He was voted a team captain and defensive MVP by the players and had one very popular player (can't remember who) explain that a lot of those so called "blown coverages" by Shanle were not blown by Shanle at all.

He often recognized that someone else blew their assignment and he tried to recover for them, and was mistakenly blamed for a coverage he wasn't responsible for to begin with.

This almost shifts our whole draft strategy, is this 3-4 gonna have 4-3 principles or do we have to start looking for a nose tackle now....... Where's Norman hand when you need him.......

Let's not gloss over the other good news, Flajoe was also fired. Other than 09 when was the last time our defensive backs looked anything but lost?

And maybe I'm ignorant on the subject but it seems to me that if a DB is athletic enough to play man to man there's no reason playing a zone should be any problem for him.

I guess going to a 3-4 means that we're not going to need as many defensive linemen but we're going to need more LBs? Seems like we've already had a problem finding quality players at that position. (Not that we're overflowing with linemen)

Let's not gloss over the other good news, Flajoe was also fired. Other than 09 when was the last time our defensive backs looked anything but lost?

And maybe I'm ignorant on the subject but it seems to me that if a DB is athletic enough to play man to man there's no reason playing a zone should be any problem for him.

I guess going to a 3-4 means that we're not going to need as many defensive linemen but we're going to need more LBs? Seems like we've already had a problem finding quality players at that position. (Not that we're overflowing with linemen)

Saints fire Steve Spagnuolo, announce plans for 3-4 defense
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 24, 2013, 6:43 PM EST

APSean Payton is back as the Saints’ head coach, and his first act is to fire his defensive coordinator and reshape his defense.

The Saints have announced that Payton fired defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and secondary coach Ken Flajole, and that Payton wants to shift to a 3-4 defense.

“I personally want to thank Steve and Ken for their contributions during what was an unprecedented 2012 season,” Payton said in a statement released by the team. “Philosophically we are changing our defense to a 3-4 alignment and right now is the best time to accomplish this transition.”

Spagnuolo replaced Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator a year ago, after Williams left for St. Louis — and before the news broke that the Saints had previously run a bounty program that would result in Payton being suspended for 2012 and Williams being banned indefinitely. Now Payton is back and Spagnuolo is out.

Rumor Mill | ProFootballTalk

I think it had more to do with talent on hand. Payton commented that we weren't playing to our guys' strengths.

I think our most athletic guys along the front 7 may be better suited for a 3-4. Junior, Martez, Hawthorne, Jordan, Bunkley and Hicks.

I'm curious as to whether we'll convert back to mostly man-to-man in the secondary. IMO every DB we have is better suited for man instead of zone.