Vikings

The Vikings Are Going To Play Positionless Football This Year

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

In this year’s draft, it quickly became apparent that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah prioritized young players with high RAS scores. While youth and athleticism are two things Adofo-Mensah looks for when scouting players, he also prioritized positional versatility.

Positional versatility can come in a variety of forms. For some players, it means rotating into multiple spots despite lacking all the physical characteristics to play one position 100% of the time. Such is the case for rookie linebacker Brian Asamoah, a smaller weak-side linebacker who moves like a defensive back. Players like Asamoah would traditionally get a bad rap, dismissed as “tweeners.” The word has a negative connotation that implies the player doesn’t fit the traditional archetype of any one position.

However, recently there has been a growing desire for guys who can play positionless football. The same athletes once labeled as tweeners are now considered hybrid players. Coaches have leveraged their unorthodox styles and body types to create and/or prevent mismatches on the field.

Lately, “positionless” or “positionless football” have become buzzwords that pundits like throwing around. So, what does it mean to be positionless?

As Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule describes it, positionless football doesn’t necessarily require a player to play multiple positions. There are only so many guys like Isaiah Simmons or Tyrann Mathieu who can play positionless football in its truest form. For Rhule, It’s about getting the best 11 players on the field together and devising ways to make the unit work as a collective while harnessing each player’s strengths.

“I try to think of everything as positionless football in my mind,” Rhule said, “because I think when you start saying ‘This guy has to play this,’ then you’re never playing the next best player.”

Identifying the best 11 players and putting them on the field is anything but a linear task. Even though depth charts provide a general idea of how players are ranked, they are not designed to rank players by traits. Coaches need to figure out what each player is good at and put them in situations to succeed.

For example, the Vikings have listed Lewis Cine as a backup, but he is easily the fastest safety on the team. Cine’s speed becomes an asset when you need someone who can cover faster tight ends. So the team puts players like Cine into sub-packages to get the most out of guys who aren’t starters. Ed Donatell has been exploring ways to get Cine on the field in three-safety lineups throughout the offseason program.

The Vikings are also exploiting mismatches by lining up Danielle Hunter and Za’Darius Smith inside against offensive guards. Hunter and Smith both play outside linebacker, so moving them inside is a form of playing positionless football, even if that isn’t the most innovative way of going about it.

Innovation has abounded in the college ranks, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Coaches like Lincoln Riley combine option plays with Air Raid concepts to put stress on defenses. Yet some defensive-minded coaches like Travis Johansen have found new and innovative ways to confuse opposing offenses by playing positionless football. Johansen’s solution to stopping these option-heavy offenses is to use a dime front — only he replaces the slot corners with fast and hard-hitting safeties who can prevent the run.

Johansen’s exotic scheme inspired copycats, and the Minnesota Vikings may be one of them. Before becoming the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers, Mike Pettine spent time studying film with former Ohio State and LSU defensive coordinators Greg Schiano and Dave Aranda. Their goal was to combat the option-heavy offenses that are becoming increasingly common in the NFL. Johansen’s safety-heavy defense was likely among those studied.

This year, the Vikings drafted Cine in the first round despite having Harrison Smith and Cam Bynum on the roster. Early in training camp, the Vikings were in a big dime look, with Cine operating as a linebacker. Furthermore, when asked how much the game has changed during his time in the league, along with switching from a 4-3 to 3-4 to positionless football, Ed Donatell said, “Yeah, the game’s changed a lot, you know, I’ve been in the league 30 years, and your job on defense is to adapt. We’re still doing that with the quarterback runs, the shotgun, and the zone read, [which has] made us adjust, and it’s ongoing in this league.”

Donatell mentioned trying to figure out how to stop the same zone reads that Pettine was studying with Schiano and Aranda. Therefore, it’s not too far-fetched to assume that Pettine and Donatell took inspiration from Johansen’s scheme and others like it.

The Vikings are among the teams following the trend of positionless football. It’s evident not only in the kind of players they drafted but the sub-packages they have been experimenting with and the young and innovative college coaches they’ve taken influence from. Ed Donatell and Mike Pettine may be longtime coaches in this league, but they are constantly searching for new ways to counter opposing offenses.

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