How the Patriots’ Safeties Make Them Mismatch-Proof

With the NFL trending more and more toward positionless football, teams are scrambling for versatile players who can create or eliminate mismatches. Some preach this philosophy while putting square pegs into round holes, but Bill Belichick and the Patriots have been the gold standard of this approach for over two decades.

By teaching fundamentals that transcend position, maximizing strengths, and hiding weaknesses, New England has consistently turned “tweeners” and “projects” into cogs of an amorphous machine. Being mismatch-proof is rare in a league where the best offensive minds specialize in finding and exploiting weak links. And while having players who can do a bit of everything isn’t uncommon for a Patriots defense, Pro Bowler Matt Judon acknowledged this season feels different.

“You gotta get [talented] players on the field,” Judon said when asked about the Patriots’ safeties during  minicamp in June. “Our coaches do a great job of finding any way to get those players in different packages on the field, and put them in situations where they can compete and they can win. That’s what they’re doing. So it’s not unusual for that to happen. But it’s unusual for us to have these type of players like that … it’s going to be easy for us to match up with any offensive personnel.”

Judon went on to call his peers “unicorns” for their versatility, specifically referencing hyper-athletic Mack truck Kyle Dugger.

Dugger is the crown jewel of a Patriots safety group loaded with Swiss Army Knives. Adrian Phillips, Jabrill Peppers, Jalen Mills, and high-upside rookie Marte Mapu are interchangeable chess pieces who can line up anywhere and execute any assignment.

New England’s second dynasty had its own dynamic safeties in Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung, and Duron Harmon, but even that trio had pretty defined roles. Chung was the box safety/tight end eraser, McCourty was the deep safety who also excelled in man coverage, and Harmon was the centerfielder in sub packages. But there’s a new level of unpredictability at the position this season, which Peppers acknowledged when asked about McCourty’s recent retirement during minicamp.

“You kind of knew where Devin was gonna be most of the time. Like, yeah, he inserted, he rotated down, but for the most part, 80 to 90% of the time, he was gonna be in the post. Now you don’t know where anybody is gonna be. One play it could be Dug, could be me, could be AP, Mills, Marte could drop back there from the linebacker position. It’s a lot of different things that we can do. A lot of different tools the coach has got to play with.”

Besides McCourty, the Patriots retained all of their other defensive talents from last season, which should let New England hit the ground running schematically. Peppers noted how this continuity allows the unit to play a step ahead.

“It might look one way to the offense. We run the same play, but we just flipped two guys now, it looks like a completely different defense … We can just keep spinning the dial, give [offenses] different looks, who matches up with who the best. So it’s a lot of different things that we can do … If you have likewise guys, I could just say to him, hey, let’s switch, to try to give a different illusion to the quarterback.”

This flexibility is exciting and allows for myriad schematic possibilities, but what could that actually look like on the field? To get an idea, I’ll be taking a look at last season’s three-plus-safety packages and how players were deployed based on personnel and situation.

NICKEL DEFENSE

For most of football history, an offense using base personnel (multiple tight ends and/or running backs) meant they were most likely running the ball. Defenses responded by matching size with size, sending out their own base personnel consisting of just four defensive backs.

With the league becoming more pass-oriented, offenses have capitalized by attacking linebackers, who tend to be slower and less proficient in coverage, with athletic tight ends and backs who function more as receivers.

New England has countered this trend by majoring in nickel defenses against two-receiver sets, swapping a linebacker for a fifth defensive back. But rather than fielding a traditional nickel cornerback, the Patriots often use a nickel safety to maintain athleticism in coverage without sacrificing physicality against the run. Here’s an example from Week 13 against the Bills.

Buffalo goes all out to sell run on this play-action pass, going under center from 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) with an extra offensive lineman and two receivers in the pattern. The Patriots answer by putting nickel safety Dugger at inside linebacker with McCourty and Phillips deep.

Despite all of the Bills’ window dressing, Dugger doesn’t fall for the fake, immediately gaining depth and extending for the breakup. In fairness, Jack Jones might’ve intercepted the pass had Dugger not gotten a hand on it. But still, an impressive feat of recognition and athleticism from the safety.

In potential run situations, New England often dialed up disguised split-safety coverages with a blitz from the slot. This allowed them to be aggressive up front while staying safe on the back end. One of the best examples came on a 4th down stop in Week 9 against the Colts.

Indy declares run on 4th & 1 by going 22 personnel (two backs, two tight ends) from an offset I formation. The Patriots “invert” the boundary side of their Cover 2 defense with Dugger acting as a corner and Jonathan Jones covering the deep half.

Dugger blitzes off the edge and forces a cutback, allowing Jabrill Peppers, Ja’Whaun Bentley, and Matt Judon to converge on the back for a turnover on downs.

While some offenses major in base personnel on early downs, others field three wide receivers on nearly every play. This adds a layer of unpredictability when teams can effectively run from these groupings. This is especially true when offenses utilize run-pass options (more commonly known as RPOs) to put defenders in conflict.

But thanks to slot corner Myles Bryant’s underrated versatility, the Patriots can combat this style of offense by putting a twist on their traditional nickel defense.

Initially, Bryant would assume his usual spot with Dugger in the box and Bentley at outside linebacker.

Just before the snap, Dugger would bump out and essentially become a power slot. Bryant responded by dropping to become a split-field safety with Bentley shifting inside to beef up the interior.

This made Dugger the primary edge-setter against the run and slot defender against the pass, where he had to jam routes and be wary of RPOs. His disruptive ability was on display against the Bengals, whose spread offense saw a lot of this package back in Week 16.

In this play, Cincinnati comes out in a look often associated with RPOs, putting four skill players on the same side and a loose bunch formation. Anticipating this, the Patriots pull out their disguise before shifting to switch things up on the cerebral Joe Burrow.

Dugger’s jam affects both receivers in the bunch, making it easier for Bentley to gain depth off the play fake. New England’s pass rush quickly flushes Burrow and Jahlani Tavai stops the check down for a short gain.

DIME DEFENSE

The Patriots like to field as many defensive backs as possible in obvious pass situations, when they tend to play a heavy dose of man coverage. Consequently, no team played more dime (six defensive backs) than New England last season, with the team specializing in big dime featuring as many as four safeties. Dugger typically played linebacker from these looks with McCourty and another safety, usually Adrian Phillips, on the backend.

Though each safety’s role was fairly consistent, all of that athleticism and versatility opened the door for unconventional disguises and wrinkles when the defense played zone. This was on full display when the Bills visited Foxboro, with New England pulling out all the stops to throw off Josh Allen.

Here, Buffalo goes spread from a three-receiver set on 2nd & 18. Pre-snap, the Patriots show an unconventional single-high look that appears to be a variation of Cover 3. The defense starts out in a four-down front with Bentley on the strong edge and Dugger and Judon at inside linebacker. In the secondary, McCourty and Bryant man each slot with Phillips in centerfield.

Just before the snap, the Patriots rotate to Cover 2 with several defenders swapping alignments. Bentley moves off the ball, Dugger bumps to the weak slot, Phillips buzzes to the strong slot, and McCourty and Bryant drop into deep halves.

Dugger matches Dawson Knox up the seam before passing him off and jumping Stefon Diggs underneath, taking away Allen’s read and helping force a scramble.

The Patriots helped popularize Cover 0 on pass downs under Brian Flores, and while its use has dwindled in New England since his departure, they still use the threat of all-out blitz to confuse quarterbacks or influence offensive adjustments. This strategy resulted in one of Dugger’s most impressive highlights from last season.

The Dolphins empty the backfield on 3rd & 15 with a four-point lead late in the 3rd quarter. Miami’s backs chip Judon and Josh Uche while each wideout runs routes to the sticks. New England counters by showing Cover 0 pre-snap with corners on each boundary and four safeties inside.

Post-snap, the defense rotates to an inverted “Tampa” 2 with both corners in deep halves and each safety in an underneath zone. Dugger shows exceptional range mugging the line of scrimmage before matching the inside vertical route, getting his eyes to the quarterback, and turning an ill-advised throw into a game-changing pick-six.

QUARTER DEFENSE

In 3rd & 10+ situations and two-minute drives, the Patriots sometimes deployed their quarter defense featuring a whopping seven defensive backs with four safeties. One of the more interesting uses of this package saw Peppers act as a “cloud” corner outside the numbers, jamming receivers before passing them off to a corner playing deep zone.

In this example from Week 13, Diggs lines up to the backside of a trips look on 3rd & 10 with less than two minutes to go in the first half. Peppers takes his spot out wide with Dugger and Phillips at inside linebacker and McCourty in the post.

Peppers does a nice job staying with Diggs for the first five yards before letting Jonathan Jones take over, and Allen initially looks to his top target before bringing his eyes across the field. The quarterback’s progression is cut short when Uche quickly beats the left tackle with a ghost move, resulting in a strip sack and a much-needed scoring opportunity for the Patriots just before halftime.

BASE DEFENSE

When New England faced the Browns’ run-heavy scheme in Week 6, the defense matched Cleveland’s unconventional three-tight-end sets with an even less conventional three-safety base grouping. This package saw Dugger at corner to create a stronger edge against outside zone while accounting for athletic tight ends David Njoku and Harrison Bryant. It also led to another jaw-dropping turnover from #23 on the game’s opening drive.

Cleveland goes under center on 2nd & 4 with three tight ends to one side of the formation and Nick Chubb in the backfield. The Patriots line up Dugger up at field corner with Phillips at outside linebacker.

Dugger (and most of the defense) initially bites hard on the well-timed fake but makes a remarkable recovery. After recognizing the deception, he manages to close the gap between himself and Njoku, turn and locate the football, and make a contested interception along the sideline.