Defensive Personnel Frequency
Team Base Rk Nickel Rk Dime+ Rk
BAL 30% 16 40% 24 28% 6
Minnesota, Atlanta, Seattle, and Cincinnati were the least balanced defenses in the league, sitting in nickel more than two-thirds of the time. Contrast that with Houston, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh, who didn’t use any defensive personnel package more than 40 percent of the time, freely flipping between base, nickel, and dime packages depending on what personnel the offense trotted out.
It’s interesting that even with the homogenization we’ve seen in personnel packages on the offensive side of the ball, there are still so many different ways that defenses choose to handle it.