2019 NFL Draft Guide: Coaching Systems -- NFC East

Does your brain hurt yet? It might. That’s a lot of coaching information you’ve absorbed already and we still have an entire conference to get through. If you missed any of the AFC divisions, just click the links below:

AFC East (includes glossary of coaching terminology)

AFC North

AFC South

AFC West

It’s time to head out to the NFC and we’ll start things off in the East.

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys

Offensive Breakdown: After another season of offensive predictability, Jason Garrett knew he needed to change things up and get more current with his scheme. He fired Scott Linehan, had offensive line coach Marc Colombo go back to a zone-blocking scheme and promoted Kellen Moore from QB Coach to offensive coordinator. Due to Moore’s inexperience, Garrett will go back to calling the plays, but together they are hoping to modernize their version of the Air Coryell system.

The system starts with the power-run which surprises no one, but the return to a zone-blocking scheme (with this o-line finally healthy) should help open up better running lanes with more trap and counter runs for Zeke. While that is expected to open up more play-action downfield, Moore will also help add some spread formations and RPO into the offense to keep defenses guessing more. Last year, defenses had little trouble discerning run plays from pass plays and were able to stack the box when necessary. With different looks, a full year of Amari Cooper and some receiving changes, this offense should be more explosive this season.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Dak Prescott , Ezekiel Elliott , Amari Cooper , Jason Witten

Defensive Scheme: 4-3 with a Cover-2

Defensive Breakdown: Rod Marinelli likes to stuff the run and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback, so he’s all about depth on the line and will rotate in guys regularly to keep everyone fresh and well-rested. Now in his sixth season with the Cowboys, you can expect everything to stay relatively the same. The difference between this year and say, the previous two, though, is the defense will not live or die by the health of Sean Lee . The Cowboys have focused on defense in the draft in recent seasons and Marinelli is cultivating this talent to a point where the overall product in Dallas is much more well-balanced

Players Who Best Fit the System: Demarcus Lawrence , Leighton Vander Esch e, Jaylon Smith , Chidobe Awuzie

New York Giants

Offensive Breakdown: Head coach Pat Shurmur and OC Mike Shula know exactly what they have in Saquon Barkley and are going to continue building this offense around him. They are going to continue using the up-tempo, no-huddle pace they started using more and more during the season last year and the West Coast offense elements of short, quick passes to wideouts and tight ends, along with designed screens to Barkley, are going to be prevalent.

This is, more or less, exactly what we saw from the Giants midway through the season, but the one element they no longer have, or just really need to establish, is the deep threat. The Giants will dink-and-dunk downfield at a fast pace, but if they don’t learn to stretch the field, defenses are going to have an easier time shortening up the field on them. Unfortunately for them, they don’t really have a stand-out deep threat, so look for them to seek out someone in camp.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Saquon Barkley , Sterling Shepard , Golden Tate , Evan Engram

Defensive Scheme: 3-4 with Cover-1 and Press-Man

Defensive Breakdown: Last year, DC James Bettcher flipped between a 3-4 and 4-3 scheme as he tried to play to his team’s strengths on defense. That didn’t exactly work, but rather than change the scheme, they changed the personnel and have a group now that better fits the scheme. Rookie Dexter Lawrence was a big add for them. Bettcher likes to be aggressive and loves to rush the passer, so expect to see some heavy blitz packages from a variety of directions.

In the secondary, he likes to have his safeties play in a zone, but leave his corners in man-coverage. Given the aggressiveness of the front seven, it leaves the defense exposed to bigger plays, so the hope is the press-man coverage slows down the wideouts while the safeties patrol the middle of the field. Deandre Baker was a good add for this system, so continue to view the defense as a work-in-progress but certainly heading in the right direction.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Dexter Lawrence, Alec Ogletree , Deandre Baker, Julian Love

Philadelphia Eagles

Offensive Breakdown: While the overall scheme is not going to change, you’re going to notice a lot of differences from last season and a lot more similarities to the 2017 version that won the Super Bowl. Pederson’s West Coast offense works primarily out of shotgun and uses a lot of RPO plays to freeze the defense in the middle of the field. He loves the pre-snap motion with a heavy rotation of running backs and lets the quick-short passes set up the big plays downfield. That was great in 2017, but not so much last year as Carson Wentz struggled in his recovery from a torn ACL which hindered the use of RPOs. He also didn’t have the deep threat to stretch the defense downfield. That changes this year with a supposedly healthy Wentz and the return of DeSean Jackson . Fantasy owners will want to stay away from the running backs, but with such a pass-heavy scheme, it looks like the vast number of mouths to feed this year won’t go hungry.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Carson Wentz , Zach Ertz , Alshon Jeffery , DeSean Jackson , Nelson Agholor

Defensive Scheme: 4-3 with Cover-2 and man coverage

Defensive Breakdown: Jim Schwartz found success when he changed the Eagles defense to a 4-3 base with multi-front tendencies and rotated in his incredible line depth to continuously attack the opposing quarterback. He also dropped an extra linebacker into coverage so not to over-pursue in the pass-rush and stopped using the Cover-2 zone in the secondary as often as he did. The tilt towards more man-coverage helped prevent the big plays that had continuously plagued them in previous seasons. Schwartz also likes to focus on the turnovers and has his team trying to strip the ball at each and every turn. They’ve been plenty aggressive since changing the scheme and it’s proven to be highly successful.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Fletcher Cox , Zach Brown , Ronald Darby

Washington Redskins

Offensive Breakdown: Obviously missing the creativity of Sean McVay, Jay Gruden finally pulled the plug on former OC Matt Cavanaugh and moved him into more of an assistant role with the offense as his old-school, plodding methods just weren’t cutting it in today’s NFL. Gruden promoted QB Coach Kevin O’Connell who also served as a passing game coordinator last season, but this is Gruden’s offense and he will call the plays. Hard to say how that will inspire creativity, but perhaps Gruden will keep an open mind as the team looks to transition this offense towards its youth in Dwayne Haskins and Derrius Guice .

Gruden’s West Coast offense relies on a power-run and quick, short passes over the middle which will hopefully set up bigger outside runs and longer passes downfield on the outside. He loves using pre-snap motion with his tight ends (lots of 2-TE formations) which usually allows him to handle the defensive coverage better while adding another pass-catcher to come off the line where necessary. It’s a complex scheme with a lot of extra routes that requires the quarterback to make a lot of reads, so to start the season with Case Keenum and allow Haskins more time to learn the system on the job is likely the plan and probably what is best for everyone.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Dwayne Haskins, Derrius Guice , Jordan Reed

Defensive Scheme: 3-4 with Cover-3

Defensive Breakdown: The base is that of a 3-4 defense but you can expect some multi-front looks from time to time as DC Greg Manusky will have to get creative in order to disguise where exactly the pressure is coming from. He likes to keep his defensive unit aggressive and has, in the past, sold-out the run at times to attack and pressure the quarterback. That might not be such a bad move this year as the personnel over the last few seasons has gotten a lot stronger and linemen such as Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne can find ways to apply pressure while also keeping an eye on the running back. The speed on the outside with Montez Sweat and Ryan Kerrigan should also help in both aspects.

The coverage scheme will likely stay exactly as it’s been with the corners patrolling their side of the field and the safeties coming over the top to help out. They’ve had safety issues in the past which has allowed bigger plays downfield in the past, but the addition of Landon Collins should help significantly this season.

Players Who Best Fit the System: Jonathan Allen , Daron Payne, Landon Collins , Josh Norman