ProFootballCentral.com

The Jacksonville Jaguars have recently traded former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Marcus Stroud to the Buffalo Bills for a 2007 third round and a fifth round pick. Meanwhile, in the same division the New York Jets acquired former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kris Jenkins from the Carolina Panthers. The Cleveland Browns also upgraded there defensive line for the second time in 48 hours by acquiring former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Shaun Rogers from the Detroit Lions.  With the Buffalo trade the Jaguars think they are comfortable handing the reigns to third year defensive tackle Tony McDaniel. McDaniel, played three games last year due to a wrist injury, at 6’7 295 pounds looks to be in great shape heading into the off season program. With the promise that McDaniel is showing off the field, he has yet to show it on the field so this would have to be a downgrade if they are looking to replace McDaniel’s with Stroud.  The Lions with the Rogers trade now have a pretty big gap along side third year player Shaun Cody. The Lions are reportedly actively looking for a replacement in Rogers with former Bills defensive tackle Larry Tripplett, former Bears defensive tackle Darwin Walker and former Seattle Seahawk tackles Chuck Darby and Ellis Wyms. The major problem with the players they are looking it is none of them are as established as Rogers and with the direction they are looking would downgrade the position.  The Carolina Panthers on the other hand may be looking for another free agent to replace Kris Jenkins but they definitely have former Rams starter Damione Lewis who recorded 3.5 sacks in a reserve role last year.  Out of the three defensive tackles that were traded this past week, I would definitely take Stroud over the other two despite Rogers having seven more career sacks and 57 more tackles than Stroud. Stroud who is 306 is the quickest of the three and tends to have a better job at the point of attack as well. An interesting point is all three players came out of the 2001 draft class and Stroud was the 13^th overall selection while Jenkins was the 44^th selection and Rogers was the 61^st selection in the draft.  The big flaw against Jenkins is the fact that he is injury prone with the shoulder reportedly still bothering him to a certain degree  and only played in 85 career games to date with 216 tackles,179 solo tackles and 20.5 sacks to date.   The biggest flaw against the 340 pound Shaun Rogers is that people reportedly question his dedication to conditioning at times. A problem you would not have with Stroud who weighs 34 pounds lighter than Rogers and is very quick off the line. As a direct result of playing over weight he has had his knees scoped in 06. He missed 4 games due to banned substance use and another 6 due to his knees. He played fantastic in 6 or 7 games in 2007 and then disappeared until he decided to bully the Chiefs. 

One thing is for sure that all three of these defensive tackles have a lot to prove and definitely want to show there old teams that they made a mistake in dealing them.