While I agree with you, Tomlin had dick LeBeau left over to run that defense. He did not have to bring his own assistants and install his own package, he went with what was there and working. When you have a very successful unit in place it's easy to not screw with it. Eric's biggest downfall as a coach was his inability to adapt to situations. Vilma being a prime example.
Mangini strikes me as the kind of guy who would go down with the ship with his last thought being, THE SYSTEM WORKS, ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS FOLLOW THE SYSTEM!!!!!!!! WE LOST BECAUSE OF YOUR PLAY NOT THE SYSTEMS FAULT!!! A good coach gets the most out of his talent, not ships it out of town when it doesn't fit the mold. If you have talent you find a place for it. Was not a fan of the Vilma trade.
I always thought it was a mistake to move away from the 4-3. Dewayne Robertson & Jonathan Vilma went from solid playmakers in a speedy front 7, to being outcasts on a read and react group of thumpers.
The Jets went from 4-3 to 3-4 under Parcells (bye bye Hugh Douglas) Then 3-4 to 4-3 under Herm Edwards (cya later James Farrior) Then 4-3 to 3-4 under Mangini (so long John Abraham and eventually Jon Vilma) You can't keep bleeding good players on one side of the ball and wind up with a great defense, it just doesn't work.
Whats the big deal about creating this Thread? He Had a question, so whats the big deal with him asking. If you dont like it, you dont have to post/ or read it.
While I agree mostly with this point, I do take issue with John "My Vagina Hurts" Abraham. He is a pussy, and was so glad to see him gone - and his departure resulted in Nick Mangold, arguably the best C in the NFL, so I have no problem with Abraham departure in that regard.
This, plus the fact that the majority of his tackles were 5-10 yards downfield. He didn't make that many plays for us. He's played much better for the Saints than he ever played for us.
Even though I did like Mangini at the time, I am happy we brought in Rex Ryan. With that said.. Mangini wasn't the best HC in the world, obviously. He did build a pretty good team for us before Rex Ryan took over the system. He established a pretty good 3-4 defense. Mangini knew Vilma wasn't going to be a very good fit for the 3-4, so he got rid of him. I thought the value was crazy low, but it was all we could get with his knee injury at the time. He brought a lot of good talent to this franchise. You can't ignore that.
In retrospect it was a dumb trade that never should have happened, no Vilma isnt great in the run but he's a great cover lb. The whole thought behind it was that Vilma was too small to play in the 3-4 but Lawrence Timmons who is in essence the same kind of player Vilma is (same height, same weight), plays the 3-4 fine in Pittsburgh. When u have great players fit your system around them not ship them because they dont fit your exact measurements.
Ummm.. Vilma and Timmons are not the same players. Regardless of height and weight. That isn't the reason he was traded away. You do remember Vilma's play in the 3-4 scheme, right?
People always blame Gholston on Mangini but fail to credit him with the Revis, Harris, Brick and Mangold picks, or they credit Tannenbaum. Those were Mangini picks. Be objective, nobody hits on all their picks. Vilma was coming off an unimpressive season and an injury.
He's still my favorite player in the Saints. I miss him. He sucked in Mangina's system but so did most of our team.
