98 & 99 @ DE!

I read the other day when the media was granted access to Manusky they were running some of the nickel packages. I dont know if anyone picked up on this but the front 4 went down like this....

Lawson and Haralson as the ends with Justin Smith and Balmer as the tackles.

Now that brought a big smile to my face! If balmer progresses into a legit DT him and Smith will eat up blockers for sure leaving 98 and 99 on the outside to wreak some havoc! All they need to focus on is getting after the passer in nickel situations. This could also open up alot of possibilities for creative blitz packages with Manny's coverage skills if we wanted to blitz an ILB (willis!).

http://blog.pressdemocrat.com/49ers/2009/06/niners-focus-on-pass-rush.html

Could be intersting. Put Lawson outside of Smith. With his motor he will need 2 blockers.

Originally posted by backontop:
Could be intersting. Put Lawson outside of Smith. With his motor he will need 2 blockers.

ya that would be dope. i always thought the closer manny played to the line the better he looks out there. his strength in college was as a pass rusher. he's a tall lanky DE with good speed. thats how he should be used

We need a pass rush and these appear to be our best pass rushers so it only makes sense. My question is why didnt Nolan do this last year?

Not really. Haralson and Lawson need to be blitzing from a standup position off the LOS and with a running start - not with their hands down as psuedo DE's. Both would get man-handled by OT's one-on-one right off the line and I'm not sure how effective the inside would be against the inside rush. Is this another 4-2-5 lineup? AKA "hybrid defense?" Not only that, that lineup takes ALL unpredictability away. You basically give the o-line plenty of time to call out assignments. Obviously the two pseudo DE's are going to rush, there's only 2 LB's (middle of the field is wide open esp. off the tackles) and you probably don't want to pass in the 15+ range given there are 5 DB's. Ahhhh, shades of Nolan!

[ Edited by NCommand on Jun 9, 2009 at 15:53:27 ]

I am quite impressed with Manuski, especially now that he doesn't have Nolan sitting on his shoulder.

Originally posted by MadMartz:
We need a pass rush and these appear to be our best pass rushers so it only makes sense. My question is why didnt Nolan do this last year?

Exactly, Nolan was putting Lawson on the sidelines in nickel!

Defensive minded coach.... pshh!

Originally posted by NCommand:
Not really. Haralson and Lawson need to be blitzing from a standup position off the LOS and with a running start - not with their hands down as psuedo DE's. Both would get man-handled by OT's one-on-one right off the line and I'm not sure how effective the inside would be against the inside rush. Is this another 4-2-5 lineup? AKA "hybrid defense?" Not only that, that lineup takes ALL unpredictability away. You basically give the o-line plenty of time to call out assignments. Obviously the two pseudo DE's are going to rush, there's only 2 LB's (middle of the field is wide open esp. off the tackles) and you probably don't want to pass in the 15+ range given there are 5 DB's. Ahhhh, shades of Nolan!

Its pretty hard to man handle DEs when they are so fast they run right by you. This would be the speed rush technique and is our best option with 4 down lineman on passing downs. IMO

Originally posted by NCommand:
Not really. Haralson and Lawson need to be blitzing from a standup position off the LOS and with a running start - not with their hands down as psuedo DE's. Both would get man-handled by OT's one-on-one right off the line and I'm not sure how effective the inside would be against the inside rush. Is this another 4-2-5 lineup? AKA "hybrid defense?" Not only that, that lineup takes ALL unpredictability away. You basically give the o-line plenty of time to call out assignments. Obviously the two pseudo DE's are going to rush, there's only 2 LB's (middle of the field is wide open esp. off the tackles) and you probably don't want to pass in the 15+ range given there are 5 DB's. Ahhhh, shades of Nolan!

Yes this is a 4-2-5, the "nickel" package, it is a pretty standard package throughout the NFL. Also there is alot of creativity that can come out of this. Zone blitzes, corner blitzes, you can have both ILB rush the passer and have the DE's drop into coverage. Im not a football coach but thats what I can think of and im sure there is much more creative coverages that can come out of it

Originally posted by MadMartz:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Not really. Haralson and Lawson need to be blitzing from a standup position off the LOS and with a running start - not with their hands down as psuedo DE's. Both would get man-handled by OT's one-on-one right off the line and I'm not sure how effective the inside would be against the inside rush. Is this another 4-2-5 lineup? AKA "hybrid defense?" Not only that, that lineup takes ALL unpredictability away. You basically give the o-line plenty of time to call out assignments. Obviously the two pseudo DE's are going to rush, there's only 2 LB's (middle of the field is wide open esp. off the tackles) and you probably don't want to pass in the 15+ range given there are 5 DB's. Ahhhh, shades of Nolan!

Its pretty hard to man handle DEs when they are so fast they run right by you. This would be the speed rush technique and is our best option with 4 down lineman on passing downs. IMO

it worked for charles haley, he wasnt really a huge guy but he was quick.

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:

Originally posted by MadMartz:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Not really. Haralson and Lawson need to be blitzing from a standup position off the LOS and with a running start - not with their hands down as psuedo DE's. Both would get man-handled by OT's one-on-one right off the line and I'm not sure how effective the inside would be against the inside rush. Is this another 4-2-5 lineup? AKA "hybrid defense?" Not only that, that lineup takes ALL unpredictability away. You basically give the o-line plenty of time to call out assignments. Obviously the two pseudo DE's are going to rush, there's only 2 LB's (middle of the field is wide open esp. off the tackles) and you probably don't want to pass in the 15+ range given there are 5 DB's. Ahhhh, shades of Nolan!

Its pretty hard to man handle DEs when they are so fast they run right by you. This would be the speed rush technique and is our best option with 4 down lineman on passing downs. IMO

it worked for charles haley, he wasnt really a huge guy but he was quick.

It works for most speed rushers,someone is just being a negative nancy :P

"SAAAAAAAACK -GET EEEMMMM-YEAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!"

Originally posted by NCommand:
Not really. Haralson and Lawson need to be blitzing from a standup position off the LOS and with a running start - not with their hands down as psuedo DE's. Both would get man-handled by OT's one-on-one right off the line and I'm not sure how effective the inside would be against the inside rush. Is this another 4-2-5 lineup? AKA "hybrid defense?" Not only that, that lineup takes ALL unpredictability away. You basically give the o-line plenty of time to call out assignments. Obviously the two pseudo DE's are going to rush, there's only 2 LB's (middle of the field is wide open esp. off the tackles) and you probably don't want to pass in the 15+ range given there are 5 DB's. Ahhhh, shades of Nolan!

This will be in passing situations a.k.a. 3rd and longs. Every team brings in a nickel package in those situations the majority of the time, even Pittsburgh, who has the most legit 3-4 I know of.

Nolan's 4-2-5 was used as a base package. We will be a 3-4 base, but of course, we will use a nickel at times.

Also, Haralson was a much better pass rusher with his hand in the dirt, than standing up. Lawson hasn't done much either way, so your argument that he's better in a 2-point stance is nonsense.

I'm not proclaiming that they will be a fierce duo, although I think there's a lot of promise, but this is far from Nolan's lame schemes.

The team has been doing this since they switched to the 3-4. On passing downs, they go to 4 down linemen with the outside LBs playing DE. Last season it was always Haralson on one end with Green or TBC on the other.
I don't think Lawson will do very well playing with his hand in the dirt, but we'll see.

In the nickel package, I'd rather see Lawson playing LB instead of DE. This would make Lawson and Willis the 2 LBs in the nickel package, and would let someone like RayMac or Evans fill in at DE.


And as far as using the starting OLBs at DE, this is NOTHING NEW. Nolan/Manusky were doing it for several years. And guess what........... It didn't work out that great for Lawson. Why would it work now?