What would Matt Patricia bring to the Denver Broncos?

A new name has emerged in the Broncos’ hunt for a new defensive coordinator: Matt Patricia.

The Broncos interviewed Patricia, a Patriots assistant, for their open defensive coordinator position on Wednesday, as first reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and confirmed by DNVR. Patricia follows former Broncos head coach and, most recently, Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and former Jets head coach Rex Ryan to interview for the job.

The first question on the Broncos’ plate when they decide whether to hire Patricia, will be whether 1996 allegations of sexual assault should preclude him from consideration. He and a college teammate were indicted for assaulting a classmate during a spring break trip, but the classmate dropped the charges because she did “not feel she can face the pressures or stress of a trial,” according to court records. More details are available from The Detroit Free Press.

If the Broncos are willing to invite Patricia into the organization, they’d be getting a purebred follower of “The Patriot Way.” Patricia, 48, has served in a variety of roles ranging from defensive coordinator to offensive line coach during his 16 seasons under Bill Belichick in New England. His only NFL experience outside of Foxboro is a remarkably unseuccesful stint as the Lions’ head coach from 2018-20.

Former players (and even some current players at the time) said that Patricia’s form of military-style overworking didn’t jive with the locker room. They say that his required post-pracitce conditioning, ban on pre-game music in the locker room, frequent tirades and theory that the team’s best players should be cut down to prove everybody will be held accountable tore the team apart.

So, essentially, his results were similar to most Belichick disciples. Does Josh McDaniels’ stint in Denver come to mind?

But the Broncos aren’t trying to hand over control of the organization to Patricia. They’re hiring somebody who can scheme up a defense and when Patricia ran the Patriots defense the results were among the best in the league; during his six-year run as the coordinator, New England finished in the league’s top 10 in points allowed every season and won a pair of Super Bowls. Patricia also called plays for the defense in the two seasons prior to his promotion to coordinator and finished eighth and 15th in scoring.

The Patriots defensive scheme, which Patricia brought with him to Detroit, is unique in the NFL. It’s a hybrid 3-4/4-3 defense tailored to the personnel available, but with some important pillars.

First, the defensive front uses a two-gap system. That means instead of attacking a gap and penetrating into the backfield, defensive lineman try to push blockers backward then shed the block and help with a tackle when a running back hits the hole. By clogging up lanes and building a wall, linebackers are free to flow with the play without much resistance and make easy tackles. The Patriots typically finish among the bottom of the league in tackles for loss because of this conservative strategy, but also finish among the league’s best in overall run defense.

Second, the defense doesn’t blitz often. The goal is to generate a pass rush with four rushers, but the Patriots use creative tactics. For example, they’ll overload one side of the line with defenders to create a one-on-one for the edge rusher on the other side. This season, Matthew Judon was typically the beneficiary of these one-on-ones and he finished the season fifth in the NFL with 15.5 sacks.

Third, the Patriots love to use sub packages. While much of the league matches personnel—they’ll use a nickel package vs. a three wide receiver set, and use a base defense against a two tight end set—New England looks for ways to cheat into nickel and dime packages. The key is a stout, but conservative, run defense.

Fourth, the Patriots run a single-high defense. While most of the league now leaves two safeties deep, New England spends much of its time in Cover 1 or a Cover 3 match variant that Belichick and Nick Saban devised. The Patriots use press man coverage on the bulk of their third downs, and throughout the game. By using subbing extra defensive backs onto the field, they stack the odds in their favor when playing man, because the extra defensive back should have an easy matchup against a tight end.

From a Broncos perspective, this all means…

1. Justin Simmons would spend much more of his time as a center fielder and would have some freedom to make plays. This role suits him better than the Fangio defense.
   
2. Pat Surtain would often follow premier receivers around the field in man coverage.
   
3. Damarri Mathis would need to hold his own in man coverage, sometimes without help over the top. Denver could look for another corner to fill in this role and use Mathis in sub packages.
   
4. Josey Jewell and Alex Singleton (if he’s retained) would be asked to serve as tackle-first linebackers who flow with runs. They both fit this role well.
   
5. The Broncos may need to bolster their pass rush, since blitzes will be infrequent.

All of this comes with the caveat that the hybrid nature of this defense allows for it to be adjusted to fit the team’s best players. The core philosphy of playing bend-but-don’t-break football will always exist.

When Patricia brought this scheme to the Lions it didn’t work. He finished 16th, 26th and 31st in points allowed, though he was fired just after the halfway point of that third season. Those numbers are cause for concern.

However, asking Nevin Lawson to start at cornerback in a man-heavy system and Ziggy Ansah to feast on one-on-ones may have been doomed for the start. And it certainly didn’t help that Patricia essentially chased Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay out of the building.

The issue with the Lions defense was talent as much as it was coaching. Maybe a zone heavy defense that left plenty of help over the top would have worked better, but it also would have been a white flag.

After flaming out in Detroit, Patricia’s stock tanked. He returned to the Patriots as a senior football advisor in 2021, but what exactly that meant is still unknown. All we know for sure is that he wore numerous hats. Last season, he added offensive line coach duties and also called offensive plays. It was the first time since 2005 that he worked on the offensive side of the ball, and the experiment went up in flames.

A jump to Denver could be the perfect fit for Patricia. He’d jump from one hard-nosed Bill Parcells disciple in Belichick, to another in Sean Payton. He would have the freedom to run a defense that fits the personnel well. He wouldn’t make decisions about off-field factors like conditioning or music that would turn the players off. He’d be asked to focus on implementing his defense in the offseason, and then game-planning in the fall.