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Jonathan Gannon “Expanding his Packages” with Creative Third Down Looks
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One of the things with Jonathan Gannon is that he likes to open with that Cover 2 soft shell and then make adjustments throughout the game. Maybe that’s frustrating since the Eagles have started slow in recent weeks, but the good news is that the Birds’ first-year defensive coordinator is showing a penchant for making the right tweaks to help win football games.
Case in point, the third quarter on Sunday afternoon, when Taylor Heinicke was sacked on a couple of third downs.
We talked about it a little bit in the Ten Takeaways column, with this mix-and-match look where Fletcher Cox is at defensive end and multiple “linebackers” are obfuscating the coverage here:
Former Eagle Brian Baldinger does his postgame breakdowns and gives you a back-angle view of the above play, then breaks down the next sack as well:
https://twitter.com/BaldyNFL/status/1477959465626390529?s=20
It amounts to some version of a 3-3-5 odd stack, which is what some college teams run. If you saw Cincinnati play Alabama the other day, that’s what the Bearcats were running. The scheme is interesting because you don’t have a ton of beef up front, but you get to four down linemen with an oversized linebacker, or use that we call a spur safety or bandit safety in a hybrid role. That’s why I put quotes around “linebackers” above.
In the case of the second play that Baldy is breaking down, here’s the configuration:
It’s interesting, because Patrick Johnson came out of college as a tweener. He wasn’t really a defensive end but he wasn’t really a linebacker either. Same thing with Genard Avery. Both of those guys are unique scheme fits, so this is a configuration that makes sense for them, because they can function as hybrids who can either attack the quarterback or drop off into coverage.
You don’t see 3-3-5 in the NFL as a base package, but it’s an interesting design because you can really disguise what you’re doing at the line of scrimmage. Are they rushing three and dropping eight in zone? Are they bringing four or maybe five? Where is the bandit lining up? Typically you sacrifice oomph in the trenches to play smaller and faster, but it’s cool to see Gannon get creative here and find different looks to throw at a quarterback on obvious passing downs.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com