Hey guys I have watched footy for the past 25 years, and I was wondering. Do you guys prefer the 3-4 or the 4-3. I have seen it come and go, and have seen brilliant defenses with both formations. The Giants in the 3-4, the Bears in the 4-3 and so on. Which D do you prefer and why? I am still not totally convinced that 3-4 is the way to go, although i am excited with the way the franchise is progressing generally. I am not stupid and know that we will go 3-4 anyway. Just wondered what your thoughts were, that is all.
I'm presuming when you say Giants in 3-4, you don't speak of the current team but rather the old Parcells ran teams. Frankly I prefer both. If there's one thing Nick the Slick had right, it was a good hybrid D to mix things up. You can have a guy like JT and opposing teams would have to always figure out if he's lining at DE or at OLB.
Me too. Conceptually I liked what Cameron and Capers brought to the team. Unfortunately, execution wise, it didnt seem as beautiful as on the chalkboard. We are going back to a more neanderthal system both offense and defense. Hopefully our players are up to speed
Well...all I can say is "I don't know, maybe" Our Defensive Co-ordinator does not have a long track record, the only thing that can be said about him is Bowles Db's tend to have more turnover when he runs the defense. That sort of tells me his Db's didn't just discover they could play bump and run, but they can disguise zone coverages really well. And for a background I looked up scouting reports from Bowles was a player, his specialty was a talent to hide his Safety coverages from the Qb...he was really good at cheating coverages denying the Qb a chance to audible. WAG on my part, but there really is not an awful lot to go on with Bowles. For me, 4-3, it is just easier to find 4 defensive lineman then it is to find 4 lb's who can move in Fast Forward and Drop Back Reverse in coverages. Miami ran the 3-4 in the 80's it sucked...don't want to go back..
Yeah sorry. I meant the 80's team with LT, Carson, Burt, Dorsey, Marshall, Reasons and Banks at front 7 positions--I think.
I realise that nowadays the weights of players are different, but the principles of the game have not changed. I was asking if guys actually preferred one defense or another, rather than comparing them with defenses of the past. What advantages are we going to get by changing to a 3-4? What is to be gained if we were to stay in a 4-3? E.G we never had the personnel to change to a 3-4, so we have to draft with that in mind. Would it have been more productive to draft with the 4-3 in mind, bearing that we could have probably have drafted better, as we already had people in place for hat system.
A good example of how hard it is to stock a 3-4 White Dolphin Parcells inhereted: Lawerence Taylor (#2 overall) Harry Carson (drafted in 1978) Leonard Marshall was a lucky find in ,1983 Carl Banks was the 7th overall pick maybe earlier Jim Burt was a USFL find Pepper Johnson was a first round pick George Martin was inherited as well. So out of that great 80's 3-4 defense, we have two top 5 draft picks, two guys who were longtime vets, today they would have left via FA, and two guys pulled out of nowhere and a mid first round pick. The front office did a magnificent job of not only hitting on draft picks, but finding players who also filled in the cracks.
i wouldn't mind either to be honest. from what i know and understand about both is with the right players, both are quite affective. the thing i know for sure, it is more difficult to get the right personel for the 3-4.
You remember John Offerdahl, he was forced to do everything, we never found a NT, we never found a ILB to pair with him, we never found the two OLB's though we tried everyone from Rick Graf to EJ Junior to Hugh Green. Fast forward to today, we still need a ILB, NT who can stay healthy, Safeties who can stuff the run (their job is a bit easier in the 3-4, they are more ballhawks then cover guys). For the 4-3, we would only need a ILB, and pass rushing DE assuming JT plays standing up and safeties who can do more in run support and coverage duties.
The west coast offense killed the 3-4 defense, the design is to force LB's to cover Rb's and Te's, the vast majority of Lb's cannot do that, the built in mismatches were killing teams defenses.
Oh I remember John alright Sorry Padre, I didn't mean to make you out to be a fool. i understand the old stuff with Green, and that mad idiot Graf. I was more trying to understand why we wanted to go 3-4 now. Just because Fat boy is here ? And that is how he plays?
Why? And Lo, the Tuna doth leadeth the People of Dolphin, and he doth decree, "I demand a 3-4 on every Sunday, occasionally Mondays or Thursdays, look ye, GM and Scouts, gaze upon the glory that is Two Super bowl rings..so the Tuna sayeth, so shall it be done.. Seriously, Parcells "knows" the 3-4, he likes it, and expects it to be run whenever he is involved with a team, he did run the 4-3 for one season in Dallas, but they had been a great defense the year before, as soon as that one season was up, fired the Defensive Coach and brought in a 3-4 Defense Coach.
I dont doubt BP and his ways with the 3-4. Where are his type of guys coming from? When he gets big LB's and DL from the draft, i'll start believing.
We have a fleet of LB's already, 9 or so, on the roster now. We have Starks, Ferguson, Wright, Holliday and Roth. Now keep in mind I never said those were 9 good line backers..just that we have 9 on the roster now.
Indeed. It didn't work out quite well with just Capers but Capers under Saban it worked pretty well considering the personnel. Capers to me just didn't know the foundations of that hybrid once Saban left and it showed. If we had pilfered one of the Patsies defensive coaches, I think our defense could've looked a lot better.
