Before we get into our topic on Martin Emerson’s struggles, We wanted to emphasize and repeat the driving forces behind Run The 9. That being an overwhelming love of football and a passion to deliver the most quality content possible to fans. The latter has special significance, because in the rat-race to be the loudest and first, we often forget it’s more important to just be the best.
The other silent drive to deliver better to football fans is simple; Local sports media and the country over, is overwhelmingly focused on entertainment, click-bait, untruth and outright misinformation, intentional or otherwise. While RT9 has a respect for ANYONE who is willing to put the time it takes required to do content, doing it right is crucial. The paramount quality > quantity. In the words of John Wick, “Focus, commitment and sheer fucking will”. A LOT of what you’ll read, watch and hear is just flat out ….not good.
While it isn’t our intent to have bad blood, we have to call to attention a particular exchange from Cleveland.com Browns contributors. This is for three reasons.
– To highlight our point about local sports media and rushing content
– Shameless self promotion on ‘WHY’ you want to check with RT9 for some of the best Browns breakdowns and content you’ll find.
– To segway into our primary topic – Martin Emerson is in the midst of a career low and the ‘why?’ behind his struggles.
In this clip below, posted 9/10, you get a breakdown from a staff member detailing the first Cowboys Touchdown against the Browns defense, week 1.
We want to reference the conversation from the 1:40 mark onward from Lance Reisland. First off, I’m positive Lance is a solid football mind and a decent person. This is not a personal critique levied against him in anyway. We’d even love to sit down with the CLE.com staff over a beer and talk Browns football with them at any point.
That said… In the above clip, you get a detailing of a Double China 7 concept (DC7) from the Cowboys. Seen in the image below.
It’s a route concept that every single coach, from highschool to the NFL, has in their bag and will use at some point. It’s an in-to-out threat against single-high, middle field closed coverages, and it’s a high-low threat against two high safety designs. This isn’t including all the flavors and versions off this base concept, including China-go and China Whip to counter various defensive calls. It’s primitive and effective, especially as a single high safety beater.
Getting back to the conversation in that clip, what they dive into is an explanation as to why the initial defensive look, from the perspective of Dak Prescott and the Cowboys offense, appears to be zero cover pre-snap. (cover 0). For anyone not familiar, cover 0 is a man coverage call with zero high safety help split or middle field. He’s right, the initial call IS a zero cover shell. And if I were Dak, seeing no high safety and no immediate low hole defender, I would believe the exact same pre-snap. To quote a musical masterpiece, Schism – “The pieces fit.”
This is what it looks like, Whiteboard style. The red lines denote man coverage.
Giving credit to the Cowboys offensive coaching staff for being prepared against Cleveland’s both perceived and real lack of coverage diversity from 2023. In weeks 1-4 of the current season, the Browns defense under Jim Schwartz have run cover 3 at the 10th highest rate in the NFL. And the next most common call under single high safety designs – cover 1, the Browns have run at THE highest rate (#1) in the NFL. To be blunt, the Browns are not gamblers who bluff much. They show high card and then dare you to beat them. And against a potential cover 0, where a 4.3 running Brandin Cooks appears to draw a safety (Juan Thornhill) in man coverage to the field? (wide side) I know where any QB would *want* to go with this ball pre-snap.
However what is being ignored, dismissed, or flat out overlooked here are two things.
– The check with the strong side DB’s: Juan Thornhill with a call to Newsome and then relaying that check to Martin Emerson. On the weakside of the formation, far side, you have both Delpit and Ward using a hand motion for their check.
– The post TD language: This is when the DB’s communicate with each other on how the coverage was busted and who didn’t get the call. Thornhill checks with Newsome, who are both signaling the same call in hand motion by pointing up (sky?). Then to Emerson, who does not feed the check back to his teammates.
In the video From Cleveland.com, it is discussed that this is cover zero and that the bust can be tagged to Juan Thornhill as the primary in coverage. On the surface, sometimes it can be just that easy. But when we take a deeper look, we find something else:
The pre-snap check, coming from Thornhill and then given to the corners, changes things completely. Because, instead of cover zero, Juan signals over to Grand Delpit, who in turn gives his signal to Denzel ward (site?). This now goes from cover zero to a match coverage that uses certain cover 3 principles strong side, with an assist from the weakside from Delpit in their “site” call. That last part is to help protect against a #3 over & vertical coming from the strong-side of the formation. Facing Their 2 man combo to the weakside, Jake Ferguson and Rico Dowdle, Delpit and Ward understand that the alignment from the defensive front means Ferguson is forced to have to stay in to block Myles Garrett and to ride his rush out as wide and vertical as possible to protect Dak; while the rest of the Cowboys Oline will have a slight slide to the left. This means Right-Tackle Terrance Steele will have to pick up the immediate B-gap threat to his inside shoulder from Jeremiah-Owusu-Koramoah (Young JOK).
Because of this, your only immediate receiving threat will be coming from the backfield, in the form of Dowdle, who ends up running flat. The general rule of thumb with a “site” call is that if the RB releases ‘fast’, Ward should pick him up while Delpit double checks the release of the TE and looks to help pickup the strongside #3 threatening any Over route(s). With no immediate release from Ferguson, Delpit can now turn his eyes back inside to limit any positive-break from the Dallas receivers and helping to maintain Cover 3-like integrity.
Somewhere in space and time, where this defensive check is run correctly, it would have actually invited Dak to check into and lob a corner route to a 5’10 Brandin Cooks with a 6’2 Martin Emerson meeting him at the top of the break. For his role, he would be turning hips parallel to the sideline, eyes on QB, working to get depth and positive width reading a receivers vertical push and break from the inside to out. Where this ball and touchdown ended up would have likely been a Browns INT had Martin run his checked assignment like everyone else had.
Instead of the check being executed correctly, Emerson chases Jalen Tolbert from the #1 spot, creating a wide open void that allowed Dak to float out a ball with no risk of being picked. The rest of the DB’s executed their assignment, including Juan Thornhill getting hands on to check Cooks and slow down his break at the top of the route. A technique to help protect his corner, allowing Emerson time to recover vertical and outside (to the ‘7’)
While the efficacy of this call can be debated, but what can’t be debated is that you have 4 DB’s playing their check(s) correctly and one who is not – that one being Emerson.
Why do we know this bust was on Emerson and not Thornhill?
When something works in football, you will eventually go back to it. It may be the exact same thing, just with different timing, or it may be slightly window dressed. Either way, every coach will go back to what they know works when they have a feel for defensive play calling and matchup(s) they like. Which is exactly what the Cowboys did on their 10th drive, deep into the 2nd half with the play seen below:
Only from this formation, you get a pre-snap return from Ceedee as the #3 for a motion indicator that would look like man coverage to Dak. It’s not, and at the snap the Browns are in that similar cover 3 match. Delpit takes the first route positive break from Jalen Brooks, Newsome expands outside of the point man to properly leverage himself against Ceedee on the follow route, who he now has in his match/mod assignment.
Denzel stays high, outside in a bail, reading break from the most vertical threat inside to out. Although Ward a bit late getting back from staying flat footed while eyeing Lambs break, Thornhill is screaming over from the boundary hash to help choke off Tolbert on the flag (7). That’s where the difference lies between the first touchdown and how this check was correctly run in this rep.
Similar to the DC7, just from a bunch set, you have a vertical push, except this time from the #2 (the point man in the bunch) running the ‘7’ route instead of from the #3 receiver like in the trips touchdown to Cooks. The double under creates a strong cheese to any flat defender looking inward, and even more so against aggressive corners like the Browns have. (Yes, including Ward who was a touch late building his 1/3 integrity) A busted corner or non-check from out of man coverage and the ‘7’ from Tolbert in this clip gives a clear front side vertical target against single high coverages, just like the first bust on the touchdown to Cooks because there is no help downfield and outside.
These concepts, and how they force match coverage, proper communication, eye discpline and punish even the smallest busts, are similar molds from the same family that can be easily executed from half field reads.
Martin Emerson’s failures are two fold. The first, as shown in the breakdown above from the Cooks touchdown, are from the mental lapses that strike at the worst times. The next, and the most unfixable, are the physical. Taller corners who do not have elite lateral movement, hip fluidity and burst rely so heavily on their wingspan and football I.Q. Nnamdi, Sherman, Jamel Dean, Joey Porter Jr, now Emerson. Being hands on is so crucial to their success.
In 2023, Martin Emerson played 139 snaps in press coverage. In that 139 snaps, he gave up 8 catches on 26 targets at only 4.2 yards per catch. That’s almost 15% of his total snaps on the year. Emerson hasn’t necessarily regressed; rather, opposing offenses have identified his limitations and exploited the lack of diversity in the defensive play calls against him. They have countered with personnel matchups and formation constraints, the most popular combinations being to get smaller, quicker receivers drawn in coverage on Emerson with motions, or motioning to formations that would place Emerson at his weakest, in off coverage.
This can best be shown in 3 seperate plays, which will be shown below.
The first, below, is an example of how height works against perimeter corners who are in press bail (showing press at the snap then going hips open into their 1/3 coverage post-snap)
With this formation, and the return motion from the TE, the Cowboys get exactly what they want – Emerson locked into the side alone with Brandin Cooks. Further, with no immediate help given from underneath coverage by forcing the play-action and keeping the single high safety firmly inside the hash who is going to favor covering the offenses strength (numbers).
With Cooks releasing to his outside shoulder and burning vertical, the post-snap sight adjustment is on both WR and QB. If the corner is in off coverage as Emerson shows post snap, the receiver is supposed to drive and distance on the chains, eat the cushion and threaten the corner to carry upfield, then immediately throttle down and work back down the route stem, usually favoring his outside (sideline) shoulder for the throw. Dallas executed this perfectly and Emerson’s 6’2 height works directly against him in this coverage. His inability to have elite de-acceleration, hip sink and drive back down to the receiver makes this pitch and catch at the NFL level.
I’ve spoken to how critical it is for taller corners to use their god-given wingspan. While Emerson has great arm length, what he lacks is elite lateral agility, this isn’t including his recent tendency of not having his hands ready at the snap to attack and jam WR’s. That same game week 1, only this time against Ceedee Lamb only highlights the combination of these two deficiencies.
Lamb is one of the best in the business, so it isn’t completely fair to put this critique on Em. Ceedee does this to a lot of good DB’s. But for someone who was being praised as one of the up-and-coming young corners just last season beyond just Browns fans, this is a complete loss of rep from the snap to the whistle. The lack of immediate and sudden hands against an inside release is concerning, but it is far from the only snap that this has happened on. Martin has been slow to his jab-and-press the entire year.
Far and away the Emerson’s biggest struggle, not only this year but moving forward, is how he has handled playing in off-man coverage. It’s a design that puts him at his most vulnerable. Where his ability to slow down a receivers release at the line with his wingspan, helping to overcome his lack of elite twitch and make-up speed is completely nullified.
I’ll take you to week 3 against a rookie sensation in Malik Nabers that packages all of what I’ve mentioned above.
The motion by the Giants puts Nabers to the weakside of the formation on the outside, but he is off the line-of-scrimmage while the inline-Y (TE) is on the line. This is a formational win by the Gmen who draw Emerson on the motion against Nabers in off man. (cover 1)
At Nabers 3rd step, Emerson loses inside leverage and now he’s in trail low on Nabers outside hip. At the 3rd step to the inside stem, Nabers feels Emerson behind him and breaks back to the pylon (Circus route) where he completes an insane catch, high-pointing a questionable throw by Jones.
This rep gives us the holy trinity of failure:
– The Giants coaches getting the pre-snap match they want based on motion, only further highlighting the lack of defensive call diversities.
– Emerson not in a position to be able to use his wingspan at the snap to slow down a receiver.
– Losing at the start, intermediate and top of the route both vertically and laterally.
Don’t let any Browns outlet fool you. Martin Emerson is struggling and there are many reasons for it. The two greatest reasons are the physical limitations combined with playing in static and predictable coverage shells 3/4 of the time. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this fix. The most up-front and quickest idea would be for the Browns defense to play more cloud and cover 2. Not only to Emerson’s side of the field, but possibly as a whole. There is a great history of tall corners being favored by coaches who run a lot of cover 2. However, the drawbacks can be just as bad.
– You don’t create the immediate box numbers favorable to limiting the run without having to seriously involve your corners in the run fit.
– The safety play by the Browns DB’s hasn’t been conducive to 2 high designs (I’m looking at you Hickman & Delpit). This is only made worse by the fact the Browns LB’s aren’t of great size to take on constant contact at the 2nd level.
– More patient and methodical offenses who run through the ground game (*cough, Pittsburgh *cough) now present a new set of challenges to deal with.
So long as this weakness with Emerson exists, teams will continue to find ways to design targets and exploit that said weakness until there is a shift and adjustment to help mask the problem. Jim Schwartz is an NFL mainstay with a track record of success in all of his coaching stops. The man does such fun and creative things with his defensive fronts that you could spend weeks just picking his brain on that alone. But while that may be true, what is also true is Schwartz’ defenses often grew stale and predictable over the course of long(er) tenure in those stops. Where they overwhelmingly grew the most stale, predictable and stubborn was in his penchant for how he structured and called his coverages. It was that deficiency which ultimately soured the tail end of his previous coaching job in Philly.
I can only hope that the Browns aren’t seeing the old and bad habits re-emerge from a coach looking satisfied with his body of work.
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