There are some real issues here.

1. Tamba Hali never has been, and never will be a 3-4 defensive end. He’s not nearly big or strong enough.

2. Keyaron Fox is not a Kansas City Chief

2.5 Benny Sapp is not a Kansas City Chief

3. To lump Boone in with Edwards and Reed is an insult. Boone is a terrific pass rusher. He’s certainly not a bottom feeder.

4. Where does Dorsey fit in your scheme? He’s too small to play 3-4 nose tackle. His talents are wasted playing 2-gap.

I have been thinking about this for some time, basically since we added Williams. Whether we change schemes or not, we could have used a better coverage LB this last year. I am not as sold as you on Page, but dropping DJ and/or Williams back into coverage would help him. Certainly our DL/LB situation would make the change ideal, having such depth at LB and no true pass rushing DE. A 3-4 would also make the best use of Dorsey in my opinion, as he is likely to command two O-linemen on every snap, which is the job of any nose tackle in the 3-4. Also, since we are going young for the first time since I have been a Chiefs fan, it makes sense to make the change now and mold the players into the defense. A couple of questions: Were you envisioning the sort of “modified 3-4” that Dallas has? Does Gunther have any experience with the 3-4? BTW, Fox is gone, plays for the Steelers now.

“Pollard: Some work needed, but overall a good player. Pollard is ideal for a cover 2 scheme in that he could kill any receiver over the middle at any time. He is a punishing hitter (overall tackling could use work). He also could use work in overall coverage discipline, and i think this will happen. He is a raw talent, and keeping the next guy around might help. But it might not….”

Pollard is terrible. He is only useful on special teams. HE CANNOT TACKLE!!!!! I still hate the fact that his nickname is bonecrusher… especially when I’ve seen him miss so many opposing teams’ bones that it isn’t even funny. I like his effort but he only has athletic ability. So I guess he is raw talent, but I wouldn’t say “overall” he’s a good player. Sorry. His lack of tackling kills the cover 2. I feel bad for (is surtain on the SS side?) whoever the corner is on his side, because with the cover 2, you should expect great safety help. There is none on Pollard’s side.

I appreciate the thought you put into this post. We finally have something to talk about.

this would never work for a lot of the reasons listed above. We would get abosolutly killed in the passing game. Flowers is a good corner, but he doesn’t fit every scheme. He isn’t fast enough to play man to man. And Morgan will pay dividends early in his career. I’ll bet we will run what is called “big nickel” a lot. This is where 3 safetys are on the field at the same time. This would be ideal for covering someone like Antonio Gates who is far too big to be covered by a small CB. Our cover two is perfect the way it paning out. We have been drafting according to our cover 2 scheme.

stop saying we don’t have a good pass rusher, because we do in Tamba Hali. The man consistently got 8 sacks a year on the left side! He is just going to get better and will produce much more on the right since there will be no tightend on that side. I’m predicting 12 or more sacks from Hali this year.

You can’t say he is just “effective at pass rushing, did you even see what he did at Texas? The reson he isn’t filling up the stat sheet is because he isn’t being sent on blitzes enough. And when you say that he cannot pass rush straight up, I thought I remember watching games last year where he was at defensive end and just blowing by OT’s while Jared Allen played OLB. Oh well, maybe I’m just a huge fan of DJ, and I miss DT so much.

to one of shallow depth, if we switched to a 3-4, I think. Instead of having an incredibly serviceable backup (whether that ends up being williams or harris) and an ability to switch players around in case of injury (versatility of edwards, speed of DJ and Williams), we’d go to having all 4 of our starting-capable (assuming williams is) LB’s on the field at all times. If one goes down w/ injury, we’d immediately have to bring in a rookie. I don’t have a problem with playing a rookie, and neither would Edwards, but I feel a bit more comfortable w/ 4 excellent LB’s to rotate/fill-in 3 spots, instead of 4 to fill in 4 spots. I know LB’s don’t rotate in the same way D linemen do, but I hope everyone gets my point.

I also wonder how much havoc it would wreak on all the youngsters in their 2nd or 3rd year to adapt to a totally different scheme, when they should be just starting to get ready to excel at the scheme they’ve been working on for the last couple years. There’s been a lot of talk about Tank/Turk/Pollard/Page all potentially having break-out years, and I think we’d probably set that back a good chunk by switching schemes. Although I definitely appreciate the points made about fitting the scheme to the players, not the players to the scheme, we have to keep in mind the time it takes to not only learn a scheme well, but then be able to excel at it.

Also, to the couple people that were strongly against Dorsey’s ability to perform as a 3-4 NT, could you explain that a little further if you have time? I’d love to hear a bit deeper analysis as to why that opinion is held, and also if anyone is on the other end of the spectrum, I don’t know squat about a true NT versus a 4-3 defensive tackle, so anyone who has some insight, I’d love to hear it.

It’s the drudgery of the off season, but thank God we’re still finding great stuff to talk about. Keep up the good work, everyone.

He is capable of playing NT, but it would completely take away from what he does best. NT’s like Jamal Williams in San Diego and Vince Wilfork have one job and that is to plug up the Offensive line with their mere size. Dorsey is a smaller, more explosive DT who can be utilized to rush the passer. That is why he is best suited in a 3 technique.

Interesting analysis, beyond what’s already been said, I’d point to what Alberts said in his first new conference about getting two first round linemen because “it all starts in the trenches.” The PARADE might be reading into things, but that smacks of parroted coach speak and rarely does that mentality lead to a 3-4 defense. Also, from the offseason moves I’d guess Herm is pissed about what we gave up in the run last year and is willing to give up some sacks for better run protection.

Reading some of these post make me wonder if you guys really evaluate talent or you choose people on name recognition.

Let’s talk about Dorsey. This guy is a real monster, but he can not play NT in the NFL, he is too small. He would get swallowed up inside and his true potential would be negated.

What I really want to talk about is the CB’s. We have Surtain, Flowers, Carr Brackenridge, Paterson, and Barksdale.

Surtain – the best CB the Chiefs have right now. he is a little slow, but he is still a respectable CB

Brackenridge – suffered a jaw injury from a nightclub incident. He is a good nickle CB but is to slow to be a real cover. If he doesn’t heal fast he will find himself on the injured reserve list which will save his job.

Paterson – this guy is not a good open field tackler and he made to many mistakes during special team play last year. If he doesn’t look real good coming out of camp he will get cut.

Barksdale – Only played special team last year. The chiefs got a steal when they stole this guy from the Eagels. Barksdale is the most athletic CB on the team. He is the biggest weighting in at 213lbs this year. He is also the fastest CB on the team. For all you sports pundits out there who pick Flowers to start opposite Surtain are wrong, Barksdale will make a strong push for that job.

Flowers – this guy is the real thing. he hits like a tank and is a good open field tackler. the draw back on him is he is to slow to be a real cover CB. NFL receivers will exploit his lack of speed if he is not protected in a scheme.

Carr – you hear a lot about this guy, but we have yet to see him in practice until then it will be hard to evaluate him. He is the one to benifit the most from Brackenridges situation.

Here is my CB depth chart for the 2008 season

Surtain Barksdale/Flowers
Brackenridge/Carr Flowers/Barksdale
Carr/Paterson Carr/Paterson

This list depends on Brackenridge status for the season.