The Fire X blitz is a tenet of the zone blitz made popular by Dick LeBeau. Even with him gone, Keith Butler has kept it and a wide array of fire zones. As any good coach should do, he’s taken it a step further and added wrinkles. Those were on display this weekend against the Indianapolis Colts.
On second/third and long, Butler – and I think LeBeau did it too, to be clear – will shift an outside linebacker off ball and next to the normal inside linebackers. Twice against the Colts, he combined it with the Fire X.