[Music] good morning everybody welcome to another episode of Hawk blogger mornings I am Brian nouser you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at hawkblogger and this Thursday morning we get a r Treat we got something that I've been looking forward to all week because coach Cody Alexander's back and it's not coach Cody Barton as I referred to him yesterday for a for a moment before someone caught me on it thank goodness it's not coach Cody Barton it's coach Cody Alexander from match quarters.com also from fieldvision coming back to the show to break things down from a defensive point of view how you doing Cody doing great doing fine I love the uh mq brand you got going on there in back that's an upgrade since last time I think right yeah last I think last time we talked I was still in my my older house we moved I got an office so I got three kids and the boys were together and they were fighting each other every time so we were like everybody needs a room so they can go to oh my God the the moment where there's there's a certain level of adulting you reach when you can close a door to an office in your house and like oh my God the first time I could do that it's like oh this is a new tier I I achieved unlocked so yes 100% yeah yeah um well congrats how old how old the range of your kids yeah so I have an 11-year-old he's in sixth grade and then I have a six-year-old who is uh will turn seven here pretty soon he's in first grade and then I have a kindergartener so all right yeah it gets wild you got the spread you got the spread man well it's it's a it's a good time and I have two older kids now they're adults really but uh you know uh all those different phases have their bonuses and their challenges so I hear you um so before we get into to talking about the topic of the day because we've got a lot to get into there um two things one um I want to remind folks that that aren't aware that this episode every episode is presented by ftn fantasy so ftn fantasy.com promo code Hawks gets you 15% off all the data all the beding info all the fantasy info um and it's less than eight bucks a month so it's a great deal um worth doing love everything going on at FTM fantasy dvoa all that stuff field vision is another um uh product based down in Portland I've gotten to know you and I think is Scott am I remembering right yeah Scott the the founder and you guys are are starting out with your field vision app and had a prettyy good week yourselves in terms of uh your betting model so talk to us a little bit about field Vision what it is and what you guys are doing yeah so we're a Predictive Analytics company designed on kind of modeling what's going on in the NFL and we we wanted to put that in the hands of every consumer so essentially creating a handheld app that you can have on your phone with game projections player prop projections even all the way down to kind of like we we even have a proprietary player ranking that we think is pretty pretty more intuitive than some of the stuff that you see like PFF um and so what we do is we essentially model what's going on we went 18 for 20 on our Best Bets last week and then in fact our player model was about 60% where we're different than most is that we can have a projection all the way from like receiver number one to receiver number five so if they're going to play in the game and we our model them to have some sort of yards they're going to be in that uh in that and it's all handheld and it's about nine $10 a month about $50 for the for the entire season it's pretty cool and um I love what you guys are doing it was really impressive you know hitting on all those uh only missing two and I I love it I mean the Scott who started its you know former Nike employee kind of bootstrapping this thing um when you last came on you were talking to us about your Havoc rankings and that is now hosted inside of the field vision app right yeah so now we do and it's full-fledged like the the Havoc rankings we talk about were pretty much just like me messing around with an Excel sheet what we were able to do was filter this through our model and basically through our AI machine learning and we were actually able to come up with better more intuitive ways of rating players off of play-by-play data so we can actually cut this any way we can cut it by coverage we canut cut at man ver Zone we can cut for quarterbacks Blitz non Blitz play action non-play action uh design quarterback runs you know we can cut it almost any way so that we can really utilize this I think one of the things that it does is it gives us a more kind of a holistic view of how that player is performing within that kind of position across the NFL and not just some arbitrary did he check a box uh kind of how many what's he doing you know and somebody doing it on their own we're actually running it through a model and having actual score what is what is the data and what is that play telling us and then that's kind of what we're giving them so when we had you on it was in part because you were going to help explain Mike McDonald's defense and then we were talking about some of your Havoc rankings you thought that the safety room yes of ran Jenkins and Kavon Wallace and Julian love was much stronger than people were giving it credit for for and there's a lot of folks in the Seahawks fan base that were like okay quandre Diggs Jamal Adams are leaving uh those are bigger names they didn't really know ran Jenkins and he was you know let go for cap Reasons from Jacksonville how good really was he and Kayon Wallace was with two teams last year kind of been bouncing around how good this guy could be and you had Kavon Wallace and raan Jenkins as top 20 safeties at least at that time and I think if I'm remembering right Julian love was actually a little bit lower 25 or something like that um what did you think of their first game I couldn't wait to talk to you because I was like ah here it is The Big Nickel they had three safeties on anytime the Broncos went 12 Personnel they had the three safeties in there and like we talked about raan Jenkins was going to play Down Kon Wallace is is in the back with Julian love love had a great game um actually in fact him and Wallace both played really well ran jenin played good in the slot and then back in and I think what it really does is alleviates a lot of the pressure for uh the corners and it allows Witherspoon to be bumped outside on some of these 12 personnel which we're seeing more in the NFL so no this was it was really good confirmation of okay hey we you know what we talked about earlier this is what happens in week one and then obviously they performed really really well yeah I talked to Mike McDonald yesterday about this a little bit and he said like Kavon Wallace has earned snaps but he also implied that won't always be they won't always get those three safeties on on the field at the same time and some of it was exactly to your point to kind of be able to bump Devin Witherspoon outside um you know get raan Jenkins closer to the line of scrimmage tell folks why like what about the Broncos Personnel was allowing them to play those three safeties more often a lot of 21 Personnel a lot of 12 personnel and so anytime you saw two tight ends go on or that fullback came on and but they wanted uh they wanted to keep a kind of a passing influence on the field that's when you saw that big nickel that's when you saw the safeties and then later in the game when it essentially became the Broncos had to pass to win that's where you saw the three safety kind of dime structure that they played with with all three of them kind of in that back that umbrella five five across look that you saw there towards the end um you know and to your point with Wallace I think people people assume you know well he was with two teams but if you go and you look at it Buddha Baker and Jaylen Thompson for the Cardinals I mean that's arguably one of the best safety Duos in the NFL so once up both of them were healthy they kind of kicked him because they knew that you know they he we're probably going to have to pay him as eventually we're going to kick him down the road well then he goes to the Titans well the Titans at the time had injury safeties as well they had hooker and then I'm I'm blanking on the guy that went to the Chargers But molden but so they had two primary starters so and then again Wallace kind of bet on himself and said I'm gonna go get paid and and Seattle was able to do that and I think to me he is the third guy in this but I think as you go further on when you do see 12 personnel this is the this is the the package that you're going to see so were there any situations you saw where they had three safeties and three corners out there I don't think so but I would assume maybe towards the end uh when they did get that dime package where you had the three corners out there um and then you also had the three safeties I think maybe that would have been that's probably the only situation that you would have seen that so generally what you were seeing was them deciding between who Kavon Wallace and Trey Brown essentially and and really what it came down to is like just Personnel like okay if they're going to go with three receivers on the field we don't want to necessarily put raan Jenkins in a situation where he's gonna have to man up on uh you know the slot receiver for the for the Broncos so we're going to go ahead and and move Witherspoon back inside and put Trey BR outside interesting so so yeah talk to us a little bit more about like that thought process about about you know what are the situations where you You' want Trey Brown on the field what are the situations where Kayon Wallace gives you something different yeah so really what we're seeing in the NFL is kind of the there's two different ways that you can run your 12 Personnel you can run 12 Personnel where we're going to really run 11 it's kind of like the Rams you know they run 11 personnel because the receivers are really good at blocking so they can run 12 Personnel 21 Personnel plays even though they keep like that all 11 on the field uh so when you Play Somebody Like Shawn pyton when they go 12 Personnel you kind of have to decide what kind of rece like receivers are those tight end so when you're playing them are they too blocking tight end did they bring in an e extra offensive lineman you know you bring in an extra offensive lineman and you only have your one tight end you're probably just gonna play base which is what which is what we saw early from the Seahawks they just went ahead and played in their 34 they played their base and in their base structure wither spoon on the outside with with Woolen and then you had your two starting safeties then when you go 12 Personnel you know you have to decide what are they trying where are they on the field if they're kind of in a backed up situation we know we're probably going to get run probably just end up staying base um if As you move into the field a lot of these guys have really a traditional why that is a blocker who can go out and catch a pass in the flat right or you have kind of like what you have with Kelsey right a flex tied end you have hackinson with the Vikings as another great example where they're kind of like uh they they can they're more of a receiving type well when you have that they can run 11 personnel off of that and you have to decide do we want to put weather spoon are we wasting Witherspoon um on on a tight end or do we want to just go big nickel because we know that they can run as well and that's what I really felt like that they were trying to do with the Broncos they were getting Jenkins near the Box Jenkins fits the Box really really nice in fact there was a play where he folded all the way from Hit spot as an overhang outside the box folded all the way into the a gap ended up making a tackle for pretty much a minimal gain and so that's why you do that against 12 Personnel 11 personnel you probably want to have three corners out there because you're going up against three receivers and then that gives you that allows you to just go ahead and play with the two safeties so it's not necessarily about getting Wallace on the field like you kind of alluded to it just was what the Broncos were doing allowed that big nickel package that three safety package to be on the field yeah and for folks that are not as into the lingo um when Cody's talking about Personnel you know generally it's the first number is the amount of running backs on the field second number is the amount of tight ends on the field so when you talking 12 you're talking about two tight ends on the field and so uh and 11 is going to be a three receiver uh right situation so just keeping everybody up to date on what he's referring to um so how did they do like from your perspective how do you think how do you think those different packages played any of them play much better than the other any of them play you know have some weaknesses what did you see yeah I thought The Big Nickel is going to be very it's going to be difficult for for offenses to kind of decide how to attack that I think raan jenin is really good near the box and then you have Kon Wallace and love that are really good deep I mean so you're you're kind of able to play your entire nickel scheme through a three safety look and and really what we're talking about what's the difference between nickel and big nickel is you have a coverage first Defender as that slot overhang or that to that passing strength and so wither as we know is one of the better nickels in the NFL but what this does is it gives them scheme flexibility that they can run essentially the same Playbook it's just we have a different player in that spot Jenkins is probably better suited to play in the box and to play near the Box than Witherspoon it also and we kind of talked about this uh the last time we talked is one of the big weaknesses that this that the Seahawks have right now is they really don't have that third Corner Trey Brown kind of got picked on towards the end of the game as the game kind of went on you could tell that the Broncos were like okay we're not attacking Woolen we're going to go after brown brown kind of gave up some some bigger yardage plays towards the end of the game that's going to be an issue going forward because you are going to play teams that are going to be able to get into 11 personnel and really go after that so that was one of the my concerns going into this now they played really well you know B Knicks kind of essentially put put the entire the Seattle Seahawks uh secondary in in the all Havoc team for field Vision this week um but that is you can see you know we don't want to have survival bias like we don't want to get over the game say okay we won everything's great but there are things that you can look at Brown is going to have to be he's going to have to progress um because that will be an issue going on especially you play the Rams that have three receivers um you know that's going to be an issue I think a 49ers Seahawks match up pretty well be able to play some big nickel you know put jenin down you're going to want to play some nickel against their 11 personel stuff but that I think you're going to be fine and that's the other part when you do get into that and you have two outside receivers that are really good like the 49ers and they can get in a situation where they can force you to play Brown now they can really attack you so that would be the one weakness that I would see going forward when you we talk about Jenkins going into the box I mean is that ever in a situation where is he coming in taking any of the linebackers off the field um in any of those situations or is it always is always going to be Corner yeah I think he's mostly going to be a slot Defender um I guess you could you could argue that at some point you're going to play dime so he'll probably be the dime back where he will come in and be kind of that they call it a money backer he's going to be the guy that Shades the tight end lets your mic kind of be on the running back and then obviously you're going to kick wither spoon back inside for the nickel so that would be a situation where he would come in for a linebacker but really what you're talking about is a 425 structure just who's going to be that slot Defender is it gonna be Jenkins which we saw against 12 personnel and the 21 Personnel when they thought they were going to get pass and then when they gave 11 personnel meaning that there were three receivers now on the field instead of two tight ends that's when we saw wither spoon be k kick back inside so we're talking to coach Cody Alexander of match quarters.com uh one of the best defensive experts out there has written books on the topic uh uh you'll find a bunch of NFL folks that follow Cody so talk to us for a second you said B knck kind of put these guys in the stratosphere there there were a lot of bad quarterback outings in the NFL on Sunday a lot of teams a lot of quarterbacks had less than 150 yards 170 yards passing how much do you credit the Seahawks for the way they played versus B Knicks and the way he played I do think it's about 5050 I mean I think that Nicks was going to struggle obviously week one rookie quarterbacks are historically are going to be pretty abysmal that's why I always tell people like there no knee-jerk reactions like everybody wants to jump on on the train like even for the Broncos like everybody wants to jump on the train oh B ni is terrible it you know we we need to remember like week one a lot of these guys too the way the preseason is now unfolding where guys just aren't playing in the preseason even rookies aren't playing in the preseason it's G to take a while and that first the defenses are probably going to be a little bit of aead and I also think it's just where we are uh in the NFL ecosystem defenses have figured out we're going to play more Zone we're going to play more split field coverages we're going to cap verticals we're not going to allow you to get these these large chunks of plays down the field because you know maybe you know I'm putting my corner in a situation to play man manto man on every single down I think we've we've kind of we're in that post spread era where the defense has kind of figured out some of the stuff that's why you know the one thing that came out of week one is is you probably want to start running the ball a little bit if you're seeing two high safety structures you want to probably start running the ball and I think that that's kind of where we're at we've now look football has a very very cyclical nature to it and a predictable nature to it is that we we go to passing and then the defenses get really light and then so then everybody packs it back in and we start running the ball I think now but as we go through time offenses get more advanced we have more pre- snap motion we have spread Concepts now that we can run out of 12 Personnel even 13 Personnel 21 person so I I don't think we're going back to the Neanderthal ball that we saw in the 90s but that's part of that process early in so I think really for the Seahawks it was good but it was also a little bit of like hey you played a rookie quarterback Cody when I was watching this game and I've said this to folks since then but I've watched a lot of Seahawks football From My Seats over the years I get used to watching you know okay here's this sub package you know nickel here's the Personnel they're going to be running out you kind of get used to that over time I have never seen as much uh scheme change coverage change Personnel change it was hard for me to keep track of who was in and who was out it didn't even seem to be follow any pattern of you know this down in distance like it was it was something I haven't really seen before and so my first question to you is is are my eyes deceiving me is that really what's happening my second question for you and this probably take a little bit longer but I feel like we've been in this era of where pre-nap reads for quarterbacks have been this art and the ones that do it really well have this massive advantage and I'm wondering if we're getting to the point where their defenses are lessening that Advantage because you can't even depend okay this is always going to be my nickel Defender and I know his Tendencies or I always know they're going to play this in this thing it and sometimes even the coverage that they're showing at snap is not what they actually play that they rotate into post Snap are we getting to an Era where like the Mike McDonald's of the world are reducing the pre-nap read advant AG that quarterbacks have had so those two questions am I am I right that I'm seeing all these changes and then two what do you think about this pre-nap Advantage yeah so McDonald is one of those and i' I've loved watching his defenses even all the way back to when he was with Michigan just he's going to use every player on that roster I mean there's going to everybody's GNA have a job that's where we see even in the in the sub packages that you see a nickel defender in Witherspoon but then you also see kind of like a a run or a box Defender in Jenkins and we can even within that nickel package we can change that up uh so in base you can do different ways we can run a four3 or we can run a 34 that's one of the beauties of his scheme is that he can he has basically taken interchangeable parts from every different part of this defense and he can plug it in wherever he wants so even though he's changing packages they're really running just kind of a the regular Playbook that you see it's but the way that he's able to create language and the way that he's able to then implement it and and kind of use these interchangeable parts that's where you get it and that so yes you are correct you saw a bunch of different Personnel packages now part of that is just like offences use Personnel packages and pre-nap Alignment to mess with the defense and to get predictable nature we saw this with the 49ers forever they would run 21 Personnel right they would have a fullback they would have a tight end and two receivers they would run that out there and old school defensive coaches what do you do you put your base package out there we're going to go a 34 or a 4-3 we're going to put our heavy Personnel out there and then what will the 49ers do they'd get an empty and now now what are you going to do well you don't have that many empty check what's your empty check in in in your three four defense how you really want to move your Edge linebacker that you're paying you're paying a premium price to go Rush the quarterback now you're essentially taking him out of that now we're manufacturing three so that to me is where offense has got so to counter that def defensively we're going to give you a bunch of different things to look at as well I'm going to have a bunch of different packages I can call it on any down now obviously you want to make sure that you you're really specific about when you call that but within that cover that within that we are also multiple in our coverages that's the one thing that the NFL you know coverage dis skies in week one was around about 30% so it is up week one it will be interesting to see how if that tails off or if that continues going on typically the past three years it's been about 25% of actual calls is what you see pre-nap you're getting something different post Snap now the difference though is you're like well that's actually not a lot so yes it's probably talked about more than it needs to be but what is changing is the coverage diversity that a lot of coaches are carrying and Mike McDonald is one of the guys at the Forefront of this not only are we going to run you know coverage disguise but then we're also going to run every coverage we're going to run our cover one we're going to have cover two we've got multiple the whole cover three umbrella You Know cover three really is a is a whiteboard coverage meaning that there it's x's on a board I can put guys wherever I want as long as they can physically handle it obviously you don't want your nose tackle as the Deep third player but we can move guys around and that's why like where he is a lot of times you don't see a lot of the match schemes that you see kind of at the college level because he's moving guys around so that they can get to their spots and so then you get quarters and then you also o have the targeted coverage that they use which is kind of that fangio and what they use is like we're rotating the cover two side in our quarter quarter half so it's not just cover six anymore where we always know the quarter side is to the nickel and the cover two sides away they can actually move it and what that does is that allows you to get Zone doubles on the top receiver or in specific formations where you know the ball's going I got probably about 50% of that maybe 60% of that and so that means my audience probably got 25% so so let's let's let's break that down a little bit so uh you talked about that that coverage diversity is is part and partial for McDonald you also talked about that cover three in particular you know gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of where you deploy those guys um it sounds like McDonald played a lot of Zone in this not a lot of man is that correct yeah it mostly and to me honest with you that's where we are in the NFL you know yes the Browns run cover one like a majority of the time but really at the end of the day like that's not where the NFL really is at this point it's it's much a Zone heavy scheme when you've got a guy like reek Woolen who excels in manto man coverage does that mitigate his advantages by asking him to play zone or or how do you see that matching up with his skill set well I think you you use him more targeted wise is like he's going to be our boundary Corner we're going to allow him to play or we're going to have him rotate with the number one receiver when we're in our nickel packages so when when Brown is out there I think with Witherspoon they probably feel comfortable having him deal with whatever receiver comes to his side so that's when you get the right and left but in your your true nickel package you're probably going to have him you know spy or or lean to where that number one receiver is and and two I think running quarters uh is pretty much like running man you run cover three you're essentially getting man on the outside too the way that they play it a lot of times so you're not necessarily moving away from cover one you're really alleviating a lot of pressure for other players but Wen is a guy that you want to use targetedly on your top receiver because not only is he a physical freak but he is one of the best man Corners in the NFL he struggled a little bit in zone coverage last year he's talked about that kind of off coverage in general is something he's been working on what did you see from him in this game about like anything that is an indicator for you about whether he's taken a step in being a better Zone Defender yeah I thought he did really well there weren't there were not situations where you felt like man he is lost he doesn't know where his eyes are supposed to go or where he goes I also think that this you know the superpower at at the NFL level is how good of a teacher that you have coaches around you and I think Mike McDonald is one of those that's really shown through the years that he is a teacher first and then you you know the football part comes after that that's how he's able to run all of these things and I think like at the NFL level a lot of people get enamored by the shield and they're like oh well these must be the best coaches in the world and that's not necessarily the case a lot of times they're dealing with physical freaks right these are the one percenters of the world that are just that they're just athletic specimens and so a lot of coaches just figure you can figure it out you should be able to play these zones and you should be able to play as a man but being an on ball Corner that presses footwork and where your vision goes is very much dominant on a tunnel vision on that receiver when you go to zone now it expands to the periphery and now my peripheral vision is now where where's where's number two am I relating to the slot what's the receiver what's the departure angle of him what's the departure angle of mine and I have to I have to compute all of this all at the time and I think that's where I think you know people think that you know football like the 80s and 90s movies ruin football for a lot of people because it's like oh it's just a bunch of dumb jocks anym and I'll be honest with you any more at the NFL level like every position pretty much you have to be very cerebral about the way that you approach because we are so multiple in the way that things are attacking it's not just tunnel vision I got that guy and then I just need to be physically better than him but I thought I thought Wen did really well for for week one in a Zone Zone dominance scheme we've talked about about the secondary I want to ask you about the linebackers and the defensive line uh anyone stand out to you there I I ask you specifically I guess about Tyrell Dodson because this is a guy that people had some question about maybe he wasn't asked to do as much in Buffalo in terms of coverage was he really as good as his you know his grading was at least from a PFF perspective what did you see from the linebackers what did you see from the defensive line and what do you see specifically from Tyrell Dodson yeah I think Tyrell doson is going to end up being an absolute steill I think if Buffalo had an opportunity to pay him I think they would have especially knowing now Mike Mike Milano or Matt Milano is hurt and now he's pretty much out for the season I mean there was a reason why he was kind of able to go into free agency and there's a reason why Mike McDonald wanted to pick him up he's a coverage linebacker comes from a coverage system in Buffalo I thought he did really well they flew around and and played really really well um and I think the the other thing with the defensive line it's just that you saw you saw them be very dominant up front I thought they handled the Bron you know Broncos have really worked really hard to get that that uh that offensive line right and I thought both you know the one thing that I would take from this is that you have uh the edges have started to show up for Seattle and that's a to me that's a big thing that's something that has really been missing for a while um but like MAF for instance a huge game from him uh which should be a positive sign of that hey we're getting pressure the other thing to remember this is also uh um Mike McDonald who was with the Ravens did not have a Premium Edge rusher and was also able to get 110% um production out of the front that they had with the Ravens so I I would say that this is this is a positive first step in in week one yeah and they didn't have aen nosu playing uh you know hopefully he'll be back soon talk a little bit did you see much from Derek hall draymont Jones anything there that that was positive or negative yeah if you really look at like the way that we do our Havoc ratings if you look at it like Draymond Jones probably probably didn't have that great of a game jiren Reed probably had the worst game of everybody um he was pretty low on our list uh but I think that you know sometimes it just depends on what they're trying to do the Broncos were able to run the ball a little bit um and they were able to get open a few times in in the field I so to me the defensive line is is one of those that you kind of it it's going to have to grow together I think but the positives would be that you were able to get pressure I think a lot of it too and I'll just put this the kind of a little asterisk with the p with the pressure from Seattle is that what the Broncos were doing with a lot of half rolls with Nicks allowed those edges a lot of access to the quarterback very quickly so you know that will be something to keep an eye on as we go forward in the season is is this production uh being manufactured uh because of what the offense is doing or are we actually seeing guys win their one-on-one let's switch gears for a second Cody we're talking to Cody Alexander from match quarters.com also from field Vision um Patriots Patriots played a game in Cincinnati came away with 1610 Victory you know kind of shut down a little bit that Joe burrow offense um first of all like give us your initial impression of that Patriots defense I think it's the typical Patriots defense that you're going to see you know people were a little bit concerned I know I was with Bill belich leaving um what's that defense going to look like I think they will lose a little bit of the creativity in the game plan just having the encyclopedia that's there but we forget everybody on that staff has been with the Patriots I mean even Mayo Mayo played in that defense he coaching that defense he's now the head coach coaching that defense so I think that to see to say that they're going to take a step back probably that's not what I saw I saw that they they were ready to play they're always going to be really good against the Run um and then that secondary is really talented I mean they got Gonzalez back both of those safeties are really in that system are used really really well so I thought that you know that's the part that with the Patriots that you don't necessarily worry about and it was good to see that in week one like okay check that off the list we don't have to worry about defense is probably going to be pretty good it's the offensive side that you and quarterback play with them that you really have to worry about I have a bunch of questions for you on this and and another question that just occurred to me actually about uh the Broncos so um hold on one second before we get to that I want to take a couple of super chats here Joey Walker said at this point of what we've seen what type of offense is the biggest threat to our defense or does Mike McDonald have an answer for every look you's talked about this a little bit but yeah what are one week in what are the types of offenses that are going to potentially be more challenging for Mike McDonald in the Seahawks defense I think defenses that are going to be able to handle the edges I think that that will be that will be a problem I mean you really don't have a Premium Edge at Seattle that's prob that's one of the things that you want if they have good tackles and they're able to handle that I don't think you're going to see a bunch of half rolls like you saw with Nicks going forward from a lot of guys the other problem I I see is if they can make it an 11 personnel game I think the Rams might give the Seahawks some trouble just because of the Personnel issue and then you know that's the choice that Mike McDonald's gonna have to ask do we want to go big nickel on some of these situations and put Jenkins down in situations where he may have to uh defend Cooper cup or pukan niua whenever he becomes healthy those those are going to be the questions that I think and a team within the division uh that I think in the division I think you guys match up relatively well uh if you want to play Bas and you want to play Big nickol against the 49ers it's just going to be is that what you're going to do and can you handle the run and can you do all that as you go forward so to me it's going to be 11 personnel teams and then teams that can kind of manipulate that and handle your edges next Super Chat comes from detail oriented says how much is this defense good to great players versus the coaching staff getting the most out of maybe just average to slightly above average players well I think go look at what the Ravens looked like in week one I I think that it looked like a completely different defense I mean now I know that they lost a lot of talent off of that um but I think that with the scheme flexibility within Mike McDonald he really leans into what he has on the roster the production that he was able to get from the defensive line last year in particular with the Ravens is really interesting and he's always been able to get that out I think what you looked at when he came in for wink Martell with the Ravens it was night and day difference between one year to the next wi that I think he's one of the better defensive coaches in the NFL uh and I think that he gets the most out of his players and I think a lot of it has to do with he is doing a lot but you don't see the bus that's part of you know that's kind of the you know Gus Bradley's a big guy for the Colts that's we're going to do things really really simple guys are going to play Fast we're not going to do a lot and what happens is after time that's really player Reliant you need to have really good players in order to just kind of sustain that we saw that with Pete Carroll right was we're gonna run this defense it's going to be relatively simple this is what we do and then you know it's really player dominant I think with his scheme is that he has enough tools and he has the teaching and the pedagogy within that to really move guys around and get the most out of it it's more scheme heavy than it necessarily as player specific before we get back to the Patriots where I want to spend more time it occurred to me I want to ask you about the Broncos in the sense that obviously the Seahawks offensive line had a really tough first game and some folks are freaking out more than others about that how good do you think the Broncos pass rush is in their in their front um is is that is that part of what was going on there versus the Seahawks offensive line just being bad well I think the Seahawks have had issues now for a while with their tackles um it just all a story for me I I kind of love watching the Seahawks the past couple years of like that was typically where you could get really good angles of of pass rush stunts and things like that and I you know I laugh that's not funny to y'all but um I do think I do think that the Broncos have some really good young Talent at the edge position they're very athletic uh they they're really good at the pass stru aspect that is something to be a concern of going forward is can we keep Gino Smith upright can the passing game uh the downfield the true dropback passing game can we survive in that because at some point you're going to need that in order to be successful in the NFL well part of my question Cody is my read is that the Broncos have solid to above average um players at multiple spots along their defensive line and on edge and they have rotated you know rotational edges are also solid so they have a lot of depth maybe not like the top top shelf but a lot of depth and a lot of quality do the Patriots have that or do they just have Keon white and then you know uch you know like do they have the same kind of Arsenal to deploy um from a pass rush perspective yeah I don't I don't think they do now Keon white is is a a a beast just because of how big he is and he can he can play standup nine which is outside wide like your regular outside linebacker stand up and then he can all he can move all the way in on top of a guard so he creates a lot of issues that is one of the things that I feel like they lost when when they traded judon but then also M will uh Wilson Jr who's with uh the Cardinals now who had a pretty good pretty good game uh for him against the bills those were kind of your your blitzers right so the Patriots are really good against the Run uh but they're not necessarily great pass rushing team they just really haven't been the past couple years especially with judon injuries and then with Keon white last year kind of progressing so they're really relying on Keon white to kind of destroy one side of the field for them yeah and I mean that kind of begs the question when you're designing a defense you know Keon White's probably better than any of the p Mass rushers the Broncos had to deploy more dangerous at least more versatile in terms of where he can attack you would you rather have that Ace or would you rather have a full Full House like like H you know more varied more depth in your past rush across um what's your thought there in terms of what's harder to uh counter as an offense well I think when you're talking about a Premium Edge like a miles Garrett Max Crosby TJ watt you know one of the you know Bosa I think when you look at those guys it really doesn't matter they're going to win they're one-on ones and so it you can slide as much as you want they're going to find a way uh to win when you talk about like these these above average to really good edges you probably want to have uh two really good above average edges that way it the offense can't just key off on one guy they can't just you know lean the back or a tight end on one and then you know we oh we'll be able to handle the other it really forces you to have two good tackles offenses only have one good tackle that's in pass rush I think the other thing that the Broncos did is that they just decided they were going to Blitz Seattle uh they had one of the highest Blitz rates in week one and kind of Vance Joseph has has this tendency at times he did when he was with the Cardinals of like hey if things aren't going good we're just going to Blitz through it we're going to try and Blitz through it we're going to accelerate the read for the quarterback hopefully we can get a big play it just didn't necessarily work for the Broncos against the Seahawks but that was kind of what he wanted to do against them so I do think going forward especially against the Patriots what will that look like I they're not going to be Blitz heavy and they're going to really rely on one guy to kind of wreck havoc would you rather have the Patriots front seven or the Broncos front seven let's say the front four let's because the the linebackers for the the Broncos are awful so let's just talk about the front four no I I I like the Bron if there's a strength on that defense it is going to be the Broncos defensive line I like the Broncos defensive line um I like the young edges that they have I like Cooper and Browning um and Bonito is is pretty good it's just like a a package sub Allen's really good inside Jones is good as well so I think I think I like that line I think with them now baramore was playing if you have baramore and you ke white I'm taking that all day long but that's not what they have they have they have workhorses think of it more as like these are Clyde STS man like their workhorses they're going to work that's kind of but that's the model that the Patriots have had under bellich is not necessarily we want these High Caliber guys we want to put a lot of cap into that belich che's always been kind of the master manipulator of where are the market deficiencies I mean They Carried like six safeties last year why because and and we saw this this year I mean Seattle was part of that group of like Hey we're going to try and bring in three starters at safety right so they they had four of them uh so you know that's kind of where they've kind of shifted around they've tried to play the game a little bit and so when you when you do that you don't pay premium players I think that that's why one of the reasons why judon went to Atlanta they got rid of him because they were gonna have to pay him uh but I do think Keon white is one because he's a kind of a utility belt guy that's a guy that'll probably end up getting paid just because you can move him anywhere so moving to the Patriots against the the Bengals um the the Patriots played uh a significant amount of two deep um and uh and the Broncos played 0% so that's going to be a pretty stark contrast and when the bangal the Bengals for whatever reason chose not to run the ball but when they ran power they were 100% success rate on those plays and uh the Patriots did seem to have some challenge in defending the run so how much of that is like do you think that they'll stick to their two High kind of looks um against the Seahawks and make the Seahawks run at them or how do you think the the Patriots will will defend the Seahawks yeah the Bengal Are an interesting uh case study because they're kind of a unique offense in the sense that they don't necessarily use any motion they're kind of a herob ball offense when they don't have t Higgins that just and Jamar chase at the same time the offense just doesn't really work that well because that's why that game plan was the way they were that Patriots game plan was for to have having both those stud outside receivers how do we get doubles on them without having to play Man a bunch we do that with cover too and you just dare the you dare the Bengal to to run the ball so to me the the running success was more or less the Patriots were okay with that and I know that that sounds crazy but that's where we are in the NFL is that defensive coordinates would rather give up a five yard run than a five yard pass because a 5 yard pass can end up being a 50- yard touchdown whereas a 5 yard run is a 5 yard run and then we play another and and most likely it's a passing down after that so I think to me that's where that's where that uh that kind of the chess match is so do I think that you're going to see a high volume of cover two from the Patriots against the Seattle I don't think so I think it'll be more more less their base structure of what they really want to play some cover one they want to run some cover three and then they sprinkling cover two on some passing Downs who who uh stands out to you on that Patriots defense who's going to give besides Keon white who we've targeted who's going to give the Seahawks some challenges I think Christian Gonzalez I having him healthy having him back um when they drafted him I was like this is the most Patriots draft pick I've ever seen I mean the guy's he's a man coverage Guru that's what he does he was an allball corner I think that that's what's going to happen uh this week is that he's gonna man up on whoever he they decide to line him up against and it's going to be locked down um that to me that is that's where we that's the guy that I look for uh and kind of the difference going in to this year that they didn't have towards the the middle part in the end because he got hurt so having him healthy having him back and being able to play Man coverage on the number one receiver is something that they they really want to do when we flip sides for a second we talk about the Bengals going up against the Bengals defense going up against the Patriots offense and we don't have to get in detail here but Patriots offensive line also struggled quite a bit and seems to have some issues at left tackle guards um ra Andre Stevenson had almost all his yards after contact they' ran almost all inside Zone I asked Mike McDonald about that yesterday they actually had the highest inside Zone rate of any team in the NFL and Mike McDonald said he thought that was based somewhat on the fronts that the Bengals were were putting out there and that he thinks that they've got more you know variability to a variety in their in their run scheme than what they showed what's your take on on how the Patriots are going to try to attack the Seahawks defense yeah cuz the the thing with the Bengal that you have to understand is they have two really good edges uh two of the better edges actually probably one of the better Edge Duos in the NFL they got rid of DJ reer they let him walk he's now with the lion so they really don't have a presence inside so you're just running inside Zone and you're just trying to plug it up in there a lot of fourman front from them uh you know they they kind of uh said we're going to let reader go and then we're going to bring two new safeties in because uh the defensive coordinator L maruno he he loves to do a bunch of different coverage stuff he feels like that's where they need to be they're a nickel based defense need to have the safeties being able to kind of rotate around and do different things on the back end um and so for for me when you look at this defense they they really gave up a lot inside and that's where you see that that running number so yeah I think that for the Patriots there's obviously going to be a different variability they're going to have more variability it was just what they were going to get similar to the Patriots defensively versus the the Bengals I don't think you're G to get it you know a huge volume of cover too just because the the Seahawks aren't their offense is not built like uh the Bengals offense where you have two premium outside you know hero ball guys so to me that will be the biggest difference I think that the run the Run game will have to be varied it will have to be something that um especially against the Mike McDonald you're going to have to do different things you're gonna have to poke and prod figure out where you can where you can win on that defensive line do you see any advantages for the Patriots on offense you know I think that if they can handle I think if they can again if they can handle the edges they can keep things uh they can keep brasset upright I think you're gonna you're and be able to run the ball if that's something that I and that's something I feel like they're going to lean into they're just going to run the ball this year try and keep everybody healthy that's probably something that uh if I'm the if I'm the Seahawks if they can really use game control and they can they can really handle that and run the ball and kind of not necessarily the clock game because I think the game clock I think we we overemphasize game clock and holding the ball but I like to use the term game control of where you stay ahead of the change on rundowns you're getting easy situations on third down where it's predictable coverage matchups you know where the ball's going to go you're not making it difficult for the quarterback he's not having to get to his third or fourth read I think that's what they're trying to do offens ly is to just keep the keep the kind of the wheels on the bus right that we want to keep keep them going and not necessarily put us into positions where uh we're taking shots early because if you really look at their personnel I mean they really don't have uh a receiver that you're really afraid of uh I mean KJ Osborne's a really good slot receiver but I don't think anybody's afraid of him uh Douglas de Mario is is just a guy you know he's a second-year player Jaylen pulk was a second round draft pick but we all know rookie receivers are essentially roll the dice it's it's roulette like you have no idea what you're gonna get and T tigon Thorton can run uh he's really really fast he's a vertical threat so like you look at that a guy like that it's like okay can we cover him like twice during the game because that they're GNA take two shots maybe three can we Def and I think the I think the secondary is talented enough to handle that so weakness I would I would would be concerned about the Run game and they shorten the game uh and they control they control the game up front got another question for you on that before we get to it uh I just want to remind folks if you haven't gone to ftn fantasy.com use promo code Hawks get 15% off you should do it right now I'm a subscriber stats Hub is fantastic dvoa all the charting data the reason I knew that the Patriots had run the most inside Zone in the NFL in week one is because I had access to this data less than 8 bucks a month if you're going to like something like sports sis to get this information it's five or 6,000 a year so uh it's a great deal and a lot of great information so ftn fantasy.com promo code Hawks Cody you're a Patriots team and you look at playing the Bengals week one and then you play the P the Seahawks defense week two compare and contrast at a high level the the the Seahawks Mike McDonald's defense and the Bengals defense are they in the first of all are they in the in the same caliber in terms of talent in terms of complexity or are they just different levels to begin with whe whether or not they're playing the same scheme well I think you know the Bengals have traditionally been a pretty good secondary and you know uh their defensive coordinator has been really Savvy on the back end of doing things you know you have the two edges that are probably better like if you're looking at it positionally they have two edges those are the two one of the two Duo best Duos in the NFL um linebacker wise I think that you're you're pretty much the same um but I think that where the where the Seahawks are going to be able to prove to people that they're they're very talented as in that back end I think they have they have really good safeties you know Gino Stone was hurt last year uh ends up coming back to uh ends up coming to the Bengals Von Bell had his best years when he was with Cincinnati um but I wouldn't necessarily put him up as a you know a top one of the top safeties you know we really don't know he went to Carolina kind of bounced back so to me I think if you look at it that the obviously at corner I would take the two corners that Seattle has over the two corners outside corners that the Bengals have and I think that they would say the same thing um like I said I think the only deficiency you have is like at that third Corner Spot with Seattle I think that there's other teams that probably have three corners that are better so when you look at it uh you know you kind of compare them I think Seattle is probably set up a little bit better defensively especially inside uh to kind of handle what the Patriots are giv them Cody after one week and it's obviously the smallest possible sample size Seahawks defense is number one ranked dvoa Defense number one graded PFF defense do you think that this defense has that as a ceiling could this like if things continue over the course of a year you play it out can this be in the conversation for the best defense in the NFL or do you think there's that that it's way too early or that there's way too many question marks on that defense to even have that conversation I would be comfortable saying top 10 um I don't necessarily think top five top three top spot I think that eventually you're going to regress the mean there's some deficiencies just on this defense but you do have Mike McDonald and I think that that's kind of the key there of having that brain being able to work with that defense I think it's going to be one of the better defenses in the NFL if not this year especially next year when they get kind of they kind of get the guys that they want to get in there he's been able to get production out of guys you know you had the you had the um guy ask about is it more scheme or talent look at the end of the day it always comes down to the players you can mitigate a lot of issues that you have with players especially at the NFL when the talent when the talent level is Razor thin with some of the schematic advantages that you have with Mike McDonald being a better teacher being able to do more being able to answer problems on game day with different things that you have in the Playbook so I think that this is a team this is a defense that can you know get into that top 10 picture maybe push for a top five I just think you got to really be careful after week one uh especially against a rookie quarterback that they're trying to figure out what he can do and what he's comfortable with as well of just saying okay it's a top defense in the NFL I think after week four if we come here and we're talking again in week five and we're like hey they haven't really they've been able to dominate every game that they've played in then yes yes now we can start talking about hey maybe we were down on some guys or we didn't think some guys uh were maybe we think less of them but now we think more of yeah and just to make sure I heard correctly the deficiencies you've seen I think I've heard you list are one the third Corner you're not you're not high on Trey Brown and the other is maybe uh level of edge play are those the the two main things you'd call out now if mafa can continue on what he's doing I mean yeah I do agree with you uh that there's a there could be a potential there but I I think that yeah if I'm concerned right now it's probably going to be at Edge and it's going to be at that third Corner Spot who do you feel like given what you've seen are the the teams top couple defenses that you'd say are the ones that stand out to you that that uh you'd put in that upper tier for now you know I I would go with probably the the most talented roster is probably the Browns the problem that they're going to face is that you're just having a abysmal offense and at some point you're just going to you know they went on that run last year the defense was fired up you know when you you trust that the offense is going to produce I think there's going to be a time this year where we're just going to see them plummet uh just becau in the production just because it's going to be really difficult to play at a high level and try and win games you know you know 14 to seven every week that's a that's a unit that I think is really really good um I do think that the Jets have a very good defense I know that they're missing Hass reic in that whole situation but if you really look look at it they have they have probably the best Corner Room in the NFL um I like what they they just their linebacker core is really really good as well um I I got to interrupt you as rude as it is they let me down Cody I mean they couldn't defend the run to save their lives it seems like a very light defense I mean if they can't stop the run then do all that does all that speed and talent make a difference at the end of the day and that's the one thing if quinnon Williams is not dominating like he and and the 49ers were able to handle that that is one of the issues with that defense in particular is that you can run into is that if you cannot get pressure inside it's gonna be really difficult I think one of the things with the Jets and I just say talent wise I think that they're they're one of the better but one of the differences and we talked about a Bronco guy that Franko Meer who was plays inside for the Broncos he left the Jets there you know that that is going to be one of the things that I was a little bit worried about with the Jets when they lost him just that inside presence having that so you know I 100% agree with you I think a little bit of it as a matchup issue that they have with the with the 49 49 I mean you know this you see them twice a year it's just they're a matchup nightmare for for a lot of people all right closing in here uh kept you for a full hour I honestly talk to you all day but um you teased to so one quick one who do you think has the edge in the Seahawks Patriots game um as you look at it objectively I think that you could probably say the Patriots defense has the edge over the Seahawks offense and then you would have I would obviously take um the Seahawks defense over the patri so I think it's a really even game and it's going to come down to who what better quarterback play in which I would probably take goo Smith over set so I would think that this is going to be a really close game it's going to be a knockout drag out fight and then if can keep youo upright and he can hit some of his receivers and and you can get that ball mve and I think that's that's probably who ends up winning all right last piece you you kind of inferred this but you talked about the Seahawks defense potential for matching up with some of the division Rivals here how do you think this defense the talent the scheme um matches up with the McVey approach versus the Shanahan approach is is one a better matchup than another I think you know the 49ers are obviously going to be a difficult match up just because of their offensive line and their scheme wise I do think that there are some answers built in with the Seahawks for that they're able to be able to kind of do some different things Personnel wise uh that that are going to be able to mitigate that um I think that the if there's one team that's going to give you problems it's probably the Rams just because of the way that the receiver room is built you're going to have to decide how you're going to attack them that and that's why he built it that way when you run 11 personnel like that all the time you kind of have to decide if we go heavy we know that we're going to get some issues down the field if we go light then we know that they're going to start running the ball at us and it's just how can you how can you do that now if they are not healthy when the Seahawks play them then I think that it tips that it tips back to the Seahawks Seahawks have I think the Seahawks have a potential to be kind of a wild card playoff team in that just because I think that they can might be able to steal a game from from the Rams I think it's going to be difficult with the 49ers I think the 49ers are just they're just such a a behemoth anyway especially on the NFC side and I think they match up really well with what the Cardinals are trying to do uh with 12 personnel and kind of doing some things with kyin Murray I think they match up really well with that so the the one team that I think that could be that not necessarily a great matchup for them going forward would be probably the Rams there's one one question in chat that I just want to clarify with with the edge questions you've got about the Seahawks it's not I'm guessing it's not that whether they have decent edges it's whether they've got high-end Blue Chip like edges yeah just production like can't will this production continue I would take pause just with with what happened in week one because of all the half rolls they were trying to get Nicks kind of moving um and I think that if you Shawn Payton would probably argue you probably need to do a little bit more traditional dropback stuff with him not moving him around I thought that the once Seattle kind of figured out that that's what they were trying to do they just kind of left an edge hanging there and then once they saw him half roll it was like boom I'm going straight to his face uh so that it would be the only question it's not that they're not good they they're talented it's just that they you know can that production come through McDonald has proven that he can take guys that have had not had much production and actually amplify them that is coach Cody Alexander you can find him on Twitter at theore coacha Cody uh anything coming up on field Vision that people should check out from you this week yeah I I talk about different things like what we're seeing in the NFL so like today talking about two different line stunts that teams are doing especially and I'm using Jeff Halley with the Packers in his quarter scheme which it actually translates a lot it's basically what the 49ers do and how they do some line stunts to kind of mitigate the Run fits and that um I also had an article this week come out on uh you know kind of The Big Nickel that that was one of the things that came out um and then also hybrid linebackers using standup you know your typical offall guys those are kind of the things that I've been doing the past couple weeks and as we get in this season I'll be hitting off more of some of the schematic trends that we're seeing man it was such a pleasure to get to catch up with you and get an objective perspective on our Seahawks and some of the opponents that they're facing Cody thank you so much for joining us today yeah appreciate it man thanks for having me all right that is coach Cody Alexander the football 501 course that you never knew you needed um from Cody and yeah there's a lot of density to some of the stuff Cody goes through because this is a true football guy literally has written books on defense uh this is a guy that other coaches in the NFL follow and read and he's essentially like a defensive researcher uh out there and so super smart guy super into the details and also he's not going to be swayed emotionally one way or another has no loyalties in that way and so you got a lot of just honesty about where he sees the Seahawks defense and in particular he's never been particularly high on Trey Brown and we're going to see about that and I think it's a fair thing to have questions about and then on the edge side I think he's just got some questions about how good I don't think there's a question about whether the Seahawks have a lot of edge players and a lot of good Edge players but do they have any great Edge players and you know I think that's something he left some room to to prove out you know if MAF is able to continue it but he talked about these half rolls and in case it wasn't clear what that means when they're kind of having uh B Knicks move a little bit outside the pocket then it makes it a little easier for the edge rushers they have less of an angle to have to get less of a a barrier to get around they can kind of just run up the field on one side to get pressure on the quarterback that results in maybe some artificial pressure numbers and I think he's saying well let's see when the quarterback's in the pocket some more you know in a more traditional you know dropback game whether the Seahawks can get home and and we'll see I I think that that plays two ways I think that the Seahawks did not get you know two bow Knicks to bring him down in the field of play in that game and so I think there's going to be a difference in this game against jacobe brette um in how the Seahawks are going to be able to rush him versus the way that they were able to try to attack B knck and uh I really like that's something I will have my eyes on on this game is are the Seahawks able to be more disruptive um breaking down the pocket pushing the pocket collapsing the pocket than they were at times against Denver and I know all the pressure numbers I know Leonard Williams game I know all that I got to tell you I still have higher expectations than what I saw in week one in terms of how much pressure is being applied how much disruption is being caused to the quarterback and his ability to deliver the football so I think the Seahawks need to turn that up this week I think that they can we'll see we will see I'm looking forward to it um folks if you haven't given the show a like and click subscribe please do so uh as I said a bunch of times I mean f ftn the stats Hub the dvoa data it is helping me ask better questions of the coaching staff of players because I know more about Tendencies and who's doing what in the NFL and to be able to get it for you know 15% off with promo code Hawks gets you less than eight bucks a month if you want to make sure you get the fantasy football Plus or better package is what gets you stats Hub and dvoa data um highly recommend it uh so make sure you go to ftn fantasy.com to check that out all right everybody uh coming up later today we will be talking to Gino Smith we will be talking to some other players we'll be talking to uh Aden dirty and Ryan grub I will give you an update on those conversations after those finish and then tomorrow cannot wait tomorrow we get the Mike Sando show and unless something crazy happens it should actually work this week where we can do it live streaming and so looking forward to seeing that uh to talking to Mike and then Saturday Jeff Simmons and I will have Seahawks Saturday we'll do it pretty early in the morning it might be like might be like 7 A.M Pacific time in order for me to get to the airport and head out to Boston thanks to all of you for sending me especially to detail oriented and then Sunday I don't know what I'm going to do Sunday for Hawk blogger morning probably another pre game we'll figure out if I might do it in the car we'll have to kind of see cuz uh I don't know what my schedule's going to be like Sunday morning ahead of that game but I am looking forward to being in the Press Box for that game in new New England in Foxboro Foxboro and then being able to ask questions post game of the coaching staff and some of the players Monday morning just to keep you guys up to date on all this Monday morning I'll be flying back I have a very early flight assuming it lands on time as of now pushing back uh piai Mondays with Robert Mays Robert Mays Mondays to 2 p.m. uh Pacific time it's possible that will get pulled in a little bit earlier but I just want to make get the best chance that I'm not going to be delayed or anything else will get in the way of me being able to do the show so as of now uh Robert May's Monday is brought to you by piai pizza will be 2:00 on Monday so uh lots and lots andot lots of content we're going to just continue to roll through uh if you didn't watch real Hawk talk last night with Evan Hill and Jeff and I that was a lot of fun so highly recommend you check it out it is now up and available all right folks that will do it if you haven't given the show a like and click subscribe please do so now go over to Hawk blogger on Instagram click follow we're getting close to a thousand uh followers and uh uh tune in for the last last parts of the content that'll be coming out later today um I appreciate everybody tuning in everyone supporting the show uh until then I am Brian nehow you can find me at Twitter on Twitter and Instagram at hawkblogger this has been episode 172 of Hawk blogger mornings take care everybody