Okam seems ready to step up in year 2

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by papabear

Mario would be a waste running a conventional 3-4. I have no problem with running multiple fronts, using a 3-4 alignment as a change-up mid-game...but asking Mario to eat up blockers would be totally negating his biggest asset, even though he would be good at it.

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.