For the 10 millionth time.
Striker is a HYBRID position, which means, you can put a Safety or LB or (in some cases) a CB at that spot.
A Striker is a just an extra defender that you can leave on the field when you’re in Nickel coverage, as opposed to having to sub in a S in spot of LB or sub in a LB in spot of S, you can have a guy on the field who can do both things.
In the 4-2-5 Defense the Striker replaces the Sam Backer in the 4-3, so instead of having 3 traditional style LB’s (Will, Mike & Sam), you have a Mike, a Will & a HYBRID, although you can replace the Weak side backer with a Hyrbid too if you want.
Huff is a natural Sam Backer, basically the same position that Zach McCloud played his True Freshman year in 2016, but once Manny went more with the 4-2-5 base instead of the 4-3 heavy we were playing in 2016 it changed the dynamic of how they use the LB’s. So now we essentially have had an overcrowded LB room for just 2 LB spots.
Moving Huff to Striker isn’t a bad decision because he can add versatility to a versatile position, meaning he’s not a Rome Finely/Gil Frierson style STK, they were Safety Hybrids, he’s a LB STK which means he can be used in sub-packages as a Blitzer & play more heavy against the run. He’s a big LB that can move, so either drop him coverage against the flats or pin his ears back & let him help the pass rush collapsing the pocket.
He’s an athletic kid that you don’t need to bog down with overly complex reads as a traditional Backer, simplify the game for him & use his athleticism to your advantage.
This is what will make Manny’s job easier, is having kids like Huff, James Williams & Chase Smith etc & finding ways to utilize them, get’em on the field & let them make plays, we have a Defense full of kids who are multipurpose players but they’re not being put in a position to thrive because Manny & Baker (when he was here) wanted to run this hyper complex Zone Defense that made guys 2nd guess & question their every step post snap.
The more athletes you have on Defense the less you have to try to confuse your opponents with Zone Dog Blitzes, Manny’s Defenses are most effective when he can overwhelm the OL with heavy pressure upfront & speed the QB’s processing time getting the offense behind schedule. They’ll either get sacked, be forced to throw an incompletion because they didn’t have enough time to set their feet or make a bad throw that results in a turnover & the easiest way for the Defense to do that is to have as many matchup problems as you can create for the OL & the best way to create matchup nightmares for the OL is to make them have to encode who they’re gonna block when we’re bringing 6-7 man fronts pre snap.
