Does anyone follow what he meant by "Certain schemes like Baltimore and Dallas have down linemen to the point where the 3-4 is almost a misnomer"? Is he saying that they really have four linemen, but hide it somehow? San Diego is usually mentioned as having a hybrid, but I'm not sure I get this comment.
he's saying that a lot of the time they play with 4 down lineman, sometimes to the point where they really can't be considered a 3-4 team.
Those teams all play a more aggressive, attacking 1-gap 3-4. It's very blitz heavy. The 3-4 D's Parcells has built recently and Mangini grew up on were all 2 gap systems. The DL is asked to hold their gaps rather than attack their gap, and the D uses complex coverages to confuse the offense and halt the passing game. It's a D that at it's best can be dominant, but it asks alot of the players. Because of all this, this D requires alot of intelligent, hard working, big, athletic, versatile, and strong players. Theres probably a million more differences on a more technical level, but yea...
All this says to me is that Mangini's defense WILL be undefinable, indistinct, vague, confusing, and non-predictive in its constant aggression.
I think you ought to take note of the observation (which I've made myself a couple of times) that Mr. Sutton is a good conduit who maintains rapport with the players so the HC's point of view is well represented on a granular level with the "Big Uglies" down there on the NYJ defense.
I'm surprised no one is talking about the Vilma comment. I'd say thats idea that they thought he didn't fit the system before the season and injury is significant. I wonder if they tried to trade him.
I'm more surprised that he admitted it than that the staff was thinking it. My take is that they just kept putting him on the field because they needed to maintain his trade value, but his performance suffered in the 3-4 and due to the injury. That made him harder to trade. Once they couldn't trade him by the deadline last season, then they need to shut him down for surgery and publicize the reason he hasn't been playing well to try to get the interest back up before the trade deadline this coming season. If Vilma is able to play, I think he will start until the deadline. Anything else destroys his trade value.
