Strategy guides for every 2020 NFL playoff team

Become an instant expert on every team in the 2020 NFL playoff field.

It’s been a long NFL season, but the postseason is finally here. Now, you probably didn’t get to study the entire playoff field in-depth during the regular season. No worries. We’ve put together guides that will help you become an instant expert on all 12 teams making up the field.

These guides will tell you how each team uses its personnel on both sides of the ball, what its strategic tendencies are and how efficient the team is based on several advanced metrics.

NFC: 49ers Packers Saints Eagles Seahawks Vikings

AFC: Ravens Chiefs Patriots Texans Bills | Titans

Before jumping to a team’s strategic profile, here’s what you need to know to better understand these numbers…

All of these stats are courtesy of Sports Info Solutions unless noted otherwise.

Offensive personnel

The offensive personnel numbers are based on how many running backs and tight ends are on the field. The first number represents the number of backs; the second number represents the number of tight ends. So “12 personnel” refers to a grouping featuring one running back and two tight ends. That leaves two spots for wide receivers.

Here’s a handy guide to offensive personnel groupings.

Passing breakdown

Passing plays are broken down into two categories: Dropback and play-action. Dropback passes are those that don’t involve a fake handoff. “Quick drops” refers to plays where the quarterback is taking a dropback of three or fewer steps, which typically usually lead to shorter throws for the quarterback. Deep drops are those of five steps or more, which usually lead to longer throws.

Running breakdown

Running plays are broken down into two categories: Shotgun (which includes pistol formations) and under center. From there, we’ve broken down how often a team runs zone-blocking schemes and man-blocking schemes, which typically include a pulling blocker.

Defensive Personnel

Defensive personnel is based on how many defensive backs are on the field at once. “Base” features four defensive backs. “Nickel” features five defensive backs. And “Dime+” features six or more.

Strategic Tendencies

These are mostly coverage stats for the defense. Man and zone coverage rates (which don’t include all-out blitzes) are self-explanatory. “1-high coverages” are those where there is only one safety back deep. “2-high coverages” are those with, you guessed it, two safeties deep. And “Cover 0” refers to all-out blitzes without a safety playing deep. The “blitz rate” number comes from Pro Football Reference.

NOTE: All of the categories above are based on the second half of the 2019 regular season only.

Efficiency rankings

EPA/Play

This is based on the Expected Points model. It’s the difference between the expected points for an offense (based on play-by-play data) before and after a given play. Rankings for the 2019 season were calculated by The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin.

Success rate

This is the percentage of plays that resulted in a positive EPA. Rankings were for the 2019 season calculated The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin.

DVOA

Football Outsiders’ efficiency metric, which is based on situational efficiency compared to the league average. The metric is adjusted based on strength of schedule.

Pass Block Win Rate

ESPN’s proprietary metric that uses player tracking data to measure how often a pass rusher beat his blocker within 2.5 seconds.

Pass Rush Win Rate

ESPN’s proprietary metric that uses player tracking data to measure how often a pass blocker prevents pressure within 2.5 seconds.

Adjusted Line Yards

This Football Outsiders metric aims to quantify the offensive line’s contribution to the run game by dividing credit for yards gained on a given run play. In short, the line is penalized for tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage and not given credit for the yards a running back gains after breaking through the defensive front.

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