The 2008 season will be one of change for the Washington Redskins. Not only is new head coach Jim Zorn instituting a new offense, first-year defensive coordinator Greg Blanche will be placing his own imprint on the Washington defense. While Blanche said he only intended minor tweaks to his predecessor Gregg Williams' scheme, which ranked the Redskins in the top 10 of NFL defenses three times in the past four years, the team's first minicamp seemed to indicate the changes will be far more dramatic than initially thought.
For starters, Blanche has greatly reduced the number of defensive packages. Williams loved to trot out varying groups of personnel, but Blanche has stripped them down to the bare minimum. The new defensive boss believes in keeping things as simple as possible so not to overload his players with needless information. He wants them to play all-out, aggressive football without having to worry about complicated schemes.
Before coming to Washington, Blanche served as the defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears from 1999-2003. Defensive end Phillip Daniels played under Blanche in Chicago, and he knows Blanche's system works. He believes it will allow the Redskins to stop teams with their base defense, only relying on blitzes when absolutely necessary. That's a contrast to Williams' style, which often relied on blitzes and intricate stunts to generate pressure and slow opposing offenses. Only time will tell if it's a change for the better.
