DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns to hire Steve Wilks as defensive coordinator

good

What's a Steve Wilks?

Wow, that's clever. Never heard that before.

couldn't this just go into the existing thread about Kitchens staff ? it's an expected hire..nothing official yet.

Yeah, especially since we were already discussing it.

I guess that his preference is a base 4-3

What's so good about it? We get rid of a guy that had decades of experience as a DC for a guy with ONE YEAR in that position. How are we better now than we were? The ONLY good thing about this hire is he runs a 4-3. Aside from that, he is basically a rookie at the job. MAYBE he will be good at it. I'm not a big fan of maybe when it comes to this team. Maybe very seldom works out for us.

Again I ask...What's a Steve Wilks?

Apparently, it is Defensive Coordinator for the Cleveland Browns.

Down boy! It's good to see SuperBrown posting. It means all is right in the World...

Scott Petrak
@ScottPetrak

Can confirm #Browns have reached agreements with OC Todd Monken, DC Steve Wilks and associate head coach/OL coach James Campen.

The man has been coaching for over 20 years in college/pro football which included a year as a head coach in college and 5 years as a DC in college. I don’t know how you can call him a rookie. He has been coaching defense since the 90s...

We also carried over Henry at WR, Lindley ..... probably at QB, and I believe Clyde Simmons at DL ..... along with DeWayne Walker at DB ... to go along with Priefer on special teams. Man, that's a great foundation to a new staff. We have reportedly been trying to hire Stump Mitchell ... who would be another great hire.

So, we still need a LB coach and TE coach.

Steve Wilks

Ready to start some winning. Still liked some GW here. I hope these are great hires. Any of these guys gonna have serious draft needs. I don't think Dorsey has us to the luxury of BPA yet. We need some pieces and some tacklers.

Everything I have read from sources outside the team or local media indicates we put together a strong team.

Yes. We should still be playing football this time next year.

Ron Rivera is mostly a 4-3 guy, though if I remember, did use the 3-4 as defensive coordinator of the Chargers. He was one of the rare guys to truly implement the idea of coaching to the players you have. Though these days, there are a lot of hybrid defenses. For example, the Patriots switch effortlessly between 3 and 4 man lines, though not true 3-4/4-3s as they rarely stay in base defense.

Steve Wilks is definitely a 4-3 guy. In fact, he was criticized in Arizona for running a 4-3 when the personnel was arguably better suited for a 3-4. It would make no sense to take a defense like the Browns (built for 4-3) and run a 3-4, so there's little reason to worry about something like that.

This might actually be a concern. You want your coordinator to adapt to the personnel. Everyone seems up in arms about whether we go with 3-4 or 4-3 and that we may reboot the defense and clean house or some crap. Stop it.

The defense as well as any position (except QB) is always evolving. Get rid of this guy and get that guy, etc.

We ran a lot of 3-4 last year and sounds like hardly anyone noticed. I think I saw somewhere it was near 40%? Someone like Genard Avery might even be better suited for a 3-4.

Use the personnel you have and adapt. Try not to make things that aren't. I would be mildly concerned about the defense after reading this about Wilks.



Take a look at this sack by Garrett....


Link


I only see 2 linemen, 4 LBers, and probably 5 DBs. I would imagine Randall is the player we cannot see? Kirksey and Avery drop in coverage. Kindred and Peppers blitzing...

Things aren't always going to be 3-4 or 4-3...

Just trusting Dorsey to make sure these are the right guys. I don't know much about any of them.

Yes, his defense in Arizona was a year of transition that helped to lead to their demise.

This was a concern of mine, with a coaching change from the staff that ended the season, (mainly on offense) and as history is our witness, with changing of the schemes there is always a transition period, perhaps not as much as years past, when things where a bit more in balance, but still a step back none the lest.

The transition with Wilks defense should be mostly with the verbiage.

Good points. A lot of the concern over 4-3 vs 3-4 really comes down to scheme and principles and not whether the 4th guy puts his hand in the grass or not. So 3-4 has often got lumped in with 2-gap principles even though that's not necessarily the case. People think of the old Patriots style 3-4 that was brought to Cleveland with Crennel and Mangini, where the 3 down linemen are responsible for 2 gaps each.

This is opposed to a more traditional 4-3 approach, where each lineman is responsible for 1 gap. This is where Garrett's edge rushing really shines, where Ogunjobi can shoot the gaps, etc.

Again, this is really conflating different concepts, but it's where a lot of the confusion comes in. If you have a guy like Genard Avery, he can act as a sort of hybrid defensive end/linebacker but even if he's standing up, the concepts don't change much. I actually wonder how often this came into play. 40% seems awfully high but I wasn't exactly doing film breakdowns if you know what I mean.

We don't have the size in the front 7 to run a traditional 3-4, 2 gap type scheme-- not at defensive end, not at linebacker.

Going forward, it'll be interesting to see how Steve Wilks uses the personnel, including players who aren't here yet. I'm sure he wowed Kitchens with his vision.. we just have to see it play out. I want a 4-3 but am not at all opposed to utilizing some hybrid concepts, which are pretty common in the league these days.

I look for us to draft a DT early and a LB at some point. And I expect Ogbah and Garrett to be moved around quite a bit

He was a DC in the PROS for ONE year. That's it. But hey, it's awesome. As long as our D kicks ass. Period. No on the job training. He's SO great? Then I better see it on Sundays.

What, exactly, was Gregg doing so well that you would have kept him over Wilks?

Wilks, in his one year of being a DC, totally transformed that Panthers defense. He was better than McDermott and whoever was in that position this year.

Gregg, for all his bluster, is a relic. I believe him to be a much better Head Coach than DC. Because I thought his defensive schemes were too complex and left too many holes.

It's getting very deep in this forum.

The perpetual whining choir is warming up...God forbid we get good and they have nothing to wring their hands and gnash their teeth over.

I like the hires. Cry over that, Mouth.

I agree. I think both the hires are solid.


I take outside opinion closer than local media stuff, and everything says they are solid hires.

I wanted to keep Gregg, but am not going to rip anyone simply because my guy wasn't chosen.

[quote=Versatile Dog]I like the hires. Cry over that, Mouth. [/quote

Not sure I get who this post is aimed at. Mine sure wasn't aimed at you...

He was agreeing with you.

I do like Avery at LB. I think we will be better with Collins gone, he seems to me to be a guy who takes too many plays off. I see a lot of lack of effort from him. Schobert is solid if unspectacular.

CB is my big worry. That second concussion of Wards was not a big hit, and he was GONE. Zegura mentioned he was standing nearby and dude did not know where he was, for quite some time. The run D needs a stout DT, maybe get Shelton back for cheap, but the passing game is where the yards are given up. We were missing one of our two starting CB for most of the season, we need more talent here.

Biggest team need is at Dt,quality and depth are lacking. Our backers wouldn't be missing as many tackles if the backs weren't already in a full Sprint when they broke the line. One good DT and nothing for backup won't work in this do division.

I'm not sure why people still are talking about Shelton and Meder like they were Ted washington and bruce smith. They were marginal guys..hence the reason they didn't catch on anywhere else. I do agree the positions are a need..But I think we'll go get our own guys