So is the hope for Jones that he will eventually be a pass rushing 3-4 DE? I remember that he was a tweener last draft because he didn't have the strength for DT or the speed necessarily for DE in a 4-3 scheme. Are there any good 3-4 DE draft prospects or free agents that you think the Packers will go after? I could see the Packers retaining one of their D-lineman this offseason and then getting a NT and DE in the draft in the mid rounds.
Let's clarify.
The ideal 3-4 DE will play like a DT in base against the run, anywhere from 2 to 5 technique depending how they slide the line. Since the opposition does not tell us their plays in advance, you'd like the guy to be able to put up a pass rush from those sets. Capers has run base 3-4 about 30-35% of the time.
In nickel, the 3-4 DE will either sit if he's not much of a pass rusher, or move inside to rush from what would typically be a 4-3 DT gap. We run these 2 down-linemen sets nearly all of the other 60-65% of the snaps.
The hope was Jones would play inside in nickel; if he got big enough and strong enough he might be a 3-down guy. As it stands, he's not big/strong enough to play base DE, and he didn't get much done rushing the passer inside either, and saw less playing time as the year went on.
I've joked before that Jones might be the next guy to be asked to drop 30 lbs. to play OLB. That might not be a joke.
Daniels was our best nickel D-Line pass rusher this year. He's a little undersized to be playing base DE at 6'0, maybe 300 lbs on a good day. We could probably get away with him on the weak side, or Jones in that spot if he develops into a football player. Worthy is not ideal either at 6'2", 300 lbs., and we still don't know how much, if anything, we'll get out of him.
I think retaining one of the FA big bodies as you suggest is problematic. Raji is a
quitter, and I don't use that term lightly
, wildly overrated by everybody except those who have watched Packer football these past 2 seasons. Jolly's neck injury was quite serious. While it was at the C5 (not the C3 that is almost always a career ender...Collins, Finley), there's a good chance he'll never see another snap.
Pickett is the most likely to be back, but that's no guarantee; and he's old and would be limited in snaps.
The reaction to this situation by the chattering class is head scratching. You can watch the end-of-the season video chat between Silverstein and LeRoy Butler where they expect none of the 3 big bodies to be signed, then turn around and start talking about what safeties and linebackers we'll draft. This is the typical view among the beat writers. They're stuck in rewind from last offseason when we needed a safety and a linebacker. Things have gotten worse since then.
If the 3 aforementioned big bodies are gone, we'll have one D-Lineman who's shown himself to be productive, Daniels, and that's only in nickel DT. And we'll have only one guy who can play NT or base LDE...Boyd...and we don't know if he'll even be starter material yet.
Pickett, some vet minimum FA and mid-round pick ain't gonna cut it for this D-Line.