I am warming to Smith more than Kampman. Smith is going to be playing on what should be a front-running team in the weakest division in football. He'll get chase after Matt Leinart/Derek Anderson, Matt Hasselbeck/Charlie Whitehurst, and AJ Feeley/Sam Bradford six times. The 49ers running game, mentality on defense, and personnel seem to be setting them up to be a Steelers/Ravens type defense, and Smith is more talented than Aaron Smith or Trevor Pryce or any 3-4 end we've seen in those defenses. Still, his production will probably be too sporadic to count on.
Kampman is coming off an ACL tear, and his not at an age where players can just be expected to bounce back from an ACL like it was a hangnail. The Jags defense has lacked pass rush punch for a while now, and I see no reason that teams won't shift protection schemes to focus on Kampman in the event that he does come back at something close to 100% this year.
Kyle Vanden Bosch should be included in this discussion too, being reunited with Jim Schwartz, in a defense that has seen Cliff Avril and Dewayne White go on sack sprees in recent years, and playing on the same DL as all-world rookie Ndamukong Suh. Let's also toss John Abraham in there, who suffered with Atlanta last season, and should get an upgrade in "partner-in-crime" as Lawrence Sidbury and Kroy Biermann continue to develop.
what he said!!The everything breaking right is the concern for me because an explosive pass rushing end like Kampman, recovering from an ACL injury is very likely to start the season slow and that should get Kampman's numbers over the entire season to be about top 20.....which is exactly what you will get with Smith.
