All-Twenty Tuesday: Beau Allen and Vinny Curry

Originally I had planned on doing this portion of the Cover 3 with four smaller, almost intro segments on Beau Allen, Vinny Curry, Mitch Unrein and Ryan Jensen. But, after starting off watching Allen and Curry, I knew that I had to devote an entire section just to them and what they’ll be bringing to the reed and pewter.

First, let’s talk about Allen.

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When Allen was announced as a future signing for the Buccaneers, I know there were many Bucs fans who weren’t happy.

“He’s had two sacks in four years, who cares?!”

Ask any trench player and they’ll tell you that sacks are a collective effort. Yes, you’d love to have the players on your team who are rare enough to stop a play by themselves every once in a while, but what made the defensive line in Philadelphia so good during its Super Bowl run is that it brought in key players with different roles to help a common goal – and they all bought in equally.

Allen’s role in that was to be the bulldozer, the bully, the space-eater. In the clip above, the 6-foot-2, 330-pound Allen was lined up as a 1-tech player in the nose tackle position. On that play, and on most plays Allen is a part of, it was Allen’s job to fill a gap and hold the line no matter how many blockers the other team threw at him. In most cases, and in the case above, it was two (No. 75 and 67).

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When the Bucs signed Chris Baker last year, they knew they were getting more of a pass rusher at the nose tackle position than you’d see traditionally, but they didn’t know Baker wouldn’t be able to anchor against the run. The Bucs finished the 2017 season with the seventh-worst average in terms of rushing yards per attempt. Yes, Tampa Bay’s pass defense was bad and yes, its sack totals were the lowest in the league, but if you can’t stop the run … well, you can just stop your analysis there. You have a bad defense. I don’t need to know anything else.

Allen has been brought in to stop the run in a fashion like the play above, often taking on multiple blockers, standing his ground and allowing the players behind him to make the play. The Bucs have the linebackers behind him to make the plays.

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It seems as though the Bucs are going to let Clinton McDonald go in free agency, which is a bummer because he was the Bucs’ one good “dirty work” player in 2017 along the trenches, but Allen will be able to step in and do that role even better because he’s younger and bigger.

Allen, who was on the top side of the interior defensive line in the clip above, punched into his assignment so fast that the chip block next to him from the other offensive lineman didn’t matter. He then was able to hold his ground against the guard and ultimately moved him totally off his spot to where another defender could come in and make a tackle.

You need guys like that – I repeat: need.

Sacks come because of guys like Allen. From what I’ve seen, he can be the compliment player (along with Mitch Unrein) that Tampa was trying to find in Baker last year. Allen is more consistent with his punch, winning his leverage battles and ultimately not giving much ground when taking on double teams. That’s a good way to get better at stopping the run and a good way to get the people around him sacks.

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All right, let’s get to the main attraction, the prized edge rusher brought in to save the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from their inevitable defensive doom. Okay, that was a little too dramatic.

If I had to compare, I’d say that Vinny Curry is more athletic than Robert Ayers, faster around the edge than Will Gholston, more consistent than Ryan Russell and better against the run than Noah Spence. Oh, so he’s the best defensive line prospect ever? No, not quite, but that is to say I think he’s a complete, three-down lineman.

Curry (top of your screen making the tackle) comes to Tampa Bay as already the best or second-best edge presence on the team. One of my favorite aspects of Curry’s game is that he’s great at disengaging from blockers. I’d attribute that to some fast and strong hand movement. In the clip above, the offensive tackle didn’t even have time to really get into Curry at all because of how fast he was able to disengage the block with his hands.

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The clip above is another good example of Curry’s ability to get off blocks.

In the first clip, Curry was able to throw away the offensive tackle’s arms right off the bat as he got around the edge. In the second play directly above, his assignment was a bit different. He wasn’t going around the edge this time but instead had a gap he needed to mind. Right as the running back made his decision to go to the outside, Curry threw his blocker off and was able to make the tackle right at the time. Being able to disengage with a blocker on command is a trait that every edge player needs for being a three-down lineman. You have to know that you’re going to get involved with offensive lineman and that sometimes they’ll lock you up. You still have to be able to get out of it.

Curry can.

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Another thing I like about Curry is that he shows surprisingly good bend, or at least the allurement of some bend.

At 6-foot-3, 265 pounds, Curry is a little stiff in his movements, and that’s totally to be expected. But, when you watch him fire off the edge for a speed rush, one thing he can do really well to cope with some of that stiffness is he can flip his hips quickly and drastically, as shown above.

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Here’s another angle of that play. Curry is coming from what would be a called a 7-tech. It’s basically a wide technique that would space the edge rusher fully on the outside of the tackle or tight end’s shoulder. The purpose of this is to get more of an advantage for a speed rush.

As you can see, Curry got a good jump on the snap (something we’ll get into next), and though he didn’t have that crazy ankle bend like you see some speed rusher have, Curry turned his hips inward very fast for a player his size and was able to narrow the angle to the quarterback that way. Not as a ideal as someone as physically gifted who has crazy flexibility, but it still gives a big defensive end like Curry some bend-like attributes to his game.

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Before we get into the last positive about Curry, I would be doing you all a disservice if I didn’t mention some of his limitations.

Though I really like the fact that the Eagles were creative with every element of their pass rush last year, you don’t want Curry operating as a stand-up linebacker too much. As you can see in the clip above, Curry can do some things like drop back or have a step off the line, but he’s just not built for that. He’s not a 3-4 player, in that sense. I want defensive line coach Brentson Buckner to get as creative as he can with the front, but he has to have the right mindset of how sparingly to use each player as a change of pace when it’s not what they do naturally – Buckner knows this.

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Here’s a look at Curry from a stand-up position and not in coverage. I realize it’s in run support, and he’s not pinning his ears back, but you can just tell things look so much more unnatural for him.

Curry is much better suited from a 3-point and 4-point stance, meaning he has both feet and one hand in the ground or both feet and both hands in the ground (every limb touching the ground is an added “point”). I believe the Bucs defensive line is getting more versatile to play 4-3 or 3-4 formations, but with Curry, I would leave the stand-up role to Spence, if they’re looking for a main stand-up linebacker. It’s just not getting the most out of what Curry can be and his best attribute, which we’ll discuss next in our final point to wrap things up.

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I love the way that Curry fires off the ball. It’s his best trait, if you ask me. Some players have a knack for jumping or timing the snap to make it seem like they’re good off the ball when they’re really not, but Curry is really fast off the ball without having to jump it.

In the play above, we not only saw Curry lined up from an inside position, which adds to his ability to be creative, but we also saw him fire off the ball so fast with such violent hands that he was barely even touched before he ended up with the sack. There wasn’t a single player on the Buccaneers defensive end group that could do that consistently last year, and I feel like I saw Curry do something like that at least once a week.

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The play above was another great example of just how fast Curry can get off the ball.

Yes, the play above was a designed screen, but you still have to be able to somewhat block or at least get in the way of a rush defender or something like the play above could happen where the rush gets there so fast the quarterback doesn’t even have a chance to backpedal into giving the play time develop. That was a great play by Curry that would never show up in a stat sheet.

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Here’s the last play from Curry and it’s again one of my favorites.

Curry didn’t get a timed jump on the snap, but when he did get out of his stance, he did it with such speed and power that the offensive lineman couldn’t even handle the inside step. Curry was left alone on the space side of the rush to completely go after the quarterback and did so very well. He baited the offensive tackle into opening up his hips, then crossed back inside so fast the guard couldn’t get over to help. That’s skillful and savvy pass rushing.

Both Allen and Curry bring theoretical production to Tampa Bay’s defensive line. Each know how to play their role well, and can be multiple in how they line up while being successful. I’m really hoping we get a fully healthy year from Noah Spence in 2018, because if we do, what Buckner might be able to cook up with him and Curry could be a lot of fun to watch.