Focus On: Defensive Front
With a day off from league exports, I want to take a close look at our defensive front. It has been a strong point of this defense historically, but through retirements and trades, we have thinned out this group somewhat. Right now, I am contemplating a shift from the 4-3 formation to the 3-4, and I think we are deeper at LB right now than at DL.
I’ll walk through the decision-making a bit, which might add a little bit of depth to this discussion.
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Personnel Analysis
POS PLAYER Yr CapSal Overall RunDf PRTch PRStr PrPct TkPct Notes
LDE Alvin Hall 8 4500 77/84 74/83 65/76 98 7.3 8.1
RDE Richard Buxton 14 2500 76/76 71/71 83/83 66 5.3 9.5 last cheap year
LDE C. Kleinsasser 6 760 38/45 48/54 40/56 12 1.4 4.5
LDT Martin Santos 10 2250 39/39 11/11 72/72 70 4.3 4.1
RDT Eugene Bradham 10 4650 64/65 78/78 93/97 44 5.8 10.8
RDT William Brown 11 860 35/37 54/59 14/14 20 2.3 7.8
ILB D.J. Dennis 5 560 34/39 30/35 72/80 51 0.0 16.1 special teamer
ILB Steven Watkins 10 4170 54/59 66/73 72/76 96 1.3 14.6
MLB Blake Rice 6 560 22/39 16/47 27/60 63 0.7 10.6
SLB John Galvan 7 2420 58/63 49/62 96/00 49 2.1 12.0
SLB Andre Shepard 6 560 29/40 27/42 36/59 55 0.6 10.9
SLB Tr. Kuykendall 3 2480 46/59 53/79 62/89 49 1.2 10.2
WLB Urso Harrold 11 790 35/35 23/23 65/65 0 0.6 10.5
From the above group, if you can untagle the numbers, one thing becomes pretty clear. We have exactly three quality starters along the defensive line (Hall, Buxton, and Bradham) and we have three quality starters at linebacker (Watkins, Galvan, and Kuykendall). That, unfortunately, makes our ideal formation a 3-3. That is really not an option – though it does leave the door open for a high use of the nickel formation – which I will consider seriously for this year.
Anyway – if those six guys have starting jobs locked up, and they do, then what should we do with the seventh starter? We have options – as I see it, here are the basic possibilities:
Option 1 - Status Quo: Stay with the 4-3 defense, use DE Buxton as a DT, and put someone else in to play RDE. Best candidate to get that playing time is DT Santos, though he is pretty clearly in decline, and not the pass rusher he once was.
Option 2 – Run-stopping 4-3: Have DE Buxton become the full time RDE, his natural position. Use our best run-stopper Brown as the second DT alongside Bradham, perhaps platooning with Santos in passing situations as an inside pass rusher.
Option 3 – Go to simple 3-4: Start the big three on the DL in their natural spots, and insert a fourth linebacker. If we do this, the most straightforward LB lineup would be, left to right: Galvan – Watkins – Kuykendall – Harrold.
Option 4 – Go to 3-4, pull safety in at WLB: Another idea I’m open to is using a solid run-stopping safety as our starting weak-side linebacker. The best candidate we have for such a role is probably new signedd Brad Pope (RunD=57/65), who also has some solid coverage skills.
At this point, I am really not totally satisfied with any of these options. If we had a one-dimensional run-stopping linebacker, that would make things a lot easier – we could slot such a guy as our starter on the weak side, where he’d be the first guy out when we go into nickel or dime coverages. I really don’t mind using a run-stopper type in that slot – it’s often a goo way to economize on salary demands. However, we don’t have anyone who fits the profile all that well.
Urso Harrold is a good fit for the defense overall, but really he’s like a fifth LB – if we lost Galvan, for instance, I’d be just fine slotting Harrold in to play on the strong side, where his decent pass-rushing and excellent coverage skills (not really shown above) would be a great asset. But puttin him at the weak side is emphasizing exactly what he does worst (stop the run) and pulls him out when he’d excel (against the pass). I don’t want to swap the strong and weak roles – using harrold full time (at the SLB slot) and relegating Galvan to the weak side means we’d be pulling one of our best players (Galvan) off the field an awful lot.
It’s right now that I will again curse the name of FishFan and Shreveport, who grabbed the free agent linebacker who would have made a real difference for us here. LB Howard Loftin is a solid run stopper, a decent pass defender, and would be an ideal fill-in as our starting weak side linebacker. Alas – Shreveport suddenly found that they had money to burn, and we’re left with the silver medal for the second-best contract offer.
At this point, I am left without a clear solution here. If we don’t sign a single additional player for the defensive front, my guess is that we will go ahead and switch to the 3-4, starting Urso Harrold in the weak slot anyway – essentially Option 3 above. That would make LBs Andre Shepard and D.J. Dennis into our key reserves, which is okay (bot not spectacular). And we’d have three excellent starters on the DL, with three solid reserves to cover any injuries. The real weak slot there is at WLB, but I think it’s the best option for right now.
We have a few offers in for free agent players who might alter this landscape a bit – but not likely anyone who steps right in and becomes a starter for us, I don’t think. We’re mostly down to guys who help add some depth. I have bids in for a couple veteran defensive linemen, but there really isn’t much of anything left at the LB positions to pursue.
We will keep at it in the FA pursuits, but at this point, I don’t think we have an ideal solution. It is certainly possible that I reverse course a bit, and decide to just stick with the 4-3 front, and use a platoon of guys in the second DT slot. That option might actually make the most sense even now – but if we add another decent DL soon, the balance of power and depth at these two positions might well shift enough for that to make the most sense.