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Crystal Ball - CALLING ALL FRONTS
Covering a lack of depth in the secondary
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Posted On: 5/12/06
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The entire off-season has gone by and the Ravens have yet to settle on a starting strong safety to play opposite of All-Pro safety Ed Reed. After letting former starter Will Demps depart to the Giants, the Ravens flirted with a couple of free-agent defensive backs but did not end up pulling the trigger on anyone. In addition, the team was unable to bring back Chad Williams, a valuable backup safety who also served as the team’s dime back on third-down (Williams signed with San Francisco a day before the draft took place).
With Chad Williams and Will Demps now gone, the Ravens are likely to rely on a couple of younger prospects, in addition to adjusting their defensive schemes to mask the grey area – the lack of experience at the safety position opposite Ed Reed.
Both candidates who will challenge for the starting safety position (B.J. Ward and Dawan Landry) are big hitters and will defend the run, but they lack the awareness and fluid hips to cover a lot of ground down the field. If either Landry or Ward is placed in man-to-man cover situations, they may struggle. Keeping Landry and Ward off the field as much as possible in obvious passing situations is an option the Ravens are exploring.
By reverting back to the 4-4-3 formation that they used as their base defense during the second-half of last season, Baltimore would line up without a second safety. In this scheme, Adalius Thomas would have more responsibility in coverage, playing in-between the second and third layers of the defense. Given Thomas’ athleticism and ability to drop back, he is capable of handling more coverage responsibilities, but no matter how versatile AD is, he cannot be counted on to fulfill safety duties.
By the same token, if Baltimore lines up in a primary defensive set that does not feature a second safety, Ed Reed will have more pressure to cover two halves of the field. While Reed is the consummate center fielder, he is also a playmaker who works well when attacking the line-of-scrimmage. If he is used as the last line of defense in this formation, he will not have as many opportunities to play the run or blitz the quarterback.
Reed and Thomas are the team’s most versatile defenders, so their roles should remain fluid. In other words, they should be placed in multiple positions all over the field. If the Ravens use more of a 4-4-3 look, Reed and Thomas won’t be able to do what they do best because they will have too much coverage responsibility.
In addition, while using an eight-man front will give the Ravens better protection against the run, and more opportunities to exploit protection schemes using a variety of blitzes, they will be greatly exposed against three and four-wide receiver sets. On first-down especially, when Baltimore lines up in its base eight-man front, good pass offenses will look to spread the field and attack the Ravens’ thin secondary. For instance, Cincinnati could line up Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Chris Henry and Antonio Chatman on the outside, with Rudi Johnson in the backfield and present Baltimore with a real challenge of either defending a spread out pass attack or a spread out rush attack.
Defenses have a hard enough time defending three and four-receiver sets when they use three and four defensive backs to defend the pass. Imagine how much harder it would be for the Ravens to deal with this type of aerial assault with just three defensive backs on the field at one time.
Granted, the Ravens will not stay in a 4-4-3 defensive look on every down. They will mix things up, using the 3-4 and 4-3 as well. Given the versatility of a number of key defenders like Thomas and Reed, as well as Terrell Suggs, Trevor Pryce, Bart Scott and Dan Cody, Baltimore can line up in any type of formation and have success, depending on what set the offense is playing out of. However, the Ravens best bet to defend the run or the pass is operating out of a line up where two true safeties and four true defensive backs are flagged out in positions all over the secondary.
It will certainly be a developing story and one to watch in the weeks and months ahead in Ravenstown.
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Posted On: 5/12/06
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