Hamilton's football intelligence stems from non-football intelligence. He's a member of Mensa, having qualified for the elite society while in the third grade with an IQ score of 132. He can recite 38 digits of pi.
Hamilton downplayed the mental difficulty of what he's doing. He handles all the different responsibilities by putting them into separate mental buckets.
"I keep everything independent to what my job is on a specific play," Hamilton said. "A lot of it is also just critical thinking and being able to listen and consume info."
Hamilton is so quiet in the meeting room that sometimes Pagano wonders if he's picking it all up. But Hamilton's a meticulous note taker, and when he speaks up, sometimes even a 36-year coach like Pagano learns something.
"He'll think of a motion, a shift, something within a call and ask, 'What if they do this?'" Pagano said. "The rest of the room is like, 'Man, I didn't think of that.' I'm in the back like, 'I didn't think of that. That's a great question.' But that's how his mind works."
Clark Lea was Hamilton's defensive coordinator at Notre Dame and is now the head coach at Vanderbilt. He was the first coach to envision a dynamic role for Hamilton near the line of scrimmage. Before Hamilton took it over, fellow Ravens safety Alohi Gilman was in that role at Notre Dame. Speaking from experience, Gilman said what's most impressive about what Hamilton does is the mental strain, which is much more advanced in the NFL.
"To have the knowledge up front in terms of stunt games, where the protection is going, what the running back likes to do in each situation, it takes a certain amount of studying and just playing ball to be able to do it and do it on a high level," Gilman said.
"Once he understands conceptually what's going on, what the offense is trying to do, then he just plays to his strength in that situation, and he makes a lot of plays because of it. It's pretty impressive."