TommyBrady12

i honestly think we are suited for the 3-4 so i am shocked at hearing that we will be playing more 4-3. maybe we'll use both schemes evenly througout the season - you know to keep other teams guessing. it's another advantage we can have.

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"He’s the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. He goes from being a rookie that nobody is expecting anything from, to taking over with people saying he can’t do it, to winning three Super Bowls....It should already be obvious he’s the greatest quarterback to ever have played. "

- Steelers S Troy Polamalu on Tom Brady

patsfaninpa

I think our best defensive allignment this year will be a 4-2-5.

DL Burgess, Warren, Wilfork and Seymour

LB Mayo and Thomas

DB's in a nickel - Bodden, Springs, Wilhite, Sanders and Meriweather.
With Butler pushing the cb's and Chung the S's.

patman52

I did not see them play a 3-4 at all this afternoon.

Burgess, Pryor, Seymour and Banta Cain in the nickel

Warren, (Pryor/Brace) Wilfork and Seymour in the 4-3 base.

Bruschi was never on the field in either set.

CrazedChariot

I think we are going to see slow transition to a 4 linemen defense over this year and into the next.

The 3-4 strengths have always been defending against the run, and the ability to cook up some clever blitz schemes to make up for the lack of general qb pressure.

With the nfl becoming more of a pass first, run second league, the 3-4 is going to have to evolve into a very blitz heavy scheme in order to compete with the 4-3.

On top of that, numerous teams are now switching to 3-4 defenses. There aren't going to be as many bargain deals for 3-4 players, like there have been in the last 10 years. A "tweener" used to be a player that didnt really have a spot, and that a 3-4 team could pick up for cheap. Now they are becoming top FA and draft acquisitions.

Personally I would like to see BB develop more of a 4-3 jumbo package that would focus more on stopping the run. He could then combine this with a more traditional 4-3 , and a 4-2-5 nickel to get a good mixture of qb pressure and coverage ability.

Then he could mix in the 3-4 to keep qb's and offensive CO's guessing.

patsfan13

3-4-4, 4-3-4, 3-3-5 (with 1 blitzer), 4-2-5 & 6 DB's will all be seen. IMO 304 willstill be the base D. Everything will be based on the game situation. Situational football as BB likes to emphasize.

With the personel upgrades on the D this year we have the flexibility to match up in any situation run or pass.

I expect we will be ahead a lot this year which will dictate a lot of 5 DB schemes.

Our DL's know the 3-4 we need to get comofrtable with the 4 DL sets (or 3-3-5 w 1 lb rushing).

Cna't wait for this season. We had a horrible red zone D and 3rd down D last year these are the areas for improvement.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

Box_O_Rocks

The advantage of the 3-4 was it narrowed the rush lane options, put four faster defenders down around the LOS to cut off RBs, and when rushing the passer, a well stocked 3-4 unit could send three DL and any one of four LBs making it difficult for OL to set their pass protection before the snap.

The question of why a 4-man front is partially answered by the current pass happy tendency of the NFL...except half or more of the teams on the schedule could be considered run first teams:
-- NYJ (2), Ten, Bal, Atl, Car, Jax, Hou. Run first (8).
-- Mia(2) is run dependent, McD kept the run game intact when he inherited, and until his QB and receivers get their minds in-sync they will probably run to set up the pass. Leaning run (3)
-- Ind and NO are strong passing teams. Buf is leaning pass with Owens signing. Pass first (4)
-- TB is an enigma.

So I make that 11 leaning run, 4 leaning pass, and 1 who knows?

Of course there is the expectation that this will be another high scoring offense, one that puts the opposition in catch-up mode early - which shifts the defensive emphasis over to pass more often than not. I also have to wonder if Dean Pees spent any time studying Boston College's defense with two large bodies in the middle? It could well be one of the goals for a 40 shift is to protect Mayo and leave him more opportunities to make plays without a blocker in his grill.

The remainder of preseason will be interesting to observe.

For those attempting to project a roster:
-- 40 front teams tend towards more DL and fewer LBs.
-- The Training Camp roster suggests NE is leaning towards larger DEs (Seymour, Warren, Green, Wright, L. Smith, S. Williams, Richard, shopping Carter...)
-- Smaller DEs are essentially 3-4 OLBs to keep 30/40/20/50/60/10 front flexibility. (A. Thomas, Woods, TBC, Burgess, Crable, Ninkovich)
-- ILB will be in more demand for their speed. (Mayo, Guyton, Lenon, Alexander)
-- If the expectation is NE will be in Nickel and Dime packages more consistently, it may be that additional DBs might be necessary...
-- If scoring fast is a priority on offense, depth at WR becomes more important.

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