Belichick Defensive Scheme (Warning Football talk)

Houhusky

Houhusky

New Fish
Bill Belichick (and I guess his play calling son(s)) have run successful defenses in the NFL.
In 2019 Steve Belichick assumed defensive play calling duties previously held by Flores while also operating as the team's secondary coach. That year, the Patriots held the Rams to three points in the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever. 2020-2023 Stephen Belichick became the OLB as well as maintaining defensive play calling duties. Mike Pellegrino (30 year old Lacrosse boy) has been the CB coach and younger brother Brian Belichick (also 30 year old lacrosse boy) has been the Safeties coach since 2019. As the Patriots have declined in to full retarded mode (in part to losing the greatest QB ever but also due to terrible draft asset and salary cap management from Bill) their defense has at least maintained some pretty good play.

https://i.imgur.com/KXMdRLv.png
  • Defensive stat ranks 1=best, Cap spend rank 1= most
Outside of the great DB play (scheme doing lots of work here) this is about what you would expect given their defensive Cap spending and the amount of assets they spend in the draft on defensive guys. I dont think there is a lot to be distilled here by just looking at the stats.

The Belichick Defensive Personnel: 3-4, 3-3-5, 2-4-5, dime, hybrid
The Belichick Defensive Scheme: Cover 1 robber, Cover 1 hole, cover zero blitz
Tendencies:
  1. Massive two gap iDL
  2. Hybrid S/LB rotated into the box
  3. Athletic CBs that win man vertical routes
  4. Situational DL full line changes
  5. Limited blitzing, 5 man stunts against pass
Rotating safeties all over the field is how the Belichick defense changes the "picture" for the quarterback and ultimately creates INTs/mistakes. A 3-3-5 huddle is suddenly is a 3-4 with a safety at LB presnap and then it turns out the defense is running a Tampa 2 but the weakside CB is playing safety and the S/LB the QB thought was coming on a middle LB blitz is actually dropping into the hole/deep middle zone.
The Belichick defense HIGHLY values versatility, especially in the secondary.
iDL assignments: Be giant and basic
  1. disciplined 2 gap
OLB/Edge/DE assignments: Basic
  1. hand up rush edge
  2. contain edge
  3. stunt on blitz to generate pressure
iLB assignments: Physical but Basic
  1. aggressive run support
  2. middle hole zone cover
CB assignments: Demanding
  1. Win outside vertical routes in press man
  2. Understand the safety shading and how that relates to their appropriate leverage assignment for each play
  3. Be intelligent enough to rotate into a cover safety when scheme calls for it
S assignments: a fucking nightmare
  1. Safeties should be interchangeable (no FS/SS)
  2. Properly shade as a single high cover 1 safety
  3. Rotate into the 3-3 box as the 4th LB
  4. Man cover the slot WR or TE
  5. Run support
  6. Pass blitz
Personnel Weakness:
  1. Requires incredible Safety play
  2. Big, athletic, smart CBs have to win vertical press man
  3. massive iDL and tough iLB have to hold point of attack against run while typically undermanned
Scheme Weakness:
  1. Scheme is designed for shotgun single back offenses
  2. Tight formation short/medium inside breaking routes are often open as CB holds outside leverage
  3. Deep double moves down the seem can beat the single high S and leveraged CB
  4. Requires extremely high communication/cohesion in the secondary
Since the 90s Bill Belichick has been developing the defensive scheme and has regularly talked about how the secondary needs to be versatile, aggressive, and play together as if they were an offensive line. The safeties are the lynchpin of the entire defense, they have to be able to do a bit of everything, they are used as everything from the slot/nickel DB to the extra LB in the box. Players are given lots of freedom to pass off players mid play even while playing man, against a lion concept the S/nickel should pass off the inside 1st read slant to the zone safety and jump the 2nd read outside slant (Myles Bryant for the Pats this year). Against flood/corner fade combos the outside CB can pass the inside deep route to the S and jump the deep crosser/corner… These are guys passing off players mid play, while playing a man scheme, it really high level stuff that fucks with QBs heads.
Run properly the defense is very difficult to throw against, its a great modern scheme designed to shut down pass first shotgun NFL offenses. Im unsure its a viable scheme in college where you cant just draft or trade for some of the best DBs in the country or pay some massive 350lb iDL vet to anchor the DL (maybe you can just buy one in the portal now?). Its not a viable scheme against some of the B1G 2+ TE sets, rolling a safety into a light box against a power run duo offense is a recipe for disaster. Luckily the Belichick defense does praise versatility and adjustments, it can run a zero cover blitz, hopefully Stevie is rested and ready to rumble, he has more than a little work to do on the roster to even think about running his defensive scheme.

TLDR: Good NFL scheme, might not work in college, Need Budda Baker or Jabrill Peppers at Safety, We're Doomed, Better hope Nepo baby is ready to innovate, Spring portal has never been more important.
 
Last edited:
Houhusky said:
Bill Belichick (and I guess his play calling son(s)) have run successful defenses in the NFL.
In 2019 Steve Belichick assumed defensive play calling duties previously held by Flores while also operating as the team's secondary coach. That year, the Patriots held the Rams to three points in the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever. 2020-2023 Stephen Belichick became the OLB as well as maintaining defensive play calling duties. Mike Pellegrino (30 year old Lacrosse boy) has been the CB coach and younger brother Brian Belichick (also 30 year old lacrosse boy) has been the Safeties coach since 2019. As the Patriots have declined in to full retarded mode (in part to losing the greatest QB ever but also due to terrible draft asset and salary cap management from Bill) their defense has at least maintained some pretty good play.

https://i.imgur.com/KXMdRLv.png
Outside of the great DB play (scheme doing lots of work here) this is about what you would expect given their defensive Cap spending and the amount of assets they spend in the draft on defensive guys. I dont think there is a lot to be distilled here by just looking at the stats.

The Belichick Defensive Personnel: 3-4, 3-3-5, 2-4-5, dime, hybrid
The Belichick Defensive Scheme: Cover 1 robber, Cover 1 hole, cover zero blitz
Tendencies:
Rotating safeties all over the field is how the Belichick defense changes the "picture" for the quarterback and ultimately creates INTs/mistakes. A 3-3-5 huddle is suddenly is a 3-4 with a safety at LB presnap and then it turns out the defense is running a Tampa 2 but the weakside CB is playing safety and the S/LB the QB thought was coming on a middle LB blitz is actually dropping into the hole/deep middle zone.
The Belichick defense HIGHLY values versatility, especially in the secondary.
iDL assignments: Be giant and basic
OLB/Edge/DE assignments: Basic
iLB assignments: Physical but Basic
CB assignments: Demanding
S assignments: a fucking nightmare
Personnel Weakness:
Scheme Weakness:
Since the 90s Bill Belichick has been developing the defensive scheme and has regularly talked about how the secondary needs to be versatile, aggressive, and play together as if they were an offensive line. The safeties are the lynchpin of the entire defense, they have to be able to do a bit of everything, they are used as everything from the slot/nickel DB to the extra LB in the box. Players are given lots of freedom to pass off players mid play even while playing man, against a lion concept the S/nickel should pass off the inside 1st read slant to the zone safety and jump the 2nd read outside slant (Myles Bryant for the Pats this year). Against flood/corner fade combos the outside CB can pass the inside deep route to the S and jump the deep crosser/corner… These are guys passing off players mid play, while playing a man scheme, it really high level stuff that fucks with QBs heads.
Run properly the defense is very difficult to throw against, its a great modern scheme designed to shut down pass first shotgun NFL offenses. Im unsure its a viable scheme in college where you cant just draft or trade for some of the best DBs in the country or pay some massive 350lb iDL vet to anchor the DL (maybe you can just buy one in the portal now?). Its not a viable scheme against some of the B1G 2+ TE sets, rolling a safety into a light box against a power run duo offense is a recipe for disaster. Luckily the Belichick defense does praise versatility and adjustments, it can run a zero cover blitz, hopefully Stevie is rested and ready to rumble, he has more than a little work to do on the roster to even think about running his defensive scheme.

TLDR: Good NFL scheme, might not work in college, Need Budda Baker or Jabrill Peppers at Safety, We're Doomed, Better hope Nepo baby is ready to innovate, Spring portal has never been more important.
Click to expand...
Peterson's and Kawasaki's D was like this. Think of Vea & Gaines at NT / DT, Tyron and Joe Mathis at Edge, BBK and Tevis Bartlett at LB, and Sidney Jones / Kevin King / Budda Baker / Taylor Rapp in the secondary.
 
Not sure they will run the same D @ UW, Fisch @ Zona had attacking defenses, except the UW game, where they went 5-6 DB’s. Plus the college game has a lot more mobile QB’s in the offensive game plan. I hope Stevie B ramps up the pressure and gets after teams.
 
If the D learns proper tackling technique, that's a huge motherfucking start. Shit was atrocious the last two seasons.
 
NookTunnelSyndrome said:
Not sure they will run the same D @ UW, Fisch @ Zona had attacking defenses, except the UW game, where they went 5-6 DB’s. Plus the college game has a lot more mobile QB’s in the offensive game plan. I hope Stevie B ramps up the pressure and gets after teams.
Click to expand...
The Pats over the last 4-5 years have been about middle of the NFL for blitz percentage. If they can they would much rather just T-E stunt to generate pressure but they regularly will go Dime 5-0-5 front to mess with the pass protection but they aren't going to be a scary pass rush team. The backend of the defense from the secondary is much more aggressive, likely the most aggressive in the NFL, they regularly break "rules" and undercut routes hunting for INTs.
 
Last edited:
Houhusky said:
Bill Belichick (and I guess his play calling son(s)) have run successful defenses in the NFL.
In 2019 Steve Belichick assumed defensive play calling duties previously held by Flores while also operating as the team's secondary coach. That year, the Patriots held the Rams to three points in the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever. 2020-2023 Stephen Belichick became the OLB as well as maintaining defensive play calling duties. Mike Pellegrino (30 year old Lacrosse boy) has been the CB coach and younger brother Brian Belichick (also 30 year old lacrosse boy) has been the Safeties coach since 2019. As the Patriots have declined in to full retarded mode (in part to losing the greatest QB ever but also due to terrible draft asset and salary cap management from Bill) their defense has at least maintained some pretty good play.

https://i.imgur.com/KXMdRLv.png
Outside of the great DB play (scheme doing lots of work here) this is about what you would expect given their defensive Cap spending and the amount of assets they spend in the draft on defensive guys. I dont think there is a lot to be distilled here by just looking at the stats.

The Belichick Defensive Personnel: 3-4, 3-3-5, 2-4-5, dime, hybrid
The Belichick Defensive Scheme: Cover 1 robber, Cover 1 hole, cover zero blitz
Tendencies:
Rotating safeties all over the field is how the Belichick defense changes the "picture" for the quarterback and ultimately creates INTs/mistakes. A 3-3-5 huddle is suddenly is a 3-4 with a safety at LB presnap and then it turns out the defense is running a Tampa 2 but the weakside CB is playing safety and the S/LB the QB thought was coming on a middle LB blitz is actually dropping into the hole/deep middle zone.
The Belichick defense HIGHLY values versatility, especially in the secondary.
iDL assignments: Be giant and basic
OLB/Edge/DE assignments: Basic
iLB assignments: Physical but Basic
CB assignments: Demanding
S assignments: a fucking nightmare
Personnel Weakness:
Scheme Weakness:
Since the 90s Bill Belichick has been developing the defensive scheme and has regularly talked about how the secondary needs to be versatile, aggressive, and play together as if they were an offensive line. The safeties are the lynchpin of the entire defense, they have to be able to do a bit of everything, they are used as everything from the slot/nickel DB to the extra LB in the box. Players are given lots of freedom to pass off players mid play even while playing man, against a lion concept the S/nickel should pass off the inside 1st read slant to the zone safety and jump the 2nd read outside slant (Myles Bryant for the Pats this year). Against flood/corner fade combos the outside CB can pass the inside deep route to the S and jump the deep crosser/corner… These are guys passing off players mid play, while playing a man scheme, it really high level stuff that fucks with QBs heads.
Run properly the defense is very difficult to throw against, its a great modern scheme designed to shut down pass first shotgun NFL offenses. Im unsure its a viable scheme in college where you cant just draft or trade for some of the best DBs in the country or pay some massive 350lb iDL vet to anchor the DL (maybe you can just buy one in the portal now?). Its not a viable scheme against some of the B1G 2+ TE sets, rolling a safety into a light box against a power run duo offense is a recipe for disaster. Luckily the Belichick defense does praise versatility and adjustments, it can run a zero cover blitz, hopefully Stevie is rested and ready to rumble, he has more than a little work to do on the roster to even think about running his defensive scheme.

TLDR: Good NFL scheme, might not work in college, Need Budda Baker or Jabrill Peppers at Safety, We're Doomed, Better hope Nepo baby is ready to innovate, Spring portal has never been more important.
Click to expand...
disagree
 
Can nepo boy bring Malcolm Butler on staff as a GA just to torment Seahook fans?
 
Hallmark of Belichick defenses has always been to take away what you do best, and do it in a way that you aren't expecting. I think it translates to college pretty well as most teams don't do multiple things well and aren't great at countering on the fly. See Sark's 40 play scripts as an example.
 
HFNY said:
Houhusky said:
Bill Belichick (and I guess his play calling son(s)) have run successful defenses in the NFL.
In 2019 Steve Belichick assumed defensive play calling duties previously held by Flores while also operating as the team's secondary coach. That year, the Patriots held the Rams to three points in the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever. 2020-2023 Stephen Belichick became the OLB as well as maintaining defensive play calling duties. Mike Pellegrino (30 year old Lacrosse boy) has been the CB coach and younger brother Brian Belichick (also 30 year old lacrosse boy) has been the Safeties coach since 2019. As the Patriots have declined in to full retarded mode (in part to losing the greatest QB ever but also due to terrible draft asset and salary cap management from Bill) their defense has at least maintained some pretty good play.

https://i.imgur.com/KXMdRLv.png
Outside of the great DB play (scheme doing lots of work here) this is about what you would expect given their defensive Cap spending and the amount of assets they spend in the draft on defensive guys. I dont think there is a lot to be distilled here by just looking at the stats.

The Belichick Defensive Personnel: 3-4, 3-3-5, 2-4-5, dime, hybrid
The Belichick Defensive Scheme: Cover 1 robber, Cover 1 hole, cover zero blitz
Tendencies:
Rotating safeties all over the field is how the Belichick defense changes the "picture" for the quarterback and ultimately creates INTs/mistakes. A 3-3-5 huddle is suddenly is a 3-4 with a safety at LB presnap and then it turns out the defense is running a Tampa 2 but the weakside CB is playing safety and the S/LB the QB thought was coming on a middle LB blitz is actually dropping into the hole/deep middle zone.
The Belichick defense HIGHLY values versatility, especially in the secondary.
iDL assignments: Be giant and basic
OLB/Edge/DE assignments: Basic
iLB assignments: Physical but Basic
CB assignments: Demanding
S assignments: a fucking nightmare
Personnel Weakness:
Scheme Weakness:
Since the 90s Bill Belichick has been developing the defensive scheme and has regularly talked about how the secondary needs to be versatile, aggressive, and play together as if they were an offensive line. The safeties are the lynchpin of the entire defense, they have to be able to do a bit of everything, they are used as everything from the slot/nickel DB to the extra LB in the box. Players are given lots of freedom to pass off players mid play even while playing man, against a lion concept the S/nickel should pass off the inside 1st read slant to the zone safety and jump the 2nd read outside slant (Myles Bryant for the Pats this year). Against flood/corner fade combos the outside CB can pass the inside deep route to the S and jump the deep crosser/corner… These are guys passing off players mid play, while playing a man scheme, it really high level stuff that fucks with QBs heads.
Run properly the defense is very difficult to throw against, its a great modern scheme designed to shut down pass first shotgun NFL offenses. Im unsure its a viable scheme in college where you cant just draft or trade for some of the best DBs in the country or pay some massive 350lb iDL vet to anchor the DL (maybe you can just buy one in the portal now?). Its not a viable scheme against some of the B1G 2+ TE sets, rolling a safety into a light box against a power run duo offense is a recipe for disaster. Luckily the Belichick defense does praise versatility and adjustments, it can run a zero cover blitz, hopefully Stevie is rested and ready to rumble, he has more than a little work to do on the roster to even think about running his defensive scheme.

TLDR: Good NFL scheme, might not work in college, Need Budda Baker or Jabrill Peppers at Safety, We're Doomed, Better hope Nepo baby is ready to innovate, Spring portal has never been more important.
Click to expand...
Peterson's and Kawasaki's D was like this. Think of Vea & Gaines at NT / DT, Tyron and Joe Mathis at Edge, BBK and Tevis Bartlett at LB, and Sidney Jones / Kevin King / Budda Baker / Taylor Rapp in the secondary.
Click to expand...

The big difference is really the versatility and pattern matching from the DBs.
Kwats defense (modified Gary Patterson 4-2-5) is dependent on asymmetrical assignments; A Strong side Jack and weakside X backer on the DL, a MLB that can cover, split coverage downfield. Its a good system but can struggle with motion/shift offenses because assignments are predictable and pretty rigid.
Belichicks defense is a much more simple front assignment for the DL, a iLB that attacks the run with limited coverage responsibility, and pattern matching and hyper versatility from the DBs. The philosophy is simplify the front and create complex chaos in coverage for the QB. It allows them to change the defense to fit the opponent, they can run a Fangio 6 in the first half and Cover 1 man in the second half, its very difficult to tell if the defense is actually in a cover zero or if they they are going to bail into a zone. The versatility also negates a lot of the motion pre snap offense. The secondary is much more aggressive than Kwat ever ran with UW or UT, outside DBs are often in press, DBs are encouraged to set traps, check the backfield even while in man if they can, and undercut routes as long as they and their safety counterparts maintain communication and leverage.
This is basically the front, its very vanilla, sometimes put 5 on the line to mess with blocking scheme and create pressure with stunts (particularly B gap pirate stunts).

how-bill-belichick-innovated-his-defense-again-284-29.gif


Its the DB versatility that allows them to do some pretty weird things:
Here the nickel DB (Myles) becomes the deep safety in a split field triangle coverage after a motion

how-bill-belichick-innovated-his-defense-again.gif

Now defense lines up like its cover zero man but instead completely inverts itself into a Tampa 2 but both outside corners are the over the top safeties and the safety Kyle Dugger showing LB blitz drops into the middle zone and gets the INT.

how-bill-belichick-innovated-his-defense-again-281-29.gif

This is man against lions concept (double slant) this should be an easy win for the offense, but because DBs are expected to be versatile, communicate, and take risks Myles recognizes the pass concept, knows he has safety help to the middle and dumps his man to jump the outside slant. No QB in college is ready for this type of shit from an inside DB in man.

how-bill-belichick-innovated-his-defense-again-282-29.gif

Now the slot DB is going to pattern match, carry the seem deep to the safety with proper leverage, pass to a safety and then jump the deep crosser.

how-bill-belichick-innovated-his-defense-again-283-29.gif
 
Yeah, I was talking more about the personnel rather than the specific the X's and O's. Kwat / Lake also liked to run too much Cover 3 for my tastes, then Lake took it to the extreme with having one deep safety 15-20 yards off the ball.
The only thing that may hinder more complex play-calls and communication is that I think NCAA rules still prevent college teams from practicing more than 25 hours per week (basically unlimited for the NFL).
But it's good that this staff is dedicated to recruiting like madmen because as they say regarding CFB: it's not about the X's and O's, it's about the Jimmy's and Joe's.
 
NookTunnelSyndrome said:
Not sure they will run the same D @ UW, Fisch @ Zona had attacking defenses, except the UW game, where they went 5-6 DB’s. Plus the college game has a lot more mobile QB’s in the offensive game plan. I hope Stevie B ramps up the pressure and gets after teams.
Click to expand...
New England defense wasn’t very good at pressuring the QB.
 
TheHB said:
NookTunnelSyndrome said:
Not sure they will run the same D @ UW, Fisch @ Zona had attacking defenses, except the UW game, where they went 5-6 DB’s. Plus the college game has a lot more mobile QB’s in the offensive game plan. I hope Stevie B ramps up the pressure and gets after teams.
Click to expand...
New England defense wasn’t very good at pressuring the QB.
Click to expand...

I double dawg dare you to name a starter from their front 7!
 
TheHB said:
NookTunnelSyndrome said:
Not sure they will run the same D @ UW, Fisch @ Zona had attacking defenses, except the UW game, where they went 5-6 DB’s. Plus the college game has a lot more mobile QB’s in the offensive game plan. I hope Stevie B ramps up the pressure and gets after teams.
Click to expand...
New England defense wasn’t very good at pressuring the QB.
Click to expand...
Are you saying this in general, or referring to pressure from a 4-man front or via the blitz? I ask because I think the defense for NE likely had to play some situational stuff because their offense was so bad. If they got behind on the scoreboard that team had no chance of mounting a comeback.
 
Just an observation based on watching several games and looking at QB pressure numbers.
I don’t give a flying rat’s ass about the type of fronts they were running in given situations.
 
BleachedAnusDawg said:
TheHB said:
NookTunnelSyndrome said:
Not sure they will run the same D @ UW, Fisch @ Zona had attacking defenses, except the UW game, where they went 5-6 DB’s. Plus the college game has a lot more mobile QB’s in the offensive game plan. I hope Stevie B ramps up the pressure and gets after teams.
Click to expand...
New England defense wasn’t very good at pressuring the QB.
Click to expand...
Are you saying this in general, or referring to pressure from a 4-man front or via the blitz? I ask because I think the defense for NE likely had to play some situational stuff because their offense was so bad. If they got behind on the scoreboard that team had no chance of mounting a comeback.
Click to expand...
The Belichick defense generally wants to create QB pressure/hurries from pretty basic 4-5 man rushes, they will sometimes line up in a 5-0 front to cover each lineman to limit double teams and make protection assignments more difficult, they will T/E or Pirate stunt bringing their more athletic Edge guys inside on obvious passing downs and flush QBs out of the pocket. Also the iLB has limited coverage assignment and wants to be attacking run gaps so when the Belichick defense wants to bring an extra guy its often the iLB.
I think the Bruener could thrive in the Belichick scheme as a sure tackling aggressive iLB attacking the run and blitzing. Although the Pats iLB are more like 6'2" 250 instead of Bruener at 225lbs.

https://i.imgur.com/6WPh0O4.png

  • Hurries = QB threw ball earlier than intended or chased out of the pocket
  • QB press % = (hurries + knockdowns + all sacks per dropback)
The Belichick defense doesn't want to blitz at a high rate and blitz rate isn't typically correlated with sacks or pressures in the NFL.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1706299870011674939
 
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