The Nose
“The nose is obviously a run player, gives you some stops inside. You like to have a guy who can move a little bit because you’re going to move him around.”


Defensive Ends
“Ends are your guys who are going to anchor the C gap or the B gap based on the formation. C gap is outside the tackle or outside the guard. They’re gonna anchor those and they’re going to generate your inside pass rush.”


Outside Linebackers
“Your Sam and Will are the outside guys. They’re gonna be the guys who should be your most productive guys because you’re trying to get those guys on backs and generally they’re pretty athletic. They are also going to have some coverage responsibility but pass rush is real premium with those guys.”


Inside Linebackers
“Inside backers, Mike and Moe, are pretty much the glue as far as making the calls, getting guys lined up. You need a guy in there who’s a thumper, who can be real physical. You also need a guy who can cover a little bit and scrape inside out on the ball. That’s pretty much your inside guys.”


Cornerbacks
“You like to have guys who can play man coverage. You like to have guys that have some awareness to take away the proper leverages and be able to reroute guys and as a general rule, I think it’s real important that all guys in coverage are rerouting guys from disrupting. Don’t let guys have what I call free access into the defense which means don’t let guys run free — you got to reroute guys”


Safeties
“Your safeties (free and strong) are guys that gotta be able to come down and play the run when you play an eight-man front, they’ve got to be able to come down and cover guys, and then they’ve got to be able to give you a little pressure when you call their name. So we put a lot of things on those guys.”

In my opinion the talent on hand fits this scheme much better than a 4-3.

neither is great at coverage but can probably cover "a little bit."

Yeah, especially the quote about the ILBs - both Lofton and Hawthorne are thumpers who have led the league in tackles over the past couple of seasons, neither is great at coverage but can probably cover "a little bit."

I hope Hawthorne can make the coverage calls because Lofton doesn't do it.

From what I understand; Spags didn't give the MLB the opportunity to change the calls from the huddle...

I don't get the love for Grantham. Just because he runs a 3-4 and Georgia (which by virtue of being UGA has favorable recruitment in the SEC) has had success against lesser teams, doesn't mean he's going to come here and turn the Saints D into the Dome Patrol 2.0. Then you have a distinct lack of in-game adjustments, and rumblings about character from NFL players from his time in Cleveland.

Spagnuolo's demise came about because he refused to adjust his game plan to the personnel at hand, a complete lack of in-game adjustments, and there were rumblings players didn't like him (regardless of Vilma's attempts to keep matters in house). Are you sure you want more of the same?

Ryan, on the other hand, may be a character, but by all accounts, his players like him, and while none of the defenses he's fielded have been what you'd call great, he at least has been able to field mid-tier defenses, even while working in dysfunctional franchises like Oakland, Cleveland, and Dallas, and going through rashes of injuries, like the Cowboys last year, who lost 5-6 starters, and still finished in the second tier (10-20 rank) in defense.

I read something about player grumblings but it sounded like heresay. Do you have more info on this?

Anyhow, my favorite is still Romeo.