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Seahawks can copy Packers' bizarre coverage with Ty Okada
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- Seahawks can copy Packers' bizarre coverage with Ty Okada
The Green Bay Packers have come up with a bizarre way to play coverage this season that the Seattle Seahawks could implement within their own defense. NFL Pro's Brett Kollmann tweeted out this clip from his show detailing an innovative coverage rotation the Packers deployed against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6.
The Packers show a one-high safety look pre-snap, then rotate into a two-high look to bait Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott to throw the over route to star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. The goal of the over route is to get between the defense's zone coverage. As Kollmann mentions in the breakdown, the Cowboys know it's not man coverage because Lamb has no defender lined up over him. Rotating a defender to play man coverage leaves far too much time and space for the target to be open for an easy completion. Rotating into zone coverage requires incredible speed and angles at the safety position, and seems like a risky proposition — but as Kollmann mentions near the end of it, it looks exactly like a typical Cover 4 (also known as "Quarters") look by the time Prescott throws the ball.
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Packers safety Evan Williams lines up as an edge rusher before dropping way back to cover Lamb in a zone in the middle of the field. This is called the "Trix" technique, which Kollmann credits to Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Williams ends up intercepting the pass.
However, Kollmann credits Packers' new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who coached against the Seahawks in the NFC West as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals the past three seasons, with the innovation on the "Trix" technique. It's just crazy enough that it seems risky, but it's done wonders for Green Bay this season. Forty-two percent of all drives against their defense in the past three weeks have ended in turnovers.
The Seahawks have two household names in their safety room, Nick Emmanwori and Julian Love. Emmanwori has 94th-percentile straight-line speed when running a 20-yard split, and is lining up on the line of scrimmage more often by the week. Love has the ballhawking instincts (three straight games with an interception from Super Bowl LX through Weeks 1 and 2) and 80th-percentile agility testing in the shuttle to turn-and-run. However, the perfect answer here is actually their third most well-known safety, Ty Okada.
Okada ran a 97th-percentile shuttle drill and a 94th-percentile 20-yard split during his pre-draft testing. Love is as good as single-high free safeties get, and Emmanwori is finding creative ways to impact the game in the box every week. Neither one has to change roles. Okada is the ideal candidate to execute this bait-and-switch designer coverage technique for Seattle.
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This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks can copy Packers' bizarre coverage with Ty Okada
