All Seahawks

Seahawks' New 'CLEO' Coverage, Part 2: Successful 2021 Application

During the 2021 season, the Seahawks ran a new pass coverage called "CLEO." In a four-part miniseries, Matty F. Brown explores the coverage's history, makeup, and success. Part 2 looks at the successful coverage application in 2021 to triumph over the old Cover 3 beaters.

Matty F. Brown

In this story:

The 2021 Seattle Seahawks ran a new pass coverage for their defense. Coach Pete Carroll is often thought of as a conservative figure, yet the defensive guru and his staff devised a contemporary solution to slow quarterbacks and offenses through the air: the “CLEO” defense.

This was a middle field open, zone-matching, nickel pass coverage that suited Seattle’s personnel and compensated for how offenses looked to move the ball versus the Seahawks. With multiple reports of Carroll desiring a more aggressive and attack-minded 2022 defense, "CLEO" should be here to stay in Seattle's defensive system under new defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt. This four-part series will cover CLEO's overview, 2021 application and future.

Part 1: Overview and CLEO Past

Part 2: 2021’s Successful CLEO Application

The 2021 application of CLEO pass coverage proved successful. The move was born out of wanting to cover tighter and stop the old Cover 3 beaters; CLEO achieved that. Seattle was able to better leverage the difficult-for-three-deep, four-underneath route combos it saw in 2021 and past seasons. CLEO was an excellent coverage answer for offenses.

Dagger

Let’s start with the Seahawks defense's greatest bane: the dagger concept and deadlier variants. Seattle’s weakness in Cover 3 versus the route combination became notorious, a meme-level struggle. 

This is something Seattle Overload co-host Griffin Sturgeon covered back in the 2019 offseason.

Sean McVay’s “swiss-coin” concept out of condensed trips ran off Seattle’s weak hook defender, stretched the outside leverage corner vertically, and placed the strong hook defender in a high-low conflict that regularly resulted in a lot of space. 

It was all well and good telling the strong hook defender not to take the cheese of the hitch route, but the fast-developing nature of the combination was simply too strenuous. Even with coaching points and indicators stressed, the blunt truth remained that Cover 3 defense often wasn’t functional versus this pattern. Bobby Wagner’s 2021 athletic decline didn’t help, with the linebacker kind of having to guess on stuff due to his diminished burst and make-up speed.

CLEO was the dagger savior. Even against the trickiest three receiver combinations, CLEO starred. Once dreaded, dagger was nullified.

In this Week 5 example versus the Rams, you can see the vertical hook of nickel Ugo Amadi sprint high and inside with the run-off route of slot receiver Cooper Kupp, matching the route downfield.

The vertical hook assignment sees the nickel wall from the #2 receiver to the #1 receiver, carrying any vertical route with high and inside leverage all the way down the field. They must deny the inside throw.

Matthew Stafford opened looking at backside safety Jamal Adams, who was poaching the trips side due to the three receiver set, with Seattle wanting to get five coverage defenders over the receiving three.

As Stafford’s back foot hit, his eyes had moved to his trips and the dig window. The key for the Seahawks was the narrow depth Wagner achieved as the No. 3 receiver hook player. Wagner was positioned tight and deep in the dig lane.

Stafford did not like this look, so worked back to his isolated curl route and threw the one-on-one into tight Reed coverage. Seattle would have liked to get slightly better pass rush here. It’s important to note that CLEO was in its Seahawks infancy here, with the corners still working out when to show press and what routes they would get. Adams was able to play somewhat in the isolated dig window and rallied to the hit.

This is also an excellent illustration of the disguise element this coverage presents. When Stafford saw Adams rotate down like this, the quarterback would have thought he was facing Cover 3 weak buzz pass defense, with Adams playing down into the weak hook. This is a common Seahawks pass coverage versus 3x1 formations. Instead, Stafford was given a very different look frontside to the Cover 3 he expected, with a Cover 2 corner there. 

annotation 1 cleo

Some would not consider this Week 15 concept to be dagger, yet it would have posed similar problems for Cover 3 given the in-breaking nature of the slot’s route and the high-low stress imposed by the other two receivers.

However, it was easier for Seattle out of CLEO. Amadi walled the deep, bending route of the No. 2 receiver. The underneath defenders of cloud cornerback Sidney Jones and middle linebacker Wagner were able to play the sticks on the 3rd and 7 situation. Wagner hooked to the No. 3 receiver and then rallied to the check down tackle, bringing up fourth down.

This dagger nerf example features some cool Week 18 coverage technique tweaks for opponent and formation. With the mobile Kyler Murray always a threat to break from the pocket, playing with as many eyes as possible on the quarterback is a smart approach. Arizona's bunched formation also could obfuscate the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 without an adjustment. Ultimately, this example serves as a reminder that “CLEO” is a zone-match coverage.

Wagner took his drop more shallow, which was accommodated by backside safety Josh Jones fully playing to the No. 3 receiver vertical. Jones picked up the vertical bender.

Meanwhile, Amadi dropped into more of a zoned vertical hook with heavy attention on the quarterback. His landmark was excellent: right into the No. 1 dig window, advantageously leveraged.

annotation 2 cleo

Jones got twisted around somewhat in his path to the bender route. It didn't matter. Murray by this point had seen the start of Amadi’s drop and thrown a Carlos Dunlap bull rush-hastened pass way incomplete.

The same CLEO adjustment to a condensed receiver set was present in that Week 15 Rams trip. Los Angeles tightened their No. 2 and No. 3 receivers, then switch released them while still running dagger.

The congested split of the No. 2 and No. 3 made playing inside leverage match from a vertical hook on the No. 2 difficult for Amadi. Instead, the nickel narrowed and packed his drop, not matching the skinny slot receivers but instead blanketing the dig from the outside No. 1.

Wagner shortened his final No. 3 receiver hook drop and tightened to Cooper Kupp’s sit route over the middle.

When Stafford saw Wagner staying low, he thought he had a touchdown to Ben Skowrownek running down the pipe. However, backside safety Ryan Neal was poaching and picked up Skowrownek in the low hole.

annotation 3 cleo

Stafford clutched the ball, tried to break the pocket, and was sacked by Rasheem Green working the two-way go. 

Screens

A beater Seattle experienced difficulty with in 2021 was screen passes. The receiver matchup focused nature of CLEO defense helped them in this area too. 

Take this Jordyn Brooks tackle for loss. As the quarter flat, weak No. 2 player with a B-Gap run fit on the 3rd and 11, he could play with eyes purely for the running back. Brooks waited and dipped around the blocking guard perfectly.

Brooks' CLEO aggression versus screens only increased when combined with Seattle’s nickel bear “falcon” defense, given he was placed down on the edge as the fifth defender on the line scrimmage.

On this play, you’ll see the oblivious-to-the-screen frontside coverage removed the dagger-esque window dressing. Amadi found the final No. 2 and maintained the inside, over-the-top leverage. Wagner camped underneath. Neal, meanwhile, found the No. 3. 

annotation 4 cleo

Race Routes

Seattle’s coverage versus race, crossing routes off play action has been an up-and-down experience. CLEO’s two-high nature and overall coverage spacing worked versus these concepts.

In this Week 5 example, the poaching Adams keyed the play fake quickly before picking up Kupp’s race route. By the point Kupp twisted Adams around, Stafford had clutched the football.

cleo annotation 5

Darrell Taylor capitalized on his inside move to bring down the quarterback.

Later in the same game we saw a beautiful example of how the poaching strong safety to trips can layer with the No. 3 receiver hook middle linebacker. Kupp’s route into the intermediate was high-lowed.

cleo annotation 6

Stafford was able to come backside and work the one-on-one Robert Woods comeback for the completion versus Reed’s quarter technique.

A tricky bootleg instance for the coverage arrived in the second matchup versus the Rams, with the opposition hitting their laid down flat route, the fourth route in the pattern.

The Seahawks’ coverage - essentially Cover 2 - to the field achieved excellent layering for the three-man flood they were shown, with Amadi zoning off well once his No. 2 disappeared to chip the defensive end. Seattle got five defenders to the three routes. On top of the numbers advantage, they had sound horizontal and vertical leverage on the routes. This was the layered beauty of CLEO defense.

cleo annotation 7

The issue for the Seahawks was the late developing fourth route. This required the quarters cornerback to push across the field, difficult given Jones had opted for off alignment. Or it asked Brooks to gamble, leaving the threat of the running back to run across the field to the fourth receiver.

Brooks swarmed to the football well, but he whiffed his tackle in a desperate effort. If the Rams had been in a 3x1 distribution pre-snap, it is likelier that Jones - or Neal - would have got over to the route. As it was, this example serves as a future Seattle coaching point.

The quarters side of the coverage blanketed this 49ers play action, with the Cover 3 beater of post-wheel ate up by the mid-pointing D.J. Reed in his zebra quarter and Neal in his. Brooks helped with a wheel reroute in his quarter-flat before converging on the running back check down.

cleo annotation 8

Seattle’s pass rush spacing couldn’t quite get it done up front and Jimmy Garoppolo was able to scramble. Wagner in the No. 3 receiver hook could have been quicker getting over. While Seattle had great layers for the single route on the Cover 2 side, Wagner wasn’t really involved in that. The linebacker's stiffness showed here.

Quick Game

A complaint with Seattle’s Cover 3-heavy approach was the way in which they often looked to drop to landmarks, encouraging the check down, and then break on the football underneath. This saw the coverage negatively branded as lacking in aggression - even if an “indicator” the Seahawks used was to push for width, not depth, when given quick game quarterback posture. CLEO pass defense was able to stay tight to most quick game concepts in a more obviously, and consistently, aggressive manner.

Another Week 5 example and Stafford opened to his slant-flat combination off some backfield action. The quarterback was dissuaded from this throw, with the re-setting of hard cloud corner Bless Austin to the flat and vertical hook nickel Amadi to the slant.

cleo annotation 9

Stafford came back to his over the middle sit route. Wagner stayed central as the No. 3 receiver hook player. This was likely before Seattle had stressed the push elements within the coverage. Nonetheless, as Stafford looked back to this route and throw, Wagner broke to the pass disruption. 

Here we have the Seahawks defending slant-flat towards the Cover 4 side with the No. 3 receiver hook linebacker pushing with a fast No. 3. There was nowhere for Rodgers to go with the football.

cleo annotation 10

Backside, Seattle’s matching Cover 2 got layers to the final No. 2 route of Davante Adams, Amadi training the slant high and inside with Quandre Diggs in the deep half aiding over the top. 

The Seahawks called a front and stunt in here to help them cover down to both slot receivers while running their CLEO coverage. Nose tackle Bryan Mone blew the stunt call, which allowed Aaron Rodgers to break the pocket. Fortunately, play-side end Green earned a holding call.

In this 2nd and 1 situation, the Cardinals’ condensed doubles, switch release, stick route concept was tightly covered, particularly to the quarters side that Murray chose to open towards. Brooks in the quarter flat did an excellent job breaking on the primary read.

Meanwhile, Cody Barton clamped tightly to the running back over the middle--a play he had left open the snap prior, resulting in a nine-yard gain that Seattle was happy to allow given the game situation (found later in this article).

annotation 11 cleo

Poona Ford rapidly beat his one-on-one versus the guard with an inside move, flushing Murray up in the pocket. As Murray tried to improvise a throw down the sideline to his slot, stick receiver A.J. Green, Jones lurked in his scramble-adjusted midpoint quarter. Murray was off target and the pass fell incomplete.

Wagner mentioned four-to-one-side beaters causing issues for Seattle’s Cover 3. An example of CLEO pushing with a fast No. 4 receiver well came in Week 18 versus the Cardinals’ spacing quick game concept.

Murray wanted his backside comeback versus the quarter of Jones. The quarterback declined this after Jones throttled down sharply at the break point and Kerry Hyder Jr. bull rushed his tackle backwards well.

To the four receivers, the Seahwks pushed their coverage over. Barton widened with the back release into more of a curl window. Brooks replaced him on the original No. 3 receiver sit route. This was another read for Murray removed.

cleo annotation 12

As Murray glanced to his back in the flat, the waiting Amadi broke down. Seattle had permanent defensive width in the underneath outside space with the cloud play of Reed.

Murray unsuccessfully tried to find a throw as his time ran out, with Brooks breaking on the desired route. The quarterback escaped the pocket where a holding call was drawn by Taylor, bringing up 2nd and 19. 

Sticks Hitches

The coverage’s ability to get the numerical advantage in the vertical intermediate showed up versus hitched routes, the kind of concepts offenses run at the sticks when in third and long situations.

On this 3rd and 12, Seattle got both Wagner and Amadi on Van Jefferson’s curled route in the middle of the field. This was Stafford’s primary read and, by removing this, the Seahawks’ pass rush was given the required time to generate pressure via their overload line game.

Stafford was able to escape up in the pocket and transition to Kupp’s sideline hitch route, trailed by the cloud corner Austin following an impressive squat reroute and sink with the receiver’s inside release. This is a great example of how the Cover 2 side of the coverage can disrupt a star outside receiver. 

Meanwhile, Amadi moved his coverage with Stafford’s eyes, forming a timely double on Kupp - or triple if you factor in Diggs' deep half over the top.

cleo annotation 13

The quarterback was forced to check the ball down into the flat and the Seahawks defense rallied to make the tackle short of the sticks. Unfortunately for Seattle in this situation, the officials decided to throw one of the worst flags of the season, calling Austin’s 'legal' reroute “defensive holding”. It was coach tape Cover 2 squat technique.

In this final game of the season, Arizona's four verts concept out of a 2x2 distribution was tightly covered to the matching Cover 2 side and the Cover 4 side of the CLEO coverage, even with three of the routes hitching at the sticks.

cleo annotation 14

Murray saw this play out and immediately went to hit his running back check down on the 1st and 10 situation. No. 3 receiver hook linebacker Barton could have come down sooner although was likely aware of the in-breaking slot route and that window. Note that Seattle was defending an 11-point lead with less than four minutes left to play.

Barton had his feet stopped by James Conner’s wiggle and missed his initial tackle. Seattle was able to get three tacklers on the back to bring up 2nd and short inbounds.

What is beautiful about the above CLEO examples is how they fit Seattle’s 2021 coverage group. The aging Wagner - speed, burst, and lateral agility dwindling - covered less space and bodies in CLEO than Cover 3 would typically have tasked. CLEO’s No. 3 receiver hook assignment essentially allowed Wagner to focus on just one threat at a time with a linear mindset.

Amadi’s intelligence with disguise and route pick-ups shined in the vertical hook role. Adams played in smaller space in flat-footed techniques that suited his aggression while allowing him to roam. Diggs’ ball-hawking range worked in the deep half. And the numerous cornerbacks who saw 2021 action were free to disrupt receivers with the insurance of coverage behind them.

The similar two-high presentation of CLEO with the Seahawks’ 2021 ways of running Cover 3, leaning their deep safety Diggs to one seam and keeping Adams into the boundary, presented a real disguise problem for opposing offenses.

So, CLEO was undoubtedly a success in 2021. Nevertheless, it's vital to acknowledge that no defensive approach has the answers for everything; there is no fix-all solution and tactical perfection does not exist.

That’s what the next CLEO installment will cover: the ways in which offenses looked to attack the perceived weak-points of CLEO in 2021 and how the coverage performed in these high-stress situations. Some of these ideas may well become established CLEO beaters in 2022, while others have already been tossed into the schematic trashcan. 

 

Published
Matty F. Brown
MATTY F. BROWN

Based and born in the UK, Matty has coached football for over 5 years, including stints as a scout, defensive coordinator, and Wide Receiver/DB Coach. Asides from an Xs and Os obsession, he enjoys: other sports; eating out; plus following Newcastle United. He graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2018 with a BA in Modern History.

Home/Seahawks News