Quote:1. I firmly disagree on Jack fitting a 3-4 defense. He's a freak of nature in terms of physique and I believe he can play any linebacker spot in a 4-3 and inside just fine in a 3-4. Telvin is interesting one, but I think he could make the transition to an inside backer mainly due to your last sentence in your first point. We'd likely use Fowler and Ngakoue as OLBs, so we could be blitz heavily and shade Telvin more towards the weak side.

 

2. That's a fair point, though to be fair the 3-4 is a more modern approach, so it doesn't have the same history. Of the more recent historically good defenses, I'd say it's fairly even with current Denver as well as the late 90s-early 2000s Baltimore and Pittsburgh defenses running 34 schemes.

 

3. We have a lot of capable big guys currently on the roster (Jackson, Odrick, Marks, Miller, Jones, Day, Alualu) though we do lack a giant nose tackle. I do think Miller (325lbs) and Jones (320lbs) can hold up as NTs in a 3-4 though since they're by no means small. Odrick and Jackson have both played as DEs in the 3-4 scheme too. Not to mention the decent possibility of adding another one in Alabama's Jonathan Allen though the draft.

1.  I agree in terms of athletic ability, Jack is a freak.  But I think that athletic ability is best utilized in a scheme that doesn't have him head up on a TE or T.  That was one of the reasons he didn't get much playing time at OTTO.  The team would take him out on those run downs.  If you put him at LOLB in a 3-4, you would have that all over again, and while he has the speed and agility, I don't think he has the length to be an effective pass rushing LOLB.  Furthermore, putting Jack at LOLB  makes Fowler a question mark.  I also think Jack's athletic ability is mitigated when he has to take on guards, a certainty in a 3-4.  That effect is exacerbated with Telvin Smith.

 

2.  That Ravens D of 2000 was a 4-3, not a 3-4.  Sam Adams and Tony Siragusa were the DTs, and Michael McCray and Rob Burnett were the DEs.  Those huge DTs allowed Ray Lewis to roam free at MLB.  A few years later, circa 2003, they transitioned to a 3-4.  As far as the contemporary nature of the schemes, Seattle and the Giants went to multiple Super Bowls with a 4-3 scheme, and Belicheck, a former 3-4 guy with the Giants, Cleveland, and New England, has transitioned his scheme to a 4-3 in recent years.

 

3.  Roy Miller is not 325.  [url=http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MillRo99.htm%C2][/url]

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