3rdand12 Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Hopeful, nice post up. For those that did not know, they now can now know. from your semi irritated OP you helped some folks understand the Wanny Dee mentality. I justed watched the interview with Shepp. Now i am a guy who has reserved judgement on this kid, and was pressured when D W stated that Kelvin is The MLB. In our 4-3. We are linebacker strong with this change of alignment. But consider this we could line up M.Williams Dareus Anderson then Barnett Sheppard Scott Merriman in a hybrid 3-4 pass D with shawne over the TE? interchange Kyle with Anderson or Dareus or Anderson with M Williams ofr move M. Williams to the other side put barnett on the strong Te side and Merriman in for barnett on weak hand in dirt again. That all being fun to consider; Shawne will play DE and be moved around enough to wreak havoc. Please folks dont short change Merriman's ability to seal the edge and contain the run. He showed it last year to my surprise. thats all he has to do in our 4-3 because the backers are getting the tackles anyways. Again Hopeful, Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sllib olaffub Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Does everyone think our defensive coordinator is going to play the 4/3 on all plays? Last year we switched it up with the 3/4 and 4/3 defenses. We will see it again this year with Merriman being the rusher in the 3/4 defense... He is just too good to keep off the field ... I expect to see a lot of new wrinkes in the Bills Defense compared to last year and the same for the Offense... We have two very good coaches that will not stand pat with the kind of tallent on both sides of the Ball that Buddy Nix has provided.... We are in for a very good season with good coaching and a lot of good talent on this team... We may just go all the way.... just dreaming but it is possible... Love the optimism! I have said before, and I'll voice it again here - I think the places having a healthy Merriman will help are in the specialty packages, the 5-2-4 defense, or the 5-1-5 defense. Wannstedt will have both healthy rotational players to count on, and enough quality pass rushers to use exotic schemes from time to time. It's that creativity I look forward to the most, other than the possibility of just all out dominating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Sending out the Jboyst-signal ::Cow shadow in the sky:: Excellent, informative post, Hopeful. Oh, too funny! A Charolais shadow! Thanks I know I oversimplified Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Hopeful, will you marry me? DrD can be best man. *blush* Whoever above said this is being discussedalready....no. no its not. There is a basic or fundamental lack of knowledge about the LB position. I blame our 90's teams when we had some pretty good LB's behind a very talented line with a top 10 NFL player of all time in Bruce Smith. Interesting viewpoint on the '90s teams, j. I was a fan then of course, not as knowledgeable about different defensive variations so please correct me if I'm wrong...it always seemed to me that Bruce got as many sacks as he did playing 3-4 DE, because Talley and Bennett took on almost the role of DL at times. Watch some of the Bruce clips on Youtube - it seems you can often see Biscuit or Talley engaged with a blocker. But maybe I'm mistaken? It's hard to see from little clips. One thing's for sure. That guy could blow through OLmen like they were jello. Truth is I have never been too impressed as much as others by Merriman even in his best days. I was always in the point where I was like " Woah, just a lil bit more this guy will be among the best defenders in history...and it never panned out. Its hard for a pass rush specialist to do anything more then rush the passer because expectations are so great. In my case I expect more of him still. In many others they expect his level of play to be like it was no matter where he plays. We were spoiled by Bruuuuuuuuce, who was also very strong against the run. I don't care if Merriman is among the best defenders in history. He is well south of 30, he can flat out play football, I just want to see him back on the field bringin' the wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyst Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Interesting viewpoint on the '90s teams, j. I was a fan then of course, not as knowledgeable about different defensive variations so please correct me if I'm wrong...it always seemed to me that Bruce got as many sacks as he did playing 3-4 DE, because Talley and Bennett took on almost the role of DL at times. Watch some of the Bruce clips on Youtube - it seems you can often see Biscuit or Talley engaged with a blocker. But maybe I'm mistaken? It's hard to see from little clips. One thing's for sure. That guy could blow through OLmen like they were jello. Yep. We had a lot to account for and the LB's just couldn't be discounted. Bruces abilities exceeded most efforts to stop him, but those of the players next to him also were able to step up their game by having Bruce next to them. When you can rely on having a guy in the QB's face nearly every passing play that is going over 8 yards then you can change the entire way you play your defense. To beat that defense you just kept passing...and passing...and passing. Our line was great. Our defense was good. We did not have the depth up front that we do now, and in many ways now we are a more talented defensive team then we were then. We were spoiled by Bruuuuuuuuce, who was also very strong against the run. I don't care if Merriman is among the best defenders in history. He is well south of 30, he can flat out play football, I just want to see him back on the field bringin' the wood. I see this playing out two ways for the Bills. I thought about it later throughout the day: 1. He does well enough the Bills offer him a new contract and we get him at a little bit over what we pay him now. Well enough would be playing 40% of the defensive snaps. 2. He does alright, sub 55% of the snaps on D and signs with Miami. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Hopeful, nice post up. For those that did not know, they now can now know. from your semi irritated OP you helped some folks understand the Wanny Dee mentality. You're welcome. I am getting irritated a bit lately. It must be all those headaches from trying to understand practice squad rules It couldn't be lack of football Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Over 29 years of fanhood Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) Ugh... Why does this protract eternally.....? Folks- merrimen is a DE in a 4-3 alignment. He has no business in space covering te or rbs. If they line him up at OLB in camp, he should start packing his bags. On wandstedt: The only time you can expect to see anything like a 3-4 is when the bills are in a 3 down lineman prevent, and then you will only see 1 lb on the field... Likely barnett. this d will look totally different accross the front 7 than that cluster George Edwards ran last year. Edited July 10, 2012 by over 20 years of fanhood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San-O Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 1. The question should be, does Merriman make it through training camp, and if so, how many games does he appear in before being injured again. 2. IF he plays, it would be situational as other posters suggest on the weak side. Pass rush specialist. 3. I have never seen so much posted or written about a player who has done so little as Merriman has for the Bills. 4. He's had a total of five (5) sacks since '07. 5. Gailey allowed Kelsay to play linebacker for some insane reason, so who really knows where Merriman may show up. 6. http://www.nfl.com/player/shawnemerriman/2506350/profile Someone create a post / poll asking the over - under of how many games or how many sacks Merriman has this year. I don't think many people really expect much, but people just can't help projecting production or performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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