Not really a Pats read but one of those schematic writeups that I just can’t keep my posting finger off of. Look, I’ve been saying nickel is the new base for almost two years. For the Pats, it has been.
Once again there’s all this talk that the Pats are “going back to the 3-4”. It really doesn’t matter. Why? Because first of all, the 3-4 is Belichick’s teaching defense. The exception was 2011 when, due to the lock out, he just taught the nickel front to expedite matters.
How much will the Pats actually be in a 3-4 defense this season? Not much. Maybe just on early downs against teams that rely heavily on the run. So really, there’s not a whole lot of substance to the “what will the Pats run-stopping front be?”
It’s like all of a sudden Ninkovich goes from having his hand in the dirt to standing up and a great deal of fans think it’s something monumental. And by the way, the 3-4 the Pats teach early on is not the 3-4 they’d play in a game. That’s more of the 2-5, but that’s a post for another time. Just compare the size of Richard Seymour to the current defensive ends when they’re in the 3-4 and you’ll have a lot of your answer.
The better, and more interesting question is what their subpackages look like, these are the packages they’ll be in 60-70 percent of the snaps. How does Logan Ryan and the safeties fit in? Who will be the pure pass rush package?
That’s why this article is really good.