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.

[papabear]

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).

[barrett]

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.

None of this has anything to do with how Mario Williams is used.

Even if 3-4 DEs are becoming more valuable, we would still be taking our best (only?) pass rusher and limiting his pass rush effectiveness and opportunities. That makes no sense.