Raiders Linebackers: Taking Stock, 3-4 Or Not

HEre’s my front seven:

Houston, Draft pick, Seymour
Wimbley, McClain, Howard, Scott

Scott is on the rght side, because that where he has to pass rush from the left tackle.

Howard is at weakside LB, because he can cover pretty well, and he can utilize his speed at the position.

McClain at strongside, because he is getting better at sniffing out the run, and will help wimbley out if he needs it. Also should get better at plugging in holes in the middle.

Wimbley Im honestly not too sure of. Id like to have a guy who can contain the run on that side(dont know if wimbley can do that).

Houston was a 4-3 DT in college, as was seymour. They both fit the 3-4 end spot imo, and we need to grab a big, penetrating(lol) NT in the draft.

If we get Herzlich, he’ll be next to Mcclain, with Howard rotating in every so often. There are some very god OLBs this draft as well.

I agree that we still need help at outside linebacker, but I can’t see Mike Waufle or the rest of the Raiders defensive staff going along with changing the entire alignment of the defensive front 7, especially the way the defensive line played last year. Furthermore, we simply don’t have the personnel to run the 3-4 right now. I do not see this happening.

Houston and Seymour at DE with Scott and Shaughnessy rotating in
Kelly DT,Pick up Shawn Rodgers in FA as NT and Henderson/Bryant at DT .

The kid makes big plays as evidenced with his forced fumble in the title game. He is being projected as a mid round pick but I can see him moving up the board but would be great value even in the mid second

But I don’t think our D-line benefits from Kelly, Seymour, and Houston rotating the DE spots. I also think this would leave Shaugnessy without a position. I think the strength of our line has been the ability of the guys I mentioned being able to move up and down the line and causing chaos for the O-line in pass protection. However, our run defense has not been good for a while and having a run stuffing NT in the middle may be a huge benefit to our line and rotation for flexibility and differing looks.

He ranks dead last in the league in supporting the DE (Houston) to stop the run. He is the biggest reason for giving up the huge runs once a rb breaks the line of scrimmage on his side. Nevertheless, I order my preferences in the draft as first a C, then a RT, then the OLB, provided that Campbell will make a good replacement for Carlisle at RG.

Of which, there are many. Go after Herzlich with our first pick, and we will be on our way. We might even be able to upgrade OLB further with free agents, and thank Sam Williams for keeping a roster spot warm for us.

but he seemed to get better later in the season.

In any event, I like the sack and stuff numbers our 4-3 gets.

we need to run a D that shores up our weaknesses and taking advantage of our strengths as of opening day. IMO a good D coach/coordinator and all the assistants will figure a way to best utilize our roster and figure a way to have those players put in situations and given assignments that help make them productive. Every year in the FA signings there is a good group of those players that change situations and go to another team. This same group of players just don’t seem to produce like they did prior to changing teams. IMO once again this is just a facet of the “system” they are in and not because they were great players before they were tier 2 players that came off so well because their coaches knew how to use them to compliment the star players that made the unit a whole. Belicheat is one of these coaches that seems to get the most out of a player and then when he thinks he can get more for them by trading than their current value is to him and he probably feels he can get another player to fill in that is cheaper and maybe do a better job.
IMO last year (and many years prior) our DC called a system as a philosophy rather than figuring out a way to hide our weaknesses and make the most of our true star players to give us the best possible chance. Another way of looking at it is look at GB. Charles is no track star anymore but they used him in the system to hide his decreased speed and zone it up and have him coming hot off the corner. Troy is used as almost a floater all the time to take advantage of his great instincts for the ball and I think he has pretty good speed (when healthy) as he can do some man coverage at times. This is what we need to do with our D. Use our players to make the system don’t create a system and philosophy then push our roster into it.

No way the Raiders switch to the 3-4, Al Davis is big on the 4-3—-and has been for a long, long time.

If he comes back from injury I don’t see him being dislodged from the weak side OLB spot. I am sure there will be competition but Scott is an important player on D.

I also don’t see them moving McLain anywhere and Wimbley has the strong side. The only questions are depth which we need. Goethel is an excellent prospect but did not do much last year due to injury. I would agree Groves is not a top form type of player but he is much more serviceable than Ricky Brown who has pretty much run his course, even as a special teamer.

Sam Williams has been a scholarship player. I heard it first hand from Don Martindale during his stint as LB coach that playing Williams was not his decision. Translation is Al forced it down the coaching staff’s throats that they make Williams a starting OLB. What a joke and then when that failed they followed up by trying to make Ricky Brown the strong side LB.

Al must like Sam for some reason and that is why Sam Williams will occupy an undeserved roster spot again next season. Just get any rookie to play special teams. Why have him around if he sucks so bad he cannot provide any depth as an LB if needed.

We have Wimbley and McClain who both are perfect fits along with Seymour and Houston manning the ends. However Scott coming off of injury and never really being a great coverage option makes him a passing down contributor at best. Kelly is another guy I can see as a part-timer maybe being used in the down DT\DE position on pass rush downs as well since he has a history of getting swallowed up so he can’t play NT and Bryant is too small to as well. 4-3 makes the most sense because we only need to find one versatile player instead of an ILB and OLB along with a plugger in the middle to hold things down.