Slowing the roll
WOODS HAS SPENT HIS CAREER STOPPING THE PASS. AS A COORDINATOR, CAN HE FIX THE RUN DEFENSE?
Joe Woods has made a career out of stopping the pass in an increasingly pass-happy game.
As a player in the early 1990s at Illinois State he was an all-conference defensive back. His love for the position turned into a coaching career that began 25 years ago as a defensive assistant at tiny Muskingum College in Ohio. It peaked during the past two seasons as the Broncos’ defensive backs coach, when he helped maximize the performances of one of the best secondaries in NFL history.
Yet, as Woods begins his biggest coaching job as the Broncos’ defensive coordinator, his success will likely be determined by whether his defense can slow the run.
The bullet points on his résumé — he’s coached the secondary for four NFL teams and at six colleges — points to a career defined by controlling the air. But Woods feels uniquely qualified to tackle his biggest task as a first-year defensive coordinator, figuring out how to stop the run.
“For two years, at the end of the year, we always go back and look at the self (scouting report), see what we did well and what we need to improve on,” Woods said after a recent practice. “When you look at it, we’re all involved (in run defense), from the front end to the back end. I knew the issues, so it wasn’t anything too foreign to me.”
The Broncos won Super Bowl 50 behind a defense that crushed spirits. That 2015 group was almost equally stout against the run (third) and the pass (first). Last season, the pass defense orchestrated by Woods took another step forward, yielding a meager 185.8 yards per game to once again rank first in the NFL.
But only four teams gave up more rushing yards than the 130.3 per game the Broncos allowed. Once teams figured out early in the season they could pierce Denver’s run defense it soon became a tried-and-true method of moving the ball, and a way to avoid the Broncos’ No Fly Zone secondary.
The breakdowns with the Broncos’ run defense were multifaceted. Injuries played a role, but so did poor tackling and a breakdown in schemes. Whatever the reasons, the Broncos couldn’t correct the problem as the season wore on, a huge reason Denver fell to 9-7 and missed the playoffs.
“We have made an emphasis on getting the run game better,” Woods said recently. “I think we’ve accomplished that. Everything else we wanted to keep at the same level. We wanted to continue to play good pass defense and continue to rush the passer well. Right now, I feel like we’re on track.”
His defense held San Francisco to 25 yards rushing on 10 carries in the first half
of the Broncos’ second preseason game. It was an effort led by two new defensive linemen, nose tackle Domata Peko and defensive end Zach Kerr, whom the Broncos added in the offseason with the expressed purpose of stuffing the run.
Peko, a 6-foot-3, 325-pound veteran who spent 11 seasons in Cincinnati, was signed to be an anchor who could push straight back against offensive linemen, take on double teams and allow Denver’s linebackers to run unimpeded into gaps. There is no glory in such a role but Peko was instrumental in the Bengals’ run of five consecutive postseason appearances from 2011 to 2015.
The 32-year-old signed a two-year, $7.5 million contract in March.
“Me and Peko, the reason we were brought in here was to beef up the run game,” said Kerr, who spent his first three seasons with the Colts and will be part of a defensive line rotation that includes ends Derek Wolfe, Jared Crick and Adam Gotsis.
“We’ve really wanted to lock in on that and make our mark on the run game. … If they can’t run the ball, most of the time they can’t win the game.”
Outside of the revamped defensive line, Woods will lead mostly the same starting defense his mentor Wade Phillips, now the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, led last season. He still has a “No Fly Zone” secondary littered with all-pro defensive backs and one of the game’s premier pass rushers, lienbacker Von Miller.
The Broncos are hopeful their offense under coordinator Mike Mccoy can make big strides but Denver will likely once again go as far as its defense can carry it.
“It’s just everybody doing their job,” Woods said.
“We have made an emphasis on getting the run game better. I think we’ve accomplished that. Everything else we wanted to keep at the same level. We wanted to continue to play good pass defense and continue to rush the passer well. Right now, I feel like we’re on track.” Joe Woods, Broncos defensive coordinator