Quote:
Originally Posted by nunusguy
There was a time when I would have completely agreed with what your saying here, but the market value, the importance of 3-4 DEs is changing as quickly as teams in the NFL are converting to the 3-4 defense. The best example I can site for this is that former NE personnel man & new Chiefs GM Scott Pioli used his teams 3rd overall pick in this years draft to select dlineman Tyson Jackson to play in the Chiefs 3-4.
|
3-4 ends are absolutely vital to the teams success running that system, but that doesn't mean it's a good use of one of the best, freakishly talented, 4-3 ends. I'm not saying they aren't important, only that Mario wouldn't get to use a large portion of his skill set in a traditional 3-4 and to me that is a waste of a guy with once in a generation size and speed. There are variations of the 3-4 now that allow for some 1 gap stuff from the down lineman (I think Wade Phillips does some of this) but in general 3-4 lineman aren't there to make plays. Their job is to eat up blockers and let the linebackers make the plays. 3-4 end and 4-3 end are two different beast....there's a reason no one was looking at Tyson Jackson as a 4-3 end (specifically a RE).