NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- What German-born Saints linebacker Kasim Edebali jokingly refers to as ''Plan B'' seems to be working out rather well.

A decade ago, Edebali was a teenage quarterback with the Hamburg Huskies, an American football team in a youth league in northern Germany. He hoped he might become good enough to one day play for the hometown Sea Devils in NFL Europe.

''I went to every game. NFL Europe was the biggest stage you could imagine,'' Edebali recalled. ''You had 20,000 to 30,000 people, and that's a lot for football in Germany.'"

But NFL Europe went out of business in 2007, and Edebali decided he needed to leave home to see how far he could go in the sport he loved.

Not only has the move led to a promising first couple years in the NFL, but has also put him in touch with his American father, who is a former serviceman, and half-siblings he never knew growing up.

''He was determined to take his very best shot and it paid off for him,'' said John Lyons, who was Edebali's coach when he enrolled in Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire as an international exchange student for his junior and senior years of high school.

Edebali parlayed his American high school experience into a scholarship at Boston College, then signed with New Orleans as an undrafted free agent in 2014.

Read the rest:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/germany...4195--nfl.html


Not a tremendously well written piece but he has an interesting story.
5 sacks so far this year and that is pretty good for a backup.

Hau'oli Kikaha, Karim Edebali, and a recovered Davis Tull are three more good arguments for the Saints to utilize a 3-4 scheme front and get those guys more opportunities to make plays...

I haven't seen but maybe 1 or 2 NT so far, I'm looking for a mugger for solid depth that pushes Jenkins.

That's the thing with the 3-4 defense, it is almost impossible to find a good NT. There are plenty of good athletes out there in the 230-275lbs range that can rush the passer and drop back in coverage to man the different linebacker positions in a 3-4.
There are also a decent amount of good DEs for a 3-4 since they in many ways are comparable to a 4-3 3-tech DT. Most skills needed for LBs and DEs are coachable if you find a good athlete.

But the Nose tackle, that's the Unicorn, the holy grail, very few and far in-between. To find a guy that is upwards 340lbs who are able to take on multiple blockers, and defeat them, who are still athletic enough to push the pocket and rush the passer. That is pure DNA. You can't take the wrong body type and and coach him up and a NFL level NT are even more rare than an NFL level LT and there are probably around 50 of those in the world at any given point.

But the Nose tackle, that's the Unicorn, the holy grail, very few and far in-between. To find a guy that is upwards 340lbs who are able to take on multiple blockers, and defeat them, who are still athletic enough to push the pocket and rush the passer. That is pure DNA. You can't take the wrong body type and and coach him up and a NFL level NT are even more rare than an NFL level LT and there are probably around 50 of those in the world at any given point.