Daronte Jones and the Defensive Staffing Thread

[heisenberg]

Crazy that Gregggggg Williams never managed one. Those were the last actually decent (not just statistically decent) defenses we fielded.

It is crazy but its sadly true.

Its the reason Im not quite as upset as everyone else that we haven't done enough to give jayden weapons.

Yes I know we can do two things at once but realistically you can't fix everything on a 5 win nearly talentless team in one offseason and defense was (in my opinion) far more pressing than weapons for jayden and I say that knowing I badly wanted love in the draft.

The point im trying to make is that im really tired of watching our defense get their asses kicked and if the team was going to do one or the other im glad they chose to focus hard on the defense.

Id gladly sacrifice a little offense to get some defense, at minimum its a much more watchable product.

 

[Chris 44]

This is the style of defense I run and have run for about a decade. It’s fantastic.

Im excited for this years D. I know its early KD but you think we have the horses in house to run it this year?

 

[KDawg]

Im excited for this years D. I know its early KD but you think we have the horses in house to run it this year?

Yes.

I am worried about our secondary, though not necessarily just corner. Our post safety position is a gigantic question mark.

I’m not as sold on Chenal as others are as far as him being a slam dunk, but his athleticism helps.

Luvu being used a versatility piece is huge for us.

Oweh and Chiasson should provide solid edge play. Interior wise I think we’re in good shape and we can go heavy or more traditional four and three fronts.

I’m not sure how good we’ll be. But I think top 20 is a virtual lock. Top 10 isn’t impossible. Top 5? Kinda doubt it.

But the defense should be solid.

 

[burgold]

The safety question is interesting. I think they believe in Walt Harris and Nick Cross a lot, but I get the sense they want to use three safety sets a lot. Is that third going to be Quan, Reeves, Otis, Butler? We've certainly got bodies. We even have bodies with traits, but a lot of those guys seemed a little lost the last two years.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

The safety question is interesting. I think they believe in Walt Harris and Nick Cross a lot, but I get the sense they want to use three safety sets a lot. Is that third going to be Quan, Reeves, Otis, Butler? We've certainly got bodies. We even have bodies with traits, but a lot of those guys seemed a little lost the last two years.

But KDawg is referring to post safety, or single high. Yeah we've got bodies that can do other safety rolls. But the Cover 1/3 style coverages with a lone deeper safety is definitely a question mark

 

[Conn]

Quan has apparently been mostly playing slot when the media’s been there, I assume we’ll mostly see he and Amik there. So they may have finally abandoned the Quan playing deep safety at times thing, he’s clearly uncomfortable and clueless there

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

Quan has apparently been mostly playing slot when the media’s been there, I assume we’ll mostly see he and Amik there. So they may have finally abandoned the Quan playing deep safety at times thing, he’s clearly uncomfortable and clueless there

That is interesting. Even if Amik gets all the primary Nickel DB reps. There's still something for an extra Nickel in this defense. That is if they are plus tacklers and plus blitzers. Daronte Jones needs his DB's that play a bit closer to the formation (Nickel, SS, etc) to be aggressive when asked. If Quan isn't, he won't see the field.

 

[burgold]

Also, simply, there are a lot of four wide receiver sets in the modern NFL. You need a fourth guy.

Now, if Jones is really good at scheming up pressures, teams may back off that. Then again, but forcing the D to stretch to cover all those receivers it may reduce the degree of confusion.

 

[Conn]

Also, simply, there are a lot of four wide receiver sets in the modern NFL. You need a fourth guy.

Now, if Jones is really good at scheming up pressures, teams may back off that. Then again, but forcing the D to stretch to cover all those receivers it may reduce the degree of confusion.

Four wide receiver sets are incredibly rare across the league. Less than 2% of all offensive playcalls league wide last season utilized 4-wide. It’s gotten a lot less popular over the last decade and it was never that popular except in desperation situations (Hail Mary, longshot 2-minute drills, etc).

12 + 13 personnel is gaining more popularity every year, many teams are running multiple TE’s more than they’re even running 3 WR. So it makes sense that we prioritized revamping our LB corps to such a large degree.

You still need depth and the ability to field more DB’s than you’re comfortable with, though. That always remains true.

But this is the leaguewide breakdown:

4-wide: 1-2%
11 personnel: 56.4%
12 personnel: 22.6%
13 personnel: 5.6%

 

[burgold]

Huh? I would not have thought that. I wonder if that reframes our NEED for another receiver. I still want one, but if they really think they struck gold with Williams it may not be as necessary.

 

[Conn]

Huh? I would not have thought that. I wonder if that reframes our NEED for another receiver. I still want one, but if they really think they struck gold with Williams it may not be as necessary.

It doesn’t reframe anything imo because it’s always been true that teams weren’t really running much 4-wide except in very specific situations. Even the prime Peyton/Brees offenses known for spreading things out horizontally didn’t do much of that, you just had an understandable misconception. So it doesn’t impact the fact that we still lag behind most of the league at WR. It still could (if someone doesn’t emerge) seriously impact our ability to threaten defenses in 11 and 12 personnel.

I’m also rooting for Williams to be more of an answer than we ever could have dreamed. It’s by far the easiest, fastest, and most direct solution to one of our problems at that position (not our only problem, longterm, but it would be a great start for that WR room for him to be a great WR2)

 

[Boone]

I think Williams is projected to be a great slot WR. He did play from the Z position at Clemson some, and they will no doubt move him around, but I don't think they view him as an outside guy primarily. So talking about the '4th WR' when we don't have a proven outside man outside of an aging Terry McClaurin seems off-base to me. We really need TWO outstanding starting/backup quality guys who can play that spot given McClaurin's age and likelihood of being in DC beyond this season.

 

[RedWolf]

I think Williams is projected to be a great slot WR. He did play from the Z position at Clemson some, and they will no doubt move him around, but I don't think they view him as an outside guy primarily. So talking about the '4th WR' when we don't have a proven outside man outside of an aging Terry McClaurin seems off-base to me. We really need TWO outstanding starting/backup quality guys who can play that spot given McClaurin's age and likelihood of being in DC beyond this season.

That's what I have been saying that we do not need one we need two

 

[RedWolf]

 

[Riggo44]

People are underrating Dorance Armstrong too. He was a stud, having a great year, before getting hurt. He hasn't been mentioned at all as a piece this year.

 

[Boone]

Wise and Armstrong were both playing really well last season before the injury bug hit (and hit and hit).

 

[Conn]

People are underrating Dorance Armstrong too. He was a stud, having a great year, before getting hurt. He hasn't been mentioned at all as a piece this year.

That can’t be right, I’m sure Kinlaw must’ve called him a “MF’n Dog” in that interview

 

[Riggo44]

That can’t be right, I’m sure Kinlaw must’ve called him a “MF’n Dog” in that interview

"People" is plural.

 

[Conn]

"People" is plural.

Kinlaw is the size of multiple people, still counts

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

https://ftnfantasy.com/nfl/2025-defense-by-number-of-pass-rushers-the-vikings-go-nuts

I put this in the FA Thread, but it should probably go here as well. I'll directly highlight just how different our defense is likely to look next season.

Sending 3 or fewer rushers at the QB:

• Vikings = 2.5% of snaps
• Commanders = 4.0% of snaps

Sending 4 rushers at the QB:

• Vikings = 51.6% of snaps
• Commanders = 69.4% of snaps

Sending 5 rushers:

• Vikings = 30.8%
• Commanders = 21.8%

Sending 6 or more rushers:

• Vikings = 15.1%
• Commanders = 4.8%

The Joe Whitt defense (+whatever playcalls it became later with Quinn) was fairly average in how passive/aggressive they were at rushing the QB. The Flores Viking defense was extremely aggressive.

How the Vikings and Commanders rushed 4 at the QB can also be split apart here.

• Vikings "blitzed" 51.2% of plays, but only sent extra rushers on 45.9% of all blitzes. So 5.3% of the time the Vikings rushed a linebacker/safety/corner and replaced them with a Edge/DT in coverage
• Commanders "blitzed" on 26.8% of plays, but only sent extra rushers 26.6% of all blitzers. So 0.2% of the time the Commanders had a 4 man rush with an Edge/DT dropping into coverage.

What about when nobody blitzes, it's the 4 man rush, but the defense is lining up as if to blitz. Simulated Pressure here.

• Vikings 12.1%
• Commanders 5.3%

I believe the simulated pressure can be added to the "blitzed" rate to convey total % of snaps that the Vikings defense has guys appearing to attack the LoS pre-snap or actually doing so post-snap.

• 63.3% of Vikings snaps look to show (or actually are) pressure focused
• 32.1% of Commanders snaps were like that

That's almost literally double the rate we watched last season. Our defense is going to be so unbelievably different in how it looks and operates. There's a chance this defense really needed Sonny Styles to fall to #7 in order to make it function.