2020 NFL Draft Guide: Coaching Systems - NFC South

Let’s continue our coverage of each team’s coaching scheme.

If you didn’t catch the divisions already covered, just click the links below:

AFC East (this page also includes a glossary of offensive and defensive schemes)

AFC North

AFC South

AFC West

NFC East

NFC North

Time to check out the next NFC division.

NFC South

Atlanta Falcons

Offensive Breakdown: Head coach Dan Quinn sat on the hot seat throughout last season and managed a stay of execution, thanks to a 6-2 second half. Unfortunately for him, he opens the year, once again, back on that very same hot seat. Owner Arthur Blank is will to work with him, but the leash can only be so long. Overall, the offense wasn’t the problem last season so Dirk Koetter will have another opportunity to get these Falcons flying high.

Koetter uses a base in the Air Coryell system where he uses the run to set up the pass. Hard to believe given the pass vs run numbers over the last few seasons, but you have to take into account that the Bucs had no one worthwhile in the backfield during his time as their head coach and between a shoddy defense and Jameis Winston ’s perpetual turnovers, he was forced to lean more heavily on the aerial attack. Last season, his first back in Atlanta since 2014, he lost his only legitimate running back, Devonta Freeman , to an injury.

He should make some adjustments to lean on the run more, but that will, obviously, hinge on the health of Todd Gurley ’s knee. If the knee holds and Gurley can be utilized like he was down the stretch for the Rams, then Koetter can lean a little heavier on his ground game. His zone-blocking scheme works very well for Gurley’s running style and tendencies. Once the run is established, look for Koetter to get Matt Ryan gunslinging it downfield to his wideouts and tight end. The scheme was quite effective last season and fantasy owners will, once again, reap the benefits.

Players Who Fit the System Best: Matt Ryan , Todd Gurley , Julio Jones , Calvin Ridley , Hayden Hurst

Defensive System: 4-3 with Cover-3 zone

Defensive Breakdown: Quinn finally realized he needed to focus on coaching his entire team and not focus so heavily on the defense. The Falcons will maintain the same scheme Quinn brought to the team, but Raheem Morris has been promoted to DC. It was actually a move they unofficially made midway through the season last year and found success as Morris put an end to the multi-front looks and maintained the 4-3 the whole time. They will continue down that path this season while also maintaining Quinn’s Cover-3 which was the framework of the old Legion of Boom in Seattle. The secondary personnel has changed and it could use some seasoning, so be wary of these DBs in IDP leagues.

Players Who Fit the System Best: Takkarist McKinley , Dante Fowler , Keanu Neal , Ricardo Allen

Carolina Panthers

Offensive Breakdown: Obviously, this is going to be a tough offense to nail down as both head coach Matt Rhule and OC Joe Brady have very minimal NFL experience but were lauded for everything they did down at the collegiate level. While Kliff Kingsbury seemed to make the successful jump last year, he is still under heavy scrutiny as very few coaches are able to make the leap. But the Panthers are in a complete rebuild, so they’re taking some chances that some new blood injected into the old boys club that is the NFL will make a marked difference.

From everything gathered, it sounds like the Panthers are going to go with a scheme that is similar to that of the Ravens and now the Chargers. The pistol formation affords the quarterback a little extra time without having to live in the shotgun formation every down. He can drop back into the pocket or, since we expect Brady to infuse a lot of RPO, he can roll out and make his decision to throw or hand it off then. Brady ran a lot of RPO with Joe Burrow last season at LSU, so he does have some experience working with quarterbacks to learn and thrive in the scheme.

The offense will continue to run through Christian McCaffrey though as both Brady and Rhule love screen passes to their running backs as much as they love handing off the ball to, as mentioned, set up the pass. Brady will utilize the speed of his wideouts, not just to handle the quick, timing routes to move the chains, but also to spread the defense downfield. D.J. Moore , Curtis Samuel and Robby Anderson should be able to thrive, so long as they’re seeing targets.

It's funny how the Ravens and Chargers are so limited at receiver. If Rhule and Brady are successful, we could see the full potential of this scheme in all areas on the field.

Players Who Fit the System Best: Christian McCaffrey , D.J. Moore , Curtis Samuel

Defensive System: multi-front with a Cover-3 base

Defensive Breakdown: The rebuild continues with Rhule bringing his Baylor DC, Phil Snow, along for the ride. Snow used a lot of multi-front looks at Baylor, however, his heavy use of 3-3-5 probably won’t fly because he just doesn’t have the talent at linebacker. In that formation, the linebackers are supposed to utilize their speed to rush the passer, but also to be stout run-stuffers up the middle as well. That enabled him to keep the pass coverage tight with five defensive backs. You can probably expect him to stay in the 3-4 or 4-3 formation at least until his young defensive linemen can prove their mettle against the ground attack.

Players Who Fit the System Best: Derrick Brown, Brian Burns, Jeremy Chinn

New Orleans Saints

Offensive Breakdown: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? With the arrival of Alvin Kamara , Sean Payton and Pete Carmichael decided to leave some of the pass-heavy tendencies behind and go to a true Air Coryell system with a heavy run scheme that sets up the big plays downfield which, in-turn, sets up more of the underneath routes.

The passing attack is all about timing in this offense and the relationship between Drew Brees and his receivers is going to need to be tight for them to be as effective as they’ve been in the past. You will see a lot of pre-snap motion whether they are lineup up in traditional formation or shotgun in order to give Brees a better look at what the defense is doing and he’ll have the autonomy to change things up depending on what he sees. The addition of Emmanuel Sanders gives them a legitimate target opposite Michael Thomas so look for the Saints to be one of the most potent offenses once again.

Players Who Fit the System Best: Drew Brees , Alvin Kamara , Latavius Murray , Michael Thomas

Defensive System: 4-3 base with Cover-3 zone

Defensive Breakdown: Dennis Allen continues to teach and develop his defense and has taken a once-atrocious unit and turned it into something a whole lot more respectable. He uses a 4-3 base, but has definitely been known to mix it up often depending on the opposition. He also likes to use a lot of Cover-3 packages, but he also started mixing in some Cover-2 looks and, on a rare occasion – which we may see more this year

Players Who Fit the System Best: Cameron Jordan , Marshon Lattimore , Malcolm Jenkins

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Offensive Breakdown: Well now this should be fun, amirite? You’ve got Bruce Arians’ system, his “no risk it, no biscuit” mentality and a 43-year old Tom Brady playing in his first season away from the Bill Belichick nest. What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, probably not much. Arians’ system is an Air Coryell base with a healthy dose of spread formations mixed in. The goal is to get the ball into the hands of the play-makers and get them running in space. Given the change in arm strength under center, Arians will likely shorten up routes and let Brady get the ball out quickly to his receivers, something he excelled with in New England. The shorter routes may even help Arians incorporate the tight ends, something he doesn’t normally do, but now has Gronk along for the ride. He also likes for his running backs to catch passes, so look for both Ronald Jones and rookie Ke'Shawn Vaughn to get involved. While it would be silly to ignore history, but this is still Arians’ offense, so this talk of Brady not liking rookie running backs may be silenced, especially if Vaughn can excel with the pass-blocking.

As for the actual ground game, this team should attempt to do some power-running. Yes, they will use a zone-blocking scheme which requires the runner to be more patient and look for his holes and running lanes, but Arians wants to be able to utilize the run more and give Brady a better opportunity for play-action.

Players Who Fit the System Best: Ronald Jones , Ke'Shawn Vaughn, Chris Godwin , Rob Gronkowski

Defensive System: 3-4 base with both man and zone coverage

Defensive Breakdown: While the base is 3-4, you can expect some multi-front looks as Todd Bowles likes to bring pressure from all angles. He’s got Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea to help clog the middle and stuff the run which should allow the edge rushers a little more freedom to pass-rush. Bowles loves to blitz and will continue to add more pressure to the quarterback so long as his secondary is strong in coverage.

Bowles actually likes to mix up the man and the zone coverage at all times. He’ll have the outside corners in man-coverage while the middle linebackers and safeties work in a zone throughout a series and continue to change things up to keep the offense guessing as to where the coverage is softest. The addition of Antoine Winfield, Jr. should be a major asset to the Bucs secondary and combined with the coverage abilities of second-year starter Sean Murphy-Bunting, that right side of the field could be in lockdown all season.

Players Who Fit the System Best: Ndamukong Suh , Vita Vea , Shaquil Barrett , Antione Winfield, Jr., Sean Murphy-Bunting