ChiefsPlanet - DV can get thrown under a Jet bus

http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?t=23924

Ex-Chief Hicks finds new life on Jets' defense
BY TOM ROCK | To view links in this forum your post count must be 10 or greater. Your post count is 0 momentarily.
August 23, 2007

Eric Hicks spent most of his NFL career in the fast lane.

No, the former Chiefs defensive end wasn't getting into Pacman-like trouble. But he was using his speed as an outside rusher and became one of Kansas City's top sackers, amassing 44.5 of them during his nine years at Arrowhead, including 14 in 2000. He was a pin-your-ears-back, come-around-the-corner torpedo of quarterbacks.

Last year, however, the Chiefs rarely used Hicks. He appeared in all 16 games, but did not start and had only seven tackles. He was released at the end of the year and not a lot of NFL teams were interested in acquiring the presumably washed-up 31-year-old.

Until the Jets started asking around about him, that is. Coach Eric Mangini said the team approached former Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil.

"He said he was a tempo-setter for years, and that he loved the guy, just loved him," Mangini said of Vermeil's recommendation. "When Dick Vermeil speaks that glowingly about someone, that has an impact on me."

So the Jets signed Hicks as a free agent in late May, just prior to organized team activities. He was one of several defensive linemen the team picked from the scrap heap during the offseason - Michael Haynes, Andre Wadsworth, even Bobby Hamilton - and figured to be a low-risk investment and a veteran presence at camp.

Now, it seems, Hicks is well on his way to making the team. Although he's not the speedster he once was, he's found a place as a two-gap lineman and has played extensively on the Jets' nickel and dime packages. By changing from a 4-3 outside rusher to a 3-4 inside stuffer, Hicks is resuscitating his career and should be a part of the Jets plans for this season.

"I'm not saying I couldn't play in the 4-3, but I think this is a little more advantageous for me, being over 30 now," Hicks said of what is essentially a new position in a new scheme.

"I'm finding my niche here, I think. I'm learning the defense pretty fast."

Defensive line coach Dan Quinn said he had little doubt Hicks could adjust to his new role. "I think good players can play in any system," Quinn said.

"When a guy has the physical characteristics to do it, they're going to find a place to play."

Hicks said playing two-gap requires much more discipline and technique than his former starting point. He said there is a lot more "hand-to-hand fighting" with offensive linemen as opposed to dealing with smaller tight ends and running backs. At 6-6, 280 pounds, with diminished speed, Hicks uses his strength and guile now to beat blockers.

While Hicks has worked to retool his game, his approach has remained the same, and that has caught the eye of Jets coaches more than anything. "I love his motor and toughness, his willingness to learn and take coaching," Mangini said.

Mangini also found Hicks' devotion to charity an impressive quality. His "The Hicks for Hearts Foundation" was formed in 2001 to help children with congenital heart defects. In 1999 he and his wife, Erica, had a daughter who underwent two surgeries to repair heart defects after she nearly died from cardiac arrest when she was just seven days old. Since those surgeries, Shayla has been healthy and her prognosis is good.

So, too, is the prognosis of her father, almost fully acclimated to life in a green uniform.

"I sometimes revert back to old habits, which is going to happen now and then, but it's happening with a lot less frequency now," Hicks said. "It's becoming almost innate now for me to do what the Jets coaches are asking me to do as opposed to what the Chiefs coaches asked me to do for the past nine years."