Robert Saleh NY Jets Defense-what to expect in 2021

 The Jets have a new coaching staff. They have hired Robert Saleh but also brought in Jeff Ulbrich to be the defensive coordinator. Although a 4-3 scheme, Ulbrich is a little different than Saleh in a few ways. One notable difference is he likes to run more fire zone pressures and also likes to play quite a bit of cover 2. Saleh runs some basic coverages but likes to bring more man pressures and is a little more 1/4,1/4 half than traditional Tampa 2.

We will discuss that a little later.

This post gives you a basic understanding of New Jets Coach Robert Saleh and his defensive scheme that he will be implementing this upcoming year.  He is a 4-3, 4-2-4 defense but due to personnel groupings will be more of a 4-2-5 team with a 4-3 look vs 21 and 12 personnel at times. 

21 is 2 backs and 1 tight end. 12 is 2 te , 2 wr and 1 rb .

There is a misconception that he is purely a 4-3 team. That just isn't the case. In today's NFL teams are in their nickel 4-2-5 looks because the league has become a 11 personnel league.  

What I mean is this:

NFL Tendencies

11 personnel 60% of the time  Jets will play 4-2-5 nickel
12 personnel  20% of the time  Jets will play true 4-3 with 3 lb
21 personnel 7% of the time The Jets will play a true 4-3 with 3 lb
10 perrsonnel 4% of the time. The Jets will play nickel/dime vs it. 
Other personnel groupings (20,22, and 13 are less used in the nfl)

So the bottom line is this, expect to see nickel personnel 65% of the time and base 4-3 personnel 35% of the time. 

Now that being said keep in mind that the Patriots were  in 21 37% of the time and the Bills will run 10 personnel 15% of the time. With Henry and Smith in New England expect more 12 this year.  Not sure what the plan is in  Miami with the new offensive coordinators. But at least youll get an idea of what to expect within the division.

Thus the reason he loves to stock pile defensive lineman to keep them fresh and keep the front 4 strong throughout the game. Lets look at the depth chart from their 3personnel groupings.

They didn't play a ton of dime last year but the 49ers also had a linebacker Warner who could cover as well underneath as many safeties so what they do there remains to be seen. He had no issue covering a tight end or rb out of the backfiend and is an excellent zone defender.

4-3                                                    4-2-5                                    4-1 or 3-2 dime look 6  db

LDE   Myers.   /Curry                    LDE        Williams                  LDE    Williams

LDT  Williams/Rankins                   LDT         Rankins                LDT    Rankins
RDT  Fatugasi/Phillips                    RDT         Fatugasi                RDT   Fatugasi
RE    Lawson/Shepherd                   RE            Lawson                RE       Lawson
S     Davis                                        M             Mosely                  M            Mosely 
M    Moseley                                    W            Cashman              Dime    Cashman
W    Cashman/zuniga                       Nickel     Davis/Landry        Nickel Davis/Landry

SS    Joyner                                      SS           Joyner                    SS        Joyner
FS    Mayes                                      FS           Mayes                    FS        Mayes
CB     Hall                                        CB          Hall                       CB        Hall
CB     Austin                                     CB         Austin                    CB        Austin

There is talk of Myers and Williams flipping as Williams but Williams is  a dominant interior lineman. Time will tell if Myers has the flexibility to work at that de spot. 

The biggest area of concern is w

Who is playing the nickel in the 4-2-5. Joyner has played there for the Raiders but I see the Jets using him as a deep safety like he was with the Rams. But, in reality, it is one of the easier positions to find a starter and Guidry and Davis can both play there.

CB is the biggest issue of concern as they are really young there and unproven and could use some veteran help. Still plenty of talent out there so time will tell. I'm not saying the group won't be solid but it's hard on young players to develop with the limited training camp and off season program. 

Now, Lets take a look at  the biggest 3 personnel groupings you will see are and how the Jets will match personnel to it.  

11 personnel 

The NFl is in 11 personnel 60% of the time. This is 1 rb 1 te and 3 wr. Vs this formation you will mostly see the 49ers in nickel 4-2-5 personnel. This is 4 down lineman 2 lbs and 5 dbs.  Expect to see this with the Jets.

Here vs the Giants

Another example vs the Giants as the Giants go empty out of 11 personnel

12 personnel.  1 rb, 2 te, 2 wr

The 2nd most utilized personnel grouping is 12 personnel. You see this formation grouping 20% of the time vs teams. Vs these sets you will the Jets use 4-3 personnel and play with 3 true linebackers. Here the giants have a tight end attached and Engram(TE) in the slot. The 49ers are in their 4-3 personnel. 

The other thing that they will do is they play the sam linebacker to the passing strength. 

Here you can see the sam walked out on #2. 

Here's a good look vs  the Cardinals from the end zone view. You can see the 3 lbs vs 12 with the tight wing. You can see the alignments and gap responsibility. Basic 4-3 alignment

Sam- C gap               Mike- A gap                   Will- B Gap

21 personnel 2 rb 1 te and 2 wr

This grouping is utilized 7% of the time but within the division you need to be careful because the Patriots use it 37% of the time. Here you will see Saleh often play 4-3 against it. This will be his traditional look.

He can set the front strong or weak.

In this example they set the front strong.

They set the 3 technique to the tight end.

The sam #57  has c because they put the de in a 9 technique, The Mike #54 has A gap and the wlll #51 has b gap.

Here he sets the front weak and walks the ss down into the box. 

They put the LDE in a 6i and he has c gap. The LDT has the A gap and the rdt is the 3 technique. THe Sam lb has B gap strong,  mike-A gap weak   Will extra gap defender. They walk the ss down to play the run support(alley player)

10 personnel. 1rb and 4wr

You see 10 personnel 2 % of  the time except for the Bills so you need to take that into account. Saleh saw this 2 games a year with the cardinals so he will have answers to it. 

 The league has drastically dropped but Buffalo runs 10 15% of the time in the division so you need to prepare for them. Vs. this you will definitely see nickel and possibly dime in that situation. 

4-1 dime or 3-2 are both on the table with the Bills potent passing game. 

The Jets will play nickel to it or can go dime on 3rd and long situations. Again, depending on the lb group you may see some substitutions and more dime looks.

Dime look:

Here's a 3rd and 8 vs the Saints.

Dime personnel

Here you can see what dime personnel looks like. 

The 49ers like to play a match up man concept at times.

The 49ers will bring 5 man concepts and play match concepts at times. Here they send 6 as they have a great beat on how the protection will be with the rb staying in. They combo the will and the safety and get home with the pressure.

Here's the man free match principle again. This time out of the load front. 6 man pressure with a player with rb responsibilities. Similar blitz but great job again combo coverage and forcing mayfield to throw the ball away. 

Heres another example of the load front in action:

Load front: weak game with the  nose and right de and  it gets home. One thing you will see from Saleh on 3rd down is trying to get favorable matchups. 

My other article has extensive 3rd down coverage of the 49ers and you can see the nickel and dime looks they incorporate.

https://coachkoufootball.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-49ers-3rd-down-defense-weeks-14-16.html

Other personnel groupings are all in the 4% or lower category so lets just focus on these four for now.

I hope this article gives you an understanding on what fronts and personnel groupings you will see from the Jets. 

On base downs you will see more zone than man but they do an excellent job on 3rd down.

Heres some 3rd down analysis

Heres a look at what you will see. from the Jets on third down. If they feel they can get home they will bring some 4 man pressures. At times you will see some 5 man pressures with man free and some combo coverages. In the super bowl vs the chiefs you saw a ton of combination coverages vs Hill and Kelce. They went man on the single wr and played zone with everyone else. But here are some examples of the 3rd down package. 

3rd and 7 they go man free with an exotic pressure where the de covers #2 in coverage. He does a really good job walling and playing combo  as the Safety takes the flat route by #3. Again, here's the match concept the 49ers love on 3rd down.

Below is a 3rd and 4 vs the Cowboys in which they get the sack.

In the Cowboy game they run another 5 man game out of the load front.

These are just a few scenarios. With Williams and Lawson, they have 2 good pass rushers. We will see how much they feel the need to blitz during the season and what kind of pressures they use on 3rd down. 

Now, to finish the article, I am curious to see How Jeff Ulbrich goes about trying to incorporate some of his concepts. With Saleh, you see more 5 6 man pressures with man coverage. Ulbrich is known for his exotic fire zone concepts. The other thing Ulbrich played was a ton of Tampa 2 with the Falcons. They did a ton of it but not sure how much you will see with the Jets. Here's a clip of it below.

Heres an example of one of Jeff's fire zones. Again, watching the 49ers, they were more a man free 5 man pressure team with some 6 man pressures mixed in with match principles(They were really 5 man pressures with the 6th rusher adding in).Interesting to see if he gets some of these concepts in the playbook.

Here's a few Ulbrich zone pressures:
 

Here's a 5 man 3 under 3 deep pressure vs. the Broncos

Here's another zone pressure vs empty. Looks like cover 3 with the safeties playing the flat with 2 underneath defenders with a 4 man pressure. Could be combo, tough to tell with man up top. 

Now lets look at some Saleh pressures which are more man based. Here are 2 below that are in theory 5 man pressures that become 6 the minute the rb engages. The nice part is the safety and drop de are in a match up man situation. 

Again, he was very creative in Atlanta, but the lack of a strong secondary caused some issues. It wasn't that the schemes weren't sound. 

This post gives you a basic understanding of New Jets Coach Robert Saleh and his defensive scheme that he will be implementing this upcoming year. It also showed some of the schemes Jeff Ulbrich ran in Atlanta. Curious to see what the Jets become.