Jack Del Rio - Converting to 3-4

[HarleyDog]

(01-25-2019, 06:40 PM)Okeana Wrote: Yeah, I think the league is leaning towards a hybrid 3-4 and you can see that with teams who consistently get deep in the playoffs.  The last successful 4-3 2 gap I saw was the legion of boom when they won the Superbowl and that team was just loaded with talent.  

Probably wont happen right away if JDR wants to go this route. Our LB corps is weak at best. Hard to go to a 3-4 unless you have precisely the right guys you believe can make it work, and these guys need to be workhorses. I see the strengths of the 3-4 as it can stop huge runs, and react to the pass. In addition to giving the backs, for a fraction of a second once the ball is snapped, to see what is developing and controlling the situation. I like the 3-4 because you can quickly switch it at the line to a 4-3 at the last second.

The 4-3 (IMO) is a more run stopping defensive approach and your hopes of getting to the QB. We have ran the 4-3 for years and although we have had success against the run, the last few years we have been eaten up by it. So, what do we do? When you run a 4-3 and have poor coverage with your safety's, you get a bad ranked D overall and abused frequently. It seems more difficult transitioning (on a play) from a 4-3 to a 3-4. 

If the hybrid can be figured out (which takes a lot of planning, execution and coaching) on this team, I see it as being a tool to escalate the Bengals D into a top 5, if not top 3 in the next 2-3yrs. But it cant happen right away with a defense that has been built around a 4-3 defense and the only defense that's been ran by Merv for all these years. To the best of my knowledge, he never veered from 4-3. D needs help finding themselves. I don't see flexibility right away here.