What do people think about moving Mario back to DE? Reason I mention this is because we could have a front seven of: Watt, Cody, Mario Reed, Cushing, Ryans, Barwin I don't see why Mario could not be a good 3-4 end since he is 6'7 and 290+. Generally you want your 3-4 ends at least 290 pounds. Mario is also a very good run defender too.
Mario is his best coming off the edge. He can't play as well inside on passing downs which is something that DE's in the 3-4 do to bring versatility. Also Antonio Smith was our most consistent disruptive force this season. During a recent interview, Barwin talked about how OLBs in a 3-4 scheme are most effective if there is a 3 person rotation. Barwin stated how it was tiring for Reed and himself to play all the snaps. Given the above, I bet that Mario will stay a OLB IF he returns next year.
Good thread! Just posted this idea in another thread. Antonio is on the wrong side of 30 and while he had a good year, he made good money. He may be a casualty of trying to keep Mario. Just not sure Mario could be sold on DE in a 3-4 after seeing his own potential to be a sack monster as an OLB. Just don't see how either Reed or Barwin could be made to sit to incorporate Mario coming back as an OLB.
Antonio Smith has probably outplayed Mario every season he's been here. If not, it's certain he's shown more consistent effort, and he's been more durable than Mario, which in this case goes a long way. With this current personnel, our strongest line configuration should have Antonio Smith on it. He should get benched ONLY because he's on the wrong side of 30, despite coming off his best season? 30 turning 31 isn't the same wear and tear for a DE than it is other positions.
I agree. You don't mess with Smith. But you guys thinking he's better than Mario Williams... one guy gets doubled-teamed, the other pulls out imaginary swords. At the end of the day though, I doubt Williams is better at 3-4 DE than Smith. But if you think Smith was better than Williams when they played the same position in the 4-3, you're crazy.
You've got a track record of excellence from Antonio Smith. You've got a little more than half a season from Brooks Reed. I enjoyed watching the rookie work, but I think it is reaching a bit to sit Antonio Smith (or cut him...maybe if you could get back something in trade) in favor of moving Mario to ANOTHER new position (it may be DE but isn't the same as DE in 4-3) so you could play Brooks Reed almost every down. Especially since we have pretty much no depth at OLB in that scenario. I don't want to anticipate Smith's decline. He was still great this season. Let him start to slow down before we entertain this sort of move.
Mario's 4-5 years younger; there's no way, in a 1:1 situation, you'd take the 31 year old over the 26 year old, assuming similar skill levels.
Well In this case I'll take the 31 year old because the 26 year old is as brittle and injury prone as a 40 year old.
I'm one of the weirdos that thinks Mario's best position is 3-4 defensive end. He gets downfield fast, can collapse the pocket on a bullrush, and doesn't have the moves that you really want in a 4-3 defensive end. I understand why he wouldn't want to play that position, he wouldn't get as many sacks, and as we know, "Get sacks, get stacks", but I think it's his best position. That being said: Smith + Mario is much, much better than Mario + Reed or whatever other combination you can come up with.
Omission of Antonio Smith shows your lack of football knowledge/attention to the actual games. Ridiculous. Rotating LBs is much more practical anyways.
