Matt LaFleur defended the Green Bay Packers defensive approach in his Monday press conference, after the team gave up 205 rushing yards in a 23-19 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. When asked about the personnel choices with a lighter front, the Packers head coach discussed the semantics of what a defensive lineman is.
"That is baffling to me, when people talk nickel defense and they talk about two down linemen," LaFleur said. "Because I don't know what that means. Outside linebackers, just so you know how us in this profession view outside linebackers, when you go to nickel defense, they're defensive ends. And we have some of the bigger outside linebackers in this league. So I think it's comical when I hear people talk about 'oh, they have two down linemen'. To me, people are exposing themselves when they say that. There are four defensive linemen on the field."
While that's true, this is not exactly the point of the discussion. Nowadays, everyone is used to the new terminologies. Nickel defense is the real base defense for a long time, so the differences between 4-3 and 3-4 defenses are not as important as they were. That's why analysts have standardized calling the positions as interior defensive linemen, edge defenders, and off-ball linebackers. In practicality, there's no significant difference between a 4-3 defensive end and a 3-4 outside linebacker, but that's not the point of the question regarding the Packers run defense.
The big question
In base defense, the Packers have three interior defensive linemen and two edge defenders. When they go to nickel, there are multiple options to take someone off the field to add a fifth defensive back. They can take an interior defensive lineman, which has been the case in some circumstances, or an off-ball linebacker.
If the team wants to prioritize stopping the run, they can even keep a base defense on the field against 11 personnel, moving one of the two safeties to the nickel or replacing him with a nickel corner.
So it's not a question of semantics or nomenclatures. It's a fair question about personnel choices.
Pack A Day Podcast analyst Andy Herman has a good example here.
It's 2nd & 7. The Packers are, in fact, with only two down linemen on this play — TJ Slaton and Devonte Wyatt. The edge defenders, Preston Smith and Rashan Gary, are playing wide 9. De'Vondre Campbell is the off-ball linebacker playing in the box, while fellow off-ball linebacker Isaiah McDuffie is wider than Gary showing blitz. So the Packers have three players defending the inside run, with safety Rudy Ford ready to close the box if needed.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had their five offensive linemen and Darnell Washington, who's a blocking tight end, so the mismatch is evident. Najee Harris breaks the first level of the defense and is tackled by slot cornerback Keisean Nixon.
When asked if he was satisfied with the personnel groupings they were choosing, LaFleur said they need to execute better to avoid being taken out of a gap or missing tackles.
"There's a saying 'one back equals one gap'. Everybody is gapped out, and you need the people to show up in those gaps in order to stop the run," LaFleur argued. "When somebody loses their gap or gets cut out of a gap, that's when you get gashed, because they're not where they're supposed to be. Or somebody misses a tackle, that's where you get gashed."
This year, the Packers are 25th in rush EPA — they are 32nd since 2019, when LaFleur took over as the head coach. Another problem: the pass defense hasn't been great either. They are 18th in dropback EPA.
Even though LaFleur's answer was slightly out of the main topic, it's a good indication of how the Packers coaching staff perceives defensive alignments. They are fine going with lighter boxes because they truly see their edges as run stoppers. And fewer people near the line of scrimmage means more people on the back end, which theoretically allows the Packers to avoid big pass plays — that's the basic philosophy of this style of defense.
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