Heavy stuff: More NFL offenses are using six offensive linemen to fluster defenses

There’s a good chance at some point Sunday against the Chiefs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have the football and swap out, say, a tight end for a 300-pounder with an offensive lineman’s number.

When the referee says the man who just entered the game is an eligible receiver, it will also stoke the competitive fires of the 11 Chiefs on defense, whose eyes will widen.

“I’m thinking it’s a run,” inside linebacker Derrick Johnson said, when asked for his first reaction when he sees teams do that. “I’m becoming very aggressive, gearing up, telling the rest of the D-linemen don’t pass rush — here (the run) goes.”

And his linemen, like nose tackle Dontari Poe, will listen. And stiffen.

“It’s a challenge, it’s a challenge — that’s exactly what it is,” Poe said. “They’re saying, ‘We’re going to put six O-linemen in and y’all can’t do nothing about it. We’re gonna run it down your throat.’

“And we’re saying, ‘No way you’re doing that.’ ”

Johnson and Poe know how they will react because, well, they’ve already seen formations with six offensive linemen this season. Approximately 33 times, including a season-high 16 times in a 26-10 win over the Oakland Raiders on Oct. 16.

Chiefs players and coaches say it’s part of a league-wide trend, as offenses beef up their run game and make up for the lack of traditional blocking tight ends, which are harder to find.

“Realistically, a lot of tight ends that come into our league now are from the spread offenses, and they’re really just big wide receivers, you know?” Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Sutton said. “There’s only a handful, really, of tight ends that go in there and are big-time blockers … there’s not that many that really do it.

“(Rob) Gronkowski can do that. I think Travis (Kelce) can do that. There’s those guys that are truly versatile players, then there’s a lot of other guys that present (receiving) matchup issues but (blocking) isn’t really what they’re there to do. They can block, but if you had to make 4 yards, you’re probably not going behind them.”

Tampa Bay coach Dirk Koetter, whose Bucs are among the league leaders in offensive lineman personnel groupings with 62, according to The Star’s count, agrees with Sutton.

“There’s not many tight ends coming into the league right now that are physically ready to do all of the things an NFL tight end has to do,” Koetter said. “That’s where the evolution of the extra O-lineman has come in.”

Koetter likes turning to six linemen to get a better run blocker in the game for a tight end. Defenses know that a lineman will be a limited receiving threat, which allows them to send an extra guy to blitz or run. So most offenses typically use six offensive linemen in short-yardage running situations.

“It just gives you an extra guy that can block, probably, a little bit better than those tight ends,” said co-offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, who attributes the trend, in part, to bigger offensive tackles. “Fifteen years ago, I don’t know if the tackles were as big as they are now.

“I mean, it’s a major advantage when you put a 290-300 pound tackle out there as an extra lineman, instead of a tight end that’s athletic. I don’t know how many of those guys existed 15 years ago, but they exist now. And so coaches are being creative and using them.”

Yet the Chiefs have used at least six linemen at the same time sparingly, nine times this season by The Star’s count, which ranks 25th in the league. But there are some reasons for that, including Kelce’s improvement as a run blocker and Chiefs coach Andy Reid’s preference to lean on his backup tight ends for extra blocking.

When the Chiefs have turned to a sixth lineman, they’ve leaned on Jah Reid (6 feet 7, 325 pounds) and Zach Fulton (6 feet 5, 320 pounds).

“You definitely have to have the ability to run the ball in your direction,” Reid said of the requirements for the role. “You have to base block and protect long enough to get the ball out. You’re over there as a run threat.”

Sutton, however, cautions his defense against that assumption. He’s seen a team using six offensive linemen run a hard play-action fake and throw downfield, and Nagy agrees.

“There’s always that threat of that guy — if it’s a former tight end that has some skills but put on some size,” Nagy said. “You just never know … you have to respect that.”

In the end, it’s all part of the cat-and-mouse game within professional football.

“It’s a trend, it’s a fad,” Nagy said. “And if you have some success with it, you normally stick to it. It will come and go.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 8:25 PM with the headline "Heavy stuff: More NFL offenses are using six offensive linemen to fluster defenses."