Why does the media keep saying we don't have a LB to drop in coverage?

[Future]

a db, thats the point of the nickle and dime

lol

beat me to it. The way I see it, we are going in with three guys (lee, carter, durant) who are going to be good in coverage. That should give us a lot of flexbility in terms of both scheme and how we adjust to injuries.

 

[xwalker]

That's not exactly true.

Tampa 2 is also defined by the corners playing zone versus man-to-man.

Obviously, the play of the MLB is not the only thing that defines the Tampa-2; however, the discussion was about the LBs in coverage. If the MLB does not drop into a deep zone, then it's not a Tampa-2 coverage.

And TE's like Dustin Keller, Vernon Davis, and Jimmy Graham are as fast as Carter.
Probably only Vernon Davis. Neither Graham or Keller ran sub 4.5 forties.

The old Tampa 2 coverages would have the MLB be mainly responsible for the deep middle. AT that time the league wasn't filled with athletic TE's, so often times a smaller, faster MLB could handle the deep middle. Now they've changed the TE's and thus the MLB doesn't usually have the sole responsibility to patrol the deep middle. There's usually a safety over the top
YR

Yes, Kiffin stated that they would use a lot of single high Safety.

 

[Typhus]

The LB does drop deep in some coverages but there are many coverage schemes in Kiffin's defense. That deep drop turns the Cover 2 into a Cover 3 and supposedly removes the intermediate soft spots. There is a lot of material within easy reach on how to beat that D. Outs, seams, 4 verticals, running big packages at smallish fast defenders; it's all been done. Predator and prey are constantly evolving and adapting.

Exactly, it always boils down to the players that make the difference, and this D has the look of a young Jimmy Johnson D, with lots of speed and athletic ability.
Just looking at the superior improvement at ILB with a healthy and stronger Lee and Carter alone, changes the entire dynamics of the defenses ability to scheme.

Carter at weakside linebacker in Kiffins defense , makes him the designated playmaker in this Tampa Cover-2 scheme.

Carter follows in the footsteps of Derrick Brooks, Lance Briggs and Cato June, who all became Pro Bowlers playing weakside linebacker in this scheme.

 

[Trueboysfan]

Ya Lee is plenty fast and smart enough to really make this Tampa 2 work...I keep an eye on the Bears which employed a Tampa 2 defense and we have the same type of players on our defense that the bears had. All of our DB's can tackle and all our LB's have the speed and awareness to get to the ball quick. The scheme is pretty simple and the safeties won't have to worry too much in coverage like they did in Ryan's D. It worked in Tampa Bay and it's worked forever in da bears D...so I hope we come away with the same results that those two teams did. Only time will tell.

 

[BIGDen]

Sean Lee had a 1.60 forty and 1.54 ten-yard time while still recovering from a knee injury...

Wow! He apparently really picks up steam after those first 10 yards!

 

[xwalker]

Wow! He apparently really picks up steam after those first 10 yards!

 

[speedkilz88]

Cowboys were wrong. Carter isn't the fastest LB in the league. Sean Lee is the flash.

 

[jobberone]

Exactly, it always boils down to the players that make the difference, and this D has the look of a young Jimmy Johnson D, with lots of speed and athletic ability.
Just looking at the superior improvement at ILB with a healthy and stronger Lee and Carter alone, changes the entire dynamics of the defenses ability to scheme.

Carter at weakside linebacker in Kiffins defense , makes him the designated playmaker in this Tampa Cover-2 scheme.

Carter follows in the footsteps of Derrick Brooks, Lance Briggs and Cato June, who all became Pro Bowlers playing weakside linebacker in this scheme.

I agree. But someone posted the difficulty of LBs covering these move TEs and big WRs as well as the shifty slot guys. It's just hard to pass defend against a big, agile, athletic, and fast receiver. It's hard to stay in their pocket and even harder to get thru them to break a pass up or defend against a well placed ball over your but not their head. That's why I'm so high on Carter. Lee will be good in the zone part of the schemes but he's going to have some trouble covering these guys, too.

That's why they're in vogue (and probably always should have been). And putting a WR like Dez, along with a slot guy like Miles and a couple of fast TEs on the field at the same time causes big problems for defenses. It's just hard to put the personnel on the field to cover all those types of receivers in one package. Then moving the receivers around creates more favorable matchups and voila. Just a difficult offense to match up with and cover. And that doesn't even mention seeing a small fast D package and audibling out to a run play or a pass to a RB where they ain't.