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Change of direction: GM Thompson expects Packers to adapt quickly to new defense

MOBILE, ALA. — General manager Ted Thompson of the Green Bay Packers was chatting with Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips on Tuesday at Senior Bowl practice when Thompson was asked about adapting his personnel to the 3-4 defensive scheme coordinator Dom Capers will be bringing to the team.

“It’s really not that big a deal,” Thompson said.

Phillips then tapped him on the shoulder.

“Tell him this: The weak-side linebacker, instead of being like this,” Phillips said as he put one hand on the ground to get into a three-point stance, “is like this.”

Phillips then stood up straight.

“There you have it,” Phillips said.

Maybe he’s right. Phillips, as one of the top 3-4 minds in the league, should certainly know. In 2004 he took a San Diego Chargers team that favored the 4-3 and transformed them into a 3-4 team. The Chargers went from the 31st-ranked team in points and 27th in yards allowed to 11th and 18th.

Thompson supported the notion that the change for the Packers would not be dramatic.

“There will be little subtle things but it won’t be, like, we’re going to draft a guy in the third round that we wouldn’t even have looked at before,” Thompson said. “It’s not going to be like that.”

Not everyone around the Senior Bowl is buying that the Packers won’t have to adapt much both with the players they already have and the players they scout for the draft and free agency.

One person who worked with coach Mike McCarthy laughed when told McCarthy said “most of the pieces are already” in Green Bay to run the 3-4.

A Minnesota Vikings official was happy to hear the Packers were switching schemes.

And while admitting he doesn’t have intricate knowledge of the Packers’ personnel, San Diego Chargers senior executive Randy Mueller said a transition like that was major when dealing with personnel.

“It’s huge, huge,” Mueller said. “You’re looking for different body types, especially in the front seven, which your defense is predicated on.”

Mueller knows this firsthand. When he was hired as general manager of the Miami Dolphins in 2005, he was charged with rebuilding the defense from the Jim Bates 4-3 scheme —which the Packers ran under former coordinator Bob Sanders—to the 3-4/4-3 hybrid favored by Nick Saban. Capers ran that defense for Saban in ’06 and then again in ‘07 under Cam Cameron.

“It changes the whole thinking of the personnel department,” Mueller said. “You value different things, different measurables when you’re looking at players.”

In general, 3-4 teams look for much bigger players to man the three down lineman and four linebacker spots. The linemen have to be immovable and take up blockers. The linebackers have to be quick enough to fill a gap but long enough to disrupt the passing lanes when dropped into coverage.

Mueller said the top requirement for a 3-4 defense was an immovable nose tackle.

“It’s a good run defense, or it should be, and to do that you have to a guy that can anchor the middle and hold his gap,” he said. “That’s the whole key to the defense.”

The Packers have a stout nose tackle in Ryan Pickett, who stands 6 feet 2 inches and weighs 330 pounds, but he started to show some wear last year in his eighth season.

The other essential components are two outside linebackers who can rush the quarterback. Aaron Kampman, with 37 sacks the past three seasons, is one of the best at left defensive end.

But to ask him to do it standing up on the other side of the field would be a major adjustment and might not suit him.

When asked last year about the prospect of switching to right defensive end at this point in his career, Kampman wasn’t sure he could do it.

“That would be a pretty tough switch,” Kampman said. “It’s a big switch.”

If he was moved to outside linebacker—which the Packers might have to do because at 6-4 and 265 pounds he is not big enough to play end in a 3-4—Kampman would also have to use more than a pass-rush move to shed oncoming blockers and learn to drop into pass coverage.

“I think Aaron Kampman is one of those guys that is a football player and we’ll find a way to use him and he’ll be fine,” Thompson said. “You never have too many good football players. And if you design a system where a good football player can’t find into it, then it’s a bad system. So that won’t be a problem.”

The Packers certainly know what to look for in 3-4 players. Thompson played his entire career in the scheme. So did director of football operations Reggie McKenzie, who has the added benefit of knowing the kind of player Capers likes because he was one. Capers recruited McKenzie to the University of Tennessee for coach Johnny Majors in 1981.

The Packers seemed to pay close attention to the North team defensive linemen and the linebackers of the South team at Senior Bowl practices. Both positions are stocked with 3-4 type players.

Thompson said he would sit down with McCarthy and Capers when he returns to Green Bay to find out what kinds of players they want—and adjust scouting reports accordingly— but added that he would always be looking for one key trait.

“Good football players, you can find a way to use them,” Thompson said. “We’re going to play to players’ strength and that’s something that Mike and I believe very strongly in and it will be fine. I think our team is built to be a little versatile. We move guys around a lot on the defensive front. And we’ll continue to do that.”