The NFL’s offensive masterminds continue to innovate and find new advantages, and the cyclical nature of scheme means defensive coaches will find a counter. It’s a chess match that continues every offseason.

For example, the popularity of outside schemes was met with more odd fronts with defensive linemen playing more patiently to cause indecision for runners. So last year, we began to see more old-school gap scheme runs from offenses. Defensive coaches are very good at what they do, so the new, shiny trends on offense typically lose their potency fast. What are those pesky defensive coaches thinking about heading into the 2024 season? I asked defensive coaches around the league what offensive trends, plays or concepts they’ve spent time coming up with answers for.

The Dolphins’ cheat motion

The most common answer I got was the “cheat” motion popularized by the Dolphins and Tyreek Hill. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel unveiled it in Week 1, and it seems like every team has added it to their playbook. The motion is simple. A receiver with a tight split sprints outside to get a running start and the quarterback quickly snaps the ball as the receiver is still running, before the defense can properly react.

(Drew Jordan / The Athletic)

Cheat motion helps get receivers to full speed before the snap similar to how Canadian Football Players do, except NFL players have to do it moving horizontally. Cheat motion can be used to create rubs that are hard for the defense to adjust to because of how quickly the ball gets snapped.

Offensive coordinators got creative with their usage of cheat motion last season. They used it to get receivers both inside and outside, to get receivers open deep or open up space underneath, and combined it with run/pass options (RPOs). It’s been a pain to defend.

Week 3, 11:56 remaining in the second quarter, first-and-10

Rams coach Sean McVay was one of the best at using motion to create advantages in the passing game last year. Here, he called an inside variation of cheat motion to free up Tutu Atwell. Atwell initially was lined up outside against Bengals corner Chidobe Awuzie.

As Atwell motioned inside, nickel Mike Hilton had to switch onto him to avoid a possible rub.

However, because of the quick switch, Hilton played a step or two too far outside of Atwell, giving him too much space to work with inside. Hilton was supposed to have inside help, but the inside defenders were frozen by play action.

Hilton couldn’t recover and Atwell was open for an explosive pass play.

“A pro personnel executive for a team who was not authorized to speak publicly said that even his coaches, who did not face the Dolphins in 2023, put ‘cheat’ on their scout-team cards because they knew it would eventually come up from an opponent who was on their schedule,” The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue wrote in her report on the motion.

Defenses will definitely be more prepared for the motion this season. They’ll have quick checks and adjustments they can get to that will help them deal with it better, using all offseason to work with them.

One coach I talked to wasn’t as worried about the motion. He feels it is already overexposed and is more about the player who gets put in motion. Not every receiver can run a diverse route tree off of the motion.

“You have to have guys running routes running out of this thing. How many guys can actually run routes that involve a downfield break off of a full-speed motion? And how often are those guys targeted? It’s not quite as high as you people would think,” the defensive coach said. “There’s probably 10 guys in the league that can really run that route fast enough, clean enough, time it with another receiver off of the motion.”

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Pace of motion

Cheat motion isn’t the only way teams are getting creative with motion. The pace of the motion and at which point they snap the ball also can be problematic.

If teams aren’t varying the pace of their motions and snap points, the plays they run off of motion can become predictable. The best motion teams are conscious of all of this and weaponize it to make life hard on defenses.

“When a guy jogs across the formation slow and then boom, the ball gets snapped and he takes off, that’s a son of a bitch to defend and there’s no way to chart those other than just watching all the plays,” an NFL defensive coach said. “Also, if you have a guy that sprints across the formation that forces a defensive check then he gets set and then the ball gets snapped. That’s like that’s a big-time problem because it’s just creating a healthy dose of pre-snap conflict where defenders in the second level are unsure.”

NFC divisional round, 8:31 remaining in the third quarter, second-and-5

Here, the Rams started with three eligible receivers to Matthew Stafford’s right. This side was the passing strength of the formation, so the Lions lined up their nickel Brian Branch there.

Cooper Kupp then sprinted to the other side and got set. Because of the pace of the motion, the defense bumped linebacker Alex Anzalone outside instead of having Branch follow Kupp across the formation. As Kupp got set, they had some time to possibly adjust but chose not to because the Rams could have snapped the ball at any time.

Instead of snapping the ball, the Rams had receiver Puka Nacua also motion across the formation. Still, the Lions kept Branch to the right even though the passing strength of the formation had completely flipped.

After the snap, Anzalone had to run with Nacua on a wheel route. Kupp also ran a route across the formation, holding the defenders on that side. No one was left in the flats to defend the running back screen, which was perfectly set up.

In the last five-plus seasons, coaches from the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay tree have effectively used motion to create advantages in the running game and to dress up their play-action concepts. Now they are getting extremely creative with using motion to create advantages in the passing game. Forward-thinking defensive coaches should have spent the offseason adding counters and tools to their playbooks for their secondary to use on the field against these different types of motions.

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Four-strong concepts

Overloading one side of the formation before the snap is difficult for a defense to handle. Especially with so many defenses playing more match coverages in which defenders look at receivers and try to match with them based on their route stems. Four-strong means the offense is either lining up four eligible receivers to one side or getting four receivers with their routes after the snap.

One concept mentioned a lot by the defensive coaches I talked to was popularized by Shanahan and the 49ers. They would flood one side of the field with four routes but have fullback Kyle Juszczyk lead block for the running back on a swing route.

Several teams have copied this concept, but the Packers’ Matt LaFleur has his own version that is particularly hard to stop. The 49ers run their four-strong concept out of 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end, two receivers) and they’ll run it out of 1-back. This is a little easier for the defense because all the eligible receivers are compressed initially.

LaFleur runs his variation out of faster personnel groupings. Also, he’ll combine the swing with an escort with a downfield concept.

NFC divisional round, 1:19 left in the first quarter, second-and-11

Here, the Packers are running their four-strong concept with an escort out of 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends, two receivers). Tight end Tucker Kraft is the escort (lead blocker) for the running back swing out of the backfield. Instead of shorter routes like the 49ers’ version, the Packers had a dagger concept called.

The 49ers defenders dropped deep to defend the downfield pass combination, leaving the swing open underneath.

Kraft took out the flat defender, giving the running back space to run down the sideline.

Counter

As defenses have moved to play more light boxes and odd fronts, offenses have swung back to using more gap scheme plays. The most popular gap scheme play is counter, in which the front side of the offensive line down blocks while two pullers come from the back side — usually a guard and either a tackle, tight end or fullback.

The popular Vic Fangio/Brandon Staley system deploys two deep safeties with a focus on stopping explosive pass plays while conceding the run, and the extra defender who has to come up to play the extra blockers created by counter comes from the secondary. That’s asking a lot of the safety.

Week 14, 14:13 remaining in the second quarter, second-and-11

On this play, the Giants ran counter as a run/pass option (RPO). They were in a spread formation and had a glance concept to the counter side (left). Quarterback Tommy DeVito was reading the safety.

The safety stepped down to defend the counter, leaving the glance wide-open behind him.

One defensive coach said he was thinking about ways to defend QB counter options, which he believes he sees more of in his division than traditional zone read. Even with an extra defender in the box, a QB counter is very difficult to stop if the quarterback is a legitimate running threat.

Week 14, 13:00 remaining in the second quarter, first-and-10

Here, the Giants ran QB counter with running back Saquon Barkley taking the snap. Barkley had two options: hand off to receiver Wan’Dale Robinson running left with a lead block or keep the ball and follow the counter blocking with two pulling offensive linemen to the right.

Barkley read the defensive end to the right. If he stayed outside, he would have kept the ball, but because he stepped inside, Barkley made the right read and handed the ball off.

If the end stayed outside, the Giants would have a numbers advantage and excellent blocking to the right for Barkley.

Counter is an old-school concept, but as coaches prioritize defending the pass, they’ll have to think of ways to limit physical runs like the counter with lighter boxes.

(Top photo of Tyreek Hill in motion: Miami Dolphins via Associated Press)

Follow our Olympics coverage from the Paris Games.

PARIS — It’s arguably the most highly anticipated swimming final of the Paris Games, and no one will have to wait very long to see it.

The women’s 400-meter freestyle will take place Saturday, with qualifying heats in the morning and the final to follow on the first night of the Olympic swimming program, featuring a field that includes three women who have owned the world record in this event.

Australian Ariarne Titmus, 23, is the defending Olympic gold medalist in the event and the favorite entering Saturday’s competition. American Katie Ledecky, 27, took gold in the 400 free in the previous Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Plus, the field includes 17-year-old Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh, who set the world record in the event in 2023 before Titmus re-set it.

“They’re great athletes, and I’ve had the chance to race them quite a few times over the years now — especially Summer, being in the U.S., training in the U.S.,” Ledecky said Wednesday. “It’s always fun to race the best.

“Those two have continued to raise the game and raise my game. I know that I have to bring my best. I think they know that they have to bring their best. I think that’s what you want in an Olympic race.”

Ledecky said while she likes her chances in the event, she knows it’s a deep field beyond the top three headliners. For example, New Zealand’s 20-year-old Erika Fairweather would certainly like to play spoiler here; she out-touched McIntosh at 2023 worlds to earn bronze and finish behind Titmus and Ledecky.

That world championship final in Fukuoka, Japan, was billed as something of a race of the century, but the actual race was rather disappointing — because it wasn’t close. Titmus deserves all the credit for that, as she beat the field by three seconds and became the first woman to break 3 minutes, 56 seconds in the event. (And then she nearly lowered that world-record time earlier this year at Australian trials.)

McIntosh is poised to be a breakout star of these Olympics, her second. She was just 14 years old at the Tokyo Games, Canada’s youngest Olympian. She finished fourth in the 400 free and fourth as part of the 4×200 free relay.

In the years since, she’s taken the sport by storm, winning four gold medals at world championships (in the 200 fly and 400 IM in both 2022 and 2023) plus a silver and three bronze. She trains in Sarasota, Fla., and back in February she beat Ledecky in an 800 free final, handing the American her first loss in one of her most dominant events in more than 13 years in a time (8:11.39) that would have won gold in Tokyo.

But McIntosh will not swim the 800 free at these Games, though her schedule is loaded. She is entered in the 400 free, the 200 fly, the 200 IM and the 400 IM. She is the world record-holder in the 400 IM. She’ll be favored in that and a top contender in her other events, which will include clashes with Americans Regan Smith in the 200 fly and Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh in what should be a hotly contested 200 IM. And, of course, she’ll likely be a key part of the Canadian relay efforts. For McIntosh to truly turn the Summer Games into Summer’s Games, she’ll need to win quite a few medals — something she’s certainly capable of, but still something that’s a lot to ask of a teenager.

“Pressure is necessary if you’re going to do great things,” Brent Arckey, McIntosh’s coach, told CBC Sports earlier this year. “The great ones understand that. There’s an unhealthy side of that, but she’s surrounded by such great people.

“We can manage this. You don’t get to be great without the pressure and expectations.”

Meanwhile, Titmus is the world record-holder in the 200 free and the favorite in that event. She took silver in Tokyo in the 800, behind Ledecky, and will again compete at that distance. Titmus will also likely be an integral part of the Aussie 4×200 free relay team. Her gold-medal production will be huge for Australia as it looks to beat the U.S. in what has turned into a rather entertaining international rivalry. The Aussies earned nearly double the number of gold medals as the Americans at 2023 worlds (a meet that did not include U.S. star Caeleb Dressel, for what it’s worth).

Titmus said she’s grown immensely as both a person and swimmer since Tokyo, where she took home gold in both the 200 and 400 frees.

“I’m being honest and saying that I think I’ve prepared the best I ever have for a swim meet,” Titmus told reporters at Australia’s team training camp in Chartres, France. “So, more than anything, I’m just excited to see what I’m capable of.

“That’s why I still swim because I believe I’ve got more in the tank, and so that’s my goal at these Games, to try and get every (little bit) out of myself and see what I’m capable of.”

It’s the same mindset for Ledecky, the veteran of the field. She’s reflected a great deal lately on her career and how she’s gone from the wide-eyed 15-year-old in London to an elder stateswoman of the sport. She is just two gold medals away from tying the record for most gold medals for a female Olympian, set by gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won nine gold medals for the Soviet Union in the 1950s and ’60s. And she’s swimming her two best events here, the 800 and 1,500 frees.

Still, Ledecky believes she can compete to win all the way down to the 400 free, which is part of what makes Saturday’s race so compelling. It features arguably the greatest female swimmer ever in Ledecky, her top rival for the past handful of years in Titmus, and the teenager who could beat both and take over the Olympics in McIntosh. Let the Games begin.

Just 17 years old, Summer McIntosh is poised for a big Olympics. The first of her events in Paris is Saturday’s 400-meter freestyle. (Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos of Ariarne Titmus, Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh: Quinn Rooney, Maddie Meyer and Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)