Vic fangio is about to turn Jaylen Carter into a superstar while unlocking the powers of the rest of the defense to illustrate how let's jump to the Dolphins match up against the Jets in week 12 in that game banio repeatedly dialed up one of his favorite pressures that he calls whip I covered this play in much more detail in a previous video that I will link at the end but in short whip is a pressure that has a weak side linebacker blitzing through the B Gap against trips and empty formations and against 2x two formations the linebacker to the side of the running back will Blitz why does fangio drw up the blitz this way well in general against four down fronts NFL offenses tend to have their offensive line slide towards the strong side so in trips and empty formations you'll often see the center guard and offensive tackle on the side with the three receiving threats slide in that direction this is the Zone side of the slide protection on the back side the opposite guard and Tackle will block the remaining two defensive linemen this is the man side of the protection sometimes the back will stay in to help block a potential blitzing linebacker on the man side while other times they will get out in the route right away in 2x two formations the offensive line often times slides away from the side that the running back is lined up on and again the running back is often asked to help block on the man side of the protection so to take advantage of the typical strong side slide of the offensive line banjo Els to send pressures to the weak side and force a three on two matchup with the offensive line or force their running back to stay on to block the Jets got destroyed on this play in week 12 the Dolphins ran the play six times and it resulted in a net loss of three three yards they ran this play three times on third down and forced the offense into fourth down on each occasion so let's jump forward to the week 15 matchup knowing what happened last time the Jets coaching staff decided to switch up their primary five and six-man protections instead of sliding strong in trips and empty formations and being down a blocker against the weak side pressure they relied on sliding their line to the weak side and when they were in 2x two formations they would slide the line to the running back side and their six-man protection schemes the running backs would be tasked with blocking across the formation before releasing into a route by doing this it would allow the running back to get into his route instead of being forced to stay and block the blitzing linebacker when fangio called whip but fangio and his coaching staff were one step ahead they anticipated and recognized that the Jets changed their protection plan and they adjusted accordingly on a third and 11 play in the second quarter instead of blitzing the weak side linebacker through the weak B Gap he blitzed the strong side linebacker through the strong B gap which resulted in an unblocked pressure I know what you're thinking here wow super insightful stuff run a strong side pressure when the line sight's weak run a weak side pressure when the line side's strong real Einstein stuff here but let's look at the guard and defensive tackle on the man side of the protection the guard is isolated one-on-one and has to slide inside with the defensive tackle as he Slants to create space for the blitzing linebacker now let's jump to the next third down again the Jets are sliding weak and again we see the defensive tackle slant inside but this time he's not making space for someone to Blitz he's running a read stunt with the other defensive tackle what these two defensive tackles are doing is reading the slide of the center if the defensive tackle reads that the center is sliding towards him then he's going to loop around to the opposite side of the center and look for daylight if the defensive tackle reads that the center is sliding away from him then he's going to run at the center and set a pick for his teammate to loop around it results in an unblocked sack for Christian Wilkins in order for the line to block this up correctly it's imperative that the center and guard are alert and correctly communicate and pass off the twisting defensive linemen to each other but think back to the previous play we looked at yet it's hard for the guard on the man side of the protection the distinguish of the defensive tackle is slanting inside to make space for a Blitzer coming behind him or for a stunt coming back towards him and also what if the defense tackle is just using an inside pass rush move and doesn't need to be passed off at all the most important thing to stopping the stunt is for the guard and Center to recognize and communicate the stunt but fangio sets up these stunts and pressures so that they look the same to the guard being isolated this is a big reason why Christian Wilkins had his best season in 2023 he went from a career high four and a half sacks to nine sacks he also bested his previous career high in pressures by 24 and had a career-high pressure rate despite having a lower pass rush win rate than the year before and this was in large part due to the fact that fangio helped Wilkins achieve a career-high and NFL best 20 unblock pressures in fact his 20 unblock pressures was more than he had in the previous Four Seasons combined and the scary thing is Wilkins hasn't been nearly as disruptive at any point in his career as Jaylen Carter was in his rookie year Carter had significantly better pressure and pass rush win rates than Wilkins take out the unblocked and clean up pressures from both Carter and Wilkins totals and this contrast is even more apparent I call this the real pressure rate and Carter's real pressure rate was more than double Wilkins so if Wilkins was able to rack up nine sacks last season what is Jaylen Carter going to get to and also keep in mind Carter is likely going to play 300 plus more snaps than he did last season after seeing how dominant Jaylen Carter was as a rookie I anticipate he's going to start getting the Aaron treatment from opposing offenses if we look back to the week five game between the Eagles and Rams last year the Eagles slid their offensive line towards Aaron Donald on 26 of the 31 non RPO pass attempts they had if the Eagles start seeing that type of protection going towards Jaylen Carter expect to see a lot of interior line stunts paired with blitzes and Creeper pressures coming from the opposite side of where Carter is lined up let's look at some other ways fangio uses interior stunts to keep the offense guessing here we see the dolphins come out in a boss front which means bigs on the same side as we see three defensive linemen on one side of the center here the Dolphins walk the linebacker over the guard on the opposite side boss fronts usually elicit two responses and pass protection from the offense first boss fronts are often an indicator that there's going to be some type of line stunt and or an overload blitz so to combat this offenses will often use a fourman slide to the boss side and leave the running back to block the linebacker on this play we see Christian Wilkins get a one-on-one with the center and get the sack but even if he didn't get the sack I consider this an advantage for the defense because the offense is having to block five Defenders with six players but if the offense wants to get the running back out in the route or just line up and empty from the start then the offensive line will use a three-man slide to the boss side and have the opposite guard and Tackle responsible for the linebacker and Edge rusher on the back side here we see the dolphins use the nose tackle to penetrate and occupy the center while Wilkins Loops inside untouched on the last two plays we saw the nose tackle used as the penetrator on this play against the Chargers we see a change up first let's talk about the late move movement from the defensive line before the snap you can see the offensive line points to the linebacker and it's an indication that they're going to use a three-man slide to the right with the back responsible for any potential third rusher away from the slide but as soon as the center points out the linebacker the defensive tackle slides into a boss front and it's too late to reset the protection the center guard and Tackle are still responsible for the defensive tackle linebacker and Edge rusher and we can see that as a running back scans to his left before releasing into his route I'd be willing to bet that if the Dolphins lined up in a boss front from the start that the Chargers would have used a four-man slide to the left with the back responsible for the linebacker I'm willing to bet that because the Dolphins came out in a similar front earlier in the game and we saw the Chargers counter with a four-man Slide by sliding into the boss front after the line has set their protection now they're able to run an interior stunt against a three-man slide instead of a four-man slide and this time instead of having the nose penetrate upfield they have the defensive tackle penetrate upfield and have the nose step away from the penetrator to occupy the center's eyes before looping around ultimately the penetrator ends up getting the sack but even if he didn't the Looper was coming around to clean up the play let's put this all together now two plays later needing a stop to end the game banio dials up another pressure every time the Dolphins came out in their dime package the Chargers would slide their line away from the dime defensive back into the true linebacker there's also a defensive end offs screen to that side of the line here we again see the dolphins stem into boss front late this time giving the Chargers what they want by stemming to the side of the slide this in turn allows the Chargers to use a fourman slide to the boss side the Dolphins again run an interior twist with the nose penetrating and the defensive tackle looping around but they've also added a blitz from the dime backer opposite of the slide the late stunt causes confusion between the running back and left guard and nobody comes back to pick up the blitzing player and Herbert has nowhere to escape to even if the running back worked back to the blitz that's a win for the defense with six offensive players blocking five rushers if teams really start giving a lot of attention to jayen Carter it's going to make things much easier to scheme unblocked looks for other players for one on the interior read stunt that we looked at the penetrator is often the one that comes in unblocked due to the center not switching on the stunt that will benefit the player that lines up next to Jaylen Carter most often on second and long and third down plays I assume that will be Milton Williams as his athletic ability would benefit from running more stunts but know that fangio will use different packages and Personnel groupings on obvious Pass Downs but on top of that expect to see the edge rusher and defensive tackle opposite of jayen Carter run a lot of different games of Their Own unsurprised surprisingly Bradley chub was tied for second in the NFL and unblocked pressures among Edge rushers he was often lined up on the opposite side of Christian Wilkins and he generated a lot of unblocked pressures running Tech stunts when the line would slide towards wil inside instead of the center waiting for him to Loop inside he's able to run the stunt against the mans side of the protection and it's much easier to come in unblocked here we see another example of the Dolphins stemming to a boss front late and then using Wilkins gravity to move the center and open up another easy unblocked opportunity for chub but these stunts don't just help the opposite Edge rusher notice how the guard recognizes the stunt and passes off Zach sealer to his tackle but as the tackle initially widened for the edge rusher he now doesn't have the proper leverage to take away seer's inside path to the quarterback the QB panics and throws a prayer into the coverage how about this example where the center slides to Wilk inside now the defense runs an ET stunt opposite with the edge rusher slanting hard inside to set a pick for sealer to loop around it's no coincidence that Zack sealer was second in the NFL and unblocked pressures among all interior defensive line as well see the thing with having a dominant defensive player like Jaylen Carter is it forces the offense into predicament do they keep their normal protections and allow Jaylen Carter to have one-on-one opportunities throughout the game or do they make an effort to continually Slide the line to Carter's side which makes it easier for the defensive coordinator to manipulate the protections with his pressures and stunts guys like Bryce huff and Josh SWAT are going to get their pressures because they're proficient pass rushers but for the Uber athletic guys the eagal have like Milton Williams who hasn't shown to be the the same pass rusher as he is run defender or Nolan Smith whose pass rush game plan is a work in progress or jayx hunt who is still learning the nuances of the position Jaylen Carter's gravity will allow their athleticism to shine in ways that will lead to increased production you give a great defensive mind like big fangio a player with game wrecking abilities they figure out how to turn their defense into a dominating Force