Commanders Notebook: Del Rio aggressive calls & general defensive scheme

Diving into the notebook to breakdown some of Jack Del Rio's aggressive calls and some of the general defensive schemes used by Washington.

One of the most frequent questions I got this offseason was about what I thought the Washington Commanders defensive scheme would look like. It was a tough question to answer because last year the scheme transitioned significantly over the course of the season. They started the year playing more man coverage along with some match coverages but struggled to get everyone on the same page. Then Chase Young and Montez Sweat both got hurt and the team had to come up with new ways to generate pressure, so they reverted to some more basic zone coverages like Cover-3 and quarters while mixing in some zone blitzes and simulated pressures.

This year, the secondary has had a year to improve communication and general understanding of the scheme and Sweat is back healthy giving them at least one of their top rushers back. So I wasn’t sure if Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio would try to implement some of the stuff that failed at the start of last season, or continue with what worked during their four-game win-streak despite having more talent and experience available to him.

Now, it’s important to note that defensive schemes are inherently reliant on the offensive personnel groups and alignments. So from week to week, a defense can look drastically different as the team faces different opponents. But against the Jaguars, what we saw from Del Rio was a mix of the basic schemes they had success with towards the end of last season and some more aggressive looks called based on situations in the game. Del Rio called some very aggressive and risky schemes but generally picked the right spots to call them.

Aggressive calls

The first call I want to look at is a rather funky scheme. On this play, Del Rio asks both cornerbacks to rush off the edge, one from either side of the field. To enable both corners to rush, Del Rio calls a Tampa-2 zone coverage behind it, with the linebackers working out to the flats to replace the corners and the defensive tackles faking a rush inside before dropping back into coverage to replace the linebackers inside. This might appear to be an incredibly risky call and it is to a certain extent, all you have to do is watch how safety Darrick Forrest is left trying to cover two receivers. However, there is a method to this madness. 

First of all, let's look at the personnel group. The Jaguars are in a 13 personnel group consisting of one running back, three tight ends and just one wide receiver. They also align with all three tight ends to the right of the formation before Evan Engram motions to the left, but stays tight to the formation. On top of that, the ball is placed on the left hashmark and the single wide receiver is aligned to that side just barely outside the numbers. So overall, it’s a pretty condensed formation which the Commanders probably feel is likely to lead to a running play or a play-action pass. In that situation, blitzing both corners makes more sense. If its a run play, then the corners provide insurance on the edge, allowing the defensive lineman to plug gaps inside against the extra tight ends. If it’s a pass, then there's only one wide receiver to account for with the rest of the pass catchers being slower tight ends. 

There is still a degree of risk in this type of call, but it was called in just about the ideal situation for it to be called. Yes, Forrest is left in a tough spot and had quarterback Trevor Lawrence been able to stay poised while avoiding pressure he might have been able to hit a big play down the field. But the schemed pressure did exactly what it was meant to. Cornerback Wiliam Jackson came almost completely free off the edge, with the tight end making a late adjustment to try and pick him up. That caused Lawrence to immediately step up at the top of his drop instead of being able to set and get his eyes down the field. As Lawrence steps up, he can feel pressure coming from the other side and his internal clock tells him to find his checkdown, so he immediately looks to find his running back in the flat. 

There’s always a risk reward element when dialing up certain pressure schemes. You might consider it lucky that Lawrence didn’t take advantage of the opportunity down the field, but the whole point of the pressure scheme is that the pressure gets to the quarterback before he can take advantage of opportunities down the field, or at least cause him to hurry his throw and become inaccurate. 

Del Rio continued with the aggressive calls throughout the game, particularly in key situations.

Here, the Jaguars face third and goal from the three yard line. Del Rio takes a bit of a risk by dialing up a Cover-0 scheme, which essentially is pure man coverage while everyone else blitzes. Each eligible receiver is assigned a single defender in man coverage while every other defender rushes, guaranteeing that the defense can rush one more than the offense can block. It’s a risky call because it leaves each coverage defender one-on-one without any help in a situation that if they make a mistake, it likely costs the team a touchdown. However, when playing that close to the end zone, a mistake from any defender will likely result in a touchdown even if they have safety help, because the margins for error that close to the goal line are so small. With it only being three yards out, the Jaguars could be a legitimate threat to run the ball too, so by going with Cover-0, they are blitzing not just a pass, but also any potential run scheme.

What ends up happening is safety Bobby McCain comes completely free off the right side of the line and Lawrence is forced to slide away from the pressure immediately and then try to make his throw while falling away from the pressure. He’s forced to deliver the throw slightly earlier than he would have liked, and without being able to throw from a set base, his throw is just slightly off target. The receiver makes a strong effort to dive for the catch, but the ball just bounces off his fingertips and lands incomplete. Once again it was a risky call, but the pressure generated from the risk taken forced the throw to be just slightly off, which saved a touchdown.

These aggressive calls just about worked out for Del Rio and the Commanders against the Jaguars, but some were just on the edge of being overly aggressive and unnecessarily risky.