while you could say that people like vilma and roberston's skills aren't being fully utilized...would you still prefer the 4-3 if it would help us get to 8-8 or 9-7 this season, as opposed to the track we're on now - even if that meant we would miss the playoffs or lose in the first round again?
You can't change a defense half way through a season. If Mangini switched the defense today, it would probably just make things worse because you're asking players who have spent an absurd amount of time learning one defense to forget what they learned and learn a whole new one.
I disagree with staying with someone that we know does not work and not maiking an attempt to fix it.....if you're going to give up on the season, use the remaining games as an opprtunity to try new things, see what works, and help to plan for next year.
Based on what I've seen so far I do not believe the New England 3-4 is transplantable. Romeo Crennel has not successfully installed it in Cleveland and Eric Mangini has not successfully installed it with the Jets. I just do not believe that we're going to become successful trying to run New England's 3-4. Given our personnel I'd rather go back to a 4-3, either under Mangini or the next regime and have people like Vilma and D-Rob available to make that transition and man the new front. What I don't want to do is to trade Vilma and then have this regime fail and have the next regime try to reinstall a 4-3 without Vilma. That would set us back a lot.