Cowboys, Packers, and Seahawks will have radically different defenses in 2024

Jadeveon Clowney. Justin Madubuike. Kyle Hamilton. Geno Stone. Michael Pierce. Roquan Smith. Patrick Queen. Odafe Oweh.

These are players who, it could be credibly argued, had their best seasons in 2023 with the Baltimore Ravens under the guidance of defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. That fact (and Baltimore's No. 1 ranking in Defensive DVOA ) led Macdonald to his current position as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, a franchise that put some historically great defenses on the field not too long ago.

The point is, there are times when coaching, schemes, and personnel all come together in amazing ways, and franchises benefit from severe differences in overall determinism.

That's the upside potential. There are also times when new coaches bring their concepts in, superimpose those concepts over their players with little thought to the result, and cash out before their time.

No matter the end result, here are five NFL defenses that will be radically different in 2024, based on coaching, scheme, and personnel.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus , Sports Info Solutions , and FTN unless otherwise indicated).

Dallas Cowboys

It's not that the Dallas Cowboys wanted to change their defensive philosophy; it's that they had to. Former defensive coordinator and current Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn (more on him in a minute) put together a squad that ranked fifth in Defensive DVOA, and whatever issues bedeviled Jerry Jones' team in 2023, it usually wasn't the defense.

Now, Mike Zimmer is in charge of that defense. Zimmer is a lifer; he was previously Dallas' defensive coordinator from 2000-2006, and his start with the team was as an assistant coach in 1994. So, Zimmer was in Big D the last time this franchise was Super Bowl-relevant, and it's up to him to top Quinn and make them that again.

Not that Zimmer can do anything about the front office , but he does bring some juice. He was last in the NFL as the Minnesota Vikings' head coach in 2021, and he then spent two seasons with Deion Sanders at Jackson State and Colorado as a defensive analyst.

Zimmer's schematic hallmarks shouldn't be all that different to what we're used to from him. He's a big fan of mugging two linebackers to either side of the center to generate additional pressure, which is tied to an unusual preference for three-linebacker sets. Zimmer's 2021 Vikings had three linebackers on the field 36% of the time, which is an anachronism in today's "Nickel is the base defense" league. Zimmer tends to mix his coverages pretty evenly, while Quinn became a man-coverage evangelist over time, and Quinn called far more snaps in dime defense than any other coach last season -- an astonishing 60%.

Perhaps the most interesting point in the transition is how Zimmer will deploy super-pass-rusher Micah Parsons. People are flipping out a bit over Zimmer's comments about Parsons' versatility as if Parsons is about to become an off-ball linebacker half the time.

It could be more that Zimmer sees Parsons as a roaming pass-rusher in those mugged-up looks, which would make more sense. Parsons played off-ball linebacker on just 5% of his snaps last season, but he was utterly dominant inside the tackles as a pass-rusher. He had one sack and 17 total pressures last season as an interior pass-rusher, and he lined up in those looks just 11% of the time.

So... yeah. Dallas' defense will be quite different, and if it falls off at all, there's one more criticism for Jerry Jones in an already full bag. But Zimmer certainly has the players to make it go.

Green Bay Packers

Under former defensive coordinator Joe Barry in 2023, the Green Bay Packers ranked 27th in Defensive DVOA . They ranked 25th under Barry in 2022, and 12th in Barry's first season of 2021. It should not have come as a surprise that ownership booted Barry and his passive defenses out the door after a frustrating third season, and the addition of new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley could well cure all that has ailed this defense of late.

Passiveness was a severe problem. Last season, the Packers played with no cornerbacks in press coverage on 59% of their snaps, and with one cornerback in press coverage on 27% of their snaps.

The results were... suboptimal.

Hafley, fresh from a successful stint as Boston College's defensive coordinator, has vowed to change all of this. And that begins by making sure his players aren't overthinking.

"I want a defense that's going to be confident, and it's not going to be nervous about making mistakes," Hafley said in May . "Play style's important to me and how fast we play and physical and attacking the ball and all that stuff, but the only way to do that is they've got to know what they're doing. So you teach all those things we talked about, then you learn the scheme and then you let them go play. So there are some things that are new, but the cool part is right now they're all buying in and really focusing on learning it and that's what gives us a chance each day when we come in."

Based on Boston College's 2023 tape, even when Hafley called off-coverage in zone, he directed his defenders to plaster and match across the formation. Which would represent a mammoth upgrade over what Barry called over the last three seasons.

With the newly minted Jordan Love looking to prove that his second half of the 2023 season was no fluke, and Hafley actually putting his players in the best positions to succeed, is it time for title talk in Titletown? We can but wait and see, but veteran cornerback Jaire Alexander is certainly a believer.

Seattle Seahawks

We've already discussed that Mike Macdonald was able to pry career years out of most of his Ravens defenders last season. But how was he able to accomplish that rare feat? If you talked to Baltimore's opponents last season, most would tell you that Macdonald's NFL-best defense was especially frustrating in that the coverages and pressures seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Few defensive coaches have a better knack for tying simulated pressures to coverage switches, which gives Macdonald a serious leg up on Pete Carroll and Clint Hurtt, the two men who called the shots for Seattle's defense in 2023. Carroll is one of the best defensive coaches of all time, but it didn't often show up on the field last season. The Seahawks played an execution-based defense with primarily zone coverage, and all kinds of landmark issues.

Macdonald sees things differently; he isn't about static fronts and simple coverages. The defensive line can be all kinds of things, and the linebackers often blitz and cover in some very tough packages to open.

"I thought they did a great job of playing coverages where you're like, 'I don't know what the (heck) I'm going against,' because of the way they're teaching guys," Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay recently told Robert Mays of The Athletic Football Show about Macdonald's Ravens defense, which the Rams couldn't quite solve in a 37-31 Week 14 overtime loss. "They teach an understanding of how route concepts distribute and how you don't have to work as hard throughout the course of the down to allow things to be able to progress.

"You felt like you were playing against 13 players sometimes... They were such a well-coordinated and a well-executed defense from the players to the coaches. And I respect the coordinators the most that you can see an intent behind what they're trying to get done. And I thought that showed up consistently on his tape."

Now, McVay gets to deal with this (at least) twice a season.

Macdonald was also a wizard with disguised coverages, which is one reason safety Geno Stone had seven interceptions last season after totaling one in his previous three NFL campaigns.

Last season, the Ravens ranked first in Defensive DVOA ; the Seahawks ranked 28th. It won't take much for Macdonald to raise the bar, but Macdonald wants more than league-average, and with his playbook and Seattle's defensive personnel (which is better than what we saw in 2023), league-average might be a letdown.

Tennessee Titans

Under defensive coordinator Shane Bowen (now with the New York Giants), the 2023 Tennessee Titans had an internal battle regarding press coverage. General manager Ran Carthon gave Bowen the reins to be more passive in coverage, and it didn't work well at all. Last season, Tennessee's defense had no cornerbacks in press coverage 63% of the time, the NFL's fifth-highest rate. It was a primary reason the Titans had a league-low six interceptions to 20 touchdowns allowed, with a 67.8% opponent completion rate, and an opponent passer rating of 96.6. Not ideal numbers under any circumstances.

So, with Bowen off to the Big Apple, Carthon brought in new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, traded for Kansas City Chiefs cornerback L'Jarius Sneed, signed former Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, and retained slot star Roger McCreary.

What do all those defenders have in common? They're all great press cornerbacks, and they align perfectly with Carthon's vision. In today's NFL, when there's so much quick game, you don't always have time to get to the quarterback. And when you don't, you have to disrupt his receivers if you want to affect the timing of the play.

“It’s huge, especially for our defense, and what Dennard wants to do,” Carthon said about about the change in philosophy and personnel. “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."

Tennessee also recently signed two former Seahawks safeties -- Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs. Adams' effectiveness as anything but a box linebacker and blitzer is questionable, but in the 2023 NFL season, Diggs had more snaps in the deep third (1,113) than any other player, and he was better in that role than Seattle's former defensive coaches allowed him to be.

It's a radical series of changes for Tennessee's defense, and there may be a few transitional issues as a result, but over time, the Titans will reap the benefits of aligning their schemes and personnel with what the NFL requires.

Washington Commanders

We still don't quite know what the Washington Commanders were trying to accomplish on defense last season. We do know that with all the ineffective fronts and busted coverages, whatever former defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio was putting on the field before Del Rio was fired last November , and head coach Ron Rivera followed him out the door soon after, didn't work at all. Especially against opposing quarterbacks. Washington allowed a league-high 39 touchdowns to just eight interceptions, and an NFL-worst opponent passer rating of 106.0.

So, the decision to replace Rivera with former Atlanta Falcons head coach and Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn wasn't just about improving the culture -- it was also about making that defense better. Low bar we know, but Quinn has the priors to get that done to an extreme degree. Quinn cut his teeth as Pete Carroll's primary schematic partner in the creation of the Legion of Boom, and he's always had dynamite defenses with multiple fronts and coverages that put his players in their best positions to succeed. Last season, despite the fact that top cornerback Trevon Diggs missed all but two games with a torn ACL, the Cowboys had the league's eighth-lowest opponent passer rating -- 84.5. Dallas allowed 24 touchdown passes, and had 17 interceptions.

Two things you can expect to see in Quinn's defense: A ton of stunts and games along the defensive line, and a lot of three-safety looks. Dallas ran some kind of stunt on 292 of its defensive snaps last season, which resulted in 28 sacks, 28 quarterback hits, and 80 quarterback hurries. That's a 46.6% disruption rate, which is exceptional. Last season, the Commanders stunted 186 times, which resulted in 11 sacks, 12 quarterback hits, and 44 quarterback hurries. That's a 36.0% disruption rate, which is decidedly less spectacular.

The Cowboys also put three safeties on the field 362 times, one of the NFL's highest totals. Quinn likes big nickel and dime coverage because they allow him to deploy his defensive backs in some really interesting ways. And all those coverage busts from last season should be a thing of the past.

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