So we should adjust our entire defense for one player...good thinking. Let's say we did that, we put Odrick at DE, Mitchell at NT and Starks at the other DE for the 3 down lineman...Wake at one OLB, Misi and Ellerbe inside (even though Ellerbe played OLB in Baltimore's 3-4), and you want to put Jordan at the other OLB spot? I wouldn't put him in there over OV. OV has better pass rushing skills and he's better against the run. Again, it's not the scheme its the player. Jordan put on the weight, he got stronger but he's not any better.
Am I understanding you right in that you'd play Olivier Vernon at OLB over Dion Jordan? Seriously? Come on dude. As to adjusting the defense- damn right they should adjust the defense for Jordan. They were running a 4/3 when they drafted Jordan, and the dude is best suited for 3/4 OLB, that's pretty obvious. But no one forced the FO to draft Jordan, they did it knowing that the match wasn't a perfect fit- DJ is long in the waist, high center of gravity- pass rushing in the proper system is fine, but do you want this guy spending more time in the flats covering RBs and TEs and rushing the passer at OLB or grunting it out in the trenches with OTs outweighing him by 50 pounds with lower centers of gravity? I'll take the former.
Look at what happened to Kim Bokamper- was he a better fit as a jumbo OLB or as an undersized DE? Dude is huge, I ran into him decades ago at a driving range in Ft. Lauderdale- one big and powerful mofo- but he's long, like Jordan, high center of gravity. Think of a bigger Tom Selleck. The point is, Jordan's genes and body type don't say DE, they say OLB. And those genes include being a ludicrously good, fast and quick coverage OLB, those types you don't come across all that often. That's why he was the 3rd pick in the draft, not because he was some super DE- he wasn't.
So if the FO insists on running a 4/3, fine. But why draft Jordan then if you're not going to move him around a lot, have him drop off the LOS and pick up the RB in the flat, blanket TE's like Gronk deep like last year, pass rush from a wide outside stance, use that quickness and speed where it belongs- IN SPACE. His athletic genius is being 6-6 of lean muscle bundled into a fury of strength and unbelievable speed and quickness. You let a player like that do what he does best, at that certainly ain't wrestling at the LOS with big, athletic OTs with lower centers of gravity.
Even in a 4/3, you play him at OLB imo- Jordan Tripp can cover pretty well and so can Jelani Jenkins, but before DJ put on the FO mandated weight, which OLB on the team covered better than he did? Pass rushed better? No one. He's an Outside Linebacker, and that's where he should be playing. It's not his fault that a team that uses a 4/3 defense drafted him, they made that choice. They should alter their scheme, therefore, to fit his vast talents, especially considering the price that they paid for him. This wasn't a player drafted in the middle rounds on a whim, a flier taken on an unknown commodity. This was the third player taken in the drat. Treat him as such.
