YES YES YES. Not just depth either, it’s versatility. As I’ve written many times before tracking the defensive overhaul that started in 08/09 was a major area of focus for me as a blogger with a penchant for Xs and Os.
Belichick’s defense evolved from the Fairbanks-Bullough 3-4 defense. There are a couple different versions of the 3-4, but this one had 3 big defensive lineman who would “two-gap”, which means they’d attack their blocker, control him and cover both gaps to both sides. While those 3 were holding up the offensive lineman it was the job of the 4 linebackers to make the plays.
That’s where you can see the somewhat conservative roots of Belichick’s defensive philosophy. Not one that goes all-out attacking, but one that wins with physicality upfront and linebackers who can make plays.
What the defense has evolved to now is a merging of the nickel defense and the two-gapping principals so that they’re more effective against the pass one early downs. The problem with the old 3-4 is that you had three defensive linemen who weren’t overly concerned with pass rushing on early downs. Yes, guys like Richard Seymour
could pick up their tackle and carry him to the QB, but generally they were more concerned with controlling their blocker and making sure no one ran through either of their gaps.
Belichick still uses the 3-4 defense to teach in the early days of camp. This doesn’t mean they’re a 3-4 team anymore really, but it’s how the team learns to two- or one-gap, the communication calls, etc.
The lockout in 2011 pushed this transition forward because there was less time in camp to install so Belichick just went straight to the nickel front and a lot of those elements remain.
So now, really what you’re looking at is almost a more of a 2-5 defense than a 4-3 although that’s what it looks like. The two defensive tackles can be moved around to attack certain areas, and you’ll even see a mix of one tackle (Siliga/Branch) two-gapping while the other will be one-gapping (Easley).
The difference now is that there are just more athletes on the field, even in “base”, and they’re better equipped to attack the quarterback on early downs. And when you look at what the DE/LBs on the roster can do, it gives Belichick/Patricia so many options to confuse.
That’s another big tenet of the original 3-4 that has carried over – the ability to disguise. In the old 3-4 it was the OLBs that were the queen pieces because you could blitz or drop guys like Willie McGinest
/Mike Vrabel/Rosey Colvin. Now they can do the same thing with not only their OLBs like Donta Hightower
and Jamie Collins
, but with the DEs as well.
