Saints’ Rob Ryan ‘ready to get weird’ with defense
By Mike Dyce
The New Orleans Saints have found their defensive coordinator in Rob Ryan and he has some big plans for the defense in 2014. According to Kevin Clark of the Wall Street Journal those plans have been described as “unorthodox” and potentially NFL-landscape changing.
“I’m always ready to get weird,” said Ryan, via Kevin Clark of the Wall Street Journal.
We’ve already heard the rumblings of the three-safety formation, so what exactly is weird? Well this new defensive scheme focuses on using the best 11 players without the emphasis of size and position.
Clark said the idea was born out of necessity last season.
"The idea was hatched by accident last year, when injuries to linebackers gave Ryan a dilemma: play bad linebackers or get creative with positions. Ryan went the latter route and stressed the safety position, playing as many as four safeties at once and playing three at a time in his default defensive package. In the NFL, some teams play as few as one safety and almost no team ever employs more than two."
It will be interesting to see, and with NFL offenses becoming more and more potent, something needs to be done to stop them. If offenses go with more no-huddle and uptempo schemes, focusing less on size might be better suited to handle the uptempo pace.