MikeB80
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this is completely wrong and you don't even have your years right.
He switched because he believed it was the better defense. He also spoke about telling Jerry multiple times that the 4-3 demands you draft first round ends or pay them a fortune in free agency. He always talked about how it was a limiting issue to the defense.
Not only did he tell Jerry that but he benched and deactivated ekuban in december of 2003 and started eric ogbogu.
The 2003 defense was very good but it was more or less a function of the terrible quarterbacks they played in 2003. Going into the 2004 season parcells knew the defense had problems and then they lost mario edwards, Woodson was injured and retired and a number of defensive lineman had not panned out...then injuries happened. I remember that saints game in 04 where they had tyrone williams starting off the street at corner.
anyway, Bradie James was a guy who was trying to get on the field because that is the size linebacker he wanted and the three linebackers were small though dat, coakley and singleton were good.
Going into the 04 draft Vince WIlfork was the target...he would have allowed the team to switch fronts but he went to new england before we picked.
The 04 defense for various reasons was awful. The 05 offseason is when the switch was made. Bradie James was made a starter at ILB along with dat, they signed jason ferguson, anthony henry and aaron glenn. Then they drafted ware, spears, burnett, canty and ratliff.
Parcells then had size in the front 7 and it allowed him to switch. The front 7 was loaded by 06. Guys like Kenyon Coleman pulled off the raiders scrap heap in 04, ratliff, canty, bowen and hatcher allowed them to use little resources to reshape the defensive front. It was Bill showing Jerry why this was the defense that makes sense in a salary cap world.
Bill also talked a bunch through the years about disguising your zone defense and dropping 7 or 8 out of the 3-4.
Its important to note that Bill didn't neccessarily have a defensive system like some claim to...he just had a solid approach that he used at each place he coached....Big Physical players, two gapped up front and played mostly zone. When he had the players to make changes to the scheme he did. Guys like Ty Law in New England allowed them to take more chances and play man outside etc... again although his college coaching years were at linebacker/defensive coordinator and he coached linebackers in ny before becoming head coach he didn't have this exact system like we here about with certain coaches.
Bill actually did more to effect the offense I think in his time here early and called plays which people forget. He also always did what was good for his teams to win. Going to the 3-4 in 05 was one of the great moves since the dynasty years. Dismantling it for monte kiffin in 2013 was a horrendous idea and jerry quickly fell right back into the trap that Bill told him about 17 years ago. Chasing defensive ends. Its 2020 and they are still doing it.
