Any Chance of Playing Some 4- 3 Next Year?

[El_diablo]

We should go to a 4-3 when the opponent brings an extra tight end or blocker in. That's why are CB's and undersize LB's are getting beat up.

[djp14150]

On 2/3/2024 at 11:57 AM, st pete gogolak said:

Our base D seemingly forever now has been a 4 - 2 - 5.  If Dorian Williams makes the same jump between first and second year as Bernard (yeah, I know, BIG if), why not play some 4 - 3 - 4 to get Milano, Bernard and Williams on the field at the same time, simply as a change of pace?
 

Better yet, if we move to 4 - 3 as our base D, it can solve some immediate problems on D without signing a bunch of FA’s or depending on rookies to start.  Is there any reason Taron Johnson can’t be full time starting FS?  Good tackler, ball hawk, veteran.  Keep Poyer another year as SS. CB’s are Douglas and Benford.  Elam can come in as nickel, maybe even play some press against slot or TE to take advantage of his supposed strengths.  Milano, Bernard and Williams at LB with Spector giving some vet depth.  Up front, Rousseau, Oliver, DQ (only FA signing) and Miller. 
 

Of course, still need to go heavy on D in draft (after going WR in #1).  Find next year’s replacements for Poyer, Jones and Miller early and draft some CB’s late.  Ideally, you’d like to find a starting DE to allow Miller to play third-down pass rushing specialist (maybe find a way to squeeze money for AJE).  
 

is it ideal?  No. But I think it’s realistic given the cap constraints.  

They could do a 3-3-5 and blitz a LB/DB

[BillsFan2313]

6 hours ago, BearNorth said:

After seeing the return to action of both Tre White and Von Miller aren't we being a bit optimistic that Milano will be 100% by opening day.  His injury was no minor ding.

 

Good point. His injury is a year long recovery 

[warrior9]

On 2/3/2024 at 1:22 PM, vanislebills44 said:

if by any chance williams comes on like bernard did, u would seemingly have 2 play more..no 2 ways around it 

That's not true. He would still be the 3rd best linebacker, we play a nickel base defense. We have 1 all-pro in front of him and another potential all-pro in front of him and Taron Johnson is an All-pro. Taron plays the run pretty well and he won't be coming off the field. 

 

There are more than 2 ways around it, actually. 

[st pete gogolak]

45 minutes ago, warrior9 said:

That's not true. He would still be the 3rd best linebacker, we play a nickel base defense. We have 1 all-pro in front of him and another potential all-pro in front of him and Taron Johnson is an All-pro. Taron plays the run pretty well and he won't be coming off the field. 

 

There are more than 2 ways around it, actually. 

Doesn’t this scream playing Taron full time at FS (assuming Williams is one of your 11 best D players)?  It solves a lot of problems.

[BigDingus]

22 hours ago, BearNorth said:

After seeing the return to action of both Tre White and Von Miller aren't we being a bit optimistic that Milano will be 100% by opening day.  His injury was no minor ding.

 

Agree, but his injury also happened earlier in the season than the other 2, so maybe we'll get lucky?

[HoofHearted]

19 hours ago, El_diablo said:

We should go to a 4-3 when the opponent brings an extra tight end or blocker in. That's why are CB's and undersize LB's are getting beat up.

We do. Anything 12p or heavier we bring in more backers.

[ScotSHO]

43 minutes ago, HoofHearted said:

We do. Anything 12p or heavier we bring in more backers.

Correct, the problem is the league hardly ever goes to those personnel groupings.  Look at 2021:

 

https://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/nfl-stats/personnel-groupings/offense/offensive-personnel-grouping-frequency-2021/

[HoofHearted]

27 minutes ago, ScotSHO said:

Correct, the problem is the league hardly ever goes to those personnel groupings.  Look at 2021:

 

https://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/nfl-stats/personnel-groupings/offense/offensive-personnel-grouping-frequency-2021/

Which is why we base out of Nickel.

[vanislebills44]

3 hours ago, warrior9 said:

That's not true. He would still be the 3rd best linebacker, we play a nickel base defense. We have 1 all-pro in front of him and another potential all-pro in front of him and Taron Johnson is an All-pro. Taron plays the run pretty well and he won't be coming off the field. 

 

There are more than 2 ways around it, actually. 

ok yes, agreed, but if williams comes anything close to bernards play this year, how can u justify not playing a little more 4/3...im sure they can figure a way to keep johnson n williams on the field if the situation arises...iffff williams plays like bernard did this year, u dont keep that player on the bench...im sayin a little more not a 50/50 split or anything but some more if williams play erupts...

[warrior9]

21 minutes ago, vanislebills44 said:

ok yes, agreed, but if williams comes anything close to bernards play this year, how can u justify not playing a little more 4/3...im sure they can figure a way to keep johnson n williams on the field if the situation arises...iffff williams plays like bernard did this year, u dont keep that player on the bench...im sayin a little more not a 50/50 split or anything but some more if williams play erupts...

It's never a bad thing to have too much talent. 

It would benefit us in other ways, as well. We don't know what Milano is going to look like coming off that injury. 

3 hours ago, st pete gogolak said:

Doesn’t this scream playing Taron full time at FS (assuming Williams is one of your 11 best D players)?  It solves a lot of problems.

Not even the slightest chance possible. 

 

Nickel and Safety do 2 very different things. Safety's rarely cover slot WR, play man, etc etc. Moving Taron to safety would be completely changing his skill set. THAT or he would just be a safety in the box and they'd have 2 more safeties on the field. nothing would change. 

[DrDawkinstein]

ANY chance? Sure there is a chance the NFL completely flips from a passing league back to the ground and pound days. Then it would make sense to put the other LB back on the field. But unless that happens, we're running Nickel as our base as we should. Especially when you have a player like Taron Johnson in that spot.

[biggerdaddynj]

I liked the Jim Schwartz 4-3 defenses but as others have very aptly noted we need the personnel to run the 4-3 (with some depth too so AJ Klein doesn’t come off his couch to chase after TEs).

Edited February 5 by biggerdaddynj

[Flipnmi]

On 2/4/2024 at 9:42 AM, SCBills said:

I tend to agree, but I could be persuaded to being interested in an increase of 4-3 consisting of Bernard, Milano and a Dorian Williams if he makes a Bernard-like jump in his second year. 
 

That’s a ton of speed and athleticism at linebacker. 

If Taron Johnson could become a nickel/safety hybrid, able to come up in the nickel and drop back in the 4-3, that could be a welcome new wrinkle. 

I'm not opposed to this idea as a option (not base). But we also we need a better answer for the times when Taron is dinged up. I didn't feel he was playing to his standard during some of the early losses and suspected that he wasn't at 100%. Cam was a decent backup Safety, but was picked on whenever he replaced Taron at Nickel.  

[Big Turk]

Unlikely.

[Matt_In_NH]

At times yes but mostly it will be nickel.  I would not expect a big difference form the last number of years.  
 

On 2/4/2024 at 5:02 PM, El_diablo said:

We should go to a 4-3 when the opponent brings an extra tight end or blocker in. That's why are CB's and undersize LB's are getting beat up.

The bills our going to be in nickel.  

[DJB]

We are going to remain in Nickel. For the first time in a long time we actually have some terrific depth at LB. 
 

I don’t think we will change fundamentally how we play D but I could see from time to time the occasional three LB in the game likely in obvious short yardage run plays 

Edited February 9 by DJB

[Pete]

3-4 we would have to draft and sign a few more LBers.

 

Right now, we are pretty much set at LB, and we have massive holes at DL, Edge, S, and WR.  Let’s start filling holes, before we dig more.

 

we have limited cap space and need our draft picks to fill roster spots at more urgent positions.

 

PS Taron is awesome!  Why take him out?

[colin]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

3-4 we would have to draft and sign a few more LBers.

 

Right now, we are pretty much set at LB, and we have massive holes at DL, Edge, S, and WR.  Let’s start filling holes, before we dig more.

 

we have limited cap space and need our draft picks to fill roster spots at more urgent positions.

 

PS Taron is awesome!  Why take him out?

 

 

i don't think it could possibly happen, but given where we are at lb and dl, it would be interesting to see the bills go to a 3-3 nickle base.  we'd need a couple massive plugs at nose, and another big strong DE or two, but the upside would be we'd not have to platoon as many old over priced DLs all the time, and we'd have more room to be creative in the pass rush.

 

im thinking it's all cyclical, and edge guys and off ball LBs have become super sought after at high prices in the nfl, so big strong lbs (say in the dorian williams mold, rather than some 1995 style DT that lines up 3 yards back) and massive space eating monsters in the guy are cheaper now.  also, guys like groot and oliver are near ideal 3-4 ends.