Inside Brandon Staley’s Early-Down Solution to Heavy Personnel
How New Orleans utilized boundary alignments and two-high shells to finish 5th in defensive stops without compromising coverage integrity.
The 2025 New Orleans Saints defense might have been some of Brandon Staley’s best work. Once seen as a defensive contemporary to the wonderkids of Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, Staley crashed and burned in LA, as the Chargers could never get off the ground under his leadership.
Staley took a year's “sabbatical” from calling defenses and worked under Shanahan in 2024 as an assistant head coach and defensive assistant. The move gave him a fresh perspective on what went wrong in LA, reset his ego, and gave him a front-row seat to what makes a modern offensive genius uncomfortable.
Staley, along with his mentor Vic Fangio, is credited with starting the NFL’s Two-High Revolution in 2020. With limited experience, McVay hired him in 2020 to raise the floor (and ceiling) of the Rams' defense while providing a daily challenge as LA retooled its offense.
With a “second chance” in New Orleans, under the bright offensive mind of Head Coach Kellen Moore, Staley would again attempt to implement one of the most influential schemes in football. With a refreshed mindset, Staley approached an aging front seven and a young secondary with an install strategy ultra-focused on individual techniques.
Unlike his tenure in LA, where a common criticism was his overreliance on scheme, Staley focused on building a solid technical foundation rather than massive playbook volume. That focus is what created one of the best defenses in the back half of the year.
After a Week 14 win against the Buccaneers, Staley explained his year-long “slow burn” process, and in reflection, everything worked out the way it was supposed to:
“[W]hen you're trying to install a philosophy and install a scheme... and you're not getting the results early... Have you learned over time to be like don't try to just put a quick band-aid on it? We're installing something for the long term and it's going to play out in month three, month four.”
One of the hallmarks of the Fangio system is a reliance on sub-packages that feature complicated coverage checks. The philosophy within the system is that coverages are used to solve problems, not pressures or front structures.
To be complex in the backend, a defense needs a stable of DBs; thus, the reliance on Nickel. But the package can run most of its structures from Base, which is a force multiplier in today’s offensive climate, as teams “cosplay” heavy packages only to pass the ball.
A Pivot to Base
Last season, the Eagles finished fourth in Nickel usage at 75% of their plays; New Orleans finished 23rd at 58% (FTN). That departure from a stylistic philosophy was mostly focused on matching personnel to the Saints’ opponents.
For context, in Staley’s last year with the Chargers (‘23), he only ran Base personnel on ~23% of his plays. That year, the league average was 21%. In ‘25, that number jumped to 27% league-wide, and Staley more than doubled his Base usage this past season.
When teams used 11-personnel, the Saints mostly responded with Nickel. Alontae Taylor (Titans) moved inside, and rookie Quincy Riley took over at Field CB.
Against 12- and 13-personnel, Staley chose to stay in Base (3-4), a decision that runs counter to what NFL defenses typically want to do, as more teams look to live in Nickel. But for most teams, the problem is personnel; there just aren’t that many “Star” Nickels who can line up near the box and cover premium receivers in the slot.
Staley used his Base personnel to counter early-down, heavy-personnel run games. For the Saints, the pivot to more “Base” was a stabilizing force against heavy personnel. Against 12-personnel, the difference in EPA/rush was wide when compared to Nickel. Staley wasn’t willing to pay that “Nickel Tax” often conceded by modern defenses.
Success Rate Allowed (+EPA%): 35.8% | Rank: 15th
Defensive Stops: 86 | Rank: 5th
Tackles for Loss or No Gain (TFL+NG): 24 | Rank: 5th (PFF)
While the overall run metrics hovered near the middle of the NFL, their execution metrics were elite due to the volume at which they played Base personnel. The Saints finished the season ranking fifth in Stops (zero or negative plays) and net TFLs. Being able to stop the run efficiently allowed Staley to focus more time on the coverage aspects of his defense, which are the literal engine of the system.
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Below the line, I break down exactly how Brandon Staley protected his 3-4 front from early-down play-action concepts without sacrificing run fits. Unlock the full article to access:
The complete data breakdown of the Saints’ pass-efficiency metrics in Base.
The schematic rules of the “Will 6” toolbox (boundary reduction, Cover 6, and Quarter-Quarter-Half mechanics).
The exclusive film room features 3 pass distributions and 2 run fits.
