Dime Package Man Pressure

Here are two ways the Saints got a safety involved in pressure last season. 

The Rush:
Safety Edge Rush
End & DT to the pressure working a twist. The DT is up the field penetrating the B Gap with the DE wrapping to the A gap.

The Away DE and DT are working a normal pass rush with the DE containing and the DT with a 2 way go on the Guard.

The Coverage:
Cover 1 man free. The Mike and Dime are both walked up into the A gaps. The Mike falls off on the snap to man cover the RB. The Dime runs out at the snap to replace the blitzing safety.

The pressure pattern is a common pressure pattern found in many defensive playbooks. What makes the pressure work is two factors: the Double A gap bluff look and the utilization of a Dime personnel.

The double A gap look forces the 5 OL and RB to be occupied with immediate rush treats. The Safety is not a primary threat and is less threatening in the look which allows his pressure to surprise the protection. With the blockers all focused on initial threats the pressure is home before the protection can identify who is actually rushing.

The Dime personnel allows the coverage to work. This look is possible from a nickel personnel. Asking a LB to run out to man coverage is a big task. Asking a Dime DB to run out to cover a #2 is both possible an effective from a Dime personnel.

The Rush:
DE's Contain
DT's A Gap Rush
Mike & Safety - B Gap Rush

The Coverage:
Cover Zero man coverage with the Safety hug rushing the RB. When the RB blocks the Safety adds to the rush.

The pressure pattern is again a common concept found in many defensive schemes. Most teams carry a standard Double ILB B gap pressure in a nickel personnel. However, the decision to use a Dime personnel instead again greatly increases the effect on the protection. 

The usage of Dime f manipulates the protection. The offense declares the 4 DL and the Mike backer as the primary threats. This makes sense as those 5 are the closest to the LOS and most likely to pressure. The 2 Deep shell further reinforces the the OL's decision to handle those 5 threats as primary. The deep Safety blitzing is not an obvious rush threat which again allows him to catch the offense off guard.The hug rushing Safety occupies the RB by entering the rush. The result is an unblocked blitzing Safety in the B gap.

These are both creative ways to use Dime personnel to get greater productivity out of tried an true pressure concepts.