Nolan Likely Choice for Pack DC

[HarveyWallbangers]

In San Francisco, Nolan's base defense was a sort 4-2-5 "Big Nickel" package that was designed to "prevent the big play" but was bad at creating pressure. I don't like it.

At least, he sounds adaptable. In Baltimore, he used both a 4-3 and 3-4, right? San Francisco doesn't have great defensive personnel, so maybe he was trying to do what he could to limit the damage. Hard to say though. How involved was Singletary in that defense? Kind of hard to concentrate on defense when you are HC. Also, some guys are better coordinators than HCs. We'll see. I'll give him a chance.

[Bretsky]

I'm a bit worried as Nolan was one of my top guys to bring in

This hardly ever happens to me

[Joemailman]

“He’s good now. He’s smart,” said the scout who’s familiar with Nolan. “He can run 3-4, 4-3, he knows it all. It depends on what personnel you have. He’ll do whatever, morph to whatever. He’ll use your players to their strengths. He’s smart that way.”

Relax everyone. He's not going to install a defense that makes Kampman unusable. Better times are ahead.

[Bretsky]

http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/01/05/report-mike-nolan-to-coach-packers-defense/

[texaspackerbacker]

This morning it was Moss; Now it's Nolan; Tomorrow morning maybe it will be somebody else. I'm kinda lukewarm about Nolan. The other thread makes his record seem pretty bad. At least, he's not one of these "pressure defense" idiots. Spare us from the prospect of ending up with Williams or McDermott or somebody like that--which, incredibly, most in here are stupidly advocating.

Myself, I think Kampman would do all right in a 3-4, and otherwise, the rest of the Packer D personnel seems well suited for 3-4. I like the sound of that 4-2-5 thing, and I like the prospect that maybe he moves to teams and tends to keep in place what is already there.

Since we are stuck at this point with throwing the change-mongering fools a bone, probably Nolan is as good as anybody. I just hope his "flexibility" doesn't lead to some form of idiocy that will drag the Packers down.

[Partial]

Yeah, I know Tex. Those bastard pressure based defenses with different fronts and their playoff appearances! Who would want that when we our team can hit home in January and enjoy the new year with their family!

[vince]

At least, he's not one of these "pressure defense" idiots. Spare us from the prospect of ending up with Williams or McDermott or somebody like that--which, incredibly, most in here are stupidly advocating.

Since we are stuck at this point with throwing the change-mongering fools a bone, probably Nolan is as good as anybody. I just hope his "flexibility" doesn't lead to some form of idiocy that will drag the Packers down.

Tex, of the top 5 defenses in the NFL this season, how many of them would you say are run by "idiots" who are "stupidly advocating" a pressure-oriented, attacking defensive philosophy?

All 5 of them. Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York Giants and Washington all play an aggressive, attacking style of defense, and those are the top 5 defenses in the league by yards given up. Tennessee slips into the top 5 in the pts. per game ranking, making 5 of the top 6 defenses having an attacking style of play by that measure.

You can't attribute that correlation to a freaky streak of luck. Calling people idiots for wanting to copy that kind of success by bringing that type of philosophy to Green Bay is idiotic itself.

Clearly other philosophies can work, but agressive, attacking defenses are proving to work most consistently.

[pack4to84]

3-4 would be interesting but only a coupel teams run it well and the rest are bottom of the barrel scrubs. Are we more likely to be the NE/Pitt/Balt or the Cle/SF?

My bet is that we suck ass with it.

Teams that run 3-4

Steelers ranked 1st
Ravens ranked 2nd
Cowboys ranked 8th
Patriots ranked 10th
49ers ranked 13th
Dolphins ranked 15th (1st year with 3-4)
Jets ranked 16th

Only 2 teams defense struggled that ran 3-4

Chargers ranked 25th
Browns ranked 26th

[cpk1994]

Guess I'd rather see Moss than Nolan.

I think going to a 3-4 will set this team back. Makes one of their best players, Kampman, by most accounts unfittatable in this scheme.

Me no like.

How about we wait on that sentiment until:

1.Nolan is actually hired.

2.Nolan actually runs a 3-4.

Right now, we don't know if nboth of those are offically true.

[RashanGary]

3-4 would be interesting but only a coupel teams run it well and the rest are bottom of the barrel scrubs. Are we more likely to be the NE/Pitt/Balt or the Cle/SF?

My bet is that we suck ass with it.

Teams that run 3-4

Steelers ranked 1st
Ravens ranked 2nd
Cowboys ranked 8th
Patriots ranked 10th
49ers ranked 13th
Dolphins ranked 15th (1st year with 3-4)
Jets ranked 16th

Only 2 teams defense struggled that ran 3-4

Chargers ranked 25th
Browns ranked 26th

That's an average of 13. I guess it's better than average but the more teams that run it the harder it's going to be to keep finding players who can play it. I'd like to see other teams switch and we stand pat with the 4-3. I like 4-3 players. I like two DT's on the field. I like the prototype DE's like Kampman and Strahan. I'm OK with 3-4's too, but we don't have the players. Some say we do, but I completely disagree. I think our guys would be awful (especially Barnett and Kampman).

[cheesner]

One of the benefits of running a 3-4 was that few teams ran it. Therefore, a player who was ideal for it, but poorly suited for a 4-3, was available later in the draft. You could draft better players later, thus developing a more talented defensive front seven. As more and more teams run it, and the talent pool dilutes, it will become a less and less effective defense. Also, if more teams run it, offenses will more and more gear to beating it. I feel, whatever you do, you need to be the innovator and not the bandwagon jumper.

I am ok with Nolan, but I would have given greater consideration to Williams.

By the way, I found this quite interesting. I think my opinion of Snyder decreased even more. An owner who goes around the HC and ridicules the DC? Can't imagine why that franchise stinks.

Then in 1999, brash neophyte Daniel Snyder purchased the team, and when Nolan’s defense struggled — it finished the season ranked No. 30 in yards and No. 24 in points — Snyder went after his defensive coordinator. The first-year NFL owner considered Nolan’s defenses vanilla, twice had ice cream delivered to Nolan’s office to hammer home the point, and after the 10-6 season, fired Nolan.

[Fritz]

Guess I'd rather see Moss than Nolan.

I think going to a 3-4 will set this team back. Makes one of their best players, Kampman, by most accounts unfittatable in this scheme.

Me no like.

How about we wait on that sentiment until:

1.Nolan is actually hired.

2.Nolan actually runs a 3-4.

Right now, we don't know if nboth of those are offically true.

Well, we're all throwing our sentiments out there - isn't that what most of these recent threads have been about? So why wait on one sentiment but not another?

And Nolan's long history as a coordinator rests primarily upon a 3-4, so the likelihood of him suddenly changing his scheme to fit the personnel here seems less than the likelihood of him running what he's traditionally run, right?

I do not want to see a 3-4 defense brought to Green Bay at this time. Is MM doesn't work out, if TT doesn't work out, and the team wants to start over, then sure. But to me, this is a team that is closer to the top than the bottom talent-wise, and does not need to be dismantled defensively. I don't want to see this team start over on one side of the football.

[wist43]

Defense is about one overriding thing more than anything else... pressure. Winning the LOS battle, and pressure.

The Packer have for many years viewed defense as if it were a 7 on 7 drill.

[ND72]

Defense is about one overriding thing more than anything else... pressure. Winning the LOS battle, and pressure.

The Packer have for many years viewed defense as if it were a 7 on 7 drill.

I think Defense is about one more overriding thing than you said....TACKLING...and we SUCKED at that this year.

But in order to tackle, you have to disengage a block, and it starts up front with that. nobody runs at Kampman, and the rest of the front guys couldn't get off blocks, which hurt our LB's even more. Case in point, Carolina game. That long run where the RB fumbled it on like the 1 yard line, and their big tackle recovered the fumble. PERFECT replay of how bad our front guys were. Johnny Jolly & Ryan Pickett got their asses kicked so badly, the designed double team on both of there didn't happen, and both were single blocked, both Hawk and POOP got perfectly blocked out of the hole, and he was gone. That isn't LB fault, that's DL fault.

[chain_gang]

I think Defense is about one more overriding thing than you said....TACKLING...and we SUCKED at that this year.

But in order to tackle, you have to disengage a block, and it starts up front with that. nobody runs at Kampman, and the rest of the front guys couldn't get off blocks, which hurt our LB's even more. Case in point, Carolina game. That long run where the RB fumbled it on like the 1 yard line, and their big tackle recovered the fumble. PERFECT replay of how bad our front guys were. Johnny Jolly & Ryan Pickett got their asses kicked so badly, the designed double team on both of there didn't happen, and both were single blocked, both Hawk and POOP got perfectly blocked out of the hole, and he was gone. That isn't LB fault, that's DL fault.

I agree that our DL was terrible this year, however, the LB's were no crown jewel this season either. Some games our LB's were eaten up by lineman, but some games are LB's missed their gap responsibility completely, case and point the Viking game at the Metrodome, AP's game winning TD run, Our DL did it's job their, and ate up the blockers, but Poppinga gets wiped out of the play over pursuing and collides with Kampman wiping both out of the play, Bishop pursues the cutback instead of taking his B gap responsibility, and AP has a hole 4-5 yds wide to run through, and ends up running to the endzone, virtually untouched. Like I said our DL wasn't great but on a lot of the long runs this season our LB's missed their gap assignments. In all our whole front 7 sucked this year, with the exception of Kampman. For all of the money we have stuck into our LB's I expect better results than what they gave this year. Chillar was a bright spot, but Barnett, Hawk, and Poppinga did not earn their keep this past season. An upgrade at DL will help, but we need to look at some LB's also to get our front 7 stabalized.