Cleveland Browns: Danny Shelton beating unrealistic expectations

Just as there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat, there is more than one way to run the 3-4 defense.

Traditionally, the Buddy Ryan defensive philosophy pressures the quarterback into mistakes. The famous 46 defense evolved out of the idea of pressuring quarterbacks through superior defensive back play. However, given NFL rule changes and its weakness against weak side sweeps, the 46 has been relegated to a sub package off a 3-4 base.

Taught in the Buddy Ryan school of defense, former Browns head coach Mike Pettine’s defensive philosophy was to pressure the quarterback as much as possible. He tried, unsuccessfully, to accomplish this by putting the defensive backfield into one-on-one man coverage. Theoretically, man coverage freed others to pressure the quarterback. This approach put extreme pressure on the defensive backs to play perfectly.

Along with outstanding defensive back play, the Ryan-style of defense requires freak athletes in the front seven. These athletes were set loose to rush the passer and make plays. His defense was not designed around a lot of rules. It was designed to allow veteran and freak athletes the freedom to play football.

Danny Shelton was drafted into Pettine’s scheme because of his ability to penetrate, disrupt and rush the passer. His college tape was impressive in these aspects of his play. He was a dominant force in college. The thought was he could play that dominant style in Pettine’s defense.

Pettine’s defense allowed players like Shelton to showcase their natural ability. Coming out of the draft, Danny Shelton looked like the perfect fit. He was going to be a play maker in a play making defense.

However, Shelton received a serious wakeup call his rookie season. After missing all of OTAs because of graduation requirements (same thing happened to Jordan Payton this year), Shelton arrived at camp behind and overweight. Worse, he was unable to affect the line of scrimmage like he did in college. He went from being the big man on campus to the rookie struggling to get off blocks.

Nonetheless, after watching all those highlights of Shelton manhandling centers, fans and media became conditioned to the idea that Shelton could and should be manhandling NFL linemen the same way. Such an expectation is extremely unrealistic.

Next: Unrealistic Expectations