Decoding Dre: What Seahawks Passing Game Coordinator Andre Curtis Said
Andre Curtis is proving to be a schematic goldmine. Whenever we get to hear what the Seahawks Passing Game Coordinator is saying, tons of Xs and Os goodness are provided. For instance, we enjoyed Curtis talking to safeties in an All Access segment from the Rams home game. Another example is when we saw Pete Carroll talking to Curtis about Marquise Blair during Week 2 of the preseason versus the Broncos.
It's amusing that, on the day the Seahawks stopped reporters from showing videos in a presumed effort to protect their scheme, Seattle simultaneously released a Mic'd Up video that gave lots away. In it, Curtis lives up to his billing.
“Letting you know #Seahawks say we are no longer allowed to post pictures or video of anything from camp practices beyond stretching.” Greg Bell, of The News Tribune, tweeted. Whoever is editing and vetting what gets shown of the defense didn't get the memo. There’s enough here to "Decode 'Dre."
Yes, there was fun clapping and noise. There was a moment with the equipment manager hand-delivering a sanitized football. Joking with Ugo Amadi also took place. Yet by deciphering the lingo Curtis uses, we can get an excellent idea of what the Seahawks were working on in practice and what a 2020 Seattle defense will look like
The first part of the Mic'd Up segment we're going to look at features Linden Stephens. Stephens has a profile that projects to the slot in the Pacific Northwest. However, after the Seahawks added Jamal Adams, the slot got too busy with Marquise Blair joining the competition with Amadi. Stephens is now playing outside cornerback.
Curtis: “Who you gotta come off the flat in palms, and the hands over here.”
Stephens: “The hands?”Curtis: “Yeah, the guy running to the flat. You’re supposed to trigger to the flat. You did it one time...”
Stephens:“I did it.”
Curtis: “And then you missed one of them too.”
Curtis first refers to palms technique. This places the overhang player, safety and outside cornerback on a string. The safety and cornerback mirror the release of the No. 2 receiver. If the No. 2 receiver breaks out within five yards, the corner jumps into the flat and the safety works over the top of the No. 1 receiver. If No. 2 doesn't break out, the defense essentially looks like quarters on that side. The overhang plays with inside eyes on No. 2, looking to reroute him vertical and waiting for the potential of No. 1 crossing his face.
When Curtis mentioned "hands," he's referring to "Over 2 Hands," a Seattle defense that runs palms to one side of the formation. It's pictured below. With Stephens to be messing up a basic palms read, things don't look good for the cornerback. He looks like a camp cornerback.
It's interesting because, with No. 2 not breaking out in five yards, this defense ends up looking like a quarter, quarter, half look - otherwise known as Cover 6. The offense is left none the wiser about the hidden checks.
Seattle also has "Over 2 LA" where both corners remain clouded - looking to catch the No. 1 receiver outside and funnel him inside while waiting in the flat. The one thing which changes this is if the offense aligns in a nub formation. In this instance, the Seahawks will check "Reno" to the slot - a middle of the field closed way of playing what is similar to palms. Whereas, in "Over 2 Hands," the nub-side safety does not play a middle 1/3, instead remaining on the nub side of the field. This gives the defense a 2-on-1 versus the nub tight end.
Curtis: “Hey you comet bail [Points to Tre Flowers at outside cornerback]”
Curtis: “I’m the fullback, you set the edge, 1 in the fit [Says to strong safety Jamal Adams]"
Curtis: “2 in the fit, make the tackle [Coached to Neiko Thorpe]”
When Curtis tells Flowers to "comet bail," he is asking him to use a deep 1/3 technique that Seattle corners employ against nub formations. The cornerback must stay outside-in against any run. We have two tight bodies to the defense's right, which matches the nub feel.
The force player is the corner. Next comes the "1 in the fit." This is the turn-back player who must take on blocks. In this case it's Adams, a man who is comfortable setting the edge and playing near the line of scrimmage. He whacks the fullback, an obvious lever key, with his inside shoulder, turning the play inside too.
This sets everything up for the "2 in the fit." Ordinarily this would be a linebacker, as the strong safety has already fitted. Yet for some reason, it's Neiko Thorpe's job. Perhaps it's because it's a DB drill and the linebackers weren't available. Maybe Adams just needed to see his role. We need more context to decipher this part.
The "2 in the fit," runs through on the play and makes the tackle. Adams being a man who regularly takes on fullback blocks is exciting. His skill set enables the Seahawks to do a lot more stuff versus the run than Bradley McDougald's did.
The alternative to a "comet bail" when an outside cornerback faces a nub formation is “lock.” This has the corner spill certain blocks which come their way. There are no longer an outside in player. There here is no in-and-out with the safety behind either: this is pure corner-versus-receiver, one-on-one, man coverage on their side.
Curtis: “Short-field, the ball come out fast, a flat throw.
Curtis: “What we got? There we go, show split-safety, hold it.”
Curtis is likely referring to Phoenix Check, a favorite coverage of Seattle - especially in the red zone. He mentions short field before this, so we can assume that the Seahawks defense is inside their own 20.
By showing a split-safety look and holding it, teams think Seattle is in a middle of the field open pass coverage. However, the Phoenix Check coverage instead rotates a safety down and inside to the weak hook, where the look to match the Final No. 3 receiver.
Curtis: “Good, good. Hey you listen for the action, right Diggy?”
Curtis: “Hey J, he gonna be there. But if you get a sit, push it out there to him. Because what they’ll try to do, is they’ll try to high-low the corner. You know, get the back out to the flat. Alright, good.”
These are some cool coaching points from Curtis to his two safeties Quandre Diggs and Adams. The Seahawks are visibly doing inside-the-20 coverage work. During the Diggs quote, it really looks like Seattle is running "Red 2." This is their red zone-adapted version of Cover 2 that is an aggressive zone-matching defense.
Diggs being told to listen to action is presumably a call for No. 2 vertical or No. 1 in. He is waiting to match No. 2 vertical, and if not must sit in the slant window of No. 1. Adams has the same assignment in this defense, just on the other side of the field. Curtis may not be talking about Red 2 with Adams. However, the coaching point on helping a conflicted corner and knowing how offenses will try to exploit that is cool. And there is a high-low issue for the corner in Red 2.
Curtis: “1Y special, you don’t travel.”
Shaquill Griffin: “Ooh, wow.”
Curtis: “We about to call it special, 1Y” it’s special because there is no travelling
Griffin: “He say, what’s on special Shaq?”
Special is a man-to-man adjustment to one-back formations.
Meanwhile, 1Y is a type of Cover 1 man pass coverage. The safety rotates towards the Y-Tight End in two-back sets. But once one-back comes in, so does the special adjustment.
I've only seen 1Y Special from pressure looks. However, Curtis talking about the outside cornerback not traveling is unique. For a start, this implies that the coverage is also going to be run without pressure.
Even more meaningful is that, with the outside cornerbacks not traveling to the other side of the formation - presumably playing left and right still - there are serious disguise opportunities. I spoke about the value of hiding coverage in this match-up zone article - not travelling in man coverage is another way of removing coverage tells and the advantage offenses get from various pre-snap ID methods.
Potentially the safeties and linebackers will pick up extra numbers to either side of the field, making the most of the versatile coverage group the Seahawks have.
Curtis: [To Flowers] “Hey, nice job. Hey, nice job. Hey Tre, hell of a job. Hey, good talk right there boy, good talk.”
Curtis implies that there must have been some talking on this play where Flowers communicated. Given what Curtis said afterwards to Pete Carroll, we can accurately predict that Flowers was executing a "Shove Alert." It's used in three-deep, four-under Cover 3 pass defenses. This is essentially getting the corner to look for work once their primary threat on the backside of trips disappears shallow and in. This pushes the three-deep coverage over to the existing threats.
Curtis: [To Carroll] “He’s dropping back on the special.”
Carroll: “Oh, good.”
Curtis: “They went drive special.”
Here we can see what Seattle calls a special route. It's essentially a deep bender from the No. 3 receiver to the opposite hash.
Drive is more of a passing concept in common language, but the Seahawks' lingo appears to call it more of a 'drag' route - if sticking to madden terms.
Flowers must have been on the single-side of a 3x1 formation. I imagine he got a shallow route from his #1 receiver and then communicated "shove alert" to the deep Free Safety. He then, in Curtis' words was "dropping back on the special," from the No. 3 receiver.
Curtis had some classic DB coaching points too which show the essence of what Seattle wants from their group in coverage.
Curtis: “Stay on top.”
Curtis: “Hey, get back in position, stay on the top, and get your eyes back and find the ball. Come on.” This came after Jayson Stanley got beat.
At the end of the Mic'd Up segment, Curtis revealed a lot of what we've just seen was inside-the-20 install: “We on red zone walkthrough out there,” he told his players.
The passing game coordinator is important to a team that adapts its coverage and technique more than you would think. There is a hidden complexity to the Seahawks in order to alleviate the stress and remove the obvious weaknesses of Cover 3/middle of field closed defense. Let's hope we keep getting to see his coaching methods and scheme as camp unfolds.
