The team has gotten a lot of **** on letting Soliai run on a franchise tag instead of trying to resign him prior to the deadline. Thus far in the season, the reasoning for the decision should be pretty clear. Soliai hadn't distinguished himself up until this point, but a lot of the problems we've had are plays that Soliai isn't always gonna be a big force on. He didn't defend the zone cutback lanes of the first three weeks very well, but it wasn't awful. Today on the other hand, Soliai was pretty bad. He got handled. It wasn't just taking a double team and his teammates not taking advantage of it, he was getting blown off the line, and the runs were coming right at him. I don't know that his one nice play where he got into the backfield was really all that great either, he failed to make the tackle and it seemed like he just jumped the snap count instead of making his read. Waiting and seeing increasingly looks like a good decision on Soliai, he's not at all earning a long term deal so far. If this is what he's doing in a contract year I would hate to see him locked up long term.
Probably a good idea would be try to get a draft pick for him before we lose him for nothing...same goes for Langford It would be a crime to let either or both walk without nothing in return
Well, I don't think it matters in this regard. There are big space eaters playing in 4-3 defenses too, it just depends on the defense and the coordinator. There's no point to it if Soliai is playing like he has been.