Just a thought, Could Woodley be converted to DE?

If Woodley is used in the hybrid 'Elephant ' position ala Fred Dean and Charles Haley it could work.

 

I think that Woodley could play 4-3 d-end.

What everyone needs to remember is that the defense is lined up in nickel as much as base due to passing offenses. In nickel the defense uses a 2-4. Woodley and Harrison at ends or olb's, farrior or foote and timmons at ilb's, and Kiesel and Hood or Hayward at d-lineman. This is the formation that a pass rush is needed and the steelers cannot get one; it is horrible.

I say that an athletic nose tackle and stud middle linebacker would be needed additions and switching to a 3-3 nickel. Scrap the zone blitz and simply use player skill.

==>
Nickel:

3 lineman: Kiesel, athletic nose, Hayward
Hood swings in at nose and d-end

olb's: Harrison, Woodley
rotate in Worilds

mlb: New guy, needs to be great
Timmons has the athleticism but has not put it to use


Scheme:

Usually basic: the lineman plug and Harrison and Woodley are a lot more free with three plugs vs two. It can be changed up by blitzing Troy, the nickel, and dropping the ends/olb's into coverage or flat zone.


As far as going to the 4-3, the team can come up with good ends, but lacks severely for 4-3 tackles which are expensive or bad. I am not sure about 4-3 linebackers on the team either.



I am really big on the 3-3 nickel. Most of the personel if not all is here. Ziggy and McLendon would probably be ok at nose, and Timons may be able to do mlb, but d-line depth and probably another d-line starter is needed.

 

I would like to add that this will eliminate Lebeau's beloved fireX mlb blitz in nickel because there is only 1 mlb. In the 2-4 nickel it gets picked up every time anyway with the center being free.

More stunts will need to be used to change up the basic 5 man blitz in the 3-3 nickel.

 

I think there's a little more to it than that... But hey, if anyone can learn a completely new position, skill set, and side of the ball halfway through his career most notable for extreme mental lapses, it's our Kemo!

 

I can remember when we had greg lloyd,kelvin greene,chad brown,kirkland all these great lbers but ray seals said that we had a great dline also so those three guys stepped up their game and put even more pressure on the qb.The running game was totally shut down.They didnt need run support from a safety or db.