# Nine lessons we learned from the NFL's best defenses

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-athletic-football-show-a-show-about-the-nfl-1365826/nine-lessons-we-learned-from-the-nfl-s-best-defenses
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-athletic-football-show-a-show-about-the-nfl-1365826/nine-lessons-we-learned-from-the-nfl-s-best-defenses.md
Podcast: [The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-athletic-football-show-a-show-about-the-nfl-1365826)
Published: 2026-07-15T07:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-athletic-football-show-a-show-about-the-nfl/episodes/nine-lessons-we-learned-from-the-nfls-best-defenses
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/681cc905bdc60241406b737f/e/6a56f049273f9732995dbdc2/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-athletic-football-show-a-show-about-the-nfl-1365826/episodes/nine-lessons-we-learned-from-the-nfl-s-best-defenses
Duration seconds: 4197

## Resource

Last season marked the third-straight year in which a team driven by its defense won the Super Bowl. What can the success of last year's Seahawks—not to mention the Texans, Eagles, Vikings and Broncos—teach us about the NFL in 2026? Cody Alexander from Match Quarters joins Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen to share the lessons learned from last season's best defenses on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. 0:00 Welcome to the show 2:43 Run defense 4:00 Run defense on first down 19:44 Edge-linebacker hybrid 28:17 Base defense 30:00 Nickel defense 38:38 Zone coverage 45:35 Weaponizing dime 50:34 Blitz efficiency 58:52 Split-field coverages Host: Robert Mays Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen Executive Producer: Michael Beller Senior Producer: Katy Duffy Social Producer: Scott Krinch Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social Follow Robert on X: @RobertMays Theme song: Haunted Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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