Category: Sport, football Author : Joshua Lobdell Posted: March 3, 2011
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Considering the fact that just two years ago the Green Bay Packers had the 9th pick in the NFL draft, and this year they won the Super Bowl would seem to indicate that they did some very good things not only in the draft put elsewhere. However for today we are dealing with their 2009 draft class, and to be perfectly honesty it was one of the better classes from that year.

Before we go any farther a quick look at the picks made the Packers that year:

Round One (9)- BJ Raji DT
Round One (26)- Clay Matthews LB
Round Four (109)- TJ Lang OT
Round Five (145)- Quinn Johnson FB
Round Five (162)- Jamon Meredith OT
Round Six (182)- Jarius Wynn DE
Round Six (187)- Brandon Underwood CB
Round Seven (218)- Brad Jones OLB

Two years ago the Packers hired Dom Capers to be their defensive coordinator and he switched them to a 3-4 defense. Knowing that the 34 defense requires a dominant Nose Tackle to eat up a lot of two man blocks they made BJ Raji the 9th overall pick in 2009. He has been very good, even racking up 7 sacks in his second year. After that the Packers made a strong move jumped into the bottom of the first round and scooped up OLB Clay Matthews. Clay has been a force, and also racked up 14 sacks in 2010.

For the record they also landed a backup RG, and a backup DE in this draft. So they ended up with two key pieces of their defense that just won a title, and a couple of quality backups. Not so bad of work with eight picks with six of them coming past pick #100. We have to continue to rank this draft as a home run.

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DALLAS – Like many great innovations, the defensive concepts that will be employed in Super Bowl XLV were created in a basement by a handful of people looking for a better way.

Super Bowl XLV scouting report | Preparations

It was 1992, and Bill Cowher had just become head coach of the Steelers. Cowher favored the 4-3 defensive alignment. Then-defensive coordinator Dom Capers liked the 3-4. Secondary coach Dick LeBeau was a proponent of 3-4 that favored elaborate blitzes. All were looking for ways to combat passing offenses and to produce pressure on quarterbacks.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” said LeBeau, now the Steelers’ defensive coordinator.

So the outline of the Steelers’ 3-4 was drawn up. Only Capers’ outline, hand-drawn by LeBeau, ran several hundred pages. The system underwent changes over the years as LeBeau and Capers took separate paths, including becoming head coaches, but the fundamentals remain the same.

The Packers, with Capers as defensive coordinator, look a lot like the Steelers. It wouldn’t take long for players from either team to feel at home in the huddle of the other.

And it’s no coincidence the Steelers led the NFL in 2010 with 48 sacks and the Packers were tied for second with 47. Or that the Steelers were second in total defense, and the Packers were fifth.

In some ways, LeBeau and Capers are alike. They roomed together when they were first with the Steelers, and they are both from small towns in Ohio.

But the two have dramatically different personalities. Cowher told the Dallas Morning News that LeBeau was a “loose cannon” when it came to dreaming up defensive schemes.

Capers was more meticulous and hasn’t changed. He uses a rainbow of highlighters in his notes. He writes everything down, relying on younger assistants to handle the technology end of the business. If he had to call a game based on computer printouts, he would be lost.

When Capers interviewed in Green Bay two years ago, he arrived in below-zero weather with two bags: one filled with clothes and another filled with books containing information about his defenses.

“The next day we sat down for the interview and he had his original notes from when he installed the defense in Pittsburgh,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I thought I used a lot of highlighters but it doesn’t even compare to Dom. He is truly the most detailed individual I have ever been around.”

After 25 years in the NFL, Capers isn’t going to become a computer whiz. “When you’ve done something a certain way for a long time, you know how you like to do it,” Capers said. “Let me put it into terms that I understand.”

LeBeau, a Hall of Fame cornerback, runs a system that has been in place for almost 20 years. The Steelers are adept at finding talent to fit the scheme, which isn’t easy for players to learn.

LeBeau, however, has a method for teaching it, and his players revere him.

“It’s a phenomenal thing to watch ‘man love’ take place in a manly sport,” secondary coach Ray Horton said. “He’s different. He’s well spoken. He can sit down and talk to kings and yet he doesn’t lose the common touch.”

Both Capers and LeBeau get credit for inventing the zone blitz, which has given offenses so much trouble for nearly three decades. The origins are traced back to the 1980s, and both coaches’ schemes have evolved over the years, adding more wrinkles with age.

“I’d like to say it worked immediately,” LeBeau said of the defensive philosophy, “but we went through a lot of blind alleys. We just kept sticking with it.”

While the Steelers and Packers share similarities on defense, they aren’t identical. Each plays to the strength of individual players. With Pittsburgh, that’s safety Troy Polamalu and linebacker James Harrison.

With the Packers, it’s linebacker Clay Matthews and cornerback Charles Woodson.

“The players make it come to life,” LeBeau said. “We give them parameters and let them create, and we’ve got some pretty good creators.”

Maybe it doesn’t take one to know one, but it helps.

DALLAS – Like many great innovations, the defensive concepts that will be employed in Super Bowl XLV were created in a basement by a handful of people looking for a better way.

Super Bowl XLV scouting report | Preparations

It was 1992, and Bill Cowher had just become head coach of the Steelers. Cowher favored the 4-3 defensive alignment. Then-defensive coordinator Dom Capers liked the 3-4. Secondary coach Dick LeBeau was a proponent of 3-4 that favored elaborate blitzes. All were looking for ways to combat passing offenses and to produce pressure on quarterbacks.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” said LeBeau, now the Steelers’ defensive coordinator.

So the outline of the Steelers’ 3-4 was drawn up. Only Capers’ outline, hand-drawn by LeBeau, ran several hundred pages. The system underwent changes over the years as LeBeau and Capers took separate paths, including becoming head coaches, but the fundamentals remain the same.

The Packers, with Capers as defensive coordinator, look a lot like the Steelers. It wouldn’t take long for players from either team to feel at home in the huddle of the other.

And it’s no coincidence the Steelers led the NFL in 2010 with 48 sacks and the Packers were tied for second with 47. Or that the Steelers were second in total defense, and the Packers were fifth.

In some ways, LeBeau and Capers are alike. They roomed together when they were first with the Steelers, and they are both from small towns in Ohio.

But the two have dramatically different personalities. Cowher told the Dallas Morning News that LeBeau was a “loose cannon” when it came to dreaming up defensive schemes.

Capers was more meticulous and hasn’t changed. He uses a rainbow of highlighters in his notes. He writes everything down, relying on younger assistants to handle the technology end of the business. If he had to call a game based on computer printouts, he would be lost.

When Capers interviewed in Green Bay two years ago, he arrived in below-zero weather with two bags: one filled with clothes and another filled with books containing information about his defenses.

“The next day we sat down for the interview and he had his original notes from when he installed the defense in Pittsburgh,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I thought I used a lot of highlighters but it doesn’t even compare to Dom. He is truly the most detailed individual I have ever been around.”

After 25 years in the NFL, Capers isn’t going to become a computer whiz. “When you’ve done something a certain way for a long time, you know how you like to do it,” Capers said. “Let me put it into terms that I understand.”

LeBeau, a Hall of Fame cornerback, runs a system that has been in place for almost 20 years. The Steelers are adept at finding talent to fit the scheme, which isn’t easy for players to learn.

LeBeau, however, has a method for teaching it, and his players revere him.

“It’s a phenomenal thing to watch ‘man love’ take place in a manly sport,” secondary coach Ray Horton said. “He’s different. He’s well spoken. He can sit down and talk to kings and yet he doesn’t lose the common touch.”

Both Capers and LeBeau get credit for inventing the zone blitz, which has given offenses so much trouble for nearly three decades. The origins are traced back to the 1980s, and both coaches’ schemes have evolved over the years, adding more wrinkles with age.

“I’d like to say it worked immediately,” LeBeau said of the defensive philosophy, “but we went through a lot of blind alleys. We just kept sticking with it.”

While the Steelers and Packers share similarities on defense, they aren’t identical. Each plays to the strength of individual players. With Pittsburgh, that’s safety Troy Polamalu and linebacker James Harrison.

With the Packers, it’s linebacker Clay Matthews and cornerback Charles Woodson.

“The players make it come to life,” LeBeau said. “We give them parameters and let them create, and we’ve got some pretty good creators.”

Maybe it doesn’t take one to know one, but it helps.

DALLAS – Like many great innovations, the defensive concepts that will be employed in Super Bowl XLV were created in a basement by a handful of people looking for a better way.

Super Bowl XLV scouting report | Preparations

It was 1992, and Bill Cowher had just become head coach of the Steelers. Cowher favored the 4-3 defensive alignment. Then-defensive coordinator Dom Capers liked the 3-4. Secondary coach Dick LeBeau was a proponent of 3-4 that favored elaborate blitzes. All were looking for ways to combat passing offenses and to produce pressure on quarterbacks.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” said LeBeau, now the Steelers’ defensive coordinator.

So the outline of the Steelers’ 3-4 was drawn up. Only Capers’ outline, hand-drawn by LeBeau, ran several hundred pages. The system underwent changes over the years as LeBeau and Capers took separate paths, including becoming head coaches, but the fundamentals remain the same.

The Packers, with Capers as defensive coordinator, look a lot like the Steelers. It wouldn’t take long for players from either team to feel at home in the huddle of the other.

And it’s no coincidence the Steelers led the NFL in 2010 with 48 sacks and the Packers were tied for second with 47. Or that the Steelers were second in total defense, and the Packers were fifth.

In some ways, LeBeau and Capers are alike. They roomed together when they were first with the Steelers, and they are both from small towns in Ohio.

But the two have dramatically different personalities. Cowher told the Dallas Morning News that LeBeau was a “loose cannon” when it came to dreaming up defensive schemes.

Capers was more meticulous and hasn’t changed. He uses a rainbow of highlighters in his notes. He writes everything down, relying on younger assistants to handle the technology end of the business. If he had to call a game based on computer printouts, he would be lost.

When Capers interviewed in Green Bay two years ago, he arrived in below-zero weather with two bags: one filled with clothes and another filled with books containing information about his defenses.

“The next day we sat down for the interview and he had his original notes from when he installed the defense in Pittsburgh,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I thought I used a lot of highlighters but it doesn’t even compare to Dom. He is truly the most detailed individual I have ever been around.”

After 25 years in the NFL, Capers isn’t going to become a computer whiz. “When you’ve done something a certain way for a long time, you know how you like to do it,” Capers said. “Let me put it into terms that I understand.”

LeBeau, a Hall of Fame cornerback, runs a system that has been in place for almost 20 years. The Steelers are adept at finding talent to fit the scheme, which isn’t easy for players to learn.

LeBeau, however, has a method for teaching it, and his players revere him.

“It’s a phenomenal thing to watch ‘man love’ take place in a manly sport,” secondary coach Ray Horton said. “He’s different. He’s well spoken. He can sit down and talk to kings and yet he doesn’t lose the common touch.”

Both Capers and LeBeau get credit for inventing the zone blitz, which has given offenses so much trouble for nearly three decades. The origins are traced back to the 1980s, and both coaches’ schemes have evolved over the years, adding more wrinkles with age.

“I’d like to say it worked immediately,” LeBeau said of the defensive philosophy, “but we went through a lot of blind alleys. We just kept sticking with it.”

While the Steelers and Packers share similarities on defense, they aren’t identical. Each plays to the strength of individual players. With Pittsburgh, that’s safety Troy Polamalu and linebacker James Harrison.

With the Packers, it’s linebacker Clay Matthews and cornerback Charles Woodson.

“The players make it come to life,” LeBeau said. “We give them parameters and let them create, and we’ve got some pretty good creators.”

Maybe it doesn’t take one to know one, but it helps.