Tackling Two-High: Getting Started

How and why NFL defenses switched to two-high coverages when playing the Chiefs.

For much of the 2021 season there were three words that struck fear into the hearts of Chiefs fans. No, not "dropped pass interception" —  although those certainly kept some folks up at night — I'm talking about the three words that seemed to confound the Chiefs offense and remained the lifeblood of the Chiefs defense: Two-High Coverages. 

Week after week, NFL defenses broke their tendencies and adopted more of the two-high coverages in their playbooks in an effort to slow down Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. At crucial parts of the season, these coverages brought down the Chiefs’ typically-potent offense from its high perch — to league average and sometimes worse.

On the other side of the ball, two-high coverages allowed Steve Spagnuolo's KC defenses to successfully operate without significant financial investment on outside cornerbacks. Spagnuolo’s exotic rotations and ability to keep a lid on opposing defenses saw a massive improvement as the year went along while largely basing out of two-high structures.

With two-high coverages being so important to the successes on both sides of the ball for the Chiefs, I decided to spend this offseason digging deep into what makes them tick. Each week, I'll take a look at a different two-high approach, how defenses execute the coverage, and an offensive concept that can be implemented to beat each one.

Let's start this thing off right by diving into the reason why NFL defenses have shifted to more two-high structure — and the role Mahomes and the Chiefs had in forcing that shift.