re: For people who know X’s and O’s, what do we do with Perkins

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So for the guys who know film, what are some things Blake Baker can do against Clemson to keep Perk close to the LOS without forcing us into a predictable cover 1 coverage?

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Perkins will have to play some coverage. You want to limit it, and keep him from having to cover slot guys as much as you can. You want him on a TE or maybe a back, depending on what the LB assignments are. You want him able to free roam as much as possible to watch the run game and either attack or spy the QB.

That means you need your Safeties and LBs 100% dialed in on their assignments. If Perkins is hanging out in the box. You need them all locked-in on what they are doing, especially if we start doing more disguised looks this year.

An earlier comment about playing some Dime is on the money. If it’s a 100% pass situation and you want Perkins after the QB, then you either move him to DE for a snap and run traditional Nickle with another DB, or you bring an extra DB in and just have 1 LB for Dime. That helps to keep him in the box.

A great way to create confusion would be to exchange Perkins and an LB like Whit or Keys on a blitz. Fake Perkins and drop him and send Whit or Keys and vice versa, because they are all athletic enough to cause problems. But getting the defense’s eyes on Perkins and then bringing the pressure elsewhere could really cause some problems.

Baker doesn’t play as much Zone as House, and will probably use less now that we have the guys to run more Man. However, you can mix that up and play some hybrid coverages with Zone in the middle and Man outside. That makes it easier to turn a guy like Perkins loose or spy him because the LBs and maybe a Safety or DE can drop and cover space rather than worrying about specific man assignments.

The last is exchanging with the DEs for Zone Blitzes. We haven’t been able to do this nearly as much the last two years, but House did it quite a bit when he had BJ Ojulari’s athleticism and versatility to work with. The way he played was a perfect fit with Perkins was a big reason Perkins was able to focus on blitzing and playmaking. We’ve got a couple of experienced, athletic guys at DE this year and Kelly has even mentioned DEs working on this. He specifically said something about playing drop coverage was something new for Payton.

So there are ways to make this work. I think the issue the last time Perkins played a similar role (OLB after game 2 or 3 in 2023) was that we went so vanilla because of the defense’s struggles that we couldn’t do much of this. It was easy for an offense to just scheme Perkins out of plays and away from the box. You have to have experienced and versatile guys around Perkins to keep him in his preferred role and we finally should have that again.

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But this is the mystery of his use. He’s too small to rush or blitz every play and he got washed away in run fits at LB. Hopefully Baker figures out an effective way to use him consistently.

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A lot of that was a product of him struggling with the role. We all saw it- Perkins just doesn’t have the instincts to play as a true ILB. And what happens when you don’t know the role inside and out and you don’t know what to do- you look and play slower. And that negated Perkins’ elite skill- his speed to the ball.

Perkins was more effective when he was moved back to an OLB role in 2023, but like I said in my other post, we were so vanilla and inexperienced by that time that it was easy for any OC to move him around where they wanted him. Perkins was actually one of the only bright spots on that D and was good for an OLB in coverage. But he just wasn’t able to make big plays like he’s capable of.

Perkins isn’t too small to rush from the edge if you can create matchups for him. He was working with a couple of really good DE’s in 2023 and that helped to turn him loose. When the defense can focus on him directly, yeah, it gets a lot harder for him to get home.

There are ways to keep Perkins in the role he’s best at, but it takes having versatile, experienced players around him and everyone understanding the scheme inside and out. We have those kinds of guys on defense again this year.

Would be nice to pressure the QB consistently with four again.

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Perkins is great in coverage. I don’t know why anyone would be concerned about him back there

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He’s really good in coverage for an OLB or Strong Safety. Which is to say, average when compared to a good CB. Perkins is not a liability back there, but you don’t want him on a team’s top 2 WRs if you can help it.

That said, those freaking out about Perkins being in coverage at all are going overboard.

If they go 5 wide in a consistent basis, that means an empty back field….

You need to get to klubnik, and hit him…. Make him throw a couple balls up and they’ll stop that shite .

I would imagine the first player off the field
if we wanted to add a 3rd DB would be a DL.


3 DL
2 LB
3 CB
2 Safety
1 star is probably our nickel personell

but i say this having not seen much practice

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If they go 5 wide in a consistent basis, that means an empty back field….

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But they can go 10 personnel and still put him in coverage, right?