Sports Illustrated - USA (2022-05)

creeping into the mainstream when half the Chiefs’ opponents

increased their usage of that approach—pulling back on their

blitz rate by between 10% and 50% when facing Kansas City.

It worked in the way a Band-Aid might cover up blunt trauma

as the Chiefs still won 14 regular-season games, finished in

the top three in all major statistical passing categories and

made the Super Bowl.

In 2021, blitz atheism was more widely adopted. The

Chiefs’ offense sputtered for half the season—and fell in the

AFC title game to a Bengals defense sometimes featuring

that three-man rush—as Mahomes became one of the least-

blitzed quarterbacks in football last year. He saw an extra

pass rusher roughly seven times per game; Rodgers saw

only eight blitzes per game. According to Next Gen Stats,

the Bills didn’t blitz Mahomes a single time in the first

half of their 2021 regular-season game, which was one of

only two times in the statistical service’s history that zero

blitzes were called in an entire half of football. The other?

The Bills’ previous regular-season game against the Chiefs,

a little less than a year earlier.

It went unnoticed to most casual observers, but Mahomes

was now having to strain ever so slightly to squeeze the

10-yard pass to Tyreek Hill. His sidearm passes—shoulders

slumped, hooking the ball around a defender in his face,

became more of a necessity and less of a showpiece.

Leaguewide, only four teams—Tampa Bay, Miami, Carolina

and Arizona—blitzed on more than a third of opponents’ drop-

backs; the previous season, 11 teams did so. The Buccaneers

led the NFL with a 40% blitz rate. Last season the league-

wide blitz rate was 25.4%, the lowest since TruMedia started

tracking the stat in 2013.

Of the eight teams that blitzed least frequently last season,

only two—Houston and Indianapolis—missed the playoffs.

The Colts missed the postseason by one game, and their

defensive coordinator, Matt Eberf lus, was hired to become

the coach of the Bears. Lovie Smith, the Texans’ defensive

coordinator, was promoted to coach in Houston.

“This goes way back,” Eberf lus says. “Rush four, drop

seven. Don’t open up the lanes for the passing game.

That’s been our philosophy, our system, going back to the

Buccaneers in the 1990s [under Tony Dungy] and the Bears

of the 2010s [under Smith]. I just basically kept that phi-

losophy. We’re going to rely on speed, quickness and hitting

ability to take away big plays.”

In today’s NFL, where swaths of rule changes and years of

more talented athletes migrating to offense make defending

top-tier passing games almost purposely impossible, the

shift allowed defensive coordinators to basically choose a

more favorable demise. Instead of being gutted by embar-

rassing 70-yard highlight touchdowns, they could slow the

process down and hope the opposing offense would trip

itself up and short-circuit a drive.

MATT

CORRAL

QUARTERBACK

OLE MISS

The Lions will

eventually need

an alternative

to Jared Goff

as they expand

their downfield

passing game,

and Corral has

the arm talent

to unleash

it deep.

BENGALS

KYLER

GORDON

CORNERBACK

WASHINGTON

Cincy rebuilt its

O-line in free

agency, meaning

it can focus on

the defensive

backfield in the

draft. Gordon is

an exceptional

athlete with

shutdown

potential.

JAMESON

WILLIAMS

WIDE RECEIVER

ALABAMA

Williams is a

question mark

after tearing

his ACL in the

national title

game, but after

having traded

Tyreek Hill, K .C.

might roll the

dice on the

speedy receiver.

ANDREW

BOOTH

CORNERBACK

CLEMSON

Man coverage

is a must

in DC Steve

Spagnuolo’s

blitz-happy

scheme,

especially after

the free-agent

departure of

No. 1 corner

Charvarius Ward.

DEVONTE

WYATT

DEFENSIVE

TACKLE

GEORGIA

The Packers need

to upgrade their

defensive line;

Wyatt’s ability

to get into the

backfield would

complement

star nose tackle

Kenny Clark

very nicely.

BERNHARD

RAIMANN

TACKLE/

GUARD

CENTRAL

MICHIGAN

The rapidly

improving

Austrian

import would

immediately

push for the

starting job at

left guard in

Tampa Bay.

TITANS

TYLER
LINDERBAUM
CENTER
IOWA
He’s on the
small side ( 6 ' 2 ",
296 pounds), but
Linderbaum is
one of the best
center prospects
of the past decade
and a perfect fit
in Tennessee’s
outside-zone
FR scheme.
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