I am officially off the grid. Living it up in the Big Easy, forsaking my computer and phone. Mostly. With that in mind, here are some reads, mostly brought to you by the excellent Chris Brown of Smart Football, that will teach you and I a thing or two.

What were the seminal offenses/defenses of each decade? | Smart Football
Inspired by this post, remember the definition of seminal when answering.

Dick LeBeau, Dom Capers and the evolution of defense | Smart Football - While the media storyline for the Super Bowl is Aaron Rogers versus Ben Roethlisberger, or even Packers head coach Mike McCarthy versus Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, the cognoscenti understand that the most interesting pairing involves the defensive coordinators, Steelers’ defensive guru, Dick LeBeau and his former protégé (and boss) Dom Capers.

Capers, as defensive coordinator for the Steelers, coached with LeBeau back in the early 1990s, where Capers and LeBeau conspired to implement their madcap 3-4 zone blitz schemes that would help LeBeau land in the NFL Hall of Fame. (LeBeau, too, is not without his Green Bay connections, as he was an assistant for the Pack in the late ’70s under Bart Starr.) LeBeau took over as defensive coordinator in 1995 once Capers left to become head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

Wisdom on how to (try to) defend four verticals with Cover 3 | Smart Football - Question: How would you defend the four verticals pass play with Cover 3? Answer from mgoblog contributor (and defensive coach) Steve Sharik:

Big balls Pete Carroll | Smart Football - That’s the title of the new profile of USC’s Carroll in Esquire. Lots of interesting stuff, but here are two of the best bits. The setting for both anecdotes here is during USC’s summer camp for high school kids, some being recruited by USC, others just there to be coached for a week by Carroll and co.

Teaching a quarterback where to throw the football | Smart Football - If your quarterback can’t deliver the ball to the open receiver, it doesn’t matter how well designed, well protected, or otherwise well executed your pass plays are. Surprisingly, however, this supposedly natural skill — the ability to locate and throw the ball to an open receiver — is taught in a variety of ways, some more effective than others. To my mind, there are really essentially two legitimate methods: the progression read and the coverage read. (The illegitimate way is to simply "scan" across — the most common tactic when a quarterback who gets in trouble — but this should never be taught to a young quarterback as an every down technique.)

The Sight Adjustment Study | X&O Labs - Today, offenses are faced with a plethora of defensive alignments and a multitude of pressures and coverages, but the integrity of X&O Labs' Offensive Researcher, Mike Kelly, discusses his findings on how coaches are using sight adjustments to combat pressures. defensive play remains constant.  A defense must maintain gap control and if one player vacates, another must replace.  It’s that simple.  Don’t get overwhelmed, just find the inherent weakness of each concept and prepare your players to read and react accordingly with what we like to call the "unspoken communication" of throwing the football.

Dictating Coverage Based on Offensive Field Position & Personnel | X&O Labs - This report was prepared by Coach James McCleary of Notre Dame High School (LA). McCleary shares his innovative way of instructing his defensive secondary to play coverage based on offensive spacing and personnel. It’s important to note that McCleary’s system is a "check system" made by his corners and safeties pre-snap and is entirely predicated on how and where an offense lines up its personnel. Although this may seem to be consuming to teach your players (he draws up 200 cards a week complete with detailed hash marks so his kids can make the proper calls), once it’s mastered your players develop a complete understand of how offenses plan on attacking spacing and leverage in a defense.

Pre-Snap Movements to Gain Leverage | X&O Labs - Manipulating defenses seems to consistently be the main goal of most offensive coordinators in the modern era. How can I defeat a defense without even snapping the ball? It’s the thinking man’s "game within a game" that occurs pre-snap. Football is a game of moving parts, which explains the constant references it draws to the game of chess. In this report, X&O Labs is going to show you how to put your moving parts in a position to out-leverage, outnumber and outthink a defense.

Packaging three-step and five-step passing concepts into the same play | Smart Football - Modern defenses are very, very good. Too good, in fact, for successful offenses to expect to be able to simply call some traditional play in the huddle — ye olde 24 Blast or 42 Boot Pass — and be able to simply line up and run it with any hope of sustained success. Not only are defenses sound, defensive coordinators and talented defenders have become masters of deception, and the game has increasingly become a mental as well as physical struggle.

Can the West Coast Offense be taught anywhere besides the NFL? | Smart Football - Is it possible to run the "West Coast Offense" — the offense credited to Bill Walsh and those of his "coaching tree" — at any level other than the NFL? The answer is not necessarily clear. Indeed, despite being the most prevalent offense in the NFL, the WCO seems designed to overwhelm any college or high school team attempting to install it, whether from the voluminous playbook, playcalls that sound like something from NASA, or the difficult throws that only NFL guys can make. Despite its wonderful aspects and results, there’s a reason that many a high school coach with the best of intentions has junked the West Coast Offense after a few miserable games to return to some simpler and more trusted approach that has the advantage of being something his kids can actually do.

One of my goals for this blog is to, -- in addition to bringing Seahawks' related content --, occasionally provide general football related links and discussions to sharpen our collective football IQs. That's why you'll see me post these kind of link-ups and articles, and why we talk about the X's and O's, the Draft and College Football. My guess is that most of you readers love football just in general, and Field Gulls is hopefully your first stop for football related reading. With that in mind, here are some great articles to check out and possibly discuss. 

The Zone Run breakdown by Chris Brown of Smart Football is actually pretty relevant to the Seahawks, so if you're going to read one, check that one out. 

Continue reading this post »

Because Monday afternoons can be pretty boring and because you're probably really dragging at work right now, here are some really great articles for you to read. I include them separate of Coffee and Cigarettes because I don't want you to skip over them - they're worth a look.

Dan Shonka Part I: Confidence and Competitiveness " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
If (Greg) Cosell and (Chad) Reuter are football theorists, then I think it’s accurate to describe Ourlads’ Dan Shonka as one of the ultimate practitioners of football evaluation. Shonka has 39 years of football experience as a player, college recruiter, college coach, and a combined 16 years as a NFL scout for National Football Scouting Service, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Redskins, and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Last week Shonka agreed to speak with me about scouting, players, and the NFL. Our scheduled 60 minutes turned into two hours of football talk that flew by. Dan was afraid I got more than I bargained for, but I told him that I got exactly what I wanted – just more than I could have expected. Whereas Cosell often questions the NFL evaluation system (something I do frequently as a theorist and not a practitioner), Shonka’s war stories reflect how a someone actually deals with the way "things are," and not how they "should be."

This segment of our conversation included stories about Kurt Warner, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and the players and systems of Brigham Young and Cal. These stories are terrific, but for me the most valuable nuggets I gleaned from Shonka’s tales is the importance (and real life examples) of confidence and competitiveness in a football player.

Dan Shonka Part II: War Room Stories " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
This segment of our conversation included war room stories about perhaps the greatest linebacker of a generation, a cornerback who had some great battles with Michael Irvin, a disruptive defensive tackle, and a backup running back from the University Texas whose first name is Anthony but went by a more holy moniker. 

Dan Shonka Part III: Positional School " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
I asked Shonka to indulge me in a game where I named a position on the field and he talked about skills he looked for that could or couldn’t be learned if the player didn’t exhibit them in the college game.

Dan Shonka Part IV: Prospects Past and Present " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
In this segment of the conversation, Shonka talks about pro prospects from the past and present, including two players he thought would be great who didn’t pan out, a sneaky-good runner he and Wes Bunting both like, and his take on Andrew Luck.

Dan Shonka Part V: Scouting Gigs " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
In this final installment of our conversation, Shonka tells how he became an NFL Scout and shares some of his experiences in the field.

How Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning beat the blitz in the NFL - Grantland
Last Thursday, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, ahead 14-7 on the New Orleans Saints with just a few seconds left in the first quarter, lined up in the shotgun and saw that Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had called for a pressure look (though not an all-out blitz), coupled with man-to-man coverage on his receivers.

Rodgers made a signal for his receivers to run quick routes against their defenders and away from the safeties who remained deep. He called for the snap, and everything seemed to go to plan. His offensive line picked up the blitz and the Saints were in the coverage he expected. Unfortunately, there was one problem: Rodgers' primary read on the new play, Randall Cobb, a rookie from Kentucky, ran the wrong route.

Fortunately, however, Cobb followed the coaching adage that if he was going to make a mistake he'd at least make it at full speed. Although he missed his route, Cobb burst upfield several steps and broke inside on a slant, thereby completely turning around Saints defensive back Roman Harper. Cobb caught a simple pass from Rodgers, juked safety Malcolm Jenkins and leaped over the goal line for his first career touchdown.

Rodgers was able to make the play with such little backyard football flexibility because the rest of his thought process against a blitz — when the pressure is most on and offensive and defensive mistakes are magnified — was so disciplined; his identification of the defense and check at the line was so good that even a busted play could go for a touchdown.

Draw It Up: Cam Newton's Debut - The Triangle Blog
Part of the fun of being a football fan is assigning credit (and blame) on coaches and players. To do this properly — to be an informed fan — you have to understand what the players were trying to do in the first place. In this first installment of a new feature at The Triangle, Chris Brown of Smart Football will analyze a key play from the previous weekend of NFL action. First up: a look at Cam Newton’s NFL debut.

Draw It Up: Bills Breakdown - The Triangle Blog - Coming into this season, I didn't think the Buffalo Bills were that bad. Apparently, neither did the Bills. Buffalo won again Sunday to bring its record to 2-0. The Bills crushed the Kansas City Chiefs en route to a sleepy victory in Week 1, but their win Sunday over the Oakland Raiders was full of pyrotechnics: an 18-point comeback and a back-and-forth fourth quarter capped with Ryan Fitzpatrick’s touchdown pass to David Nelson to give Buffalo the lead.

Chuck Klosterman on Amherst, Maine Maritime Academy, and innovation in college football - Grantland
The NFL is complicated. In fact, the NFL is so complicated that it almost looks simple. Every team is trying to trick whoever it's playing on virtually every down on both sides of the ball (in a recent Sports Illustrated article, Saints coach Sean Payton suggested the single most important word in modern pro football is confusion).

The game has become so internally sophisticated that even the semiserious fan has no chance of really understanding what's happening on the field. Yet this sophistication has a paradoxically static impact on how the sport looks: To the casual eye, most NFL offenses seem more similar than different. The various formations are not identical, but they're all relatively close (only the Wildcat is totally dissimilar, and that's mostly a gimmick). In 2010, the club that passed the most (Indianapolis) threw only 13 more times a game than the team that was dead last in attempts (Chicago).

A platitude endlessly parroted by broadcasters is that the NFL is "a copycat league," but it's one of those platitudes that's true: Because the level of athleticism is so high, there are only certain things that work. The smartest guys and the dumbest guys know all the same secrets, and it pushes the whole game toward a virtual singularity.

Happy Labor Day y'all!! Hopefully you're all enjoying it somewhere warm with an alcoholic drink or something in your hand. If not, here is Matt Waldman back with a must-read five part interview with the inimitable Greg Cosell.

NFL Films’ Greg Cosell Part I: Personnel Interrogation " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
It might be a dream job, but NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell understands what work is. The process of studying the game of football is a methodical one. Doing it well requires the attention and the appreciation of the minute detail, patience, and a large dose of humility.

Entering his third decade with NFL Films, Cosell has been studying football with this intense level of scrutiny longer than the average person reading this blog has been an adult. If football knowledge were gold then Raiders offensive coordinator Al Saunders’ appraisal of Cosell in a recent New York Times feature places the man behind the long-running ESPN program Edge NFL Matchup on par with Fort Knox:

"Greg is just a brilliant man when it comes to" the strategic and personnel facets of the league, Raiders offensive coordinator Al Saunders said. "Tremendous insight, a tremendous knowledge of personnel, a great command of the intricacies of the game from a strategic standpoint." This week I will be featuring a recent conversation with Cosell as well as another conversation we had about the game a few years ago. I’d like to thank Greg for the enormous amount of generosity he’s provided to indulge the interrogation I put him through without advanced notice.

Greg Cosell Part II:The Pats TE Duo and Rookies " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
In this portion of our conversation, Cosell supplies his take on the Patriots duo of second-year tight ends, quarterbacking in different eras of the pro game, and his thoughts on several rookies from the 2011 Draft class.

Greg Cosell Part III: The All-Timer Game " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
In Part III, he agrees once again to indulge my inner football child.

Greg Cosell Part IV: The Craft of Evaluation " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
Part IV is a conversation from 2008.

Greg Cosell Part V: Class in Session " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
Part IV and this conversation about what goes into evaluating certain positions on the football field are from 2008.

Greg Cosell Part VI: Favorites " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
The final installment of this series features a short conversation about "favorites."

It's labor day weekend and I'm spending it on a lake without the internet. Because of this, I wanted to hook y'all up with some really good reads from the always excellent Matt Waldman of The Rookie Scouting Portfolio. In today's edition of Coffee and Cigarettes, read up on Waldman's methods on watching tape and evaluating players.

His suggestions are something that any serious NFL fan should keep in mind when watching the game on any given Sunday. Enjoy.

Evaluating the Evaluator " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
-The Inexact Science of Evaluation

During the ESPN special, Parcells repeatedly described talent evaluation as an "inexact science." Once again, this is no different than the service and manufacturing industries where statistics are essential to measure productivity. But what makes talent evaluation an inexact science is the fact that statistics cannot provide a full or accurate measure of an individual’s performance. Nor can statistics alone gauge talent or project future performance.

Because measuring and projecting individual performance deals with both objective and subjective criteria, it is vitally important that there is a strong methodology in place to ensure that evaluators are consistent with their approach to the work. Many service and manufacturing businesses have figured this out by embracing an approach that I call "quality-driven processes."

These processes not only generate results that are more accurate and productive, but the structure of the process itself also helps these businesses get better at what they do with each passing year while saving money.

Losing Your Football Innocence " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
-- There is a reason football people call film study grinding tape. When done well, it’s a methodical, unrelenting process that ultimately turns into a job. Granted, it’s often a fun job, but it’s still work. I have frequently spent as many as eight hours studying a single player in one game – and that includes fast forwarding through plays where he’s not on the field.

I realize most of you aren’t that serious about studying film and you don’t need to make that kind of commitment to develop a more critical eye. However, you do have to be willing to give up some of your football innocence. At first, you might not enjoy taking a sober look at the game. However, the deeper appreciation gained is worth the effort.

I make my share of mistakes and I’m sure there are experienced scouts or draft analysts who would disagree with some of the points I’m about to share. But I’m sharing part of my path and what has been valuable to me.

N.F.L. Draft: The Fine Points of Game Film - NYTimes.com
-- As someone who studies player performance, I can’t help but think that game film is to the N.F.L. combine what the Zapruder film was to the Warren Commission. The analogy is not intended to make light of a grave event in our country’s history, but in the same way governments debate semantics and engage in rhetoric to obfuscate compelling evidence, a similar discourse occurs with N.F.L. prospects at this time of year.

Buzzwords like intangibles, leadership, winner, heart and character are in generous supply when describing these players. A little too generous if you ask me. They may accurately describe a prospect’s college career, but they lack substance until proven on an N.F.L. field. Just ask Joey Harrington, Tim Couch, Kevin Dyson and the multitudes of former top prospects who underwhelmed because impressive college stats and buzzwords could only get them so far.

Traits like these are merely platitudes if the player doesn’t exhibit technique, fundamentals and consistency of execution to back them up. These skills are the difference between a prospect with a nice college resume and a player with true potential to contribute as a pro. Below are two examples of position-specific techniques that are often the difference between a player with a future and a prospect whose best years have passed.

Execution " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
-- While researching YouTube highlights for my last blog post, I came across a series of short videos on fundamentals for wide receiver and tight end. One set of these videos features former Packers, Chiefs, and Vikings tight end Paul Coffman, who does a fantastic job of demonstrating fundamental techniques for blocking, releases, routes, and pass catching.

The other set has current NFL pros demonstrating the same fundamentals. The difference between the two is that Coffman’s videos feature middle school and high school students executing these techniques. This may seem boring in contrast to the NFL stars, but there’s something to be gained from watching both, which is the vast difference in execution.  This seems obvious, but it is vitally important when evaluating players. Coffman’s kids are still learning these techniques while the pros make everything look easy and effortless. 

But "simple" and "easy" aren’t synonymous without years of practice. This is something to remember every time you watch a college athlete or young NFL player. Those prospects who make fundamentals look easy closer to becoming refined pros than those who are simply athletes with raw positional skills. 

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I'm out of town so I have set this up in advance -- hopefully you enjoy these reads!

Conversation with Footballguys’ Jene Bramel " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: If you’re an offensive-centric fan of the NFL or you play fantasy football the same way your older brother taught you then you need to read this interview with Jene Bramel. The Footballguys.com staff writer is one of the best fantasy writers you don’t know about because he is recognized as one of the go-to guys for leagues featuring individual defensive players (IDP). Even if your leagues are strictly offensive players, his knowledge of defenses will make you a better decision maker with offensive talent. In the first part of this conversation, Bramel and I discuss how the new Patriots 4-3 alignment might be more vulnerable than people think despite the current excitement in training camp over the defensive tackle tandem of Albert Haynesworth and Vince Wilfork.

Conversation with Jene Bramel Part II " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: In part II of our conversation, Jene and I discussed 2011 free agency on the defenses that fared well or poorly in the open market for players. We also continue the conversation about the difficulty of evaluating safety talent, which NFL Draft Scout’s Chad Reuter broached in an earlier interview. And to wrap up this portion of our conversation, Jene and I discuss the roles of head coaches and coordintors and why he favors the zone blitz.

Jene Bramel Part III " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: In part III of our conversation, Jene and I use the phrase "crap shoot," enough to think it’s a PG-13 summer movie, but I promise its only in the context of discussing fantasy football.

Snag, stick, and the importance of triangles (yes, triangles) in the passing game | Smart Football: When Sid Gillman revolutionized and all but invented the modern passing game, he did it through a "conceptual" approach to pass plays based on three "pass concepts". Because football is governed by its immutable twins of strategy — arithmetic and geometry — these remain the foundation for all effective pass plays:

Coach Roth: Limits?: LIMITS AND DEFICIENCY OF ZONE RUNS WITHOUT A TE HAS BEEN ON MY MIND Even if we get hat-on hat..we can still be out numbered. Thus it is vital that we have a strong complimentary system to deal with these numbers games. The obvious one should be a strong passing game, either vertically off of playaction or horizontally off of bubbles/screens. These compliments must be there in order to ensure a numbers a gap/numbers advantage. Without them, the defense can bring force players and suffer little to no consequences.

Cripes! Get back to fundamentals...: Slot Coverage Variations: After covering front matching previously, we can now explore options available to handle slot sets that are separated from the box. Typically, this is best understood from a 2-back look with a single receiver on the other side of the slot (allowing a variety of bracket looks and the linebackers matching back flow). The passing strength is immediately identified (slot) and the safety, corner, and overhang player can communicate how they would handle the 2-man routes out of this. These methods can also be applied independently to each side (split-field) when facing 1-back, as well.

BECOMING A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS: Treat Goal-Line Defense as a Special Team: A good friend of mine, Coach Hoover, asked me to expound a little on an axiom I included in my last posting. (By the way, Coach H has a terrific post breaking down Manny Diaz on his website...check it out at www.coachhoover.blogspot.com/ ) I am going to share some info on our Goal-Line philosophy, as well as my thought process considering it a Special Team.

Smart Notes – zone runs, slot coverage, goal-line defense – 8/8/2011 | Smart Football: The basic tenants of zone blocking are these: 1) Each offensive lineman is responsible for the playside zone 2) The defense moves, so how do counter act that? 3) We have five offensive lineman, it is therefore our job to block five defenders. Each player will step to the left and block a player with in that zone. So what about rules? Most (if not all) O-line coaches will go on and on about rules. I, however, prefer to think of it as a framework, more like an "If, Than," statement. I want my players to have freedom, with in that framework, to figure out how best to accomplish the result I desire.. For us, that process will start with a question: "Am I covered by a defender, or am I uncovered by a defender?"

Cripes! Get back to fundamentals...: Coverage: It’s Academic: Believe it or not, we’re entering the fifth season of this blog, though only getting the hang of it for the last three.  That being said, the next few posts will lean heavily on archived content so not to insult any of you readers by retreading previous topics. As we’ve covered before,  remaining gap-sound in run-support is a fundamental equation that is addressed every snap based on the formation.  In this post, we’ll look to set a foundation of defensive concepts through fragmentation.  After setting this ground work, it will be followed with different alternative coverage adaptations available to a defense.

Hey everyone! I'm out of town at a wedding this weekend so your normal dose of links will unfortunately have to wait until tomorrow. Instead, I've prescribed to you some good reading material that may not be as time-sensitive as the things I normally link to. The material all comes from an excellent football blog called The Rookie Scouting Portfolio, written by Matt Waldmen. It's basically a series of interviews with football savvy guys -- whether you like them or not you may find their thoughts interesting. Hope you enjoy.

Conversation with NFL Draft Scout’s Chad Reuter Part I " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: If you thought ESPN analyst Matt Williamson’s path to becoming a paid evaluator of talent was unusual, consider NFL Draft Scout.com senior analyst Chad Reuter. The Wisconsin native learned about the craft of personnel evaluation from a decade of interactions with NFL scouts and general managers. Although he lacks a football background, he managed to transform a hobby into a job because of his tremendous analytical skills, sincere passion for the game, and a veteran scout’s work ethic.  In this multi-part conversation, Reuter and I spent a couple of hours discussing a variety of topics related to player evaluation. In this portion of the conversation, Chad and I talk about offensive line play, evaluating technique versus results, and balancing these two behaviors with the craft of projecting a player’s future in the NFL. 

Conversation With NFL Draft Scout’s Chad Reuter-Part II " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: In this portion of our discussion we cover his path to studying football as a full-time job, a defensive position that is difficult to evaluate, and why "instincts" and "intangibles" may not be innate after all.

NFL Draft Scout’s Chad Reuter-Part III " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: In this segment, Chad and I discuss sabermetrics and football, the mathematical logic of drafting a quarterback in the first round, and the importance of tiers when building a draftboard.

NFL Draft Scout’s Chad Reuter – Part IV " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: The final part of our conversation covers Reuter’s typical work process as a talent analyst and the resources he recommends to the general audience to become students of the game.

Conversation with Footballguys & Draftguys Sigmund Bloom " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: Ask Sigmund Bloom who he became a football writer and draft analyst and he’ll tell you that its because he’s a compulsive talker, narcissist, and egomaniac and he found and audience that accepted it. As his colleague at Footballguys.com I can assure you that he’s not a narcissist or an egomaniac. However if you heard last week’s Audible Roundable podcast, you witnessed an impressive feat of compulsive talking when Bloom ran down just about every move made in a  free agency period that has been slammed with moves in a compacted period of time. Bloom might be best known as a senior staff writer and podcast host at Footballguys.com but he is also a co-founder of Draftguys.com, a site that was one of the pioneers of using the Internet to broadcast video analysis of players they filmed at all-star practices. Personally, I think the "Bloom 100," is one of the best quick reference, fantasy-friendly rankings of draftable rookie prospects available. Bloom and I spent an hour discussing when he got the football bug, his love for the machinations of the game, and the role of stats in fantasy analysis.

Sigmund Bloom Part II " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: In this part of my conversation with Sigmund Bloom, Footballguys senior staff writer and Draftguys co-founder, we discuss NFL trends, the appeal of the NFL Draft, and the value of the Game Recaps he does at Footballguys.com.

Sigmund Bloom Part III " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: In this part of my conversation with Sigmund Bloom, Footballguys senior staff writer and Draftguys co-founder, we discuss under appreciated NFL players, emerging NFL players, the Bloom 100, what he’s watching when he’s evaluating players, and why he plays in 25-plus fantasy leagues .

ESPN Analyst Matt Williamson Part I " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: ESPN analyst Matt Williamson is a former NFL scout for the Cleveland Browns. He agreed to talk about a variety of topics in a three-part interview at The Rookie Scouting Portfolio. In this post, Williamson discusses an emerging NFL offensive trend with personnel and then explains the difference between scouting for a football team and a media conglomerate.

ESPN Analyst Matt Williamson Part II " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: In this post, Williamson tells the story of his ascent to football’s biggest stage despite never playing the game.

ESPN Analyst Matt Williamson Part III " The Rookie Scouting Portfolio: In this final installment, Williamson discusses his role with the Browns, his transition to ESPN, and the resources he uses to continue learning about the game and its players.

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Today I bring to you a great series of articles on the evolution of NFL defenses. I really enjoyed this 7-part series written by Jene Bremel so give it a look-see.

Guide to N.F.L. Defenses, Part 1 - NYTimes.com: 

It’s said that defense wins championships. But offense often drives television ratings and merchandise sales. Television broadcasts focus on the path of the football rather than showing all 22 players as the play unfolds. More often than not, it’s the quarterback and his skill position players who attract the attention of most football fans. Football phrases like "seven step drop" and "pulling guard" and "West Coast offense" are easily recognizable terms for even the most casual of fans. Meanwhile, the unrecognized beauty of the 11-man defense of professional football, the ultimate team sport in many respects, remains the ugly stepsister to its offensive counterpart. But it shouldn’t be. Defensive football is every bit as exciting and interesting as offensive football."

Guide to N.F.L. Defenses, Part 2: Evolution of 4-3 Front - NYTimes.com

"In the earliest decades of defensive play, pro football teams stacked the line with nine-, seven- and six-man fronts to stop the run-heavy offenses of their day. As the forward pass gained favor, coaches needed to devise ways to drop more men into coverage but still stop the ground game."

Guide to N.F.L. Defenses, Part 3: The 4-3 Front Continued - NYTimes.com

"The second installment in this series looked at the historical evolution of the 4-3 front, from Greasy Neale, Tom Landry and Steve Owen through the A.F.L. and its Odd Front 4-3 through the aggressive, undersized Miami front made popular by Jimmy Johnson and others. But there’s more to the 4-3 timeline. Another innovation was just beginning to blossom during the heyday of the Doomsday Defense and while Johnson was beginning to make his defense work with Oklahoma State in the 1970s. The innovation became so popular during the last decade that Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated once quoted Jim Schwartz as saying that 30 of the league’s 32 teams had some variation of it in their defensive game plan every week. That innovation would become known as the Tampa-2."

Guide to N.F.L. Defenses, Part 4: The 3-4 Front - NYTimes.com

"In this installment, we leave the 4-3 front behind and move on to the 3-4, which has quickly become the league’s favored defensive look again after falling out of favor almost entirely during the 1990s. Just as there are multiple flavors of the 4-3 front, there are different philosophies of how to play a 3-4."

Guide to N.F.L. Defenses, Part 5: The Zone Blitz - NYTimes.com

"The true origin of the zone blitz is fuzzy. Football historians have credited concepts resembling today’s zone blitzes to Hank Bullough in the late 1970s and the Penn State coaching staff of the early 1980s. The pressure defense used by the U.S.F.L.’s Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars in the early 1980s was known for bringing defenders from unexpected angles while those expected to rush dropped into coverage. Those schemes are sometimes attributed to John Rosenberg, a Penn State assistant who joined Jim Mora on the first Philadelphia Stars coaching staff, and may have influenced Stars successors Dom Capers and Vic Fangio."

Guide to N.F.L. Defenses, Part 6: The 46 Defense - NYTimes.com

"Though he died just before the 46 defense peaked in Super Bowl XXIV, you can’t help hearing John Facenda’s voice whenever you see video of or read about Buddy Ryan and the "Monsters of the Midway" defense."

Guide to N.F.L. Defenses, Part 7: Nickel Subpackages - NYTimes.com

"This is the era of specialization in the N.F.L. Slot wide receivers, third-down running backs, goal-line runners and pass-catching tight ends are regular contributors in today’s offenses. The defensive side of the ball is no different. Situational edge rushers and pass-rushing defensive tackles, linebackers on the field only in passing situations and, of course, nickel defensive backs. Because offenses are operating out of multiple wide receiver sets more than ever, defenses are specializing on passing downs more often in response. Teams once simply substituted a third corner (or fourth in the "dime") for a linebacker or defensive lineman on passing downs and morphed into a 4-2-5 (or 4-1-6) look. Today, there are as many exotic passing-down packages as there are defensive fronts."