Swapping back to the 4-3

I don't think any of us are thrilled with the 3-4. If we go back to the 4-3 does that mean we wash our hands of Burns our 1st round pick and our 3rd round pick who were drafted to fill 3-4 holes? Can they realistically be converted into 4-3 players?

 

Burns does not need to bulk up a whole lot to be effective I think. If Addison could do it last year, he can do it.

 

With Burns you'd probably have to go wide 9, or have a system like Seattle's where he always lines up on the weak side in base defense. The latter might be best for our personnel. Either way, the 3-4/4-3 discussion is suddenly important again with teams relying more on running from conventional formations. It's something the next coach is going to have to figure out. We need a coherent base defense that fits our players.

 

What, in your opinion is wrong with our run defense? I had hoped Poe would have been the answer. Now I would have rather paid Star

 

Equal parts everything, I guess. Some of it is Luke having a down year by his standards. Some of it is the 3-4 marginalizing our best players. Some of it is KK missing the year, which is something that no one's really talked about, and the drop off from him to Butler has been massive.

 

Bingo...Burns wouldn't be an every down player, but a situational pass rusher. A 3-4 Nose transitioning to a 4-3 1-tech or 2i isn't a huge deal some have even been effective moving to a 3-tech role. 2-gapping and 1-gapping are generally part of every Nose tool kit anyway. A DC can also scheme to make the transition easier, by slanting or stunting or even messing with traditional alignments.