Can someone please help me identify our Linebackers

[Sherif]

I'm having trouble figuring out where our players line up. Whose the strong side LB (Taylor?) Does he cover the TE? Whose our weak side lb Porter? Will he normally line up on the right side? Why is the left side called the strong side and the right side is the weak side? Seems opposite. What position does Crowder play, Strong ILB (MIKE) and Akin is (Will)? I know that's a lot of questions, but and I know visually where the guys line up, I just don't know their position names and coverage assignments are.

When would Crowder have TE coverage assignment and when would it fall to Taylor and Porter?

 

[Kdawg954]

Joey Porter is the Jack OLB or the Weakside OLB
Akin Ayodele is the WILL
Channing Crowder is the MIKE or MLB
Jason Taylor/Matt Roth is the elephant OLB or SAM

The idea behind the 3-4 is to confuse an offense and disguise coverages. It gives you flexibility.

For the most part the idea of all 4 spots are:

JP is the pass rush specialist
Akin is the coverage ILB
Crowder is the MLB or the tackle machine
JT/Roth have to be versatile . . stop the run, rush the passer, cover the TE, whatever the play asks for.

All 4 guys still have to play D, meaning sometimes they may have to cover the TE, stop the run, etc. It depends on the offense and the play call on defense.

In general, the strongside is the side where the TE's are lined up on. But if JP is abusing an OT thoughout the game, u can imagine and offense will move the TE towards JP and allow the other OLB to try to generate pressure from the weakside . . . which was a problem last year because we couldnt generate much pressure opposite of him when he received those double teams.

Very complex defense that requires the right personnel to run it . . . meaning De's that are tall and big . . . 6'5 and 300 lbs. NT's that eat up blockers and are powerful and can hold their ground. That is the key to the whole defense.