The 3-4

I'm quite surprised by the relative lack movement on the dline. I guess they feel that Washington, unlike Armstead, brought more outside speed and that he will be like a cheaper pass-rushing DE. But, I'm somewhat surprised that they've pretty much ruled out the 3-4.

You Warpathers who were around before the start of last season may recall that I advocated using the 3-4 for the 03' season. Whether the 3-4 was right last season or not, I think it's worth considering for the upcoming season.

Defenses like the Pats, Ravens, Steelers, and some other team I can't think of used the 3-4 and I think our LB corps is better than theirs (assuming we add Favors for additional depth).

The 3-4 is ideal for teams that have great LBs, poor DTs & DEs, don't have much cash (LBs are cheaper than DTs and DEs), have speedy OLBs, and slow but big D-linemen. I think the 'Skins fit those criteria pretty well.

Ramseyfan, what's your source on the team ruling out the 3-4? If Gregg Williams likes to be flexible and customize the defense for each opponent, it seems to me that he wouldn't want to rule anything out.

My understanding is that we will use the 3-4 sometimes (as almost every team does), but that the 4-3 will be the base defense. I can't recall if I read that in the Post or on ESPN.com (I do know it was one of the two).

We've been running the 4-3 for so long it would be weird to see another base defense. I remember reading somewhere on this forum, I think, that the Skins were planning to bust out with that vintage '85 Super Bowl champion Bears defense, the 46 I think it's called. I wonder if there was something to that or if it was just B.S.

I haven't heard anything more on that subject.

Gregg Williams is a Buddy Ryan devotee, and has stated that the team will occaisionally use the "46". The downside I see with the 3-4 is that is requires amazing discipline from the LB's - they have greater gap responsibility. Heap all the praise you want on LaVar (and he earns it) but discipline ain't his game.

Remember. A lot of the guys we got for D Line (yeah, the ton we acquired...) can play 3-4 and 4-3. I know Daniels is used to playing both and Griffin could probably handle nose tackle.

Name SB winners that only played the 3-4, please!

The base 4-3 is a necsesity this year, and every year! I don't mind an occasional shift to 3-4 to confuse the O, but I strongly believe in the 4-3!

Hate to say it backrow... but New England, the team that won two of the last three Superbowls, relies very heavily on the 3-4. When the situation dictated, they used the nickle and goal-line defenses (no team uses only one defense), but their base defense was the 3-4.

I wonder who will take big ass Washington's place in the Pats 3-4