Steelers 3-4 or 4-3?

[bagobonez]

does any team do a 3-4 cover 2? Is it even possible?

technically what cover 2 means is that your two CB's are in man, and your two safeties play a deep zone. if it was a cover 4, then all 4 defensive backs would play a deep zone. so technically a 3-4 can run a cover 2, but i think generally if you're talking about cover 2 you're talking about a 4-3 defense similar to what tony dungy made famous.

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

I don't see a team a year removed from winning a superbowl making changes like that. I would say they will stick with a 3-4, at least for a couple more years.

[mattb47]

I don't see a team a year removed from winning a superbowl making changes like that. I would say they will stick with a 3-4, at least for a couple more years.

Yea, they'll stick with the 3-4 at least for now. Keeping LeBeau pretty much insures that at least this year they'll still be playing that defense. I could see them start to encorporate some cover 2 type mindsets for their secondary guys though, ideas like containing the big play and such and eventually we could even see a hybrid type defense that one might be able to call a 3-4 Cover 2 type defense. We'll just have to see, but for now, I think it's pretty safe to assume they'll be playing the 3-4 this year.

[deerayfan072]

It is very hard to learn the Tampa 2 system so it would be unwise to change from a 3-4 to a Cover 2 immediately. By keeping LeBeau they can stay at a 3-4 while they learn the Tampa 2. Also the Tampa 2 requires different types of players, you need smaller quick LB and smaller quicker DE. The good thing about getting Moss would be that they could play him at LB this year and then he would be a great DE in the Tampa 2 system (a la a Simeon Rice)