Switching to the 3-4 Draft

Cameron Heyward will go in the 1st. Kelvin Sheppard helped himself a lot this week, he'll probably go in the 3rd, maybe 2nd. And, like you said, very young team. Where is the veteran presence? Gerald McRath? Finally, I still contend Robert Quinn is a better 3-4 OLB than Von Miller. Miller has enjoyed quite the boost this past week, but purely on film, I think Quinn has him beat.

 

The problem with the 3-4 is that i think we will need a stop gap vet QB or VY to stay. To go balls out on defense means the offense needs to do its part as well. As it stands now VY will be released, I really wish we'd keep him till next season but I'm not sure it will work out.

 

I don't see the advantage to switching to a 3-4. It seems to be the popular thing to do in the league right now but I don't see how it would make us any better off.

To begin with our LB's are one of the weakest, if not the weakest part of our team. They consistantly were getting burnt by TE's all year. And you want to add an extra LB on the field and remove a defenisive lineman in the process? DL is arguably one of our strongest positions on the team.

 

No way we could do it this season......I mean yes we COULD but it would turn out awful.

Very young defense with very few players with the exception of a few rookies making up the core of your D with a likely short off season and a new D coordinator? No thanks, I will pass this season.

Now, if we are talking drafting a couple players/signing some in free agency to prepare for a switch next year.....I am down. Personally I want a new and interesting team to watch the next few years.....

 

You may disagree, but the film doesn't lie. He has one move, the speed rush. He's much smaller than expected, and many scouts are projecting him as a 4-3 OLB now. Once again, ESPN jumped on the hype way too early.

 

If anything, if we switched, I would like to see us run something similar to the 46. Draft a couple of aggressive CBs (possibly Patrick Peterson) let Verner do his thing & keep our linebackers up front where more people can try to get pressure along with Babin if he returns. We also would need a better safety as well. The 3-4 is too much for us at this point imo.

 

I really want us to get Amukamara at 8 because I think he will be the next true shutdown corner in the NFL. If we go a different direction, I hope it is a movement toward the 3-4. It's hard to deny that it's effective and we already have some great talent to ease the transition. Spending our first 4 picks toward that is a bit much (especially with the big hole at QB), but it may be the best thing to do in our case. We have the offensive weapons in Britt and CJ already, so we need someone like Clay Matthews, Polamalu, etc. who can really turn the game around from D.

Edit: The 46 may be more realistic (good point Ohio2Tenn). Our secondary is close to good enough already- maybe grab Amukamara/Peterson and move Finnegan to S with Griffin. Then use the rest of our picks to fill in any gaps from losses in free agency.

 

You could argue that the DL is one of our strongest positions on the team, it would just be a terrible argument.

 

You can have one Morgan, jason Jones sized 3-4 DE but the other has to be over 300 lbs and stout against the run. You need 2 anchor linemen to run that defense well and we have no D-linemen that fit that mold. Not even one.