re: If bama goes to a 4-2-5 defense

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In general I think Smart's belief is that having a LB rather than a DE lets the defense be more flexible and unpredictable, even if he does rush the passer the majority of the time.

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In general, I think Smart and Saban are right to prefer the 3-3-5 with a hybrid LB/DE type HOWEVER if your hybrid type is really more DE than LB like Turner or Braswell then you may get better mileage just putting their hand in the dirt and lean on your backend to cover the gaps in coverage.