Steelers draft: Tampa-2? or just 5 easy pieces?

By Jim Wexell

The Pittsburgh Steelers have added intriguing pieces to Mike Tomlin's defense

Some may feel the need to slap a label on the Steelers' defensive progression, but it really might just be as simple as matching up.

Maybe it's the historian in me that feels the need to label and file away.

Because maybe I'll write it like this one day:

"One of the lieutenants of the 2002 championship team, Mike Tomlin learned the 'Tampa-2' and eventually brought it back to Pittsburgh, where Chuck Noll and Bud Carson initially diagrammed it into legendary status."

Or something like that.

Of course, Tomlin first had to transition from the Bill Cowher/Dom Capers/Dick LeBeau 34 front, cover-3 scheme that was given proper respect by the young Tomlin, who showed his wisdom by keeping LeBeau on board -- and, well, you know the rest.

See, I need to label and file away, and now is that time -- with the rebuilding of that defense in Year 2 A.L. (After LeBeau) -- for Tomlin to bring it all full circle.

We've been waiting for him to declare it since he and Kevin Colbert made their first draft pick together in 2007, when Tomlin said of Lawrence Timmons, "He has some Derrick Brooks qualities."

Brooks was arguably the MVP of that Tampa-2, just as Jack Lambert had arguably been the MVP of the Noll-2. They could run the middle seams and cover deep whenever anyone plotted to split the safeties.


READ MORE: http://www.scout.com/nfl/steelers/story/1666201-steelers-draft-tampa-2-or-5-easy-pieces

Edited by SteelersYak due to whole story being posted. Please only post part of the story and the link to the full story. Thank you.

All this Tampa 2 talk since Tomlin has been coach is laughable. Bud Dupree doesn't fit a traditional 4 man line, so they didn't spend the #1 pick in 2015 on a useless piece on defense.

The fundamentals of a Tampa 2 is to get pressure on the QB with 4 rushers, play 2 deep safety and keep everything in front of the 7 in coverage. Steelers don't have personnel to get pressure with 4 linemen, they don't have any real DE's that play in an even front on the roster...more like a ton of 3 tech linemen.

El-Gonzo Jackson wrote:

All this Tampa 2 talk since Tomlin has been coach is laughable.  Bud Dupree doesn't fit a traditional 4 man line, so they didn't spend the #1 pick in 2015 on a useless piece on defense.

The fundamentals of a Tampa 2 is to get pressure on the QB with 4 rushers, play 2 deep safety and keep everything in front of the 7 in coverage.  Steelers don't have personnel to get pressure with 4 linemen, they don't have any real DE's that play in an even front on the roster...more like a ton of 3 tech linemen.

Totally agree. Seems to me the press get themselves confused with what to call the Steelers sub-package. Mostly they end up with 2 down linemen, not 4. And confusing the OLBs as hybrid DEs is ridiculous.

When the Steelers go only 1 down lineman, is that a 5-3?

kirklandrules wrote:

El-Gonzo Jackson wrote:

All this Tampa 2 talk since Tomlin has been coach is laughable.  Bud Dupree doesn't fit a traditional 4 man line, so they didn't spend the #1 pick in 2015 on a useless piece on defense.

The fundamentals of a Tampa 2 is to get pressure on the QB with 4 rushers, play 2 deep safety and keep everything in front of the 7 in coverage.  Steelers don't have personnel to get pressure with 4 linemen, they don't have any real DE's that play in an even front on the roster...more like a ton of 3 tech linemen.

Totally agree. Seems to me the press get themselves confused with what to call the Steelers sub-package. Mostly they end up with 2 down linemen, not 4. And confusing the OLBs as hybrid DEs is ridiculous.

When the Steelers go only 1 down lineman, is that a 5-3?

Yeah, they want to put a label on everything. Lebeau used to run some cover 2 on the back end, everybody does at some point, but they forget the real driving force of that Tampa championship team was the pressure the front 4 could apply WITHOUT Blitzing.

The only pressure that Butler got last season was when he did blitz, so suddenly this is a Tampa 2 team....

Totally different defense, it's still going to be a 3-4 but it's with Butler's stamp instead of Lebeau. A little bit of it is unknowns because Butler's got his own unique wrinkle. He seems to be more aggressive than Lebeau and wants a simplified defense to get the younger players involved earlier and I'm all about that.

Fire Arians wrote:

Totally different defense, it's still going to be a 3-4 but it's with Butler's stamp instead of Lebeau. A little bit of it is unknowns because Butler's got his own unique wrinkle. He seems to be more aggressive than Lebeau and wants a simplified defense to get the younger players involved earlier and I'm all about that.

Nailed it!

Butler seems to be allowing the talent to show itself first and then he adjusts the defense to suit the talent - which to me seems like a sensible thing to do.

There may have been a time when a defense could be described as a single type of system but not these days.
Today, teams adjust offenses on a week-to-week basis and defenses need to adjust as well, so it's not possible to play any single type of system.

I think Butler is more inclined to run a defense in the way that Seattle ran theirs a few seasons back when they were known for their speed and their ability to close on the ball.
It was a more reactive rather than proactive defense and I think that works better in today's game.

The more I read about the picks in this draft the more confident I am becoming with the choices made. I feel a Super Bowl run coming on if they can stay healthy.

FanSince72 wrote:

Fire Arians wrote:

Totally different defense, it's still going to be a 3-4 but it's with Butler's stamp instead of Lebeau. A little bit of it is unknowns because Butler's got his own unique wrinkle. He seems to be more aggressive than Lebeau and wants a simplified defense to get the younger players involved earlier and I'm all about that.

Butler seems to be allowing the talent to show itself first and then he adjusts the defense to suit the talent - which to me seems like a sensible thing to do.

.

I don't think that is the case. Teams don't draft talent and then adjust schemes accordingly, they draft players to fit their scheme.

Butler appears to like more "gap cancellation" instead of "read and react". The D linemen have 1 gap assignments and are designed to get up field and be disruptive. LeBeau appeared to like his linemen have more 2 gap responsibility and have his linebackers read their gap responsibilities more.

The common theme with Butler seems to be speed. Acquire players with speed and quickness and use the philosophy of "tackle the football on the way to the QB" on the D-line/front 7. Even if guys like Matakevich are not the fastest, the weakside ILB is designed to flow and tackle backside in the run game, while the RB hesitates from the front side defenders getting upfield.

I once attended a coaching clinic where a DC said his philosophy was to make the RB stutter step because his D linemen got upfield and in his way. " When the RB breaks down, we will be all over him before he gets to the next read". I think that is what Keith Butler likes to do too.

El-Gonzo Jackson wrote:

FanSince72 wrote:

Fire Arians wrote:

Totally different defense, it's still going to be a 3-4 but it's with Butler's stamp instead of Lebeau. A little bit of it is unknowns because Butler's got his own unique wrinkle. He seems to be more aggressive than Lebeau and wants a simplified defense to get the younger players involved earlier and I'm all about that.

Butler seems to be allowing the talent to show itself first and then he adjusts the defense to suit the talent - which to me seems like a sensible thing to do.

.

I don't think that is the case.  Teams don't draft talent and then adjust schemes accordingly, they draft players to fit their scheme.  

Butler appears to like more "gap cancellation" instead of "read and react".  The D linemen have 1 gap assignments and are designed to get up field and be disruptive.  LeBeau appeared to like his linemen have more 2 gap responsibility and have his linebackers read their gap responsibilities more.  

The common theme with Butler seems to be speed.  Acquire players with speed and quickness and use the philosophy of "tackle the football on the way to the QB" on the D-line/front 7.  Even if guys like Matakevich are not the fastest, the weakside ILB is designed to flow and tackle backside in the run game, while the RB hesitates from the front side defenders getting upfield.

I once attended a coaching clinic where a DC said his philosophy was to make the RB stutter step because his D linemen got upfield and in his way. " When the RB breaks down, we will be all over him before he gets to the next read".  I think that is what Keith Butler likes to do too.

I get what you're saying.

I think your last comment ties into what I was saying in the sense that Butler wants a defense that can react quickly to an evolving play rather than trying to design ways to stop plays from the beginning.  
That's what I meant by "reactive" rather than "proactive".

Of course Butler (and all DC's) try to draft talent to fit a scheme, but I think Butler has the willingness to alter his ideas to fit the talent as it evolves.
That will pay dividends because it's better to fit a style to a player than it is to fit a player to a style.  Butler may have drafted a player with a particular role in mind but in practice he may see things that might cause him to adjust that player's role to better take advantage of talents not seen or known on draft day.

Blitzing the QB has always been a hallmark of Steeler defenses but in today's game with less than three-second pass release times that's not always practical and often results in a lot of talent being wasted in pursuit of someone who's not holding the ball.  The "tackle the ball" part  is more important in today's game and if I'm right about Butler's "reactive" philosophy, then speed and flexibility will be more important than blitzing and I think he has the willingness to move players around - regardless of their draft talent - in order to make that work.

I'm sure there will be a fair amount of blitzing, but I think Butler knows that the "Three-Yards-And-A-Cloud-Of-Dust" days are over and that speed and agility have largely replaced brute force and that players must often assume multiple roles and be able to change gears quickly.

FanSince72 wrote:

I'm sure there will be a fair amount of blitzing, but I think Butler knows that the "Three-Yards-And-A-Cloud-Of-Dust" days are over and that speed and agility have largely replaced brute force and that players must often assume multiple roles and be able to change gears quickly.

The notion that brute force has been replaced is not something I believe and is actually untrue. Lots of fans think that because they don't see I formation and instead single back formations that its changed, but that is incorrect. Power I has been replaced by Inside Zone, which still relies on power, double team blocks and combination blocks. Instead of a big FB and agile guards that can pull, you see bigger powerful OG's that displace linemen.

Not much new in football wasn't old before. Its all a chess game. If one team is fast, you try and overpower them, if another is a blitzing team, you try to run zone, draws or bubble screens to beat the blitz. If one throws deep and likes 7 step drops, you blitz and pound their QB.