NFC South coaching schemes for the 2021 season

NFC South coaching schemes : It’s important to understand how an offense designs itself before taking any fantasy draft. A player can have all the quality in the world, but the one thing that will matter for you to beat your opponents is how he’s going to be deployed during a game or over the course of a season. When we’re talking about fantasy value, this kind of information is extremely valuable to have an advantage over the rest of your fantasy league.

It’s not a nerdy thing to understand how a specific offense plays, it’s tendencies and formations. It gives you a better idea of how a player will produce, when it’s the right place to draft him, and about his value. Those pieces of information also help you through the waiver wire, because no fantasy league is won in August during the draft.

Without further ado, let’s check the offensive schemes from the NFC South teams for the 2021 season to help you with your fantasy draft:

Atlanta Falcons: Heavy outside-zone and deep play-action, but deep from the shotgun as well

It’s not a surprise to see what the Falcons hope to achieve by hiring Arthur Smith as their head coach. The former Tennessee Titans coordinator employs a ton of outside-zone in his running game and likes to call deep shots when passing the ball, whether with play-action or not. This is the same scheme that prompted Atlanta to the Super Bowl in 2016 when Kyle Shanahan was still the Falcons’ offensive coordinator.

With Matt Ryan at the helm, who’s still one of the best deep passers in the league, we’ll see a lot of play-action with two deep routes intertwined, which projects as a good fantasy sign for Kyle Pitts and Calvin Ridley, Atlanta’s main weapons. The Falcons don’t have a powerful downhill runner such as Derrick Henry, but Mike Davis can also be a sleeper considering his rushing ability for zone blocking and his ability to receive passes out of the backfield.

Carolina Panthers: Average formations, win with execution rather than scheme, all about the players

Joe Brady‘s, the Panthers’ offensive coordinator, was a hot name for NFL teams hoping to modernize their offense back in 2020. Now in his second season with Carolina, we may see a better version of his scheme with a less conservative quarterback in Sam Darnold.

Brady’s offenses don’t really have a tendency in terms of scheme, as he often tailors his play calls to the players’ strengths. He will have a much better cast in 2021 to show what he can do, as Sam Darnold has a stronger arm than Teddy Bridgewater, takes more risks, and will throw it deep for Robby Anderson and D. J. Moore.

Obviously, the return of Christian McCaffrey is the greatest strength of the Panthers’ offense, as he’s the most dangerous player in the league when the ball is in his hands, and his ADP backs up this claim. McCaffrey can do basically anything: find gaps through the offensive line, receive passes out of the backfield or align in the slot. He’s a superstar with merits and look for his numbers to explode in 2021 under Brady’s tutelage.

New Orleans Saints: Diverse running game with receivers all over the field

We’ve just talked about Joe Brady’s willingness to mold his scheme to his players’ strengths. Sean Payton, the Saints’ head coach since 2006, does the exact same thing – and, by the way, Brady is a former assistant of Payton, so you can presume where did he learn that.

Payton’s offense in 2021 will be in the middle of the explosive years with Drew Brees and the conservative version of 2020. We’ll see the Saints spreading the field with all their players and not only their receivers: their 21 personnel use (14%) was the 5th-highest mark in the NFL.

New Orleans is currently lacking big names in the receiver position with Michael Thomas recovering from ankle surgery and not much thereafter, so we may see Alvin Kamara aligning all over the field and receiving passes not only from the backfield but from the slot as well – no running back won more points on third downs than him. His partnership with Latavius Murray gives the Saints a strong running game.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Vertical offense with deep shots, no zone running plays

Bruce Arians and Byron Leftwich want none of these modern NFL concepts. All they want is to throw the ball deep, especially Arians, the head coach who’s, literally, a quarterback whisperer. Every offense that Arians ever run in the NFL has the same goal of stressing the defense vertically, and he does it in every possible way.

The Buccaneers were among the teams that run the least amount of plays in 11 personnel in 2020 with just 38%, second only to the Minnesota Vikings with 29%. On the other hand, no team ran more plays in 12 personnel than Tampa Bay with 35%. A power, downhill run game with Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette is also perfect for play-action purposes, where Arians, to no surprise at all, also likes to throw deep.