Home 2015 Off-Season Assessing Steelers’ Keith Butler vs. The Field for Defensive Coordinator

Assessing Steelers’ Keith Butler vs. The Field for Defensive Coordinator

by Steelbydesign

Right in the thick of playoff football on Saturday the bombshell dropped… the legendary Dick Lebeau is moving on.

I have a ton of respect for Lebeau, but the fact is he was 77 and this was going to happen soon one way or another and it makes sense to do it now. This defense is going to add a ton of new faces over the next couple of seasons, and it doesn’t make sense for Lebeau to be choosing those faces when he likely won’t be coaching them for most of their careers.

I quickly tweeted Keith Butler is the most logical and likely choice to step in for the hall of famer. That was met with some criticism that the Steelers shouldn’t close any doors, and should explore all of the options.

That sounds nice in theory, and I’m not saying they should be narrow minded in their decision, but I see “the field” in this case being pretty small.

In my mind it’s Keith Butler or a transition to a 4-3 front.

I see a lot of viable options out there if the Steelers want to go with a 4-3. Mike Tomlin’s buddy from their Tampa days, Rahim Morris and Seahawks defensive passing game coordinator, Rocky Seto quickly come to mind. Keep in mind existing defensive coordinators like Leslie Frazier (another tampa-2 guy with connections to Mike Tomlin) would have to be allowed to leave by their current teams since they would be making a linear move.

Here’s why I don’t see it though. As we saw with the transition to Todd Haley’s system on offense, it takes about 3 years for a new system to be completely in place. Guys like Jarvis Jones would essentially be throwing out 1-2 years of playbook study to completely start over. My reasoning has nothing to do with the Steelers’ current personnel because I do think many of them could thrive in a 4-3.

The Steelers window of another Superbowl stays open as long as they have Ben Roethlisberger. I believe he has another 3-5 years of elite quarterback play left. The Steelers won’t waste those years installing a new system.

That being said, the question becomes Keith Butler, or another 3-4 coordinator. That’s where the field gets significantly smaller.

Off the top of my head, some teams that run a 3-4 currently are the Saints, Redskins, Packers, Cardinals, Titans, Browns, and Bills. I struggle to come up with an assistant from one of those teams I’d like to steal.

Anyone would really be as big a question mark as Keith Butler. In that case I say better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.

Here’s the one exception I can think of. Former Texans head coach Wade Phillips.

Phillips has plenty of experience as a defensive coordinator, and uses a 3-4 system, but it differs a lot from Dick Lebeau’s scheme schematically.

Phillips’ scheme is much more aggressive than Lebeau’s and he tends to ask his defensive lineman to penetrate and create angles that are tough to defend, rather than ask them to take up double teams.

That works to the strength of Cam Heyward, Steve McLendon, and Stephon Tuitt who while not as stout against the run, are better pass rushers than Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, and Kimo Von Oelhoffen.

His scheme does still work to keep blocker off of his linebackers, which needs to happen if Jarvis Jones and Ryan Shazier are going to be successful.

Here is the biggest reason I like Phillips though… He has a history of turning defenses around quickly.

The Texans went from ranking 30th in yards and 29th in points on defense to 2nd and 4th respectively under Phillips.

The Steelers are in bad shape, but they’re not even that bad right now. If Phillips could just get the Steelers to sniff the top 10 defensively, they’d be an extremely dangerous team.

I should mention now, I don’t think that happens. I think that Keith Butler steps in and keeps a lot of continuity while hopefully making subtle tweaks to improve the D. That is much more the Rooneys’ style…

And I think this decision is the Rooneys’ to make. Tomlin may want like to install the system that fits his background, but I just don’t think he has that kind of pull in the organization.

I believe Tomlin is meeting with Butler today, if he’s the choice I’d expect a quick decision… but the longer things linger on I’d say the better chance that the hire comes from somewhere other than internally.

What an exciting off-season already!

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1 comment

bob graff January 13, 2015 - 1:30 pm

The Steeler’s should bring in jack Del Rio for a talk. Another thing that needs to change is this philosophy that it takes 2-3 years of sitting on the bench to become a better player. I say best man up not next man there have been championship teams that have gone with an entirely new and young defensive backfield and it has changed their franchises. The Seahawks quickly come to mind as do the 49ers of the 80’s. This is the direction i see the the Steelers needing to take.

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