On Wednesday, McKenzie stated that the 3-4 is what he's familiar with. Sure, we could just manipulate any of his words into an article, but this is the man who wants to fire a pretty good coach to bring in guys he's "familiar" with, a la Winston Moss and Darren Perry.
The 3-4 defense for the Raiders can either kill or save their defense for years to come. The thing with the 3-4 is that the linebackers have to be better than the linemen. In the Raiders' case, the combination of Kelly, Seymour, and Houston, is much better than the likes of McClain, Wimbley, and Curry. However, the 3-4 has a tendency to save some putrid defenses.
In 2008, the Green Bay Packers had the 20th ranked defense, giving up 5,349 total yards. One major improvement was their run defense, going from giving up 131.6 yards a game to 83.3 in 2009, which was one year after changing to the 3-4. The Packers ended their 2009 season second in total ranked defenses.
Another example of how the 3-4 has helped team's defenses go from awful to awesome are the Houston Texans. The Texans went from 30th in 2010, to second after signing Wade Phillips to become their defensive coordinator. Houston had the worst pass defense in 2010, giving up 4,280 yards. The new and improved 3-4, one that causes a lot of pressure and wreaks havoc on quarterbacks, helped Houston to the third best pass defense, allowing only 3,035 yards.
It's tough for teams to just change, but with a full offseason the Raiders should have no problem making a change like this. With our personnel, the Raiders change should be even smoother.
Let's start up front, shall we? Team leader Richard Seymour won three Super Bowls playing for New England in the 3-4 de...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
