I disagree that Raji's injury isn't a big deal on the basis that we mostly play in the 2-4 anyways. When Dom first started using the 2-4 as an any-situation defense we'd just come off a 2009 campaign where we were the best rushing defense in the NFL by scoring and by yards but only the 28th in scoring pass defense. Among our best DL were Pickett and Jolly, both steady run stuffers plus a brand new Raji with a bright looking future. It was an unbalanced roster, much better at stopping the run than stopping the pass so the 2-4 was a way to achieve balance by putting your run stuffing personnel in a formation meant for pass defense. It was a good idea at the time and yielded phenomenal results.

As Woodson and Pickett aged, Jolly wore orange, and Raji's development stalled out it stopped being a good idea. Now its an impossible idea. Even with Raji we didn't have the beef to keep the beefy 2-4 viable this season. We now have the opposite kind of unbalanced roster that appears to have a strength in rushing the passer in guys like Daniels, Jones, Neal and Peppers. Applying the same philosophy as we did in 2010 we should be using our pass-rushing roster in run stopping formations to achieve balance. Those situations that called or a beefy 2-4 are now best filled by a lean 3-4... so we may miss our starting NT more than we thought.