Does anyone want to guess how many sacks we have out of our base 3-4 Defense?

He learned it as secondary coach under Mike Zimmer in Dallas, when EZ Ekuban was the Cowboys’ speed rusher and Greg Ellis was the strongside end. The goal is to use your team speed to create or overcome mismatches.

Clancy originally brought that scheme/mentality to AZ. Those defenses used slender ends like Chike Okeafor and Bertrand Berry. Clancy also started mixing multiple fronts and safety blitzes in, to take advantage of Adrian Wilson’s strength and speed. He went to an odd front full-time, and started incorporating elements of the 3-4 into the scheme, when Ken Whisenhunt joined the Cardinal organization.

In turn, Haley hired him (and promoted him when Crennel turned him down? Who knows?) with the intent of converting KC’s base defense into a 3-4. Since Clancy had just gone through that process w/ the Cards, you can see why it made sense to bring him on in KC.

Do I think Clancy is a permanent fit here? No. His signature front is a speed-based 43 with multiple groupings of rushers on pass downs…similar to what Zimmer’s doing now in Cincy. In turn, this club—like Arizona—is destined to run a more straightforward 34.

Build it and they will come – LBs will emerge. And if not, you go after the best LB in draft or FA you can find.

I’m with you, man. I think it’s easy to be fooled by big stats outta the star LB, when teams can scheme to defeat the one threat, but winning in the trenches and the 1-on-1’s on the perimeter make EVERY player more dangerous, because at any point, the guy’s number can be called to freelance and blow things up. MUCH more difficult to defend than the one standout in a team that’s lacking in its “fundamentals.”

no 3-4 end on this planet is worth the #3 pick. Jackson was clearly the best 3-4 end in last year’s draft, but he still wasnt a top 10 talent. I understand KC probably tried to trade down in the draft, but a team picking 3rd overall isnt good enough to reach for a targeted player because they clearly have plenty of needs if they’re picking 3rd overall.

I’m all for building the offensive and defensive lines through early round draft picks, but in my mind, a #3 overall pick better be for a franchise QB (who we didnt need with the Cassell trade), a left tackle (who we do need), an elite DE/OLB pass rusher (who we also need), and/or only in very rare circumstances a RB or WR (Adrian Peterson, Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Calvin Johnson mold and last year’s draft didnt provide anyone like that with all of the questions surrounding Crabtree).

Chiefs could’ve stuck with the 4-3, as radrh8r says, retaining Boone and/or Tyler and/or Edwards. Agree that McCoy sizes up as a 4-3 DT. Orakpo would’ve anchored DE handsomely, but Chiefs would be committed for YEARS to the 4-3 with that move, and always have problems keeping the unit intact (salary cap) and healthy.

Chiefs would have had more of a defense to be reckoned with in ‘09, by drafting Orakpo. It would’ve fit their cover-2 personnel in the d-backfield. A great pass-rusher with legit d-line bulk. I just think you store up problems for yourself with that kind of commitment to the 4-3, and they would still need somebody like Suh to round it out this year, PLUS a nose tackle. I like the way they chose to go extra-stout, securing 3-4 DEs and training-up a NT from a pretty deep in-house selection. I think it was reasonable, from Haley-Pioli’s perspective, to expect at least ONE effective nose tackle to rise to the top, between Tyler and Edwards, and maybe they expected Tyler would be the guy.

A fascinating piece to all this was the decision to trim Dorsey down and put him at 5-tech (more like 3 1/2 – to – 4 1/2 – tech). Bulking him up seemed like a natural thing to do, but apparently they thought his frame was more suited to the lighter weight. And it DOES seem like he’s been more athletic and less injury-prone this season.

I’m happier with the decision to point towards 3-4. But I’m not hidebound about it. And from his measurables and what I’ve seen of his play on the field, if Suh were on the board when my turn came, I’d take him in a heartbeat. Classified as a DT, he’s identical in size to Tyson Jackson, and he’s quicker. It’s ZERO stretch to think of him as another prototypical 3-4 DE. And much as I like Dorsey, I’m so in man-love that I think Suh would be an instant upgrade at RDE. If that meant I had one too many high-dollar linemen, then Dorsey’s on the trading block, but more likely, I find ways to get all 3 first-rounders on the field at the same time, just for the havoc they could wreak. 3-4, 4-3, whatever!

I’m definitely comfortable with adding another, quicker T-Jax, and dealing with the fallout. Skeptical as I am about keeping a 4-3 stocked, I sure wouldn’t’ be afraid to run it all day long, with T-Jax and Suh at the ends, Dorsey at tackle, and just about anybody else. I’d feel free to move either of Jackson or Suh inside, with Gilberry or Magee at end. Magee could earn as many minutes as anybody just by being the swing player on the line, inside, outside, wherever it suited, and it’d pretty much suit, wherever he went…

Agree that pressure does more to help than ’most anything else. But make all 4 LBs instantly better by having physically dominant players in the front 3, first.

And I was GOING to say that DB and DL were still more important to making the team most competitive the soonest. But after watching Arizona, today, and coming back to this comment, I feel obliged to say that speed at LB IS significant. That extra step in coverage and in pursuing the QB can be decisive.

 I still think fixing d-line and d-back are more critical and lay the foundation for the LBs, and I still think that diamonds-in-the-rough at LB are fairly easy to come by, relative to blue-chippers in the other two position groups. But for effective team play purposes, you make the LB faster by letting him decide (or be told) pre-snap to attack the QB or drop back to his spot in zone, with only a small number of keys for route recognition and coverage adjustment affecting his drop. They’re unafraid to send the corner and safety blitz, secure in the knowledge that

1. they lose little or nothing by rotating the coverage after the snap
2. they will be successful in getting QUICK pressure of the corner blitz and are READY for the pass to the area the corner just vacated.

Part of the speed I see from AZ’s LBs is their ability to play downhill (more decisively) at will, and trust the DBs at their backs. And with the team built the way it is, they can fairly easily plug in young guys with size and speed enough to look respectable wearing jerseys numbered in the 50s.

MIN has more of a simple, get dominant players and run the same thing out of the same sets all day long, and rely on fundamental soundness and execution. I think AZ’s fundamentally sound, but they still generate system pressure/sacks by mixing blitzes and coverages. They have the luxury of doing most anything out of ’most any formation, because all 4 DBs on the field are respectable in man on some of the best WRs in the league.