5-2 defense

[Umbaugh21]

If we do not trade any of our D lineman before the season, do we run a 5-2 on early downs?? It would make sense to me. It utilizes our strongest position group d line and our weakest position group linebacker only have to put 2 players on the field. from left to right out d line could look like the example below.

Young, Allen, Payne, Ionnadis, Sweat.

With Kerrigan subbing in. Maybe in some situations even run 5 d lineman with just 1 linebacker and 3 corners. I just hope we utilize our depth at pass rusher. 

[RSkinGM]

2 minutes ago, Umbaugh21 said:

If we do not trade any of our D lineman before the season, do we run a 5-2 on early downs?? It would make sense to me. It utilizes our strongest position group d line and our weakest position group linebacker only have to put 2 players on the field. from left to right out d line could look like the example below.

Young, Allen, Payne, Ionnadis, Sweat.

With Kerrigan subbing in. Maybe in some situations even run 5 d lineman with just 1 linebacker and 3 corners. I just hope we utilize our depth at pass rusher. 

I remember Gibbs did this in a Playoff home game back in the day against the Detroit Lions. Stopped them dead ! This is by no means a traditional defense I assume . We'll see I guess -if the season happens.

[Umbaugh21]

If Manunsky was still our coordinator, I’d have no faith that our personnel would get used correctly. With Del-Rio and Rivera at the helm, I believe that they will utilize our personnel correctly, very excited to watch this defense this year. Hoping that we have a good ground game and we can be dangerous. 

[Geno]

3 hours ago, Umbaugh21 said:

If we do not trade any of our D lineman before the season, do we run a 5-2 on early downs?? It would make sense to me. It utilizes our strongest position group d line and our weakest position group linebacker only have to put 2 players on the field. from left to right out d line could look like the example below.

Young, Allen, Payne, Ionnadis, Sweat.

With Kerrigan subbing in. Maybe in some situations even run 5 d lineman with just 1 linebacker and 3 corners. I just hope we utilize our depth at pass rusher. 

That will leave the short middle  wide open other teams tight end and running back will have a goodday catching the ball in the middle with no linebacker there

Edited July 2, 2020 by Geno

[RSkinGM]

Let Ryan Anderson pound 'em a few times. They might not be so willing ! Wonder how Gibbs handled that against the Lions .

[MKnight82]

I would say no.  This is an antiquated scheme based on the modern passing game.  Teams throw on first down all of the time.  We would get picked apart.  

[Jeezy Fanatic]

In today’s nfl that would be a disaster. Too much short passing 

[naptownskinsfan]

10 hours ago, RSkinGM said:

I remember Gibbs did this in a Playoff home game back in the day against the Detroit Lions. Stopped them dead ! This is by no means a traditional defense I assume . We'll see I guess -if the season happens.

Against certain teams, this would work, especially in the playoffs, because teams only prepare for what they see on tape.  Drastically changing the fronts would completely mess up the gameplan from the opponent's perspective.  

That being said, with the talent that we have along the defensive line, you could see them give some 3-4 looks from time to time as well, and could perhaps put that defense back into a game in a calculated gamble.  

This is a traditional defense in college, used to hid some deficiencies in talent.  I don't think it would work too well in the pros full-time.  

[e16bball]

I’ll just say that last year, the trio of Greek/Payne/Allen played 2307 snaps. That was out of a total of 1079 team defensive plays — so on average, roughly, we had about two of them on the field each play. I think they could easily approach the same combined number of snaps in the new defense, particularly because the nickel defense will probably take a LB (not a DL) off the field. I also think we may see Allen or Greek play some LDE in certain packages or against certain opponents, so that would be another opportunity to get them all on the field.

More importantly, that was with the trio playing 46 out of 48 possible games. The odds of that happening again — particularly in a season that will probably be significantly affected by the virus and various quarantines and such — are pretty slim. Most likely, unavailability will sort this issue out for us. 

The guy who almost certainly is going to see a reduction in workload, though, is Tim Settle. Which is a shame, because I think he’s a nice depth player. But I don’t think we should be forcing a major defensive revolution to find a way to get Tim Settle on the field. 

[turtle28]

3 hours ago, e16bball said:

I’ll just say that last year, the trio of Greek/Payne/Allen played 2307 snaps. That was out of a total of 1079 team defensive plays — so on average, roughly, we had about two of them on the field each play. I think they could easily approach the same combined number of snaps in the new defense, particularly because the nickel defense will probably take a LB (not a DL) off the field. I also think we may see Allen or Greek play some LDE in certain packages or against certain opponents, so that would be another opportunity to get them all on the field.

More importantly, that was with the trio playing 46 out of 48 possible games. The odds of that happening again — particularly in a season that will probably be significantly affected by the virus and various quarantines and such — are pretty slim. Most likely, unavailability will sort this issue out for us. 

The guy who almost certainly is going to see a reduction in workload, though, is Tim Settle. Which is a shame, because I think he’s a nice depth player. But I don’t think we should be forcing a major defensive revolution to find a way to get Tim Settle on the field. 

Agreed with this. I'll also say that with them running a 3-4 one-third of the game for the past 10 years that they essentially did run a 5-2 early downs @Umbaugh21 and most fans hated it when they had 5 players on the field who were run defenders/pass rushers and couldn't cover. I'd rather them just run a traditional 4-3 w/ Allen or Greek playing LDE on run downs as E suggested.

[naptownskinsfan]

6 hours ago, e16bball said:

I’ll just say that last year, the trio of Greek/Payne/Allen played 2307 snaps. That was out of a total of 1079 team defensive plays — so on average, roughly, we had about two of them on the field each play. I think they could easily approach the same combined number of snaps in the new defense, particularly because the nickel defense will probably take a LB (not a DL) off the field. I also think we may see Allen or Greek play some LDE in certain packages or against certain opponents, so that would be another opportunity to get them all on the field.

More importantly, that was with the trio playing 46 out of 48 possible games. The odds of that happening again — particularly in a season that will probably be significantly affected by the virus and various quarantines and such — are pretty slim. Most likely, unavailability will sort this issue out for us. 

The guy who almost certainly is going to see a reduction in workload, though, is Tim Settle. Which is a shame, because I think he’s a nice depth player. But I don’t think we should be forcing a major defensive revolution to find a way to get Tim Settle on the field. 

Settle is more of a traditional 3-4 nose tackle.  And sadly, that doesn't have a whole lot of value as far as a trade.  I could easily see him being the odd man out during final cuts, especially if Smith-Williams looks pretty good

[turtle28]

1 hour ago, naptownskinsfan said:

Settle is more of a traditional 3-4 nose tackle.  And sadly, that doesn't have a whole lot of value as far as a trade.  I could easily see him being the odd man out during final cuts, especially if Smith-Williams looks pretty good

The Steelers could use a 3-4 NT. They lost Javon Hargrave in free agency to the Eagles this year. They might trade a late round pick for Settle if it looks like Settle won't make the team bc say Brantley is be a better option in the 4-3 than him.

Edited July 4, 2020 by turtle28

[naptownskinsfan]

4 minutes ago, turtle28 said:

The Steelers could use a 3-4 NT. They lost Javon Hargrave in free agency to the Eagles this year. They might trade a late round pick for Settle if it looks like Settle won't make the team bc say Brantley is be a better option in the 4-3 than him.

Good thought, but they spent a seventh rounder on his replacement.  They also mention something I agree with in the article below- the NT is going the way of the fullback here.  I don't see them spending another draft pick, even in 2021, on another NT only player.  

https://www.dkpittsburghsports.com/2020/05/11/steelers-nose-tackle-plan-2020-tyson-alualu-daniel-mccullers-carlos-davis-fdl/

[SpacemanSpiff]

In many ways, the modern 3-4 can be similar to a 5-2 anyway with the way OLBs and edge rushers tend to come at you as basically converted DEs

Edited July 4, 2020 by SpacemanSpiff

[turtle28]

12 hours ago, naptownskinsfan said:

Good thought, but they spent a seventh rounder on his replacement.  They also mention something I agree with in the article below- the NT is going the way of the fullback here.  I don't see them spending another draft pick, even in 2021, on another NT only player.  

https://www.dkpittsburghsports.com/2020/05/11/steelers-nose-tackle-plan-2020-tyson-alualu-daniel-mccullers-carlos-davis-fdl/

Yes I know, I've been in the Steelers forum some lately. They have scouts Davis and don't like him as a starter and think he may never be a starter, most of them don't even want McCullers to make the team - which I don't really understand - but they know better than me and have their reasons. 

The Steelers run their D a lot like we have the last decade so, technically they're in a 4-2-5 most of the game, so most of the game Heyward & Tuitt will be at DT while Dupree and Watt will be playing DE but I still think they need an upgrade on run downs at NT and most of their fans do to. 

I’ve said they should sign Damon Harrison but they don't have much cap space and some agree with that and some don't think they should. I just know they're going to struggle to stop the Ravens & Titans on the ground w/o a traditional NT.