Traditional Base Defenses And Traditional Defenders Are Basically Obsolete.

The NFL is changing. Teams are getting away from the heavier formations and the fullback has become basically obsolete. Tight end are now more often bigger receivers than blockers. And defenses must evolve. In this article are three defensive formations that the NFL should be transitioning to.

It's not just the defensive formations that must evolve. The players must evolve. The term "hybrid: has been thrown around for a few years now. What's considered hybrid must become the new normal outside of nose tackle, outside cornerback and free safety.

Defensive tackles must become true defensive Linemen. Defensive ends must become outside linebackers capable of dropping into coverage. Linebackers must double as either a defensive end or safety. Strong safeties must be also be linebackers or slot corners. Slot corners should double as one of the other defensive back positions. Positionless football has become a term and for the most part, the players must simply be defenders.

So the three formations that the NFL must adopt are the 3-3-5, the 3-2-6, and the 3-1-7. This doesn't mean only three guys have their hands in the dirt, it means every team should have 1 nose tackle, two defensive Linemen and a bunch of defensive backs on the field with very few "linebackers." Having linebackers as hybrids means technically having either more DBs or DLs on the field. These three formations are all about deception. For years I called for a 5-0-6 defense but I realized, I just wanted the 3-2-6 with the linebackers on the line.

So what is the 3-3-5 nickel defense? According to Coach Martin of football advantage, "It allows for great flexibility to defend against both the pass and the run, especially when more and more offenses are running more multiple wide receiver sets and out of more shotgun formations."

Iana boyd of Sportstreatise said this about the 3-2-6 dime defense, "The 3-2-6 is basically a recognition that the 3-4 isn’t optimal for defending spread offenses and the expansion of a dime package into a base defense. Texas embraced the 3-2-6 last season when it became clear that A) spread offenses didn’t have a great answer for the two-robber coverage and B) Texas was better as an all around defense by playing more versatile athletes (i.e. four safeties) rather than specialists."

These two formations have a minimal 2 corners and 1 free safety. Which allows defense to create confusion because by mixing up the other defensive backs.

Nathan D of fourvertsfootball said this about the 3-1-7 quarter defense, "A quarter defense is used in situations in which you do not want to allow long or intermediate passes. This defense is meant specifically to stop passing situations as it is not effective against the run."

The quarter defense typically has 4 corners and three deep safeties but there's no reason why it has to be mandatory. Why not two outside corners, two free safeties and three box safeties? It's all about creativity.

Basically the nickel and dime defense listed are the first and second down base defense and quarter basically becomes the third and long, and passing down defense. The three four personal is basically never needed because the safeties just move down to become the missing linebackers. Maybe teams keep one thumper linebacker for when they're in the nickel but it's not really needed.

I'm not going to write a full article on offense but the team that learns to use the H-back tight ends as running backs, move tight ends as receivers and goes five tight end exclusively, will dominate the NFL. As the size matchups will create a nightmare for all defenses. The Patriots ran a 4 TE set a few years back but McDaniels couldn't figure out how to use the H-back position.