Transitioning into a 3-4 Defense

by John Gennaro on Apr 19, 2009 5:29 AM PDT in San Diego Chargers Statistics

The AFC West is in chaos. The San Diego Chargers stand alone as the only team in the league not going with a first-year head coach in 2009 (Cable coached only 12 games and never had a chance to run a camp). Even so, it's important that we keep an eye on our opponents and see if they have a chance to make a big splash in 2009.

Our two biggest threats to winning the division are the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos. Both have gone with young head coaches that are coming in to replace whatever system has been in place with their own. On the defensive side of the ball, this means installing the 3-4 defense. Since right now we're just concerning ourselves with the upcoming season, I wanted to know how teams transitioning from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense has fared.

Granted, some of these stats have been altered by free agents, rookies and coach changes, but the point that I want to prove is that in year one there is almost always a stumble backwards before you can bring the right players in. So let's take a look at each team that is currently running the 3-4 defense (from my account, there is no definitive list) and how that transition went in year one.

	Sk	Int	PA	Record
Ravens (2006)	60	28	201	13-3
Ravens (2007)	31	17	384	5-11

Browns (2004)	32	15	390	4-12
Browns (2005)	23	15	301	6-10

49ers (2006)	34	14	412	7-9
49ers (2007)	31	12	364	5-11

Jets (2006)	35	16	295	10-6
Jets (2007)	29	15	355	4-12

Chargers (2003)	30	13	441	4-12
Chargers (2004)	29	23	313	12-4

Patriots (2003)	41	29	238	14-2
Patriots (2004)	45	20	260	14-2

After looking at these results it appears that the only team that had a drastic improvement in their defense in year one of the transition to the 3-4 were our very own San Diego Chargers. 2004 also happened to be the first year starting in San Diego for the following players:

Mike Scifres
Nate Kaeding
Randall Godfrey
Terrence Kiel
Steve Foley
Igor Olshansky
Mike Goff
Nick Hardwick
Eric Parker
Antonio Gates

So obviously we installed a great defensive system and had one of the best teachers of it (Wade Philips) running it for us, but we also improved across the board in terms of talent and improved as an entire team. Scifres put the defense in better position and the offensive pieces (like Gates) kept the defense off the field.

Looking at the other teams, the Patriots grabbed 9 less interceptions and allowed 22 more points over the course of that first year in the 3-4. The Jets had 6 less sacks, 1 less interception and allowed 60 more points. The Nines managed to give up less points in the 3-4 defense, but declined in terms of sacks, interceptions and overall record. The Browns also managed to give up less points and also improved their record incrementally, but their sack total dropped off by about 30%. And finally, the Ravens had a disastrous first year, getting roughly half the number of sacks and interceptions as the previous year and nearly doubling the amount of points given up. It's no wonder why they lost 8 more games in their first year playing in the 3-4 defense.

This begs the question, will the switch to the 3-4 defensive scheme do anything for the Chiefs and Broncos this year?

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Comments

This year: Denver maybe but not Kansas City

Kansas City has a much deeper hole to dig themselves out of. A six win season would be encouraging progress. The Chiefs have done very little in free agency and seem to be taking a longer term approach.

Denver has been very active in rebuilding their horrible defense. It was amazing they won as many games as they did last year with that bad a defense. An average defense and a healthy running game will give the Bolts a strong run for the division.

Denver’s offense post Shanahan & Cutler may be less pass happy and turnover prone. I would be amazed if they fall below a top 10 offense in the NFL.

Unless Denver finds a solid NT they may be more of a hybrid playing some 3 – 4 but mixing in many 4 – 3 looks.

by DBinKC on Apr 19, 2009 6:07 AM PDT reply actions

Unless Denver finds a solid NT they may be more of a hybrid playing some 3 – 4 but mixing in many 4 – 3 looks.

Agreed. Don’t know off the bat who is on Denver’s roster (my work connection is slooow) but I don’t think that they have anyone right now that can fill the NT position. That’s probably the most important (and hardest) position to fill in the 3-4. The reason the Chargers were able to make the transition rather easily was because they already had Jamal Williams on the roster.

by ElectricFriar on Apr 19, 2009 7:59 AM PDT reply actions

Current DTs on Broncos roster

Darrell Reid 6’2", 288
Marcus Thomas 6’3", 305
J’Vonne Parker 6’4", 305
Carlton Powell, 6’3", 300
Nic Clemons 6’6", 300
Ronald Fields 6’2", 315
Matthias Askew 6’5", 302

By comparison:
Jamal Williams 6’3", 348

"I did not invent the wheel, I was the crooked spoke adjacent." - Aesop Rock

by John Gennaro on Apr 19, 2009 8:27 AM PDT up reply actions

The favorite

has to be Fields. He’s a guy that has followed Nolan to Denver. I’m not saying he’s the next star or that he’ll even keep the job all year, but I have to think the reason Nolan recruited him was because he’s a better NT prospect than what they had on hand.

Memo to baseball managers: You manufacture runs by NOT making outs, not by making them on purpose.

by Wonko on Apr 20, 2009 4:39 PM PDT up reply actions

LT's gotta be lickin' his chops

With these defenses in flux in our division, the table is set for our running game to dominate.

Hopefully LT will come out strong and silence all those critics who are thinkin’ he’s in decline

by theGEN3RAL on Apr 19, 2009 9:46 AM PDT reply actions

One drawback here

Is that for a long time, 3-4 personnel were undervalued because so few teams ran the 3-4. For a long time, the Chargers were one of 3 to 5 teams running the 3-4 in the whole NFL. There are several positions in the 3-4 that really don’t exist in the 4-3. One of them is the classic tweener DE/LB. Guys who are 6-2 and between 260-280 don’t really have a place in a 4-3. They are too small to play DE in a 4-3 and too big to play OLB. This is especially true with drafted players (ever wonder why Merriman fell to us at 15 that year?) but also works with established players. This is also true to a lesser extent for the NT position Mr. Williams occupies. If it werent for all the teams running 3-4s this year, BJ Raji would probably fall to us at 16.

I am interested to see how well AJ drafts when lots of other teams are after similar players to us.

by Stephen (shaynes41) on Apr 19, 2009 2:06 PM PDT reply actions

Agreed, but...

I think this puts us in an advantageous position. We have our OLB pass rushers, we have our nose tackle. The Broncos, Packers, Chiefs and any other teams switching to the 3-4 this year and basically fighting for Raji and Maybin/Everette Brown/Orakpo. We’d love to get Raji, but for the most part our 3-4 defense has the right personnel already. I think it’s much harder to build from nothing now (as the Chiefs and Broncos are doing) than to fill any gaps (like the Chargers are doing).

"I did not invent the wheel, I was the crooked spoke adjacent." - Aesop Rock

by John Gennaro on Apr 19, 2009 3:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Agreed as well

The drain on the talent pool is going to get worse as more teams switch to the 3-4. Yes, the teams that are trying to convert are going to have a harder time building their defenses, but they are still building them, picking the tweeners up, making it cost more to sign these guys.

Next year, when it’s time to extend Merriman, how many of these new 3-4 teams are going to be dangling big money in front of him to bolster their linebacking corps?

By the way, didn’t we draft Merriman @ 12?

by theGEN3RAL on Apr 19, 2009 7:17 PM PDT up reply actions