Is the "Legion of Boom" approach obsolete?

[Mr. Scot]

43 minutes ago, Pakmeng said:

I honestly think OP missed the entire point of this article 

Perhaps you should post an excerpt of your own to show what you feel is the point, Chuck.

[BULLETPRQQF]

Yeah, I'm not buying.....good read though.  The biggest difference between us and LOB is that they had long rangy corners, but no speed. They were in a cover 3 shell for the most part...running the seams beats cover 3. We have physical corners/safeties with speed that will allow us to press, play man, and send pressure at the QB. We are not the same....

[BrianS]

10 hours ago, Jesse said:

Seattle dominated in 2013-2014 because they had superior talent and arguably the best secondary in the last 20 years. Teams have gone more 4 wide and empty than they did even in 2013 so you can’t just line up in base and run cover 1 or cover 3. 
 

I think I have a gripe with the article kind of assuming any odd front is going to be inherently bettered than an even front defense. You have to have three guys up front that can play anywhere on the line AND have linebackers that can run with receivers AND defend the run well. At the end of the day it’s Jimmy and Joes, not X’s and O’s.

This is the answer.  Seattle had three potential HoF talents in that defense.  As they got older, they declined.  This isn't rocket science.

Your scheme shouldn't be based on what you think creates the right matchups, it should be based on the personnel on your team.  It's bass ackwards thinking.  Put together a scheme that fits your players, figure out what it's strengths and weaknesses are and with that knowledge, play the game.

[top dawg]

I mean, I get what a few of you are saying, but what you're not mentioning here is that a lack of quality personnel and/or experience makes a HUGE difference on the line and in the secondary (just in general, and in reference to any newer machinations of a Legion Of Boom type defense). Between that and injury, our defense kinda crumbled, particularly on third downs. With improvement in personnel, more experience in Snow's defense, more experience by Snow himself, more depth in case of injury, a little luck with injuries, and the ability to get off the field on third downs, our defense can be legit overall this season and not just the 2021 version based on inconsistency and what I'll call ghost stats based largely on just yards.

Edited May 16, 2022 by top dawg

[Swaggasaurus]

Ehhhhh. Donte Jackson getting smoked by Antonio Brown and folks eating Corn Elder didn’t work either 

[t96]

16 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

No, but their defensive approach was predicated on those characteristics, and we look for the same thing in the corners we draft and sign.

Snow's approach is different, but I've been of the opinion that our defense under Snow isn't as good as they've been hyped to be.

Could we be affected in a similar manner?

Do people not remember how bad our D was before Snow came in? It was literally bottom 2 in the league. And then we proceeded to let multiple starters, the few who were actually good, leave in free agency and oh also the greatest MLB of all time retired in his prime. Snow has done a tremendous job with his defense, especially considering they've been on the field the majority of every game since our offense and special teams have been terrible under Rhule.

[thefuzz]

Fairly easy to have a top 5 defense if the other team doesn't need to score much to beat you.

[thefuzz]

1 hour ago, t96 said:

Do people not remember how bad our D was before Snow came in? It was literally bottom 2 in the league. And then we proceeded to let multiple starters, the few who were actually good, leave in free agency and oh also the greatest MLB of all time retired in his prime. Snow has done a tremendous job with his defense, especially considering they've been on the field the majority of every game since our offense and special teams have been terrible under Rhule.

I'm singing his praises, but I don't think this is a true top 5 defense, at least not to me.

Hope it will be this year though.

[t96]

16 minutes ago, thefuzz said:

I'm singing his praises, but I don't think this is a true top 5 defense, at least not to me.

Hope it will be this year though.

Yeah I don't disagree but nobody has been calling our defense top 5... Top 10-15 I think is fair and is a tremendous quick turn around considering what our D was in 2019. I also have higher hopes for this year, largely because I think our offense will be able to play some more ball control and we may have some leads that can allow Snow to create some creative blitzes and pressure where I think he'll excel. Also Wilks is a HUGE (re)addition in my opinion, he'll do wonders with Chinn and the other DBs in blitzing, like he did with Mike Mitchell and company in 2013.

[unicar15]

18 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

No, but their defensive approach was predicated on those characteristics, and we look for the same thing in the corners we draft and sign.

Snow's approach is different, but I've been of the opinion that our defense under Snow isn't as good as they've been hyped to be.

Could we be affected in a similar manner?

The idea is that if you have a secondary ELITE enough to play a single high safety and not help your corners on the perimeter then you’re not going to give up points. It’s been this way forever in the NFL. It frees up rushers. Frees up LBs and the free safety to pursue RBs. Elite corners change the game. They always will. 

[Mr. Scot]

Speaking of DBs...

If the Panthers want to re-sign Jaycee Horn beyond his rookie contract, the numbers by that time could be... substantial.

[Mvp2014]

Good luck finding that combo of raw talent again.  Earl, Chancellor, Sherman, and Browner all on rookie contracts..  Jesus

[Jon Snow]

Defensive approach goes in cycles just like offenses.

We started out as a team in a 3-4 with 2 high safeties if I remember correctly.  It was that way under Capers and it worked until the offenses figured out a way to neutralize it. Now its a thing again, but in reality it never really went away because it will always be some coaches preferred bread and butter style. 

There are only so many ways you can arrange 11 guys on defense to reek havoc.  Eventually someone will figure out how to beat whatever you are doing. You have to always evolve and/or adapt your team and your approach if you want to be successful in this league .

[Wes21]

58 minutes ago, Mvp2014 said:

Good luck finding that combo of raw talent again.  Earl, Chancellor, Sherman, and Browner all on rookie contracts..  Jesus

Pete had an advantage back then.  He had been scouting many of the guys they took since they were in high school/junior high.  He had even been in some of their living rooms, and saw what their home life was like and what made them tick.  Pat Kirwan is friends with Pete and he remembers when Earl Thomas signed to play college ball at Texas.  Pete called Pat and said "keep an eye on the Earl Thomas kid I just lost to Texas.  I think he's the next Troy Polamalu."  Years later I remember fans thought for sure Pete was going to draft "his" USC safety, Taylor Mays.  But he took Earl instead.  He knew exactly what he was doing. 

Richard Sherman talks about when Pete showed up at his high school to talk to him.  Pete had the vision of Richard playing corner, even though he was going to Stanford to play wide receiver. 

"I was a high school junior when I first met him. I got pulled out of class unexpectedly to see him waiting in the hallway—Pete Carroll, national championship-winning head coach. We stood and talked there by the lockers for a few minutes. I’ll never forget that—USC’s head coach coming to recruit me at Dominguez High School in Compton in 2004. At the time, it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. 

He said, "you’ve got the perfect size to be a lock-up corner." I’d never heard that before: "lock-up" corner. I made ‘lockup2006’ my email address and used it until I got to college. I didn’t end up going to USC, because my mind was already made up to go to Stanford, and there was no way I was passing up the opportunity to get a Stanford education, but I could tell then there was something that separated Carroll from others coaches who recruited me. You could feel the positive energy, how upbeat he was and how much he believed in what he was saying. He had a different aura to him.

He had some football smarts too. He knew I’d end up being a corner even though I went to Stanford to play wide receiver. Years later, after a position switch halfway through my career, he drafted me in the fifth round in 2011 as part of his second draft class. At Stanford we’d beaten USC before he left for Seattle, and one of the first things he told me was, "you’ve got one strike against you already."

https://www.si.com/nfl/2014/01/31/super-bowl-48-richard-sherman-pete-carroll