LIVE Patriots Daily: Dissecting the NFL's Hottest Defensive Innovation w/ Ted Nguyen
Taylor Kyles from CLNS Media teams up with Ted Nguyen, an NFL Staff Writer for The Athletic, to discuss Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald's innovative new system, which New England will be seeing quite a few times in 2024.
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 What's going on everyone?
00:20 Taylor Kyle's here with another episode of Pat's Daily.
00:22 The second one today, trying to give you guys all the content you can handle.
00:26 Brought to you by our good friends at PrizePicks and GameTime.
00:30 To this, in this episode, I'm joined by a very special guest,
00:34 friend of the show, Ted Nguyen of The Athletic.
00:36 Who recently wrote an extremely interesting piece on Mike McDonald and
00:40 some innovations he's making on the defensive side of the ball.
00:43 That we're likely gonna see start permeating throughout the NFL.
00:46 And maybe might see something like that from the Patriots, who knows.
00:49 But at the very least,
00:51 considering the Patriots are playing a lot of people from that Mike McDonald tree.
00:55 Something I wanted to make sure we were all tapped into.
00:58 Before we get into all that good stuff, Ted, how you doing brother?
01:01 And welcome back to the show.
01:03 >> I'm doing good, just enjoying kind of a dead period.
01:05 But starting to go to practices and mini camps.
01:08 So I mean, football's a year round sport, right?
01:10 But we get to relax a little bit during this time of year.
01:14 >> Yeah, the football calendar is hard to explain to people who aren't actively
01:17 working.
01:18 And it's like, you're in the off season now.
01:19 It's like, nope, not really.
01:21 There's like about a month you get to yourself.
01:23 But hey man, keep the content machine going, I'm all for it.
01:26 Now, before we do get into Mike McDonald, I haven't had you on the show since
01:30 the season we were talking about the preview game.
01:33 So I wanna get your thoughts on the Patriots off season thus far.
01:37 Obviously a ton of turnover with Belichick no longer running things.
01:40 You got Gerard May in charge, Elliott Wolfe now running the personnel department.
01:44 We saw him for agency, big emphasis on retaining players even after for agency.
01:49 We saw him extend Christian Farmore, David Andrews.
01:51 Really trying to retain those key players on the team.
01:54 And then in the draft, they go offensive heavy,
01:56 seven out of their eight picks on the offensive side of the ball.
01:59 Double dip at quarterback, wide receiver, offensive line.
02:02 Got themselves a tight end, a cornerback in Marcellus Dial.
02:05 This team's looking a lot different than it did this time last season.
02:09 So what did you think about how the Patriots have kind of retooled,
02:12 not just the roster, but their entire team?
02:13 >> Yeah, I think defensively they're gonna be strong just because they have some
02:18 difference makers on that side of the ball.
02:21 And it's Rod Mayo's defensive minded head coach.
02:23 So I'm not worried about that side of the ball.
02:25 And I think we talked about this a little bit.
02:28 But with the offensive line, I mean, there are some question marks.
02:32 There's some potential on the offensive line.
02:34 But there's some moving parts around there and
02:37 the protections are a bit of a question mark.
02:39 And at receiver, they added a couple pieces, but they are rookies.
02:43 Jalen Polk, I really like his game.
02:45 I think he is a good all around receiver that gives them kind of
02:49 a downfield intermediate threat that they were kind of missing.
02:53 And obviously adding Javon Baker later,
02:57 he is a guy that can beat press covers as well.
03:00 When you have the Mario Douglas and KJ Osborne guys that are some yak guys.
03:05 We'll see if Juju Schuster is healthy.
03:08 If he's healthy,
03:09 then he can give you a guy that can work that intermediate part of the field too.
03:14 So there's some potential offensively, but
03:16 there's some question marks that we won't know exactly how things are gonna shake
03:21 out until the season starts.
03:24 But there's no bona fide number one receiver or weapon that you could say
03:29 that we know is gonna perform and just command attention when the season starts.
03:35 But I mean, there's potential, so we'll see what happens.
03:38 >> Yeah, for sure.
03:39 I feel like the only way this team is really gonna exceed expectation is if
03:42 those young receivers can make some kind of impact, become regular contributors.
03:46 But still very early on.
03:47 Now I am curious what your thoughts are on the quarterback situation.
03:50 Obviously, Jacoby Bursette,
03:52 probably gonna start the season as the number one guy.
03:54 But Drake May, plenty smart, plenty talented.
03:57 If he does come on strong in training camp in the preseason,
04:00 maybe he shakes things up.
04:02 Or if he continues to grow during the season, we'll see him start to take
04:04 the reins.
04:05 Do you have any thoughts on when we might finally see him as the team starter?
04:09 Or do you think it's gonna be a timeline thing,
04:12 maybe it's just behind the scenes with his development?
04:14 Any thoughts there?
04:16 >> To me, I think Drake May isn't as far away from being a starter as people think.
04:21 He does need some refinement as far as his footwork.
04:23 And obviously, this is gonna be an offense that is gonna be very
04:28 new compared to what he learned at North Carolina.
04:31 And I mean, you could make the argument that it was very far from
04:37 a pro style type of offense as far as the footwork he needs to learn.
04:41 And protections and all those things.
04:44 So just getting a grasp of that, it's gonna be big for
04:47 him just that he's not mentally swimming.
04:49 And just kind of refining that footwork.
04:52 I think that was a big issue for him in college.
04:54 But we've seen so many quarterbacks in recent years really correct their footwork
04:59 when we get to the next level.
05:01 So it's not a make or break type of trait.
05:04 Which is why I think Drake May is probably closer than expected.
05:08 I think he should play this year at some point.
05:10 I don't know at what point, if it's gonna be midseason,
05:13 is it gonna be three or four games into the season?
05:17 Maybe he advances further than people expect in a preseason,
05:20 maybe take a starting job.
05:21 But I definitely think that he's a player that needs to get reps.
05:24 And I think he can safely get reps without hurting his confidence this season.
05:29 >> I like that, I like a lot of that.
05:32 All right, now, let's get into the topic of the show.
05:34 Mike McDonald in this innovative new defensive system.
05:37 Before we dive into the meat and potatoes of the actual defense,
05:41 give us some background on Mike McDonald himself.
05:43 So we have some understanding of how he kind of came to the point where he is
05:47 breeding this kind of new way of pulling plays in the NFL for his defenses.
05:53 >> Yeah, so McDonald has NFL background.
05:56 He coached under DNPs and
05:58 Quink Bartendale with the Ravens for a long time.
06:02 And that's where he learned a lot of his scheme.
06:04 That's where he learned a lot of his pressures.
06:06 He helped kind of streamline the system for them while he was there.
06:10 Then he went to Michigan.
06:11 And when he went to Michigan, he got to kind of experiment and
06:15 really hone in on what he wants to do.
06:17 And then he went to the NFL.
06:19 And there's a plenty of intrigue to how he's gonna run a system and
06:24 what it's gonna look like.
06:26 And it took maybe half a season in his first season for
06:30 that defense to really get going.
06:32 But once they learned it,
06:33 they obviously became one of the best defenses in the league.
06:37 Last season, they were number one in several categories.
06:41 So I think the unique thing about his system, it isn't like the Seattle's
06:45 Cover 3 system where you know what you're gonna get.
06:48 It's gonna be Cover 3.
06:49 There's hallmarks of that system.
06:52 His system is more a teaching system that allows them to be extremely multiple and
06:58 present offenses with a ton of different looks.
07:01 So even though he did a certain thing with the Ravens,
07:05 you can apply different schemes within this teaching system.
07:09 And just kind of mix things up in a way that maybe older,
07:14 more archaic defenses had a hard time doing.
07:17 >> And that whole defensive philosophy, I think, is really fascinating,
07:20 especially as it relates to the Patriots.
07:22 Now, there's not a ton of connections right now with the staff, but
07:25 with D&P's obviously, former Patriots guy and
07:28 the New England's emphasis on being multiple, especially with communication.
07:31 That's something that Gerard Mayo has harped on a lot.
07:33 It is kind of fascinating to see that you're starting to see kind of what seems
07:38 like, based on reading your story, kind of like an Earnhardt Perkins kind of system.
07:42 Where in New England in the offense, you'd see,
07:44 the best example is probably Haas-Duke.
07:46 Where you have one word or set of words, and that tells everybody on the field what
07:51 their responsibility is, and allowed New England back in their heyday,
07:54 especially in 2011, to go with that up-tempo, no-huddle kind of offensive
07:58 system, where you're just attacking and you're shouting out one word.
08:01 And everybody's on the same page, and it's just so hard for the defense to keep up.
08:05 So how does that philosophy of teaching, of getting guys on the same page, and
08:09 obviously bringing pressure, but not in the same way that we're kind of seeing it
08:12 more, Brian Flores system, where it's a lot of cover zero.
08:15 How does that translate to some of the innovations that you've seen?
08:18 >> Yeah, I think that's a great comparison.
08:20 And if you actually look at the blitz numbers for the Ravens,
08:23 they don't blitz nearly as much as people think.
08:25 They actually rank 22nd in blitz rate, bringing five or more defenders.
08:31 And they run a ton of simulated pressures, which means they're rushing four,
08:36 but one of those rushes is coming from a second, third level,
08:40 which means one or two defensive linemen are gonna drop into coverage.
08:45 So they don't actually blitz that much, but when they do,
08:49 they do it from places that are unexpected.
08:53 A lot of offensive coordinators or people that study,
08:56 even off the blind that studied them, really credit them for
09:00 being able to bring pressures where the officers don't see it coming.
09:05 They're able to do a good job of getting a protection slide one way and
09:09 bring pressure from another direction.
09:11 Or they just presented a ton of different looks.
09:13 And in the article I wrote, I compared him to what Sean McVay did with
09:19 the ramp early on when he first took over the ramp, they ran a 10 of 11 personnel.
09:24 They didn't run a lot of formations.
09:25 They only ran maybe four or five formations kind of as their base.
09:30 But they were able to run all of their plays from those formations.
09:34 And they're also able to add layers like different motion shifts and
09:38 switch around the personnel from those formations.
09:41 So when you do that, you just don't have a lot of tells for the opponent.
09:46 So what McDonald does is he teaches blitz patterns.
09:49 Like you mentioned, kind of like Hawks,
09:52 you kind of know what everybody's gonna do in those pass patterns.
09:55 So when he teaches his blitzes, he's teaching blitz patterns.
09:58 And everybody kind of has to know what each other are doing.
10:02 So you can switch jobs.
10:03 And then you could run those blitz patterns from different fronts.
10:07 So a front tells defensive lineman where they need to line up,
10:11 linebackers where they need to line up.
10:13 And you could mix those blitz patterns with whatever front you want.
10:17 And although it seems like a simplistic thing, it's not because typically
10:21 defenses are learning blitzes.
10:24 And when they learn blitzes, they're learning it attached to fronts.
10:27 So every time they need to switch something up, they have to learn a new blitz.
10:31 But with this system, when you're learning patterns and
10:34 you're learning what each other are doing, you could just mix in a different front.
10:38 And we'll look at a couple of examples of that in a second.
10:41 But what that does, it just presents a lot of different things from offense.
10:45 Every time an offense sees another front, they have to prepare for, okay,
10:49 maybe this guy's coming, maybe this guy's coming because we saw this on film.
10:53 But all of a sudden, if you're going from week to week and
10:55 switching what you're doing from those fronts,
10:57 it's really hard for an offense to prepare for.
11:00 >> Now, I remember last year with Cole Strange,
11:02 there was a pressure that he let up against the Dolphins in week two.
11:05 His first game back, he missed a ton of time during the summer program.
11:08 And he let the guy straight through.
11:09 And Cole Strange, he's a pretty smart guy.
11:11 So I asked him after the game, hey, was that just like, did you make a mistake or
11:16 was there miscommunication?
11:17 And he was like, no, they just sent a pressure that out of that front.
11:20 I hadn't seen it before, so I wasn't expecting the guy to actually come.
11:23 Then you just take one step and the guy's already in the backfield blowing up the
11:26 play.
11:27 So to your point, when you're showing fronts, not only multiple fronts,
11:30 which guys have prepared for and that's a lot already.
11:32 But when it's a different type of pressure week to week,
11:36 that's a lot for guys to prepare for.
11:37 And it kind of puts offenses in a position where sometimes you're standing there
11:40 going, I don't know what I was supposed to do.
11:42 Like we've been learning this all week.
11:44 Lo and behold, they send something completely different.
11:46 So we're actually gonna get into the film and see how it translates.
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12:51 [MUSIC]
12:57 All right, so we got some film examples of these types of Mike McDonald pressures.
13:01 So Ted, feel free to pull that up and we'll dive right into it.
13:03 I'm excited to hear what you got to say.
13:06 >> All right, so we're gonna look at a couple examples
13:12 from the Raven Seahawks game from last season.
13:18 And we're gonna look at one of the Ravens' most popular pressures, and
13:22 that's gonna be a pick stump.
13:24 And it's one that teams have really struggled to pick up.
13:29 And it's one that Justin Matabute and Patrick Green just feasted on last season.
13:34 So first, we're gonna look at the situation.
13:37 It's gonna be third and 11 from the four to six yard line.
13:41 And let's look at the coverage structure.
13:44 So one thing that McDonald does a little differently than Martindale or
13:48 Dean Pease is they run a lot of their pressures out of one high structures.
13:52 And McDonald kind of mixes what he does with kind of those Fangio principles.
13:57 And he runs a ton of two highs, so he's blitzing and
13:59 running those simulated pressures from two high.
14:02 And from those two high structures, he can rotate into one high.
14:07 And here we're actually gonna see a three high structure, which is kind of collegey.
14:10 And they're gonna rotate into a one high defense from this coverage structure.
14:16 And the Seahawks, so one thing this type of defense does, and
14:21 when it can be this multiple, it forces offenses to,
14:26 it limits offenses and what they can do.
14:27 Because sometimes you're just gonna have to get into a seven fan pass crowd and
14:33 just use your rules to pick up blitzes because you don't know where it's coming
14:36 from. When you have a better idea of where it's coming from,
14:39 you can get away with being in six man protection and
14:42 guiding the back to where they need to be or throwing it hot.
14:45 But when you don't know, you're kind of stuck in the seven man protection world,
14:49 which means you only have three receivers downfield.
14:51 And when you only have three receivers downfield on third and
14:53 11, that's a hard world to live in.
14:56 So that's what the Seahawks are doing.
14:57 They're gonna put, I think that's a tight end and running back in the backfield.
15:01 They're gonna have a three man route structure.
15:04 And then the Ravens are gonna have one, two, three, four, five, six coverage.
15:10 So on third and 11, you have six in coverage against three receivers.
15:14 And as you can imagine, that's pretty hard to win,
15:17 even with two really good receivers like Lockett and DK Metcalf.
15:22 And they do a good job, the defense does a good job of locking them up and
15:25 then you have to sack.
15:27 So let's look at the front.
15:29 And this front is one of the, McDonald doesn't run a ton of fronts.
15:34 Like that Sean McVay example, he didn't run a ton of formations.
15:37 McDonald doesn't run a ton of fronts, but out of those fronts,
15:40 you can be extremely multiple, run all your pressures and move players around.
15:44 So here you have an overload front,
15:46 which just means you have three defensive linemen on one side.
15:49 And that's gonna force the offense to slide their protection that way,
15:53 because obviously you want your bigs on bigs.
15:56 And then you're gonna have Roquan Smith mugged up on the A gap, and
16:01 then you're gonna have Patrick Queen who's gonna creep up into the line.
16:05 And Pierce, who is lined up as, can you see my mouse by the way?
16:11 >> Yeah, I can see it.
16:12 >> Okay, yeah, so Pierce is lined up at the one technique.
16:15 His job, this guy's job in this pressure pattern, and
16:19 we'll see somebody else do it on the next example.
16:21 His job is to get the center to step away from Madibuke and Queen.
16:27 That creates space for Madibuke and Queen to get their pick stunt going.
16:33 And you can see both blockers in a backfield are gonna be focused on Queen to
16:39 see him coming.
16:40 And Queen's job is to hit that inside shoulder of the guard and
16:45 free up Madibuke to get inside.
16:47 So he's gonna hit the guard, you're gonna have two players on him,
16:53 which leaves nobody for Madibuke who's gonna get in free and get the sack.
16:57 So essentially, Queen is gonna take three players out.
17:00 He's gonna take the guard out, and he's gonna take both blockers on the backfield
17:04 out, and that's gonna leave Madibuke one of the best young defensive tacklers in
17:08 the league, wide open for sack.
17:11 So you really mess with the numbers advantage there.
17:13 You have a six on three coverage, and then you have three on one
17:19 against Queen, which leaves you with a free runner,
17:23 even though you're in seven man pass group.
17:25 And you can see how this is a very hard type of pressure and
17:29 hard system to prepare for.
17:31 >> Yeah, I remember, I think I was preparing for the Chargers game and
17:34 saw the Ravens were just using a ton of these.
17:36 I remember there was one where, I forget if it was Queen or Roquan Smith, but
17:40 they were trying to pick, and it worked so well.
17:43 They actually got wide open and had a straight path for the quarterback.
17:45 Remember, he looked back and was like, wait, I could have just kept going.
17:49 It was like a little glitch.
17:49 But another thing I noticed, one, completely unfair to have someone like
17:53 Roquan Smith who can carry in the middle and just run with Jadson Smith and
17:57 Ajigba right on the ball, that's not cool.
18:00 But also one of the things is even though you have seven in protection,
18:03 you're trying to muck up the middle to make sure that when you know these
18:05 pick stunts are coming, you don't wanna just let these guys come right down
18:09 the middle of the defense.
18:10 But also it frees up the edge guys too,
18:12 cuz there's not a lot of help you can give them if you're trying to come up
18:15 the middle.
18:16 So on top of having to deal with that, if you have good edge rushers,
18:19 they get one on one opportunities.
18:21 Absolute nightmare scenario for a defense, man, this is tough.
18:24 >> Yeah, and that's why guys like Kyle Van Nooy and
18:27 Jadon Cownie had career years playing in the defense.
18:30 Because we saw a ton of true one on ones with no chip help,
18:34 because those running backs have to worry about other things.
18:37 >> And you mentioned Van Nooy, what this reminds me of,
18:39 the Patriots overload front.
18:40 I think they just call it a load front.
18:42 They use a ton of this too,
18:43 especially when you're talking about the second dynasty, which Kyle Van Nooy was
18:46 obviously a part of, where you'd have guys like Jamie Collins and Dante Hightower.
18:50 And they would create so much trouble in the middle.
18:53 And you did see with Kyle Van Nooy,
18:54 he's so good at capitalizing on those opportunities.
18:57 When you've got linebackers and penetrating interior defensive linemen
19:01 who create a ton of havoc on their own.
19:03 And then you're just like, win your matchup.
19:05 And then it's just a ton of things for the offense to prepare for.
19:08 So, anything, you got any other clips or is that the main one?
19:12 >> Yeah, we'll look at one more.
19:14 >> Let's go.
19:15 Spoiling me, Ted, but I appreciate it.
19:18 [LAUGH] >> Yeah, so like I mentioned,
19:22 you're able to run so many different type of pressures from different fronts.
19:32 So that presents problems for the defense, for the offense and
19:36 protection scheme.
19:37 So now you're gonna be in a classic wide double A gap mug front.
19:42 And when you see that front, you're expecting maybe a zero pressure or
19:47 your classic center read pressure.
19:51 But then they run their pickstunt out of it.
19:55 So again, maybe they're not expecting to see pickstunt out of this type of front.
20:02 But because of the way the Ravens do things,
20:04 they can easily call this type of defense with this front.
20:08 And now, Roquefran Smith is gonna be on the overload side.
20:12 So he's playing Antonio Pierce's role, and
20:14 he's gonna take the center away from the pickstunt.
20:17 Queen and Matabuke are doing the same thing.
20:19 And then you're gonna have Jadavian Clowney dropping into coverage.
20:23 So you can see that's the pattern for this particular type of pressure.
20:28 This is the pressure pattern.
20:29 Everybody knows what each other are doing.
20:31 So it's very easy for Queen to switch roles with Pierce,
20:35 because he understands what Pierce's role is in this type of pressure.
20:40 >> And do you know any of the specific names they use?
20:43 Is it something where you hear it, and then everybody immediately knows,
20:47 cuz the way it sounds, kinda like how you have a NASCAR package, where you hear it,
20:50 and you're like, you want speed.
20:52 Is there any kind of terminology like that?
20:54 >> I can't give away the exact names they use, but
20:57 I can tell you that names are a very important part of this system as well.
21:03 Because they purposely name things just to make it easier for
21:09 players to understand what kind of world they're in.
21:12 So in defense, and in football in general, but more so on the defensive side,
21:18 you have all this terminology from different eras, from different systems.
21:23 And they kind of get garbled together in this big old Frankenstein type of playbook.
21:28 So what McDonald has done is he really kind of streamlined the naming and
21:32 categorization of these pressures.
21:34 So for example, let's say just as a example,
21:40 if you have an NBA team name, so all these players know, all right,
21:45 if it's an NBA team name, then we know we're in this type of pressure pattern.
21:50 We know, for example, we're in this pick stump type of world.
21:54 And then if we hear, let's say, what's a team name?
22:01 What's the NBA team name with the M?
22:02 Is there one with the M?
22:03 >> Magic.
22:05 >> Yeah, Magic.
22:06 There you go. So the first letter of Magic is M.
22:09 So we know the Mike is gonna be the guy who picks the tackle.
22:14 So NBA team name, we know we are in this pick stump world.
22:17 First letter M, we know the Mike is the guy who's gonna set the stump.
22:21 So it's things like that that kind of make it a little bit easier on players.
22:26 >> So I wanna see, run through this and see how it actually works out.
22:29 But I'm also curious afterwards, if there's anything that you've seen where
22:32 people have had success actually countering this so far.
22:35 If it's just kind of one of those things that's so new,
22:37 we're probably not gonna see that kind of progress until next season.
22:39 >> Yeah, so again, the first part is gonna be Smith,
22:45 who's gonna take the center away from the play.
22:49 And he's gonna be mugged up first.
22:51 So the Lions slide towards him exactly what they want.
22:54 He's gonna take the center away and that's gonna create space for
22:58 Queen and Madibuke.
22:59 This time, the running back is out in a route.
23:04 So there's really nobody to help on this situation and
23:07 Madibuke is gonna be stop free again.
23:10 He doesn't quite get the sack this time.
23:12 But anytime you have a free runner, it's gonna be tough for
23:17 the quarterback that have to deal with it.
23:20 And as far as teams that have success with it, you need a running back
23:26 that is gonna be able to have a really great technique and come up and
23:31 keep his shoulders square.
23:33 And he's gonna have to take that defensive tackle squared on.
23:37 And I've seen it happen a few times where he got that running back at least slows
23:42 down the defensive tackle on a stunt.
23:44 But anytime you have a defensive tackle against a running back and
23:47 you're not sure if that's your best option, it's not great.
23:51 >> And there's not a lot of options they give you cuz just looking at this play,
23:54 the center thinks he's doing the right thing by helping out with Queen.
23:57 But no one on that offensive side can anticipate that Madibuke is gonna be
24:01 coming cuz obviously they're already preoccupied.
24:03 So from a Patriots perspective, you're hoping for
24:05 Mondrey Stevenson, Antonio Gibson, a couple of big physical backs with experience and
24:10 pass pro you're hoping from that perspective that they can buy those extra
24:14 couple of seconds probably not expecting them to just lock up.
24:17 Justin Madibuke and be able to hold up but man this is tough.
24:20 So we're also gonna get into kind of a wider league perspective in terms of some
24:24 of the disciples of this Mike McDonald tree,
24:26 how we might see this permeate throughout the NFL.
24:29 But first quick word from our friends at game time, be right back.
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25:45 [MUSIC]
25:48 >> All right, Seth, so the Patriots are playing a lot of people with Mike
25:51 McDaniel's connections.
25:53 Anthony Weaver of the Dolphins, Denard Wilson of the Titans, and
25:56 Jesse Mentor of the Chargers, as well as obviously Mike McDonald himself.
26:00 They're gonna face off against the Seahawks in week two.
26:02 So considering there's so many different branches of this Mike McDonald tree,
26:06 are you expecting any kind of different maybe innovations where they add on,
26:10 as we always see everybody's kind of got their different spin on these systems?
26:14 And are there any characteristics that you've already seen that kind of overlap?
26:17 >> Yeah, like I mentioned, it's gonna be interesting because this is the first year
26:22 where it's really kind of spread out.
26:23 Last year, it's only McDonald running the system.
26:26 This year, you have assistants branching out,
26:30 you have Mentor who's gonna be running a very similar system.
26:33 And to me, this system isn't just like, all right, we're gonna blitz out too high,
26:38 we're gonna simulate pressure without too high.
26:40 It's a teaching system that allows you to integrate whatever type of schemes you
26:46 want into it, but also present the offense with multiple looks.
26:50 Obviously, simulated pressure is always gonna be a big part of it.
26:54 But I think whatever coverage you want to mix into it,
26:57 whatever types of pressures you wanna mix into it,
27:00 that's gonna be up to your discretion.
27:02 So maybe the Dolphins wanna play a ton of man coverage, and they could do that, and
27:07 run a bunch of man blitzes, and mix things up that way.
27:10 But it's not like a cover three cookie cutter type of system.
27:15 >> So for the Patriots especially, I mentioned them before, but
27:18 this does seem really perfect for them.
27:20 It's a defense with a lot of continuity, so
27:22 that communication can happen a bit faster.
27:24 Again, they like to be multiple.
27:26 They are a man coverage team, they do like to send pressure.
27:29 But we saw last season, they used a ton of simulated pressures,
27:31 especially without Matthew Judon.
27:33 They had to try to get some juice some kind of way.
27:35 And we know that even though they are man heavy,
27:38 they run a little bit of everything.
27:39 So not just from a Patriots perspective, but from a league perspective,
27:43 because it's a teaching tool.
27:44 And it probably helps to actually know what goes into explaining it to different
27:49 players and things like that.
27:50 Do you think it's something that we'll see permeate outside of the Mike McDonald
27:54 tree?
27:54 Or is it kind of one of those things where you'll see different iterations when
27:57 teams have an understanding of how it works, but you're not really gonna be able
28:00 to replicate it without an intimate knowledge of Mike McDaniel's scheme?
28:04 >> I definitely think this will be something that influences how the league
28:09 teaches the defense.
28:11 And I think it will be up to some of these older defensive coordinators
28:17 that have been in league a long time to rethink,
28:21 will they have the time, I don't know, the humbleness or
28:26 the just openness to change the way they teach and
28:31 change the way they categorize things.
28:36 Because it's gonna take some work to recategorize and
28:40 rethink your entire system.
28:42 I mean, it's not like you're switching your scheme up, but
28:45 just going through your entire playbook and streamlining it.
28:48 It's gonna take some time and it's gonna take work.
28:50 But I think in the end, it's gonna be worth it just based on the results that we've
28:55 seen so far.
28:56 And just based on what we know, it seems like it's very player friendly.
29:01 Football coaches aren't exactly known for their humility or
29:04 being people who change their ways.
29:05 >> That's the right word, I couldn't think of it.
29:08 >> But it's not something that coaches are necessarily known for.
29:11 But obviously, you do see younger coaches like a Sean McVay,
29:14 like Kyle Shanahan on the offensive side of the ball where they're known for
29:17 one thing, but they understand as things evolve,
29:20 you have to sometimes change with the time.
29:22 So as we always see in football, the people who are open to evolution and
29:25 changing their ways, implementing new, better schemes,
29:28 will be the ones that end up coming out on top.
29:30 But Ted, this has been a great time, man.
29:32 Thank you so much for coming back on.
29:33 Before I let you go, please let the people know where they can find you and
29:36 what great stuff you got coming down the pipeline that we should be looking out for.
29:39 And also, plug this story again because it was fantastic.
29:43 I read it a couple times.
29:45 >> I appreciate that.
29:46 Articles on The Athletic, you can find my written work on The Athletic.
29:50 My Twitter is @fb_filmanalysis.
29:54 You could find me on Instagram @tedwim07.
29:57 And I'm trying to get my YouTube channel going.
29:59 So check out my YouTube channel, TedWinNFL.
30:03 But yeah, that's it.
30:04 >> One of my favorite writers in this space.
30:06 Excited to check out the YouTube channel as well.
30:08 Once again, thank you for stopping by, buddy.
30:10 And as always, thank you all for watching.
30:13 Now take care of yourselves, take care of each other.
30:15 We will see you next time.
30:16 Peace.
30:17 [MUSIC]
30:27 (upbeat music)