The Ravens are Leading a Defensive Revolution

The Ravens are Leading a Defensive Revolution

There’s a defensive revolution slowly taking over the pros and the Baltimore Ravens are leading the charge. Since trading for Alohi Gilman in week six, the Ravens have transitioned to a three safety defense fulltime. Countering modern design with camouflage and contain winners of four straight, this system has saved their season and is the future of NFL defenses. To understand the theory behind the switch, we first need to talk personnel. That’s what grouping of players each side of the ball has on the field. Offensive personnel is given as a two-digit number. The first digit is the number of running backs, the second the number of tight ends. There’s always five skill position players on the field, so the rest are wide receivers. Moving to defense, you’ll hear a two-digit number hyphenated, again representing the number of players at each position. The first is going to be the number of linemen, followed by linebackers, with the remaining total up to 11 making up a secondary. And this is where we’re going to focus today. Whether a defense is playing a 34 or a 4-3, when they have four DBs on the field, two corners, two safeties, they’re set to be in base defense, as this match is best against traditional 21 personnel offense. But this isn’t the game we see in the modern league with teams preferring 11 personnel sets, bringing a third wide out to the party, and embracing the spread. To match up, modern defenses play nickel personnel instead of base. Bringing a fifth defensive back onto the field, usually a corner at the expense of a linebacker. With defenses getting smaller and lighter to defend the pass, the best offenses have countered by flipping the way that they use their offensive personnel, running the ball from 11 personnel condensed formations, and passing from 12 personnel when defenses go back into base. If you look at a list of the best offenses in the league, this is what they’re doing. It’s led to a need for defenses to evolve once more, finding a big nickel, a player big enough in run support, but fluid enough to match multiple in man. This is usually a safety, and that’s where a player like Kyle Hamilton comes into play. A do-it-all guy who’s truly one of a kind. More on his individual brilliance later. Other teams have also implemented this three safety big nickels system. But what makes the Ravens version shine is that the three safeties they employ, Kyle Hamilton, Alohi Gilman, and Malachi Starks, possess positionless skill sets. Easily able to rotate roles and responsibilities. When teams get into these condensed looks from 11 personnel, they easily adjust and align, Chicago presents a condensed bunch before motioning the tight end across to block the backside of the wide zone action. But the Ravens are able to run a barefront and wreck the play. Starting with Kyle Hamilton. Playing as the edge defender, he reads the left tackle take a wide step towards him and diverts his path upfield to hold the edge and send this back inside. Vanoi repeats this action to send the run back inside where John Jenkins runs a lag technique falling back into the A gap and into the path of the run. Manungai cuts back, but Buchanan has a clear path to shut this down. The beauty in this system is the ability to be fluid without changing personnel. Here with Miami backed up and likely to run, they get into eightman spacing. That’s eight men in the run fit, gapping out the offense even with the motion distraction and condensed set. Both Gilman and Hamilton are essentially playing as linebackers here. And again, a knife from Hamilton disrupts the play. This one an even better read, firing through the B gap and wrapping up the runner. And even against the Rams in their tricky insert sets, they find the right spacing to fit the run. The Rams love to use pseudo 13. That’s aligning an 11 personnel and using 13 personnel plays. Jordan Whittington is lined up tight and Fukuna will insert motion through the C gap as the lead blocker, aiming to overwhelm the Ravens at the point of attack. But look how fluid the Ravens are able to be. Cal Hamilton in the slot joins the box with Nua’s motion with Gilman sinking down to join the fit too. And the nub alignment from the tight end allows Marlon Humphrey to be in the fit as well. The condensed formation allows the Rams to create nine gaps, but the Ravens match nine with nine, and they keep this to a minimal game. For more of a deeper dive into spacing and run fits, check out our run fits for dummies after this. And while he usually occupies the free safety role in the defense, Starks can rotate down into the box, too. The versatile nature of this system means they never have to change personnel to match up. playing these three safeties on 92% of snaps since the Gilman trade. When teams swap to 12 personnel, there’s no subs. They just shift fronts in alignment to win back the angles advantage. Miami are in 12 personnel here and it’s the jumbo variety with offensive lineman operating one of the tight end positions. The backer level will shift over with the motions to find better angles. And then Hamilton shifts down to play the edge, making it a five down line. Once again, he’s going to blow up that wide zone, winning the outside angle and forcing Achan to stutter, sending him into a flock of Ravens. Good luck. No subs are needed to shift, and the Ravens easily swap between seven and eightman spacing. It might have been a two high alignment called in the huddle, but the Ravens quickly rotate Gilman down to deal with the 12 personnel look. Duo from Shotgun makes the timing messy, Hamilton shows us how linebackers are taught to play it. Not hesitating and allowing the back to make him wrong. Instead, charging the gap and forcing a decision. The left guard tries to pick him up late, but Hamilton tosses him back into the path of Judkins before diving for the backs legs. Again, more movement to counter shifts and another play wrecked by Hamilton. Miami are again in that jumbo 12. first motioning from the Maryland eye into wing before hback Alec Ingold motions to fullback to make this eyed left. The Ravens, however, aren’t overwhelmed by size or shift, bringing Gilman down to make it eight-man spacing and gap out the offense. Hamilton slides late to edge, leaving him unaccounted for. He’s in the backfield in a flash, sending this right back to where it came from. This video is sponsored by Cowshi. Obsessed with odds and probability like some of the folks here at TF. Want to study trends and potentially make a bag off your sports knowledge? Then allow me to introduce Koshi. Koshi is the first and only federally regulated prediction market in the US where you can trade on whether events will or won’t take place. And it’s now live on Robin Hood and available in all 50 states. With over a million active users, Koshi allows you to profit from your intuition or gain information by tracking how a crowd thinks an event is going to occur. For example, will the Ravens make the playoffs? I think yes. So would trade for Yes. shares, potentially making money based on the outcome of the trade. And it ain’t just sports. Users can trade on the likelihood of anything from pop culture to politics. And if you want to try it out, Koshi is giving out $10 to anyone who signs up using our code thinking and trades at least $100 on the market. So act now. Thanks for the folks at Koshi for sponsoring this video. The versatility and fluid alignments extend to the passing game as well, where the trio of safeties are happy in both man and zone, swapping between coverage roles based on call and matchup. Starting with man coverage, this is a brilliant snap, even if it leads eventually to a completion. The Ravens are playing cover one Robert with Gilman playing the tight end. Hamilton matched up on DJ Moore and Starks the free safety. The Bears are trying to run mesh, but the Ravens are ready. Gilman locks up the hook route from the tight end. Hamilton is all over the corner route from Moore, shutting down the solo option and the mesh is expertly disrupted by Roan Smith bodyun and throwing off the timing. Pausing here. There is absolutely nowhere for Caleb to go and pressure incoming. However, he’s able to wave that magic wand of his and escape, firing this to Adun who boxes out Wiggins. This might end in a completion, but it’s a great snap from the back seven. Another snap and another show of versatility. The Ravens get into a zero look this time, putting all three safeties in man-to-man coverage, trusting them even with the Dolphins going empty. The zero blitz forces a fast pass and Hamilton gets on top of the slot fade from a chain so much so that he doesn’t think Tua will target him, creating a turnover on downs. Versatile players transition perfectly to creating disguise on defense. and Ravens have been heavy users of camouflage cover three and non-traditional Tampa. Starting in a true three high look here against Miami, Gilman and Hamilton will sink down to play the hook zones as the Ravens roll back into cover three. This does a fantastic job of muddying the look and keeping everything in front of them, pushing Tua to the checkdown and Rocoan Smith rallies to keep the game to a minimum. And here are some nice disguises to get to some non-traditional tampas. Here they’re in a single high look showing man, but at the snap, Hamilton will bail to play one deep half as Gilman shuffles over to play the other, but Starks the whole man. Again, they’ve won the leverage, keeping everything in front of them and forcing a checkdown. McCarthy needs to find this faster for the catch and run as Buchanan crashes quickly, making an excellent open field tackle. They love to get to Tampa using an invert look, too. They start in two high but shift to single high when Jefferson motions to the backfield. Instead of the safeties taking the deep halves, the corners bail with Gilman playing the whole spot this time. Hamilton the hook and Starks the flat. McCarthy could maybe wait a beat longer on the jerk route, but nothing appears open and he’s off and running for a minimal gain. The Ravens will bring the heat on you too. Again, using this trio of safeties to be multiple on third down. This is great disguise and an even better rush. They start in too high with Gilman and Starks playing deepest, but it won’t stay that way as Starks sinks in to form a fire zone. Up front, Trenton Simpson drops from end into coverage with Hamilton running a pick for Roan on the blitz. The player setting the pick is always the most dangerous man. Steph Curry taught us that. And Hamilton pinballs his way through to Caleb in a flash. His instincts have him buying time, but he can’t get this back to the line. And the refs call intentional rounding. Here’s some fire zone with an even crazier roll. The Ravens are in dime this time showing a double mug look with Gilman also up close to the line threatening a cover zero. However, Gilman will bail all the way to center field as Starks rolls down with the nickel and Hamilton coming on the blitz. The Browns actually do an okay job to sort this out in pass, but look at the filthy spin from Kyle Hamilton to lose the back. Clean to Shadur to bring him down and even hits his si on him. Welcome to the NFL, Rook. And more crazy roll fire zone against the Vikings. When the Vikings shift from bunch to trips right, the Ravens easily match with just Hamilton shifting with Gilman and Starks able to swap rolls. Pressure gets through quickly and the ball is forced out fast underneath where the Ravens rally fast to bring up fourth down. X’s and O’s put you in position. Jimmies and Joe’s bring things to fruition. We’ve shown them as part of the scheme. Now, let’s look at them individually. Starting with Kyle Hamilton and let’s set things straight. This man is an alien and we’ve never seen a player like him before. A combo safety, nickel, sandbacker, and edge rusher. There is no role Hamilton can’t fulfill at the highest level. Moving like a spider running across your floor at 2 a.m. Hamilton covers ground like no other player in the league, showing Hall of Fame instincts for reading the play. Here’s the movement skills on full display. The Vikings are going to run a double pass screen back to their QB. And I want you to keep your eyes on him here, starting aligned off the left edge in a cover zero look. He’s going to bail all the way to center field just like Gilman did on the snap against the Browns. Opening his hips back to the plate and checking over his shoulder like he’s running a cone drill at the combine. With full awareness of his surroundings, he quickly spots the double pass from JJ to JJ, sprinting downhill to make the tackle short of the sticks. Somebody get NextGen stats on the phone. I want to know how far he traveled on just that one play. Relentless. The movement skills are just ridiculous. Able to take on any task thrown his way. Chicago motions before running the league’s trendy flash concept where the tight end blocks for two counts before releasing to the flack. But Hamilton is never fooled. He tracks fast with the motion. Reads the fake block but doesn’t overcommit, ready to take the tight end when he works to the flat. He covers him all the way out to the boundary until he spots Caleb calling his own number, breaking off to shut down the QB run, forcing a third down on second and short. His fluidity means he’s even comfortable in coverage against receivers here, holding his own against Puka Nakua. It’s not just a snap or two. They really believe he can match up with the best of the best. And that’s all without discussing his brilliance against the run and when blitzing. The closest player comp I’ve been able to come up with is a 6’4 Troy Palamalu. When you reach for names like that for a comparison, you know you’re witnessing a special player. Hamilton might be the most impressive piece of the machine, but Alohi Gilman was the cog that got it all running. The Ravens entered the season wanting to play this three safety system, but when our Darius Washington went down injured late in training camp, the defense was left illequipped for the scheme they wished to run. suffering a one in5 start. It was clear something needed to be done and the Ravens managed to find a needy edge team who had a safety for sale allowing both teams to get better. Pretty rare. He’s very comfortable in and around the box and shows similar instincts to Hamilton for knifing in and ruining the play yet remains comfortable in coverage playing a variety of roles. This is a nice job to attach to Tay Adams in hot quarters closing the window for Stafford and forcing this target wide. And here’s a great coaching rep of ripping the cord, guarding the flat in Tampa 2. He has to hustle hard when the Dolphins attack this zone fast with the motion. But when teammates help in recovery, he wins the ball back for him. With Taj Washington held up, Gilman reaches a paw in and rips the cord like he’s starting his Beyblade, drawing the ball loose and diving on it to secure the turnover. And lastly, certainly not least, there’s a rookie tying it all together. We really need to stop letting the Ravens pick ballers at the end of the first round. Malachi Starks should have gone much, much earlier. Stop discriminating the safety position, y’all. Most often deployed as the free safety in this system. Starks has shown impressive range and coverage skills while maintaining the versatility to roll down and fit the run. Here’s a really good reading of the Dolphin’s orbit sweep, triggering downhill on the handoff, but making sure to keep width to defend the boundary. He easily sheds the receiver and is the first there to meet Achan full speed. That speed to trigger shows here, too. Working from up high down to his hook zone in the cover three. Look how fast he is to Reed, putting Adams in the dirt straight away. And he’s shown a nose for locating the football, too. He’s got the deep half in the Tampa two here. But with Miami playing the trip so wide, shows great understanding to get to the bottom of the numbers and split the receivers. Tua thinks he can test him back inside, but Stark shows great control in his backpedal, opening up and tracking, snatching this away from Taj Washington. Big shout out to Rocoan Smith and Teddy Buchanan, too, who have both bowled out. Honestly, we just didn’t have the time to fit it all into one video. Football is a game of constant evolution, and the Ravens are at the forefront of the game’s latest trend. Now, you got to have the players if you want to play this three safety system. And Kyle Hamilton’s don’t grow on trees. But look for these apex positionless safeties to be high priority in future drafts.

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