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Building the Modern Defensive Line: A New Reality for Cincinnati Bengals and the NFL

Defenses can no longer have their cake and eat it too.

Max Toscano

Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard (94) tackles Indianapolis Colts running back Zack Moss (21) in the first quarter during a Week 14 NFL game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023, at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard (94) tackles Indianapolis Colts running back Zack Moss (21) in the first quarter during a Week 14 NFL game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023, at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati. / Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
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If there's one thing you need to understand about Xs and Os in the NFL right now, it's that the 2010s are dead and buried. The era changed the game of football forever, and its lessons inform where we are now, but many things we understood from that period are dead and buried.

throw
Oct 3, 2021; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) passes the ball to wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) during the first quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

This era was characterized by the understanding that all you *really* had to do effectively was pass. You couldn't just *never* run, but you were best served by committing resources to spreading the field and throwing it around. You didn't need the extra blocking and you didn't need to condense the field. This was all a bubble, a temporary exception to the general rules of this game, and it has burst.

The forgotten element of all this is that defenses enabled it. It took them until 2021 to start copying Vic Fangio instead of Pete Carroll. In short, the Carroll "Seattle-3" system is one where you, at all times, have a S down in the box to ensure bodies for every gap.

Behind it, they played Cover-3 (or 1) nearly every snap, focusing on techniques, tailored adjustments/checks, and overall soundness to make it work. While Carroll had the perfect concoction of talent for it to be right for his team, the rest of the league found out that if you honor the run and put bodies in the box no matter what, teams can just do whatever they want in the passing game without recourse.

This is over, and the league's best offenses have realized that if they want to create juicy pass looks, they are going to have to force defenses into it. Establishing the run should no longer be handwaved as a platitude of days gone by, it is the schematic reality of the modern NFL.

This has been figured out, and for some like the Shanahan guys, they never stopped (if you noticed, the 2-high stuff never gave them any issues). But if you look at how elite offense is being played now, the trend is clear in both the data and tape.

Offenses are getting heavier, more condensed, and more physical to force defenses into conflict between doing what it takes to stop modern offenses from gashing them through the air and gashing them on the ground. The key to modern defense, in kind, is to break serve. In so many words, the Bengals are RIGHT about size and strength on the front, and understanding this is key to understanding who they need to be looking for in the draft.

For a specific type of defense that rose to prominence during the spread bubble, this is all very bad news.

The Death of The Attacking Front, A Return to Reality for 4-Down Defense.

The Bengals are a 4-down team under new defensive coordinator Al Golden. Even though they were technically a base 3-4 under Lou Anarumo, the amount they stayed in nickel made them functionally a 4-down team under him as well. When we examine what kind of DL they (and pretty much any other team) will need in the draft, we will need to understand the current state of schematic affairs in the 4-down world.

Most famously with Jim Schwartz in Philly and later Robert Saleh/DeMeco Ryans with the 49ers and Dan Quinn in Dallas, a set of 4-down disciples realized that with space on offense came space along the front, and that maximizing the pass rush ability of your DL was the best way to counter modern 11 personnel offenses. The idea is to get upfield into one gap and penetrate as explosively as possible. For the interior guys, this means knifing through the A and B gaps, for the edges, this means lining up wide and getting around the corner.

The overall configuration of these fronts is generally the same as any 4-down front (even spacing). You have two defensive ends and two interior guys. One of the interior guys will be in the A gap with the B gap to their side open, and the other interior guy will be in the B gap with the A gap to their side open.

This configuration is as universal as it gets in the game of football, and is designed to cover the space along the OL as evenly as possible. A good sport-wide rule of thumb to remember is that whenever possible it's better to have a DL accounting for an interior gap than a 2nd level defender, so the more bubbles you can close, the better.

The 2nd and 3rd level guys can more easily account for the perimeter (known as the alley) than they can the tight spaces inside. The biggest difference in this subset of even fronts can be found in body types and techniques. They want guys inside who are smaller and faster to more easily penetrate and they want edges who can get in track stances and bend the corner and/or convert speed to power. The idea is one guy for one gap, and your job is to scream into it as fast and aerodynamically as possible like a torpedo.

Sounds great right?

Well in a league where everyone just sat in 3-wide all the time with just 6 guys on the LOS, it was! When offenses condense and add extra guys to the LOS in 12 and 13 personnel, the math no longer works. When your edges are small and fast, you need them to stay on the outside instead of being in between bodies on the line, as they don't have the size to win the wrestling matches that come on the interior. The result is huge amounts of space between the tackles that offenses can easily run into.

Condensed formations make the avenues to penetrate go away, and you just run into stone walls. With the small size of the interior guys, these units aren't built to hold ground and eat space, so they're easily moved off the line by double teams. In combination with the bubbles inside, it's too easy for strong run games to just tighten up, mash you, and run downhill. If you want to play light boxes you can't stop it. The only thing you can do from there is stack the box and fall into the checkmate trap that offenses are trying to engineer. That's when the haymakers come. In the modern game, you cannot have that.

Screaming upfield makes you vulnerable to traps and whams as well (Ravens here running "crunch" which is a trap PAIRED WITH a wham), and offenses can bait you into running yourself out of the play and voiding your gap. Like the small body types that go with it, it's a bad technique to coexist with all the space along the line against good downhill attacks. As the league keeps going in this direction, defenses of this nature are marked for death by blunt force trauma.

Back to Reality

The new reality is that defenses need to maintain light boxes and 2-high shells to make life difficult for modern passing attacks, but unlike a few years ago, they will have to do it while defending condensed, physical formations up front.

To understand what this means, we have to go back. Once upon a time, 4-down defenses and 3-down defenses were more distinct in body types. We've gotten used to catch-all "edge rushers," but there was a huge difference between the end man on the line in a base 4-3 and a base 3-4.

Standup edge
Nov 20, 2022; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt (90) pass rushes at the line of scrimmage against the Cincinnati Bengals during the third quarter at Acrisure Stadium. The Bengals won 37-30. Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
JULIUS
Craig Jones: Getty Images

In the 3-down world, your edge defenders when in base D (3-4-4) are outside linebackers on the line, creating a 5-across look on the front. Because they have 3-down DL to plug the interior, the edges in a 3-4 can stay on the outside, which is why 3-4 edges used to be the small, bendy types in the 245-260 pound range. When these defenses get into nickel, they usually get into 4-down fronts. This is no problem even though the edges are small, because they simply will get into their base package when the offense puts heavy bodies on the field (D has an opportunity to sub and match). This has been the case traditionally, but the current Steelers give us a good example of what this looks like:

Small edges are fine when you can selectively avoid them needing to bump inside. For 4-down teams however, things are different.

4-3
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Because there are only two interior defensive linemen in a 4-down framework instead of the three you see in the 3-4, the edge defenders (DE instead of OLB) has to handle more tight spaces when formations condense.

Traditionally they (until the rise of the 49ers style fronts) required bigger edges in the 265-290 range. However, with teams wanting to stay in nickel as much as they can (like the Saints do here despite a true FB and TE on the field) with tight ends that can play the slot credibly and wide receivers that can block in the box, defending condensed formations from 4-down frameworks is hard to avoid in the modern game whether you're a 3-4 or 4-3 base.

Flex tight ends and blocking slots have replaced what used to be huge FBs, so you can't just maintain separate heavy and light worlds for your D anymore. The best offenses can do everything without substituting.

The idea is to use your first-level defenders (again of which there are only four in a 4-down front instead of the five in a 3-down front) to plug up as much interior space as possible and free up the back part of the defense to remain in coverage. If the nickel or safety has a gap, it'll be on the outside where the ball can't get downhill immediately

To achieve this, you're going to need edges who can head-up blockers and account for gaps that are inside the edge of the formation, and you're going to need interior guys who can hold space and occupy more than one gap even if they aren't the hulking 0 techniques you see in 3-down.

Teams like to run a lot of downhill gap schemes, like duo, power, and counter against light boxes, so you need a defensive end that can collapse the edge and blow up the structure frontside and a guy inside who can prevent any movement and congest the middle.

As we established, loading the box is DEATH. You may stop the run, but you're burning down the house to escape a gas leak. This is what happened to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, and why offenses like San Francisco, Baltimore, Buffalo, and Detroit can be so efficient and explosive. They establish it and make you honor it. If you can defend the heavy run game from light boxes, you can take away the easy chunks they want to knock you out with. If you can't, you're dead regardless.

With two safeties deep, you can not only put a lid on offenses vertically, but have endless flexibility to morph in and out of different coverages (in 2-high you can play and disguise every coverage ever made but with a S fitting a gap in the box. you can only play 1 and 3), take away specific things, and rob the intermediate middle from depth. Even though it's 1st-and-10 and the 49ers are in the i, the Saints can stay in 2-high and choke out the cheat buttons in the passing game.

Flexibility, Multiplicity, and Reductions

The more places you can move guys, the more you can tailor your structures. Normally as we've discussed, your basic even front structure is a 2i and 3 technique inside and two 5 techniques (or wide-9s) outside the tackles.

However, there are times you want to close specific gaps and get a bit more specialized. A lot of times to do this you'll employ what are called "front reductions." to put it simply this is when you scrunch things up structurally from your base alignment. A DE may reduce to a 4 technique head up on the tackle, for instance. Inside, a NT may reduce to a 0 or a shade. Simply, you can close the chasms that offenses want to create by adding guys to the line, smaller fronts cannot and need to space out too far.

Fronts
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Just look at the difference, which do you think is easier to run downhill into? Doesn't take an expert.

You also have the flexibility with size to get to 3-down type (odd) spacing from 4-down personnel. It's done here so they can bump Sam out of the box. Smaller speed rushers cannot reduce to a 4i, and 280-pound DTs can't effectively eat space at a 0, so teams with those types are very pigeonholed and certainly can't access 3-down run-fit structures on the fly like this. You just have more options up front.

Just look again at the difference, this time in how these fronts can address two TE to a side (called "4 man spacing" because the G, T, Y, and F are all on the line to that side) formations. The limitations on the DL force secondary defenders into compromising positions (making 2-high a challenge) and leave interior gaps open. All offenses have to do is add guys to the line and create the openings, but bigger lines, especially in these cases at DE, can close them. More options, more configurations, more specific answers to take things away and ameliorate weaknesses.

Roster-Building Implications in Cincinnati (and beyond).

Sam Hubbard
Sep 18, 2022; Arlington, Texas, USA; Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard (94) rears after a tackle for loss in the fourth quarter of an NFL Week 2 game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kareem Elgazzar-The Cincinnati Enquirer / Kareem Elgazzar-The Enquirer

This creates new realities in the draft as well, though the Bengals have always done it this way. In addition to the loss of DJ Reader, the post-injury decline of Sam Hubbard was ruinous to the Bengals entire defense.

With a non-functional run defense that couldn't stop anything without loading the box, too much pressure ended up placed on a below-average group of cover guys to live on islands, and offenses could attack static/predictable coverages.

Everything unraveled from there. If they wanted to commit anything to coverage, teams would be in 2nd-and-2 constantly. It's no way to live, and despite a desperate (and growing with the possible loss of Hendrickson) need for pass rush, they can't just throw the best pure pass rushers out there with no other considerations.

DE Shemar Stewart
Sep 3, 2022; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies defensive lineman Shemar Stewart (4) and Sam Houston State Bearkats offensive lineman Jordan Boatman (70) in action during the fourth quarter at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

This draft has options. While it doesn't quite have a do-it-all freakshow like Myles Garrett, Maxx Crosby, Dexter Lawrence, or Chris Jones (besides Mason Graham), there are guys who can fill modern needs that have at least some upside as power rushers, both inside and out. Chief among this prototype is defensive end Shemar Stewart, who plays around 270-280.

Stewart has limited sack production, but a ton of raw materials as as a rusher with elite get-off and explosiveness. As a run defender, he's as good as it gets. His athleticism allows him to penetrate and create disruption at a high level, but his length and power make him effective at controlling blockers and crushing space.

Similar players that may be available after Stewart goes include Georgia defensive end Mykel Williams (6051, 260, with 34" arms) and Arkansas defensive end Landon Jackson (6060, 264) the latter of whom, like Stewart, tested like an alien in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine (9.88 RAS) and had a great Senior Bowl. There are pass-rush tools to all three, but you're banking on upside while at least getting an incredibly useful run defender whose impact can be felt downstream.

Inside I like Kenneth Grant a lot as an impact nose tackle. He's got a lot of untapped upside, particularly as a rusher, but he's massive, great at eating space, and a freakish mover. Similar guys that are fits include Tyliek Williams from Ohio State and Jamaree Caldwell from Oregon.

Guys like Walter Nolen and Derrick Harmon specifically are good penetrators and rushers but need support in run D from other guys on the line. With TJ Slaton in tow at nose tackle, this becomes more of a possibility for the Bengals to improve the pass rush without any major trade-off than it was before that signing was made.

Trenches
Jan 8, 2023; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle DJ Reader (98) and Baltimore Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum (64) line up before a snap in the third quarter during a game at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kareem Elgazzar-Imagn Images / Kareem Elgazzar-Imagn Images

Teams need to get more honest up front, especially on the edge, if they're going to live in 4-down structures.

It's increasingly difficult to get excited about the guys who are pure rushers on the back of elite speed and small size the way it used to. NFL defenses ate candy for a decade on the defensive line.

There's still room for them, but their weaknesses will need to be covered up elsewhere on the line. Overall though, defenses, like offenses are in the process of doing, need to grow up and eat their vegetables to avoid malnutrition.

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Max Toscano
MAX TOSCANO

Max Toscano breaks down football strategy. Prior to joining Bengals On SI, he interned with the coaching staff at the University of Connecticut, assisting the defensive staff in opponent scouting as well as assisting the Head Coach and GM with analytics on gameday. Max's areas of specific expertise include Quarterbacks and Tight Ends, including also hosting a publication dedicated to the tight end position. He also writes for "And The Valley Shook" on SB Nation.

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