[PFF:Renner] The Colts continue to favor scheme-specific draft prospects, and it’s difficult to argue with the results

[stitches]

Quote

 

The Colts continue to favor scheme-specific draft prospects, and it’s difficult to argue with the results

BY MICHAEL RENNER • MAY 9, 2019

 

 

Here at PFF, we assemble our draft board in a vacuum of sorts. We don’t have a team or a scheme in mind, so players get ordered via some ethereal view of talent. However, If we were to reshape our board for each franchise, I’m not sure any would look more different than the board we’d make for the Indianapolis Colts. I broke down exactly what makes the Colts defense unique last season, but the gist of it is that they are about as simple schematically as anyone in the NFL – there’s far less focus on reading than there is reacting, and as such, long and athletic players are coveted highly in their defense.

 

 

During the draft, we saw them target precisely that. Below is the arm length and positional percentile rank (how it ranks compared to other players at that position) for every defensive player they drafted:

 

CB Rock Ya-Sin: 32” (71st percentile)

Edge Ben Banogu: 33 ⅝” (51st)

LB Bobby Okereke: 34 ½” (97th)

S Khari Willis: 31” (27th)

S Marvel Tell: 33 ⅛” (91st)

LB E.J. Speed: 33 ¼” (82nd)

LB Gerri Green: 33” (73rd)

 

If you treat Banogu as an off-ball linebacker, where he’s rumored to be lining up, he jumps up to 91st percentile for the position. That means that outside of safety Khari Willis, every single drafted defender has length that far exceeds the average for their respective positions. Again, this is not by coincidence. Only the Chargers played fewer snaps in man coverage than the Colts (66) last season. Mirroring and man skills don’t even move the needle for the Colts’ front office; closing passing windows does. Length, speed, and tackling are 1a, 1b, and 1c on their list of desired traits.

 

 

From that perspective, they got exactly what they wanted. Rock Ya-Sin is one of the feistiest press corners (cover-2) in the draft, and he has exceptional ball skills. He also only missed three of 51 tackle attempts last season. Okereke allowed all of 13 first downs in his coverage in 2018, and Marvell Tell was one of PFF’s favorites to transition from safety to corner because of his absurdly smooth hips (6.63 3-cone, 4.01 shuttle).

 

They racked up depth for a defense that was incredibly thin on paper. It was a concerted plan from GM Chris Ballard, and that’s been the theme for him ever since he took over in 2017. With the uniqueness of the Colts’ scheme, they will consistently be able to get great value as the players that excel there wouldn’t do the same for a lot of teams in the NFL. It remains to be seen the long-term feasibility of said strategy, but it’s difficult to argue with the results at the moment.

 

 

The part that I bolded is the most important one that might give us insight into what we should expect from future drafts. 

[WoolMagnet]

Before the snap of the ball, our defenders should just run around like a chinese fire drill.  The offense wont know where the pressure is coming from.

  Run around screaming like Q in that fake video or buzz like a bunch of bees.  It'll freak the heck out of 'em.   We can call the defense "the swarm."

  Speed (and chaos) kills.

[MFT5]

a lot of us been saying this it’s only news to those that wanted Christian Wilkins in the 1st lol

[WoolMagnet]

1 hour ago, stitches said:

 

The part that I bolded is the most important one that might give us insight into what we should expect from future drafts. 

Also a big advantage aquiring players if your valued traits line up differently from the norm.  Less competition for the player means arguably less demand league-wide which arguably means cheaper prices too.  WINNING !

[Luck 4 president]

49 minutes ago, WoolMagnet said:

Before the snap of the ball, our defenders should just run around like a chinese fire drill.  The offense wont know where the pressure is coming from.

  Run around screaming like Q in that fake video or buzz like a bunch of bees.  It'll freak the heck out of 'em.   We can call the defense "the swarm."

  Speed (and chaos) kills.

Then they snap the ball and we’re out of position for an easy 1st down 

[WoolMagnet]

1 hour ago, Luck 4 president said:

Then they snap the ball and we’re out of position for an easy 1st down 

I guess i didn't think that one thru.

still, it would make for great entertainment value and sure to make GMFB.  And , in the end, isnt THAT what really matters?

[Coltsfan66]

This helps back up what many of the members on here have been speaking about since the draft.  Thanks for the article @stitches

[Shadow_Creek]

i wonder if it was truly due to lack of press man coverage which caused the blow out down fall for the chargers against the pats. I i mean at least we didn't allow Mahome's to score one passing touchdown

[lollygagger8]

6 hours ago, WoolMagnet said:

Before the snap of the ball, our defenders should just run around like a chinese fire drill.  The offense wont know where the pressure is coming from.

  Run around screaming like Q in that fake video or buzz like a bunch of bees.  It'll freak the heck out of 'em.   We can call the defense "the swarm."

  Speed (and chaos) kills.

[Stephen]

1 hour ago, Shadow_Creek said:

i wonder if it was truly due to lack of press man coverage which caused the blow out down fall for the chargers against the pats. I i mean at least we didn't allow Mahome's to score one passing touchdown

I their running  game did all the damage

[throwing BBZ]

That we would draft anything BUT scheme specific would be .
There is danger in drafting exceptions. Just a question of how well you do it.

And the difference between a great GM that understands his head coach's ideas and needs and one that doesn't.
Ballard is very very smart. 

[gspdx]

Add in the desire to have character guys that are coach-able with high leadership qualities and the Colts draft board could look very different from the boards of other teams.

 

 

[shasta519]

This is what I have wanted since they brought back the Cover 2 scheme. Tall, long arms, jump well...players that can block or close passing lanes...and have the ball skills to create TOs. 

 

But with the types of players they are adding...I don't think it's much of a stretch to suggest that we just might see some Cover 1 and Cover 3 this year.

[Scott Pennock]

8 minutes ago, shastamasta said:

This is what I have wanted since they brought back the Cover 2 scheme. Tall, long arms, jump well...players that can block or close passing lanes...and have the ball skills to create TOs. 

 

But with the types of players they are adding...I don't think it's much of a stretch to suggest that we just might see some Cover 1 and Cover 3 this year.

I'm positive that will be a wrinkle that gets added. Rock, Quincy, Desir and even Collins (if I'm not mistaken) can play press man so I could see Hooker in CF and fully healed having a field day!

[CamMo]

Interesting in the video Parris Campbell is their least favorite pick d/t being “redundant with TY Hilton.” 

 

Even if he is “redundant” with TY, I wouldn’t be mad at it. But I really don’t agree...

[krunk]

1 hour ago, CamMo said:

Interesting in the video Parris Campbell is their least favorite pick d/t being “redundant with TY Hilton.” 

 

Even if he is “redundant” with TY, I wouldn’t be mad at it. But I really don’t agree...

Not redundant at all.  He goes nicely with all of our other weapons including TY.

[Superman]

13 hours ago, stitches said:

 

The part that I bolded is the most important one that might give us insight into what we should expect from future drafts. 

 

I don't understand how they justify the bolded part. Ballard has drafted two corners in the second round, and both of them played man and showed mirror skills in college. Especially Rock.

 

That's without even mentioning all the other indications that the Colts intend to use man coverage more often moving forward.

[Four2itus]

1 hour ago, CamMo said:

Interesting in the video Parris Campbell is their least favorite pick d/t being “redundant with TY Hilton.” 

 

Even if he is “redundant” with TY, I wouldn’t be mad at it. But I really don’t agree...

Like having two guys who can rip the lid off a defense is a less than desirable thing.....

 

[stitches]

18 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

I don't understand how they justify the bolded part. Ballard has drafted two corners in the second round, and both of them played man and showed mirror skills in college. Especially Rock.

 

That's without even mentioning all the other indications that the Colts intend to use man coverage more often moving forward.

The corners are a bit weird in our scheme and that's where the main outliers from the athletic-long type that have happened in Ballard's drafting. I'm also not sure I agree Rock has great mirror technique.

 

Good point about Ballard saying he wants to play more man though... still doesn't mean we will abandon our zone. As they pointed out we were second only to the Chargers in % of snaps in zone. I bet Ballard didn't mean we will completely transition to man-coverage team. We probably just will start mixing it up a bit more on 3d downs or in favorable matchups. 

[ztboiler]

33 minutes ago, stitches said:

The corners are a bit weird in our scheme and that's where the main outliers from the athletic-long type that have happened in Ballard's drafting. I'm also not sure I agree Rock has great mirror technique.

 

Good point about Ballard saying he wants to play more man though... still doesn't mean we will abandon our zone. As they pointed out we were second only to the Chargers in % of snaps in zone. I bet Ballard didn't mean we will completely transition to man-coverage team. We probably just will start mixing it up a bit more on 3d downs or in favorable matchups. 

This is the most exciting part of our off-season to me...comments and actions from Ballard reinforcing the intent to have the personnel to be more game-plan specific. 

 

You have to be able to zone Watson and Mariota and press against Mahomes.  

[Superman]

34 minutes ago, stitches said:

The corners are a bit weird in our scheme and that's where the main outliers from the athletic-long type that have happened in Ballard's drafting. I'm also not sure I agree Rock has great mirror technique.

 

Good point about Ballard saying he wants to play more man though... still doesn't mean we will abandon our zone. As they pointed out we were second only to the Chargers in % of snaps in zone. I bet Ballard didn't mean we will completely transition to man-coverage team. We probably just will start mixing it up a bit more on 3d downs or in favorable matchups. 

 

I'm not saying Rock has great mirror technique, just that he has shown he can mirror. Their write-up makes is seem like he has zero ability there, and that the staff doesn't care because he's long. He mostly played man in college, and was pretty good at it. I think they're stretching here.

 

As for the scheme, I think our coverages will vary more than they did early in the year, and I think we'll play a good amount of Cover 2, Cover 3, and add in some man in situations, with Cover 1 being a primary option and even some more aggressive coverages (Eberflus really dialed up the blitzes as the season went on). So we won't abandon zone, but I bet we're not second in zone snaps in 2019.

[ztboiler]

37 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

I'm not saying Rock has great mirror technique, just that he has shown he can mirror. Their write-up makes is seem like he has zero ability there, and that the staff doesn't care because he's long. He mostly played man in college, and was pretty good at it. I think they're stretching here.

 

As for the scheme, I think our coverages will vary more than they did early in the year, and I think we'll play a good amount of Cover 2, Cover 3, and add in some man in situations, with Cover 1 being a primary option and even some more aggressive coverages (Eberflus really dialed up the blitzes as the season went on). So we won't abandon zone, but I bet we're not second in zone snaps in 2019.

Perfect example of PFF trying to do too much.  They start by acknowledging scheme specific deficiencies of the vacuum they work in then can’t resist the temptation to wander into territory where they don’t have enough context to add meaningful and/or accurate insight.

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

"But...but...we need a 600 lb NT to stuff the run!" -EVERY member of this forum-

 

[Superman]

57 minutes ago, ztboiler said:

Perfect example of PFF trying to do too much.  They start by acknowledging scheme specific deficiencies of the vacuum they work in then can’t resist the temptation to wander into territory where they don’t have enough context to add meaningful and/or accurate insight.

 

It's the biggest issue I have with their draft info. They sometimes don't even try to make projections, which is a huge part of scouting. The info still has value, but without context that value is greatly diminished. 

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

1 hour ago, Superman said:

 

I'm not saying Rock has great mirror technique, just that he has shown he can mirror. Their write-up makes is seem like he has zero ability there, and that the staff doesn't care because he's long. He mostly played man in college, and was pretty good at it. I think they're stretching here.

 

As for the scheme, I think our coverages will vary more than they did early in the year, and I think we'll play a good amount of Cover 2, Cover 3, and add in some man in situations, with Cover 1 being a primary option and even some more aggressive coverages (Eberflus really dialed up the blitzes as the season went on). So we won't abandon zone, but I bet we're not second in zone snaps in 2019.

 

This. The players they're adding, the hybrid -multi-role- athletic guys, are gonna wreak havoc with exotic blitzes. It's hard to diagnose what is happening (from a QB or O coordinator standpoint) when most guys on the field defensively can fill 2-3 different roles. We started to see it unveiled last year, as you eluded to, and I think this year will be more of the finished product, in terms of what Flus is trying to do. The refined, 2.0 version, if you will. It's hard to run a specific scheme if you don't have the right personnel...well, Ballard just handed him a whole duffel bag full of shiny new pieces. With the progression of last year's guys added in, I think Flus is gonna have some fun this year!

[Superman]

1 hour ago, SouthernIndianaNDFan said:

 

This. The players they're adding, the hybrid -multi-role- athletic guys, are gonna wreak havoc with exotic blitzes. It's hard to diagnose what is happening (from a QB or O coordinator standpoint) when most guys on the field defensively can fill 2-3 different roles. We started to see it unveiled last year, as you eluded to, and I think this year will be more of the finished product, in terms of what Flus is trying to do. The refined, 2.0 version, if you will. It's hard to run a specific scheme if you don't have the right personnel...well, Ballard just handed him a whole duffel bag full of shiny new pieces. With the progression of last year's guys added in, I think Flus is gonna have some fun this year!

 

Someone did a Twitter thread recently of some of the blitzes Eberflus used late in the season. 

 

My favorite was a weakside stunt, with a weakside blitz. While the linemen are occupied with the stunt, the blitzer comes untouched. It's a work of art. Eberflus knows how to bring pressure. Adding fast players in the defensive front is an easy win.

 

I'm not as confident in his coverage calls, especially since the last time we saw the Colts trying to cover -- against KC -- they looked like they didn't understand how football works. The Chiefs destroyed our defense pre-snap, all game. And throughout the season, it wasn't hard to find open spaces in the secondary. We didn't give up big plays, but we gave up a ton of intermediate throws. 

 

I'm definitely hoping for improved coverage this season. Maybe better pass rush will help.

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

1 hour ago, Superman said:

 

Someone did a Twitter thread recently of some of the blitzes Eberflus used late in the season. 

 

My favorite was a weakside stunt, with a weakside blitz. While the linemen are occupied with the stunt, the blitzer comes untouched. It's a work of art. Eberflus knows how to bring pressure. Adding fast players in the defensive front is an easy win.

 

I'm not as confident in his coverage calls, especially since the last time we saw the Colts trying to cover -- against KC -- they looked like they didn't understand how football works. The Chiefs destroyed our defense pre-snap, all game. And throughout the season, it wasn't hard to find open spaces in the secondary. We didn't give up big plays, but we gave up a ton of intermediate throws. 

 

I'm definitely hoping for improved coverage this season. Maybe better pass rush will help.

 

I'd be interested in seeing that if you find it, the Twitter thread. Well, they're 100% locked in as far as drafting a certain kind of guy for Flus scheme, so it's either gonna work brilliantly or fall flat on it's face. The KC game was hard to gauge, I feel like that was at the polar end of the "how badly can we play" spectrum. At that point, Luck essentially had TY and Ebron, and teams were doing all they could to take TY out of the mix. The rest of those guys were...well, let's face it, practice squad guys that Luck made to appear serviceable. With Funchess and Campbell (and Doyle's hopeful return from injury) there's several more dynamics to the offense, and TY should see significantly less double coverage. I feel like Reich/Luck are gonna have a field day next year, not to mention I think Marlon Mack is primed for a huge year. He's currently between the 14th and 17th RB taken in fantasy drafts at the moment, which blows my mind...but, that's another conversation for another day lol. They went on a hell of a streak to end last year, and I think Ballard --being the mad genius that he is-- just added the pieces necessary to get them to that next tier of football. Justin Houston and Devin Funchess may have been low key, but they both fill a glaring need, probably the 2 biggest needs they had. Adding Rock to the secondary is huge, that guy is a stud. The LBer depth that was added was arguably the 3rd most glaring need that had to be filled (and a strong argument could be made for it being the primary concern, with our lack of intermediate route coverage, and inability to cover TEs or anyone really in the intermediate portion of the field). Long story short: They made this team one of the 3-4 legit SB contenders going into next year. It's gonna be fun. 

[shasta519]

1 hour ago, SouthernIndianaNDFan said:

 

I'd be interested in seeing that if you find it, the Twitter thread. Well, they're 100% locked in as far as drafting a certain kind of guy for Flus scheme, so it's either gonna work brilliantly or fall flat on it's face. The KC game was hard to gauge, I feel like that was at the polar end of the "how badly can we play" spectrum. At that point, Luck essentially had TY and Ebron, and teams were doing all they could to take TY out of the mix. The rest of those guys were...well, let's face it, practice squad guys that Luck made to appear serviceable. With Funchess and Campbell (and Doyle's hopeful return from injury) there's several more dynamics to the offense, and TY should see significantly less double coverage. I feel like Reich/Luck are gonna have a field day next year, not to mention I think Marlon Mack is primed for a huge year. He's currently between the 14th and 17th RB taken in fantasy drafts at the moment, which blows my mind...but, that's another conversation for another day lol. They went on a hell of a streak to end last year, and I think Ballard --being the mad genius that he is-- just added the pieces necessary to get them to that next tier of football. Justin Houston and Devin Funchess may have been low key, but they both fill a glaring need, probably the 2 biggest needs they had. Adding Rock to the secondary is huge, that guy is a stud. The LBer depth that was added was arguably the 3rd most glaring need that had to be filled (and a strong argument could be made for it being the primary concern, with our lack of intermediate route coverage, and inability to cover TEs or anyone really in the intermediate portion of the field). Long story short: They made this team one of the 3-4 legit SB contenders going into next year. It's gonna be fun. 

 

I don’t think that’s all that crazy. Here is a list of RBs I could see taken over Mack:

 

Barkley

Zeke

Gurley

Gordon 

CMac

Kamara

Mixon

Bell 

Conner

DJohnson (especially with a new offense and QB)

Cook

Fournette

Chubb

Lindsay

Freeman

 

That’s 15 right there. There’s also guys like Kerryon Johnson and Michel/White. Shady is still getting volume...on what should be an improved offense.

 

I think Mack fits in that 14-17 range in a standard league. If it’s any type of PPR league...probably similar...but maybe even a bit lower. He’s not heavily involved in passing game like some of these guys...so I am sure that plays a factor.

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

9 hours ago, shastamasta said:

 

I don’t think that’s all that crazy. Here is a list of RBs I could see taken over Mack:

 

Barkley

Zeke

Gurley

Gordon 

CMac

Kamara

Mixon

Bell 

Conner

DJohnson (especially with a new offense and QB)

Cook

Fournette

Chubb

Lindsay

Freeman

 

That’s 15 right there. There’s also guys like Kerryon Johnson and Michel/White. Shady is still getting volume...on what should be an improved offense.

 

I think Mack fits in that 14-17 range in a standard league. If it’s any type of PPR league...probably similar...but maybe even a bit lower. He’s not heavily involved in passing game like some of these guys...so I am sure that plays a factor.

 

From Week 7 on no RB had more First Down Carries (51), he was 2nd in yardage (933) and TDs (10). He just has to stay healthy. If he stays on the field, with the weapons they added in the passing game, it's on. What's crazy is you could draft a stud RB, take a WR1, THEN take Mack as your RB2. I love his ADP at the moment, hopefully it doesn't climb once all of the preseason articles start letting the masses know the info I told you at the beginning of this post. Sounds like something Berry would put in his 100 Facts column lol

[ColtsBlueFL]

20 hours ago, Superman said:

The Chiefs destroyed our defense pre-snap, all game.

 

Andy Reid is a master at game plans, especially after a bye week.  Last I remember, he was 16 wins and 3 losses after a bye in regular season for his career.  And great devising motion to determine what defense is called, and how/who to get the ball to (playmaker).

 

20 hours ago, Superman said:

 

And throughout the season, it wasn't hard to find open spaces in the secondary. We didn't give up big plays, but we gave up a ton of intermediate throws. 

 

We were in zone a lot last year.  And the base scheme is designed to limit yardage of plays, create multiple play long drives where-

 

The offense eventually commits an error {Penalty, botched play(s), etc.} where they don't convert 3rd down...

 

The defense creates a turnover (INT, FF, strip sack, etc...)

 

Sometimes though, the non 3rd down conversion is still in FG territory,

And other times they never commit/allow any error and march down for a time consuming double digit play TD drive. 

 

20 hours ago, Superman said:

I'm definitely hoping for improved coverage this season. Maybe better pass rush will help.

 

 

I'm thinking the DB's can take on more man schemes at times to Their O guessing.  Maybe some cover 3 on early downs, and cover 1 on at times.  I'm excited to see how 'Flus uses Houston and the new defenders.

[Coltsfan66]

I love reading posts by people who have no clue what the Colts are thinking.  How arrogant of you! Enjoy next season....

[shasta519]

On 5/11/2019 at 8:05 AM, SouthernIndianaNDFan said:

 

From Week 7 on no RB had more First Down Carries (51), he was 2nd in yardage (933) and TDs (10). He just has to stay healthy. If he stays on the field, with the weapons they added in the passing game, it's on. What's crazy is you could draft a stud RB, take a WR1, THEN take Mack as your RB2. I love his ADP at the moment, hopefully it doesn't climb once all of the preseason articles start letting the masses know the info I told you at the beginning of this post. Sounds like something Berry would put in his 100 Facts column lol

 

Sure...he had monster games against BUF and OAK...but after that...you got low-end RB2 and RB3 production until he blew up against DAL...in Week 15. He had another great game against TEN. A lot of production came in those 4 games. 

 

Colts went out and signed Ware...who could steal goal line looks. They also added weapons to the passing game. And Mack isn’t really used in the passing game either. Lots of unknowns right now...even with Reich’s comments. 

 

Low-end RB2 sounds about right, given the number of RBs out there. Definitely upside to be a high-end RB2 in a standard league though. In any type of PPR format...he probably doesn’t have that upside.

 

We will have to revisit at the start of the season to see where his ADP ends up...and then again late in the season. 

[chad72]

Sounds like what Polian did (after Round 1) for Dungy, and did for Marv Levy as well. The symbiotic relationship between coach and GM cannot be understated. Knowing what the coaches want and being able to give them the guys with the traits they want leads to more success than anything else.

[CurBeatElite]

On 5/10/2019 at 1:29 PM, Superman said:

 

I'm not saying Rock has great mirror technique, just that he has shown he can mirror. Their write-up makes is seem like he has zero ability there, and that the staff doesn't care because he's long. He mostly played man in college, and was pretty good at it. I think they're stretching here.

 

As for the scheme, I think our coverages will vary more than they did early in the year, and I think we'll play a good amount of Cover 2, Cover 3, and add in some man in situations, with Cover 1 being a primary option and even some more aggressive coverages (Eberflus really dialed up the blitzes as the season went on). So we won't abandon zone, but I bet we're not second in zone snaps in 2019.

 

Ballard says it in the post-draft press conference.  People undervalue the ability of a player to be versatile.  He said that's what he liked with the Tell pick, is the guy should be able to play multiple positions on this defense and it's also what he likes about Quincy Wilson.

 

We definitely got more athletic on defense during this draft and we now have multiple players who can be used interchangeably at different positions.  I expect you're correct... we are now more athletic and many of our young players have more experience in this system.

 

On 5/10/2019 at 4:40 PM, Superman said:

 

Someone did a Twitter thread recently of some of the blitzes Eberflus used late in the season. 

 

My favorite was a weakside stunt, with a weakside blitz. While the linemen are occupied with the stunt, the blitzer comes untouched. It's a work of art. Eberflus knows how to bring pressure. Adding fast players in the defensive front is an easy win.

 

I'm not as confident in his coverage calls, especially since the last time we saw the Colts trying to cover -- against KC -- they looked like they didn't understand how football works. The Chiefs destroyed our defense pre-snap, all game. And throughout the season, it wasn't hard to find open spaces in the secondary. We didn't give up big plays, but we gave up a ton of intermediate throws. 

 

I'm definitely hoping for improved coverage this season. Maybe better pass rush will help.

 

I think pass rush and coverage go hand in hand.  Better coverage leads to more QB pressure and more QB pressure leads to the ball coming out of the QB's hand faster.  It will be very fun to see if Turay and Lewis make significant progress in year 2, if so, with a healthy Justin Houston, I don't think there's any doubt that we'll be racking up more sacks this year from the DL.  That, plus some more creativity from 'Flus should really help this defense pressure the QB and make plays.

 

On 5/10/2019 at 6:18 PM, SouthernIndianaNDFan said:

 

I'd be interested in seeing that if you find it, the Twitter thread. Well, they're 100% locked in as far as drafting a certain kind of guy for Flus scheme, so it's either gonna work brilliantly or fall flat on it's face. The KC game was hard to gauge, I feel like that was at the polar end of the "how badly can we play" spectrum. At that point, Luck essentially had TY and Ebron, and teams were doing all they could to take TY out of the mix. The rest of those guys were...well, let's face it, practice squad guys that Luck made to appear serviceable. With Funchess and Campbell (and Doyle's hopeful return from injury) there's several more dynamics to the offense, and TY should see significantly less double coverage. I feel like Reich/Luck are gonna have a field day next year, not to mention I think Marlon Mack is primed for a huge year. He's currently between the 14th and 17th RB taken in fantasy drafts at the moment, which blows my mind...but, that's another conversation for another day lol. They went on a hell of a streak to end last year, and I think Ballard --being the mad genius that he is-- just added the pieces necessary to get them to that next tier of football. Justin Houston and Devin Funchess may have been low key, but they both fill a glaring need, probably the 2 biggest needs they had. Adding Rock to the secondary is huge, that guy is a stud. The LBer depth that was added was arguably the 3rd most glaring need that had to be filled (and a strong argument could be made for it being the primary concern, with our lack of intermediate route coverage, and inability to cover TEs or anyone really in the intermediate portion of the field). Long story short: They made this team one of the 3-4 legit SB contenders going into next year. It's gonna be fun. 

 

I think Luck showed us how good he really is last year.  After Doyle went down, he made something from basically nothing with our receiving/TE corps (outside of TY and Ebron).  

 

TY gutted it out and played very well considering he had a high and low ankle sprain the last 7 games and into the playoffs.  I really think TY's ankle was shot after the first half of the Texans game.  He was definitely a few steps slower against KC, and it really exposed our offense, as outside of Ebron, Luck didn't have much to work with in the passing game.

 

One pick which Ballard seems to be high on is Khari Willis.  He is a similar player to Geathers, both thick guys and sound tacklers.  I think Willis may be a little more natural in deep coverage than Geathers.  I am fully expecting to see packages with Willis and Hooker in true S roles whereas Geathers is either shadowing the opposing TE or playing as a hybrid S/LB/dime CB.  Hopefully, if I am right about this, we'll see much better coverage of TE's and short/intermediate passing. routes

 

The nice thing, as I kind of alluded to above, is a lot of our CBs can play all over the field now (e.g., I think Rock is better suited outside, but Wilson and Desir are long and fast and can play outside or inside).  I think we'll see some exotic D packages this year, and I imagine the guys on the field are going to be changing on a weekly basis depending on the matchups.