Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How good can the Vikings defense be? Defensive analyst Cody Alexander explains

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Cody Alexander of Match Quarters about his work with Vikings CB Akayleb Evans and whether the Vikings defense will be improved this year Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here and returning to the show, Cody Alexander, Match Quarters, now also working with a very cool project called Field Vision and Vikings Cornerback Mental Trainer. Now, Cody, what's going on, man? How are you? Doing great. No complaints here. Well, let me explain that last part. So, Caleb Evans, we were talking to him one day vikings cornerback and he mentioned you and i was like wait a minute the cody alexander the same guy that i know that's been on the show a bunch of times but a caleb's agent reached out to you in

the off season to try to help him work on the x's and o's part of the game these players are always trying to get better physically but mentally is a good idea as well. And when I say that you are one of the foremost experts on defense, I'm not kidding. So explain what you did working with Caleb Evans. Yeah. So I'm basically a bridge builder between his physical trainer that he has. Most of these guys have some sort of like a footwork trainer that they work with in the off season, but that's all going to be technical based and a lot of times that's footwork a lot of man coverage basics they're not necessarily working vision and reaction zones how am I matching up with multiple receivers what do I do like they're not going through that. That's not part of that process.

So where I come in is I'm kind of that bridge to think of me almost as like, I don't want to use the term sport. You kind of said mental coach. I think that's probably a good job of like, it's probably a good term to use of just kind of like, I help these guys watch film. And what are offenses doing? And then what we're trying to do is talk about what he's doing within his scheme so that I can then pair that back with the coaching.

Cause the last thing I want to do is to tell him to do something different than his coach is asking him to do. And I want him to be able to excel within the scheme. And so I want to be biased towards that scheme. And so that's where I come in as kind of that bridge builder between what he's doing physically in the off season and then what he's going to be asked to do right now as he's in camp. So what was your, uh, what was the experience like? What was it like for you to work with him and get the feedback from him about Brian Flores'

defense and how it works and what he's asked to do in that system. Yeah, it's really interesting. He's a great kid, very cerebral. He wants to get better. And I think that was part of the process here is just like he's been so on ball dominant his entire career. So what that means is he's essentially pressed his entire career. So he pressed in high school because he was just bigger and better than everybody here in Texas he goes to Tulsa he does kind of a similar thing plays a lot of on ball at Tulsa then when he went to Mizzou he definitely was on ball all the time it's pretty much how the SEC plays it's all pretty much man coverage all the time and then when he got to the NFL playing in that Fangio scheme with Donatel it it was all off ball. And I think we all kind of

noticed that everybody really struggled in that first year with Donatel. So then the Flores, Flores comes in and he wants to run a completely different universe of schemes, right? Like now we're running these hot quarters, these hot coverages, we're doing more non-traditional tampas, which is going to put the corner in the deep half position, which is not something that you typically see in the Fangio system, something that a Caleb really has never done. And so to me, my job is to come in and kind of synthesize that. And I had just a blast. I've really had a blast just helping him out this off season, talking about scheme, offenses, motions, adjustments, where your eyes need to go, foot placement, all of those things this past offseason. defense can you help us and apparently nfl players are doing the same well i hope you get an opportunity to work with more players because your breadth of knowledge is absurd uh when it comes to defenses and coverages and and people should check out match quarters because your newsletter you

send out all sorts of defensive stuff that i mostly understand now after following it for long enough uh so let's uh get in a little more into Flores' defense here in year two with the Vikings. I thought last year what he was trying to do is teach guys on the fly what he wanted, adapt his system to what he had. But now he's had an entire year to kind of mold this thing to how he wants to do it. Well, what is it that makes it so unique to Brian Flores? Because I feel like when we talk about different defenses, like, all right, this is the cover ones, cover two kind of defense,

and maybe it's a Tampa two if you go back a little bit, but this is the Flores. So explain the identity of what it is that he does that's so unique. Yeah, he's very pressure heavy. I think that that's kind of one of the things that's unique about him. I mean, even if he's really a Bill Belichick guy, so he comes from that system. When he went to Miami, he kind of got famous for, I call them

like the tag pressures, because essentially you line up six to seven defenders on the box. Everybody goes and tags the guy in front of them. If the offensive lineman actually turns to block you, you pop out and you get into these coverages. And then you play this kind of like what he calls hot quarters, or it's kind of like a hot coverage behind it. It's not really cover zero, but it's not really any kind of a zone. And so he kind of got famous for that. He's the one that basically put that famous,

like Joe Flacco, when he's with the Jets and he's like looking around like, what just hit me? And then Jared Goff when he was with the Rams, that was also a classic game, a classic Brian Forrest game, like where that is. So that's really what he's known for. But it was very interesting what he did this past year that was completely

unique in the NFL universe. Typically, NFL teams are five-man pressure heavy. I know the big sexy term right now is simulated pressures and creepers, and you hear all the coach speak like that, but that's really more of a college-level concept. Really what NFL defenses are trying to do is rush five defenders. That's really what they want to do. Well, Flores has said, what if we just do that as a base? And then we'll add a sixth guy, play our hot coverages behind it. And all hot coverages is a zone, but it's like a drained out zone. So you really don't have a good distribution.

You really only have either three deep or four deep. And then you have one guy that's just playing one or two guys that are just playing off vision of the quarterback and it's all the the pressure has to get there um so to me that was what was really unique last year the problem with it though is in its uniqueness he kept it very simplistic and so what happened on the back half of the season is you saw more base defense you saw more traditional defense as it is ironically, as a change up to what they were trying to do early in the year, people kind of figured it out of what they were doing. Because really, and you can, you can talk to floors about this. He would, he would say this, they weren't stunting the front. They weren't using blitz patterns. It

was essentially we're plugging gaps. We're playing this coverage. We're forcing you to make the play. And so I think later in the year, people figured it gaps. We're playing this coverage. We're forcing you to make the play. And so I think later in the year, people figured it out. They were really, everybody knew what they were doing on third down with the non-traditional Tampa. They had the highest drop eight rate in the NFL last year too. So I just think heading into this off season, he knew where the direction he wanted to go, but it's hard to change that in the middle of the year.

Well, yeah, it was so fascinating to see someone use the extremes so much the blitzing and then the drop eight and a lot of times quarterbacks wouldn't know which one it was going to be so put me in the quarterback's shoes for how challenging this is because what i noticed was the less experienced quarterbacks their heads were completely spinning, but Jared Goff, after that one disastrous time, he played in Los Angeles versus Miami had no troubles this time last season, and they're going to face him twice more this year. Jordan love at the end of the year, didn't have too many problems either with this defense. So, but what is it that makes that so difficult when you have those two extremes from either facing blitzes all the time or him dropping everybody out?

Yeah. So you're so used to either some sort of pressure always there. So you're constantly, and what he was really trying to do is just force the throw low in the zone. They were trying to force basically whatever that the throw low in the zone they were trying to force basically whatever that release throw or the hot route is um they were one of the things this is an interesting part and i understand why forrest went this way is that there's really not they were kind of talent deficient last year on defense obviously they completely retooled the

defense this past year but one of the problems with them was that he needed to manufacture a way to create pressure and so what you want to do is in the NFL right now one of the dying things offensively is hot routes and you hear I think Kurt Warner is one that like cries all the time in like at the you know in in the media about why are we not giving these guys hot routes like all these vertical routes nobody you know you got seven guys on the line of scrimmage how do we not even have like just one simple like just slant um and so that may i mean that makes sense to me what what floors was trying to do last year that's part of the offensive ecosystem let's force the issue if you're not going to have a hot route it's going to be really difficult. I think also with

wide zone being such a big presence within the NFL off of that boot action and play action, when you're an inexperienced quarterback and you're having to sell your fake and then you turn around and it's that flinch effect, right? It's kind of like the blitzkrieg. Why was it? It's just, we're going to hit you really fast in that flinch effect, that pause, that real pause that veteran quarterbacks typically have kind of gotten rid of and really elite quarterbacks who are not. They know exactly if they they understand if a defender shows up in my face, I know exactly where that ball is going to go. And then they just throw to a spot. Whereas I think inexperienced quarterbacks or just quarterbacks that aren't really good at processing, you got somebody in your face instantly. Now you don't know what you do. That flinch effect, that hesitation, that creates pressure and that creates sacks. Or you throw, you just throw a prayer up and that typically

in a zone defense, eyes on the ball, they're going to be able to either make a play on the ball or get the turnovers. So you mentioned that he did this, uh, our friend Doug Farrar has a book called the genius of desperation. That was last year's Brian Flores. It was just desperate to find anyone who could get after the passer. They're sending Hicks, they're sending pace, they're sending Metellus, anybody, do you have legs then run at the passer? Uh, but this year it is quite a bit different, I think, because Jonathan Grenard is a real technician off the edge. They draft Dallas Turner. Andrew Van Ginkle can do a lot of different things. And one thing that I've noticed

is that they've wanted to get Byron Murphy Jr. into the slot more often rather than him just having to play outside. And we'll talk about the corners and that depth in a moment, but I think them having more depth of rushers, as opposed to just a Daniel, can you do this? Well, okay. Sometimes. And then everyone else, I think now they can play a little more traditionally in a way, or mix that in as opposed to always feeling like we either have to blitz or make them think we're blitzing. Yeah. Part of the problem with the Vikings last year, and this is the kind of the weird dichotomy of the defense last year, they were number one in pressure rate,

but then yet they were like bottom three in like actual pressure rate. So they were top in blitz rate. So they sent a bunch of people and then they were bottom three in pressure rate, meaning that they were literally hammering that nail and that nail just wasn't coming in. So it was just one of the, and that exacerbates problems as you go down the field. I am a DB guy, but I also truly believe that without a good pass rush, it doesn't matter how great your secondary is. If that quarterback's back there just patting the ball and playing seven on seven, you're going to lose.

I think that's the other thing. People forget seven on seven is an offensive drill. It's not a defensive drill. So if the quarterback's playing seven on seven on Sunday, that's not good for the secondary. And it doesn't matter who you have back there. And so I think that's part of the things this year and you totally saw them retool it I think Flores too what I like about him NFL guys a lot of times don't want to change they want to stay in that so you can literally

draw a tree a family tree of coaches and you can pass the lineage down and you can see literally the calls going all the way. For instance, like the Fangio system, a lot of those calls are in the same playbooks Dick LeBeau and Dom Capers called, which are in the same playbooks that Jim Mora had in 1989 with the Saints. Like it doesn't change, right? And so I think that's the thing with Flores of there are things in there that are not Belichickian at all. And so I think that's the interesting thing. He wants to get better. He wants to change.

And so looking at it this year, I think you're going to see a completely different defense that's built off of kind of the foundation from what they used last year. Shout out to the Dome Patrol, though. One of the coolest nicknames of all time for the Saints what they used last year. Shout out to the dome patrol though. One of the coolest nicknames of all time for the saints defense in the eighties. But to your point, one thing that I keep hearing from players about Brian Flores is that there's a lot of feedback and there's a lot of conversation at all times going on with

Josh Metellus, Harrison Smith, some of their really highly intelligent players. And I think that that helps you stay fresh is getting that feedback from somebody like Harrison Smith, who has a good case to make the hall of fame someday. And is one of the brightest players in the NFL that he could say, this isn't working, or this is how I see it when I'm actually out there, which I think helps you change and adapt as opposed to just, Hey, this is my system. This is the way I coach it. I think that's what they got into with Donatello. It was very clear that several guys

just did not fit in that system whatsoever. It was like, run it again, run it again. And, uh, I I've been so impressed with that, uh, with Brian Flores. And the one thing that is really fascinating about his defense is that they've created a position. They call it the Metellus role. It's not a creative name. It's for Josh Metellus specifically because he is multifaceted. He can play linebacker, slot corner, back at the safety position, both sides if he wants to, free safety, strong safety. It's really remarkable. There's not too many players in the NFL who can do it. But what do you make of that? Like, what do you see in that role that makes it so unique for what Josh Metellus has brought

to this defense specifically? Yeah, there's very few. I think probably like an Antoine Winfield with the Buccaneers. Then you have like Buda Baker with the Cardinals. Taron Matthews is another one that comes to mind. And those guys are all the top. Like when you say, okay, who's Mount Rushmore safeties right now? Those are one that comes to mind. Like, and those guys are all the top, like when you say, okay,

who's Mount Rushmore safeties right now, those are guys that come to mind. So those are what you would call a complete player. I think what, what Mattel has really brought last year was just that, that edge pressure, being able to fit in the run when a lot of times you're just playing with one linebacker. I think, you know, they, you know, they didn't have the depth at linebacker. And so you kind of have to manufacture, okay, well, how can we get two linebackers in there against some of these heavier sets

when we're playing the Lions or when we're playing Green Bay and they're in their 12 personnel, sometimes even 13 personnel. Lions are famous for bringing in an extra offensive lineman. How can we get the same production? But we have a guy that's really a deep at the back. We saw what happened with the Cowboys last year where you don't have a guy that's really a defensive back. We saw what happened with the Cowboys last year, where you don't have a linebacker at all. And then you have,

you basically have like a physical freak at linebacker. That's not really good at reading react. And then you have a, you know, glorified safety, strong safety. That's as kind of your, your weak side linebacker,

you just kind of get, you know, pummeled sometimes. And I think with, with, with Minnesota, having a guy that can then transition from the box isn't just a down safety because those are dying like you have to

be able to play coverage at some point and so we saw this last year with their five across stuff I think the Eagles were a great example that game's a good example of like the five across stuff um that you saw where he actually is a traditional safety. And then they're using, you're using the other, you know, other safeties as kind of these little spy guys in the middle of the field reading on vision. You get that five across. So to me, that's where the uniqueness of what Metellus did. He blitzed at volume. He was fitting the run.

It's almost like a overhang, this kind of hybrid overhang. And then he could easily go back and play in the deep end if he wanted to, which is not something, like you said, that everybody can do. Folks, U.S. Cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone company wanting people to use their phones less? Ironic. Let's find Us again with UsMode from U.S. Cellular. Visit uscell cellular.com slash built for us to get started

yeah i've talked about on the show quite a bit metellus's intelligence to be able to handle all of this but how would you describe that because doing one job in the nfl is hard enough i mean you were working with the c with Caleb Evans just on being a regular corner and Metellus has all these different positions. And then they've actually found a backup Metellus in Theo Jackson as somebody who can handle that as well. But how would you describe the mental workload that would go into being Josh Metellus?

Yeah, so we're actually going back into a era where, and it's so funny, the NFL.com literally had an article 10 years ago to the date about the big nickel is back, meaning that we're going to put safeties at nickel again in 2014. Here we are 10 years removed, and we're back to that in the NFL. If you go and look at this offseason, people are collecting safeties. I think, one, there's a market deficiency within safety market. They're not paid as much. And so you can kind of collect a good amount, but we're also seeing more 12 and 13 personnel. The problem, like you were saying, how is it somebody that has to know all these different things? You have to be smart anymore to play in the NFL and primarily on defense. It used to be five years ago, you put

a slot corner there, you man them up and it didn't matter. You basically, whether you were in cover two, whether you quarters or whether you're cover one, you're basically, if that guy goes vertical, you're just going to go with him. Like the safety will figure it out on top of you. He'll figure that out. It really didn't matter. Now we've got pre-snap motion. We got guys moving around. Sometimes he may be inside. Sometimes he needs to move outside. How does that change? How do we change when we get into stacks? What if they come out in a bunch and then they motion away and yet we're left with a stack? These are all things like I can, those are just like simple things of like change of strength, motion, stacks and bunches. And those you have to process. And then you have to understand, like, I think the big thing now that we're having is a show man plays own shows on the play man. So we're traveling with motion, but we're still going to play zone. So we're defenses that you thought about 10 years ago. It's like, oh, kind of meathead. Like, oh, you just got to know, Hey, I got that guy. Like literally point to your gap, point to your guy. It's real simple. That doesn't exist anymore. These guys have to be cerebral.

I think that's why a lot of times too, we see these just physical freaks come out of college and then they get into the NFL and we're like, wait, why is like a guy like Van Ginkle starting over somebody that was like a five-star recruit and was like the great, like he's an alien, right? Well, Van Ginkle can play coverage. He understands coverage. Not only that, can he play it? He understands it. He can play off ball. He can play on ball. If you need him to rush the pass, he can. If you need him to stunt inside, he can.

To me, we're now in a league of added value. You have to add value, especially with quarterback contracts ballooning. You've got to be able to add value if you want to, one, play, but also stick in the NFL. Well, and we see this very directly with lewis scene who was unbelievable at georgia can't get on the field is not even the fourth safety on this jeff card he is at best fifth and maybe not even that because bobby mccain is he's probably the sixth safety because every guy in front of him understands what's going on out on the field better than he does. Even though if it was the Olympics, he would outperform any of these guys in every single event.

It's really remarkable what it has turned into. And you mentioned Van Ginkle. What an underrated signing. I mean, it was a day one free agency signing. But since the Vikings drafted a quarterback and then drafted Dallas Turner and so forth that he sort of got lost in the wash. What do you think of Dallas Turner, by the way? I thought that this was a great fit for Flores. My immediate impression of him is he is in that category of being a very, very intelligent

player, but also a little bit of versatility. It seems in his game when they traded up for him, I thought this, this is a Flores guy. You, if you design somebody in a lab for Brian Flores, it would be Dallas Turner. Yeah. If there's a knock on Dallas Turner, it is just in the run game. And so I think with the, with the way that the Vikings are structured in the three, four, I think they can mitigate a lot of those issues. They can keep them on the edge. He doesn't necessarily have to always be at the point of attack. They can move him. They can put Van Ginkle on top of the safety or, I mean, on top of the tight end, or they can move him and move him away. They can do certain things that they want to kind of, as he progresses

and his body gets used to playing in the NFL, they can really protect him. Like with Gennard, he's not going to be required to play as an every down player from day one. So they can really protect him. I like Gennard. He's not going to be required to play as an every down player from day one. So they can kind of ease him into that. But I think it was a perfect example of we need somebody who can rush the passer. This is probably the most elite pass rusher, maybe outside of like law to law and for the Colts. So why not just like, let's go after this guy. He gives us versatility because he can play coverage and he was asked to play coverage at Alabama. I think that that's a crucial thing in projecting when you want a guy to do

something that he's never been asked to do, you have to be able to project. We know that he had was asked to do that at Alabama. And so we know he has the ability to do it. So I think he's, like you said, I think when you look at the off season, versatility is something that they were looking for. And going back to our previous point about kind of just even safety play DB play, we're getting more zone in the NFL. In fact, the NFL dip below 20% in cover one rate last year, which is like unheard of ever. And so we are, when you play zone, that is a thinking man's coverage.

You have to be able to think you have to be able to understand the pattern matches, even in country coverages, meaning they're just dropping to a spot. So your old school spot drop stuff, you still have to know what you need to do when you get to that spot, who I need to relate to, where my eyes go. What am I getting data wise from my primary receivers? So where's my second? There's so many things that you have to think about. And I think you're correct. Great, great pickup for the Vikings. Yeah, and just looking at the PFF data,

when it came to man versus zone for the Vikings individual players last year, I don't think anybody played man more than a quarter of the time. But I also think that this is a goal of Brian Flores to throw this in a little bit more which leads me to my next subject which is how good can this defense really be when as as we've been talking about it you would maybe think that it was the 1995 Steelers but we're not quite there because they had Rod woodson and carnell lake man we're throwing it back exactly yes but the vikings don't have rod woodson and carnell lake they have a caleb evans who is unproven fabian morrow who they just picked up kind of a journeyman cornerback byron murphy who's been okay during his career serviceable, but certainly not elite. And Shaq Griffin, who is another guy that started out his career really well and has hit some bumps

along the road. This is not a sauce Gardner, DJ Reed type of unit. Can this defense be top-notch without having high, high quality cornerback play I think what you saw with the guys that you mentioned Shaq Griffin is kind of a man dominant guy uh Murphy they really want to move him inside but I think Murphy wanting to move inside is more or less what we're seeing in the NFL right now I think now like we talked about earlier teams need a big nickel they also need a regular true nickel. And so if you don't have, you know, they weren't able to move Murphy inside a lot. And that's something that you could tell last year that they were trying to work towards to get to. But that's one of the things when you don't run any kind of man.

There are times where you need to run man coverage. It just makes things easier. It's like hitting the easy button. There's it. I know it seems kind of like that's not necessarily a counterintuitive to play man makes it easy, but there are times like to just relieve your DBs of just like, Hey, mental, we're just going to let you like mentally, all you got to do is take care of this guy. That's it. You know, the down and distance, you have an idea of what they're trying to do. Look at the formation. All you got to do, cover this guy. We don't, we're not asking for anything else. So it's like, there's, there's that, that switch where you can just kind of that change up. And also too,

I think it's a change up when you're, when you're so zone dominant, offenses know how to beat all these zones. They know exactly what to call. They know exactly what you're going to be in. And so they're going to call those. And so being able to switch into man, show zone, but then really play man, or, you know, it just feeds into that loop of doubt that you're trying to create with offenses. And so for me, I think when you look at it, Fabian Moreau was great at man coverage last year, really struggled in zone for the Broncos. Why would you sign him as a Vikings if you didn't want to play a bunch of man? So you can see that they're kind of shifting more towards more man.

Shaquille and Caleb can play man and play zone at a pretty much of a baseline level in the NFL. And then you go get a man heavy guy so that you can have some packages where you can really play some man. So how good can they be if those guys do not play? Cause I did a piece on the corners and I looked at their PFF grades and quarterback ratings allowed and the lowest and highest end of every veteran that they're going to run out there. And the thing that I came up with is if they play on the lowest end,

it's going to be ugly. If they play on the highest end, it's serviceable. It's not going to be anywhere near elite, but they have top-notch edge rushers, top-notch safeties, top-notch linebackers. You can survive that. I think it's got to be the best version of probably everybody here in order for them to be in that top 10, top 5 conversation. Yeah, I think if they can get into the top 10,

you're looking at a dream season. And you got to hope, and probably part of them being in the top 10 is that the offense clicks. The quarterback hits, the running game's there. Obviously, Justin Jefferson goes off. Like, you know, everything's got to, I don't think people understand too,

that there's that symbiosis of offense and defense. If the offense is really working, they're grinding the clock. They're forcing offenses to then be in, you know, predictable patterns of we're ahead. So that means we know we're going to get the pass so we can really release these guys to go rush. I agree with you. I think the safety spot, I think, is pretty solid. Harrison Smith, again, until he falls off the cliff, the physical cliff, we're going to just assume that he's going to be a top five safety, top ten safety in the NFL.

Like, we're just going to assume that until he falls off the cliff. So I think Bynum is very good safety. He's above average safety. I think, like, if you can get Shaquille Griffin to play above average. There were so many problems, I think, last year with the Panthers. It's hard when a guy just has, but he's had a couple down years. So it's like, is this a trend or was it just a product of the environment? I think a young kid like a Caleb being challenged and it's just like, hey,

you got to be the guy and if you want to play and you want your second contract, I think, you know, I think people either sink or swim in that, in that sense. And I think too, having that versatility of being able to move Murphy inside and having to kind of man dominant guys outside, I think can really change the defensive and kind of tighten things up a bit. So I do think that they will be much improved. And I don't think that we're going to see the face melter 5,000 defense from Flores this year. I think we will see it. I just don't think we'll see it 60% of your calls. Right. And I think that that's a lot better for them. If they can mix it in rather than having that be the entire thing. The one hold up for me is the

opposing quarterback schedule. I think it's more difficult than it was last year. And right off of the bat, aside from Daniel Jones, it's CJ Stroud. It's the 49ers offense. It's Jordan love. It's Aaron Rogers. It's Jared golf. And there's a lot there that they're going to need to lean on him. And who knows exactly what kind of quarterback play we're going to be talking about. So there are a lot of factors. And one thing we definitely know is that Kevin O'Connell is not going to run the clock by handing off a million times like Mike Zimmer and running screens and then punting. It's going to be a pass first offense. I wanted to ask you about just the rest of the league. And there's so much

interesting data that you guys are putting up at Field Vision. It's a fascinating project where you're looking at a lot of the coverages, looking at individual players and their different roles, and it really paints a picture of guys. So as a data nerd, of course, I'm really enjoying following along with that. I want to know who you think the best defenses in the league will be this year. Can you give me a top three? Who are you looking at saying, I can't wait to see this team get out there? I think the Jets are definitely one of the best. I think they have, top to bottom, they have one of the better rosters defensively in the NFL. I really like them. I'm really interested in what are the 49ers going to do?

There's so much talent there. Their linebacking core is really good. Their secondary is really good. They're going to get a fungo back. Are they, what are they going to do? I think like to me, like just in terms of what are we looking at? What can we, what, what are we projecting? Like I want to see them really come back and kind of play that. And I'm really kind of tying those two together because that's kind of that Shanahan defensive system that's

kind of been created. So those two teams, I kind of lumped together. I want to know what the Browns are going to do again this year. This was a team that just absolutely dominated until they didn't. And they were very static. And what that means is they didn't do much covers disguise. They didn't blitz very much. They had one of is they didn't do much covers disguise. They didn't blitz very much. They had one of the lower blitz rates in the NFL. They didn't do a lot of stunting up front. They didn't change the picture a lot. And I thought that they kind of got caught a little bit with Houston and especially with Bobby Slovic and who motion offense to use a basketball term really challenged them to play zone. They weren't

very comfortable doing that. They kind of had some injuries toward the end of the year in their secondary, but that is a man dominant secondary. That is an old school NFL defense. I want to see, I've kind of heard some things, I've read some things that they're trying to tweak some different things and run a little bit of different stuff. So I'm'm interested in them and then I think if you just kind of look across the landscape of things there's really not just that defense that you really feel like is kind of that number three like who okay I know I'm gonna get that because it used to be I mean if it was if McDonald was there I would say the Ravens but we Ravens are none known so like your your top three defenses

like it's like okay well what are the ravens gonna do because they did lose some talent um on defensively i'm really interested uh to see how they respond and if they if they have the same type of year that they had the year before you know the team i'm curious about uh well there's two i'll throw at you one is the vikings week one opponent the new york giants because i think everything in new york is so much about daniel jones his contract they draft malik neighbors where that franchise is going with brian dable but in the offseason they made one of the biggest moves that we kind of oh that happened and on to the next thing uh brian burns is insanely good at football you add him to a group that already had a lot of talent that I think was probably terrible statistically

because of their offense last year. But I think whichever quarterback starts, right now it appears to be Sam Darnold, is going to have their hands full going up against the Giants defense in week one. Yeah, the only weakness I would say with the Giants is that they can they constantly let safeties out the door and I don't know why in their evaluation like Xavier McKinney is now

the Packers they've acted Jordan Love is with Seattle they've lost like their last three major draft picks and saying like safety they let walk they you know they do have Banks who's a pretty good outside corner I think that he'll he'll be a little bit better this year. He was in such a – Wink Martindale, if there's a compliment to Flores, that would be Wink Martindale, the man compliment of last year. They just blitzed so much, played a lot of man. I do agree with you. Their front, their top two levels are really, really good.

It's going to come down to that back end and if they can if they can really produce on the back end i i think i think the vikings have an advantage in the second versus this their secondary uh against them for sure comes down to uh can the guard maybe slow down dexter lawrence which very few people can one more defense i want to throw at you before we wrap up. That is the Detroit lines. So every year I hear that Aaron Glenn is great at his job. Everyone loves Aaron Glenn. They keep bringing him back. They keep playing the same defense. And every year I would watch Kirk cousins throw for three gazillion yards against, or actually even Nick Mullins should have beat the Detroit lions once, maybe even twice last year,

throwing all over the field against the Lions defense. They were able to get to the NFC championship game with that defense. So, you know, they must've done some things right, but I don't buy it. I just don't buy that. They are a dangerous and scary defense. And I've kind of circled them as a place that JJ McCarthy could potentially start depending on how this plays out. But am I, am I wrong to disrespect the Lions defense? them as a place that J.J. McCarthy could potentially start, depending on how this plays out.

But am I wrong to disrespect the Lions defense? No, I don't think you are. I think last year their corners were atrocious and they got rid of them. Aaron Glenn wants to play man coverage. That's what he wants to play. We got a little bit of a taste of it last year. They ran nothing but cover three in the preseason and then threw about a 50-50 quarters coverage, which is something that he had not ran until he played the Chiefs. So that's something that they worked on in the offseason.

As the season went along, it was less and less of what their package was trying to do. If you really go and look at who they drafted, and then with bringing Carlton Davis from the Buccaneers, who's a man-dominant, plays a lot of quarters. So I think you're going to see more or less what you saw with the Packers. With Halfley, it's a lot of cover one. Quarters is a changeup on third down. And then they're going to try and get after it with the front.

The one caveat to this is DJ Reader. If Reader and Hutchings can really start cooking and then they can find somebody opposite Hutchings, that's going to be the key. If they can find somebody opposite Hutchings, then you're going to see a defense that's really going to explode. So I like their linebackers. Their safeties are pretty good. Their safeties are above average, but those corners, they're going to have to hit. And I think we all know Brian branch, uh, who, uh, everybody's making a big deal about him playing safety. That's all. They're just going to do with him. What the Ravens did with Kyle Hamilton. Why take the best player on defense off the field? Uh, just cause we go to base. I'm just going to move him

back. By the way, there's a rule on the show that if your dog barks in the background, you have to make a dog pun. So I'm just saying that, uh, you know, I, I guess I don't feel like the lions defense really has the bite in them. Uh, they don't have that dog in them the same way, but you, you know, you're right. There's a lot of different personnel there. I just, I'm going to need to see it. I think. And if you're playing a lot of man coverage versus Justin Jefferson, I wish you the very best. But so far he loves playing against the Detroit Lions. All right, before you run, Cody, explain your hat. Because I saw your hat, it's a Vikings hat.

I know you're a Broncos fan, but I thought that it was one from like 30 years ago with the cool, this is a new hat that they're doing the throwback. It's very, it's very cool. I like it. Yeah. So I actually have the original of this Broncos hat and I've worn it a few times. I always get people, people love that hat. But I saw this and I was like, you know, I've been working with a Caleb. Hell, I think I know every single person on the Vikings beat we're friends. So I was like, you know what? My, my kids love Justin Jefferson. And so I was like,

you know what? Fine. I'll just cave and I'll buy it. I'll buy a Vikings hat and I'll just, I'll become a Vikings fan. You have definitely done more interviews with the Vikings beat than probably any other team, but always super helpful. And when you have a complicated defense, we need someone like you to break it down. The newsletter is match quarters. If you are a football coach, especially at any level, you will be absolutely captivated by match quarters.

Field vision is something to check out. If you're a data freak like myself, because there's a lot of very interesting data there. And you, sir, I think you've got a new side to your business here now training players. So also, if you're a corner, feel free to reach out to Cody Alexander. Thanks so much for all the time.

Great to get together with you again. And we will definitely talk again soon. I promise that. Yes, definitely. Thanks for having me on.