Difficulty transitioning to 4-3 Defense? | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Difficulty transitioning to 4-3 Defense?

spiketex

spiketex

Aussie with the swag of El Bravo 47
Super Donator
Club Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2007
Messages
9,358
Reaction score
7,451
Location
West Palm Beach, Florida
There are many reasons to be optimistic about the Dolphins future. However, I'm concerned if we have the right personnel to make a smooth transition to a 4-3 Defense. Eg Paul Soliai has been a relative success as a 3-4 Nose Tackle, but he like others, has a big challenge in converting to the different system and appears a more natural fit in a 3-4. I think that I heard that we had the 6th best Defense in the NFL last season, because we limited the scoring of our opponents. In many games that we lost, we were very competitive and it was primarily solid Defense.
A few years ago the Redskins Defense (under Gregg Williams) went from one of the best to the the worst when they changed to a 3-4 system with Mike Shanahan as Head Coach.
Are there others that share my concern?
 
spiketex said:
There are many reasons to be optimistic about the Dolphins future. However, I'm concerned if we have the right personnel to make a smooth transition to a 4-3 Defense. Eg Paul Soliai has been a relative success as a 3-4 Nose Tackle, but he like others, has a big challenge in converting to the different system and appears a more natural fit in a 3-4. I think that I heard that we had the 6th best Defense in the NFL last season, because we limited the scoring of our opponents. In many games that we lost, we were very competitive and it was primarily solid Defense.
A few years ago the Redskins Defense (under Gregg Williams) went from one of the best to the the worst when they changed to a 3-4 system with Mike Shanahan as Head Coach.
Are there others that share my concern?
Click to expand...

There is no cause for concern. All of our 3-4 players fit into the 4-3 just fine, including Soliai.
 
To be exact, we ranked 15th in total defense and were ranked 6th in total points allowed. As far as the transition to the 4-3 goes, we have the players to be successful in it, it's just a matter of getting all the players use to it from a schematic standpoint. And that responsibility falls directly on Kevin Coyle. So in part, our ceiling will be determined by how good of an defensive coordinator he becomes. Because let's not forget, it's his first time holding that title and in essence, we go where he takes us on D.
 
Didn't Dansby play a MLB in a 4-3 with the Cardinals?

There may be some upside to this change.

Didn't Dansby play in a 4-3 in his "glory days" with the Cardinals? Maybe he'll return to the form that we thought he have when we go to the 4-3 if he loses a little weight.
 
tazthenomad said:
There may be some upside to this change.

Didn't Dansby play in a 4-3 in his "glory days" with the Cardinals? Maybe he'll return to the form that we thought he have when we go to the 4-3 if he loses a little weight.
Click to expand...

He played both schemes in Arizona. He fits into either.
 
We have players fit more for a 4-3 then for a 3-4. We simply have more good DLs then LBs

I personally think one reason we had such good stats last year on defense was that we ran the ball so much. We never tried to get in a scoring battle with anyone. Well, except for maybe the 1st game against the Pats.
 
I'm just waiting to see this

Wake, Starks, Soliai, Odrick

MONSTER D LINE!
 
All of our d-line players have played in a 4-3 a some point in their NFL career. We also played a considerable amount of 4-3 last year. I'm not concerned at all aboout the DL/LB groups. I'd be more worried about the changes in the secondary schemes.
 
spiketex said:
There are many reasons to be optimistic about the Dolphins future. However, I'm concerned if we have the right personnel to make a smooth transition to a 4-3 Defense. Eg Paul Soliai has been a relative success as a 3-4 Nose Tackle, but he like others, has a big challenge in converting to the different system and appears a more natural fit in a 3-4. I think that I heard that we had the 6th best Defense in the NFL last season, because we limited the scoring of our opponents. In many games that we lost, we were very competitive and it was primarily solid Defense.
A few years ago the Redskins Defense (under Gregg Williams) went from one of the best to the the worst when they changed to a 3-4 system with Mike Shanahan as Head Coach.
Are there others that share my concern?
Click to expand...
A transition from the 4-3 to the 3-4 is much more difficult than the transition from the 3-4 to the 4-3. Soliai played in a 4-3 at Hawaii so he's not that far removed. The only player that is far removed from a 4-3 defense would be Kevin Burnett who, since being drafted in 2005, has spent his entire professional career playing in a 3-4 defense. I also think it's much easier to draft for a 4-3 defense than it is for a 3-4. There just aren't that many linebackers and NTs that can play a 3-4 defense and with the number of teams that were switching to the 3-4 it made the task that much more difficult. I'm not sure how well the transition will take this year but you can get the personnel for the 4-3 relatively quick...a couple of drafts and a few 2nd tier free agents.

I have concerns with Wake at DE on running downs and our OLBs in our front 7. Safety was a concern before the transition so that's nothing new. It's too bad we cut A.J. Edds cause his coverage skills as an OLB in the 4-3 at Iowa could have helped us this year on passing downs.
 
datruth55 said:
A transition from the 4-3 to the 3-4 is much more difficult than the transition from the 3-4 to the 4-3. Soliai played in a 4-3 at Hawaii so he's not that far removed. The only player that is far removed from a 4-3 defense would be Kevin Burnett who, since being drafted in 2005, has spent his entire professional career playing in a 3-4 defense. I also think it's much easier to draft for a 4-3 defense than it is for a 3-4. There just aren't that many linebackers and NTs that can play a 3-4 defense and with the number of teams that were switching to the 3-4 it made the task that much more difficult. I'm not sure how well the transition will take this year but you can get the personnel for the 4-3 relatively quick...a couple of drafts and a few 2nd tier free agents.

I have concerns with Wake at DE on running downs and our OLBs in our front 7. Safety was a concern before the transition so that's nothing new. It's too bad we cut A.J. Edds cause his coverage skills as an OLB in the 4-3 at Iowa could have helped us this year on passing downs.
Click to expand...

-Soliai played at Utah
-Burnett played in the 4-3 his rookie season in Dallas before Parcells could move to 3-4
-Wake holds up just fine against the run and has plenty of DE experience
-AJ Edds hasn't been able to get on the field with multiple teams since we cut him. He's obviously not a starting talent.
 
ChrisJNelson said:
-Soliai played at Utah
-Burnett played in the 4-3 his rookie season in Dallas before Parcells could move to 3-4
-Wake holds up just fine against the run and has plenty of DE experience
-AJ Edds hasn't been able to get on the field with multiple teams since we cut him. He's obviously not a starting talent.
Click to expand...
My mistake on Soliai.
Burnett played in 13 games and had 0 starts his rookie year and he's still the longest tenured player who has not played in the 4-3 regardless.
Wake has never played DE against the run for us or in the NFL. His experience is in the CFL where they pass 90% of the time.
A.J. Edds got on the field for the Patriots playing mostly special teams and he's now with the Colts although he's not been the same player since he tore his ACL here and at this point he'll probably never be.
 
Its harder to convert from a 43 to a 34. All of personel have experience playing in a 43.
 
datruth55 said:
Wake has never played DE against the run for us or in the NFL. His experience is in the CFL where they pass 90% of the time.
.
Click to expand...

Cam Wake has played a lot of downs as a down lineman for us when we were in the Dime or Nickel and I'm sure the teams we played did run a few times out of those formations.

Ad why would you say that they pass 90% of the time in the CFL when everyone knows that is not true.
 
MRojas4 said:
I'm just waiting to see this

Wake, Starks, Soliai, Odrick

MONSTER D LINE!
Click to expand...

I really like the way the starting defensive line looks. Also, the projected 3rd down/passing line looks like it could be pretty good also:

Wake, Starks, Odrick, Vernon
 
Pass rush is still going to be a concern. You would hope that oddrick and Paul lose some weight to help them become more explosive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom