They didn't sign McPhee to a huge contract and tell every one he is an OLB, only to play him at 5 technique.
My guess is Allen is having no bearing on the plan or roster, he is a contract albatross that needs to be tolerated for a season.
Houston is a wildcard, but he played OLB in Oakland.
agreed. i believe fox when he says houston will be at OLB at least in the base defense. i think because he's listed at 300 people think he's going to play 5 technique but he was 270 last year(smaller then mcphee) and 280 the year before that in oakland. (as a side note, that means that tucker had him drop to 270 and then asked him to play inside at DT a good portion of the time...which is weird).
i think one of the big things bears fans have to alter in their minds is this idea of a "depth chart" when it comes to fangio's defense. guys are going to move around and line up in a ton of different spots. this isn't tucker or lovie, where you have basically the same line-up with the only difference being a nickel back comes in for a linebacker and maybe a DE moves down to DT.
so let's assume the base defensive front is something like:
RDT: draft/FA/ratliff
NT: draft/FA/ferguson
LDT: draft/FA/
ROLB: mcphee
RILB: jones/bostic
LILB: FA/draft/bostic
LOLB: houston
now in nickel you've got a ton of ways to go. in san fran, fangio would often take the nose off the field, slide the outside backers to the end spots, 5 technique's move inside to tackle spots and have a more traditional 4 man front. or either OLB could remain standing and still have a 3 down lineman.
but fangio's kind of a mad scientist. unlike some other d-coordinators, he's not a big blitzer. he's more about creating mismatches with different fronts and attacking that way. he usually only sends 4 rushers, but the trick is figuring out which ones are coming and from where. i saw a bunch of times where he had justin smith line up with his hand on the ground in a wide 9 with aldon smith standing up over the guard.
what's missing from the equation right now is versatility along the d-line. they've got potential pieces at outside linebacker. think they need one more inside backer but honestly i have a feeling christian jones is going to really thrive under fangio as the weakside inside backer. think there's a good chance he beats out bostic for that spot.
but the d-line needs guys who can line up as 5 techniques in a base defense badly. houston at 270 isn't going to cut it. i'd imagine they're looking for guys in the 295-305 range with length.