It appears we are at least attempting to move to a 3-4 as our base front. However, with this move I have a lot of questions regarding how our personnel will fit in: DE: I am VERY comfortable with Kimo and Ellis as our ends. Kimo is an excellent anchor and veteran leader to fit in with a young defense. I think the move will rejuvenate Ellis' career (he had 8.5 sacks as a 3-4 DE while COMING OFF THE BENCH his rookie year). He was never an elite edge guy and I feel he will be very good on starting ends. Depth is not good however. young guys like dave ball or matt mcChesney may move there but are question marks at best. Moving Robertson out there may be an option and I think he can be a great anchor but the way I understand it the ends need to be taller to be successful NT: By far the greatest question mark on defense. Sione Pouha looks the part but is very raw and not ready to start full time. Robertson has always been cast as a 3-technique. James Reed is too small to even play END in this scheme in my opinion. Thats it. However, given our current activity (or lack of) in this area so far I am beginning to think the CS is comfortable with a Robertson / Pouha team at this position. We should remember that D-Rob is not only 24, he DOES have a great base to anchor against the run and has 3 years in the trenches. He also weighed in at 317 when he was drafted. It would not be out of the question (as some have claimed) to have him anchor the middle. Then bringing Pouha off the bench to play 30% of the snaps would keep both fresh. The more I look at it the less I am too worried. No its not ideal, but there fact is there are just not that many 350 pounds guys that can play. However, there may be a lot more action to come here. LINEBACKERS: Barton and Hobson started in the 4-3. Do they still fit? I dont know. Hobson might be a great fit on the inside next to Vilma. He is short but has size (250 lbs) to anchor. Chatam might start inside also but he is a career backup. Could be use brian Thomas as our rush backer? IMO that is not so farfetched. Willie Mcginest made the same transformation. Thomas and Barton on the outside, with thomas as the primary rusher. Vilma and Hobson inside with Chatam as the primary backup. Not ideal, but not terrible. Kimo---DRob/Pouha---Ellis Barton---Hobson---Vilma---Thomas that is how I see it now. outside passrusher and NT are the obvious question marks. My question is how else could we utilize our personnel. Robertson cant man the nose or end what do we do with him? What about Thomas? If we draft a guy like Mario Williams would we put him at end where his speed might be wasted? Could he play LB with his speed even tho he is 295 pounds. It worked with Merriman last year. What FA's are left to fill in the holes? Let me know what you think...
Our personel still fits much better in a 4-3, we wouldn't even need to worry about the defense next year if we leave it in a 4-3, forcing this D into a 3-4 is only creating more holes
I agree with you and what I am hoping is that we try to have a true hybrid defense where we can change between both with the same personnel on the field. for example, with the players mentioned above: move Thomas to DE and Kimo inside to play DT with robertson and keep Barton, Hobson, Vilma as our LB's. If that is what we are looking at doing, building a morphing and confusing defense, then I think it is a great move. the 3-4 itself will take a big learning curve tho IMO. But if we were going to keep the 4-3 as our base defense then i dont see how we could justify trading Abe. that and our only 2 signings being 3-4 players make me believe Mangini ultimately wants a 3-4 base ala his mentors (belickick, parcells)
oh and before anyone says anything, i realize i wrote "wear" instead of "where" in the subject of this thread. Still take it seriously
Last year the jets played a 3-4 front a couple of times, and they used abraham as an end obviously and he used his speed to get to the QB, and he did just fine disrupting the qb. Drafting mario and ens with good speed size and strength is a huge upgrade to our front, whichever defensive scheme they use.
i wonder if mark brown fits into any of this... i know we've seen very little of the guy but he seems to have some speed and playmaking ability from the few plays he's been on the field for.
good point, ive liked watching him on special teams for a while and i think he did pretty solid when barton went down. his size on paper is nothing to wow about but hes built like a machine and is athletic. if he ever made it to a 3-4 though id make sure he was doing coverage
I'm comfortable with Ellis and Von Ollenhoffen, but not Robertson. I'm not convinced he can play the NT and anchor the line? I'm hopeful, but not optimistic. I agree Thomas should be tried outside - and Barton will thrive as the rush backer in the 34. Vilma needs a big guy in front of him to keep blockers off of him. Hobson may do better inside.
DE - Ellis, Robertson, Kimo, Reed - This has the makings of a REALLY nice rotation. NT - Puoha - We obviously need more here. To me this remains the biggest question mark, which is why Gabe Watson looks very attractive as a pick somewhere in the 30's. LB - Barton, Vilma, Hobson, Thomas - No real depth here. This is why I've been pulling for Hawk with our 1st pick.
Hybrid I really think we're going to run a hybrid defense next season. Maybe base 4-3 with some 3-4 and even 5-2.
guys sorry but reed is gone too...he isn't coming back even though I kind of liked him. He was a UFA. I think like miami interviewed him or cleveland some one did maybe it was dallas. I don't remember sorry.
Man, a defensive scheme thread without a draft agenda behind it. I almost forgot what those looked like. Welcome back californiajet. I agree with most that NT is the overall glaring problem on defense, with speed rusher being a close second. I don't think our starting NT is on the roster yet, and whomever he is he will probably be a June 1st cap casualty because I am not sure we'll find one of immediate starting quality in the draft. I'm almost sure we don't. I'm another in the camp that would not be surprised to see Hawk drafted with our early pick, as defense is always the top priority in the Parcells/Belichick scenarios, and I don't think we have the personnel to run a 3-4. I love the idea of moving Hobson to the interior, but Thomas doesn't seem like a perceptive/instinctive enough player to be able to drop into coverage, and while I've never seen him rush from the standing position, I think his football speed is highly overrated. I'd prefer not to believe that we're moving directly into a hybrid defense because I am of the school that requires a solid fundamental base before you get pretty. And with the recent personnel moves, I think the FO might be thinking along the same lines. I'm not sure Dewayne Robertson is long for the Jets himself, or he would've been approached to restructure due to his cap-unfriendly contract. We'll see how it all pans out, but it is definitely an exciting time, no matter what the doomsayers preach.
OK.... I apologise! Now that I've actually READ the thread.... nice job, and I think you are spot on with your opening post. The more I watch the Tangini act, the more I think they really don't care how many wins we might get next year. They will force feed some 3-4 whether this roster is up to it or not, just for the sake of gaining some experience in the 3-4. I see some draft additions to make it more feasable, but very little left on the FA market to improve the unit's ability to play the 3-4. Chatham is one reason why I think this way.... he isn't a starter, at least as far as I can surmise, but will get playing time as the rest of the unit makes the adjustments. If the Jets draft a LB, Hobson could lose playing time to Chatham, I think. While many lament about the posts in this forum over in the BS forum, there are some pretty good threads over here, like this one. This year holds so many ? that it certainly has given us more to guess about!
