American Football

Three Cheers for NFL Defenses, Cards Coveting Lou Anarumo

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NFL: Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals
Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

Background: Jan 8, 2023; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo during the fourth quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Maioran

As they say, “great defenses win championships.”

Heading into the 2022 season, a great deal of the buzz around the NFL was centered around how superb and high scoring the offenses were going to be, especially in the AFC.

Of the 4 conference championship teams, here are their NFL rankings in 3 key offensive metrics:

Yards Per Game:

  • 1 —- KC —- 413.6
  • 2 —- PHI —- 389.1
  • 5 —- SF —- 365.6
  • 8 —- CIN —- 360.5

Points Per Game:

  • 1 —- KC —- 29.2
  • 3 —- PHI —- 28.4
  • 6 —- SF —- 26.5
  • 7 —- CIN —- 26.1

Quarterback Rating:

  • 1 —- KC —-104.7 —- Patrick Mahones
  • 2 —- SF —- 102.3 —- Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brock Purdy
  • 3 —- CIN —- 101.0 —- Joe Burrow
  • 6 —- PHI —- 99.0 —- Jalen Hurts

By comparison for Cardinals’ fans, these are the team’s 2022-2023 offensive rankings:

  • YPG —-22nd —- 323.5
  • PPG —-21st —- 20.0
  • QBR —-28th —- 79.2

Here are the defensive rankings in the key categories:

Yards Per Game:

  • 1 —- SF —- 300.6
  • 2 —- PHI —- 301.5
  • 11 —- KC —- 328.2
  • 16 —- CIN —- 335.7

Points Per Game:

  • 1 —- SF —- 16.3
  • 6 —- CIN —- 20.1
  • 7 —- PHI —- 20.2
  • 16 —- KC —- 21.7

Quarterback Rating:

  • 1 —- CIN —- 80.1
  • 3 —- PHI —- 81.6
  • 5 —- SF —- 82.7
  • 27 —- KC —- 95.3

Bt=y comparison for Cardinals’ fans, these are the team’s 2022-2023 defensive rankings:

  • YPG —-21st—- 348.9
  • PPG —-31st —- 26.4
  • QBR —-31st —- 98.2

Momentum on the road to the Conference Championships over the last 10 games:

  • #1 seed NFC —- PHI —-8-2
  • #2 seed NFC —- SF —- 10-0
  • #1 seed AFC —- KC —- 9-1
  • #3 seed AFC —- CIN —- 10-0

Notes on the 4 Defensive Coordinators:

  • PHI —- Jonathan Gannon —- 15 years NFL experience, 2 years as DC —- 4-3 base defense —-2022 Pro Bowl players: OLB Haason Reddick, CB Darius Slay.
  • SF —- DeMeco Ryans —- 6 years, NFL experience, 2 years as DC —- 4-3 base defense—- 2022 Pro Bowl players: DE Nick Bosa, LB Fred Warner, S Talanoa Hufanga.
  • KC —- Steve Spagnuolo —-23 years NFL experience, 10 years as DC, 4 years as HC —- 2 time Super Bowl DC (NYG, KC) —- 4-3 base defense —- 2022 Pro Bowl players: DT Chris Jones. Salary: $4M.
  • CiN —- Lou Anarumo —-11 years NFL experience, 4 as DC —-4-2-5 base defense—- 2022 Pro Bowl players: DE Trey Hendrickson. Salary: $1.5M.

Jonathan Gannon has star quality players on all three levels of his defense, ranked #1 in NFL by PFF at 86.5: Notable grades:

  • Edge Trio: Brandon Graham (90.1) and Haason Reddick (86.2), Josh Sweat (84.6)
  • LB T.J. Edwards( 81.1)
  • DT Javon Hargrove (79.9)
  • CB Tandem: James Bradbury (73.9), Darius Slay (73.9)

2023 Playoffs; 38-7 W (NYG); 31-7 W (SF): YPG ave: 195, PPG ave: 7.0

Note: Gannon was adamant after yesterday’s game that “the Eagles are keeping me.” Translation: he is getting a Dan Quinn type financial incentive to stay on as DC.

DeMeco Ryans also has star quality players on all three levels of his defense, ranked #3 in the NFL by PFF at 84.8. Notable grades:

  • Edge Tandem: Nick Bosa (90.6), Charles Omenihu (69.7)
  • LB Trio: Fred Warner (85.8), Dre Greenlaw (79.6), Azeez Al-Shaair.(74.5)
  • CB CVharvarius Ward (81.0)
  • S Tandem: Jimmy Ward (80.6) and Talanoa Hufanga (72.1)

Note: Ryans appears to be the clear frontrunner and favorite for the Texans’ HC job. His quick to the ball, attack style of defense was outstanding during the team’s 10 game winning streak down the stretch. Yesterday, his defense only gave up 269 yards of total offense, but it had an unusually rough day defending the red zone.

Steve Spagnuolo’s 2022 defense was one of the youngest in the NFL as rookies Trent CB McDuffie (R1), DE George Karlaftis (R1), S Bryan Cook (R2), LB Leo Chenal (R3) , CB Joshua Williams (R4) and CB Jaylen Watson (R7) played prominent roles as starters or key contributors to the team’s success —- especially yesterday in helping the Chiefs hold Joe Burrow and Bengals’ hinge scoring offense to 20 points despitehaving lost their 2nd highest graded player L’Jarius Senad (78.2) to injury early in the game. Spags’ top player and only pro Bowler, DT Chris Jones (92.1) delivered big time sacks on Joe Burrow, in the most clutch situations.

Note: For a few years now I have been arguing that the salaries for the top QBs in the NFL will start to decrease because of how those salaries impede a team’s chances for winning a Super Bowl.

With Patrick Mahomes counting for $46.8M of the Chiefs’ 2022 salary cap, the Chiefs pulled off what teams with expensive QB cap hits will have to do —- draft super well and play a bunch of rookies and younger players. If Steve Spagnuolo and his young-uns can come up with another coaching gem versus the Eagles, this could be the first time in Super Bowl history that the winning QB will have counted more than $26.5M versus the team’s cap.

Conversely, the Eagles appear to be taking full advantage of QB Jalen Hurts’ rookie contract. Hurts, one of the leading candidates for 2020 NFL Offensive MVP, has a 2022 cap hit of $1.6M.

Lou Anarumo has done a phenomenal job as the Bengals’ DC. He is making a very strong case for teams to switch over to a 4-2-5 base defense because of how diversified NFL offenses have become and how versatile defenses need to be. Anarumo has a knack for making key half-time adjustments that have led to a number of second half TD shutouts of the opposing offenses. He’s accomplished this with what is basically a band of ballers, none of whom are household names. For example, the job he has done with CB/S Mike Hilton has been absolutely outstanding.

Note:

Many of us have been clamoring for a 4-2-5 defense —- imagine what it could look like with Lou Anarumo choreographing the show.

As they say, “great defenses win championships.”

Three cheers for the the defensive coaches, like Jonathan Gannon, DeMeco Ryans, Steve Spagnuolo and Lou Anarumo who have been prepping and cooking up winning recipes like five star chefs this season.

I think it’s a great tome for the Cardinals to try to build their defense into a juggernaut. What the Cardinals need now is the best possible architect.

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