3-4 Adjsutments for Vitt? (1 Viewer)

[Swimmer]

I'm not aware of Vitt coaching a 3-4. Are there any significant philosophical and scheme changes Vitt will have to make? Are these easy or complex?

 

[Saint_Ward]

Ask Vitt.

 

[rob22278]

His duties need to be reassigned. If Payton wants to keep him on the staff as an assistant head coach for being the good soldier, that's fine. But let RR bring in his own guy to coach up the LBs this year. Retreading Joe Vitt hasn't been working the last few years for this defense.

 

[SweetT]

Either a 4-3 or a 3-4, Vitt is not a good LB coach. IMHO.

 

[TCUDan]

Vitt's been coaching for what, 30 years?

He'll be fine.

 

[MudBugger]

So this entire thread is second guessing Sean Payton's decisions!!! Hasn't he won a Super Bowl?

 

[CitySaint]

It's hard to believe Vitt never coached in an NFL 3-4 particularly through the 80's

 

[LSSpam]

I imagine Rob Ryan will assist in coaching the linebackers. That is, actually, Rob Ryan's specialty.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

All he can do is teach the skills/techniques he required to teach

Teaching stays the same...and hell probably b working with the ILB's...while ryan handles the OLBs

 

[LSSpam]

It's hard to believe Vitt never coached in an NFL 3-4 particularly through the 80's

He cut his teeth under Chuck Knox in the 80's, so yeah he's coached the 3-4 before. Though that's a very, very different 3-4.

 

[Guitarzan]

Is Vitt more of a father figure/confidant (ie Ast Head Coach/ Chief Motivator) or does his work as a linebacker's coach show up with good linebacker play?

 

[cd12holden]

Vitt's been coaching for what, 30 years?

He'll be fine.

While coaching in the NFL for this long would be beneficiary, it doesn't necessarily imply how good of a coach one is.
I'm sure you can pull up a list of coaches currently in the league with 30+ years of experience and find some that are washed up.

It's hard to tell what kind of coach Vitt is solely based off his LB's performance. If Scott Shanle misses a tackle is it Vitt's fault?
Not saying Vitt is or isn't a good coach, just playing with some logic.

I hope we pair Rob Ryan up with a fresh defensive mind out of college to coach the LB's. We need to rinse ourselves of last year's stank and keeping Vitt, a 4-3 guy, to coach the guys on the 3-4 front doesn't sound like the best idea.
Put Vitt as assistant HC/motivational speaker lol

 

[LSSpam]

Is Vitt more of a father figure/confidant (ie Ast Head Coach/ Chief Motivator) or does his work as a linebacker's coach show up with good linebacker play?

Hard to say. He hasn't really had players given to him to "develop". Marvin Mitchell made good progress and was a capable player for a 7th rounder. Arnoux never saw the field. Wilson made progress while at linebacker.

But mostly we've been plugging in free agent after free agent at linebacker. I don't know if this suggests a lack of confidence in his ability to develop linebackers, the fact that we've just been impatient at the position, or that Vitt has some sort of Gruden-with-quarterbacks impatience with rookie LBs. I thought he did a good job of wringing everything he could from guys like Simoneau, Shanle, and Fujita.

I don't think it'll matter much though. Ryan is going to take an active hand at LB I would assume, particularly the rush LBs.

 

[ndcc]

There is no way you can listen to Coach Vitt talk about game preparation, gap integrity, taking the right angles to the ball, solid & fundamental tackling, knowing schemes and assignments, etc... and feel that the man does NOT know HOW TO COACH!

Compare Vitt to someone like Rick Venturi, and you know what I mean.

 

[TCUDan]

While coaching in the NFL for this long would be beneficiary, it doesn't necessarily imply how good of a coach one is.
I'm sure you can pull up a list of coaches currently in the league with 30+ years of experience and find some that are washed up.

It's hard to tell what kind of coach Vitt is solely based off his LB's performance. If Scott Shanle misses a tackle is it Vitt's fault?
Not saying Vitt is or isn't a good coach, just playing with some logic.

I hope we pair Rob Ryan up with a fresh defensive mind out of college to coach the LB's. We need to rinse ourselves of last year's stank and keeping Vitt, a 4-3 guy, to coach the guys on the 3-4 front doesn't sound like the best idea.
Put Vitt as assistant HC/motivational speaker lol

But usually if you've coached that long, particularly as a position coach, you know scheme/technique pretty well. What specifically are we implying that Joe Vitt won't understand???

I don't know why we act like the 3-4 is some kind of novelty or newfound revolution in the NFL. It's been around for a while. Defense isn't like offense. Knowing the 3-4 is not the same as understanding the intricacies of teaching the West Coast Offense.

Defense is defense. Linebacker is linebacker.

Also, we're really overly focusing on the switch from the 4-3 to the 3-4. I'll bring up, again, that GW ran plenty of 3-4. Moreover, he and Rob Ryan come from THE SAME COACHING TREE. If anything, Vitt spending 3 years under GW is going to have him familiarized with the terminology and philosophy of Rob Ryan's defense.

If we're trying to be coach evaluators here, I have no desire to participate in that conversation because it all comes down to opinions and what kind of mood each poster is in. If the question is whether or not Joe Vitt has had enough exposure to the 3-4 in general or Rob Ryan's version of the 3-4 to contribute as a coach, the answer is a very very very confident YES.

 

[TCUDan]

There is no way you can listen to Coach Vitt talk about game preparation, gap integrity, taking the right angles to the ball, solid & fundamental tackling, knowing schemes and assignments, etc... and feel that the man KNOWS HOW TO COACH!

Compare Vitt to someone like Rick Venturi, and you know what I mean.

Exactly. I can tell from listening to him for 5 minutes that he UNDERSTANDS the game of football. And I also know that you don't get to the NFL without understanding the game, which is different than being a "one position specialist." Not a lot of those guys exist at the NFL level.

There is absolutely no grounds for calling Joe Vitt a "bad coach" or "bad LB coach". Because we havent' been satisfied with LB play under him?

Being a playmaker takes talent, not coaching. The things fans look for... that is the "uncoachable" stuff. I can tell Vitt is a good teacher and a good coach because regardless of the quality of his players, I see them playing assignment football. Again, last year the entire defense was horrible. I don't care if we'd have had Mike Singletary as our LB coach, the LBs would not have looked very good.

I understand fans complaining about players, even when I don't agree. I understand them complaining about coordinators or head coaches. But to start evaluating position coaches... that is a little too specific to casually pass judgment.