Quote Originally Posted by Brandon494 View Post
Why is that? and why would Shea McClellin fit in a 3-4?
At Boise State McClellin played four positions: DE, OLB, ILB, and DT. He had a ton of responsibilities and played extensively on his feet. Perry is a guy who pretty much exclusively went up field and got after the QB. McClellin held the point, handled outside contain, dropped into coverage, and rushed the passer extensively. You can't just look at stats when you're comparing the two guys.

Though, my objection to Perry is largely that I don't think he *can* do the things that I've already seen McClellin do effectively (e.g. drop into coverage.)

Perry's great if you want a guy who can get after the passer and you don't ask him to do anything else. We're not looking for that guy. Perry's a 4-3 end exclusively IMO, unless you're a 3-4 team who wants to make an exception for an OLB who almost never drops into coverage (like Ware in Dallas). But the thing is, if we were going to have one of our OLBs go on every play, it would be Matthews not "the guy opposite Matthews." One of the two OLBs has coverage responsibilities on virtually every play. So Perry actually makes Matthews less effective as a pass rusher, whereas McClellin does not.

There's also the little issue that Perry said at the combine that he doesn't want to play in a 3-4 defense. I wouldn't be surprised if he's off the Packers' board for that reason.