Gus Bradley Defense Primer: Part 1

1st in a 4 part series breaking down the new Raiders scheme on defense.

There is an old saying amongst defensive football coaches; “Play Defense, not defenses.” This is a reference to making a scheme simplified and cohesive enough for players to understand their roles and play fast without thinking too hard.

Perhaps former Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther never of heard this saying. His defenses while boasting a ton of volume, rarely were cohesive enough to sustain success over a full game, much less an entire season.

New Raiders defensive coordinator Gus Bradley won’t have that same problem. Bradley’s Defense sacrifices volume in exchange for a simplified package that allows players to focus more on their technique and the opponents tendencies so they can play faster. Hopefully this will lead to more success on the defensive side of the ball. Let’s take a look at the hallmarks of Gus Bradley’s cover 3 package.

Find the Strong Safety

Bradley is famous for his cover 3 package which is nearly the same exact scheme he called in Seattle during the Legion of Boom years. Bradley doesn’t want his defenders thinking on the field, just getting lined up and going balls to the wall.

The above 2 clips show how Bradley’s cover 3 calls will present themselves most often. In the first clip the Strong Safety is the Flat player to the bottom of the screen in a Zone X defense. This means the Strong Safety goes to the side with the X receiver. The second clip has the Strong Safety as the Hook defender in a Zone Y defense. This means the Strong Safety lines up on the side with the TE (Y).

Bradley can put his Strong safety in a variety of positions in order to take away either the run or the pass to a certain area of the field. The beauty behind this approach is that the Strong Safety and the Weakside Linebacker are the only players exchanging responsibilities. Every other defender when they hear a Cover 3 call, can more or less turn off their brain and play ball —because it rarely changes for the rest of the defense.

So Bradley can put that Strong Safety exactly where he wants in order to defend the concepts he’s expecting (To the TE, away from the TE, in the Flat, in the Hook, to the wide side of the field, or the short side of the field etc.) This approach puts all the thinking on the defensive coordinator and the play making on the defenders.

Adjusting to 4 Verticals

Of course there will be some thinking that needs to take place in order to defend modern offensive concepts. The biggest thorn in the side of Cover 3 defenses is the 4 verticals play call designed to thwart the coverage by putting the middle of the field safety in a bind— choosing which seam to defend.

Bradley’s adjustments to 4 verts are nothing special in terms of innovation, as the vast majority of Cover 3 defenses adjust in the same exact ways.

The “Seam” Alert is a technique for the Strong Safety whenever he has 2 vertical threats on his side of the field. He will give the “Seam” Alert to the near LB (to let him know the Flat will be uncovered) and to the FS (to let him know to cheat to the opposite side).

The “Seam” Alert was actually invented by Nick Saban and Bill Belichik in the 90’s when both were coaching for the Browns and trying to figure out how to play Cover 3 against Dan Marino. This coverage adjustment is most commonly known as “Rip/Liz Match.”

The benefit of the “Seam” Alert in Gus Bradley’s scheme (and any defense for that matter) is getting 8 men in the box against the run, but defending the pass more similarly to 2 high defenses; specifically Quarters coverage.

The second adjustment to 4 verticals is when the offense comes out in a 3x1 set, meaning there are 3 wide receivers on one side of the formation. This time instead of an alert or check, there is a rule baked into the coverage install on day 1. The Hook defender opposite the passing strength ALWAYS takes 3 vertical. It doesn’t matter who that hook defender is (defensive back or linebacker), they always check the vertical of 3 when they get a 3x1 formation.

The benefit of this modern Cover 3 tweak is to allow the defense to keep 8 men in the box against the run while again playing coverage more similar to Quarters coverage concepts.

So why can’t they just play Quarters concepts if their 4 verticals adjustments will play out like that anyways? Bradley’s Cover 3 will only resemble 2 high defenses if the offense sends 4 receivers vertical. Against most every other passing concept the defense will remain single high and defend down the middle of the field first.

Cornerback Technique in Cover 3

There is also one more slight wrinkle I haven’t mentioned yet when discussing Gus Bradley’s Cover 3 package, and its something Raider Nation should be excited about. There is more than one way to play the outside 1/3 zone depending on formation.

The “Read” Technique is a Man Only Deep technique when there is only 1 vertical threat to the cornerback’s side. The cornerback upon seeing a single receiver will key in on any vertical routes and actually man turn (back to the QB) disregarding any other threats. If the single WR goes under, the CB will zone off into his deep 3rd and look to help either the flat defender or deep middle safety.

This is usually a separate Cover 3 call in most defenses, most commonly referred to as “Cover 3 Mable.” In Bradley’s defense, he wants the cornerback automatically playing man coverage against a single vertical threat. Why worry about playing zone if there’s only 1 thing that can beat you deep to that side?

The “Zebra” Technique on the other hand is a true Cover 3 zone against multiple vertical threats. The Cornerback will get into his zone drop and maintain vision on the QB, ready to defend anything threatening his Outside 1/3. This is what you picture in your head when you think “Cover 3.”

Gus Bradley and Ron Milus in the last 4 years in Los Angeles give their cornerbacks license to switch up their techniques (press, off, pedal, half-turn etc) in order to take away tendency and to play to their cornerback’s strengths. For instance we will most likely see Travvon Mullen playing press against a single receiver side, meanwhile newly acquired CB Casey Hayward will play more off-man coverage, each cornerback with a different body type and set of strengths.

Similarly when the cornerback is in a true zone, he will have the ability to either play in a back-pedal or a half-turn (butt to the sideline) and shuffle into his zone depending on what that player is most comfortable with. Gone are the days of the rigid techniques that called for players like Travon Mullen to play in a back-pedal whenever the offense came out in a reduced split. Gus Bradley’s defenses won’t be as easy to game plan for because we’ll see many different iterations of the same coverage.

Conclusion

The strengths of Gus Bradley’s scheme lie in the details. On the surface level it seems simple; Cover 3 on 60-70% of the play calls and a mix of Cover 1 and Cover 4 on 3rd downs.

But with a more simple scheme comes more nuance. Less volume = less installation periods during practice and the defense can actually do football related drills (tackling, defeating blocks, creating turnovers). The fundamentals of football won’t be taken for granted, in fact they will have a chance to be emphasized and perfected.

Raider’s defenders will more likely be able to identify and take away opponent’s tendencies because they won’t be spending so much time trying to master the play book. Less is more in this case, cornerbacks will hone their technique, safeties and linebackers will line up and play faster, and the defense has a chance to gel into a cohesive unit much quicker than what Raiders fans have become accustomed to watching on gamedays.