The Rams Use a Four-Safety Look Versus Seattle

 By John Turney 

Today, in a 17-16 squeaker of a win against the Seattle Seahawks the Rams used a four-safety defense they used a bit the game before against Green Bay. But it was more of a "thing" in today's game, appearing more than a dozen times whereas it was less than ten against Green Bay. 

Nickelback Cobie Durant was out with an injury so defensive coordinator Raheem Morris made some adjustments. At safety, Quentin Lake started at right safety in place of Russ Yeast but that only lasted a series. After that veteran John Johnson III took over at right safety. 

In the nickel package Lake played one slot and Russ Yeast came off the bench and played dime linebacker or "moneybacker", the Rams term for that position.  A review of the All-22 film that comes out tomorrow will yield some more information, no doubt, as to who did exactly what. 

Against Green Bay, it was Johnson III and Lake in the box or in the slot with Yeast and Fuller deep so essentially Yeast and Johnson II exchanged roles against the Seahawks. 

But here is a screenshot of the first time the four-safety scheme was used yesterday and below it are two shots of a couple of times in the past the Rams have also used four safety schemes—1985  and 1990.

In 1985 against the Cowboys in the Divisional Playoff Game, the Rams used Jerry Gray (then a safety -- he converted to cornerback the next season) in the slot and Vince Newsome as a linebacker with the starting safeties Nolan Cromwell and Johnnie Johnson deep.

In 1990 Fritz Shurmur used the "Big nickel" against the San Francisco 49ers in a 28-17 win. There he used Anthony Newman in the slot and Michael Stewart as the linebacker with Pat Terrell and Vince Newsome as the safeties. 

Then there was 1980. The Rams defensive coordinator Bud Carson had a couple of different looks. Here in the 1980 Wild Card game in Dallas (the Rams lost in a blowout), he used Ivory Sully as a linebacker and Jeff Delaney as a middle-of-the-field safety in his dime package. The starting safeties, Nolan Cromwell and Johnnie Johnson would play slots or one might play deep one-half with Delaney.

In this first shot, Sully is out on the tight end who is in the slot. Johnnie Johnson is back with Delaney. Cromwell is off-screen in the slot. 

Here Sully is the linebacker, Johnson the slot on near, Cromwell slot up top and Delaney (out of shot) at deep safety. LeRoy Irvin (usual starter Pat Thomas was out as he was in the playoff game that appears in the shot above) and Rod Perry are the corners and Joe Harris is a linebacker in the 4-1-6 package.

In 2011 the Rams used four safeties some. Craig Dahl, James Butler, Quintin Mikell, and Darian Stewart were the four with Mikell and Butler the deep players and Dahl and Stewart closer to the line of scrimmage. Stewart was often the dime 'backer and Dahl the slot in this package but there was variation. Dahl also played a ton of nickel linebacker in the three-safety package. In that, he was basically a linebacker and played that role for the Rams for several years.

Head coach Steve Spagnuolo, the defense's architect though not the coordinator, called for this package a little over 30 times.

Here Stewart and Dahl basically changed spots—

The conversion of safety Mark Barron to linebacker when the Rams acquired him from the Buccaneers in 2014 does raise questions. 

Was he a linebacker? A safety? Well, both, depending on the year, we'd suppose.

This is 2015. Barron started as a linebacker most of the year. This is a third-and-long and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has him and three other safeties on the field. But he's playing deep in this situation. Maurice Alexander is the "linebacker", not Barron. Cody Davis is deep along with Rodney McLeod is in his usual free safety position. 

Is Barron a linebacker here? Is this four safeties? Three safeties and a linebacker? Three safeties and a hybrid? You choose. 

Here is 2017, he'd been converted to linebacker so this one probably does not really count. But you can see Lemarcus Joyner, the starting free safety as a slot and (out of the shot) and Cody Davis is in the middle of the field. Maurice Alexander is a strong safety. However, in the spirit of what the defense is doing it's similar to what a four-safety defense is in terms of skill set and alignment. Essentially defensive coordinator Wade Phillips is doing the same thing as all the other examples here.

Perhaps the Rams' most famous use of four safeties on the field at the same time is the 1979 Playoff Game in Dallas, a 21-19 victory over the Cowboys. 

In that game, the Rams used their seven-defensive back "Dollar" package. There were three cornerbacks (one playing linebacker) and four safeties (one playing slot corner and one playing linebacker).

The safety who played linebacker was Sully, the same guy as the example in 1980 earlier in this post but in this case, he was the MIKE, not the dime backer. Nolan Cromwell was playing slot -- again same as in 1980. The 1979 safeties were Dave Elmendorf and Eddie Brown. 

The cornerback who played dime linebacker was Dwayne O'Steen.  In reality, it was a nickel defense with two defensive backs playing linebacker. 

Here is a shot of the Dollar defense—

Earlier in the year the Rams used four safeties against the Chargers. They lost the game badly so it didn't fool Dan Fouts at all. We have not done a snap count but the Rams used this sub-package quite a few times that day.

It's 4-1-6 personnel in a 4-2-5 alignment with Jim Youngblood as the MIKE and has Sully as an outside linebacker.

One of the big plays in the 40-16 loss -- a 65-yard touchdown pass from Fouts to John Jefferson was against that personnel grouping. 

There have been some others and we'll update as we go through games to find some still shots to illustrate them.