INDIANAPOLIS — A perfect storm is brewing and Dave Merritt doesn’t like the forecast.
The New York Giants’ secondary coach played under Buddy Ryan. He was taught to use his hands, to drill receivers. Now flags fly freely. Unlike Buddy, he’s teaching his players safe, specific “target” points in tackling.
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And here comes the new-age tight end full steam ahead.
“All the rules are for the offense and I’m not afraid to say it,” Merritt said. “You can’t even touch a guy anymore If you let these behemoth guys run off the line that are athletic, it’s tough. With these guys coming in that are 6-5, 6-6, it’s tough to cover them.”
Welcome to the next great challenge for all defensive coordinators in football. They’ve been Gronked.
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (ankle) practiced Thursday and may wear a specialized shoe Sunday in the Super Bowl. He’s easily the biggest news story this week. Gronkowski is having an instant — possibly everlasting — effect on the NFL. The 6-foot-6, 265-pound tight end has a vice-like grip, a wide receiver’s stride and a garage-sized receiving radius. In his second NFL season, Gronkowski caught a tight end-record 17 touchdowns.
He has company, too. Jimmy Graham of New Orleans had 99 catches for 1,310 yards and 11 touchdowns. Not far behind, Vernon Davis of San Francisco and Jermichael Finley of Green Bay are used in similar roles. “Without a doubt,” Merritt said.
The hybrid tight end is the next trend in the NFL. More specifically, defenses must devise ways to stop them.
“These tight ends they’re starting to bring into the league, these hybrid guys,” Merritt said, “when you have guys who can run like wideouts, and have shake and wiggle and hips like slot receivers, that’s tough to cover.”
All eyes are on the Giants. They’re on the front line of this counterattack. All season, no single scheme effectively neutralized Gronkowski or Graham. New York has one theory. It’s nearly impossible to defend such mutant gazelles in the open field. So the Giants don’t fuss with that.
Instead they center their game plan around confusing the quarterback.
Coaches can’t simply cloud a tight end with three players, not against a deep receiving corps like New England’s. So the Giants constantly will jumble their coverages. In a 37-20 victory against Finley and the Packers, it worked. Finley had just four receptions for 37 yards, and Aaron Rodgers’ 78.5 passer rating was a season low.
“The quarterback was the most dangerous person,” Merritt said. “It’s the same with (Tom) Brady. We have to make sure we give them different looks. Who’s on him? Who’s doubling him? Who’s not doubling him? That’s what we did and that’s what we plan on doing this Sunday. We’re trying to play the game with the quarterback. You have to.”
Added linebackers coach Jim Herrmann, “You can never stay in the same thing twice. You have to keep them off balance. We have to move our chess pieces one step ahead of theirs.”
As Finley would attest, nailing the tight end off the line helps, too. Jason Pierre-Paul of the Giants bruised the tight end throughout Green Bay’s playoff loss.
That’s what defensive architect Bill Parcells emphasized to his teams, former Dallas Cowboys safety Darren Woodson said. No free releases. A hit — subtle or submarine — can force the quarterback and receiver to re-route.
“(Paul) hit (Finley) off the line of scrimmage and knocked him off his (butt) a couple of times,” Woodson said. “It knocked the timing off of his route. That’s what you have to do to a lot of these guys. If they’re close to the line of scrimmage, or close to the tackle, bump him. If you have a linebacker that can knock Gronkowski off his route, bump him at the line of scrimmage.”
But, of course, don’t get your hands too dirty. Rules against defensive backs continue to tighten. Quarterbacks now have inalienable rights. Merritt joked that his former Phoenix Cardinals teammate — and Packers safety — Chuck Cecil could never survive in today’s game. He’s a headhunter.
Leave it to Bill Belichick to see this coming. In the 2010 draft, he took Gronkowski 42nd overall and Florida tight end Aaron Hernandez 113th overall. The middle of the field would become a gold mine.
“(Belichick) recognized with rule changes what was going to happen,” said Gil Brandt, the vice president of the Dallas Cowboys’ player personnel from 1960-’89. “In the old days you didn’t have guys coming into the middle catching the football like you have now.”
In 1960, Brandt said the Cowboys’ tight end caught 13 passes all season. Gronkowski could catch that many Sunday. The game is always changing. Brandt is confident coaches will find a way to adjust. When Parcells’ outside linebacker Lawrence Taylor redefined outside linebacker, Bill Walsh and others redefined the left tackle position.
The redefinition of the tight end position began at Radio City Music Hall on draft day two years ago.
To cheers of “Gronk! Gronk! Gronk!” Gronkowski chest-bumped family members and screamed into a camera.
He’s not going anywhere. And there’s probably more on the way. Offenses are bound to turn over every rock for the next Gronk.
“There are football guys that have an attitude out there,” Woodson said. “They’ll fight you. If I’m a scout, that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for a guy with an attitude that I don’t want to take off the field.”
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