Reading the New Defense returns for its third season at Footballguys.com. The column examines how new defensive coordinators affect the fantasy prospects of individual defensive players for the upcoming season.
RELATED: See our take on the new New Orleans Saints defense here.
Eleven NFL defenses have new coordinators in 2024. While three of them offer general scheme consistency year over year, eight more promise significant changes to their new environments in 2025. Two of these coordinators' track records suggest they will change between even- and odd-front nomenclature.
Jeff Ulbrich Returns to Atlanta
Atlanta's new defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich, coordinated the Jets' defense from 2021 to 2024. In 2025, he'll reprise his role as the Falcons' defensive coordinator, a role he held on an interim basis in 2020 under then-interim head coach Raheem Morris. Ulbrich ascended to the role in 2020 from the position of linebackers coach, for which he was hired to in 2015.
Ulbrich's units have used 4-3 nomenclature throughout the past ten seasons. The 2024 Falcons operated a 3-4 defense under first-time NFL coordinator Jimmy Lake. Lake arrived in Atlanta with head coach Raheem Morris, whom the Falcons hired away from the Los Angeles Rams.
Morris and his assistant Lake led a 3-4 Rams defense to success that earned them promotions. Their success, however, didn't translate in Atlanta. Morris dismissed Lake after one season and turned to his former colleague Ulbrich. The Jets posted top-five seasons in total defense in 2022 and 2023 under Ulbrich, using a more aggressive approach.
4-3 or Not to Be?
New Atlanta defensive coordinator explains that the labels "3-4" and "4-3" are no longer relevant. Ulbrich's Falcons will use both looks in an effort to counter diverse offensive attacks.
This won't stop some fantasy football platforms from reclassifying Atlanta's edge defenders from outside linebacker to defensive end. Ulbrich's depth charts have indicated that his defense is a 4-3 throughout his tenure in New York. The change would be welcome news to IDP fantasy gamers.
Atlanta's pass rushers designated as "linebackers" were useless in 2024. In 2025, rookies Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. make for interesting depth options as DEs on fantasy rosters. Their position coach, Jaquies Smith, however, carries the title "Outside Linebackers Coach." If your fantasy platform is still parsing out defensive ends and outside linebackers from edge defenders, it's performing an anachronistic, futile exercise.
Scheme Differences That Matter
Almost all NFL defenses utilize a 4-2-5 nickel subpackage for the majority of their defensive reps. Unlike Tom Landry's 4-3 Flex defense, the defensive ends line up wide of the offensive tackles in a vanilla nickel subpackage. Twenty-first-century NFL defenses differ from one another in three primary ways that impact IDP statistical output.
Zone Vs. Man Coverage
Zone coverage by a defense significantly improves the inside linebackers' rate of tackling per snap. A coach's historical tendencies and the personnel available to him for the upcoming season empower us to make educated guesses as to how often a defense will use zone coverage and, to an extent, how efficiently the inside linebackers will make tackles.
#FFIDP - Most efficient coverage schemes for LB tackling in 2024:
— Jon Macri (@PFF_Macri) June 9, 2025
Cover-2: 15.8%
Cover-6: 15.7%
Cover-4: 14.9%
Cover-3: 14.5%
AVERAGE LB TKL EFFICIENCY: 13.1%
Cover-1: 10.4%
Cover-0: 7.9%
2-MAN: 7.5%
Reminder: Zone-heavy defenses are a cheat code for IDP while man-heavy ones… https://t.co/FXZdUm3Jdd
One High Vs. Two High Safeties
Two-high coverages have received disproportionate attention from mainstream media in this decade. Only the Vikings showed it more than half the time in 2024. Two-high coverages have, however, grown in use over the past decade and made volume tacklers at the safety position harder to identify. Reduced competition from safeties in the middle of the field marginally improves inside linebackers' tackling prospects.
Pro Football Focus records tackle efficiency (i.e., tackles per snap), and PFF's Jon Macri shares this information each summer. The data set for safeties through 2024 is under development.
#FFIDP - Safety tackle efficiency by defensive alignment (2021-2023), per @PFF:
— Jon Macri (@PFF_Macri) June 4, 2024
BOX: 11.1% ?
WIDE: 10.4% ???
SLOT: 9.6% ?
-- Average: 9.1% --
DEEP: 8.5% ?
DL: 7.9% ?
Rush Strategy
Some teams ask their pass rushers to mush rush or use heavy technique, while other linemen have the green light to get upfield with reckless abandon. The former are more integral to run defense. Green-lit defensive tackles typically have higher sack upside. Situational football requires every defensive line to stand its ground in the run game from time to time, as this Jets rep under Ulbrich illustrates.
Quinnen Williams keeps it simple & violent. Quickly strikes/sheds his blocker & gets the TFL! #StopTheRun #TakeFlight pic.twitter.com/EVZ0SaNudN
— DLineVids (@dlinevids1) December 29, 2023
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