I heard on the radio on 790 if we went to the 3-4

[nativefalcon]

Nolan, its his preferred defense to teach. We have a lot of players that would work in a 3-4 system. My opinion, Babs, Peria Jerry and Van Walker could all be DEs in the 3-4 Bierman, Spoon, also Lewis Sidbury size wise could all be linebackers in the 3-4 and Abe if he would do it. (he left the jets because they went to the 3-4)

So we would need 2 nose tackles. They have 2 coming out of UGA, totally 3 in the draft in the first round. That have already worked in a 3-4 defense.

That and some big ass linebackers to get drafted or free agents. We need 6ft 2-5 at least 250-260 LB line backers from the draft or free agency.

The last time the Falcons had the 3-4 they had Wade Phillios do it and you could tell he was waiting for the next years draft. But he got fired when Dan Reeves got canned, I always look at the Chargers 3-4 that could have been Atlantas.

We did it totally wrong then they had Patrick Kerney playing a DE in the 3-4 and he was getting thrown around like a rag doll, he only weighed 270 and a DE in the 3-4 has to be at least 300. He still got 7 sacks that year.

What Im getting at is, if they do it, they have to do it right, I think our secondary is fine, with a couple of changes, but left intact, but the front seven changed around to their correct weight and speed for the 3-4.

I would go for our strengths and Mike Nolans strength is the 3-4, look at the teams, hes coached? the 49ers, they went 3-4, The Broncos, they went 3-4, and last the Dolphins and they went 3-4 and they were last in defense year before last, then when Mike left to come here, they were in the top 10.

We just have to do it right, its a lot easier, to find 2 huge D-tackles and linebackers then to find a DE that's going to turn into worth a shit. Its not like were going to get Jarvis Jones.

[mdrake34]

I"m at the point that I'm all for switching to a 3-4 because our 4-3, no matter who has coached it, hasn't worked in years. Why not shake things up?

Also, Kerney started at OLB when we switched to the 3-4, but he was so hilariously bad at moving in space and dropping into coverage they had to move him back to DE, even if he was undersized.

[Beef]

Again, UGA NT's Jenkins and Geathers are crap.

I'm a diehard Dawg fan and rarely criticize anything UGA, but these guys are way over rated. The only reason they are high in the draft rankings is because of their size and because Jenkins has quick feet and can run unusually fast for 350 lbs. But they are weak up top, have shitty work ethic, and no consistent motors/no stamina. They can't stop the run for shit, they rarely get penetration, and they don't even demand double teams and that's their most important job. I've watched every one of their games and trust me. We don't want either of them.

That said, I still don't think we move to a 3-4 base. Abe, Matthews, Sidbury, and Biermann are hand in the dirt 3-point stance off the edge burst from the snap prototypical 4-3 DE's. They are bigger bodied and slower than your typical 3-4 OLB and they are not accustomed to standing up 1-3 yards off the line and playing the "rush/cover/run" game with a whole buch of second layer potential reads.

And Babs, Peters, Jerry, and Walker are not 3-4 DE's. they are way too big and slow for that. Walker and Robertson could probably put on 20 lbs each and platoon very nicely at NT, however, but that's about it. We we need like 4 new guys at about 6-3 to 6-5 280-290 and quick/fast to play 3-4 DE's though. All our DT's except for Robertson have huge guts. They're fat assets around the middle. 3-4 DE's are built different. They're bodies look like 4-3 DE's but they weigh 20 lbs more. Big upper and lower bodies, smaller waists. Our DT's look like pears.

And our OLB's just don't fit a 3-4 either except Spoon. He's so fast, so strong, and so athletic that he could easily play a 3-4 ILB. But other than him, Massaquoi is the only other guy we have that fits as an OLB. MAYBE Biermann because of his speed. Dent and Nicholas are not 3-4 LB's at all.

So if we did move to 3-4 with this personnel, We'd have shit depth at every position in the front 7 and slower and bigger than normal players at DE and OLB. I think it would be a disaster. Unless TD made 4 or 5 FA moves and devoted the entire draft to 3-4 personnel, I just don't see it happening. Not without accepting the likelihood of a really shit year or 2 on defense. Maybe if we started drafting for it this year and next, we might make a smooth transition by 2015 season start.

I also think this is why NO is going to have another shitty defense in 2013. It takes more than people think to get a change like this working properly. It's never an overnight success and there's almost always a drop off the year it's implemented before it gets better.

[mdrake34]

Green Bay and Houston switched to 3-4 overnight and had immediate success. I thought both were going to be disastrous moves and I was dead wrong.

[Beef]

(01-25-2013 11:22 AM)mdrake34 Wrote:  Green Bay and Houston switched to 3-4 overnight and had immediate success. I thought both were going to be disastrous moves and I was dead wrong.

Go back and look at how they really did it. They drafted personnel the prior year and the year they switched and also brought in FA's. They were working towards the change for more than just one year. They didn't have the same 7 4-3 starters when they opened as 3-4.

[mdrake34]

(01-25-2013 12:21 PM)Beef Wrote:  Go back and look at how they really did it. They drafted personnel the prior year and the year they switched and also brought in FA's. They were working towards the change for more than just one year. They didn't have the same 7 4-3 starters when they opened as 3-4.

They didn't draft 3-4 personnel the prior year, which would have been 2008, they waited till 2009, when they drafted Clay Matthews and Raji and made the switch then.

This was the packers 2008 draft:
Jordy Nelson, WR, Kansas State
Brian Brohm, QB, Louisville
Patrick Lee, CB, Auburn
Jermichael Finley, TE, Texas
Jeremy Thompson, DE, Wake Forest (who is apparently the brother of Packers tackle Orrin Thompson)
Josh Sitton, G/T, University of Central Florida
Breno Giacomini, T, Louisville
Matt Flynn, QB, LSU
Brett Swain, WR, San Diego State

[mdrake34]

Even if we don't make a wholesale switch to the 3-4 this year, I think it's in our best interests to start acquiring 3-4 type players so we can at least run a hybrid style defense with more 3-4 looks. There was no point in signing Nolan if we were going to force him to only run a 4-3 defense. Despite equal experience with both defenses, I would imagine he's more effective when running a predominantly 3-4 defense.

[phocis850]

This may have been Abe's last year.

Jerry hasn't proved much.

Our current 4 can't get to the QB.

Switching this year wouldn't make a lick of difference. Even if we didn't pick a fatty up.

But, we already saw that we we have bigger bodies on the DL our run defense works better. Remember the 3 DT sets? It worked quite well.

We need to look at the DL as Beirmann being our only asset. The other guys haven't done much. That includes you Babs.

[Radical]

We've ran plenty of 3-4 this year you know... Abraham played as a stand-up OLB along with Biermann countless times.

[cnasty]

It's happening, I don't think you can argue against that. Not sure how we will go about it, but we ran so much hybrid this year that it was pretty clear that Nolan doesn't prefer the 4-3. I think it probably suits us a little better with our current personnel. Our current DTs are undersized to play DT, but too big to play DE in a 4-3. Our DEs are a little smaller, too. We all agree that we lack that one, big body in the middle. I think we'll address that this offseason, whether it be in the draft or FA. I look forward to the change that will be coming.