I know his knee injury brought some doubt back in 2008, but Vilma was a fantastic player, a rookie of the year, pro bowler for us, and team captain. I know David Harris had a good rookie year too...But does it really matter? We traded Vilma away for a conditional 4th round pick...A guy I wish was still leading the middle of this team's defense. Especially over Bart Scott
Because he's a 4-3 LB that doesn't fit in a 3-4 scheme. /thread p.s. we should have gotten a better pick, but the Saints played dirty pool and f'd us on a technicality.
Vilma got traded because he wasn't big enough to work in the middle of a 3-4. The Jets thought he would wear down and so they went and got stronger guys to play the position. In retrospect Vilma and Harris probably would have been great in the middle of Rex's 3-4 because Harris would have played Scott's role better than it is being played and Vilma could cover in the middle of the field when the Jets needed that.
this...instead of playing to our current D's strengths, Mangini wanted to implement his own personnel/scheme, so Vilma had an expiration date as he was too small to play ILB in 3-4.
Mangini was running the classic 34 that required ILB's to be able to take on and shed blockers and still make a play. Vilma could not handle those duties and was not a good fit or our defense. A classic case of a coach trying to force players to work in his system instead of coaching to their strengths.
my biggest pet peeve with mangini was trading vilma and out right refusing to bend his sytem at all for the talent on the roster. then tomlin was hired in pitsburgh and kept the 3-4 even though he was a 4-3 guy. it still pisses me off
Key difference being the Pittsburgh D was actually good prior to Tomlin's arrival.... Super Bowl good. Mangini took over a mess and deserved time to implement the scheme he wanted. Vilma is better in coverage than D Harris but that's about it.
The Vilma trade wasn't the best, but it really hasn't hurt us that much, and certainly isn't a significant part of our current problems.