Nothing he won't do
[Rob] Ryan's current and former players, his coaching colleagues and scouting analysts from around the league all are in agreement that his scheme's most recognizable tendency is that he doesn't have a recognizable tendency.
There's no simple formula he has relied on throughout his 16 years in the NFL and 11 years in the college ranks.
"I think first of all, it's very multiple," Saints safety Jim Leonhard said. "It's not a system where it's, 'This is who we are, this is all we do,' like a Tampa 2 kind of system. He's very flexible."
"A lot of different variations," Saints guard Ben Grubbs said.
Payton said preparing to face Ryan's defenses always required the Saints' offense to spend extra time going over multiple looks in walk-through sessions during the practice week.
"A lot of time and detail in covering how you handle each defensive look," Payton said. "Typically, he will do a good job of trying to take away what he thinks you do well. And (you need to understand) that he's going to pay attention to who is going to get the ball on third down, where you go in the red zone, what type of runs you want to run. And you just need to self-scout and make sure there are no heavy tendencies."
We've already seen that multiplicity from Ryan's defense throughout this summer.
He often uses four safeties on the field at once in his nickel and dime packages -- sometimes removing the defensive tackle and an inside linebacker, but other times replacing an end or outside linebacker.
It's not uncommon to see just one lineman on the field, with his hand on the ground, or none at all.
A stat by the Football Outsiders scouting service illustrates Ryan's elusive tendencies.
Although he's known as an aggressive, attacking blitzer (his Browns led the NFL in rushing five players or more in 2010), Ryan's defenses have also ranked first or second in the NFL in sending only three rushers or less at the quarterback in each of the past three years.
"He'll rush three and drop eight a lot," Fujita said. "But the way that you're rushing, three might even look like a blitz."
"Ryan might have the widest array of schematic wrinkles in all of football," said Andy Benoit, who analyzes the NFL for the Football Outsiders scouting service and Sports Illustrated, among other outlets. "Really there's nothing he won't do."
, but still. What if?
