Defensive Front 7 w/ Full Time Aldon?

All great feedback - thanks for the posts.

To the points about 4-3 vs 4-2-5 vs, etc, etc. My primary alignment distinction is whether the the players are aligned on the LS or set back as a LB. My reference to Aldon in the 4-3 was because he had his hand in the dirt on the LS like a DE.

But the fact is, the front 7 alignment was all over the place with people like JSmith and even Soap often standing up and slightly back from the LS. Shoot, even in the picture above, my old traditional view is that is a 4-2, but the DEs are really OLBs so that's really a 2-4. LOL!

Holy crap, Fangio is already giving a lot of looks to an OL and protection scheme to consider. This next season should be fun!

Again, thanks for the interesting posts.

all i know is when the 2 smiths were lined up together it was exciting whether it was a bull rush from justin and a speed rush from aldon or they ran a stunt good things happened. imo we never left the 3-4 just used creative alignments

Aldon has a solid number of sacks for this time of the year, but if I'm being honest, he doesn't seem nearly as disruptive in terms of pressure. I'm not sure if thats because he's tired or he has to do a lot more thinking. His rookie year he just got after it relentlessly. Now he gets after it, but certainly not with the same zeal. I hope as the game slows down for him, he'll do less thinking and be confident in his decision to rush the passer. He's playing at a high level now, but the pressures have definitly dropped off.

I would say the same. I would like if Cam Johnson or another OLB we draft could come in and be a pure pass-rushing specialist, playing the role that Aldon Smith did in 2011. To have a guy coming in rushing like that, and to have to account for Aldon Smith, and then the speed of our ILB to tackle immediately if the QB gets rid of the ball would be a great luxury. Also, this isn't to take anything away from Ahmad Brooks, but I think all of our front 7 could use a breather every now and again. We see how awesome Frank Gore looks only carrying the ball 16 times a game. It would be great if we could do the same for our front 7.

Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
Aldon has a solid number of sacks for this time of the year, but if I'm being honest, he doesn't seem nearly as disruptive in terms of pressure. I'm not sure if thats because he's tired or he has to do a lot more thinking. His rookie year he just got after it relentlessly. Now he gets after it, but certainly not with the same zeal. I hope as the game slows down for him, he'll do less thinking and be confident in his decision to rush the passer. He's playing at a high level now, but the pressures have definitly dropped off.

Agreed...I tried to warn ppl that his sack numbers may go down but his overall game as an OLB would become more complete as the year progressed. Being a consistently successful OLB (even the WILL) is not easy. That said, he seems to be dropping off some on his containment as well on some big runs outside and the RB's seem to be catching some big passes out there as well on swing-passes and I'm seeing Bowman/Willis running hard to get these guys out of bound after 10 yards. He needs to keep working on his play-recognition so that he CAN be quicker. A veteran such as Haggans may be able to spell him more and bring him along and not lose us any production. Also, we can't expect his energy level to be high the entire time. It's a marathon when you're starting.

He'll have spurts of dominance and his goal just needs to be better play recognition and consistent "pressure." The sacks will come but just not as many.

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
I would say the same. I would like if Cam Johnson or another OLB we draft could come in and be a pure pass-rushing specialist, playing the role that Aldon Smith did in 2011. To have a guy coming in rushing like that, and to have to account for Aldon Smith, and then the speed of our ILB to tackle immediately if the QB gets rid of the ball would be a great luxury. Also, this isn't to take anything away from Ahmad Brooks, but I think all of our front 7 could use a breather every now and again. We see how awesome Frank Gore looks only carrying the ball 16 times a game. It would be great if we could do the same for our front 7.

Agreed. I think the lack of depth has inhibited both Aldon/Brooks as well. They seem more to be playing to not get hurt than flying around like last year. Fangio and his schemes have a lot to do with this as well...nobody talks about Fangio but he's had a couple stinkers this year (like Roman) as well BUT I loved that he finally brought pressure on Wilson in the 2nd half with various blitzers and as a result, Wilson only had what, 3 completions in the 2nd half and an INT?

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
Aldon has a solid number of sacks for this time of the year, but if I'm being honest, he doesn't seem nearly as disruptive in terms of pressure. I'm not sure if thats because he's tired or he has to do a lot more thinking. His rookie year he just got after it relentlessly. Now he gets after it, but certainly not with the same zeal. I hope as the game slows down for him, he'll do less thinking and be confident in his decision to rush the passer. He's playing at a high level now, but the pressures have definitly dropped off.

Agreed...I tried to warn ppl that his sack numbers may go down but his overall game as an OLB would become more complete as the year progressed. Being a consistently successful OLB (even the WILL) is not easy. That said, he seems to be dropping off some on his containment as well on some big runs outside and the RB's seem to be catching some big passes out there as well on swing-passes and I'm seeing Bowman/Willis running hard to get these guys out of bound after 10 yards. He needs to keep working on his play-recognition so that he CAN be quicker. A veteran such as Haggans may be able to spell him more and bring him along and not lose us any production. Also, we can't expect his energy level to be high the entire time. It's a marathon when you're starting.

He'll have spurts of dominance and his goal just needs to be better play recognition and consistent "pressure." The sacks will come but just not as many.

You definitly know the LB position and you did call it in the off season. Its very frustrating that we get very little rotation on the line and the outside. Brooks/Aldon are premier starters, but we need to have guys that can come in a take a few snaps for them.

Question for you Ncommand: Do you watch enough Denver games to know how they use Miller? Is it any different than we use Aldon? Miller seems very disruptive in the few games I've seen and he's in all the time.

Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
You definitly know the LB position and you did call it in the off season. Its very frustrating that we get very little rotation on the line and the outside. Brooks/Aldon are premier starters, but we need to have guys that can come in a take a few snaps for them.

Question for you Ncommand: Do you watch enough Denver games to know how they use Miller? Is it any different than we use Aldon? Miller seems very disruptive in the few games I've seen and he's in all the time.

You know, honestly I don't but that would be an interesting comparison and assessment. It's funny b/c I'm having this conversation about Roman on the other side of the ball but am seeing some similar issues with Fangio re: scheme and not always playing to our strengths. It seems like when Fangio does get creative with Aldon/Brooks, its successful but we don't stay with it and attack the weakness along the OL like so many other teams have (e.g. Staley). For instance, against the SeaHawks, Aldon came over from the WILL, lined up at LDE and Brooks pinched inside as the LDT. Brooks did a Justin Smith and pinch two OL inside and Aldon was clean to make a fake outside on the OT and then had a super clean lane to rush inside and sacked Wlson. Now THAT is the type of creativity I hoped we'd do all year long with all four of our LBers and front 3 working off each other. So far it's been vanilla again and it appears Aldon/Brooks aren't flying around lie last year...playing cautiously to avoid injury d/t the lack of depth behind them? Perhaps?