How good can Brian Flores' defense REALLY be?!!?! Defensive expert explains

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2:06Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by FanDuel Matthew Collar here. We welcome back to the show Cody Alexander of Match Quarter is the absolute must go to to understand how defensive football works in the United States of America. Cody, what is going on, man? You know why you're here. What's up? How I'm doing, great man. I'm glad they'd be here and be talking about Brian Flores for sure. All right. We need a lot of different explanations. We need to understand what Blitz rates really tell us. We need to understand how they're covering behind how sustainable this type of model is. What they did against Jordan, love and Caleb Williams. But I want to begin with an ever so slight Dallas Turner controversy. It's mild. It's not a real controversy. But there is a debate that Dallas Turner's first two weeks, which have been totally dominant and resulted in him leading the national football league in quarterback pressures, have been a little bit of a Brian Flores invention.

3:08So maybe you could tell me as the expert on Brian Flores's defense and watcher of these games, how much of Dallas Turner's success has been laid out for him by the schematics. Well, look, the best example of this is Nick Benito. So it's essentially this exact same philosophy is that we are going to manufacture one on one. And I think we saw it last night in the Monday night football game with the Rams, where it's Aaron Donald, is that he got a tunnel one on one. And whether that was the Giants felt like he's washed, which I think is insane. I think or we feel like our guard can handle him. But if you go back and you really look into the tape, what they're doing is a lot of five-man front. So when you do a five-man front that creates man blocking, now, edges, you can bring in a tight end and chip. You can bring a running back and chip. But what I think is found is the speedy guys, especially like a Dallas Turner, are going

4:09to go back to Nick Benito. It's really hard to chip those guys because they'll just get out wide. They can just go wider. Whereas a lot of these bigger defense events, they have to bring the proximity closer to the box. And so they have to come in. It allows guys to really chip them or like a Bosa who gets chip to ton of miles, Garrett, who gets chip to ton. Where are they going on top of those tight ends? They're really kind of a five technique, they're really lining up. So to me, that's where I think you need to understand that, yes, these are manufactured, but that's part of the defense. And he has the ability to then go and actually get these pressures. Sometimes I think that, you know, too much analysis, too much debate can ruin something that's actually really cool. And I was thinking about all the three, four outside linebackers of my lifetime growing up watching football that nobody ever complained about. He's not beating enough offensive tackles one on one. No one said Kevin Green, cut your hair, bro, you're not getting enough one on ones.

5:11Greg Lloyd, Lamar, Lathen, Derek Thomas. I mean, Derek Thomas had a lot of those types of rushes where he was not. A true defensive end, he was an outside linebacker and he got a lot of sacks that way. The thing that stands out to me though, because I'm mentioning all these old school guys, even like a Joey Porter would be another one. They're playing in a defense that was a true three, four, three down, line and four linebackers. And then that basically disappeared because everybody had to play nickel against three wide receiver personnel. But Brian Flores, regardless of what the other team is putting on the field, is still running three, four, a lot. Like this is a total throwback. How is this working that he can do something that was considered kind of base personnel that you couldn't really do anymore? Well, because you stepped around cover three or man coverage with that. And I think that and I say used to be they could have ran quarters, but it was not part of the ecosystem that wasn't something that anybody wanted to do. I think as NFL has gone into the, you know, as we go into the future here, what we've

6:16really learned within the past five years is that if you run a two high shell, even if you do spend to some sort of a cover three, but if you build quarters tools even into your cover three, what you're seeing is really a limitation on these offenses. You're just not getting the explosive isolations outside. You're not, you're able to cut off a lot of these crossing routes that have really become the meta in the NFL in terms of play action. So all of these, you know, shanahann McVeigh style where it's really easy for the quarterback, everything's in front of them. Well, that used to be the case. Now everybody's moving to a two high shell and the Vikings tend to leave the NFL especially. So this is, I call it the porous paradox is that you are going to blitz more than anybody else in the NFL, but you're also going to play zone more than anybody in the NFL. And not only zone, you're going to leave the NFL and cover two rates, quarters rates and cover six rates, lump them all together, you're running split field coverage on almost

7:18every down. And so that to me is really how they're able to do this and why it's different than the bare 46 defense or some of these three or deepances that really feasted on opponents because of these outside linebackers. Well, I also think to Cody that we are in year 23456 year four of Ryan Flores here in Minnesota and they have crafted the personnel to Brian Flores like having the speed outside linebacker is a big deal in the three or four defense, all the great ones that I mentioned they all have that guy, but they used to maybe have these Levant Kirkland like huge middle linebackers that would just stuff the run they would slam into full backs faces. We still get a little bit of that, but the Vikings having Eric Wilson, Blake Cashman, Andrew Van Ginkle, all these guys are excellent in coverage and have great mobility to them and great vision to them to understand coverages and zones and things like that.

8:19I think that that's been what has really made this all work because if you don't have linebackers who can cover and who can handle a lot of space and I think Cashman is absolutely huge for this, then you can't do a lot of the stuff that you're doing because I see so many times where Cashman is up at the line of scrimmage, he's mugged up over the A gap there and then he's back somewhere covering a crossing route underneath and the quarterbacks looking for that as they're under pressure and it's not there. It really ties together beautifully in a way that I think could only happen if a defensive coordinator was there for multiple years and had the roster that he needed to do this. Yeah, and that's the connecting piece. I mean, I think that we're kind of in a situation where linebackers basically became the running backs of defense where running backs don't matter and then everybody's finding out like, oh, running backs actually matter, we probably just start paying them and if you have one, you pay them and you just don't think about it. Whereas I think with linebackers, what we're finding out is as you're playing more zone defense,

9:23that connecting piece and that link in the chain right there, which happens to be those linebackers, I think defenses that you're having halves and have knots. I think the Buccaneers are a great example of basically their linebackers fell off of a cliff. Their defense starts falling off of a cliff. Sure, they can stop the run a little bit consistently, but the passing is terrible because the secondary is always put in a bind because they're trying to cap everything out. Yet there's nothing in between and I think we didn't have that much pressure and you know that there's going to be a lot of space underneath. You have to have a linebacker that understands where the balls probably going to go and then what's the best way to get from A to B and how can I get there efficiently? And I think that's really like you said, that's what they have and then I think that Ginkgo is really a unicorn in a sense that he's really positionless. I know we throw that term around especially with kind of where modern defenses are, but he's really not an edge and he's really not an inside linebacker. He's kind of that old school head linebacker that lines up to the tied end and he plays that Y9,

10:31but then he can get into coverage, he can grab a running back, he understands how screens are being played because of the pressure. He's another great example of being just perfect for this system. He does so many things for this team. So it's like the modern version of a lot of these old school defenses. We're just seeing modern iterations of them in the forest defense. And when he was banged up last year, they were just absolutely not the same team. So there is a delicacy to this with, I think both him and Kashman and their health. But let me just let me just circle back to get the answer to the question on Dallas Turner and then we could talk about some other stuff going forward. But how good is Dallas Turner? Well, I think Dallas Turner is a quick which I think he's a path rush specialist. In other defenses, he may struggle just because hey, they're just going to run right at him. But I think in a defense where he is allowed to kind of have that manufactured one on one against, look, he can match up against a tie end. I think what you're looking at is maybe his

11:35ceiling is probably a Nick Benito type season where you can have 15 16 sacks. I think his floor should probably be about what like a Nolan Smith where hey, he's really good. He's a speedy edge. We keep him to the open side. We try and keep him away. We have to do a little bit of things. But it for the run game, but he's going to give us pressure. He's good enough to be a starter out there. And so I think what we're seeing right now is him kind of accelerate more to his ceiling because of the way that this defense is structured. Folks, a couple of days ago, I was trying to deal with the bug problem around the house and I made a phone call and I got the ring ring ring nobody answers. And you know what I did? I just went on to the next company to deal with my bug issue. And if you own or operate a company and you don't want to be the one that has customers just hanging up and moving on. Well, that's where you want to check out quote this episode today is brought to you by Quo, which is spelled Q U O the business phone system built so you never miss an opportunity.

12:39All your calls, texts and voicemails live in one place. So anyone on your team can pick up a conversation. See the full history and respond fast. Quo is the number one rated business phone system on G2 trusted by over 90,000 businesses who rely on it to stay reachable and look professional every day easy to use. You don't have to change your number and it integrates with all the other tools that businesses already use. So there's no hassle. So look, money is on the line. Always say hello with quote, try quote for free plus 20% off your first six months when you go to quote.com slash believe that is Q U O dot com slash BLEAV. Yeah, and I think that he's getting more confident and he's understanding things a lot better and his get off get off also has to do with timing up with the cadence and preparing and seeing what you know the teams are doing defensive tackles talk about this sometimes where it's like I'm not quick, but I know their cadence or I understand

13:40their tells for their formations or however they're they're going to approach me and that makes me look quicker than I am, but he actually is that quick and then adding that other layer to it of development over a couple of years. Now that he's worked extremely hard at that you also see too that his strength has increased enormously and this is going from age 21 to starting to develop some man strength that age 23. He will not be 24 until February Cody. So I think he's going to continue to ascend with the strength. So what they're doing right now is trying to get him the most favorable matchups. I guess my question is how does Flores keep getting away with this because the biggest play of the game. It's Colston Loveland who is trying to take him on and he just takes that tight end and walks him right back to the quarterback for a sack. I mean you would think that that's not necessarily ideal. So how does it for an offense that coming into it they would have prepared for getting an offensive tackle on Dallas Turner. How does it keep happening that he gets

14:41these mismatches? Well, again, it goes with how they set it up. They're going to put me in Ginkgo where they feel like the online tight end is going to be the flexed tight end. They're going to try and keep Dallas Turner out there just because if you can match up with 12 personnel, that's what you want. Or he's going to play to the open side. So it's being really smart about where they're putting him and then protecting him even if you're going to get a little bit of motion. But we see that's a weekend and we got assault last night on a safety blitz for the for the ramps. Aaron Donald ends up on a tight end. What are we doing? Jack says he'd never never happen again, even especially against a run like he's going to blow this up. So I think this is one of those things where I love Laura's where he's where his edge is is he understands that if I put five on the line, we're going to get man blocking. If you leave a tight end, my guy is just going to be better than you're tied in. If you leave him, that's a win in my book. And I think sometimes offensive coordinators just go ahead and say, we'll play that law of average. We'll try and get this ball out

15:43really quickly. And that doesn't necessarily work. We see it weekend and week out. And again, give it to Dallas Turner for being able to finish it and really get some of those pressures on quarterbacks. So you wrote about the run game. And I think that this is where everything has been different from the second half of last year for Flores's defense because they brought in last year. They brought in Hargrave and Allen and those guys were not really run stuffers. And then he just started saying, I'm going to rush five on every single play. And of course, that's where a lot of the data comes from with the blitzes because this is what I'm sure a lot of people are fascinated by Cody is just when you're seeing all these blitz rates come out. And you're like, well, how is this even possible that one team could do it, but not other teams, but getting five guys rushing on every single play has really resulted in them being an elite run defense team. Ben Johnson's run was not that successful against them. And the Packers in week one, I know they didn't have Josh Jacobs, but it was downright horrible. That's why they couldn't finish the game against the Vikings

16:45is because they couldn't run the clock out. Why does this work? Because usually you think about blitzing of, all right, if you're over aggressive, you want to hit him with a delay run or something and run right by the blitzers, but that has not been the case at all. So why does this work against the run as well as pressuring quarterbacks as much as it does? Yeah, they gap everybody out. I mean, the same mechanism that you see in past, but actually it's the same mechanism that you're going to get in the run game. It makes it really difficult for teams to pull. So you typically, you're going to play an odd front, which is a five-man front. You get into these looks is you're going to pull a gap scheme. You're going to pull line, well, the problem is is that the Vikings send the linebacker just as much as they send an edge. So it's so you don't know where that's, oh, you want to start running gap scheme. We'll start sending one of our linebacker Eric Wilson will just start attacking that B gap, whether it's where you're pulling from or where you're pulling too. We're going to meet you at the point of attack or we're going to chase you running back down in the backfield. And so it's the same mechanism that you see. I really think it goes back to 2024. If you remember

17:512024, that's kind of when this defense really started coming together was probably I think they for the top first time there of top five in the DBOA killed the running game almost to the point where he exposed the secondary where teams were like we're just not going to run and we're just going to try and throw the pass. We know we've talked about this on multiple shows. Secondary is not the greatest with the Vikings. It needs to have that front and that pressure to really work. We learned that in 2023. I think we also saw that early in 2025 of where they were trying to play defense. They were trying to do some different things. And then Flora's was like not for going back like we tried to do the pass rush everything you know tackle the running back on the way the quarterback. It really didn't work for us. Let's go back into the bread and butter. He loves to play shades. He doesn't play a lot of the two gapping head up stuff. So these guys know exactly where they're going to go. It makes the fits really easy for everybody. You also have Mattelis who's a great down safety who is when he's in the box. He's just like a linebacker. So it

18:52really makes everything predictable. So what he's done too and I think this is the evolution we're seeing this year. Last year he wanted to make everything a coin flip much like Ben Johnson. Talks about whether it's first or third. I want everything 50 50 which means you have no idea what we're going to do right. So there is no predictability. Flora's did that last year with pressure because it used to be we're going to pressure you on first and second and then we're going to run some sort of maybe a sim even if it is a pressure it's a simulated pressure so you know only four are going to run we're going to do some sort of cover rotation. I know early you know in 2023 they let league drop eight as they got really predictable on third now. I think what we're seeing now it's just he has the people that he wants to where he now can just say we're just going to pressure on two thirds of the downs. I think the map that you saw the road map isn't going to lead away from the Bears game where it wasn't 80% pressure. I think they he realized early on with the

19:54Packers was okay one you can't protect and two you're not going to run the ball so we're just going all hell's going to break loose on you whereas he was a little bit more cautious against the Bears and I say cautious they still had what like to 67% almost a 70% blitz rate but I think that's really where he wants to live whereas you don't know when you're off off down it's going to come and so I think that's where that what he does in the run game works in the passing game because you have edge pressure everybody's manned up on the inside when you're one on one so that's what they're able to do yeah there was a play in the game as I was rewatching the tape where they don't blitz and you could see the look on Caleb Williams face like wait what he like drops back and he's ready to do pray oh wait huh what nobody's coming and I think he ended up having to throw the ball away because he couldn't find anyone those types of changeups can be a big deal I think also maybe some of those numbers were at the end against Tyson Baygent where you know they they blitz at the

20:56end to make a big play there but I think they were trying to tackle and run the clock out just didn't work quite as good as they wanted it to in terms of sending that many people all the time there's something Byron Murphy said to me last year after a game that sort of stuck with me he said that the corners know that there's only a couple different things that you can do against that much pressure like you can either hit us with your hot or you can either try to hit us over the top and that's we know that those are the things that you are going to game plan for which kind of simplifies it for the players they really changed up some things coverage wise though I think against the bears where they were having Mattelis up at the line of scrimmage and they were having you know Jacob Thomas was in covering the deep middle which this is an undrafted free agent from James Madison out there in this huge and have seen North game like oh okay that's typical flores but the coverage and how they're going to manage this going forward because teams I mean they've seen enough of it to have to prepare for but now they kind of have seen what florist is putting on

21:59tape I think that is the only concern with this team is that the secondary is not necessarily as strong as it's been in some some other years folks if you've been listening to the show for a long time you know that I just crossed the 40 year old threshold and that's why the wife and I had a tough discussion about how we are going to approach life insurance because we want to be covered if something happens to one of us rather than leaving the other with all the bills if you're having the same types of tough conversations ethos could be for you ethos is a 100% online process where there are no medical exams or blood work required you can get a quote instantly and be approved within 10 minutes some policies are as low as $30 a month so it's within your budget and this isn't a small policy it can be up to $3 million so take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through ethos get your free quote at ethos.com slash purple that's

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25:04for more information visit jameshardy.com slashhardybacker well and i think it's uh if you go back and look historically through the last you know the last four years for the three years prior to this that the second time around for the for the lions the bears and the packers those offenses always tend to do a little bit better than they did prior and the reason is is because again you don't have that trauma that hey you were talking about with Caleb of like oh oh you're not blitzing but i was on high alert right i'm in fight or flight right now and i just need to be in regular mode when you go the second time around it's more of a preparedness so i do agree with you like that's one of the concerns of this defense always is okay we've seen this we saw it in 23 we saw it in 24 defense is a leap one through one through nine week one through nine if there's there's really nobody like it but then it slowly degrades as you put

26:10on more film i think last year florist really try to come out and be like we're going to do some funky things early like against the bears last year it looks we're going to run some fantasy of stuff right we're going to run some cover six rotations you're not going to really know what we're doing um but then again you're leaning into your secondary in that sense it's not really what you want to do so that is always a concern that's always a concern i raised i would look i watched this defense every week it's one of my favorite defenses i probably broke it down as much as if anybody on on the beat right so it's like it's one of mine that i watched but that's always a caveat that i always say and that's that astro car i was put by it is like yes but if you can hit these shots if you can get them and confuse them with a pre snap motion or do something like that and get some pre-access or get one of your guys on the run that's typically where the explosives come from and so it takes an offensive coordinator that's willing to be a little bit funky or willing to

27:13meet the aggression we say bin johnson obviously the the one example of this but meet flores aggression with aggression the packers typically will do this in the second time around so that's something to look at as we go through the season uh you have broken it down for everyone in the beats uh and as much as anybody on earth i think over at match quarters but uh yeah that was a trend in 2023 and 2024 it was very different in the second half of the season i remember the Cincinnati Bengals game in 23 where they just started running in breaking routes about 15 yards down field and hitting them kind of time and time again and 2024 sam d'Arnold at times did have to carry the team to victory because the defense was not quite as strong i also think that you get more players injured and the drop off from certain guys to the next guy down is pretty enormous and i want to ask you about this we've sort of just cruised by oh Harrison Smith's back great to see you buddy and off we go he has not been playing a full amount of snaps so far i don't anticipate that's

28:16going to happen until later in the season but how important was Harrison Smith coming back to this defense functioning the way it needs the function to be elite well i think anytime that you have two safes that can really communicate together especially in a split field defense like they run as own defense like they run having a guy like Harrison Smith that understands just where to be how to be there what what are some things that he can do to make it look make the same things look different different things look the same you know he understands that i think that that takes a mental load off of it's some of these younger guys in the back in you know you mentioned Jacob Thomas Theo Jackson too who usually is back there so it takes some of them mental load off of them have to it also kind of unleashes and it tells us to really be what he is which is kind of that that monster near the the box that's really what he is you really don't want him in coverage as much as possible and so kind of being able to kind of usher in can we find can we find that extra DB I

29:17think it's going to be important and then also you have to have if you want to be really good in the back in and potentially in the playoffs you have to have a guy like Harrison Smith healthy and ready to go when that time comes I also think to just as an aside not on Harrison Smith but the addition of James Pierre through the first two weeks has been really good for them because they didn't have that third corner who could come in just when they needed him to and I noticed him a lot in these first two weeks but with Harrison Smith to me it is all about the communication that he provides when he's out there and that everyone can just look to him there were a couple times in week one when he wasn't out there where it was like wait that wasn't no I wasn't supposed to be there I wasn't supposed to cover that guy and when he's out there you almost never see those big miscommunications I want to I want to talk about the front a little bit here aside from the outside linebackers but Jalen Redman I think I'm just labeling him a star at this point he is such an incredibly disruptive player but they've also had Levi Drake Rodriguez emerges someone that they

30:20can trust is that nose tackle position which I don't think they've really had a true nose tackle Harrison Phillips was close but I don't think he was as as low to the ground as Levi Drake and kind of controlling those offensive lineman and then you have two rookies in Dominic Orange and Caleb Banks I'm curious after you watch the game what you thought of Caleb Banks because he had to play a lot when Ty and Grim Dawkins went down and that was another mini controversy of pff was not the highest on his game despite a couple of nice plays but where he might fit in in this defense as he continues to kind of develop well he goes back to last year they really wanted to have kind of a quick three technique they wanted to have somebody that could have with size so if you do run the ball we're not losing anything but also hey we pretty much stacked the line of scrimmage you have two linebackers right behind you if you feel like you can jet through this gap or you feel like you could swim move kind of like a Chris Jones-esque of like hey we'll fix you you know I think they want to

31:21have somebody with a little bit of creativity on the inside they have guys with creativity on the outside and Dallas Turner and Van Ginkle who can you know creativity in the sense that they especially with Van Ginkle like he knows Winter Rush and would not to rush and so if you can have a guy like that inside I think we we know this we've talked about this Flores is going to baby steps with some of these rookies just because that he that's kind of how he is he's not going to play you if he doesn't trust you I think we you know we talked about Jacob Thomas that's probably more or less like hey we got here Smith on a pitch count somebody's got to play back there we've got to have a fore safety you're kind of that guy I think up front they have death and I think with Caleb Banks it's going to be very much you know I think a lot of people thought it was a reach but it's only a reach if you know he ends up not being the player that his potential is there you know and so I think that's one of the things where he's him in I like the fact that he doesn't have to be the primary starter to begin with because then all eyes are on him why are you not getting double digit

32:24sex from the inside which is by the way that means you're going to the pro bow and you're probably going to be an all pro with so I think being able okay he's getting you know it's a 60 40 split with with with Ingram Dawkins okay that's good so we should be seeing pressure he's going to be able to ease in and then hopefully from week 9-18 that flips and now he's the primary starter and then you have the the quality backup behind him so I thought look it's the second week take a deep breath the defense is really good so just you know I let's see how this progresses I'm going to ask you a question that you're really going to like as a former football coach and studier of constant football tape can you explain the pad level issue with Caleb Banks to me? Yeah this is the this is probably a fact of he's never been asked to actually play with technique probably since he was in you know probably eight years old when he was playing he's just always

33:27been bigger he's always been stronger he's always been faster especially at that size so but typically what you end up having is that guys want to see I want to see everything this is actually funny my eight year old is I had to get on him during during one of the games because he's kind of the same way he has five four fumbles in in three games oh he's a he's a monster he's unblockable but he has a problem with sometimes he wants to watch the ball and so what you see with Caleb Banks is always been okay he plays too high well if you play too high especially in a felt those linemen are are just as good as you are and they're going to get underneath you they're going to be able to push you around because you don't have pad level you don't have power so it's the same thing that I was telling my son it was like hey you're trying to watch but now your step slow because you have to drop down to go or you're too high you're they're able to kind of grab you or at least kind of hit you and knock you off a little bit and it's fine the next series he gets

34:29down he lives in the six inch steps and he goes and he cracks the guy ends up popping the ball out and it gets the ball back to the office and so for Caleb it's kind of the same deal of you have to learn how to play technique if you really want to be truly creative and you go back and watch the all-time greats they are all fundamentally sound they are low to the ground uh Vaughn Miller's a great example of just like people always freak out when they see some of these deals of where I just how low he was he's not standing up right you so you see these guys Aaron Donald's another great example how do you think at six one he's able to beat so many double teams technique right staying understanding leverage so that's something he's going to have to learn but that's also I'll have a he's going to have to break because he's now in his 20s and it's really never been coached out right I mean when you think about the greats for the Vikings John Randall Henry Thomas if you want to go way back or Pat Williams like all those guys you don't envision them standing straight up you always envision them super low in driving and there was a play in particular where and this is

35:35where the the negative grades came from where Kyle Menungai rips off like a 17 yard run he's one on one with Colston Loveland who I'm sure can lift a house like these guys everyone in the NFL is super crazy strong and he goes straight up out of his stance Loveland grabs him and just moves him to the side and it's like yeah there's no player at Florida state who was doing that to you but this is a first round draft pick two and he's a beast and he's going to be able to do that also and I think it's just going to take a lot of time for Kayla Banks but it's it just reminds me of with Dallas Turner where there was so much raw talent there but it was like well this guy needs to put on 20 pounds and he needs to learn how to rush and all these things right but then when you arrive there you go oh okay so it needs to be the flashes for me now and then the consistency later so the fact that he did have a play where he drove I think it was the tackle right back Erno is actually Joe Tuni he drove Joe Tuni right back into the quarterback like that's a Hall of Fame caliber offensive

36:38guard who you just grabbed and delivered to Caleb Williams like that's really good and then there was a play with the tackle where he's trying to run outside zone and he just kind of throws him by and then gets a tackle for loss like those are the things that you cannot teach the other stuff they're going to have to work on it just feels like it's going to take quite a bit of time so I guess my question is Cody big picture on this how good do you think the Minnesota Vikings defense can be in the year 2026 I think this is this is a different unit I mean it's just to me what they're doing especially in the two weeks I know that's kind of hyperbole after week two but this just looks and feels different than it has in the past couple years and we're talking about in 24 and 25 this was a top five defense I mean he's finished in the top five I think what they were third in DBOA last year so this is a defense it's already elite I think people just think it's a gimmick if this is not a gimmick it goes back to the whole blitz thing everybody and I kind of tweeted this out the other day everybody wants to lean on the blitz thing and in your mind you think of all

37:43these exotic third down pressure so they must just be killing people no that's not what it is and I think florist too I think he even said this even all the way back in 2023 I think it was like about week three he was like how are y'all defining a blitz because half of these is basically just the way that we're lining up it's that they're they're constantly with five guys on the line of scrimmage you just don't know which one is going to be there I think also too you have a guy with size and Eric Wilson part of the problem has been like Ivan pace over time kind of gets caught right you see this even last year would Drake Thomas was Seattle who was kind of their Ivan pace is a smallish linebacker blitz centric guy sometimes it would work sometimes it wouldn't you know but he's really kind of a decoy well you had a guy like an in Eric Wilson and were a Jake Goliath day with his size rookie kid in athletic ability that the difficult that guy that's big as an edge that guy that's a difficult block for a guard so now you're changing kind of the math

38:43on that as well you're one on one you're actually a plus number you feel good about especially in some of these some of these guards that you're going to see throughout the season so I think again if this is not a top five DBOA defense then it's because we look back and you had almost a Detroit lion situation where you lose everybody on defense to to injuring like you mentioned the backups are not great and that's always the thing that you with this defense the broad has depth the the linebacking core doesn't you know I think pace we kind of know who he is Gal day I think we all feel it's going to be really good but he's a rookie and then in the secondary you're right you go down you're dealing with I you know I think you know I I'm a big Charles dimming guy I think he'll be fine but yeah those other guys are basically unknown commodities or guys that you're like hey we don't want to start 10 games with that guy that's not somebody that we want to start so I think it's a top five defense again clicking for top three and you

39:45know I don't know it'll be historically great just because it's just so aggressive you would just have to it basically you would have to hit your hit rate would just have to be off the charts for it to be historically great but I think it will be a top five elite defense and the schedule is going to set them up with some pretty tough matchups like you're going to have to play Jordan love again you're probably going to have to play kale blames again I assume as hammy will be fine by week 18 and that one could be a big game in the NFC North and you have New Orleans passing game coming up that's pretty good you have a Baker Mayfield that can go for 400 yards and doesn't care about throwing the ball down the field so there's a lot of matchups on the way that will challenge them they play Buffalo here at us bank stadium which is going to be I mean what a game that could be Flores versus Josh Alan right so there's a lot out ahead of them before we start you know crowning them with the number one defensive all time but it could be very very good and I think once Harrison Smith came back that was where I was like all right the weaknesses are still going to be there but I think it'll be so organized that they'll be able to have a lot of success but let me let me ask you this the

40:49bigger picture right now the Super Bowl favorite on Fandals still the Los Angeles Rams plus 650 people then lose their minds over a bad game and Melbourne and the bills are next to plus 750 and Seattle is right there plus 850 how are you kind of viewing these first two weeks Cody in terms of just who has maybe stood out to you as better than you thought or maybe worse than you thought my biggest thing right now is how did you answer whether you won or whether you lost how did you answer week two I think if you are if you're starting to look for teams that okay I'm a little concerned I think the Texans have to be on the list stride doesn't look like the guy and I know that they don't have Nico Collins they lost their other top receiver look at at the end of the day you're going to have to elevate your team if you're going to be a playoff quarterback I think that the defense doesn't look as elite as it has been I think if you want to look at another team that's

41:55really struggling I'm gonna stay in the AFC that's going to be the Los Angeles Chargers that I don't it doesn't look good it doesn't look good on defense look I said this in the beginning of the year for you know different places with my podcasts or other podcasts is look he hit lightning with McDonald and Mentor could he do it a third time with a leery I like a leery he's running a carbon copy of Mentor but as you know just because you run you you had this experience with Ed Donatel just because you worked with a legend and you run the legends by the way yeah it doesn't necessarily work out so I to me I think that's going to be concerning I think also too like the NFC I think you have I think the commanders are dead in the water I think Buckingeers are dead in the water Falcons are obviously dead in the water if there's some surprises the Raiders I'm a Bronco's fan I do not want to see the Raiders look like a legitimate a legitimate team that's not somebody I want to look on there and say what are you talking about very year early if there's like a surprise

42:57team I think that might be it you're gonna have you know the last place schedule they have they look like look Kirk cousins is competent I think people in Minnesota like look he's a competent quarterback you have a great running game if the defense can play well it looks like Rob Leonard is going to be you know kind of the next Anthony Campanelli of where you kind of Hodg Podge's the defense together from all his background so I think that was surprised I think to me I think the Vikings in 2 and 0 I think that that's got to that's got to worry that's got to worry people in a division in the North that are basically watching every week right like you're watching you're watching the ticker every single week because a loss is devastating especially in a division that it's going to be tightly tightly contested I also think that what nobody wanted to see was the Cincinnati Bengals have a good defense and Dexter Lawrence man worth that 10th overall draft pick I he's just been a complete game changer for them go watch that Texans game and it's oh

44:03Dexter made it up oh okay Dexter made that play oh yeah okay he didn't make the attack for us but he definitely affected that run there I mean it's just I see why they did it I also think too they have they have one of the better interior defense lines now I think they have very athletic and young linebackers that you know I think they found out last year that they're much better when they play man coverage I feel like they finally figured out what they wanted Dax Hill and DJ Turner to be it's been a while I think Al Golden is I think they look they hired Al Golden to run a simple defense and then he ran exactly what Anna Maruno is doing the room is trying to do which is a bunch of stuff which I mean you're seeing that an Indianapolis play out so no that's a scary one too because that's an offense that you know will score 30 points and if they can hold you to three touchdowns a 30 to 21 victory looks pretty dang good you know I'm just reminded Cody at this moment of how long we wait to react to stuff before the NFL season and we get it and it is

45:03Christmas day and it's always Christmas day when I get to talk to you here on this show outstanding outstanding explanations match quarters dot com and where could people find the podcast yeah anywhere you go it's just let's talk ball and really any match quarters dot com has the hub to everything you want to find my socials substag anything it's right there on match quarters dot com perfect it is an absolute must if you really want to understand how Brian Flores's defense works you have an article about how they're stopping the run with these blitzes just fascinating the layers we could peel apart all day long so I love to do it thanks again Cody and I guarantee we'll be doing it again soon. Let's do it. Let's all