Gus Bradley Glossary: The Responsibilities of the Strong Safety

While today's article isn't about a new term, we have to talk about how the strong safety position will drastically change under Gus Bradley.

The Indianapolis Colts have made a new hire at defensive coordinator, as they have agreed to terms with long time coach Gus Bradley. In this new series for the site, I will be defining some important terms for this defense to give you all a better understanding of them when they pop up in future articles.

Today's article is going to be a little different, as most of the people reading this understand what the strong safety position is.

In today's piece, though, I will redefine this term and talk about how it differs in Bradley's defense from the defense we have seen under Matt Eberflus.

More Alignments in the Box

The biggest adjustment from a MOFO defense (Eberflus) to a MOFC defense (Bradley) is the safety play. Rather than having two high safeties on just about every play, one of the safeties will play more around the line of scrimmage in the box.

In today's piece, we are going to compare some alignments and snap percentages between Khari Willis and Raiders' safety Johnathan Abram from 2021. Strictly talking about snaps in the box last year (essentially as a pseudo-linebacker), Abram saw 52% of his overall snap count at this spot.

Khari Willis, on the other hand, only saw 39% of his defensive snaps in the box. The way that Abram was used in most nickel and dime situations was as the team's third linebacker. Here is a picture example of where the strong safety typically will line up in base defense in an Over call (which is nickel nowadays).

From this position, Abram can either play man with the tight end, fill as a linebacker in the box, or spot-drop to a robber zone (or man-match zone with the slot/tight end on the inside).

The strong safety will have all the roles and responsibilities as a WILL linebacker or slot corner in these looks. Abram was mostly used in run defense, due to his aggressive play style, and to drop into the flats against any routes near the line of scrimmage.

The strong safety would also sometimes line up on the end of the line of scrimmage in Under calls. Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

While Abram didn't see a ton of snaps from this look, it is another way that the strong safety is used around the line of scrimmage in run support. From this spot, Abram can, again, run with the tight end in man or drop into his zone assignment.

Overall, the strong safety is more of a traditional player that lines up in the box in this defense. Rather than playing interchangeable two-high players, Bradley believes more in strict roles for these players to excel at their particular skill sets.

That is the main reason why we saw Abram, a former first round pick, have a career-best year in 2021 in this defense:

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Pass Coverage Responsibilities

This is the area where Willis will see his role change the most. Abram saw 25% of his overall defensive snaps from the slot corner position in 2021. Willis saw just 9% from that same position this past season under Eberflus.

Willis will be asked to be in the box more, and he will be asked to line up over slot receivers and split out tight ends more in the passing game. Here is where Abram typically lined up in most passing situations in 2021:

This position is fairly versatile for a safety. He can either play the receiver in straight up man coverage, drop into a deep or intermediate zone, or play man-match with that receiver if the receiver breaks vertical.

The strong safety will have a lot more responsibilities, but it typically won't be as a deep zone player. Abram only logged 12% of his snaps at deep safety last year. Willis, on the other hand, saw 35% of his snaps back there.

Willis will be asked to be in more man situations and in more situations where he has to turn and run with receivers, but it will take him away from those deep responsibilities that he did struggle with at times this past season.

Willis Will Thrive in this Role

The player that benefits the most out of every defender on the Colts from this defensive change is Khari Willis. He is a fine player in a two-high role, but he was certainly not playing to his strengths every time he covered a deep half of the field.

Under Bradley, Willis will be able to attack the run with much more freedom, play up in man coverage at a higher rate, and simply be tasked with assignments that he is more equipped to take on.

Willis was a solid safety under Matt Eberflus, but I think we will see a completely different player in 2022. He will finally be able to get into the role that he was always destined to play in the NFL.

Overall, the strong safety position is drastically changing for the Indianapolis Colts. Bradley's defense produced a career-best year for Jonathan Abram in 2021 and I fully expect it to do the same for Khari Willis in 2022.

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