I wonder fellow Rumblers if the plan to move Moats to the inside has been the plan all along.  I know that I was perplexed on the idea of moving him inside but he really is a "tweener" for that OLB role.  He isn't your traditional 3-4 OLB because he's a little "small" - for comparisons sake - Merriman is 6-4 265 while Moats is 6-2 250.

We all know that the jump from College to the NFL is a tough one - a leap that most cannot make actually.  It's doubly tough if you've been playing at a smaller college like James Madison like Arthur Moats has.  You don't have the better coaches and you don't play against elite competition.  I think this is why he started at OLB last year even though they planned on moving him inside at some point.

More after the jump...

Moats played DE out of James Madison and the closest position to his old position in the 3-4 is the OLB.  The responsibilities are similar but you're lining up as a LB.  Lining up at an OLB allowed him to feel more comfortable in his role as a LB.  Playing on the inside of a 3-4 you have to sift through the garbage and recognize how the play is developing.  As a DE in college what did he read? - the blocker straight ahead of him - as a 3-4 OLB he now is reading Guards, Tackles and even the QB.  Waiting to shift him inside makes sense because playing outside is a blend of what he was doing from what he is going to be asked to do - a natural progression if you will.

When you move inside as a 3-4 ILB there is a lot more information to process and much more garbage to sift through - moving to the ILB from an OLB when you were a DE in college might make some sense.

So what do you think Rumblers?  Was that the methodology that Chan, Buddy and Edwards had with Moats from the beginning?