McDaniels Talks Some Defense

Dumervil a Pass Rusher?

Finally it seems that new Broncos Head Coach Josh McDaniels is ready to talk football and not talking Jay Cutler. Emphasis on the finally. For instance yesterday the question came up in The Denver Post about what he wanted to do with the position of Nose Tackle. He has said that in our new 3-4 system he wants them big.

Nose or “Defensive” Tackle (we promise to confuse you by calling it both on this blog) is the most important part of the 3-4 Defensive system and with former San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Nolan as our new defensive coordinator, the 3-4 defensive system will be put in place without a doubt. When asked what McDaniels wanted to do with the very important position, he quoted:

“We’re going to try multiple people there. It will be interesting,” McDaniels said. “We’re kind of excited to see who can or who couldn’t and what we need to do with those guys. I think they all present different problems in their own right.”

The leading candidate at this point is free-agent addition Ronald Fields, who played in all 16 games last season as a reserve for San Francisco, though McDaniels said returning starter Marcus Thomas and former practice-squad player Matthias Askew also will get a look this spring. It does surprise me he did not mention Darrell Reid, another free agency pick up in any of this.

“We want them to be big,” McDaniels said. “One of the things, I’ve said it since I arrived in Denver, is we want to be tough, physical, and I think that’s going to start up front on both sides of the ball. We’re looking to add size and versatility, and we want to be able to stop the run.”

He said instead for Darrell Reid, he thought that he, Elvis Dumervil and Jarvis Moss would also move to a pass rushing linebacker. Expect Dumervil to win the position battle of those three though. He seems to be the most talented of the bunch even with a former first round pick in Jarvis Moss. 

“We really like a lot of the abilities players like Elvis have because they’re not always a clean matchup for someone on the other side of the ball,” McDaniels said. “He’s going to do both. He’s going to have his hand on the ground some, and he’s going to stand up some.”

This is all very interesting and we will see how it all shapes out.