Didn't see this posted, but the stubbornness of Mangini used to drive people nuts around here. It's refreshing to hear Rex say that the players have to dictate the schemes... "I remember when he came out of Miami we wanted to draft him in Baltimore," Ryan said. "He's our kind of guy. The scheme wasn't a great fit for him if you're going to play a traditional 3-4 defense like Eric [Mangini] had." The Jets, of course, traded Vilma to the Saints because of that. "I will say this, we let players [dictate] over schemes," Ryan said. "We're not going to pigeonhole our guys into a system. We're going to make the system adaptable to the players." http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets/gholston_not_flashy_but_getting_S58bHFXY38pBrHVNsudkkI
I read this. It saddened me, because Vilma would be awesome in this system. It's to bad we gave up on him to appease Eric Mangini. One of Mike Tannenbaum's few flubs as GM.
I truely believe the Saints stole Vilma from the Jets. Then again, yall did have a pretty good player to replace him, if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, we technically replaced him with David Harris, but we could have still found a way to fit in Vilma in this defense. Rex Ryan would have.
Don't forget that Vilma had a potentially career-threatening injury when he was traded, which had been there since college and was a factor in the draft when he came out.
I'm not worried about the loss of Vilma....like Mick said...nothing but best wishes in his career. What did strike me in the OP's post.....is Rex saying they're not going "pidgeon-hole" guys into their system, but make the system adaptable. I fucking love this guy! Eric Smith is a testament to that statement.
Wait, hold on. The one criticism we always heard was that Vilma wasn't the proper fit in the 3-4, primarily because of his size, inability to penetrate the line etc, that he was better suited to open pursuit and sideline to sideline type work. Now we're being told that he would have thrived in our system? What gives?
1) Rex's system isn't Mangini's....not even close. 2) Rex likes to adapt his system to the player skillsets...not the other way around. Essentially, Rex would've found a role for Vilma in his schemes.
Wow if that wasn't a shot at Mangini from our HC I don't know what is. Vilma was/is a great player but ILB is not a concern for us, we have the best ILB duo in the league.
Maybe the LB/S hybrid position that we're seeing Smith thrive in. Would he be durable enough to fit where Harris and Scott are? They just strike me as being much "larger" athletes.. I.E. they "play" big....
that's quite possible....Vilma was great in coverage and could rush the passer as well....pretty versatile guy. Yeah...Harris and Scott's positions aren't suited to Vilma's size...which Mangini found out the hard way......and then didn't bother to see where Vilma COULD fit in the scheme.....I'm so glad that turd is in Cleveland, ruining somebody else's franchise.
I'm seeing a LOT of similarities in the Rex Ryan's defensive coaching style and Greg Williams. GW says the same thing about designing the defense to take the most advantage of each individual player's skills. We actually ran a 3-4 all last week, but it wasn't a traditional 3-4. The local NO media did a story with Vilma where he talks about how he doesn't have a problem with *this* new 3-4. Anyone who is underestimating the Saints D this year will be in for a surprise come Sunday. Not saying we're going to play as well as the Jets D is, but with Brees on Offense we don't have to.
The crazy thing about Vilma v. Scott and Harris is that they aren't all that different in terms of size. Vilma- 6'1, 230 Scott- 6'2, 240 Harris- 6'2, 245 Arguably, 15 lbs of muscle makes a huge difference when going up the middle.
Gregg Williams is DC of the Saints now? No wonder we've seen such an improvement by them. I forgot he went there. He's got a solid track record.
Once Pace gets back, you can name three linebackers on any team in the league and they aren't better than Scott, Harris and Pace.
