HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE A TEAM TO SWITCH FROM THE 4-3 TO THE 3-4 SUCCESFULLY??? Does anybody have any examples?? Just curious. I don't think it's a easy process seeing as how not everybody can make a switch like that (vilma) Then you have contract you have to deal with, free agent signings to try and get the a deep backfield in place. Not to mention all the new guys you gotta bring in from the draft because you want fresh 3-4 players that got something to prove. All in all i think it should be a three to four year process ( no pun intented) Can anybody back me up with some facts?
I don't think you can put a time line on it. It's difficult to find the players since more teams are playing a 3-4 and most colleges play a 4-3. the 2 outside linebackers and the nose tackle are the key. But to really put a system into place with depth it probably takes 3 or 4 drafts, free agency, good coaching, weeding out the bad players. The Jets have a long way to go but a few solid moves in one offseason and they could have the necessary players.
So i guess its normal for us to go through so many downs on our defense. because the process is so long. I think next year you are going to see a dramatic shift in the way we play defense. I just hop Sutton is gone before that happens.
It depends ENTIRELY on the players you are starting with..what you need are guys with size up front, athletic ability at LB, and the mental acuity so that the front 7 all know and understand their assignements when you switch back and forth...or are you talking about switching exclusively to the 3-4? Again, you need size and strength for the front 3, and quick first step acceleration at LB.
I don't think it is completely fair to put blame on Suttion. We are clearly out gunned weight-wise on most of the NFL teams we play. How many times this year have you heard the announcers say that our Defensive line getts pushed back 2 or 3 yards on every play? We simply lack size. If we are dead set on the 3-4 it means you have to make up the weight differential some other way. The only way is 3 big guys on the front line and a powerful OL. We lack a fair amount of the key ingredients. Now, knowing all of this and I would have to beleive the Jets CS knows it, too, if we end up doig very little in FA before the draft and then do not address at least the NT in the draft then I really will question whether our guys know what they are doing. I chaulk this year up to learning things the hard way. Next year, I will not be leinient.
We are rebuilding not retooling like the Yankees do every year. You might want to be leinient until the middle of the 2009 season because Rebuilding takes more than a year. I hated to say that because Im just as disgusted as you but it is what it is!
Well, I have 39 years of patience given out thus far. Time to gel is inevitable, but what I look for this off-season is really making a commitment to addressing the obvious.
The two teams that we have actually closely watched successfully switch from the 4-3 to the 3-4 took a full season in the 4-3 followed by the installation of the 3-4. That would be the Jets in a 4-3 in 1997 and moving to a 3-4 in 1998 and the Patriots in a 4-3 in 2000 and moving to a 3-4 in 2001. The Jets rushed things when Mangini arrived and the results have been predictable: incompetent run defense and premature devaluation of the heart of the old 4-3 defense in the form of Vilma, D-Rob and Ellis, all of whom are worth a lot less now than they were two seasons ago. The trade of JAbe was probably going to happen no matter what, however the Jets had the option of franchising him for a season before trading him. There's no loss there though because the 29 pick was as good as the offers were going to get (Hugh Douglas went for a 2nd before the 1998 season.)
*LOL* You know what bothers me though? We switched in back in the 80s and we had three Dlineman, Klecko, Gastineau and Lyons who had no trouble at all. They played at a high level in both systems. So why are we having so much trouble finding people now?
What pisses me off is that we picked D-rob with the 4th overall pick......then the Pats picked Wilfork the next year with a 28th pick or something..... I would trade so much for Wilfork, I love that guy
We traded up for D-Rob, giving up an extra 1st rounder and a 4th rounder to do so. Then the Pats gave up a 6th rounder to move up one slot, into our old thirteen pick slot, and took Ty Warren. Anybody who thinks the Jets are where we are at the moment because of bad luck does not understand how competitive sports management works. We're where we are because the management of this team has been incompetent since at least 2001, and has failed to accumulate and retain quality players at the core positions.
