Kansas City Chiefs: How transition to 4-3 affects future of Chiefs defense

3-4 defensive scheme strenghts

The NFL saw majority of teams making the switch to the 3-4 scheme in the mid 2000’s, right around the time that Peyton Manning was turning the league into a pass-happy commodity. The 3-4 scheme is meant to better defend the “exotic” offensive packages, giving defenses better opportunities to confuse quarterbacks.

The scheme allows the defense to line up with three upfront, sometimes four counting the outside backers, and even just two depending on the package or down and distance. This is supposed to make the quarterback think more and figure out where the defense is lined up at the pre-snap.

If you’re making the quarterback think too much, that can be a big advantage for the defense pre-snap. When Bob Sutton first got to KC, he had the personnel to make this scheme work.

The majority of the defense’s pressure on the quarterback comes from the outside linebackers and from blitzing linebackers. With Tamba Hali, Justin Houston and Derrick Johnson, Sutton would find exotic ways to bring pressure on just about any quarterback the Chiefs faced from 2013-2016.

As those players got older and other players moved on, however, Sutton’s defense became predictable and easy to game-plan for. Bringing us to to the scheme’s weaknesses.