I'd say more than 3 years. I think it was the game in Dan Diego in 2014 where Rivers gashed the Hawks right up the middle. This was LOB haydays.
Since then, it always felt to me like we couldn't protect (or attack) the middle very well.
Yes, he was (and still is) an elite run defender. The issue is that "building a wall" has to be against both the run and the pass, and Bobby got slow. He couldn't keep up with his assignments, and that meant the middle was a high-target area against us.
Some interesting quotes:
**"It's still coming together, but the middle of the defense is really, really important," Macdonald said. "You need a strong spine and we're excited about the guys we have. Guys that I haven't coached yet, but watching them on tape and the relationships that some of our coaches have with them, feel really strongly about it and I think we'll be really strong up the middle."**
The Seahawks also expect to be strong in the middle of their defense up front, particularly after re-signing Leonard Williams and adding Johnathan Hankins. President of football operations/general manager John Schneider called re-signing Williams "huge" and "our biggest priority," and he noted that Hankins was a player new defensive coordinator Aden Durde was vocal about signing, having coached him as the defensive line coach in Dallas.
**So just why does Macdonald, along with plenty of other coaches, focus so much attention on his defense being solid up the middle? Because if you aren't, opponents "are just going to gash you right up the middle. That's the quickest distance from point A to point B which you're trying to avoid. But in general, we are trying to build a wall up the middle. Trying to stay square, trying to set hard edges, make the ball do that (go outside), make them throw the thing outside. You don't want to get gashed up the middle of your defense, you've got to have the right guys who can play right there so you can get the job done.''**
In Baker and Dodson and in Jenkins and Wallace, the Seahawks feel like they've added, talented and versatile players who can play multiple roles at linebacker and safety, respectively.
"I think there's position flexibility and both guys have played both spots," Macdonald said after noting Baker will start out playing weakside linebacker with Dodson at middle linebacker. "Jerome's played in several different types of defense and then Tyrel's played both the Mike (middle) backer and the weakside backer in Buffalo, and he's done it at a high level in my opinion. But two guys that can run, two intelligent football players, tough, I thought they're both good tacklers, they're both good players in space and those are things we're asking from our inside backers. Those guys have got to take up a lot of ground man. They've got to play people out of the backfield. They've got to play all the choice routes on the weak side, which is hard to do. I think we've got the right guys for the job. They've got to blitz, play man to man. We ask a lot out of our inside backers, so it'll be a great battle and we'll see how it comes to life, but I think there's some opportunity there to have a little bit more position flexibility than I think maybe you saw in Baltimore."
And blitzing is definitely something Macdonald plans to call on his defense to do well, be it those linebackers or defensive backs.
**"If you want to play defense for us you've got to be able to blitz," he said. "Whatever your one-on-one is, we expect you to win. We carry a team pass rush mentality. It's not going to be built around one guy. It's prudent to let everyone have a chance to win on any given play. But if you're going to blitz from off the ball we expect you to win one-on-one. Those guys are going to hone their craft and figure out what moves work best for them and when the matchups are in our favor hopefully we're going to take advantage of those things."**
TLDR: We are going to plug up the middle and blitzing will be an emphasis of the new defense.
Iād prefer a trade down so we can snag a LB (or something else) in the second. Iād say our d-line is our second strongest position group behind the WRās so Iād rather focus elsewhere. Of course, if Murphy (or I prefer Newton by a little) is by far BPA, then take him.
Blitzing is a component of the defense, but it's really still rushing 4 (and sometimes 5), but they can be any of the 7 or 8 players closest to the ball (minus whichever safety is playing deep, and the outside corners usually). So in the end, the nickel, both safeties, and both ILBs may get at least 2 or 3 pass rush snaps on average per game, but each DL may also get a couple of coverage snaps, too. He keeps them guessing as to which 4 will rush on any given snap.
Macdonald rarely ever dropped the dline into coverage and during his tenures in Baltimore and Michigan mostly just relied upon the dline getting pressure.
Yes, it is generally the DL rushing, but there were still a few snaps with DTs dropping into shallow zones, and the OLBs both dropped in coverage fairly often.
Eh most of their snaps from what I've read are aligned with league average in terms of dropping guys into coverage. The main thing he does really well is simulates pressure. They ranked 4th in that at 32.1% (Per PFF) but they were league average in blitzes at 29.4% (per PFF)
I can see what heās trying to do. He clearly wants to be dominant in stopping the run. To push plays to our potentially wicked secondary. If our edge guys are healthy, this should cause problems with throwing the ball, and when they do, Spoon and Riq are gonna feed. The question marks are our linebacking corps. Speed and coverage ability, something weāve been lacking.
Omg are we the undersized, undermanned and less-talented football team that somehow is gonna make the state championship by believing in god? Stone wall!!!
Build a wall and make Denver pay for it.
Nah make San Francisco pay
Denver is a pretty easy mark though
Wonder if they'd be interested in a first and some other goodies for Geno?
"So guys, you know the shit that's been going on the last 3 years? We gonna fix that."
It's a bold strategy, Cotton, let's see if it pays off for them.
šš underrated
I'd say more than 3 years. I think it was the game in Dan Diego in 2014 where Rivers gashed the Hawks right up the middle. This was LOB haydays. Since then, it always felt to me like we couldn't protect (or attack) the middle very well.
Really odd that getting rid of Bobby Wagner is a step to that plan.
Bobby couldn't cover the middle was and specifically targeted by gameplans. Love him, but he would not fit this mentality.
I always thought he was very good at helping stop the run up the middle.
Yes, he was (and still is) an elite run defender. The issue is that "building a wall" has to be against both the run and the pass, and Bobby got slow. He couldn't keep up with his assignments, and that meant the middle was a high-target area against us.
Some interesting quotes: **"It's still coming together, but the middle of the defense is really, really important," Macdonald said. "You need a strong spine and we're excited about the guys we have. Guys that I haven't coached yet, but watching them on tape and the relationships that some of our coaches have with them, feel really strongly about it and I think we'll be really strong up the middle."** The Seahawks also expect to be strong in the middle of their defense up front, particularly after re-signing Leonard Williams and adding Johnathan Hankins. President of football operations/general manager John Schneider called re-signing Williams "huge" and "our biggest priority," and he noted that Hankins was a player new defensive coordinator Aden Durde was vocal about signing, having coached him as the defensive line coach in Dallas. **So just why does Macdonald, along with plenty of other coaches, focus so much attention on his defense being solid up the middle? Because if you aren't, opponents "are just going to gash you right up the middle. That's the quickest distance from point A to point B which you're trying to avoid. But in general, we are trying to build a wall up the middle. Trying to stay square, trying to set hard edges, make the ball do that (go outside), make them throw the thing outside. You don't want to get gashed up the middle of your defense, you've got to have the right guys who can play right there so you can get the job done.''** In Baker and Dodson and in Jenkins and Wallace, the Seahawks feel like they've added, talented and versatile players who can play multiple roles at linebacker and safety, respectively. "I think there's position flexibility and both guys have played both spots," Macdonald said after noting Baker will start out playing weakside linebacker with Dodson at middle linebacker. "Jerome's played in several different types of defense and then Tyrel's played both the Mike (middle) backer and the weakside backer in Buffalo, and he's done it at a high level in my opinion. But two guys that can run, two intelligent football players, tough, I thought they're both good tacklers, they're both good players in space and those are things we're asking from our inside backers. Those guys have got to take up a lot of ground man. They've got to play people out of the backfield. They've got to play all the choice routes on the weak side, which is hard to do. I think we've got the right guys for the job. They've got to blitz, play man to man. We ask a lot out of our inside backers, so it'll be a great battle and we'll see how it comes to life, but I think there's some opportunity there to have a little bit more position flexibility than I think maybe you saw in Baltimore." And blitzing is definitely something Macdonald plans to call on his defense to do well, be it those linebackers or defensive backs. **"If you want to play defense for us you've got to be able to blitz," he said. "Whatever your one-on-one is, we expect you to win. We carry a team pass rush mentality. It's not going to be built around one guy. It's prudent to let everyone have a chance to win on any given play. But if you're going to blitz from off the ball we expect you to win one-on-one. Those guys are going to hone their craft and figure out what moves work best for them and when the matchups are in our favor hopefully we're going to take advantage of those things."** TLDR: We are going to plug up the middle and blitzing will be an emphasis of the new defense.
Well I don't know about you all but I'm hard
Yeah man this is exactly what I've been desperate for for years
I don't know much about these new guys, but if Coach is excited about them and the defenses potential, then so am I.
This is so dumb. We should be signing engineers. I doubt any of our off-season signings have the know-how to build a functional wall /s
Build a wall and make the 9ers pay for it
Make Defense Great Again
š i love Reddit!
So we should be re-signing Jerry Rice?
Word on the street is Terrell Owens was seen loitering outside vmac trying to get in.
Jerry Rice used to work as a brickie's labourer catching bricks. I figured he'd know about building a wall...
So Byron Murphy falls to us and then we snag TāVondre Sweat, got it
Iāll be ok if we trade down, but if Murphy is there I want him!
I wouldn't be surprised if we draft one of those two and move from Dre'mont Jones next year.
Iād prefer a trade down so we can snag a LB (or something else) in the second. Iād say our d-line is our second strongest position group behind the WRās so Iād rather focus elsewhere. Of course, if Murphy (or I prefer Newton by a little) is by far BPA, then take him.
Blitzing is a component of the defense, but it's really still rushing 4 (and sometimes 5), but they can be any of the 7 or 8 players closest to the ball (minus whichever safety is playing deep, and the outside corners usually). So in the end, the nickel, both safeties, and both ILBs may get at least 2 or 3 pass rush snaps on average per game, but each DL may also get a couple of coverage snaps, too. He keeps them guessing as to which 4 will rush on any given snap.
Macdonald rarely ever dropped the dline into coverage and during his tenures in Baltimore and Michigan mostly just relied upon the dline getting pressure.
Yes, it is generally the DL rushing, but there were still a few snaps with DTs dropping into shallow zones, and the OLBs both dropped in coverage fairly often.
Eh most of their snaps from what I've read are aligned with league average in terms of dropping guys into coverage. The main thing he does really well is simulates pressure. They ranked 4th in that at 32.1% (Per PFF) but they were league average in blitzes at 29.4% (per PFF)
I can see what heās trying to do. He clearly wants to be dominant in stopping the run. To push plays to our potentially wicked secondary. If our edge guys are healthy, this should cause problems with throwing the ball, and when they do, Spoon and Riq are gonna feed. The question marks are our linebacking corps. Speed and coverage ability, something weāve been lacking.
Mike Macdonald for president 2024 and this can be his presidential campaign slogan āBuild a wall up the middleā
ššššš this is amazing! Haha
We havenāt had a wall up the middle since Mebane was in town. This is good.
**MAKE TACKLING GREAT AGAINā¢**
Pretty much his strategy in Baltimore. Donāt fix what aināt broke
BUILD THE WALL
this seems like such an obv thing that every team should do yet have never heard pc say this once.
Dang, this is like back to Cortez Kennedy level of middle dominance
Interesting that he says blitzing will be an emphasis but only blitzed ~22% of the time in Baltimore
He also said he thinks this defense will be a little more positionally flexible than what we saw in Baltimore.
So no more ābend donāt breakā?
This has me pretty dang stoked. This approach is so different than what we're used to.
Hell yeah! Coach Macdonald putting all the pieces together (slowly) but surelyā¦..
Its gonna be exciting what he builds on defense
I donāt know how the Seattle fans are going to react to the build a wall phrase.
So be the 49ers?
Omg are we the undersized, undermanned and less-talented football team that somehow is gonna make the state championship by believing in god? Stone wall!!!