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Gus Bradley: Jacksonville Jaguars to mix 4-3, 3-4 D

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gus Bradley just might be the anti-Bill Belichick. The new Jacksonville Jaguars coach held his NFL Scouting Combine media session Saturday and was open and detailed about nearly every topic that was brought up.

Bradley plans to bring his Seattle Seahawks-style defense to Jacksonville once the Jaguars get the right pieces.

"You see a lot of teams that may be a 3-4, and then on third down, they show some 4-3 principles," Bradley said. "Where on first and second down, we'll have some 4-3 and 3-4 principles.

"Some offenses say here's our run-game attack for a 4-3 team, here's what we're going to do as a run game for a 3-4 team. When they see us do both, the run game shrinks down a little bit. The philosophy behind it, defensively, is that it pares it down and becomes easier for us as far as the style of runs that we see. We like to be able to rush out of both."

The key, Bradley explained, is rush ends who can set the edges and still get upfield. He used Chris Clemons and Bruce Irvin as examples. The prototype is 6-foot-3, 250 pounds who can run the 40-yard dash in 4.5 to 4.6 seconds.

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"We like to have those rush-type people on the right side. We call it the Leo end," Bradley said. "We've had some success up in Seattle with them -- the Chris Clemonses, the Bruce Irvins. So we'll take a hard look at those guys in the draft -- the outside linebacker types.

"We have a philosophy that we'd like to eventually get to. That's getting those ends on the perimeter that can rush, not only on first and second down, but third down as well."

Bradley said the Seahawks played just about 25 snaps of Cover 2 last season. They leaned on single-safety, middle-man and three-deep looks that allowed for both 4-3 and 3-4 principles. That's what he wants the Jaguars to do once they have the proper personnel.

Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland.

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