It’s Scheme Month at Touchdown Wire, and who better to talk about with such things than the great Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup? On this week’s edition of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg and Doug (the editor of Touchdown Wire) get into two of the most dominant schematic systems in the NFL today — split-safety coverage, and the run-pass option. Let’s get into split-safety coverage to start.
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Over the last few years, we’ve seen a decisive change of the single-high coverages of the Legion of Boom days. Per Ben Fennell of CBS Sports and The NFL Network, 2022 marked the first season in the Next Gen Stats era in which there was more two-high than single-high coverage.
First time in the @NextGenStats era – 2022 season had more Split Safety shells than Single high. On the rise steadily each of the last 5 years
2018 Split Safety: 36.9%
2022 Split Safety: 49.5%— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) May 31, 2023
There are absolutely reasons for this. Per Sports Info Solutions, quarterbacks are faring far worse against two-high coverage.
NFL quarterbacks against two-high coverage in 2022 (Cover-2, 2-Man, Cover-4, Cover-6):
4,443 completions on 6,838 attempts (65.0%) for 49,446 yards (7.23 YPA), 179 TD (2.62%), 198 INT (2.90%), and a passer rating of 83.02. pic.twitter.com/Vi8njIfKTZ
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) May 31, 2023
Why is this happening? Let’s get into the weeds on it with Mr. Cosell.