Should Steelers switch to a 4-3 defense?

[GBMelBlount]

Yes or no.

Based on our current personnel do you feel we would be better off long term transitioning to a 4-3.

[Dwinsgames]

It is easy to look at the state of the roster and think well , we could cut this Harrison and move Woodley to DE Timmons to MLB and not have so much to concern yourself with at the draft , then you think Dam Lebeau is the Master of the 3-4 , it is his scheme , not that he could not coach a 4-3 but it is not second nature to him like the 3-4 .... #1 def over all in the league last season when something is not broke you should not try to fix it

[XxKnightxX]

Personally I dont mind what defense we play, but lets face it, weve been striking out repeatedly trying to find the right fit for either a OLB position or a DE or NT. I think we need people to play and be playmakers, or else well regress as a defense. Im all for a 4-3. Nothing makes simpler when you line up 4 guys and pass rush the shit out of the line. No fancy gimmicks, just playing the game.

[Dwinsgames]

Personally I dont mind what defense we play, but lets face it, weve been striking out repeatedly trying to find the right fit for either a OLB position or a DE or NT. I think we need people to play and be playmakers, or else well regress as a defense. Im all for a 4-3. Nothing makes simpler when you line up 4 guys and pass rush the shit out of the line. No fancy gimmicks, just playing the game.


gimmick ? the 3-4 is a gimmick ?

nothing gimmick about it ... gimmicks last a season or 2 such as " The Run N shoot " the 3-4 has been around a long long time ...

striking out and STILL putting the number 1 over all def on the field ...... top 5 def year in year out since the mid 90s missing top 5 just a few years here and there ... nothing gimmick about that ....

as long as Dick Lebeau is in Pittsburgh we will run the 3-4 and if his protege is his actual replacement ( as stated by the team in the past ) it will continue to be the scheme ran in Pittsburgh , now if Tomlin fires or passes over Butler as Lebeaus replacement we then may see a change to the 4-3 because that has always been Tomlins system prior to Pittsburgh ....

the 3-4 is not going anywhere in the foreseeable future IMO

is the forward pass a gimmick too ?

[st33lersguy]

This team is going to go through enough changes, the last thing it needs is a scheme change

[Godfather]

Tough call but I do know one thing. The Patriots* suck and Tom Brady is gay.

[Count Steeler]

I don't think we change as long as LeBeau is here. Why would you? Still one of the top defenses in the league with a lot of personnel change and many players playing injured. I'm still optimistic about the defense. Hampton is prob out, McLendon will be the starter. Hopefully Woodley has had his disaster year and he will be back to normal. The secondary, sans Mundy, seems to play well. If we are able to pick up a piece or 2, we should still be top 10 defense.

I don't think scheme is the issue for this team. Discipline, focus and less injuries will vastly improve our fortunes next year.

[steelreserve]

I'm kind of divided on this one. We have a few guys like Hood, Woodley, etc., who have been pretty average and might be better suited to a 4-3 ... but I still can't see them being much more than average in a 4-3, so that doesn't really help us.

The one reason it might make sense is because the 3-4 has become such a fad that it's hard to find good players for it without way overpaying in FA or way overreaching in the draft. On the other hand - shit, we already blew that money and those draft picks.

One other thing I don't like about the 4-3 is that right now, the entire success of our defense depends on being unpredictable and aggressive. When we do that, we play well. When we just sit back and play straight-up vanilla defense, we get our asses handed to us. I've seen us do that often enough as it is under the 3-4 - just line up, say here are the four guys who are rushing, don't do anything fancy, and get picked apart. If we switch to a scheme that lends itself to that even more ... it might not be pretty.

[Craic]

I don't think we change as long as LeBeau is here. Why would you? Still one of the top defenses in the league with a lot of personnel change and many players playing injured. I'm still optimistic about the defense. Hampton is prob out, McLendon will be the starter. Hopefully Woodley has had his disaster year and he will be back to normal. The secondary, sans Mundy, seems to play well. If we are able to pick up a piece or 2, we should still be top 10 defense.

I don't think scheme is the issue for this team. Discipline, focus and less injuries will vastly improve our fortunes next year.

The thing is . . . your dead on right. While no piece on this defense shined this year really, together as a unit after the fourth game, they were absolutely solid. They even fixed the 4th quarter let down drives, allowing what was it, only two or three TD's in the fourth quarter pretty much the entire last two thirds of the season?

Yeah, I say don't mess with the defense overall. It's the offense that needs focus. Fix that, and we're walking into the post season last year as AFCN champions.

[XxKnightxX]

gimmick ? the 3-4 is a gimmick ?

nothing gimmick about it ... gimmicks last a season or 2 such as " The Run N shoot " the 3-4 has been around a long long time ...

striking out and STILL putting the number 1 over all def on the field ...... top 5 def year in year out since the mid 90s missing top 5 just a few years here and there ... nothing gimmick about that ....

as long as Dick Lebeau is in Pittsburgh we will run the 3-4 and if his protege is his actual replacement ( as stated by the team in the past ) it will continue to be the scheme ran in Pittsburgh , now if Tomlin fires or passes over Butler as Lebeaus replacement we then may see a change to the 4-3 because that has always been Tomlins system prior to Pittsburgh ....

the 3-4 is not going anywhere in the foreseeable future IMO

is the forward pass a gimmick too ?

perhaps i should elaborate on what I said. I dont mind our 3-4 system that we play. But by 'gimmick' I mean by having to try to convert DEs into OLB and not being able to find out our replacement for Harrison who has been struggling with back injuries, and a backup for fat boy who likes to kick is the air instead of the opponent in front of him. And a D line who is taught to stop and react to the run 1st, then clog up space for the LBers to make plays. Number 1 defense can kiss my ass for all I care because that number 1 defense got torched by the Titans, Raiders, and made every shitty QB look like Gods in front of us, just ask Timmy Tebow.

So I would be Open for a change to the 4-3, just to see what it does. The 4-3 IMO simplifies things. Theres a reason why most of the colleges and High Schools play the 4-3, and this is coming from someone who played a complex 3-4 designed specifically to stop the wing-T. I know the 3-4 works, but its sad to see that our next best replacement for our Defense is Steve McClendon, an undrafted guy. I dont see a replacement in the wings for Foote, Troy, Clark in the future, and Keisel with Hoods performance inconsistent.

If the 3-4 is here to stay, thats fine by me. I dont mind keeping the same system. But lets keep our eyes and ears open to change if it must be necessary. I think that the Steelers FO really need to do a better job into drafting players to fit into a 3-4. In order to avoid this talk about switching to a 4-3.