Expect more 3-4 next year?

by JasonB on Apr 30, 2008 1:00 PM EDT in News Comment 14 comments

Found this little tidbit in the latest Spads article

Johnson has some options, for sure. He admits that using more of a 3-4 look is "in the back of our minds," depending on what the team does on first and second down. Johnson remains committed to stopping the big play first, but he also recognizes that the run defense made tremendous strides last season and that Patterson and Bunkley are emerging as one of the best young tandems in the league. The linebackers are all young, fast, physical and intelligent. The secondary has a bunch of good cover men.

We saw a little bit of this against the Patriots and it worked quite well. The Eagles certainly have the personnel to run the 3-4 in certain situations. They don't have the big 2 gap nose tackle to run it all the time, but on passing downs I could absolutely see the likes of Gocong, Clemons, Cole, and even Smith rushing from a standup LB position.

It also presents a potential nightmare for opposing offensive coordinators having to prepare for a team that can show you a 4-3 or 3-4 look on any given play.

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here's another juicy line from JJ

”...Bunk, he was a totally different player in his second season. He is going to grow from there. He’s having an excellent offseason.”

I can’t wait to see the D on the field next year

by cavortingEagle on Apr 30, 2008 1:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Patriots Game

It’s interesting that you mentioned the Patriots game. It seemed like we used all kinds of different formations in that one and it certainly resulted in a defensive gem against the NFL’s best offense. I think we even used a 2-5-4 at one point – right? It seems like we have so many tweeners on this team that we’re going to see a lot of different defensive formations this year.

by ajay on Apr 30, 2008 1:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh, god, I never even thought about this. Our “smallish” DTs all of the sudden become good sized 3-4 DEs and our “undersized” DEs Clemons and Smith become ideal OLBs. This is an exciting prospect.

Destroyer of Subject Lines :3™

by yomjoseki on Apr 30, 2008 1:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Didn’t Trevor Laws play some DE at Notre Dame too?

by cavortingEagle on Apr 30, 2008 1:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, he played and defensive tackle and defensive end.
It’s can’t wait to see what Johnson will do with all these players…

by piercas on Apr 30, 2008 2:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorta makes sense of the tweeners we have on the team now. I think Jim Johnson likes having as many options to throw at Offenses as possible.

by calunker on Apr 30, 2008 5:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Cant

wait to see what jim johnson does with thes guys!

by Joe_D on Apr 30, 2008 10:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

dont forget

in a 3-4 alot of time saftys will play a linebacker possition and the way the safty possition is played is like a corner. this means that we will ba able to have brown, samuel, shepard, dawkins and demps on the feild all at once. with either dawkins or demps playing as a small backer

by NickPampani on May 1, 2008 1:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

it's a little much to ask a rookie to start

he needs to learn JJ’s extensive blitzing packages and the defense as a whole. Now you have him learning the 4-3 packages and 3-4 packages and linebacker roles. Let’s take it easy on the kid for his first year, he probably will only see limited time if any depending on the health of the veterans in front of him.

by Whodie126 on May 1, 2008 8:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah...what about Mikell?

He’ll be on the field before Demps.

I think Demps is a prospect taken with the idea of having a season (hopefully more, but this is his last contract year) to learn from Dawk and compete for a starting role in the future.

This is probably bad news for JR Reid and maybe Sean Considine, who probably would have been extended by now if the Eagles still considered him a long-term solution in the secondary.

Why the Hell Not?

by BrianS on May 1, 2008 9:23 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

you missed my real point

i threw demps name in there because i think he is better the mikell or atleast more potential. but my point was that we can have all 3 corners in

by NickPampani on May 1, 2008 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm with Whodie126

His potential seems to be sky high, but his lack of experience will keep Demps in a limited roll at least for the first half of the season, more likely all of it. I would think he’ll be a player on Special Teams, and the 4th or 5th safety on the chart (depending on how many we keep). Hey being active on game day in JJ’s defense as a rookie is something, even if he doesn’t see the field…

by cavortingEagle on May 1, 2008 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not a true 3-4

Jim Johnson has never used a true 3-4. All too often you hear that the Eagles used a 3-4 against the Patriots, when in fact 4 linebackers were never on the field all together. The formation JJ uses that is similar to the 3-4 is a 3-3-5, which is a variation of the nickel package. Instead of having 4 lineman (4-2-5 – Nickel formation), JJ sends on an extra linebacker (Gocong), who becomes the joker. The joker can either drop back into coverage or blitz the QB. I dont think JJ will ever run a true 3-4 mostly because we dont have a big nose tackle to play the middle and running this new formation would require a lot of practice and learning. It would be very cool to see Laws and Patterson on the outside, and Bunkley in the middle on the line and Clemmons, Bradley, Gaither, and Gocong as the linebackers with Cole and Juqua mixing in there. The 3-3-5 is really only useful against teams who rarely run, or in passing situations, which is why it worked so well against the Patriots.

Jesse

by phi_eagles05 on May 1, 2008 5:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

yesir,

“Jim Johnson has never used a true 3-4. All too often you hear that the Eagles used a 3-4 against the Patriots, when in fact 4 linebackers were never on the field all together. The formation JJ uses that is similar to the 3-4 is a 3-3-5, which is a variation of the nickel package. Instead of having 4 lineman (4-2-5 – Nickel formation), JJ sends on an extra linebacker (Gocong), who becomes the joker. The joker can either drop back into coverage or blitz the QB. I dont think JJ will ever run a true 3-4 mostly because we dont have a big nose tackle to play the middle and running this new formation would require a lot of practice and learning. It would be very cool to see Laws and Patterson on the outside, and Bunkley in the middle on the line and Clemmons, Bradley, Gaither, and Gocong as the linebackers with Cole and Juqua mixing in there. The 3-3-5 is really only useful against teams who rarely run, or in passing situations, which is why it worked so well against the Patriots.”

Great observation phi_eagles05

I said that right after the Pats game and nobody said anything about it. The Eagles were running the 3-3-5! They didn’t use a Steelers or Pats type 3-4! They are not the same. The Saftey’s are lined up much differently. West Virgina played that D in College for the last 4 years without to many playmakers, with a lot of success. Yes, you can’t really use the 3-3-5 if the other team is good at running the ball unless you have really great saftey play. Which we can do, but I doubt they could use it a whole lot because of the wear and tear on Mikkel and Dawkins. I would say that they should only mess with it a little in the regular season to get used to it and then wait until the playoffs.

by topcat6 on May 2, 2008 1:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs