Seahawks Still Can't Fit The Run In Nickel 2-4-5
The Seahawks are having great difficulty defending rushing attacks in general. However, as the Panthers game illustrated, their issues in 2-4-5 structure may point to permanent philosophical issues:
The 2022 Seahawks defense has used sub-package, 2-4-5 personnel most often. Nickel, like most of the NFL, is Seattle’s base. Even when in desperate times trying to stop the run, the Seahawks used nickel corner Coby Bryant on 51% of their defensive snaps last week versus Carolina.
To try and make this work on all downs, Seattle runs an over g front, placing a 3-technique to the run strength and a 2i-nose tackle, aligned to the inside shoulder of the guard, away.
The 2i-technique nose tackle mirror steps the guard, taking a 6-inch lateral step before mirroring the angle of departure of the guard, their primary key. They play heavy to this blocker and, if possible, look to win from their primary A-Gap into the B-Gap if the run cuts back that way. The Seahawks call this “one-and-a-half” gapping. It’s nearly two-gapping, but not quite. It’s certainly more read-and-react.
On the surface, this fits the Vic Fangio-inspired Clint Hurtt system. The defensive system wants to play two-high defensive shells pre-snap. They want to be able to get away with as much middle field open, cover 4 (quarters), cover 6 (quarter-quarter-half), and cover 8 (half-quarter-quarter) as possible. They also do not want to tip whether they are rotating down into a one-high, middle-field-closed coverage and structure.
And so the 2i nose tackle and often heavy-playing 3-technique, in theory, buy time for the safety to stay in that high position, as part of the two-high shell, before fitting the run. They also keep the second-level linebackers clean. Indeed, Sean Desai’s 2021 season as defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears saw him lean on this as his main front.
Carroll’s past, Kiffin-language defensive system (seen in Seattle from 2011 to 2021) utilized the 2i-technique in sub-package over fronts too. However, there was a specific use for the 2i: it was to cheat the math, only when required, and to help out a run fitter arriving from greater depth.
For instance, they adjusted the front to a “Tank” when Kam Chancellor was rotating down into a hook of cover 3 buzz (Phoenix) or cover 3 buzz weak (Phoenix Check), accommodating his depth, potential seam match, and interior run fit. They also moved the nose tackle into a 2i for nickel cover 2 defense.
The problem for the 2022 Seahawks is their interior defensive line isn’t very good at the 2i-technique as they go beyond Al Woods on the depth chart. It is a strange feeling, which Myles Adams described to me in the Munich post-game locker room as “having less protection” in the 4-2 looking box compared to the 5-1/5-3 nickel bear.
Moreover, with Seattle struggling to stop the run in general, they have started running more middle field closed defense and started putting their down safety in the box at the snap—rather than holding a two-high pre-snap disguise. Their main call is cover 3 weak sky, “cover 9” in the Fangio tree.
The above factors combine to make the usage of a 2i-nose tackle damaging to the overall defense, asides from the fact their big uglies struggle with the mirror-stepping nose approach. The 2i negates the advantages of being gapped-out and having the down safety fit most often outside of the box.
Ultimately, then, the 2i usage in cover 3 weak sky feels similarly superfluous to their early-season deployment of two 4i-techniques in their bear middle field closed defenses, as was also prescribed by the Fangio system. While the 2i usage may not seem like a major detail, just look how the run defense in bear middle field closed improved when they switched back to playing with more power-stepping 3-technique players and a better penetrating style in bear.
What the Seahawks, and Carroll, did before 2022 was to have the nose tackle play a 1-technique, on the outside shoulder of the center, when they were gapped-out and not having a safety fit the interior gaps. This, like the 3-techniques in bear, is a more aggressive, penetrating, 6-inch power step forward into the primary key. And this prior Seattle system was still very much about controlling gaps and keeping blocks off the second-level first-and-foremost. Don’t get that twisted.
Seattle, then, appears to be dealing with a philosophical clash, or at least confusion, between old and new. And I personally disagree as to some of their current methodology.
I appreciate the above is a lot of schematic words and rambling. This video from my Seattle Overload podcast should hopefully illustrate the 2i, nickel concept in a more effective manner. Please do like, subscribe, and comment with questions:
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