Vilma OK with new start in New Orleans

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Any lingering aggravation from Jonathan Vilma's difficult final season in New York is confined to the intermittent soreness in his surgically repaired right knee.

There's no hint of bitterness when the former Pro Bowl linebacker and two-time defensive captain discusses how and why his value to the Jets plummeted after Eric Mangini took over as head coach two years ago.

"It ended up working out better for both sides, me coming here," Vilma said after a recent training camp practice with his new team, the New Orleans Saints. "I don't have any regrets."

Vilma was the Jets' first-round draft pick in 2004 and became an immediate star. After making 118 tackles and three interceptions in his first season, he was named the Associated Press defensive rookie of the year. The next season, he was in on 187 tackles and was selected for the Pro Bowl.

In 2006, however, Mangini was hired and replaced the Jets' three-linebacker scheme with a four-linebacker formation that he knew from his time as an assistant with New England.

"Mangini came in and that's what he was accustomed to," said Vilma, who had never played in a 3-4 defense. "He had won Super Bowls in that defense, so you can't fault him for wanting to go with that."

The switch required Vilma, who is 6-foot-1, 230-pounds, to take on blocks from offensive linemen who easily outweighed him. What he lacked in size he sought to make up in quickness. Still, he wasn't the dominant linebacker he had been when he played behind four down linemen, who ate up more blockers at the line of scrimmage.

Vilma's tackle total fell to 116 in his third season, slightly lower than in his rookie year. Last year, a serious knee injury forced him to miss the last nine weeks of the season.

Vilma sensed he needed a change, and asked the Jets for permission to seek a trade. The Jets agreed, and Vilma lobbied for a deal with the Saints, who use the 4-3 alignment in which Vilma had thrived both in college at Miami and in his first two pro seasons.

New York accommodated Vilma, trading him to the Saints for a fourth-round pick and the possibility of a second- or third-round pick in 2009 if Vilma reaches certain playing incentives and signs an extension with New Orleans after this season.

The Saints saw Vilma as a player whose combination of talent and intelligence could help on the field and in the locker room.

Vilma has been limited in practice during the early days of training camp and he won't play in the Saints' first exhibition game Thursday night in Arizona.

(heraldstandard.com)