Lions, Falcons, Rams, Eagles Will Be Among NFL's Most Schematically Different in 2024

Perhaps the biggest myth of any NFL preseason is that there's nothing to glean from it, because the schemes are all vanilla, and none of the players are of actual league quality. That's only true to a point, and it's team-dependent, because some coaches (especially new coaches) will want to try out their new ideas when the games don't really count.

So, based on actual trends teams have put on tape in the 2024 NFL preseason, and trends we saw late in the 2023 regular season, here are six teams who will be radically different on offense and defense.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions, and Next Gen Stats).

The Detroit Lions will be MUCH more aggressive in coverage

Last season under defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, the Detroit Lions played man coverage on 27% of their snaps. Glenn would have preferred more, but given the talent he had in his secondary, it didn't really wash. On 188 passing attempts against their versions of Cover-0, Cover-1, and 2-Man, the Lions allowed 100 completions for 1,515 yards, 13 touchdowns, two interceptions, five dropped interceptions, four defensive pass interference penalties, and an opponent passer rating of 98.6. Only the Jaguars, Vikings, and Eagles were worse in that last metric.

That's no way to get to a Super Bowl, as many believe the Lions might at the end of the 2024 season. So, Glenn and his guys got together and decided to make a few changes. The most prominent addition was Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold with the 24th pick in the 2024 draft. Arnold can play well in any coverage, but he was great when manning up against opposing receivers for the Crimson Tide. Of his 76 targets, 20 came in man, and he allowed 12 catches for 7.8 yards per carry, three explosive plays, and some unhappy receivers.

And while Arnold can play man in off outside coverage and from the slot, it's important to say that he's outstanding overall in press coverage. Because the 2024 Lions are not fooling around in that department. Glenn's new-look defense had at least one cornerback in press coverage 81% of the time. Overall, the Lions played Cover-1 on 49% of their snaps in the preseason, the highest rate in the NFL.

Getting everybody on the same page with Glenn's coverage preferences might be the last step in bringing an NFL championship to the Motor City for the first time since 1957.

The Los Angeles Rams will lead with the Pistol formation

One of the sneaky parts of Sean McVay's 2023 Los Angeles Rams offense is how much it improved in the second half of the season. The Rams ranked 16th overall in Offensive DVOA from Weeks 1-9, and third after that. The run game, which ranked 10th in DVOA in the first half of the season, also bumped up to third in the second half. A primary reason for this was McVay's increasing reliance on the Pistol formation, with the quarterback three yards behind the center, and the running back three yards behind the quarterback.

Invented by Nevada head coach Chris Ault in 2005, and perfected with Ault and a lightly-recruited quarterback named Colin Kaepernick, the Pistol has gone up and down in favor in the NFL over the last two decades, but if other offensive minds keep up the trend of copying McVay's ideas, look for an uptick in 2024 and beyond.

McVay didn't really start using the Pistol in his run game until the Rams' Week 12 game against the Arizona Cardinals, and it was a primary thing after that. Kyren Williams finished the season with 34 Pistol runs for 216 yards (6.8 yards per carry), and two touchdowns. From the start, it was an obvious improvement.

McVay's radical departure from an inside and outside zone running game in 2023 has been more detailed than the Pistol transition, but it's something to absolutely watch from this offense in 2024. Michigan running back Blake Corum, the NCAA's most productive gap runner in 2023, isn't just a great fit in McVay's running game because of that. Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh benefited greatly from Kaepernick's Pistol adventures when the two worked together with the San Francisco 49ers, so it would make sense that Harbaugh took it all back to college.

The Tennessee Titans are ready to press opposing receivers

The Tennessee Titans' 2023 defense under Shane Bowen (now with the New York Giants) wasn't very good, and it was particularly bad when trying to pay press coverage — which it didn't do a lot. The Titans had no cornerbacks in press coverage on 63% of their snaps — the NFL’s second-highest rate behind the Panthers’ 73%. They had one cornerback in press coverage on 25% of their snaps; only the Panthers had a lower rate at 23%.

Now, that's all about to change. General manager Ran Carthon went whole-hog on a more aggressive set of coverage concepts. The Titans traded for Kansas City Chiefs cornerback LJarius Sneed, and then signed Sneed to a new four-year, $76.4 million contract with $55 million guaranteed. They also signed former Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys cornerback Chidobe Awuzie to a three-year, $36 million contract with $19 million guaranteed. As Sneed and Awuzie are two of the NFL's better press cornerbacks (Sneed may be the best overall), it was clear that Tennessee was all-in here.

“It’s huge, especially for our defense, and what Dennard wants to do,” Carthon said this summer about Sneed’s press ability, and alpha playing personality overall. “He wants to challenge guys at the line of scrimmage, which is also a reason we went after Chidobie Awuzie. Get two guys in here who are going to match that, and that’s also how [slot defender] Roger [McCreary] plays. Roger is a linebacker on first and second down, and on third down, he can play the C-gap, stick his face in there against the run. But he can also challenge guys [in press coverage] on third down. So, adding someone like LJ to the mix is what’s going to drive this defense, and what will make it go.

“[You have to disrupt receivers] at the line of scrimmage. That forces the quarterback to hold the ball a half-second or a second longer, and it gives your rush another step to get there. It will be cool to see both of those units together, the coverage and the rush, and they’re going to benefit from each other.

It's all true, and in the preseason, the Titans were not going to wait — with or without their new stars. Neither Sneed nor Awuzie played in the preseason, but the Titans played with at least one cornerback in press on 74% of their snaps, fifth-most in the league.

New defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson can only benefit from a secondary that is far more in tune with modern trends.

The Buffalo Bills should have a more physical run game

Last season, the Buffalo Bills' rushing attack with their actual running backs was more an ancillary concern than a primary construct. James Cook led the team with 1,262 yards on 273 carries, but it was Josh Allen who scored 18 rushing touchdowns to Cook's two and Latavius Murray's four, and Allen was the only weapon opponents feared on the ground.

The Bills replaced Ken Dorsey with Joe Brady as their offensive coordinator late in the 2023 season, so there weren't a lot of new schematic landmarks, as it's tough to change all that up in-season. What we know now is that the 2023 Bills were a heavy inside and outside zone team (167 attempts as opposed to 107 in man-blocking), and the 2024 preseason told a different story. Buffalo had 36 rushing attempts with man blocking, by far the most in the NFL; the Rams ranked second with 24.

The additions of rookie running backs Ray Davis and Frank Gore Jr. (yes, THAT Frank Gore) made it all add up nicely. Davis, with his powerful in-line running style, should be especially productive if this sticks in the regular season.

The Philadelphia Eagles will use more pre-snap motion...

...because it would be difficult for them to use any less. Last season under head coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, the Eagles had just 161 passing attempts with pre-snap motion. Only the Denver Broncos and the New Orleans Saints had fewer. Philly's quarterbacks (primarily Jalen Hurts) completed 107 of those attempts for 1101 yards, 617 air yards, 11 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a passer rating of 89.0

Pre-snap motion is a cheat code for most passing game, but this was not the case here. The Eagles' shifts and motions (when used) seemed averse to actually helping their quarterbacks and receivers.

New offensive coordinator Kellen Moore is at least conversant with the subject. Under Moore, the 2023 Los Angeles Chargers had the NFL's third-most attempts with motion (389), completing 266 of those passes for 2,580 yards, 1,273 air yards, 18 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a passer rating of 99.2. The Eagles have a better receiver corps than the Chargers did last season, and they have a quarterback in Hurts who's in the same raw talent realm as Justin Herbert.

“Certainly the shift and motion aspect of it, it probably goes back to how I grew up around the game with my dad being a high school coach, then being in college at Boise State, we kind of used it a lot,” Moore said in May . “It’s always kind of stuck with me. There’s obviously advantages to it.

“There’s some things that you’re trying to gather information for the defense, and there’s other times you’re simply stressing the defense. So I think there’s those two elements. Ultimately you’re trying to build packages and create things so that the run and the action game and the drop-back game [work together]. So, there’s alignment and similarities with the presentations that allows us to stress the defense with those different looks.”

Stressing the defense with any motion looks would amount to a major upgrade.

The Atlanta Falcons are about to turn it up to 11

Say goodbye to the Big Mystery Box that was Arthur Smith's Atlanta Falcons offense. As the former head coach and offensive shot-caller has moved on to do Goodness Knows What to the Pittsburgh Steelers' offense, new head coach Raheem Morris brought in Sean McVay acolyte Zac Robinson, who filled multiple offensive assistant roles for the Rams from 2019 through 2023. We've already discussed Los Angeles' schematic variations, but McVay has always been "Ride or Die" with 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three receivers) and it should come as no surprise that Robinson has picked that up.

Based on what we've seen so far, the transition will be about as drastic as it can possibly be. Under Smith in 2023, no team had fewer snaps in 11 personnel than the Falcons' 190, and under Robinson in the 2024 preseason (that's just three games, kids), Atlanta led the league in snaps out of 11 with 185. Of course, the Rams were second with 181.

Should first-round pick Michael Penix Jr. play in the regular season for any reason, it bears mentioning that Penix dealt more out of 11 personnel for the Washington Huskies in the 2023 season than any other NCAA quarterback — 490 dropbacks, and 307 completions in 474 attempts for 3,954 yards, 2,258 air yards, 27 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and a passer rating of 100.1. This 41-yard completion to Chris Blair against the Miami Dolphins in Week 1 of the preseason was also out of that same personnel.

How did Kirk Cousins, Atlanta's new $180-million man, fare in 11 personnel with the Minnesota Vikings last season? Pretty well — Cousins completed 162 of 234 passes in 11 for 1,821 yards, 1,002 air yards, 15 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a passer rating of 104.7. But on passes of 20 or more air yards in 11, Cousins was an efficient monster. He completed 10 of 20 passes for 369 yards, 279 air yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 135.4 — the NFL's highest among quarterbacks with at least 10 deep attempts.

So, Atlanta's 2024 passing game might be a bit more risk-laden than the 2023 version, but it is also sure to be more consistently explosive. Most Falcons fans would take that deal with a quickness.

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