I think the Redskins should Go to A 3-4 Defense.

[LandrySlice]

it just is really confusing for the opposing qb, and seems like it allows you to get more pressure with 4 speed LBS. No one seems to wanna answer my question about Peppers or Haynesworth, only 2 more weeks till Free agency starts!

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by LandrySlice

it just is really confusing for the opposing qb, and seems like it allows you to get more pressure with 4 speed LBS. No one seems to wanna answer my question about Peppers or Haynesworth, only 2 more weeks till Free agency starts!

Answer: no on both. Either guy will probably take most if not all of our FA money and we in all likelihood will address a couple of needs thru FA. We should look for value players though that will be a challenge because of the supply and demand.

The need for a DT seems less pressing as we review the oline situation and the LB corp.

[BeastsoftheNFCeast]

I believe the 3-4 is going to go downhill the more teams transition to it (which is what is happening). I believe a big success of the 3-4 is that the teams draft players that 3-4 teams value more than 4-3 teams so they get more value for their pick when the 4-3 teams pass over them. Also its a defense that is not seen as much so offenses are not as familiar about what to do.
However, nobody can deny its success in recent years, so it is important to ask if the Redskins switch, would it give us the same success?
I believe that it is not in the Redskins best interest to do so. Not because we dont have talent currently on our roster (between Evans, Daniels, Golston, Griffin, and Montgomery we could find 3 players to fit the DL, Rocky, Fletch, Blades on ILB, Washington, Taylor, Carter at OLB), but because of our salary cap situation I believe we NEED to cut JT AND either griffin or Washington (maybe both). Doing so I believe will either definitely completely screw over our OLB's or will cripple our LB's and DL enough to make a very week front 7. We do not know who will do well in the 3-4 and we need to have enough options to give us security...a defense is only as strong as its weakest player.
And we cannot buy players to fit our system because I believe that our O-line is the number one priority right now. Due to poor performance and an ancient age, we need to get young talent on the OL NOW.

[freddyg12]

Originally Posted by BeastsoftheNFCeast

I believe the 3-4 is going to go downhill the more teams transition to it (which is what is happening). I believe a big success of the 3-4 is that the teams draft players that 3-4 teams value more than 4-3 teams so they get more value for their pick when the 4-3 teams pass over them. Also its a defense that is not seen as much so offenses are not as familiar about what to do.
However, nobody can deny its success in recent years, so it is important to ask if the Redskins switch, would it give us the same success?
I believe that it is not in the Redskins best interest to do so. Not because we dont have talent currently on our roster (between Evans, Daniels, Golston, Griffin, and Montgomery we could find 3 players to fit the DL, Rocky, Fletch, Blades on ILB, Washington, Taylor, Carter at OLB), but because of our salary cap situation I believe we NEED to cut JT AND either griffin or Washington (maybe both). Doing so I believe will either definitely completely screw over our OLB's or will cripple our LB's and DL enough to make a very week front 7. We do not know who will do well in the 3-4 and we need to have enough options to give us security...a defense is only as strong as its weakest player.
And we cannot buy players to fit our system because I believe that our O-line is the number one priority right now. Due to poor performance and an ancient age, we need to get young talent on the OL NOW.

That's similar to what I said earlier, most notably the Skins have passed on a lot of 3-4 OLB/DEs in years when we drafted defense high, e.g. Merriman & Ware in 05. I know that those guys didn't fit the mold of our 4-3, neither did guys like Woodley, who was rated high at one point, then dropped to the 2nd round.

Teams that play the 3-4 well seem to be getting great production from these tweener guys. I think they're as much or more key to it than the nose tackle. btw, J. Ratcliff of Dallas isn't that big but he's quick & strong. Maybe he's not a good example of a 3-4 NT but he's the only smaller one I can think of that's any good.

[BeastsoftheNFCeast]

Originally Posted by freddyg12

That's similar to what I said earlier, most notably the Skins have passed on a lot of 3-4 OLB/DEs in years when we drafted defense high, e.g. Merriman & Ware in 05. I know that those guys didn't fit the mold of our 4-3, neither did guys like Woodley, who was rated high at one point, then dropped to the 2nd round.

Teams that play the 3-4 well seem to be getting great production from these tweener guys. I think they're as much or more key to it than the nose tackle. btw, J. Ratcliff of Dallas isn't that big but he's quick & strong. Maybe he's not a good example of a 3-4 NT but he's the only smaller one I can think of that's any good.

I do believe a big nose tackle is a key cog. All the teams that have success have a key cog nose tackle. (look no further than the ravens and steelers) But it's just one of the pieces of the puzzle, the tweener OLB's are also a key ingredient. (btw, I wouldnt use anyone from dallas as an example...their defense might put up sacks, but point wise they are terrible.)

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by freddyg12

That's similar to what I said earlier, most notably the Skins have passed on a lot of 3-4 OLB/DEs in years when we drafted defense high, e.g. Merriman & Ware in 05. I know that those guys didn't fit the mold of our 4-3, neither did guys like Woodley, who was rated high at one point, then dropped to the 2nd round.

Teams that play the 3-4 well seem to be getting great production from these tweener guys. I think they're as much or more key to it than the nose tackle. btw, J. Ratcliff of Dallas isn't that big but he's quick & strong. Maybe he's not a good example of a 3-4 NT but he's the only smaller one I can think of that's any good.

Not sure whether that has been noted here before but that seems very insightful to me. Not to say these "tweeners" don't/can't make great LBs in the 4-3 system but I think they're passed up as OLBs in the 4-3 system cause maybe they're seen as being a little too big to be effective in coverage or something. That's just a guess.

[44ever]

I like our D the way it is. If we could get more pass rush we'd all be happy. I see np need to go to the 3-4

[Meks]

yea, if we got to the QB more, as other 4-3 teams do ... no1 wouldnt be thinking/complaining about switching.

[SBXVII]

Hope this explains a little better or perhaps reiterates what everyone is saying:

Changing a base defense not as easy as 1, 2, 3-4

[Whiteboi_J]

Man, first off, don't fix nothin' that ain't broke. why switch to a 3-4 when our 4-3 was ranked 4th in the league in D this year?

2nd, the teams makin the switch this year (packers and someone else) all have a lot of draft picks, and a coach that understands the 3-4 Defense.

3rd, we don't have the draft picks required to make the transition to a 3-4 defense, nor enough current personnel to make it work....we'd need to draft several LBs, plus all a hoss of a DT, which we don't have.....

Basically, we gotta finish piecin' together our offense first before we start re-vamping our defense....i think if we get a great OL FA, then draft 2 OL this year, we should be pretty set, and could spend our 1-3 round picks next year on our front 7

[Meks]

^ i cant agree with not upgrading both THIS off-season.

both lines need some kind of help O more than D but still... you do NOT flat ignore the front 7 right now.

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Meks

^ i cant agree with not upgrading both THIS off-season.

both lines need some kind of help O more than D but still... you do NOT flat ignore the front 7 right now.

I'm not sure there's a whole lot to do w/ the d-line this year. First off, as GTripp has suggested our d-line is basically set up to stop the run more than anything, and we do that extremely well. I'm saying it doesn't really appear our d-tackles are expected to get to the QB all the time, though it would be nice, instead we see them plug gaps first and then push toward the QB if it's a pass. That leaves the ends and honestly I think we all we're a little disappointed this season. AC had 10 or 11 sacks in '07 but just a few in '08 - that really surprised me. Obviously Taylor was disappointing and then Evans really seemed to slow down in the second half of the season. However, i'm not sure there's much to be improved at the DE position either. AC is set at his position, hopefully he can have another "up year" in '09. Evans is still young enough, and still gaining more experience through playing more, than maybe we can expect and bigger year from him too. But basically there isn't some amazing DE on the market to solve all our problems. It's a high demand limited supply position this year which means Peppers will command big dough and my best guess is we could do better spending our FA money elsewhere to help the d... at SLB. A badass on the strong side will do more for our pass rush than a DT or DE IMHO. Remember Marcus provided sacks and QB pressure before he slowed down. A nice upgrade to replace him, like Suggs, would be awesome.

[Meks]

^ i see ur point... and agree with suggs, i'd like a bigger, badder DT as well honestly...

[SBXVII]

This blog got me looking at all our players again. We have a lot of players around the same size at each different position DE, DT, and LB. I hope I wrote that right. LOL. If any of the young guys could not get injured and actually step up talent wise, then I think we will be ok on D. The problem is injuries and talent.

DT:
Griffin: 6-3 311, 9yrs playing.
Evans: 6-4 275, 7yrs playing.
Boschetti: 6-4 311, 5yrs playing.
Montgomery: 6-6 315, 3yrs playing.
Golston: 6-4 320, 3yrs playing.
Alexander: 6-1 300, 2yrs playing.

The only one I question is Griffin. Is he going to be cut for money or any other reason?

DE:
Daniells: I assume cut. 13yrs playing. Injury prone.
Carter: 6-4 252, 8yrs playing.
Wilson: 6-4 246, 2yrs playing.
Buzbee: 6-3 265, 1yr playing. I think he was injured last yr.
Rob Jackson: 6-4 259, R. Unknown.

I honestly think we are short at DE now that I look at it.

LB:
J.Taylor: 6-5 244, 12yrs playing. He should be listed under DE's. Possible cut $.
Fletcher: 5-10 245, 11yrs playing. A few good yrs left.
Washington: 6-3 248, 9yrs playing. injury prone. Possible cut $.
Campbell: 6-2 232, 7yrs playing.
Fincher: 6-1 238, 3yrs playing.
McIntosh: 6-2 232, 3yrs playing.
Rian Wallace: 6-3 243, 3yrs playing.
Blades: 5-10 250, 2yrs playing.
Sinclair: 6-2 245, 2yrs playing.
Tyson Smith: 6-2 250, 2yrs playing.

Out of this batch I can see Taylor, Washington possibly being let go. That's 2 out of 10.
I'm terrible with who plays ILB and OLB so maybe we will need to fill certain spots.

Also we picked up some people at the end of the season who are on these lists and not sure how they will pan out.

[MTK]

I wouldn't be so quick to assume Daniels will be cut. If he's 100% I think he'll be back for one more season. He's a Blache guy and he's still a pretty stout player against the run.