Bengals Defense now 3-4 hybrid

[*bengalfan74*]

(03-05-2020, 10:20 AM)Au165 Wrote: This is where things are actually a bit muddy because it's all semantics. Those "5 D linemen" looks were actually just a  3-4 under front. The two widest "D linemen" were standing up so while on the roster they were called defensive linemen they were actually linebackers in those instances. People get too caught up in names and terms and sometimes don't see what is actually occurring. There are tons of teams that do what Lou did the only difference is their website guys list those guys as OLB instead of DE. 

As for the term hybrid, a lot of teams in the NFL run hybrid defenses. The patriots for years have run a hybrid defense and all of Belichick's disciples have ran them as well. It's nothing new, but fans like to think of teams being either a 4-3 or a 3-4 and that's not how NFL defenses look at themselves really anymore. Guys like Derwin James and now Isiah Simmons are becoming these highly sought after chess pieces that let coordinators break further out of traditional scheme definitions.

There was never anything wrong with Hubbard dropping into coverage. This also traces back to people getting too caught up on named position versus responsibility and ability.

Agree

In HS, which I know is far from the NFL and I'm talking years ago, lol we ran a base 5-2-4 with nose guard DT's and DE's 2 LBers 4 DB's. However towards the end of my career we starting running a monster defense with 3 LBers 2 plus the "monster" who had different responsibilities depending on play called, coverage of RB, mirror QB, rush etc. 

And on 3rd and long our DE's would often drop into coverage (we'd send in the quicker/smaller guys) basically morphing into a 3-4 defense. And this was in early 80's.

My point is very few if any teams run a true 3-4 or 4-3 anymore ! They're in hybrid or whatever you want to call it way more often than not. 

If you wanna call it a 3-4 sweet. I just hope they get better and I don't really care what it's called.