Gus Bradley Meets the Media

by Doug Farrar on Feb 5, 2009 6:41 AM PST

Seattle’s new defensive coordinator was made available to the local media on Wednesday, and Eric Williams of the TNT has the transcript. One encouraging aspect of the press conference was Bradley’s informed adherence to a defensive philosophy and building the personnel around it. In addition, this quote revealed his openness to different in-game schemes (as opposed to Tampa-2 all day):

“You know, I think there’s a perception that Tampa is Tampa Two and that’s all that Tampa did under Monte Kiffin. That’s not necessarily a fact. I think the one thing that made Monte Kiffin unique and made him a great coach in the NFL was he had the ability to adapt and adjust. Maybe the perception was cover-two, but we played some eight-man stuff, we played quarters-covered, we played cover-two, we zone-pressured, we man-pressured. There’s a lot of things that were coming at the offense. I think that’s what made him unique. That philosophy of having the ability to attack, whether it’s a blitz situation, a zone pressure situation, or even if it’s a seven-man front, that’s our mindset: to attack. I think that’s what probably will be brought to Seattle more than anything.”

Personnel to scheme is an enormous consideration, and cornerbacks seem especially vulnerable to mistakes in that department. In 2007, the New Orleans Saints paid Jason David a great deal of money to move from the Colts’ zone concepts to the Saints’ man-to-man preference. David, as we discovered in the research for Pro Football Prospectus 2008, was less effective than the hole in the middle of a zone defense. Before the 2008 season, the Lions traded Shaun Rogers to the Browns for man corner Leigh Bodden and a third-round draft pick later used for tackle Andre Fluellen. Bodden was jerked around by Detroit’s coaching staff, found himself ill-suited for the Rod Marinelli Tampa-2, and will be jettisoned after that one season.

We’ll see how it all matches up, but I like the openness to different defensive ideas, and that it’s not just going to be “Tampa-2 and Damn the Torpedos!”

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The Bradley quotes suggest a more significant change in approach

At the risk of sounding like a Holmgren-basher (I’m not), my reading between the lines of Bradley’s comments implies a shift toward more extensive opponent scouting and game-planning (and a de-emphasis on “winning through execution”).

Holmgren’s teams and staffs reflected his “execution wins games” mentality on both sides of the ball. Not really one to be terribly creative in creating favorable personnel matchups, Holmgren’s creativity came in dialing up perfect plays against the defense. His 80-some-odd-play script and annoying tendency to run draws on 3rd and long were testaments to this mindset. His defensive staffs tended to reflect the same “that play shouldah worked” mindset.

To be clear, ALL coaches stress execution. I don’t want to suggest that Bradley will be disinterested in how well the team tackles. But to me, the significance of Bradley’s riff on Monte Kiffin is that he seems to be saying , “hey, Monte wasn’t just out to out-execute you—he did things to take you out of your game.”

Bradley is perhaps foreshadowing that he will want his defense, particularly the back seven, to be able to do lots of different things depending on situation and specific matchups. A core commitment to a gap-penetration style (as opposed to a read-and-react style) is foundational for Bradley, but he appears to favor a more matchup based approach than what we saw during the Holmgren years. My hope is that this means that, for once, we will look to attack protection schemes rather than depend on each guy to beat his blocker.

"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin

by dcrockett17 on Feb 5, 2009 12:01 PM PST reply actions

True, Hybrid, What?

With teams and coaches being phased out or retiring that have run the scheme, as well as it being rumored as deprecated, I wonder how true of a tampa-2 we’ll run? Will it be a hybrid so much so that it only includes facets of tampa-2, or will it be more towards a ‘true’ tampa-2. I haven’t seen good evidence other than intimations of such, likely due to coaching backgrounds on our staff. Maybe I’ve missed a declaration. How much was really cleared up by Bradley here?

The big question I have is how will we know what players best fit this mystery-scheme, particularly pass-coverage? If it’s not a mystery to you, please give me some feedback, as this is fun to learn about. :)

Which skills will be most important, ie: ability to play press coverage, man-to-man, etc. I’m anxious to visualize how the piece will fit together and be able to look at prospects and think they are or aren’t a fit.

by Misfit74 on Feb 5, 2009 1:37 PM PST reply actions

What I'm reading into this...

with all due caveats, is that we’ll look at bringing in good football players who fit the basic parameters—attacking, speedy, versatile—and then morph a scheme or schemes around what they do well. Given the rampant roster turnover in the league, I think this is the way to build nowadays. The onus must shift to coaching staffs to fit the policy (scheme) around the facts (talent) so to speak rather than fitting the facts around the policy.

"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin

by dcrockett17 on Feb 6, 2009 5:05 AM PST up reply actions

The biggest thing I hear in his comments

is that he wants the defense to attack the offense; and like dcrockett, I think I hear him saying that you fit the scheme which you use to do that to the players you have and the situation you face. Since these are the two things I want

to hear — I really think this is the best way to do business (though not the only way) — I could be guilty of wishful thinking, but I doubt it. As such, I’m a lot more encouraged about this hire now than I was when I first heard about it.

by The Ancient Mariner on Feb 7, 2009 8:57 AM PST reply actions