His natural position? OLB isn't his natural position. ILB in a 3-4 is.

Except that Bell will actually get some sacks.

Derrick Thomas?

jsp you made me turn over a new leaf. Bell in the middle!!!!

Enough to counteract him getting burnt in pass coverage?

Name the last OLB in a 4-3 to post double digit sacks.

Good example. He did it in the mid 90s. Even he was becoming less effective late in his career.

And offenses have changed that much more in the last 5+ years.

There is a reason it isn't happening, and it's not lack of talent. Offenses are just too adept at reading OLB rushes, and dumping the ball off.

so jsp who are you wanting at the other OLB pos.? just curious

Not the point.
I'm suggesting that the comparison to Stills is invalid, cause Bell is a player, who will make plays.
Stills is just a useles piece of crap on the defense.

My opinion, and I think Gun would agree, if you have a guy who has a knack for getting after the QB.. you put him in the best position to succeed.. Bell is best suited for OLB in a 4-3 scheme and he is great at the point of attack

Honestly, I'm just really *****ing glad that we got him and he BETTER stay healthy!

There’s no way DJ should be or will be on the bench. He’ll start and so will Bell. If Fox is doing so well, put him in the middle. Or, put Bell in the middle and Fox on the outside. We need the 3 best LB on the field. Also, can we risk those first 4 games of the season with Mitchell as our starting MLB? I have little confidence in him. I hope I’m wrong about Mitchell.

Here’s my choice of opening day LB squad:
D.J. – OLB
Bell – MLB
Fox – OLB
Fujita – backup OLB
Mitchell – backup MLB
Stills – backup OLB
Grigsby – ST

Scanlon – PS
Barber – PUP

Maz – cut / retire
Kris Griffin – cut
Caver - cut

How about Holdman two years ago in Chicago?

Thing about a 3-4 is that our linebackers would be a tad on the light side for such things. We could spot it here and there, though, in like second and long and situations. That could be interesting.

He played more of the DE position than OLB; from the traditional sense.

I'm not set on any one guy.

Fox looked good in mini-camp, and the coaches are high on him.

DJ was a stud in college. If he can make the jump his rookie year, fine.

I still think Fujita isn't bad. I think he's suffered from lack of talent in the middle.

I'm not a big fan of Barber. I wouldn't mind we reached an injury agreement with him. At the same time, if he can just start tackling better, I'm ok with him too.

I guess that's part of my point. The worst of our OLBs will likely be Barber and Fujita, and I think they are solid. Meanwhile, our best MLB at this point is a questionable Mitchell.

I'm thinking we could see a lot of 3-4 and I have mixed feelings. I think we have the linebackers for it, but I don't think we have the ends for the 3-4. We could move Browning to end, but would Hicks be effective? I doubt it. Allen and Hall, IMO, are too small to play the 3-4.

I just wish the Chiefs would get a injury settlement on Barber and Maz, so that's two positions that we don't have to worry about, and be able to recover some of the money from that. Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen.