2019 NFL Draft Guide: Coaching Systems -- AFC North

Welcome to your next installment of our Coaching Systems piece here in the 2019 Fantasy Alarm Living Draft Guide. If you missed the first installment, be sure to go back and give it a look as we define the different offensive and defensive systems and cover the four teams of the AFC East.

Once we’ve rolled out each division, I will compile them into an all-in-one, easy-reference piece.

Continuing on….

AFC North

Baltimore Ravens

Offensive Breakdown: If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Greg Roman’s style over the years, it is all about a strong establishment of the ground game. He did it in San Francisco with Colin Kaepernick , he did it in Buffalo with TyRod Taylor and he’s going to do it again here in Baltimore with Lamar Jackson . Just look at what happened with the Ravens last season when they made the switch from Joe Flacco to Jackson and become one of the most run-dominant teams in the league. By using the Pistol, both Jackson and his running backs will be closer to the line of scrimmage, giving him a better look at the defense and allowing him to make quicker decisions.

While you can expect the run to be dominant, using RPOs in the play-calling should give the offense enough flexibility to keep defenses off-balance. John Harbaugh brought in David Culley, an Andy Reid disciple, to help with the passing game and he should help Jackson make the necessary in-game adjustments from the short-quick passing to bigger chunk-plays downfield when the opponents drop their safeties or the linebackers get aggressive and bite on play-action.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Lamar Jackson , Mark Ingram , Mark Andrews

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

Defensive Breakdown: Martindale’s defense is predicated on pass rush and pressuring the quarterback. He likes to get aggressive with his blitzes but may be forced to back off a little bit given the changes in personnel. His defensive line is built on run-stoppers and he lost his primary pass-rushers in Terrell Suggs and C.J. Mosley , so he is going to be very reliant on unproven talents like Shane Ray and Pernell McPhee . Given the level of uncertainty for right now, you can probably expect him to get creative with some blitzes from the secondary.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Patrick Onwuasor , Shane Ray , Pernell McPhee

Cincinnati Bengals

Offensive Breakdown: While you won’t see a direct copy, you can simply look at the Rams offense under Sean McVay and expect to see some sort of incantation as the Bengals base offense. Taylor has spent the last two seasons working under McVay and new OC Brian Callahan comes from that same coaching tree that dates back to Paul Brown. Last season, Callahan worked under Jon Gruden who comes from that school as well. Taylor will be the play-caller.

The offense will focus on the short-passing game with some possible spread offense infusion but they would very much like to establish an effective run game which utilizes a zone-blocking scheme with pulling guards and tackles having more room to block downfield. Unfortunately, they have some big obstacles to overcome with first-round OL Jonah Williams out for the year and Clint Boling opting for early retirement. They’re going to have to shuffle things up with personnel and really build this line back up from scratch. The scheme itself caters to the weapons at Andy Dalton ’s disposal, but if the line fails, so does this offense.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Andy Dalton , Joe Mixon , Tyler Boyd

Defensive System: 4-3 with man-coverage

Defensive Breakdown: First-year DC Lou Anarumo spent the last six years as the defensive backs coach for the Dolphins and Giants and will maintain a versatile 4-3 alignment with an infusion of aggressive, double-A gap blitzing. He’s got plenty of weapons at his disposal and with so much talent both up front and in the secondary so while the base defense may be pretty simple, he’s going to be able to get very creative with personnel at times.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Carlos Dunlap , Geno Atkins , Dre Kirkpatrick , Darqueze Dennard

Cleveland Browns

Offensive Breakdown: While HC Freddie Kitchens is expected to remain the play-caller, this offensive system is expected to blend his Air Coryell system with OC Todd Monken’s Air Raid Offense which he had on full-display when he took over the play-calling for Dirk Koetter in Tampa last year. The power-run game will be firmly established and as far as the passing, both schemes are based on an emphasis of spreading horizontally to go vertical and rely on timing between the quarterback and his weapons. You’ll see both the vertical chunk plays downfield that Kitchens loves along with the short, quick underneath routes the Air Raid offense favors. Baker Mayfield thrived under Kitchens’ scheme last year as well as under the Air Raid scheme back in Oklahoma, so he’s not learning a new system as much as just meshing the two in which he’s performed best.  

Players Who Best Fit the System: Baker Mayfield , Nick Chubb , Jarvis Landry , Odell Beckham

Defensive System: 4-3 base with multiple coverage packages

Defensive Breakdown: After being dismissed by the Cardinals after one year as the head coach, Steve Wilks returns to his defensive roots and will take over as the new DC for the Browns. He’s always been a fundamentals guy with a strong lean towards developing safeties and corners, so you should see some additional growth for guys like Denzel Ward , Terrance Mitchell and rookie corner Greedy Williams. He likes to be aggressive with his blitzes from the secondary, but may back off a bit with strong pass-rushers like Olivier Vernon and Myles Garrett locked in.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Denzel Ward , Morgan Burnett e, Myles Garrett , Olivier Vernon

Pittsburgh Steelers

Offensive Breakdown: The base-offense for the Steelers is much more difficult to pin down as OC Randy Fichtner’s scheme is more about the personnel groups and formations. His favorite, likely the base formation, is 11-Personnel which puts one running, one tight end and three receivers on the field. Other groups they used last year included 22 (two backs, two tight ends), 12 (one back, two tight ends), 13 (one back, three tight ends) and 21 (two backs, one tight end), but weren’t used nearly as much as the 11.

With the 11-Personnel, the Steelers can spread the field with three wide receivers while maintaining six blockers up front in the run game. By stretching defenses from sideline to sideline and still maintaining a six-man blocking surface, 11 puts maximum pressure on defenses to police the entire field. It also allows a team put its run strength to one side of the field (TE) and its passing strength to the other (slot) which prevents defenses from loading up against one or the other.

Fichtner is also looking to increase the use of the power run which may mean we see more 22-Personnel formations this year. It was their second-most used formation last season and with Roosevelt Nix leading the charge in front of James Conner , we should see a repeat of the success the Steelers saw with their red zone power-running.

Again, we should see the 11-Personnel formation most often, but the scheme is definitely going to be adjusted on a weekly basis, depending on their opponents.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Ben Roethlisberger , James Conner , JuJu Smith-Schuster , Vance McDonald

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

Defensive Breakdown: Keith Butler has the title of defensive coordinator, but will also serve as the linebackers coach, the position he held with the Steelers for 11 seasons prior to his promotion in 2015. The team also brought in former Lions and Bengals DC Teryl Austin to serve as a senior defensive assistant and defensive backs coach, so you may see some joint-coordinating here. Butler likes to mix up the defensive line set-ups and can be extremely aggressive with the blitz packages. Austin likes to leave the blitzing to the front seven so you can expect the two to get along on how the personnel is assigned.

Players Who Best Fit the System: T.J. Watt , Devin Bush, Cameron Heyward , Steven Nelson