Yeah - base down looks w/ almost 2 NTs playing something of a 2-gap system. Get those 2 guys to wipe out 3 interior lineman and you get 1v1 on your edges. And if they hold their ground or just focus on driving the pocket backwards, your DEs can be really aggressive in their rush lanes without having to worry about the QB stepping up and around them as much.

Everything old becomes new again.

I think base downs that might really be the way to approach it.
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I think you take away from Karlaftis strengths at DE moving him inside. I'd rather just look for more inside guys (and another DE) and use him as a chess piece.
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I really don't give a shit about run downs tbh. Coburn already looks effective and he was a 6th rd pick. Farrell should be handy as well.

Get the strong athletic profile players and roll. That's exactly what they've done. FAU, Omehinu, Thompson. Hell Omenihu is a very effective inside rusher. He just didn't get the snaps to pump the stats.

Mike Danna is an effective inside rusher as we saw. You can't replace Chris Jones but it's not mandatory to have a Chris Jones to be a good pass rushing unit. You need waves of solid rushers. We have that this year.

If we do trade Chris I would look at what the cost would be to keep Danna and draft more of those guys for 3rd down.
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At some point in January, you're gonna need an alpha up front. Maybe that ends up being FAU or Karlaftis, but eventually, you're gonna just need a guy that can win on his own.
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Expound?

His strengths certainly aren't speed to the edge. And I don't see a variety of pass rush moves out there. He's a mauler; a hand-fighter and motor guy. Honestly, he might be best served as a 3-tech in a 3-4 from what we've seen of him to this point.

Which is almost perfect for playing an under-tackle sort of role on 3rd downs here.
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I thought he looked alot better against the Lions out in space, but that's a single game.

I like him as that strong side DE but could definitely be convinced otherwise. Kind of a Brent Keisel type role?
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The old fantasy sports 'Stars and Scrubs" model may best apply here.

Some folks will throw their money at 3-4 superstars and use late round cheap plays for the rest of their roster. Make that specific to DTs - if you can get a superstar on a market contract - do that. If you can't, well there's no sense in drafting Mazi Smith in the 1st round when he's gonna maybe give you 10% more than Coburn can give you in the 6th.

And veteran FA rotational DTs are a dime/dozen.

So yeah - If Jones won't come back at a reasonable figure (and I think Veach was almost too generous in his offer, to be honest - but I'd be fine with him back on those terms) then I'm just not thinking I'd bother with it. As you said, you don't need premier DTs to have an elite pass rush. It can help, so can a lot of roster depth and fresh bodies.

And like I said several years back - when Andy is doing a thing on offense, you pay attention. If you're not doing that thing, you're probably doing it wrong. Well guys, when Bill Belichick is doing it differently than you on defense, you're probably the one messing it up. And BB has never really put much emphasis on building a pass rush around the interior. He's content building up his secondary and throwing bodies at the DL.

That's likely completely defensible and doable for us.
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Not sure I agree with your take on him. But to play devil's advocate, if what you say is true that doesn't sound like the profile of someone who should have been a first round pick...

I think his production as a rookie at a position where rookies generally struggle to make an early impact shows that he has a solid base and has room to grow into a quality NFL DE. I'd rather leave him there. I'd be a fan of following the NYG Spags defense route and have 3-4 quality DEs. Maybe Karlaftis could slide inside at times, but keep Danna if possible and maybe even add another solid DE and have a rotation of 4-5 DL that can all rush from DE as well as several of which who can slide inside on passing downs. Keeps everyone fresh and the offense is constantly getting a different look from the DL. Just have big space eaters at DT for run downs. Maybe more than we'd want to spend but DJ Reader would be a solid fit in that role depending on the deal he's looking for.
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Cam Heyward is shooting high, but why couldn't he develop like that? Heyward spent the first 6 years of his career being largely a non-factor as a 3-4 End. He was...fine. But he kept getting stronger and smarter and more versatile. Then from about 28 through 33 he was as valuable an interior lineman as the league had.

Now again, I think you'd need GK to add about 20 lbs to manage it. And maybe that's not feasible. But he was about 275 lbs as a Senior and lost a bunch of weight to get quicker for the combine. But he has a really big frame and those sort of odd JJ Watt high traps that sure suggest he can carry more weight if he wants to.

I think they probably have him playing around 265 and if they weren't actively cutting weight from him he may sit at 275. If you then get to work on cranking the knob UP on strength training, can you get him to 285 in an off-season and 290 or so the following year?

May be asking too much, I'll concede. But his first step goes from adequate on the outside to well above average on the inside. And the inside is where he can win being technical and just having greater stamina/drive than his opponents. I feel like it fits his strengths better, to be honest.
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Chris Jones has taken over precisely one playoff game in his career, and it was against scrubs that had no business starting on a football team and yet their team had no choice but to put those orange cones out there.

Everyone can acknowledge the player that Chris is, but there's a reason we aren't giving him the amount of money he wants. For that type of money we need an ass kicker to consistently show up in playoff games, not one playoff game, and then become invisible in the Super Bowl.

If he wants to get his number by adding funny money to his contract, and working with us to set up a safety valve in a potential contract, then we should consider it, but he's not gonna do that.

Always remember that this team runs on offense and has made its hay through that avenue.
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If you have Chris Jones, his profile is letter perfect for us as a first round pick because that's an SDE all day, every day.

If you DON'T have Chris Jones, the same things that make him an effective SDE make him a possibility as a 3 technique on passing downs, especially if you're playing heavy with a 1 technique as the other DT.

So essentially a 4-3 Under with GK at the 3-tech. We have the personnel in the LB corps to do it with Bolton as the Mike being able to cover the strong-side B gap. You could use FAU as your SDE on passing downs with a guided missile like Thompson off the edge on the weak side. If we retain Tranquill as the Will he can blitz or cover and handle anyone leaking out of the backfield on the weak side nicely. If we retained Gay he's ideal for the Sam.

Hell, I still wonder why we don't use the Under fronts a lot more often than we do right now. WITH Jones and Tranquill and Gay, it should friggen awesome for us. Gay on the TE, Tranquill as the Will, GK as the SDE and Jones as 3-tech would be savage. You don't need to worry about the under alignment when Omenihu comes back, but it should cover for him really nicely for now.
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I think I strongly agree with this analysis. Losing weight and focusing on his bend makes sense right now, if he's there why not work on the relative weaknesses. But really I'm not sure I see him being that sort of DE and at the moment it seems less likely to allow him to bully guys with power. Maybe just beef him up again and see what he can do. They're already moving him inside plenty. When he came out people suggested he was maxed out athletically but I see nothing to suggest he can't get bigger and stronger, even if he's not getting quicker.
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Jones has dominated plenty in the playoffs, the front office just acknowledged how important the guy was and is with what they were and likely are willing to pay him.

We don't win either SB without the guy and you continuosly shit on him because you thought he wasn't gonna be here and that the FO had moved on, yet now he's back so you'll be back on board soon enough.

They didn't wanna pay him that because of his age, not because of his skillset.
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Last time he got a fair deal for both sides. This time he wants money close to Aaron Donald money, which I'm not sure I'd give him even if he was 26 like the last time he signed a contract with us
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FAU has played in exactly one game. I'm not saying he'll bust but it's way too soon to call it in either direction. He hasn't really shown anything extensively.
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