Originally Posted by Megatron96
First of all, and perhaps most importantly, I NEVER, ever, said "do like NE."
I've always said, "we aren't NE; we aren't based on a top-5 defense and a patchwork offense. The NFL has changed (in large part because of Andy Reid), so let's go the other way and have a top-3 offense and we can win SBs consistently as long as we have a top-12 or so defense."
And in my defense, Andy and Veach has consistently preached "more weapons for Pat," since he became a starter. Until this offseason.
Now back to the Tyreek thing. Yes, DCs adjust and OCs counter every year, we all know that, but thanks for bringing that up.
However, Tyreek during his time with KC was mostly a deep threat WR, though he could and did run shorter routes a fair amount.
But DCs adjusted to his deep threat ability by almost unanimously going to some type of 2-high shell coverage, and defending the deepest zones of the field, essentially giving away the shorter zones, because Tyreek just wasn't as efficient there.
in other words, they were banking on the idea that Tyreek would eventually try to go deep, no matter what gyrations he might go through underneath initially.
Hill also was just a smaller stature guy with a smaller catch radius, so there were things he wasn't great at, like back shoulder catches, beating press on the slant, etc. so often Pat chose not to throw those passes.
What I'm saying is that as great as Hill was, he was also limited in some ways as a WR, that DCs didn't really have to concern themselves with. What that allowed DCs to do often was simply put his fastest DBs on Tyreek, as opposed to the best DB, which he could then use on Travis, or Sammy, as an example.
Put a prototypical WR1 like a Hopkins/Jefferson/McLaurin/etc. and DCs can't just bracket the guy with fast but less talented DBs. DCs would be forced to respect that WR as a legit threat anywhere on the field, in ways that weren't as problematic for them when Hill was our WR1.
Especially if that WR wasn't a volume WR, but a every efficient WR, like a D. Adams or DHop. The 2-high thing wouldn't work, because that defense works best against deep threats, and not nearly as well vs. big, physical, press man-beating WRs that can run the entire route tree underneath in traffic, and have large catch radiuses to make the QB's accuracy less of an issue.
I mean, this is why Sammy was so effective when he was healthy. DCs went with the 2-high shell to combat Hill's deep threat ability, and tried to go 1v1 with their DB1/2 on Sammy. When he was healthy, that defense just didn't work as well, because Watkins would burn 1v1 coverage more often than not.
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