Cosell Talks: The Evolving Chess Match

[DustInTheWind]

It's one of the slowest times of the year for football and I found this a pretty good read on what changes are going on with offenses and in turn defenses around the league going into 2012.

There are always exceptions, but defensively, if you expect to beat the top passing games, you must be able to stop shotgun offenses with five receivers that can align at any position. That’s the next frontier. As the NFL continues to evolve, it is increasingly evident that the game is played far more in open space than it is in the trenches. For old-school defensive coaches, that’s not easy to accept, but they must — or they will struggle to match up in this era of spread passing.

Cosell Talks: The Evolving Chess Match : NFL Films Blog

[Raider Ran]

Very interesting read. This seems to indicate the Raiders are probably in good shape for the future. Makes Marcel Reese that much more important in the equation.

[DustInTheWind]

This type of examination of our offense also would seem to explain the hope the coaching staff has in Ausberry being a contributing member of the offense this year. He's athletic enough to do many of the same things we saw Gronk, Graham, etc. do last year. Knapp can line him up all over the field along with Reece and combine that with DMC and our young, but talented, WRs and you have a pretty scary offensive unit.

The part of the article about Houston's defense is pretty telling about how Allen could be lining up our own defense this year. Against many of these high power passing teams a dime defense is about the only way to go. The difference comes in how many DL and LBs we choose to use - if we have only two LBs out there and four DL, who are the LBs going to be? McClain and...? The Colts didn't seem to value Wheeler on passing downs as he was off the field on many obvious passing downs. Stupar did well against the pass at Penn St., but do you put him on the field instead of the other guys?

I also went back and watched some videos of Tollefson's year and saw how much he was used all over the DL - logging lots of snap at DT43, DE43 and even DE34. This appears, among other reasons, to be why he was brought in as he is extremely versatile in what he can do. He's not a speed rusher or even the best at getting to the QB. He's a power guy who can win matchups, seal edges, and get to the QB and RB enough to earn his money. What I'm getting at is we have a lot of very versatile and effective members to our DL and if I could add one type it would be a pure speed rusher - someone in the mold of JPP, Orakpo, or even Aldon Smith that can turn that edge and get to the QB. That to me is what is missing from our DL as far as starters and depth.

The article also brought up the idea that many LBs are losing their value as they can't play every down...can't cover the RB/TE of the new era as well as stop the run. How do our LBs fit into that? I think, as far what I've seen from our guys in NFL situations only McClain really has the ability to play every-down: being at least above average in most facets of his game. Really looking forward to seeing what McClain can do with Tarver and Allen's defensive system. Burris and Stupar could be the type we're looking for, especially Stupar as he seemed to thrive in coverage during his time at Penn St. - could he do for us what Sean Lee (another former Penn St. LB) has done for the Cowboys?

Will be interesting to see how this all works out over the next few months.