Saints plan to unleash D-Line with simple concept change..No more 2 gap concepts

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The Saints have removed two-gap concepts from their playbook and will ask their defensive linemen to penetrate upfield. The Saints played a 4-3 under ex-DC Rob Ryan, but there were two-gap "read and react" principles. "We're not going to be two-gapping anything," promised new pass-rush specialist coach Brian Young. Sheldon Rankins and Nick Fairley will be counted on to pressure quarterbacks from the interior. Cameron Jordan, Obum Gwacham, Kasim Edebali, and Davis Tull will form a rotation outside. Especially with Hau'oli Kikaha (ACL) headed to I.R., we're skeptical the group is good enough to successfully execute new DC Dennis Allen's scheme.

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“We don’t want to sit back, we don’t want to react to nothing, we want to dictate what’s going to happen,” Saints pass rush specialist Brian Young said. “So it starts with the front, so we’re going to get off and we’re going to get under their pads and we’re going to knock them back 3 yards and let the chips fall where they may.”

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New Orleans often asked defensive linemen to “two-gap,” which requires a linemen to read the play and react, a technique that can keep blockers off of the linebackers but also forces a linemen to hesitate for a brief moment to make a play. Under Ryan, the Saints often tweaked the two-gap technique by asking certain defensive linemen to “shade” or line up on the shoulder of the offensive lineman instead of playing head-up, but the principle remained a part of the defense.

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“It used to be that way, with all the two-back runs and those kinds of things, your ends were a lot bigger, but nowadays. ... the game is much more spread out now and a lot faster,” Young said. “I don’t care about the weight as much as I care about: Can a guy set an edge, can he knock a block back? I don’t care if he’s 220 (pounds) or 280, if he can do those two things, it doesn’t matter.”

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