I've heard that theory so many times that Raji is merely dogging it. I don't buy it. He has always played soft for a guy his size. Even when he was relatively better, he was a finesse player - playing more like a 290 pounder than 350 or whatever. I NEVER saw toughness in him. To a great extent, Pickett was the same - give him credit for effort. etc., but toughness? I don't think so.
That whole "role playing" thing, to me, is the wrong philosophy to have - or more precisely, it only works if the ones you mention doing the dirty work have capability on their own to make some plays, and the guys getting things funneled into them - Barnett in the past, Hawk now, etc. are more like Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman. Barring that sort of thing, you need a LACK of lumps who can't do anything - Raji and Pickett - and creative schemes - the Capers way, rather than plain vanilla like we had with Sanders, etc. before Capers.
As for Nerdman's idea of Richardson at OLB, I like that better than ILB. That makes more sense than turning DEs into OLBs. I just don't see that ability in Richardson to make it all worthwhile, though.
Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker