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The chances that someone has come up with something new in the NFL these days is miniscule at best.

Historically, using game terminology, the NFL has always been a "two-gap" league in terms of putting excitement into the game. They read and react. We've seen numerous rule changes in the last few decades all designed to put bigger numbers on the scoreboard.

In the early 1970s, football was played quite differently than we know today. There was emphasis on the running game and tough defense. Four-man defensive lines were glamorized via colorful monikers. The middle linebacker was an inhuman stalker. Defensive backs terrorized receivers all over the entire field. Quarterbacks took more chances when they did throw, hence completions percentages were usually lower and interception totals were usually higher.

When the Dolphins won Super Bowls VII and VIII, Don Shula's team combined for 90 running plays and 21 passing plays (18 attempts, sacked 3 times) in those two victories. Bob Griese's championship passing numbers read 8-of-11 and 6-of-7.

By the mid-'70s, the defensive trend was at its peak, good or bad news depending on your perspective. There were 196 games played in both 1976 and '77, and the results were 22 and 25 shutouts, respectively (the expansion-and-lifeless-for-2-seasons Tampa Bay Buccaneers certainly didn't help those numbers). The Atlanta Falcons set a record for a 14-game season by allowing just 129 points. Problem was, they only scored 179 and were just a 7-7 team. Who's going to watch games where no one scores?

In 1978, the league opened up the passing game by not letting defenders maul pass-catchers past five yards. Once teams made their adjustments, we saw scores and offensive numbers rise consistently. Combine that with a slew of talented wide receivers and some gifted quarterbacks from the Class of '83 (in particular, John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly) and the NFL enjoyed some of its finest moments.

Meanwhile, the 3-4 defense became vogue in the early '80s, largely because of Lawrence Taylor's immediate impact as a rookie (sacks were not kept on an individual until 1982, one year after Taylor's debut season). Although teams like Houston, Denver and Oakland were using three-man fronts and four linebackers in the mid- and late-'70s (a necessity that proved fortuitous for the Raiders during their 1976 championship year because they ran out of healthy defensive lineman that summer), it was Taylor's sack splash that prompted nearly every team to look for the next L.T.

Suddenly, getting to the quarterback was more important than ever before, particularly with those rules changes. If you had a sturdy nose tackle and a pair of talented outside backers, chances are you were getting the job done.

Unfortunately, using your outside linebackers to get to the quarterback and in turn emphasizing speed at the position meant sacrificing something in your run defense. Can you imagine defensive stars such as outside linebacker Derrick Thomas and defensive end Neil Smith taken out of an AFC championship game because they couldn't get a hand on Thurman Thomas? It happened.

The term "zone blitz" also became vogue in the '90s. Unlike an all-out assault, the idea was to confuse the quarterback and give him a variety of looks, never knowing who was coming and going and often dropping defensive ends and nose tackles into coverage.

Now the defense du jour, given Tampa Bay's Super success story, is "Cover 2." In the 1999 NFC title game, the Bucs (then-Tony Dungy's team) limited the high-powered Rams to 11 points and one touchdown (unfortunately, scoring just six points of their own). But the blueprint was set. It took the Bucs three more years to win that elusive Super Bowl, and now everyone will attempt to duplicate their formula.

But here's the rub. Be it Cover 2 or zone blitz or 5-man fronts, all of these formulas have been used and re-used for years. The "new" defenses are hoping to hold off the "new" offensive tricks, which really aren't that new if you go back a number of years.

So if you're looking for a newest defensive trend in the next few years, you've got a better chance to look backwards than forwards, because it's doubtful you'll ever really see something new in a league that began four-score and three years ago (1920). How's that for original?

Russell S. Baxter is the NFL Research Coordinator for ESPN