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Raji is now the nose tackle, Pickett is the left end. It's permanent.

Interesting move.

Edited title: Pickett I mean.

Surprising! Didn't see this coming, though I guess it isn't a bad thing that they are interchangeable...

Pickett explained he personally thinks they switched because Raji's body type is a better fit for NT. Pickett being a little taller might be the better of the 2 at end.

I think the Packers are hoping to get more out of Raji by putting him at his natural position. If they think he can be an impact player (and they must after taking him 9th) the move makes sense. Let's see what he can do.

Makes you wonder why they're paying Pickett $7M+ to now play out of position at end in the base defense only. He might not be around beyond 2010 if Raji grabs hold of the NT job and Neal/Wilson show promise at DE.

Edit: Then again, we're paying Chillar $5M or whatever to be a backup/situational player.

They were saying that Raji should be able to apply more pressure to the QB at the NT than Pickett was able to. When they go to the nickle it will be Raji and Jenkins on the line.

I like it if it helps the pass rush. Raji has much more potential to be disruptive being lined up right over the center than he does on the outside.

Love the move. It is the right one, IMO. Raji IS a NT, plain and simple. Pickett was great there and I'm sure he will still see minutes there, but Raji is going to be a special NT in the league.

We picked Raji to be the NT, so I guess we have to give him burn at that spot.

Hopefully this will help us generate a better pass rush.

Under the assumption that this switch is permanent, it makes me second-guess the contract we gave Pickett a bit. I'm sure he'll still be a force against the run from the end position, but he's going to be a complete liability as a pass rusher from that spot (not that he was giving us any pass rush as the nose). The other thing that they need to iron out is Raji's assignment discipline in the run game.

I dont' know what Pickett's contract looks like, but it's possible they're moving him to save his body a bit so in year four of the deal he's still an effective player.

Wade-A-Holic wrote:Under the assumption that this switch is permanent, it makes me second-guess the contract we gave Pickett a bit. I'm sure he'll still be a force against the run from the end position, but he's going to be a complete liability as a pass rusher from that spot (not that he was giving us any pass rush as the nose). The other thing that they need to iron out is Raji's assignment discipline in the run game.

I don't think either Pickett or Raji really fits as a 3-4 DE, the problem is that Raji was a Top 10 pick and Pickett just signed a substantial contract so they can't really justify not having them both on the field.

Also, if you're trying to play the best 3 lineman in that base defense they probably qualify in that regard. Bottom line, I think they're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole a little bit, but I'm not a professional scout so maybe this will work out fine.

Turk Nowitzki wrote:

Wade-A-Holic wrote:Under the assumption that this switch is permanent, it makes me second-guess the contract we gave Pickett a bit. I'm sure he'll still be a force against the run from the end position, but he's going to be a complete liability as a pass rusher from that spot (not that he was giving us any pass rush as the nose). The other thing that they need to iron out is Raji's assignment discipline in the run game.

I don't think either Pickett or Raji really fits as a 3-4 DE, the problem is that Raji was a Top 10 pick and Pickett just signed a substantial contract so they can't really justify not having them both on the field.

Also, if you're trying to play the best 3 lineman in that base defense they probably qualify in that regard. Bottom line, I think they're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole a little bit, but I'm not a professional scout so maybe this will work out fine.

I think Jenkins is a good guy to move in to DT on passing downs, but I'm not sold on him as a base DE. Just a little to short, a little to light for a 3-4 DE. My initial thought when I read the headline that Pickett was being moved to DE was that he'd go to Jenkins' spot. Jolly's long arms knocked down a lot of passes, and reading that Pickett is longer than Raji, putting him on the other side would give Pickett a chance to swat passes as well. I agree that this move probably has as much to do with contracts as anything else, but maybe they're thinking that while Jolly's possibly out for 4 games, they can have Pickett's longer arms knocking down the passes that Jolly swatted last year. Probably not, but it's some good rationalizing....

Jenkins not starting? haha what? He's probably their best DL overall right now. They rotate guys so much that I'm perfectly fine going with a big beefy group on the base package.