Change to 4-3 is seemingly official.

[DaBrowns41]

[Vegasdogg]

"It's going to be a challenge, no question," said General Manager Tom Heckert. "There's going to be some turnover here. But we knew that regardless of the [coaching change] there was going to be turnover here. We have some age on the team and obviously we have to get younger."

The Browns co-led the league last season with 19 players 30 years or older. That's not the preferred roster composition for a team looking up to strong division rivals

So the change was coming anyway. Whether we kept the staff or not.

[TheBestPlayersPlay]

No he was just saying that in reference to the fact that we have a lot of old players, and a lot of positions that need upgrades, so there was going to be turnover regardless of the coach or system. That's just typical Grossi.

I'm not a fan of dumbing the defense down to a 4-3, but maybe it's needed until we acquire more talent.

[Brown Warrior]

Both defenses obviously are working quite well around the league... it's just a matter of calling it right on game day and having the right personnel. I do agree with almost all of Grossi's stay-or-go opinions.

[Riffer X]

I would hope to God they planned on roster turnover, that is what getting better players is all about. However, new systems and schemes on both sides of the ball is going to be drastic. The issue teams have with this is that there is no immeidiate chemistry, continuity or consistency right away, regardless of the influx of new and better talent. This has been an issue with FA signings for years, especially when you sign guys to fill gaps as starters and they get hurt. We know this all too well, it has killed us.

The bottom line is this is going to be a re-gut but at least we know there are some keepers here in certain places and others who may be coming into their own. The 4/3 won't be as big of a deal switching to like it is going to a 3/4, because the backers and stand up DE/OLB's aren't as needed. It is doable, but I am concerned if it is Jauron he likes 2 gappers, and that may not be what we really need unless we score a great pass rusher somehow and plug him in.

EM laid the foundation, but there is still a roster devoid of talent and posiional players that won't be fixed overnight. My hope is we can do enough in the offfseason to have us all excited about opening day next year once this CBA stuff gets settled. Hopefully it does, cuz we need some FA's. The good news is we have a QB perfect for the new system and Heck has another year to get us more players in the draft. Keep in mind we get Hardesty and Lauvao back too, and that is almost like getting more good picks to plug in.

Then there are guys like Fuge and Yates, but the biggest need is to re-sign some key guys like Roth and DQJ for the 4/3. A corner is needed so we can move Brown to safety, as Wright won't be back.

[Vegasdogg]

Originally Posted by TheBestPlayersPlay

No he was just saying that in reference to the fact that we have a lot of old players, and a lot of positions that need upgrades, so there was going to be turnover regardless of the coach or system. That's just typical Grossi.

I'm not a fan of dumbing the defense down to a 4-3, but maybe it's needed until we acquire more talent.

Typical Grossi? That was Tom Heckert stating changes to the roster are coming regardless of a coaching change.

[TheBestPlayersPlay]

I was saying it's typical Grossi to frame a snippet of a quote within his own opinion to make it appear the quote matched what he opined.

[Planet 0range]

Doesnt Rogers play better and fit better in 4-3 base?

[Brown Warrior]

I won't be stunned if Rogers takes a cut in pay to stay and play in Jauron's 4-3. He's not gonna have a ton of value around the league after last year.

I don't think it's gonna be a real huge switch to the WCO because we were already including "elements" and Haskell and Holmgren have been in McCoy's ear since the day Mangini was fired, drilling him on Holmgren's playbook.

[Enigmatic Evil]

Quarterback Seneca Wallace (30) probably benefited more from the coaching change than any player. His West Coast experience makes him more valuable because he can take over from Delhomme as Colt McCoy's personal mentor. Wallace could draw interest from Arizona and San Francisco.

I'm not going to win any fans bringing up Mangini's dawg house but wouldn't Wallace have earned some good graces from Mangini if he had gone out of his way to do this kind of stuff like Jake had? I really don't see this happening and I hope it's happy trails for Seneca.

4-3 won't affect the team much, if a coach comes in. These guys are professionals and should be able to learn a new system. I really don't know if it will be a catastrophe or not. We will have to wait and see. I think we will need linemen. DE, DT... maybe as many as four new players to compete for starting positions. Linebackers, we have players who can start but we might want to bring someone new in. Secondary is solid, but we could use a new starting safety or CB.

[Flugel]

I am REALLY pleased to hear this. This is the best news I've heard about this team in quite a while. There's been some great insights shared in this thread folks. I was just talking about the 4-3 in another thread. My apologies if some of this gets redundant but it's a fresh topic so let's hit it.

Matt Roth played DE at Miami and Iowa. He's probably better with a hand down than he is trying to defend passes in the flats vrs RBs with ideal foot speed in what could often present a last line of defense.

Kenyon Coleman played DE for 4-3 in college. Alo always loves to remind us that marcus Benard is better with a hand down. Unfortunately, I don't think he has the weight to hold up against the run with a hand down.

Rubin can play in either scheme. I think Robinson and Ivey and Schaefering can as well. We'll be okay and Fairley could fall to us at #6. When we played Jax - the commentators said how much they improved their dline personnel in just 1 year so we can do the same.

At LBer, we need to remember Gocong was an OLBer in Philly. Fujita can play either ouitside or inside. it might be fun to see what Benard could do as a MLB. Don't know until we try. As Riffer mentioned - D'Qwell should return. Maybe he'd find the 4-3 to be a great scheme for his skillset. My sleeper for 2011 is Titus Brown, who I thought had an impressive preseasonas an ILB. He was also an animal on STs.

This change less overwhelming than using a 3-4 without the types of studs that used to justify it. There's no Carl Banks, Chip Banks, Pepper Johnson, Mike Johnson, Clay Matthews or any of the 3-4 protypes here. We had Scott Fujita and Chris Cocong who both came from 4-3 defenses that would probably feel very comfortable back in those same schemes.

Heckert was always pretty good at equipping Philly with suitable 4-3 personnel that caused turnovers and sacked the QB.

As I said in another thread - both teams in last year's Superbowl ran 4-3 schemes.

[Enigmatic Evil]

I think that we need an overhaul on the D-Line if we're going to a 4-3. I think we will be trading Shaun Rogers, or at least bring someone in to keep him fresh. That's the price you gotta pay because Rubin was that guy and he will be starting for us.

Heckert knows what we need, and unlike Phil Savage I know he knows what he's doing. I think we will be addressing a lot of areas that we couldn't address last year. We will be addressing WR, and probably the DL as well since those were to areas of the team which weren't really given any attention last off season. We may see a new LB brought in.