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I was under the impression that OLB's in the 3-4 were lighter than their ILB counterparts. Of course, I could have been wrong there and gotten my defenses mixed up too. Like I said earlier, I was always partial to the 4-3 and if you look at the ideal 4-3 like BAMA had a couple of years ago you see guys like Juwan and DeMeco playing on the edge with your "hoss" Roach manning the middle.

I guess with an extra DL you can have smaller, speedier outside backers, and in a 3-4 you need bigger OLB's. That makes some sense but it still seems that due to coverages (and your down backer being a rusher a lot of times) you'd look for speed more than bulk. On the other hand, I guess you want size on the edge to counter the loss of an extra DL against an offense that hits the corners on the run.

I still take some issue though with the theory that ILB's are lighter than OLB's in the 3-4. We've seen it first-hand at BAMA this year when you have guys like Prince Hall and Darren Mustin playing the middle and they're the biggest backers we have. McClain himself goes at about 255 and he plays MLB. All those guys play at between 235 and 255, which is huge. Bigger than our average OLB. The only guy on the edge with comparable size is Knight who goes at about 235.

Then consider our ILB's are backed up by people like Stamps and Waldrop. Neither are very big (with Stamps going at about 200 lbs).

So is maybe the question? are we playing a faster/hybrid 3-4, or are we playing people that have no business playing in the first place? ;sus

<blockquote data-quote="imported_porkchop" data-source="post: 405156">I was under the impression that OLB&#039;s in the 3-4 were lighter than their ILB counterparts. Of course, I could have been wrong there and gotten my defenses mixed up too. Like I said earlier, I was always partial to the 4-3 and if you look at the ideal 4-3 like BAMA had a couple of years ago you see guys like Juwan and DeMeco playing on the edge with your &quot;hoss&quot; Roach manning the middle. I guess with an extra DL you can have smaller, speedier outside backers, and in a 3-4 you need bigger OLB&#039;s. That makes some sense but it still seems that due to coverages (and your down backer being a rusher a lot of times) you&#039;d look for speed more than bulk. On the other hand, I guess you want size on the edge to counter the loss of an extra DL against an offense that hits the corners on the run. I still take some issue though with the theory that ILB&#039;s are lighter than OLB&#039;s in the 3-4. We&#039;ve seen it first-hand at BAMA this year when you have guys like Prince Hall and Darren Mustin playing the middle and they&#039;re the biggest backers we have. McClain himself goes at about 255 and he plays MLB. All those guys play at between 235 and 255, which is huge. Bigger than our average OLB. The only guy on the edge with comparable size is Knight who goes at about 235. Then consider our ILB&#039;s are backed up by people like Stamps and Waldrop. Neither are very big (with Stamps going at about 200 lbs). So is maybe the question? are we playing a faster/hybrid 3-4, or are we playing people that have no business playing in the first place?&nbsp; ;sus</blockquote>

[QUOTE="imported_porkchop, post: 405156"] I was under the impression that OLB's in the 3-4 were lighter than their ILB counterparts. Of course, I could have been wrong there and gotten my defenses mixed up too. Like I said earlier, I was always partial to the 4-3 and if you look at the ideal 4-3 like BAMA had a couple of years ago you see guys like Juwan and DeMeco playing on the edge with your "hoss" Roach manning the middle. I guess with an extra DL you can have smaller, speedier outside backers, and in a 3-4 you need bigger OLB's. That makes some sense but it still seems that due to coverages (and your down backer being a rusher a lot of times) you'd look for speed more than bulk. On the other hand, I guess you want size on the edge to counter the loss of an extra DL against an offense that hits the corners on the run. I still take some issue though with the theory that ILB's are lighter than OLB's in the 3-4. We've seen it first-hand at BAMA this year when you have guys like Prince Hall and Darren Mustin playing the middle and they're the biggest backers we have. McClain himself goes at about 255 and he plays MLB. All those guys play at between 235 and 255, which is huge. Bigger than our average OLB. The only guy on the edge with comparable size is Knight who goes at about 235. Then consider our ILB's are backed up by people like Stamps and Waldrop. Neither are very big (with Stamps going at about 200 lbs). So is maybe the question? are we playing a faster/hybrid 3-4, or are we playing people that have no business playing in the first place? ;sus [/QUOTE]