Expect more 3-4 next year?
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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Mike Patterson is a bust?
PFT seems to think so. Florio wrote an article asking whether teams were become leery of USC players since in his mind so many have become busts.
In 2003, the Trojans sent a trio of solid players into the league: Carson Palmer, Troy Polamalu, and Justin Fargas. Since then, however, the only guy who has proven to be a consistent high-end talent is linebacker Lofa Tatupu. The growing parade of busts includes Keary Colbert, Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson, Mike Williams, Darnell Bing, Dominique Byrd, Frostee Rucker, Winston Justice, Reggie Bush (relative to his draft status and hype), and Dwayne Jarrett.
Florio was then slated in the comments with many Eagles(and non Eagles) fans pointing out how solid Patterson has been. Patterson has started since his rookie year, led all DTs in tackles last year, and combined with Broderick Bunkley to help the Eagles to the 7th best run defense in football. He was also rewarded with a big money extension...
Florio did backpeddle a bit...
UPDATE: Okay, maybe Patterson isn’t a full-blown bust. We were influenced by his pot charge.
Most commenters also felt it was too early to label guys like Winston Justice, Dwayne Jarret, and Darnell Bing a bust.
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