The 350 Pound Anchor Nose Tackle Isn't Obsolete, Your Understanding Of Defense Is Misguided.

It's combine weekend, and I'm hearing things I know are false. Don't tell me the zero/two-gap nose tackle that pushes the center into the quarterback and becomes both A gaps is obsolete. That is a clear lapse of imagination, and the problem with modern football at the college and pro level. The line should have three interior linemen, and I'll explain.

The nose tackle should be a zero or zero-one technique. You're looking for the anchor that requires double if not triple coverage, who can push the center into the backfield/quarterback. The double-team rate can be found without looking at tape, which helps narrow the field of players that require film on. He's forcing the quarterback to leave the pocket and denying runs up the middle. Since the quarterback will have to leave the pocket, it makes direction easy, spot the ball and chase it down.

The sides of the nose tackle are where teams mess up. Most teams would assume you're playing a 3-4 defense with a nose tackle like that, that is wrong. An A-gap-penetrating DT should be on both sides of the NT. One who can play a 4I and 3 technique, one who can play a 2 and 2I, but at minimum the 4I and 3 are required. This player must crash through the B gap while shoving the guard into the A gap, and this should be done on both sides of the nose tackle while pursuing whoever has the ball. This is another player you're going to start with double-team requirements.

If scouting is done correctly, there is no longer an A gap, and the offense will have a defender coming through the B gap. And if all three of those men require double teams against non-elite offensive linemen, that means a 6th and 7th blocker will be needed to stay in.

This leaves two possible groups behind them: either a 3-3-5 nickel or a 3-2-6 dime. It's just a matter of how many linebackers and safeties the team wants on the field.

A 3-3-5 team plays with two edges capable of playing both standing and in the dirt, one middle linebacker, a single-high free safety, two strong box safeties capable of playing either the rover or robber position, and two outside corners.

A team running a 3-2-6 will play with the same type of edges but will play with one strong safety box/robber and two strong safety box/rovers, plus the same single-high free safety and two outside corners.

And let's be honest, how many teams nowadays are looking for that nose tackle when scouting? How many teams ignore the film on 0 tech nose tackles, ignore their proday, or their combined? I'm betting a significant portion of the league.

That nose tackle who is "obsolete" is the keystone of the defensive line described here. Without him, the defense fails. While there are hybrid nose tackles, there's no substitute for the real thing.

The modern defensive player is a hybrid, maybe not as strong or as fast as previous generations, but where they lack in one area, they make up in another. The idea that a team gets beat by a single type of offense per formation is no longer true. It can happen, but modern defenders can hold up against most formations. Most teams run almost exclusively a combination of spread and 21 personnel formations nowadays.

A defensive formation with a solid interior line as described here means teams only have to rush three, as long as only five men are left in to block, meaning that 4th and 5th rusher can come from anywhere on the field. And it all starts with the 350 +/- pound anchor nose tackle.