Rams NEW LOOK 2024 Defense under Chris Shula: What's Going to Change? What Will Be the Same?

what's up everybody welcome back to another episode of rams Brothers I'm your host Dean and I'm joined as always by my brother and the other great host of this show Nick and Nick today we're talking about defense because I feel like defense is the big question mark right now with this Rams team you got a new defensive coordinator no Aaron Donald you lost the defensive line coach and Eric Henderson so a lot of question marks in place but first and most importantly how are you my good brother I'm good uh I got a new ramp shirt I thought Dean was wearing the exact same one before we started uh but he's not uh so so we're good always trying to grab cool and new interesting Ram stuff yeah and shout out to um shout out to the uh some of the Rams podcasters Jay specifically Jay is sending us or I'm sorry content creators and pin creators Jay is sending us a couple new Ram shirts so shout out to you Jay we're gonna be repping them on the Pod very soon once we get them um but also if you guys are enjoying the content make sure that you like and subscribe a lot of good stuff coming your guys's way we're going to dig a little bit deeper into the defense as the season progresses obviously the offense feel like is going to stay for the majority the same but as we get more film as we dig into the detail as we see some of the new Personnel specifically the offensive line and the new running backs um I think we're going to have a lot of of new fun content coming your guys' way so make sure you like And subscribe be a part of the podcast support and we're going to be here for you all season long was it last year when mcve and Sneed kind of came out indirectly and said the offense is going to going to be good the defense is going to be like a little slow like but we'll be scoring a lot of it was last year right like we'll be scoring a lot so the defense can like you know will not have to be as big of a component as it was under previous regimes um like that was the idea going into the season but by the end I don't I it felt like the defense really figured something out like I was I like Blown Away by what rahee was able to do with that unit last year totally deserves a head coaching position on the Falcons now but you hold the Lions to I think it was what three points total in the second half of that playoff game in Detroit which is like one of the craziest home Arenas right now because they're just so loud it like overall I would give last year's defense like a pretty good grade for like the young kids that they had and Aaron Donald so you hope that they just continue on on the rise next year but with Chula you definitely get a little worried that you know things may be a little different well you think like the unpredictability like some of the methodologies that you can carry over from Raheem Morris from Wade Phillips from Brandon Staley like that's all going to come into play and that's what we're going to talk about today but like the unpredictability of Shawn mcvey's offense and them being such close friends and Confidant I strongly believe that Chris schu's defense is going to be similar to Shawn mcvey's offense in the art of misconception in the unpredictability phases right being able to rotate defensive backs and being able to stunt up front at the line of scrimmage like they're all things that have kind of carried over from year over year and the Rams have built upon with these new defensive coordinators as they've come into place so I think that's all going to be really fun to watch but I feel like the defense in totality it's a big question mark in 2024 Aaron Donald's retired as we know Raheem Morris is now the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons we lost coach Henny coach henn's at USC fight on Nick he's no longer coaching the defensive line you got GIF Smith who Shawn mcy seems to be very happy with as a new defensive line coach after spending two seasons with the Chargers as the outside linebackers coach which was very similar to Brandon Staley's um career path right in terms of how he kind of built year-over-year under Vic fangio and he was also the interim head coach for part of last season after Brandon Staley was hired so he was a highly regarded uh individual in the Chargers building and doesn't have a a long journey to to become the rams' defensive line coach he just has to walk across the hall and there he is and then also Chris schula as he previously coached inside linebackers that role is now going to be taken over by Greg Williams so Greg Williams another guy uh was Packers pass game coordinator in 2023 after coaching the Cardinals quarterbacks for four years in 2019 to 2022 so he'll take over as the rams' inside linebackers coach after that job was held by chish schula last season so in totality you got some new faces in the building right and they're on their fourth defensive coordinator in the McVey era so first it was Wade Phillips so you had obviously Wade Phillips you go back and look at pictures of Shawn McMay and Wade Phillips on Google they look like they're ancient right you go all the way back to 2019 they got even 2017 they got the old colors on the dark blue and the gold and it just it looks so different even the white that they mixed in um and it was obviously with Wade Phillips from 17 to 19 then Brandon Staley was hired in 2020 then he was poached away to go the Chargers after one season Raheem was hired in 21 was a Super Bowl winning defensive coordinator in his first season and then throughout the next couple of years in 22 and 23 you lost some key personnel Aaron Donald was on his way out Jaylen Ramsey left um and you had to shuffle some things around in favor Nick to your point to support the high-powered offense I think what is it 75% 80% of the salary cap is going to the offense this season so now they've opted to internally hire Chris schula and Chris schola like I think what we've been talking about Nick you and I in the past and as we've been just watching film and trying to aggregate all of our thoughts is he's going to be able to create his own variation of defensive schemes of the past like one that draws from his experiences under previous coordinators while adding his own kind of Innovations and Spins to it right because the key is adaptability in this league the league has changed it transforms everything changes from year to year so you can't stay stagnant you can't just run a three four base defense with man coverage like you did with with Wade Phillips you want to be able to bring some similarities to what you saw with the number one defense with Brandon Staley right their ability to move defensive backs to keep the unpredictability in place to even drop Edge rushers and coverage to to impact that you know obviously the Star position that that came to light with Jaylen Ramsey but I feel like some of the trends and some of the Innovations are going to move more so towards what Brandon Staley brought to the league and brought to the Rams specifically I feel like with Wade Phillips back in the day when the silver or the gold and dark blue navy Blues was like it's there was almost like a like when a president is running they pick a running mate that can just cover like a different section of the demographic so it was like sea McVey is like the hot new young guy and then let's get the oldest possible defensive coordinator to come in that like understands the job understands what he what he has to do and then like from there it's just gotten more and more like Shawn mcy is like more established so he can bring in people that like like he really wants to work with and then that's where you got Staley and then and then even closer with somebody who worked with in Washington with Raheem and then now to come all the way to schula who's just like been his buddy and like slept on his couch like Shawn McVey has totality among the Rams organization to really bring in whoever he wants he's proved that yeah but Chris schula I don't think has proved that he is capable of being a defensive coordinator yet outside of his relationship with Shawn McVey I don't think he would have gotten a defensive coordinator job on another team to yeah I mean I know Miami was looking at him M I think Miami wanted to bring him in but I don't know how how how much that had to come into play in terms of like the Don Schuler relationship with Miami and like he's an obvious candidate from the Rams he's a coordinator from the Rams he's going to get interviews right and he was coaching the inside linebackers and had a couple of other roles but like to your point yeah I I totally get where you're coming from and also Wade Phillips like going back to Wade Phillips for a second 1976 was when he started coaching he had 20 top 10 defenses from 1976 all the way to when he um when he hung it up and I went to the AFL or wherever he went but it's it's so interesting right because he was kind of part of the trends of defenses as they were starting to phase out right some of the base schemes some of the three four schemes some of the man coverage things that pass attacks as quarterbacks got better receivers got better and offensive schemes changed they got more difficult to defend right so like you saw some of the man coverages in place like you saw the Personnel kind of mold towards that regard with akib TB and marus Peters coming into the building and then eventually Jaylen Ramsey but like you can't argue with some of the things that they did in that 2018 Super Bowl like Wade Phillips can hang his hat on a really good coaching performance in 2018 in that Super Bowl with a front of Michael Brockers and Aaron Donald and domicans Sue and maybe not even a ton of town and Edge but you built it from the inside outside and you were still able to be a really productive unit but like I said things change and continuity is so key in this league but there's a ton of personnel up front via the draft and via the back end in free agency that makes this a really tough overall evaluation like how much changes how much stays the same how do you get the best of all three previous coordinators and form your own defense so as it stand right now a 335 base with a 5-1 front and I'm just going to give you guys a quick visual of this courtesy of at the coach a um on Twitter and he's has a great YouTube channel as well five one front five players being three defensive lineman and two Edge players I feel like that's likely going to be their formation and their foundation in terms of it favors the talent that they've added up front via the draft Raheem tended to move away from this and favored a 334 look which was much more in line with what the ram saw under Wade Phillips but but at a much higher frequency of Zone coverages that Raheem Morris like to deploy in the secondary so he had a little bit of a hybrid of Wade Phillips and Brandon Staley in his repertoire that's why we feel like Chris schula is going to implement all three and I think a lot of that came from having to simplify for some of the younger and more inexperienced Personnel while being able to do a variety of things with guys like Aaron do and Jaylen Ramsey but the three defensive lineman will likely kind of I would say continue the Gap in a half technique that you saw so strongly developed under a guy like Brandon Staley which is a hybrid front that's been around since day one of the Brandon Staley implementation of this defense as a base so you can imagine some kind of combination of Kobe Turner Braden Fisk Bobby Brown Tyler Davis Bobby Brown and Tyler Davis probably rotating in the Middle with Jared verse and Byron Young on the outside so I think that's going to be really fun to watch and in terms of like what Raheem did really well last year specific Bally creating pressure off line stunts they finished sixth in the NFL in defensive line stunts last year per PFF and that's how they created so much pressure right they kept Daron Donald away from getting double and triple teamed constantly and it's something that I would expect to keep that chisha to keep in his Arsenal as he you know continues his trajectory towards a a defensive or a defense coordinator hopefully a head coach in his case not in the Ram's case yeah I was going to say I hope he sticks around for a little long he doesn't immediately get taken away but I guess if he immediately gets taken away he did a fantastic job so you know monkeys Paul but it will like you lose somebody that is constantly getting double teamed so I mean as much as they tried to avoid it there was just no denying that Aaron Donald was GNA get more more men on him so you're hoping that like more creativity kind of upfront is really something that I think a lot of people are going to be looking for yeah I mean and it's not even necessarily due to like blitzing right because one of the things that the Rams do really well was that fire zone Blitz and it's not even a standard fiveman fire zone Blitz but it's a bonus fire zone Blitz where you're only rushing four that was one of the things that Raheem Morris did an incredible job of doing and then also the Rams were first in the NFL in post Snap rotation last season so rahee Morris he ran plenty of cover three but kept it unpredictable by consistently shifting Defenders on the back end post Snap so like you want to ment all that creativity you want those line stunts up front cover three quarters and cover six that all all these defensive looks they all favor the Personnel that they brought in and I feel like there's going to be a trend towards seeing more of that right because guys like Quinton Lake Darius Williams Trey white Kobe Durant all have that versatility on the back end like in terms of secondary I expect the coverage to Trend more towards what it looked like in 2020 so like what what Chris schula can do similar to Brandon Staley is Implement a majority of cover three and quarters because if you see that 40 to 50% of the time like you could see some of that stuff and you could dip back into cover one three seam cover six which is a lot of what Baltimore deployed last year so it's a very popular cover coverage that you're seeing the league start to progress too so like try to pick up on some of the league Trends because that's what Chris schul is going to be picking up on and looking to implement with the versatility he now has in the back end but like I I talk about this because it's so important like heavy heavy focus on unpredictability like that is Shawn mcvey's middle name like I expect him to go back to the brand and Staley roots in terms of the front and backend coverages with an expansion of some of these tight and Penny coverage fronts uh with gap and a half technique in their base like that I mean it it sounds really complicated we're throwing around a bunch of jargon now which is apparently on Twitter ftiz which is such a weird quote by Pablo Torres that NFL jargon is ftiz but like people are craving to understand what it is that these teams are implementing why it's ahead of the trend in the NFL and why defenses are so good right why are the how are you able to stop these highflying passing attacks how could you stop everybody with the exception of Patrick Mahomes like it's just such a great question I mean if the Rams do go back to the 2020 defense like similar like the most similar that that they have since Brandon Staley was there I think the fans will be just absolutely you know like in love with what they see but you're so right unpredictability predictability is just so key the Rams were first in the NFL in post Snap rotation last season Morris ran plenty of cover three but kept it unpredictable by consistently shifting post Snap cover three quarters cover six favors their personnel because there's so much Zone versatility now on the back end in that guys like Quinton Lake Darius Williams Trey white Kobe Durant it's like they're going to make it interesting it I I haven't heard that fetishized quote though it kind of makes me feel a little icky to be honest with you I don't like that I know me too but like nobody wants to talk about standard three four base looks anymore like this is what Wade Phillips's defense used to look like and it was super easy to comprehend and it's implemented at the high school and college levels but now like everything has changed and no like nobody wants to talk about three seam and Fireside blitzes and like all of these different things and line stunts like they're all football jargon and stuff that doesn't necessarily make sense until you apply it to the way that your defense is going to look or to to a specific player right like everybody was confused as to why Edge rushers were dropping back in coverage why Jaylen Ramsey was playing at the line of scrimmage when he has talent at the outside proven Talent at the outside but like they're all things that these new look defensive coordinators like to implement to keep the unpredictability factor to offenses right because like these these stagnant looks like quarterbacks can take a picture and then they say okay the defense is in this look all right now pre- snap I could move a receiver I could put him in short motion and then all of a sudden you're able to beat the defense play after play after play because you know exactly what they're going to be running they've shown it on film and now they're stagnant at the line of scrimmage so yeah I mean so much of what M McVey does is you just have like moving on the offense like like always have thing changing before snap have the most pre-ap snap motion like I know Bears fans that are like watching the Bears last season and they're like if like nothing is moving before the ball is snapped yeah there is there is zero movement happening right now and it's so easy for these defenses to to understand as soon as you it like imagine playing Madden with somebody maybe your brother as soon as you know what they're doing they're cooked like they like you have you have sought them out you know that they're you know it's third quarter he usually tends to go deep here which is something that McVey does it's like send send more guys back drop more guys back as soon as the other team has an idea of what you're doing which was Bill Bell Che in that 2018 Super Bowl where it was changing things after the snap so GF had no idea what he was doing like that's when you're cooked and to like that that's why the unpredictability is just so key and it's hope hopefully it's something that Chula implements it should be yeah I know yeah it definitely will be I know Bears fans were pissed off I know Eagles fans were pissed off with the lack of motion and the the stagnant offenses that they' consistently rolled out week over week because by week 10 you're figured out you're on film like that if that's your offense and you're not evolving by week after week after week in some form like the Rams implementing the pistol offensively after the bye how it just opens up their Duo scheme and allows them to collect four five six yards per carry on every single play like it's just it's you know you snap your fingers and all of a sudden you implement this new scheme and it works and then you build upon it it's like kind of similar to what Cooper cup said in an interview with his wife where he was talking about how Shawn McVey had like 20 plays installed in 11 personnel in his first year and then 20 turned into 40 and then 40 turned into 70 and then all of a sudden their entire offense was built out of 11 personnel and then like McVey has had nightmares over that because that is what got him beat in the 2018 Super Bowl was staying stagnant and not being unpredictable so yeah the only card he had in his back pocket to show in the Super Bowl was let's throw another tight end on the field and go into 12 personnel which happened in the second half it just wasn't enough to be able to beat a guy like Bill Bel in the Patriots defense it just happened too late and to not not have Todd garley win you that game is will just destroy me I know he played terrible through previous uh play off games but whatever we're not here to talk about that we're not I mean you could have one Jared gof completion and CJ Anderson and Todd Gurley doing what they did against Dallas and that Super Bowl would have been 30 to 13 like you would have saw something completely different but we got ours we got ours in our back pocket 49ers still don't they're still struggling they're still posting pictures of josi tart dropping the interception for Matthew Stafford although there were still nine minutes left in that game but going back to schula yeah they would still if he caught that for lack of better term we probably would have been cooked but he didn't catch it so it doesn't matter but the that offense was so so stale like they had like 20 total yards in that quarter and they were just you series after series after series they were falling behind even further in the eightball and Jimmy G was Jimmy G so they just had no chance but like while much of these fronts I feel like based are based on some of Staley's roots that we talked about like I'm expecting Chris to lean into some of Wade Phillips more aggressive looks right more blitzes more simulated pressures right like while you keep much of that past Russian creativity specifically those stunts that he picked up under Raheem Morris that you're not going to have with Aaron Donald but you're gonna have with a pass rush by committee like that's why we talked about that being so important was because Aaron Donald the fear is that the Rams can't be unpredictable without him and deployed various fronts but like with new faces who are versatile who are willing and will do whatever is needed for the betterment of the defense guys like Jared vers and Braden Fisk and Kobe Turner and Byron Young Chris schula is still going to be able to implement a good amount of this throughout the season and we talked about the secondary already but to kind of sum it up Wade Phillips like he liked the three four look because in Wade Phillips's terms a standard 4-3 look which is four defense blinden and three linebackers he felt was a tell because those four players who were rushing the passer were those four players who were rushing ing the passer there was no disguise there was no nothing with that fourth pass rusher there was like when you're in a three four front if they don't know who that fourth pass rusher is going to be like there's a mystery element which is why Wade Phillips's defense works so well because he was able to do some of those things and from a protection standpoint it's more difficult for an offensive line to be able to game plan for those kind of things and a three four base defense just being one Gap and then having your fourth rusher coming from God knows where could have been Conor barwin could have been um Kay Matthews it could have been Cory Littleton could have been Mark Baron right like all of these guys came into play but like the Rams I think when they if they could leverage that bonus fire zone that I talked about a couple of minutes ago where they're only sending four rushers versus five like they would in a standard fire zone Blitz like that's a very very popular Vic fangio staple and it's a branch of defense that Brandon Staley like to implement and it's something that the Rams hammered repeatedly under Raheem Morris plus it ties back to Wade Phillips's methodologies just with a like I I like to say modern facelift yeah yeah okay sure like a Simon Cal I guess you know Simon Cal pretty ridiculous Lego face that he has now terrifying yeah absolutely terrifying and what I thought what Brandon Staley did so well when he famously tweaked the the defense right to match a majority of Vic fangio's key principles look they look so happy I know well they had the number one defense at pandemic year in 2020 and like so McVey struggled so so badly against Vic fangio but the zone coverages that he implemented on the back end which was so much different than Wade Phillips's primarily uh predominantly man defenses with Marcus Peters and akib TB and then Jaylen Ramsey and even Eric wed on the back end and the single high safety looks like that was all Wade Phillips what's it name Brandon Staley came in like reduction of inside linebackers split safety looks that allowed for more flexibility and coverage depth and Brandon Staley was like he was praised for using these light boxes he used a light box on 85% of the rams' plays in 2020 which was the highest rate in the NFL at the time yet they were still sixth in yards per carry allowed fifth in rushing yards allowed and eighth in rushing touchdowns given up so even though they had less linebackers on the field and deploying lighter boxes they were still really effective still still really really effective so like now you're going to get some some strong talent in the secondary you're going to have a lot of talent just in some of these new looks in terms of your 51 uh tight adjustments and some of your penny deployments that you're going to roll out in the field and I think it's going to be a lot of fun so you you got a bunch to kind of chew on here um but I think Chrystal is going to end up taking the best of it all like what worked will stay and what didn't work will be adjusted and just disregarded in favor of innovation deceptiveness unpredictability both up front and on the back end yeah I if Chris schula brings something similar like I said earlier a great picture of him like he looks like he can bench 225 and squat 315 which we all know is the bar um if he can bring something similar to what we saw with Staley in 2020 which it seems like that that could be where he goes I think fans are going to welcome him with absolutely open arms and hopefully without Aaron Donald you you assume there will be a step back but you know maybe these young guys are finally ready just to go in there and and make a huge impression on the league yeah and I think to bookend this episode I started off by saying I think last year they talked about how the offense will be like incredible and the defense will be able to kind of take a like not take a step back but not be on the same level as the offense I think this year is the year where that may have to be like 100% true if they have aspirations of like NFC Championship and Super Bowl yeah all three phases have to be able to play together right it can't just be a cheap inexpensive defense that you're rolling out like you know inexperienced members in the secondary you're bringing in um Band-Aids like a Kell Witherspoon and John Johnson to be the the main focal points of your defensive back group like I think rahee Morris did a pretty solid job even though he was more of a standard look but he built upon what the last defensive coordinator did and he won a Super Bowl in his first year right a lot of those methodologies were already implemented with Brandon Staley in 2020 but in 2021 there was Raheem Morris building upon that and finding ways to win Super Bowls albeit with other Talent like Von Miller and Aaron Don in the building right and Jaylen Ramsey and Eric wed on the back end and all the talent that they added on the offensive side of the ball but all three phases have to be able to work together in a way that um you know you you don't typically see season by season with teams so that's that's the hope you're gonna have to do all those things if you're gonna want to win the division beat San Francisco and get back to the NFC Championship yeah and and I think there's enough talent in the building to do so so I think so too thank you guys for listening we greatly appreciate you guys uh as always go Rams we're going to have some more conversation on topic coming up soon we're going to be talking about everything in between the lines especially as it relates to training camp so we love you thanks for listening and go Rams go Rams horns up like And subscribe which I don't think we said we did we said at the beginning we did yeah Rob havenstein longest tenure Ram drink bye Rams Fans peace