The NFL’s best hybrid players

Jacks of all trades are finding themselves more employable than ever in the NFL, whether it's a defensive lineman who can wreak havoc in multiple gaps or a slot corner who can also deal with top outside WRs. Here are the NFL’s top 10 hybrid players. 
The NFL’s best hybrid players
The NFL’s best hybrid players /

The NFL's switch from generalization to positional specialization has never been more pronounced, and it seems to be even more so every season. In 2015, teams played in sub-packages on 65% of their downs, which means that what was once known as the base defense for any team (straight 4–3 or 3–4) is no longer the norm. With that change comes a desperate need for players who can do many things very well. Jacks of all trades will find themselves more employable than ever, whether it's a defensive lineman who can wreak havoc in multiple gaps, a slot corner who can also deal with top outside receivers, or a running back good enough with routes to be a major concern in the passing game.

Our top 10 hybrid players reside mostly on the defensive side of the ball, because that's where so many paradigm shifts have happened over the last decade.

Just missed the cut

Patrick Chung, Patriots: Chung plays a linebacker/safety hybrid that has him rolling deep in coverage at times, but his primary role is to help enforce against the run and short pass. Like Tyrann Mathieu, his presence creates an unwelcome variable for enemy offenses.

The next big thing

Allen Hurns, Jaguars: We don’t cover slot receivers who also play outside in this piece because there is a whole list of slot guys upcoming. But Hurns is a specifically interesting case—he ran 37% of his routes in the slot last season, and he's equally strong with the kinds of outside vertical routes the Jaguars prefer. Look for him to perhaps become a new style of hybrid receiver—the guy who moves equally to the slot from outside before he's relegated there by size or age.


Published
Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.