What Are The Pros and Cons of a Base Dime Defense for the Browns? Jim Mora Jr. Gives His Take

The Cleveland Browns could be going to a base dime defense if Joe Woods gets the personnel he wants. What are the pros and cons of such a move? Jim Mora Jr. weighs in with his thoughts.

With so much investment made on the offensive side of the ball, the Cleveland Browns have an opportunity to transform their defense. Joe Woods, the team's defensive coordinator has said he would like to run a base dime defense with three safeties.

What are the pros and cons to an approach? I asked Jim Mora Jr., most recently the head coach of UCLA, but also was a head coach for the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks. Most importantly for the purposes of this conversation was his extensive background working with defensive backs.

With the spread offense and utilizing more receivers, regardless of whether they are tight ends, running backs or actual wide receivers, puts stress on defenses to be able to match up.

Theoretically, the disadvantage is the ability for teams to line up and pound the football against smaller defenses.

The Browns appear to be trying to mitigate that loss of size with a big defensive line up front and bigger than average safeties. Having Myles Garrett is a massive luxury, but whether it was Olivier Vernon, Adrian Clayborn or their pursuit of some free agents with heft, the goal is to protect the second level and enable them to fly around and make plays.

The Tennessee Titans are seemingly designed to go against this movement to smaller defense, but the Browns were able to fluster them with their defensive line, snuffing out the running game as they built up what proved to be an insurmountable lead.

The Atlanta Falcons went too small with their defense and it bit them badly as they couldn't stop anything. They had tiny, fast edge rushers, smaller linebackers that could run fast but teams would just run them over.

It's a delicate balance to strike and the Browns may have a way to do it if they can identify the right personnel.

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