive back, this is known as the nickel package. This allows defenses to have a defensive back covering the slot. The package is typically used when an offense brings on three or more receivers. The defense is just matching personnel and, by extension, speed.

    In Staley’s defense, the defender covering the slot is called the Star. Here is an example of one variation of the nickel package from the Raiders game so you can see the alignment. In this variation, Staley brings on Tevaughn Campbell as the slot — or Star defender — and takes off a defensive lineman. That effectively creates a four-man front.



    Sometimes Staley will take off an inside linebacker or even an edge rusher as the substitute for the slot defender. This allows him to create different looks and packages under the umbrella of nickel. When I use the term “multiple” to describe the defense, this is part of what I am alluding to. Here is an example of a nickel package in which Staley removes an inside linebacker, leaving one linebacker, three defensive linemen and two edge rushers in the game with the five defensive backs.



    When a team brings on a sixth defensive back, it’s referred to as a dime package. Two corners. One slot defender. Two safeties. And one defensive back usually playing a hybrid linebacker-safety role, which Staley calls the Money position. Here is an example from the Raiders game:



    Like with his nickel packages, Staley will also add substitution wrinkles to his dime packages. More on this later.

    As you can see from these alignments, the Chargers operate almost exclusively out of a two-high-safety shell. That is just a fancy way of saying there are two safeties in the deep part of the field at the snap. For the Chargers, those safeties are Nasir Adderley and James — unless James is moving around, which we will get into in a minute. Adderley typically lines up on the right side, and James typically lines up on the left side.

    OK, crash course complete. Now let’s get into where James fits specifically in these packages.

    The five positions James played in the Raiders game: strongside safety, weakside safety, Star, Money and a mad-scientist invention Staley calls the “X” position.

    Because Adderley and James typically play on a specific side of the field, their responsibilities will change play to play depending on the offensive alignment and concept. James can line up on the left side on two plays. He could be a weakside safety, or free safety, on one play and a strongside safety, or strong safety, on the next.

    On this snap, the Chargers are in their base defense and James is on the weak side, away from the strength of the Raiders’ formation, where they have four of their five eligible receivers. And he is the deepest Chargers defender on the field.



    On this snap, the Chargers are in nickel with Campbell as the Star defender, and James is on the strong side, where the Raiders have more eligible receivers.



    You can clearly see the two-high-safety shells on these plays. Sometimes, though, Staley will move James closer to the line of scrimmage, an alteration on the alignment without changing the personnel.

    Here is a base package with James lining up in the box to help in run support as a strong safety:



    Here is a nickel package with James lining up closer to the line:



    When Campbell was in the game as the Star defender, James was at safety. But Staley also regularly uses a nickel package with James as the Star defender. When teams bring in a bigger player to defend the slot, it’s commonly referred to as the big nickel package.

    Before Chris Harris Jr. suffered a shoulder injury in Week 1, the Chargers could alternate between their regular nickel and big nickel packages without making a single defensive-back substitution.

    When they were in regular nickel, Harris was defending the slot at Star and James was at safety. Here is an example from the Washington game. Harris is circled in red, James in yellow.



    When they were in big nickel, the two swapped positions. Harris moved back to safety, and James moved up to Star defending the slot. Harris is circled in red, James in yellow.



    Harris’ injury, which forced him to miss the past three games, has required more moving parts. Over the last two games, when the Chargers have put their regular nickel package in the game, Campbell has been at Star with James at safety, which you can see in the previous images. When they have moved James to Star, Alohi Gilman has come on as the second safety opposite Adderley. Campbell has come off the field. Gilman is circled in blue, James in yellow.



    The fourth position James plays is Money, and this is predominantly where he plays in dime packages. The Chargers have used more dime in the past two weeks. They went from having the 18th-highest dime usage in the league in Weeks 1 and 2 to the sixth-highest usage in Weeks 3 and 4, according to TruMedia.

    As you can see in this example from the Raiders game, James, playing Money, is lined up where a linebacker would typically align, pretty much in the middle of the formation.



    The Chargers can utilize James in a number of ways from this alignment and position. Against the Raiders, they matched him up with Waller one-on-one on multiple plays out of the Money spot, including on his interception.



    James was playing outside leverage against Waller, knowing the Raiders were down two touchdowns with less than four minutes remaining. They needed to throw to the sideline to conserve time. Staley put James in position to defend the out route.



    Predictably, Waller breaks out, and James is positioned right in front of him.



    James stays glued to Waller’s hip and undercuts the route for the pick.





    In typical Staley fashion, he introduced a tweak to the dime package in the Raiders game, and that is where the “X” position comes in — the fifth and, for now, final position James plays.

    In this variation of dime, Staley has one defensive lineman, two linebackers, two edge rushers and six defensive backs in the game. As Staley explained this week, one of the linebackers is actually filling the Money role. James is playing what Staley described as a “hybrid outside linebacker job.” The Chargers have eight of their 11 defensive players pressed up at the line of scrimmage.



    At the snap, both linebackers — Drue Tranquill and Kyzir White — dropped into coverage. Defensive lineman Jerry Tillery, edge rushers Joey Bosa and Uchenna Nwosu and James rushed the quarterback. And Campbell, playing Star, comes on a blitz out of the slot.



    Facing this disguise and exotic look, Carr threw a low pass to Hunter Renfrow short of the first-down marker. Renfrow could not make the catch.



    James is playing five positions and operating at every level of this defense. He is playing in the deep part of the field. He is playing in the intermediate area of the field. He is rushing off the edge. He is playing box safety in run support. He is playing zone. He is playing man against tight ends, running backs and wide receivers.

    He is, quite literally, doing everything a defensive player can do on a football field outside of playing nose tackle.

    “He’s a special guy, and we’re just trying to maximize everything that we can out of him because he brings so much to the table,” defensive coordinator Renaldo Hill said. “It just allows us to be better in all of our spots. I think it helps out everybody on our defense with him being able to play all of those roles.”

    Comment

    • UglyTruth
      Registered Charger Fan
      • Oct 2018
      • 1681
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      #38
      Other teams have caught on to this defensive scheme. Just run the ball and win. That’s how you beat this scheme.

      It’s not all on Staley, Telesco has given him very little talent on defense.
      Tom Telesco’s Results in 9 years as Chargers GM:

      - 69-74 record
      - 0 division titles in 9 yrs as GM
      - Worst record among all active GMs with same tenure
      - 6th worst winning percentage among all active GMs overall
      - 2 playoff wins despite elite QB all 9 yrs
      - Team still has the same weaknesses (Oline and run defense) that it had when hired as GM in 2013
      - Consistently puts together horrible depth, expects starters to never miss games

      Comment

      • Xenos
        Moderator
        • Feb 2019
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        • Send PM

        #39
        Originally posted by UglyTruth View Post
        Other teams have caught on to this defensive scheme. Just run the ball and win. That’s how you beat this scheme.

        It’s not all on Staley, Telesco has given him very little talent on defense.
        Defense did its job today to win the game. Running only works if you can get TDs out of it. At a certain point, the offense needs to do it job.

        Comment

        • UglyTruth
          Registered Charger Fan
          • Oct 2018
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          #40
          Originally posted by Xenos View Post

          Defense did its job today to win the game. Offense just let it down.
          Patriots dominated Time of possession 35 to 24 largely due to them just slowly running the ball down the field. Until garbage time, they were averaging 5.2 YPC.
          Tom Telesco’s Results in 9 years as Chargers GM:

          - 69-74 record
          - 0 division titles in 9 yrs as GM
          - Worst record among all active GMs with same tenure
          - 6th worst winning percentage among all active GMs overall
          - 2 playoff wins despite elite QB all 9 yrs
          - Team still has the same weaknesses (Oline and run defense) that it had when hired as GM in 2013
          - Consistently puts together horrible depth, expects starters to never miss games

          Comment

          • Xenos
            Moderator
            • Feb 2019
            • 8819
            • Send PM

            #41
            Originally posted by UglyTruth View Post

            Patriots dominated Time of possession 35 to 24 largely due to them just slowly running the ball down the field. Until garbage time, they were averaging 5.2 YPC.
            20 points only though. And that’s the most important thing in the end.

            Comment

            • ChargersPowderBlue
              Registered Charger Fan
              • Aug 2019
              • 1780
              • Send PM

              #42
              Originally posted by Xenos View Post

              Defense did its job today to win the game. Running only works if you can get TDs out of it. At a certain point, the offense needs to do it job.
              The defense almost always allows 4 yards or more to the opponent when they run on us. It's hard to be confident in that.

              Comment

              • Xenos
                Moderator
                • Feb 2019
                • 8819
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                #43
                Originally posted by ChargersPowderBlue View Post

                The defense almost always allows 4 yards or more to the opponent when they run on us. It's hard to be confident in that.
                It is. But at the end of the day, 20 points should not haven insurmountable.

                Comment

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