So if the defense is terrible again this season?

[pbmax]

You guys all get your panties in a twist over how is an OLB going to cover a RB or TE - well, how are Hawk or Brad Jones going to cover them any better, as both of those guys pretty much suck at everything. How does any other team in the league survive with better results than we've been realizing when they don't run the 2-4 at all??

First, saying more size (I did not quote this part) and then distinguishing between mobile size and fat guy size is just confusing when discussion a prescription. Either recommend get more mobile at a position or get bigger. Then we can discuss who can do what. Add stronger to this as well.

And that takes me to the comment above. In a 3-4 or 3-3 or even a 4-2, linebackers will be tackling runners. We have seen how, even for an exceptional athlete such as Brad Jones, learning how to do this on the inside is a chore and takes time. With no guarantee of success. You can't just stick Bradford, Neal or Mulumba back there and expect good results. That is a mismatch of training and technique. Possibly even body size.

Being more mobile in the D line in a 3-3 doesn't get you anywhere if you can't make the plays from the position your physical attributes have put you in.

Now that takes us to the Capers versus Thompson problem. Thompson is not going to draft like the Steelers and take the exact position fit in the draft, all the time sacrificing value for fit and trying to squeeze in an offensive player or two somewhere in the second round. Wolf didn't do it, T2 doesn't, none of the Wolf tree does it. But their teams have played good D.

Capers has a D that, despite his label as a Mad Scientist, is pretty simple in alignment. Its not kindergarten, if you can only play man coverage you will have some trouble, but he is not throwing a thousand fronts at you or stunting you to the Stone Age. He can do this with a player like Woodson or Matthews, but its not the skeleton and bones of the design.

To avoid getting plastered by an advanced offense, he makes small, game by game adjustments, disguising coverage, pattern matching and matching up CBs to take away offensive strengths. When the D is a vet unit, especially in the backend, it plays very well (see 2009-10). But youth and injuries have ruined those plans in three straight years *. This leads straight to M3's critique and Dom mentioning that they have suffered for being vanilla in the past.

Which is why McCarthy has asked for fewer smaller adjustments from 3 main alignments and more personnel groups. You start the season assuming the depth will play and they have to be able to play something they do well, not just be below average at because they don't have the experience in making the tiny adjustments.

Frankly, McCarthy getting involved has me scared because these kinds of things don't have a history of working out well (at least the public ones, but perhaps they are public because it went wrong). And I have no idea if multiple personnel groups will solve this riddle. The hardest thing for an O to adjust to is a D that plays lots of stuff with the same 11 guys, giving them only one advanced read before the play is over (pre-snap alignment).

Ironically, I think, and its just a guess, that the multiple personnel groups will get you closer to what you are asking. Less square pegs in round holes. They won't try to win with minute adjustments to scheme, but by winning individual battles.


* Plus the lockout and the new CBA that followed