Thread: Inside the playbook: the Tampa 2

Today: The Tampa 2

Think of this as the first day of meetings during minicamp or the night before training camp opens in a small college lecture hall. Your basic install. We will get into some more exotic blitzes and combination coverages, but for now, we have to start with core coverages.

For teams such as Chicago, Indy, Minnesota and the New York Giants with new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, the Tampa 2 is the base defense that’s always taught first.

Cover 2 is your classic 2-deep, 5-under defense with a four-man rush. But in the NFL today, the Tampa 2 essentially turns into a 3-deep, 4-under defense with the Mike (or middle linebacker) running with any inside vertical seam to create a 3-deep look that we would see in Cover 3.

Inside the playbook: the Tampa 2

Marrdro wrote:

Today: The Tampa 2

Think of this as the first day of meetings during minicamp or the night before training camp opens in a small college lecture hall. Your basic install. We will get into some more exotic blitzes and combination coverages, but for now, we have to start with core coverages.

For teams such as Chicago, Indy, Minnesota and the New York Giants with new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, the Tampa 2 is the base defense that’s always taught first.

Cover 2 is your classic 2-deep, 5-under defense with a four-man rush. But in the NFL today, the Tampa 2 essentially turns into a 3-deep, 4-under defense with the Mike (or middle linebacker) running with any inside vertical seam to create a 3-deep look that we would see in Cover 3.

Inside the playbook: the Tampa 2

Basics as intended. However there is some very good discussion in the comments that follow the article.

We need to play more bump and run

V4L wrote:

We need to play more bump and run

this.


Really, we do everything wrong when it comes to playing cover 2.

A good Tampa-2 defense requires a great pass rush by the front 4, LB's who can cover effectively, a MLB with great range, Physical Corners who can bump the receiver to throw off timing and Safeties who can be relied on as the last line of defense.


Currently, we don't do any of that. We blitz our LB's leaving massive holes in the secondary, our Safeties can't be relied on to make a stop if a catch is made in the holes, our MLB isn't fast enough to play his zone properly, and our Corners play 5+ yards off their man for some reason.

We play a bend but don't break philosophy.. And i'm not a big fan of that

I wanna see some smash mouth D.. Get up and beat the shit outta the WRs

Wanna pin them back and give us a short field to work with

V4L wrote:

We play a bend but don't break philosophy.. And i'm not a big fan of that

I wanna see some smash mouth D.. Get up and beat the shit outta the WRs

Wanna pin them back and give us a short field to work with

The only problem is we tend to break on a semi-regular basis.

i_bleed_purple wrote:

V4L wrote:

We play a bend but don't break philosophy.. And i'm not a big fan of that

I wanna see some smash mouth D.. Get up and beat the shit outta the WRs

Wanna pin them back and give us a short field to work with

The only problem is we tend to break on a semi-regular basis.

Agreed

And we get virtually no picks

Play closer.. Let the CBs play ball

i_bleed_purple wrote:

V4L wrote:

We need to play more bump and run

this.


Really, we do everything wrong when it comes to playing cover 2.

A good Tampa-2 defense requires a great pass rush by the front 4, LB's who can cover effectively, a MLB with great range, Physical Corners who can bump the receiver to throw off timing and Safeties who can be relied on as the last line of defense.


Currently, we don't do any of that. We blitz our LB's leaving massive holes in the secondary, our Safeties can't be relied on to make a stop if a catch is made in the holes, our MLB isn't fast enough to play his zone properly, and our Corners play 5+ yards off their man for some reason.

Its even gonna get worse my friend when we don't have the 2 bigs in the middle to eat up blockers and collapse the pocket from the middle.

Eat up blockers. OLmen will be able to get out into the next level and get to our LB'rs in support of run blocking and will be able to pick up the blitz's that our LB'rs will be forced to do more and more as the front 4 fail to get pressure on the QB.

Pocket Collapse. If there is no push, the pocket stays clean in the middle, allowing the QB to just step forward into the pocket allowing a T (with no help) to take/ride the DE's wide.

But hey, they were looking at adding a G to help Hutch and Herra though. :lol:

Marrdro wrote:

i_bleed_purple wrote:

V4L wrote:

We need to play more bump and run

this.


Really, we do everything wrong when it comes to playing cover 2.

A good Tampa-2 defense requires a great pass rush by the front 4, LB's who can cover effectively, a MLB with great range, Physical Corners who can bump the receiver to throw off timing and Safeties who can be relied on as the last line of defense.


Currently, we don't do any of that. We blitz our LB's leaving massive holes in the secondary, our Safeties can't be relied on to make a stop if a catch is made in the holes, our MLB isn't fast enough to play his zone properly, and our Corners play 5+ yards off their man for some reason.

Its even gonna get worse my friend when we don't have the 2 bigs in the middle to eat up blockers and collapse the pocket from the middle.

Eat up blockers. OLmen will be able to get out into the next level and get to our LB'rs in support of run blocking and will be able to pick up the blitz's that our LB'rs will be forced to do more and more as the front 4 fail to get pressure on the QB.

Pocket Collapse. If there is no push, the pocket stays clean in the middle, allowing the QB to just step forward into the pocket allowing a T (with no help) to take/ride the DE's wide.

But hey, they were looking at adding a G to help Hutch and Herra though. :lol:

not only will we be missing the wall, but there is little chance EJ will be able to play at the level he was at before the injury. couple that with Griff's injury and it may a rough start to the season.

V4L wrote:

We play a bend but don't break philosophy.. And i'm not a big fan of that

I wanna see some smash mouth D.. Get up and beat the shit outta the WRs

Wanna pin them back and give us a short field to work with

Alas, most want to see that, but that also means a scheme shift.

The drafting of young Cook that high means they are committed to the cover 2 concept my friend as that is what scheme he is projected to fit the best at the next level.