Peterson said the Dolphins' success last season shows the importance of unconventional thinking in the NFL.
"It is hugely important and that answer is apparent when you look at last year's Miami Dolphins," he said. "They brought in Bill Parcells and he totally re-structured that team and the front office. He instituted a new philosophy and the coaches had a new attitude that 'Hey, we'll try anything to win, because we can't do much worse than last year.' So they bring in a bunch of hybrid WR/RBs to run the Wildcat and look where it got them: 11-5 from 1-15 the previous season."
Peterson said not every unconventional strategy is automatically good, though.
"Obviously there are cases for the opposite as well, mainly the Oakland Raiders," he said. "Al Davis has run that franchise into the ground by trying to be unconventional and he's showed that, when taken to extremes, it can be a negative philosophy as well."
One case where being unconventional thinking has worked out brilliantly can be found in Pittsburgh, where defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau's zone blitz tactics have helped make the Steelers a consistently strong team for most of the past two decades. The zone blitz involves rushing linebackers and defensive backs who would normally be in pass coverage and dropping linemen into coverage to fill their roles. It often confuses quarterbacks as to where the pressure is coming from, leading to sacks and interceptions. Frank Mineo, who writes for the Steelers' blog Behind the Steel Curtain under the pseudonym "drinkyourmilkshake", said LeBeau's innovations have been crucial to the team's success.
"LeBeau's knowledge and propensity for innovation took the Steelers' defence and, within a few short years, turned them into a dominant force," he said. "(He) has kept the defence relevant and exceptional. Even when LeBeau left the Steelers to become head coach of the Bengals, the entire time his schemes remained along with his coaching disciples and allowed the Steelers' defence to remain one of the top units in the league. LeBeau is referred to as 'Coach Dad' by his players and it's clear that the respect they have for him is immense."
Mineo said gimmicks aren't necessary for NFL success, but unconventional thinking is.
"I don't think teams need to rely on trick plays and cheap gimmicks to be successful, but it is extremely important to take risks and think outside the box," he said. "The Steelers are clearly a team who do that and I think it would be foolish to ignore that as part of the reason for their sustained success over the years ... The Steelers used Wildcat-type formations long before it was popular, go against the grain in terms of spending lots of money on high priced free agents, and also trust their coaches like no other franchise over the past few decades. The teams who are successful run their teams how they want and stay away from following the trends of other teams."
Many innovations have a short shelf life in the NFL before opposing teams figure out how to crack them, but LeBeau's zone blitz is still going strong almost two decades after its inception. Mineo said that's likely because it was a refinement of an established idea, rather than something completely new.
"I think part of the reason why it has been able to sustain its relevance is because the zone blitz was less of an innovation and more of an improvement on the 3-4 defensive scheme that has been effective for many years," he said. "LeBeau designed the scheme to cut down on risks by disguising defenders to increase the efficiency of his blitzes without committing additional men and therefore creating pressure without exposing weaknesses. He has basically perfected the 3-4 defence, and perfection rarely goes out of style."
Perfection is oft-imitated, though. The 3-4, which features three defensive linemen and four linebackers in base schemes, used to be a rare defensive alignment. Prompted by the success of teams like the Steelers, the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots, more and more teams are switching to 3-4 schemes all the time, though, most recently Kansas City and Green Bay.
Mineo said having more 3-4 teams in the league will increase the competition for players who fit those schemes, perhaps making the scheme more difficult to run.
"Teams like the Ravens, Steelers, and Patriots have had their pick of the litter when it comes to finding the right players to fit their mold partially because there were so few teams running the 3-4 scheme in the past," he said. "As more teams start to use the system, it is only natural to assume that teams will have a harder time finding the right players to continue their defensive dominance."
Mineo said the wrinkles each team adds will help, though, and the next big defensive trend may lure teams away from the 3-4.
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