Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - As NFL defensive schemes have evolved over the years, so have the personnel that's been used to deploy them, from body type to skillset.
But a big change has been how so many players can do multiple things.
New Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard believes he's had a lot of his success as coach using players who don't have to fit into one spot, and can be used all over the defense.
"It is much more fluid than it used to be," said Leonard on Thursday when speaking to how things have changed on defense over time. "I think the evolution of spread offenses throughout high school, college football, it's very similar to the NBA, where it's created a little bit more of a position-less type of player. There are unique skillsets all around the NFL, where guys don't quite fit in your traditional box of edge defender, defensive tackle, nickel, safety. That's where I've had the most success in my career as a coach, was finding those guys that fit in a little bit different role."
Leonhard mostly ran a 3-4 scheme when he was the defensive coordinator at the University of Wisconsin. The Bills have run a 4-3 defense over the last nine years under Sean McDermott.
Conventional wisdom says the Bills will have to overhaul quite a few parts on their defense to adapt to Leonhard's scheme. Not so, said the 43-year-old coach, because he believes the Bills already have plenty of versatile players who will fit nicely into what he does.
"You have to be more creative in order to play to their strengths a little bit more often, because it may not be just traditionally they're elite at this skill or they're elite at this skill," Leonhard said during his first press conference with the Buffalo media.
"Their main value is the versatility they bring. Being a Swiss Army Knife, high football I.Q., communication skills. The more people you have in that room, it doesn't really matter pre-snap presentation what it looks like. You can still get to the same concepts. So I do think the way these guys have been raised through football, in the 7-on-7 generation, and again, a lot of spread offense, that it leads to a little bit more diverse skillset for a lot of players that are now in the NFL."
Leonhard, who began his playing career in Buffalo as an undrafted free agent signing with the Bills in 2005, believes in dictating to the offense and making them have to think quickly about how to handle so many things the defense can do, and is doing after the snap.
"If you can create a lot of different looks with the same 11 people, that's when offenses have to react," Leonhard explained. "Change in blocking schemes. It changes what the quarterback, from a visual presentation, sees down-in and down-out. For you, it's very simple. For you, it's core concepts and just different presentations of the same, either front structure or coverage that you're getting to. It's gonna look different to an offense.
"I'm a big believer that you can create a lot of volume within your system without being too complicated. You have to be efficient. You have to be very good at what you do. But it's more in how you present it than what's actually happening on the field. So you're forcing offenses to think. Offensive lines and quarterbacks, they have the most stress on them on the field, and if you can force the offensive line to think, if you can force a quarterback to think pre-snap and have to react post-snap, then you're going to be in control of a lot of snaps."
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